Drama-Charcter back story

Drama-Charcter back story

CHARACTER NAME: Keith Appleton

AGE22

APPEARANCE smartly dressed with tnnis shoes

1. What do you know about this character now that s/he doesn’t yet know? A. He will steal form someone unintentionally.
2. What is this character’s greatest flaw? A. He never thinks before he acts or speaks
3. What do you know about this character that s/he would never admit? A. His extremely awkward
4. What is this character’s greatest asset? A. His dress sense he is a very smart guy
5. If this character could choose a different identity, who would s/he be?  A.He would be a popular guy with no worries in the world
6. What music does this character sing to when no one else is around? A. Frank Sinarta New York New York.
7. In what or whom does this character have the greatest faith? A. In his nonexistent friends
8. What is this character’s favourite movie? A. The Hulk
9. Does this character have a favourite article of clothing? Favourite shoes? A. Blazer and tie with tennis pumps
10. Does this character have a vice? Name it. A. No he doesnt
11. Name this character’s favourite person (living or dead). His favourite person is the bartender
12. What is this character’s secret wish? A. To be liked by people
13. What is this character’s proudest achievement? A. 15 pints in one sitting
14. Describe this character’s most embarrassing moment. A. The Nachos story when he unintentionally stole someone’s Nachos
15. What is this character’s deepest regret? A. Borrowing money off a loan shark.
16. What is this character’s greatest fear? A. loneliness
17. Describe this character’s most devastating moment. A. When his parents disowned him
18. What is this character’s greatest hope? A. That he can live a stable like in the next 2 years
19. Does this character have an obsession? Name it. A. No
20. What is this character’s greatest disappointment? A. Not forfilling his dream of being a bowls player
21. What is this character’s worst nightmare? A. Being caught by a number of loan Sharks
22. Whom does this character most wish to please? Why? A. Everybody around him because he doesn’t have any friends.
23. Describe this character’s mother. A. A fragment of The characters imagination
24. Describe this character’s father. A. A fragment of The characters imagination
25. If s/he had to choose, with whom would this character prefer to live?  A. In Barnsley
26. Where does this character fall in birth order? What effect does this have? A. Only child
27. Describe this character’s siblings or other close relatives. A. distant
28. Describe this character’s bedroom. Include three cherished items. A. One bed chest of draws with a carling placemat he inherited from hid grand farther, Sheffield Wednesday jersey in his window with a goldfish.
29. What is this character’s birth date? How does this character manifest traits of his/her astrological sign? 4/3/1989 he doesn’t his a misfit trying to fit in.
30. If this character had to live in seclusion for six months, what six items would s/he bring? Beer pump. Nachos, house, bartender, arm chair and a glass
31. Why is this character angry? A. He isnt
32. What calms this character? A. The sound of the radio
33. Describe a recurring dream or nightmare this character might have. LOAN SHARKS BEATING HIM UP.
34. List the choices (not circumstances) that led this character to his/her current predicament. A. Not listening, trying to fit in.
35. List the circumstances over which this character has no control. A. When a loan shark wants his money
36. What wakes this character in the middle of the night? A. drunks
37. How would a stranger describe this character? A. Shy and awkward
38. What does this character resolve to do differently every morning?
39. Who depends on this character? Why?  A. Nobody
40. If this character knew s/he had exactly one month to live, what would s/he do? A. Drink and attack all the guys he owes money too
41. How would a dear friend or relative describe this character? A. An outcast
42. What is this character’s most noticeable physical attribute? A. His curly brown hair
43. What is this character hiding from him/herself? A. That he has no friends
44. Write one additional thing about your character. A. He hates onions

The editing for this project was a long one, due to the high amount of takes that we carried out during certain sequences however I believe it to have been a rich experience. There were certain areas film didn't seem rounded however after much work in the editing room I believe we managed to produce and effective final piece.

Drama Original script

(Introductory shots of keith walking towards the pub on the street and the establishing shot of the pub from outside, enters.)

(walks past camera shot upon entering, the cuts back in and pretends he didn’t see them.)

Oh, hi, didn’t see you there, I’m keith and this is my local (acts cocky) come here all the time don’t I steve? (looks towards barman, no reaction… says nervously) he’s abit shy.

(bluntly) No I’m not

They’re, um, they’re following me for this life stories sitcom I’m making, gonna send it off to BBSee, it’s like this interactive thing they-they’ve put up right, for emerging talent an stuff.

(Awkward silence)

He’s shy

I’m not.

Ummm, so can I have my usual mate?..... (nothing)… um, a-a pint please steve, (turns to production team) does anybody want anything? Crisps? Any…

…Salted nuts

(keith turns back to hostile barman to place order as scene ends)

(sat at a table facing the camera, pint in shot, interview style)

Might as well give you what you came for eh?... abit of the keitho magic, I’ve got a story, you’ll love this one, so I came into the pub, just like any other day (camera pans to the doorway where sequence begins) ordered my usual…

“usual steve, oh and some cheesy nacho’s as well please mate” (fictional barman is much friendlier and pally with keith)

… and went to sit down in my regular spot to read my paper, and there’s other geezer there right? In my pog, reading some celebrity lifestyle magazine. So I sits down across from him and steve comes over with my pint. “nachos’ll be 2 minutes mate” 2 minutes he says, perfect opportunity for me to pick up some looty from the fruity… eh! Eh! (laughs to himself) and what do you know, within no time… (animated on fruit machines) Bingo, Jackpot, I drop the lot (collects around £5 small change from machine) …”magic fingers.”

I head back to the table, and there’s this geezer, the one from before, knuckle deep in my nachos. I thinks to myself right. I’m not having this, I walks over and grabs a hand full… my nachos.

We have this little exchange, he goes “you alright mate” I reply “Yeah, are you alright mate?!” So I start putting my winnings in my wallet, and I see him do it again, taking my nachos, I’m like, is he taking the piss or something? So I nudge the plate. He looks at me, peering his beady eyes over *magazine picture reference* and I look back at him, take another chip out and chomp away.

(close up of eyes staring and mouth crunching)

Then um… right… hang on, can we just pause for a second?.... I’ll just be back in a minute…

(walks off, production team whisper umongst themselves)

What a dickhead.

I know what you mean.

These nuts aren’t even salted

*ten minutes later* < appears on screen

(walks back to interview space, sipping up flies)

Was a number 2 sorry guys, right… where was I… yeah, so I takes another nacho and bring the plate entirely to my side of the table, he places down his magazine and does the same, laughing at me, mugging me off basically. By this point yeah, I feel like just getting up and going (cut back to keith interview position again.) GET OFF MY NACHOS YOU *beep*

OI! PIPE DOWN YA BEARDY BELLEND

S-Sorry Steve (quietens and looks scared) we need to be abit quieter for steve.

(whispers)

So I down my pint, get up and decide to take this a step further.

(walks around table and sits next to the other man)

I give him this look, real slow and serious like. And slowly pick up another, one with an extra amount of cheese on it. Relish every second of proving to this guy, that he can’t just take my food. So what does he do… mimicks me!

(Man picks up another cheesy nacho, slowly eats and stares at keith and nods smugly)

Then it was game on!

(dramatic combat style music kicks in and the two characters begin to have a ‘eat off’)

(the action gets faster as the two characters try to eat their nachos the quickest, shots including shoving excess nachos in at once etc are used to create a fight scene montage type of effect. It starts to slow down as both characters begin to struggle with the food.)

Makes me feel full just thinking about it. Anyways, we got to the point where there was only one left.

(both characters look between each other and the last nacho)

Liverpool Shoot

After many trials and tribulations on our day of shooting Liverpool I believe we eventually managed to acquire just enough footage to fit our five minute piece. Part of the reason for our relatively slow day can put down to creative differences within the group. I feel that despite my best intentions to work democratically around our problems, we were unable to arrive on completely the same wave length as a group. I personally feel that at times my input was dismissed as worthless and at times this was delivered in derogatory manner. This is a particularly disappointing aspect of the production for me as despite my best efforts to work within the given enviroment, I feel that hindered in the way of working to the best of my abilities. Although I’m sure Joeley was confident in her ideas, I was also confident in my own and I don’t believe the all encompassing attitude that I attempted to adopt was reciprocated. I feel this is particular disappointed as although in the end we managed collect some useful footage I don’t believe the day was a complete success.

Shooting schedule

This is the shooting schedule which we prepared in pre production as a means of best manage the short amount of time we had to gather all of our footage.

Documentary inspiration-

http://www.4docs.org.uk/films/show/7/Pockets


This had a particularly large impact on me when I started to think about the various forms of documentary which interest me. The short but succinct insights into the lives of people on the street, I felt was used to great effect and is a device, the inspiration of which is very clear in our own piece, by way of using the various different buskers. The aesthetic of the piece is something which had an effect on our stylistic decision, that shines through particularly in our use of close ups and shots of the buskers  cases, boxes etc which they use for the collection of money.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olkvWSjbQZQ


Skatistan is another documentary which affected me greatly. The way in which it shows the affect that skating can have on peoples lives was a highly inspirational tool an it was i something i believed to useful to think about when trying portray the buskers in their surroundings. 

Our first rough edit of the piece proved a helpful in the way of giving a more focused direction. The approach we took to the project to begin with was a very open one as we believed this would be the most effective way to meet the demands of the brief and although we did come up with a lot of effective material we also produced some less so effective footage. This first edit gave us chance to reflect on how were going about the project and gave a feel for what direction to head in, as well which of our original ideas to pursue and which leave behind. After this first edit we saw that it was most definitely necessary, to reign in the piece and make sure the focus remained clear although we wanted to keep a lot of the experimental vibe of the first we also felt it imperative to routine in what we shot as to keep the audience tapped into the main ideas and not be distracted by innovations which are not entirely linked to the core of the production.

On the whole believe our production was successful, we had a strong original idea to begin which transformed many times along our production journey experimented with ideas. However once we play around with ideas and settled our eventual product we picked the best our experiments in film making and planned them more precisely which I believe has had a positive effect on our final piece. Although we had shoot some scenes on four or even five occasions we persivered and eventually arrived at a destination we felt fitting.

Over the purse of our shoot encountered various problems, most which can be attributed to complications with the monkey puppet, as getting the right performance out of it and keeping the puppetier out of shot at all times proved rather difficult thus our filming took us slightly longer than expected, however we persevered with our plans and eventually managed obtain all the shots that we required.

Another factor that slowed us down at various points were the conflicting ideas we had within the group as to which direction we should take the piece. This lead to our planning of each scene to overrun immensely as we attempted to come to a conclusion which sat well with all parties. Although this was a struggle as our group was made up of strong minded characters we eventually managed poll our ideas together to come up with a fitting solution on most accounts. Although at certain points during the production it may seemed as if we were on a "too many cooks spoil the broth' situation I believe that our work as a group has been of benefit both too our finished production and our individual progression. As we had differing ideas about how to go about various parts of the production we were forced to analysis these ideas to a much greater depth that had they not been question.

Inspirational Experimental Pieces

Orgy- Blue monday (Original music video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAt9QTmVc7Q

My attention is immediately drawn to the effective combination of music and dark, abstract imagery in this piece. It is incredibly powerful in terms of dictating the mood of the viewer as in the merging of imagery sound it manages to synchronise the rise and fall of emotions on both counts. This makes it a particular point of interest as regards our group project as the sadistic, rhythmic feel to piece is extremely similar to that of our intended outcome. Using this video as a starting point we where able to progress our piece by attempting to recreate the innovative process which went into producing this film.

Chucky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkpte31_M6c

A key theme of our piece is the fear of inanimate objects something which links it closely to chuck. We felt that most effective way to display the fears within the darker side of the protagonists psyche would be to portray at the danger within the unknown. The personification gives it an other worldly feel, alienating the audience thus creating a greater sense of unease. All of these points are things our piece shares with Chucky, Where the anthropomorphism of a child's toy creates a greater sense of dread than any serial killer imaginable.