Practical Screencraft: Chapter 2 Idea

For Chapter 2, I collaborated with another student as both of us were looking at 'The Graduate' for inspiration. Our original idea actually differed from the final film by a large amount. Originally, our film focused on a man who forgets to buy a turkey for Christmas and rushes to the shops to buy one. The way this would incorporate the source material would be through the cinematography. 

The first shot we studied was the one that shows Ben (Dustin Hoffman) running towards Elaine's (Katharine Ross) wedding. His struggle is conveyed by the way that it appears as if he's running for longer than he should be by a good trick of the camera. In reality, the pavement shouldn't be that long but the way the camera is positioned and used makes it look like it's longer than it actually is. 

The second shot we looked at was the very last shot of the film which sees the bus Ben and Elaine riding on driving off, away from the camera. We felt that this shot was a very strong ending shot and we wanted to end our film with the same, accompanied by 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel just as 'The Graduate' did. 

We found it appropriate due to it being December however, when we attempted to start filming, bad weather plagued the shoot. As a result, we had to completely scrap it and instead work on an idea that could be filmed no matter the weather as we knew it wasn't going to get any better for the rest of the month.

Back before we changed the idea, we managed to draw up simple storyboards in order to convey how we would shoot the film as well as highlighting the narrative. 

We found it appropriate due to it being December however, when we attempted to start filming, bad weather plagued the shoot. Our new idea was simpler as all it entailed was someone being late for their bus. However, this allowed us to incorporate the music in a more inventive fashion. In initially feels like the music is non-diegetic however when the man pulls his headphones off, it's revealed that the music is playing from his phone. The film bookends this with 'The Sound of Silence' at the end.