Lazy Days

Here is the final product on Youtube or on Vimeo if you would prefer...

ENJOY!!!

What is a story...?

The beginning of Inspiration week we were asked "what is a story?". We then brainstormed as a class different derivatives, origins and the history of the word "story"...

What they contain:

• Classic Story: Beginning - Middle - End
• Plotpoints
• Characters

How and Where?

• Word of Mouth: gossip, folk tales
• Written: parchment, books, Greek Mythology, Walls (hieroglyphics and cave paintings).
• Books,
• Poems,
• Film,
• Television,
• Radio and
• Music.

Kuleshov Effect - changing one shot between two others can change the whole meaning of the film and character.
Here, Alfred Hitchock describes it perfectly, showing that just by changing the middle shot (of what he was smiling at), it changed the character from an old, endearing man to an old pervy man. If we used this in Lazy days - changing the shot of the television to a blank shot, it would have changed the whole point to our film as he would appear as if he was imagining something that we couldn't see.

Tzvetan Topdorov - He believed that in a storyline there was a balance (equillibrium) that was unbalanaced by the (disequillibrium).

The Equillibrium of Lazy Days would be the character's everyday life - stable and 'normal'. The Disequillibrium of Lazy Days would be the TV following the character around everywhere.

Influences

Well, the idea for Tramps came about after the inspiration week and having looked at the Paris, je t'aime film "Tour Eiffel" we based "Tramp Love" on this. This was basically our rough mock up of a storyline, which then turned into "Tramps" - a dry comedy based on two 'tramps' finding money on the floor, splitting it between them. One gets some food and goes to a hostel, whilst the other buys a scratch card and some booze. The scratch-card then wins, making the second tramp rich - he gets a decent meal, a suit and goes back to the same spot they sit one everday. They say hi to eachother and that is where the story ends.

It did not really have a moral except perhaps to take a chance and to enjoy your life as it gives you opportunities. Although, it would have been hard to steer away from the message that "gambling is good", which in all honesty I think for the audience we were trying to approach, they would have found their own meaning to it.

Having scrapped the idea of Tramps, we were back to base one until, Simon and his brother were chatting and saying how weird it would be if the TV followed them. The concept was simplistic yet quirky.

Gritty, feature length film "Withnail and I" was our basis for inspiration for "Lazy Days". With its bleak appearance and mundain feel, we chose to incorporate this throughout our production: sticking to its key theme of being a bum, drunk and lazy just does not bode well for the modern lifestyle. The country-western music we used showed resemblance to that of the music at 7:07min of Part 2 of "Withnail and I".

The idea that consumerism is taking over this generations' lives is made apparent in the film "Killing Time At Home", another of our influences. We wanted to convey that technology is taking over our lives - albeit in a slightly more comical way, but still hopefully getting the point across to audiences.

Lazy days - Distribution

The best place to find short films is on the internet as it such a vast portal for exhibiting your talent these days - being able to upload videos and work you have done onto not only your own website but big productions such as Youtube and Vimeo too, some stars becoming famous for their videos such as Chris Crocker for his pro-Britney Spears Videos and Esmee Denters for her singing videos.

Individually, all three of us posted our video onto our Facebook asking for some feedback from friends. As i did not recieve a lot of great feedback , I reposted it twice more receiving minimal constructive critisism, again. It was then uploaded onto the Internet, on the BDC playlist and we tried to uplaod via. Louis’ account, trying to get as much publicity as possible.
Other than promoting your piece you can also enter film festivals, but the more prestigious they are, you tend to have to pay a fee to enter, so we researched some free competitions, designed for our age (also that were free) and we found "Future shorts", of which submitted our via a Youtube link.
We sent "Lazy Days to" Future shorts and recieved a comfirmation email via. Louis' email saying:

"Dear Louis Spanswick O'Brien

Thank you for submitting Lazy Days to us, If you chosen to submit DVD copy of your film, please send it clearly marked with your submission number to: FUTURE SHORTS, 71 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QU We look forward to receiving your film.

Please note that we cannot return preview copies. Sub,mission ID: 0000005520 All the best, Future Shorts Programming."

...We are yet to hear back from them yet, so fingers crossed...

To distribute a short film you have to get your name and short(s) well known. The easiest and most frequently used is uplodaing onto a free online streaming websites such as youtube vimeo and veoh, as previously stated we've already submitted our work onto youtube, vimeo. As a group we submitted Lazy Days into free competitions as previously stated (Future Shorts), we then submitted to the BBC film network. This is because the BBC is a globally well known and prestigious corporation, with a lot of opportunities for rising talent (The BBC Blast Network - for teenagers of all ages).

Audiences

The fact that we are aiming it at a more niche audience, people who are interested in short film specifically 20 – 35 year olds, as opposed to a mainstream audience means that we haven't had create the film for the majority but for short film enthusiasts, looking for something new and quirkier. The soudntrack used, may attract a slightly older audience too, perhaps interested in the old country and rhythmn & blues genre, which is probably quite misguiging as you would hear that sort of music in a western film: breaking the sterotype boundries.

we thought of our piece as being marketted towards 20 - 35 year olds as it targets this technology 'age': obsessed with their laptops, IPhones and blackberries. We wanted to signify how the power of technology can affect your day-to-day life and that it litrelly can haunt you. We used programmes in the TV sequence that would be recogniseable too for e.g. The Countdown theme tune. It is highly recogniseable for the plain fact that it has been around for around 30 years: ever since this age group were children: making people relate to it from their childhood, as if this man has not grown up since this age.

Audience feedback:

A lot of the year 12's that we asked, seemed to enjoy the film as a whole but the two main points they said were that they grew a bit bored by the end and that the comical music started to grate on them. The short was also posted on Youtube, Facebook and Vimeo - not receiving a lot of feedback or interest. My friends who did comment did not really have much constructive feedback for us, although one did say he would have liked to have see a lot more quirky things and places where the fridge ended up but really liked the editing for the bus stop part.