Film-plan

steps & strategies

1
document
noun \d-ky-mnt, -ky-\


to document (verb):
to record or report in detail
to furnish with documents
to support with evidence or proof


from Latin documentum a lesson,
from docre to teach
it is a choice:

be an archivist & document reality

or

be an artistic creator of unseen
perspective(s)
as every film is a constant
succesion of ideas...


try to control a few of the many variables far
ahead of shooting
a few of the many
formal aspects to decide upon:

2 main building blocks:

Key-sentence/Premisse

Film-idea
a Key-Sentence / Premisse:
Nucleus/focus of the film
Position/interpretation of the filmmaker
Echo/mantra
Key-Sentence / Premisse
aim:

attractive and daring
a new perspective
something overlooked by others

Key-Sentence / Premisse
to start active, challenging:
...
transform it into a question

(...to investigate its truth,
and whether that sustains)

try to define premisse/key-sentence of:

Grizzly Man
Darwins Nightmare
Fahrenheit 9/11
Film-idea

consists of 2 components:

Ultrashort description
of subject or story

in combination with

the organizing mechanism that
controls/structures your story
the organizing mechanism ->


the unity of

place
and/or
form
and/or
action





define unity of .... in:

Roger & Me
Etre et Avoir
Five Broken Cameras
* On the bases of your film-idea and
premisse, your proposal can be judged if
there is a possible film worth
financing/making
as for the story
Story-line(s): possible development
Multi-layered
Key scene(s)
Entrance and Exit of your film

Know the classic structures..
.. but try to twist and turn the options

Casting

The dramatic role of your characters

Replace follow -> film

Other tools on your shopping list:
Which genre?
(name min 10)

Style: everything is allowed
(name min 20 style terms)

Know all the tools you can choose from,
and describe them accurate and simple

What is at stake?

for subject / for filmmaker

(are those agendas in sync?)


Story perspective + the role of the filmmaker

Determine the films perspective(s)?


Modes of representation of filmmaker:
Poetic (highly subjective)
Expository (voice of God, narration, guiding viewer)
Observing (pretence of objectivism)
Participatory (interactive - subjective)
Reflexive (incl process and quality of the film itself)
Performative (mixes modes objective finding truth)
Writing proces
Film dreaming
Magnify what is important
Depict it as larger than Life
Restrictions to get a clear plan.
(delete unnecessaries & give constraints)















Your film-plan is like a baby to the film:


try to raise it properly


(or get stuck with an unmanagble fiend)
Not only use the cinematic tools with
which you can tell your film...

..find out some new ones along the way

Then you contribute to the development of
the documentary medium as a cinematic
art