Creative Production

Title: Guiding the River to rest

BRITISH URBAN FILM FESTIVAL

The reason I decided to choose the British Urban Film Festival is because our
productions will be completed by Wednesday 14 th December 2022 and the
submission dates for BUFF can work with our deadline. While we can’t get the
early bird deadline (September 5th 2022), the later deadline is for December
31st 2022. There are 2 later deadlines as well in the new year, being March 30 th
2023 and June 30th 2023. Each deadline goes up in price as well to submit
your film and the script as well. Since I would most likely try for the December
deadline, it would cost me £77.
There is also a student discount. The December deadline becomes £72, the
March deadline becomes £95 and the June deadline becomes £112.
Students also need a reference/cover letter to support their entry and must
be emailed to the festival by the course tutor who needs to be currently
employed at an educational institution as proof towards the student’s
eligibility to enter.

There are terms and conditions for entering your film and script. They can’t be
less than 20 pages and no more than 120. Short films can’t be under 3
minutes or longer than 44 minutes. You need to email your submission after
the payment. For the actual content of the short films, there are no additional
rules as all genres are welcomed as well as a lot of different topics.
Final Idea Outline

The plot of my production follows a teenager who has the ability

to see ghosts and beings who are invisible to everyone else around them. At
the beginning of the production, the main character gets introduced as Lake
Kenton. They go to a few different locations and come across ghosts who sit
near them or stand in their sight. The camera can show that they aren’t really
there by showing wider shots of the other people suddenly not being there or
editing an effect over them. Soon into the production, Lake comes across
another ghost called Kit River. Kit shows up in more than just 1 place, maybe
at a skatepark as well as more into the town. Eventually. Kit ends up getting
Lake’s attention somehow but Lake immediately knows they can’t speak (as
this is a film with no dialogue allowed, so using it as a plot point can work).
They end up communicating over writing and maybe using a hand drawn
Ouija board too. Through their conversation, Lake learns that Kit can’t put
their soul to rest which keeps Lake up all night searching on the internet for
how to help. Eventually, they learn to help the ghost resolve their issues which,
remembering their conversation, Lake knew was learning and accepting
how they died. The next day, Lake goes back to talk with Kit which doesn’t
go too well. They try to explain that they are dead and, by the looks of it,
murdered but Kit won’t accept it. The production then shows a montage of
Lake collecting information online about Kit’s murder and shows it to them
before taking them to the place of their murder to explain it more. A
flashback sequence appears (following any PG rating guidelines) and shows
Kit’s murder. By the end of the flashback, Lake waits for a response. Kit ends
up showing that they accept what happened to them and thank Lake for
their help as they start to move on. The end of the scene shows them
disappearing as their soul gets put to rest. There could be an additional part
of the production, depending on time management and how many actors
are available, showing Lake managing to go up to another ghost to offer
their help like before. But if I’m unable to do that scene, then it will end with
the ghost being put to rest.

Target Audience
For this production, I have chosen my target audience to be PG
mainstream. The classifications for a PG mainstream short film
include not showing any detailed threat, potentially dangerous
behaviour or prolonged scenes of violence and horror. Not
glamourizing the use of easily accessible weapons or objects such as kitchen
knives is also not allowed to be focused on. Violence will need to be mild if
it’s shown or within context of war, fantasy, comedy or historical. Language
included in the production can only be mild and have no discriminatory
language unless it is clearly disapproved upon in the production for
educational purposes or in a history show for example. Unless the production
has an anti-drug message, drugs can’t be mentioned, shown and used in the
short film. Without any context, there can’t be any nudity or sexual scenes
and even with the context they can’t be shown for a long scene.

PG mainstream films usually have similar formulae they follow and always
include almost the same points. Obvious characters such as an action-hero
are often included, having a “larger than life” character rather than a normal
everyday person. The narrative must be easy to follow and can be easily
condensed into a single sentence to describe it. There are high production
values, high profile celebrity actors and film promotions as well that are used
in a PG mainstream film.

In a survey I did, the responses from my target audience said they like PG
films as they are light-hearted, upbeat and have some comedic moments as
well. For my production, I will have to keep the overall feel of the film positive
and stick to the classifications and as much of the PG film formulae as I can
as a student film maker.
Legal & Ethical Issues

Overall in my production, I don’t think there are many legal and ethical
issues. I will still have to keep some in mind though just in case they appear.

- Since my production has a high chance of including implications of

murder, I will have to keep in mind that it is PG rather than an older age
rating. I’ll check the guidelines for PG rated films for this.

- Making sure I don’t include any brands of clothing or any other

products could also be considered. As they may not be allowed in a
normal film in the industry without permission, trying not to include them
now might be useful to do anyway.

- I will have to try and not glamourize murder or violence in any way. I
will see ways on how to not do that and make sure that my production
doesn’t promote violence and is just used as part of the plot.
Production Schedule

Week 1 – Start of the task, with idea generation, proposal, first draft of the
final idea, problem solving and a first production schedule created
Week 2 – Research into the target audience, using primary and secondary
research to get results. Could also include codes and conventions into the
age rating guidelines as well
Week 3 – More research into the codes and conventions, focused more on
the genre and other aspects rather than just on the target audience
Week 4 – October half term, independent extension of research and maybe
some planning ahead of time
Week 5 – Production planning, including script writing, story boarding and
other important documents such as props lists, cast lists and location recces
Week 6 – More production planning, finishing any documents that aren’t
finished and uploading them
Week 7 – Pitching the idea, starting to film and edit the production
Week 8 – Filming and editing the production
Week 9 – Finishing the editing and other touches, 1 st full production viewing
Week 10 – Corrections and evaluation of the production
Week 11 – Final production submission

Deadline is Wednesday 14th December and the festival/winner

announcements are on Friday 16th December