Script

 

[James wakes up and sighs]

Maria Murphey: James you are 10 minutes late from your wake up time. I already have your bowl of milk on the counter, just go eat your cereal.

[James pours his cereal and all the cereal completely misses and falls on the table and floor]

[James leaves his house and walks to his bus stop. He arrives and checks the time and he is 20 minutes late to his stop. A car drives by and accidentally splashes James with puddle water.]

James Murphey to his mom on the phone: Can you drop me off to school today... Yes, I missed the bus again...

---

{Afterschool in an alleyway}

[James is waiting for his friend Kofi]

[Kofi walks into the alley]

Kofi King: Ayo my man Jimmy wassup.

James: Nothing much man

Kofi: So you got it man? Or you gonna keep me waiting?

[James slides King a bag of weed]

Kofi says into his shirt: Ayo I got it

[A DEA agent starts to chase after James]

Kofi: Sorry man! I got caught sellin’ at the police station, they gonna drop charges if I helped them out!

---

{James makes it out of the alley way onto the sidewalk}

Homeless Man (Blocking James way and stopping him from running): Hey you got spare change?

[The DEA Agent catches up to James]

DEA Agent: Finally caught you in the act again huh?

[The DEA Agent starts to Miranda his rights]

James: I swear imma kill that idiot Kofi

---

Storyboard

Page 1: James Murphey, the main character, wakes up, gets yelled at by his mom to go to school, and spills all his cereal on the floor in a rush. He rushes out the house, forgets his keys then goes back to get them, and goes to the bus stop. He checks his pockets to make sure the drugs are still there and he gets splashed by puddle water. He realizes that he missed the bus so he calls his mom to pick him up. The next scene on this page is him in an alleyway afterschool waiting for his friend Kofi.

Page 2: Kofi and James meet, and James gives Kofi drugs. It turns out that Kofi was working with the police, and a DEA agent finds them and runs after James.

Page 3: As James is running away from the DEA agent, he runs into a homeless man which blocks his way and allows the DEA agent to catch up to him. The DEA agent handcuffs James and James is furious at Kofi and sad that he got caught. 

Title Design Blog

For our title designs, we plan to use different fonts, depending on the category of the subtitle. To actually find our fonts, we will use an online website. The website that we are using is www.dafont.com. Each title will be on a separate clip. For the Name of Studio and Name of Production Company we will use the font called “Prequel”. For the Actors Names, we will use “Roboto”. We will have three titles pop up for each name. For the film title, we want to use a bold, big font that will really make the name stand out. We will use the font “Awakenning”. For the Music By and Edited By titles, we will use the font “Headlines”. For Produced By, we will also use the font “Headlines”. For the next three titles, we will use the same font. For Story By, Written By, and Directed By, we will use the font “Sansation”. We plan to use different transitions to show the titles. One transition will be the title will appear like it is on a sidewalk, then a foot will step on it and it will look like the title stuck to the bottom of their shoe. The other transition we plan to use is a door will open and a title will appear there. Then, the camera will move slightly to the left and the title will slide out with it. Another way to show the title is when the main character gets out of bed, he will pull the covers off him and get out the bed, and where his body was, a title will appear. We also plan to use the fade transition for some of the titles. Once we actually start editing, we may find new techniques and ways to incorporate the titles into the film.

Script

*not all the scenes in this short film include dialogue, so this script only includes the scenes that do

Characters:

1. Main Character name: James Murphy

2. Mom

3. Student #1

4. Teacher #1

5. Student #2

6. Teacher #2

7. Principal Mayweather

8. Officer Johnson

Script:

[hits head on wall/headboard when getting out of bed]

James: OW! That hurt real bad.

Mom (yelling): WAKE UP JAMES IT’S TIME FOR SCHOOL, STOP BEING LAZY!

James: OK MOM.

[walks out the door and realizes he forgot his keys]

James: Oh shoot, I forgot my keys. Again.

[checking his pockets for drugs he will sell (will actually be grass)]

James: Let me make sure this is still here.

[gets splashed by water from a puddle a car drove on]

James: *sigh*

[gets to the bus stop and he realizes the bus already left]

James: No way I missed the bus AGAIN.

[at school, and is going to sell the drugs to a student]

Student #1: Hey, you got it?

James: For sure.

Student #1: How much do you want me to pay?

Teacher #1: Hey what’s going on over there?!

[James goes to wash hands after using bathroom and the water isn’t running]

James: This has got to be a joke. Not now!

[homework is due in class]

Teacher #1: Okay everyone, turn in your homework now!

James (searching in his bag): I know I did it, I remember doing it. Where is it?!

[It’s lunch time, and James pulls out a rotten food item for lunch and smells it]

James: EUGH! This smells so bad.

[Next class and a student is trying to sell drugs to james]

Student #2: Yo James! Do you want some of this?

James: Yea how much?

Loudspeaker: James Murphy please go to the principal's office now!

[At principal’s office]

Principle Mayweather: Well well well James, look what the cat brought it. (holds up drugs James sold)

Officer Johnson: You’re in big trouble buddy. 

Other Information

• Location: The locations for this project are a house, a sidewalk, a school.
  
  
• Participants: The participants of this project are Rashawn Granderson, Constantine Feickert and Hadar Kotzer.
  
  
• Health: We have a first aid kit and over-the-counter medicine. Rashawn’s mother has experience in the medical field, so if anything happens we will be prepared.
  
  
• Schedule: The dates that we are planning to film are March 6th, March 13th, and March 20th. That would give us 3 blogs for filming and we would do editing and other things throughout those time periods.
  
  
• Backup Plan: If it were to rain, we could use an umbrella, or film in the house. If one of the participants cannot come, we will film what we can without them, or edit the clips we already have.

Title Design Websites

    I was researching online for websites that can show me ideas for the title designs. The opening scene that we are filming will include many texts of the opening credits. So, it is important to make sure they look nice. The first website I found was called “Art of the Title." The first thing it showed me was a picture of a few of the Emmy Nominations of 2021 for Main Title Designs. The website also has drop-down-lists of different options to choose from. It provides two lists, the first for types of Title Sequences, and the second for Designers and Studios. The list section for Title Sequences provides pictures of different title sequences. The list section for the Designers and Studios provides a biography of each designer and shows their works. The website also provides articles on big topics related to title designs, i.e. the article “2021 Emmy Nominations for Main Title Design."

    I wanted to find other websites to get more ideas. As I was searching, I found another interesting website. This website is called “Watch the Titles!”. The website has similar elements to the last website. It provides a list of title sequences, designers, and studios, all as separate options to click on. When you hover over the title sequences section with your mouse, differing from the other website, a list of different types of title sequences pop up, such as for TV Shows, Movies, Event Titles, etc. I noticed that one of the options is for Student Projects. The Designers and Studios options are two separate tags, and in order to get an overview you must actually click on the tag you’d like to see. Just like the other website, each designer has a biography and some of their works. The studio section doesn’t provide a description, just an example of their works.

Title Design Research: Thriller

Film: Bird Box

1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? Which ones?

There are 11 titles displayed throughout the opening sequence. The ones included are the Name of Studio(Netflix), Actors Names(Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar), Film Title(Bird Box),Edited by(Ben Lester), Produced by(Dylan Clark, Chris Morgan, Clayton Townsend), and Directed by(Susanne Bier).  

2. What connotations do the images carry? (how do they make you feel) The images make me feel intimidated. The text is in a white, big bold font, so I’m forced to look at it. I feel suspense as I see them.

3. How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? (Can you tell what genre the film is)? It is a little difficult to tell what genre the film is because it also includes elements of horror. But the element of suspense and that stomach-turning feeling you get while watching a thriller is there.

4. What conventions are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?

There was a dark film applied, making everything look eerie, that helped show the vibe of the movie. Everything seemed empty and the feeling of suspense was definitely there. The sudden bold text on the screen helped the feeling of nervousness and “what’s going on here?”.