"Ragged 2wice" - Synopsis

Working Title: Ragged 2wice

Genre: Teen Drama
Synopsis: Kamran’s first day at college turns into a disaster when he is ragged at the beginning of the day at college. The seniors rag him by painting his face black with some black paint and then demand that he wear a tutu and do a dance in it. Kamran wears the tutu, but when asked to dance he refuses because he does not like to dance. He runs away when they tell him to dance, however, they catch him and force him to do the dance or face their torture for the whole term. He agrees to dance and does so in a very miserable way. However the day turns worse when Kamran goes in the first class of the day and gets called out because some guys in the class sneak in a cigarette pack in his bag while his attention was away. The same guys call the teacher and tell on him and the teacher takes him to the principal’s office and the principal decides to expel Kamran, but as he begs the principal to change the decision, he wakes up in his mom’s car with his mom waking him up. It appears that he had been dreaming all the time. But when he enters the school gates, he starts seeing all the people from his dream really there. At that point Kamran screams from frustration. The film ends.

"Ragged 2wice" - Concept

Working Title: Ragged 2wice
Genre: Teen Drama
Concept: Kamran is having a very bad first day at college. He was ragged at the start of his college day, had to dance in a pink Tutu and then nearly got expelled from college because he was found in possession of a cigarette pack, till he wakes up in his car to find that he was dreaming. However, as he enters the college gates, he finds all the people from his dream actually in the school.

Suggestions: 

1. We are finding it hard to choose actors for the film. 

2. We think that the story has some gaps that need to be filled. 

Change of Plans

We have had a few changes in our media project. First and foremost, our media practical teacher has now changed and our new teacher has a little different style of teaching. However, we have become more organised now in our pre-production work. Every person has to make their individual file and have all the their work in it. This is helping me to become more organised and sophisticated with my production work.
We have changed the genre of our short film to "Teen Drama", and the Working Title of our project is "Ragged 2wice" (Ragged Twice).
We changed the genre because we realized that it would be difficult to produce a Comedy short film because for comedy, good actors are needed, and the script has to be perfect. We also noticed that the story supported the Drama genre rather than the Comedy genre.
We took some advice from our new teacher for the title of our short film, and she like "Ragged 2wice" (Ragged Twice).
We have now started working on our film from the beginning as the teacher has told us and we are working in a more organised way now.

Focus Group Feedback

This is the feedback that our small focus group audience gave us.

The feedback that our peers gave us was very useful and helpful for our short film. We came to know that our  target audience did not want to be bored when they saw a short film, they wanted the short film to be exciting and fast paced, as was the last one that we played, which was "The Exam". They also noticed that in some short films, the dialogues were unclear because of the sound quality and the shots that were taken in those short films were technically bad. We learned a lot from this focus group and have taken some of the feedback into account and applied it to our current story.

Focus Group

Thursday, 3rd November, was the day we had our focus group. There were around ten people who came to our focus group. Saad and I had planned it to take place a day or two earlier, but due to some reasons, we were unable to have it earlier. However, on the day of our focus group there was a slight change of events. Saad got injured that day and had to be rushed to the hospital. I facilitated the focus group myself, which went better than I had expected it to be. The people who came to the focus group gave us some really goo feedback. I had taken my HD camera to school and took some footage of the people watching the films, and also their reactions at certain points of the films such as "That's School, That's Life" and "The Exam", which were pretty vibrant.
I also asked some friends to help me in taking shots from different angles. After showing them all the short films, I asked them some questions like: Which film did you like? Why didn't you like the others? Do you like enigmatic films or predictable films?
They liked "The Exam" the most, partly because of the way it was made and partly because it was funny and unexpected. Their feedback ad comments are in Urdu and so Saad and I will be adding subtitles to them before we upload them in the next post. 

Ancillary Drafts

I made some drafts for our Ancillary projects, so here they are.


This is the draft for the poster for our shot film. It is a bit vague at the moment but it will be clear once it is produced on Photoshop. My drawing skills have also declined over the years, so it is also one of the reasons why this draft may be unclear.
It consists of the key characters in our short film, that are, the main newcomer student, the students who rag the newcomer and  the teacher who takes the newcomer to the principal's office.
The teacher will stand in the middle with the students who rag the newcomer, two on each side, and the newcomer will sit with a desk in front of him, with his face painted and the typical ragged condition we want him to be in.
There will be a tag line at the top and the title of the film will be at the bottom right above the credits etc.

The magazine review page draft also has the outline of how we want our magazine film review page to be like.  There will be a title of the review or article at the top, and beneath it a big snapshot from the film will be placed (with a caption describing it), which will cover the whole page horizontally. The main article will start from the left side of the page, where the big snapshot will end. The article will nearly cover the rest of the page along with a behind the scenes photograph from the film and a line to capture the attention of readers (in the conventional colored and large font). 

The drafts may be subject to change. This is not the final draft, but this is the ideal format that we are interested to follow for our short film.

Further Institution Analysis

I did some research on institutions making short films to choose for my final film. I learned that not many institutions support short films and most short film makers are independent. Disney is one institution that has made many short films. However, their short films are animated by their subsidies, Pixar, and are not live action films. Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox make short films, but they are at a very small scale, and are mostly made by internees in the company.

The name of this short film is "Gas" was selected as the Internship Winner at Universal Studio's "Film Your Issue" in 2007.

It is also highly unconventional for short films to have the support of a big film making institution and have their name attached to their work, as short films are mostly made by independent film makers who are trying to show their new talent to these institutions as they may be likely to pursue a career in this field. Some film makers enter their work into different film festivals to gain this recognition.
However, I believe that my film should be made independent as I believe that it would be more conventional and also give my partner and I more credit for the work done instead of the institution that would support our film. 

Storyboard for our Final Film

We have finally finished our storyboard. We managed to draw the shots that we want to take. We have also described those shots briefly and given the main points that we are anticipating for our short film.

I am working on the drafts for our ancillaries and also the shot lists and editing lists for our film. I will be uploading it as soon as it is done.

Research on Ragging

I have been away since quite some time. I was having my English General exam, so I was unable to post anything on blog. But during my time away, I did research on Ragging, which is the main theme of my short film.
Ragging is a practice in educational institutions in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka that involves existing students bullying new students. It is similar to the American phenomenon of hazing. It often takes a nasty form in which the newcomers may be subjected to psychological or physical torture. Currently, Sri Lanka is said to be the worst affected country in the world in matters of Ragging.
In Pakistan, it is not so severe. The senior students use items such as paints (usually black because it is a symbol of insult in a way), sprays, water balloons, lipstick (for the guys in particular) and many other things. The main factor that causes ragging is vengeance. The senior students are ragged in the beginning of their first year, and when they move on, they seek the opportunity to rag the newcomers, because by the time they reach their senior year, the previous senior batch already passes out, and the new seniors have no other choice but to take revenge from the newcomers, and so the vicious cycle goes on.

In recent years, there has been a change in the attitude of students coming in their first year. Now, students come to school or college on the day of ragging as they feel that it completes their college experience. Although some students do feel intimidated by such activities and avoid coming to school on the day ragging takes place, a majority of students have had a massive alteration in their mentality.

School: Final Location for our Short Film

We did some location research for our short film. The main location of our short film will be our school. However, since we want to show a college, we will only shoot in the A Level section. The pictures were taken from my cell phone, the E5. The reason why the quality of the pictures is good is because it is 5 mega pixels.

This is the street in front of the school's main entrance. We tend to use this in the first shot of the film because we want to show the main character of our film either walking to school or coming to school in a car. This road has just been renovated recently and it is looking much better than it did before.

This is the other side of the street. We might use this side as well. 

This is the main gate of the our school. We will show the main character enter through the gate and go inside.

This is the stage inside our school, where we will show the Principal give the morning speech and announce the ragging time for the college students. We will probably use the right side of the stage only.

This is the entrance for the A level section in our school. We will show our main character go through these doors and inside towards the washroom or classes etc.

This is the other side of the entrance for the A level section that I mentioned above. We will be using this place to shoot the character come inside.

This small corridor leads to the A level boys washroom. We will show our main character go to the washroom and this will also be included in the shot list.

I took this inside the washroom. This is basically the ideal shot of our film, where we will show the main character look into the mirror to just see if he is looking fine, and notice the other guys in the washroom look at him and then talk to him.

I took this just as an additional photograph. This is how the boys washroom in our school really looks like. 

This is the main corridor of the A Level section and this is also an ideal shot for our film where we will show the main character run from the guys who want to rag him.

This is the most possible class that we will use as the class of our main character, where he will come after getting ragged.  

This is the other side of the class. The let side of the photograph shows the door, the entrance of the class. This is where the main character will come in from.

We will also have a few shots of the main character at home and getting up. We are still in the process of finalizing that. I will upload that. hopefully in the next post.

Institution Analysis-20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox is one of the six major studios in America and is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The company was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.20th Century Fox has made many popular films, which include Avatar, Star Wars, Ice Age,Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, X-Men, Die Hard, Home Alone, Dr. Dolittle, Night at the Museum, Predator, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Chronicles of Narnia (which was previously distributed by Walt Disney Pictures).

However, 20th Century Fox has brought many comedy films in the past and continues to do so. A few comedy films that fox has mad in the past are as follow:

• Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Dr. Dolittle
• Garfield
• Home Alone
• Ice Age (on behalf of Blue Sky Studios) 
• Malcolm in the Middle (on behalf of Regency Television) 
• Night at the Museum
• Meet Dave
• Aliens in the Attic
• Tooth Fairy (co-production with Walden Media) 
• Gulliver's Travels (co-production with Davis Entertainment) 
• Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son (co-production with Regency Enterprises) 
• Mr. Popper's Penguins

A few upcoming comedy films include: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (co-production with Regency Enterprises and Bagdasarian Productions), We Bought a Zoo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, The Sitter and The Big Year (co-production with Red Hour Productions).

Final Script

This is the final script of the short film. We have decided that the name of the main character will be the real name of the actor who will act for us, but since we haven't finalized the actors, I have named the main actor Andrew. The film is about ragging in colleges:

Andrew is walking to school. It’s the first day of college, and also his first year. He is a normal boy, but a bit scared for his first day. He reaches school and as he enters the school gates, he gets a sense of fear. There are seniors everywhere and they all seem to be prepared for the ragging of the first years in college. In assembly, the principal announces that the first year students will be ragged today and it will be from 9 am to 11 am and after that the first years will go to their home rooms and will meet their home room teachers.He doesn’t like how the day seems to be going. He decides to go to the washroom; walking through the corridor towards the washroom, he sees a guy who is a senior carrying a spray can in his hand. He looks at Andrew and says, “Sup man?” smiling and in a sarcastic way.

Andrew ignores him and goes to the washroom. However, the washroom doesn’t appear to be a safe place. Andrew goes there just to check if he’s looking fine, but there are a group of people who appear to be seniors, but they are not. One of them, the main bully in the film asks him “Hey man. You new here?” Andrew thinks that they’re just asking so he says, “Yeah, I am”. The main bully says “that’s nice man,” but just when Andrew starts to leave, one of the guys blocks him at the washroom entrance. Then two of the guys grab him and pull him back. The main bully says, “Since your’e new you must know that your first day is the day you first years get ragged.” Andrew is a bit scared, because he is a wimpy kid. The bully asks him, “so are you ready?” Andrew now knows that whats about to happen is not good. The guys pull Andrew to a corner and Andrew is not seen but sounds are heard of Andrew trying to escape, and of the guys laughing.

The next shot shows Andrew standing in the washroom, wearing a pink skirt and with his face painted black, with red lipstick and his hair in ponies. Now the bully says, “Now, you can stay like this for the whole day, or we can let you go on one condition,” Andrew asks “Whats that?” He says, “You have to dance.” Andrew runs away, because he doesn’t want to do the dance. He runs till he finds a room where he thinks he is safe, but when he enters the room, he finds all the other first years who have been ragged and who are hiding. They throw him out of the room because they hear people coming after him. Andrew starts running again to find a place where he can stay safe and out of the sight of the people he thinks are second year seniors. After some time he notices that it is almost 11 am, so he goes to the washroom to wash up before class. When he enters class, he sees the bully and some of the guys who were with him, in the class. It turns out that the bully has been failing the first year since three years.

Now the home room teacher enters the class. He gives his introduction and as he is speaking one of the students who is with the bully puts a cigarette in his bag which is half open, and then tells the teacher “Excuse me sir, I think you should see this,” and points to Andrew’s bag. The teacher sees it and says “Cigarettes on your first day, hun? Come with me” and he takes him to the principals office. Andrew keeps on saying that he doesn’t smoke but the teacher doesn’t listen to him.

Principal decides to expel him saying “We have a strict policy son and we don’t care if it’s your first time or your last.” Andrew keeps on saying that he doesn’t smoke and that he didn’t know how the pack got in his bag. The principal is just about to sign the paper and expel Andrew, when suddenly his alarm rings and he wakes up.

Andrew is shocked and yet relieved to find himself in bed and realises that it was only a dream. He checks his calendar and finds that it is his first day of college. He gets ready for college and reaches there believing that he had just had a bad dream.

But when he reaches school he has the surprise of his life. While walking in the corridor and looking for his class, he hears a voice of a person that he thinks is familiar, and when he realises that it was the bully from his dream, he turns around to see if its him. To his relief he is not there. He finally gets to his class, but with the class he finds the people in his dream. As he enters the class, the bully who ragged him in his dream is at the door with the other bullies in the dream and he asks him “Hey man. You new here?” Andrew gets shocked, and he turns around to find the people who were also ragged in his dream as well. And when Andrew is just trying to pull himself together, the same teacher from the dream enters the class and gives the introduction. At this point, Andrew screams from frustration and the film ends. 

Questionnaires

We carried out some questionnaires in our school on Friday. The questions were regarding the films that people watch, the genres that the age groups questioned would prefer, and also if they watched short films, along with other questions. Below are a few filled questionnaires that were filled by students of around 18 years.

Girls seemed to like romantic films whereas boys liked action and thriller films. However comedy was preferred by both. A most predictable answer to the question that if they had seen any short films, was that they had not seen a short film at all. People did not know what a short film was.

Short Films on School Life - Analysis

I watched a few short films on school life. There are very less short films made about school life and those that are made are by students in their school years, probably those who are studying media.

 

I noticed that most short films made on school life are either of the comedy genre or the drama genre. Some films even have a bit of swearing indicating the teen character in this modern age. The drama genre on school life would have a really slow pace, however the comedy would have a fast pace. Short films on school life also touch the main problems and the main activities of students in their school years, such as bullying, exams, detention, relationships, friends etc.

However, since most of the short films on school life are made by students, they are made with a lot of technical errors, such as camera angles, match on action, mise en sene and editing because they are not proffessionals.

Ancillary Analysis: Film Magazine Review Page

Film Reviews can be found in various magazines that are published for a general and wide audience. Most magazines have just one review page or at most two review pages for a film, such as The New York Times, however there are magazines that completely focus their entire content on film, such as the British film magazine, Empire Magazine.Film Magazine Review pages have a Main Large Image, from the film, usually at the top of the page,that represents the film and enables the page capture the attention of the reader. There is also a Secondary Image that is present on the page as well, mostly in the middle of the page or near to the bottom or the sides, however it is usually present when the review uses more than one page.
There is a Highlighted Part of the article mentioned separately in a box, sometimes with attractive colours and and in a larger font compared to the font used for rest of the review. It is placed either in the middle of the page or somewhere on the page where it would help to attract the reader. Most of the time it contains important information or a certain line that would attract the reader and cause the person to read the whole review.
The name of the Director and the Actors are also mentioned in the review, either separately or in the main article review. The Name of the Film is definitely given in a font, size and colour that would attract the target audience and mostly at the top of the page or in the beginning of the main review article.
The Main Article Review is what mainly takes up most of the space of the review page. It contains the full review of the film or the plot of the film, with a Verdict at the end of the review i.e. whether the film is good or bad. It comments on the positive and negative aspects of the film and on a bit about the making of the film. The release of the film, it's certificate and running time are also mentioned.
Sub-headings are not very evident in all reviews, however in a larger review, they classify the information according to it's type and relevance accordingly.
The film is also rated with Star Ratings to help the reader decide whether to watch the film or not, based on it's story, acting and appeal to the audience. 
In some magazines there is also a Look Closer column that gives a little extra information about the film.

This poster was from the "Newsline" Magazine. The film review section in this magazine does not focus on just one film, or a certain film that is the talk of the town, but all the main films of the month. The reviews seen here are short and consist only of one image of the film, which can also be the theatrical poster. The review in this magazine is also to the point i.e. it has less detail. The image of Thor, which can be seen clearly, is actually taken from the poster of the film.

This page is also from the same magazine i.e. "Newsline". I noticed that in these magazines there is some confusion for the reader as at times the image for a film is on one page while the review is on another, due to less page on the previous page.

This review on the other hand has been taken from the "Times" magazine. This is the complete review that normally a film magazine would have. There is a tagline, an image from the film with the main characters in it. The review of the film in this magazine is in detail and there is also one line from the review written separately to capture the readers attention.

Ancillary Analysis: Film Posters

Film Posters:

Film Posters are used to advertise and promote a film. There can be different versions of a film poster for the same film, with the size, content as well as the country of production varying. Usually, a film poster contains an image of either the main character of the film, the main cast or a certain shot of the film that is expected to become the center of attention. There may be more than one image on the poster, along with some text. The text on the poster consists of the name of the film in large font and probably near towards the bottom of the poster and  a tag line to give the audience some extra information about the film which is usually placed at the top of the poster. The main credits of the film, also known as the billing block, would be placed right at the bottom of the poster in small font. The billing block contains the names of the director, producer, actors and actresses as well as other important credits. Beneath the billing block are the logos of the distributors and the website is written in a slightly larger font than the billing block so that people can see it clearly. The release date is also placed at the bottom.
Most film posters are displayed outside as well as inside movie theaters. They are also seen on walls in streets and in shops as well. I noticed that films that have more posters posted and in areas where a lot of public can view them, are able to get the attention of a larger range of audiences. Also, the most or all of the images used in the poster are used in the advertisements of the film in newspapers, magazines, websites, flyers, DVDs, billboards in some countries, and similar shots may be used in TV trailers. This is done to help the reader, viewer etc. remember the film and make the person familiar with the film. This helps the film in getting some, if not all attention, so that people may know of it.
For my film, I tend to use a few images from the film and definitely the title of the film, along with the names of the actors, director, producers etc. I may use a tagline. It is not mandatory to do so, but if it suites my film then I might.

Comedy Film Posters:

I also analysed a few posters related to our genre, i.e. comedy.







I noticed that the theme of comedy film posters is very bright and the fonts that they use for their title are very interesting and they have something in it that relates to the main theme of the film. I also noticed that the protagonist is present in the poster as well.



There are taglines in most comedy film posters and it helps to give a little extra information about the film to exhilirate the target audience to watch the film. I also noticed that in comedy films, the face expressions of the actors are very important and this is also reflected in the posters.