Micro-Drama

Pre- Production

 As a group of 6 people we created our own micro drama. This was in order to practice our filming and editing skills, to further develop our ability to work well as a group, to become accustomed to using pinnacle Editing Software, and particularly, to include the following theories:

• Propp's character theory
• Todorov's narrative theory
• Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory
• Barthes' narrative enigma theory.

In response to this task, we sat down as a group and on an A3 sheet of paper, began brainstorming ideas. We very quickly decided that the best genre to base our micro drama on was Horror. We though that it would be a suitable genre to work with as the genre conventions are very clear and rarely change. We also found that in horror films, there isalmost always a very clear divide between good and evil and we wanted to incorporate this into our micro drama. 

Our next step was to decide the storyline. We came up with a basic, traditional horror narrative. I began to sketch out a 6 square storyboard just to give us an idea. 
We then fine-tuned our plan and characters. 

Storyboard
Me and Riona sketched out some boxes on a large A3 sheet and decided to do half the boxes each. We were chosen for this task because we art students. We didn't go into too much detail in our drawings, but we gave enough detail to get a sense for the scene and to get the general idea. On our storyboard, we decided not to write the shot types underneath the boxes, but instead I wrote a list on a separate piece of paper, of the different shot types/ camera angles, with a number in front of each that corresponded to a box on the storyboard. I think that our storyboard turned out well. We didn't spend too much time on the characters and the detail but I don't think it matters as the storyboard is pretty easy to follow.  
Riona's Blog.

 Production
When filming our micro drama, we all had a say with the camera angles and decisions. However, our main 'camera man' for the bonfire scene was Adel. We all decided to have 2 different cameras which meant that we could cut between both and this would make editing easier. I think that we should have perhaps have varied our camera angles more. In one particular scene, 0:57 to 2:38, i think we could have changed it up a bit. We could have had perhaps an extreme close-up of Sophie's mouth as she spoke and perhaps changed angles.
Adel's Blog. 
 
Post- Production

Editing
The editors for our micro drama where Kristian and Jon. We collectively decided that they should be our editors as they have the most experience and skill with editing. This meant that the other members of the class could learn off them as they edited our piece. In the editing, there were some difficulties with the software used, Pinnacle, when trying to create the end credits so this was something we all need to make sure is resolved when creating other pieces with this editing software.
Jon's Blog
Kristian's Blog


The script
Sophie and Jon wrote the script together. As a group, we decided the basic storyline and a few key lines from the piece. They then went and 'filled in the gaps' with a few lines of speech. 
Sophie's blog.

Dusk, 6 students huddled around bonfire.

Sophie - So did you hear about the party ehh on this Friday Bronnie?

Bronnie - Yeah. Ehmm, what are you guys dressing up as?

Sophie - I don't really know... What about you Riona do you know?

Riona - Ehmm, I'm going to be an elf.

Sophie - Yeah? Nice!

(Laughter)

Riona - You guys?

(Riona looking at Bronnie and Christian)

Bronnie- Ehh, I am going as a princess.

John – Suits you.

Sophie - I think I’m actually going to go as an ehh, as a fairy. Like with all fairy dust and everything

(Laughter)

John - Going to make someone disappear?

Sophie - Yeah, pretty much.

John – I was going to go as the devil.

Sophie - Yeah?

John - Yeah.

Sophie - With horns and everything?

John - With the horns and everything.

Sophie - Ohh Nice!

(Leaning to the left)

John - That was the idea.

Sophie - I am already looking forward to seeing that.

(John laughs)

John - What about you Christian?

Kristian - Ehh, I think it's kind of obvious... Superman!

Sophie - He is going to take it to the next level. Definitely.

(Short pause everyone looking at the fire)

Sophie - What about you Adel?

Adel - Ohh, I am not going

Sophie - No? Shame... You'll join in the next time then!

(Adel chuckles)

(Everyone stays silent for a moment and eats their marshmallows)

Sophie - Did you guys ever hear the story about the scary Haunted House? In the woods?

Riona and Adel - No

John - Where is it?

Sophie - It's ehmm... argh. I can't remember what the town is called but it's in the woods and I think, like, we should go there once because it is so scary.

John - Yeah, we should!

Sophie - It's ehmm it's this huge mansion.

John - Yeah, but what's the story though?

Sophie - Well I was first going to tell you.

(Everyone laughing, laughing even more, when Sophie drops her marshmallow on the floor)

Sophie - Ok anyway back to the story.

So it is actually this really, really old mansion and ehmm, there used to live these two old people there and ehmm it was really scare cause then this one night in the winter, they ehh, they were at their house and it was so cold that they had to get firewood from the woods. So they just went outside, and they took their car to drive a bit further inside the wood. Basically what happened was that eh, the husband he left his wife in the car and said "I'll be right back" and then he actually never came back and she froze to death in the car. So now the house it's still standing there all by itself and it's all old and it's really...

I don't know it's kind of scary. I went around it last time and it was just so creepy, just the feeling of it and thinking of that story...

(Sophie shivers)

Sophie - Uhh, it actually does give me shivers quite a bit.

(Riona chuckles in the background)

John - We should go!

Sophie - We should definitely go to this haunted house!

EXT.

NIGHT, 5 students standing in front of an ominous house.

(Diegetic sound of owl and wind in the trees)

Sophie - Oh my god, this house looks so abandoned

Kristian - It's creepy

Riona - Yeah...

Sophie - It is right? I told you guys it would be.

(Diegetic sound of Bronnie screaming)

Sophie - What happened?

Kristian - The princess is gone!

(John evil laugh)

John - Hahahahah! You’ll never get your princess back!

Sophie - Here! Take this leaf! It will help you save the princess!

Bronnie - Help me!

Hero - I'll save you!

(Kristian punches John)

John - Arghh!

(Krristian helps Bronnie down)

Bronnie - Thank you so much!

(Non-diegetic sound of heroic music in the background)