Initial Ideas Process

At first I wasn't sure whether I wanted to make a short film or a documentary. This was because I felt that I had a lot of narrative ideas however wasn't quite sure how to put them into such a short film, and I also had people willing to talk to me about their experiences with dementia so thought this would be good material for a documentary. However, after some thought I decided to make a short film because I wanted to create a narrative about dementia instead of just having people talk to me about it because it would give me more room to be creative with my storytelling. 

STAGE ONE

Once I had completed my first lot of research, I had loads of ideas, small scenes and quotes of dialogue in my head for my short film, however I couldn’t put them into a well-thought out narrative. As a result, I wrote down as many ideas as I could remember on paper and in the notes page of my phone so that I could come back to them later for reference. I then used the Google software ‘Mindmup’ to create a mindmap and log any ideas that came to me in terms of the actually narrative itself, as well as technical elements of filmmaking such as locations, characters, cinematography, mise-en-scene and themes. I then printed this off so that I could add any more ideas that came to me when I didn’t have access to a computer.

After doing some initial research of dementia and brainstorming ideas, I came up with my first narrative idea. This was just an outline of what I wanted my story to be about, and didn’t taken into consideration cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing our sound or the research into other short films and television which I had begun to look at as it was just my initial thoughts. Once I had edited it several times and was happy with my idea (below), I sent it to a friend who is studying television for some peer feedback. I asked her to read through it and make notes of what she liked, what she didn’t and importantly whether she thought I was being too ambitious with my ideas and, having the experience and knowledge she does, did she think the practicalities of actually making the film in such a short time period and on this small scale mean I wouldn’t be able to achieve this idea to its fullest potential. I have underlined and highlighted her notes. 

MY INITIAL IDEA

“Gen is a busy, single mum from Yorkshire. Her Father has dementia which is progressing quicker than expected and although she visits him as much as possible she feels guilty for how little she sees him when he is slipping away.

Whilst walking/running through the park on one of the few days off she has had this month, she takes her phone out of her pocket to see a reminder on her phone. “GO SEE DAD”, it reads. Guilt washes over her, realising it had completely slipped her mind to go and see him whilst she has the time to do so. She goes to see Henry, her father, and arrives to find him sitting in the corner of the living room, television off, curtains closed, looking distant. A care assistant she doesn’t quite recognise is busying herself straightening pillows, she opens the curtains and light pours into the once dim room.

“Hi Dad” Gen says, with no response. Disheartened she stands hesitant at the doorway. The care assistant gives her a sympathetic look as Gen follows her into the kitchen. Plates are piled high in the sink and there is a half empty can of beans on the side.

“How long has he been like this, so vacant?” Gen questions. The care assistant sighs, and reassures her not to feel guilty for ‘having a life’.

Gen goes in to see Henry. Bending down next to him, she sees he is holding a closed dusty book on his lap.

“What’s this?” She asks, her eyes pleading for a response.

“Photos” he mumbles almost audibly. At this point the care assistant enters the room and tells Gen how she found Henry looking for it in the cupboards when she arrived.

“Shall we have a look?” Gen smiles and opens the book. Henry stares blankly at it as Gen begins to turn the pages and speak fondly of the photos.

“That’s me and your mum” Henry’s face lights up as he sees a particular photograph, and speaks in detail about the photo. He is almost a different person.

As he describes the photo, the scene fades into the time he is talking about. Young Henry and his wife, Jean, are seen walking down the seafront, hand-in-hand, laughing about how bad the film was they had just been to see. The night is drawing in, and as they reach the end of the promenade Jean thanks Henry for the night and assures him she would definitely love to do it again.

The story continues, which the narrative flashing between the present day in Henry’s house and his life in the 1950s. Gen also speaks to Henry about her son Rob, who is the same age as Henry was in the 50s, and sees the similarities between her son and her father. (Would like to do comparison between young Henry and Rob but think it would make the story too complex).  POSSIBLY TOO COMPLEX FOR A SHORT TIME FRAME.

Some memories, of course, are faded and cut short as Henry loses his train of thought. As time goes on, the memories get shorted and more inconsistent, confused. (although this would be a challenge, it would be a great way for editing and using distorted effects in order to bring across the memories being upside down)Henry becomes distressed as he cannot remember the things he wants to, and eventually they close the photo album and Gen has to rush off to be somewhere. She feels guilty for leaving him and doesn’t feel she knows him anymore.

Two months later, Rob is at university, as Gen had earlier mentioned. (Need to somehow symbolise that Henry has died) Maybe you could show Gen at the same time and she could be gathering her father’s things together from his house. Maybe she finds the photo album and opens the page to the picture that you mentioned earlier then smiles to herself before placing it in the box. Again would depend on timings but something for you to think about.

Walking with his friends, Rob sees a poster for the Dementia UK memory walk on the notice board near his lecture room. He tells his friends he will catch them up, and reads the poster intently, before taking a quick photo of it and leaving.

Later back at home, he sits on his bed and googles the memory walk. He finds one close by looks at the image of his Grandad on his bedside, and signs up. – You may be able to address the narrative without even using this little scene, so you could have a fade from telling his friends about catching them up straight to the end scene of Rob and his mum.

The film ends with Rob and his mum at the park entrance where the walk is taking place. (Hopefully could be filmed on the day of a walk if we can find one in November) – This scene sounds good! Just make sure you get prior consent of any Run and if anybody will be seen in the footage (depending on the rules of your college the participants will need a consent form just to cover your own back.)

Gen tells Rob how proud Grandad would’ve been of him, and the film ends with the camera tilting up to the sky.”

STAGE TWO

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT

After receiving Lauren’s notes, I made my own adjustments and annotated my initial idea further. Like I did with my mindmap, I printed off my idea so I could make notes whenever I wanted to. For example, while on the bus I listened to some music for inspiration and made some notes of how I thought I would bring my idea to life e.g. the types of shots I would use, while still taking into consideration the notes from Lauren. I also started making notes of any elements of cinematography or editing which I see in film and TV and like the look of, and storing these shots in an Instagram account (I have embedded this in the sidebar of my blog so that I can constantly see it for inspiration as I update it. In order to visualise my narrative better, I drew a rough storyboard of what I imagined I wanted my opening scene to look like.

QUICK STORYBOARD OF INITIAL IDEAS

MY NOTES/ANNOTATIONS, INCLUDING LOCATION IDEAS AND CINEMATOGRAPHY INITIAL THOUGHTS

STAGE THREE

Now that I felt I had more of a developed idea, I wanted to get feedback from someone who is effected by dementia to see if they thought my idea was respectful and believable. I spoke to another friend, also called Lauren, who’s Grandma has dementia and has grown up with first-hand experiences of the effects of dementia on both the patient and the family. I showed her my idea, and she suggested that I focus the narrative more around the effects that dementia has on the patient and the family, and less on the memory flashbacks because that in itself is quite generic and doesn’t tell the audience much about dementia specifically. From this I have decided that I want to interview Lauren for further research as her insight into the condition will give me idea to create a more personal and relatable story (therefore creating verisimilitude with the audience.)

I then used Todorov’s theory of equilibrium as a basis to start to plan a new narrative based on what Lauren has told me. I also started to consider who I would like to play certain characters, if they were to appear in my final script. 

I then took both this idea and my originally idea to my teacher for some feedback. He gave me some questions to answer in order to develop my plan further, as well as some further points of research to look into in more detail. 

TEACHER NOTES

STAGE FOUR

From this I decided that my narrative would display the effects of dementia through a journey through the home of the dementia sufferer. The film starts at the end, with an establishing shot of a house with a ‘for sale’ sign up outside. A woman and a teenager (her daughter) are stood at the driveway. (Instead of having a male teenager like my first narrative idea, I decided that to have a teenage girl instead because stereotypically girls are more emotionally attached and sentimental than boys, also I know more female actors than male actors). They don’t say much, however the mum reassures the daughter that ‘this is the right thing to do for everyone’. The audience do not yet know what ‘this’ is. The mum and daughter would then enter the house and see lots of removal boxes in the kitchen or the hallway. The teenager says to her mum ‘it’s like he’s died’, implying that whoever’s house it is hasn’t actually died, and they’re just moving out their belongings. An excuse will then be made for the mum to leave the scene e.g. she has to go and put some boxes in the car. The teenager would then walk through the house from room to room and in each room there would be a memory/story of her Grandad, and the further she got through the house the worse his dementia would get. For example, in the first room (kitchen) there would only be slight early signs that something was wrong, e.g. walking into the room and forgetting why he was there, however by the time they get to the final room the memory will display more obvious signs of dementia, for example he forgets who someone is or he becomes agitated and delirious. 

In order to plan out my film accurately and write a script that fits with the story, I need to visit my location in order to visualise the narrative taking place there. At the moment I cannot get full access to the house, so I got my sister to film a very quick walk through of the house to give me an idea of the layout of it and the mise-en-scene of the house. At a later date I am going to visit the location myself and take some photographs for reference. 

From this video I made a floor plan of the house so that I could create a more developed narrative plan of how I wanted the story to flow.

FLOOR PLAN

I want the memories to be a main feature of my narrative, and they willbe symbolised through the mise-en-scene and dialogue as well as a sequence of dramatized flashbacks e.g. it is implied that the old man forgot about the tea cooking in the oven, then there would be a flashback to this happening. I would also like to experiment with how the family member tells the story, as although I would like of the stories/memories to be inferred through the cinematography, with it only being one character walking through the house there would be a lack of dialogue and therefore the story could become confusing or boring. When I come to writing my script, I am going to write in dialogue parts as well as parts that I want to use a variety of camera techniques to tell them story, and then when it comes to editing I can decide what I think looks best and tells the story most effectively. Furthermore if I record good quality sound on set then this could be used as a voiceover, so that is something I would be to look at doing too as it would still be conventional to the drama genre. 

STARTING TO PLAN OUT THE INDIVIDUAL NARRATIVES FOR EACH ROOM IN THE HOUSE

I came up with the idea that I wanted the garden to be completely separate to the rest of the memory sequence through the house and act as the ‘recognition of the equilibrium disruption’. My idea is to have a one shot of the teenage girl going back through the house again, but it is a completely different day (indicated by costume and mise-en-scene – perhaps shot at night?). She has come to see her Grandad, like she usually does and when there is no sign of him she runs back through every room panicking. Here I would like to experiment with editing to see if there is a way I can cut in sequence of the memory in a distorted way, so it’s as if she is seeing all the memories again but in a more rushed way because she is worried about her Grandad. As she is running through the house I would like to cut in shots of what happened to the old man leading up to this point (e.g. a shot of him going to the conservatory door, a shot of him looking confused or unwell). Eventually she goes out into the garden and finds him on the floor after a fall. The audience doesn’t actually see him lying on the ground, instead we see a close-up of the teenager’s reaction to finding him and then the screen goes to black. (Then depending on timings there will either be a rewinds sequence of her going back through the house to being stood outside it with her mum like at the start of the film or there will be a fade transition to them back outside the house, or a fade to them locking the front door carrying boxes to walk away.

This is only the initial plan for my first idea, and with the more planning and research I do it is bound to change in certain ways. Also, I recognise that the ideas I have in my head may not look good or have the effected I wanted them to when it comes to editing, so post-production could also be a time when my narrative starts to change