Oliver Wallace-Vorberg's Blog

  Location Recce Part 4.5 – Alleyn’s 2: Electric Boogaloo After attempting to gather extras in Crystal Palace about 40 times over and becoming increasingly infuriated at repeated failings, I sought a potential remedy for this conundrum. Lo and behold, the Fives Courts at Alleyn’s have a similar enough brickwork pattern to what I filmed at Crystal Palace. My reasoning is that it'll be about 400 times easier to run up to people at lunch and say "Hey, I need extras for this thing do you have 20 minutes spare" than dragging them for a couple hours to Crystal Palace. Only downside is I have to be cautious of framing as there's an entire field of vibrant green grass just out of shot, something obviously not present in the concrete high street of the initial location I'm aiming to emulate.

Those who know me know I'm probably the least musical person in the universe so sound editing in this film is going to be one hell of a challenge. For the sake of keeping the audience positioned alongside Marco and Polo throughout, I'm planning on keeping the soundtrack parallel at all times. Something upbeat and funky for the most part. That said, I have a cool idea for the shopping sequence. For shots of Marco and Polo searching, I may accompany them with some sort of heavy metal (one of my friends loves that stuff so that's where that inspiration stemmed from), and for shots of Adria some light jazz could work nicely. Anything that gives off a 'sweet and innocent' vibe. That'll hopefully lull the audience into thinking Adria is a sweet and innocent individual, which she most certainly isn't, thus servicing the plot twist at the end. Plus the contrast could create humour if done right. And - if at all possible - a nod to Inception may be warranted. I reall...

  Graphic Plan For the main title of the film, I’m looking for something rather playful and vibrant, I’m thinking along the lines of the title card for The Suicide Squad (2021, dir. James Gunn). Figure 1 Friz Quadrata Font Test     Marco Polo (Amasis MT Pro Black) Marco Polo (Bodoni MT Black) Marco Polo (Copperplate Gothic Bold) Marco Polo (Eras Bold ITC) Marco Polo (HP Simplified Jpan [with Bold]) After these experiments I would like to conclude that Eras Bold ITC is the most promising option – and also one of the few options that comes inbuilt to my editing software (Pinnacle Studio 24) so that means less work font-finding online. Win win.

This is where film studies and art collide - which is great for me because I literally cannot draw to save my life . Regardless - I took some preliminary photos of my actors (I casted the project too!) to base these off of because I do not trust myself to draw completely freehand.  The cast list, by the way, is as follows:  1. Marco played by Max Walters  2. Polo played by Zephyr Charles-Moss  3. Adria played by Hattie Millard  I'm pretty proud of the Adria name, too. Adrian translates as "the bringer of darkness" and, well, that's exactly what Adria is to Marco and Polo. It's not something I think I can make light of in the film so may as well do it here.  I like the look of these shots arguably too much so I'm aiming to recreate these 5 in my film. Almost everything else will have an element of 'creative license' I reckon. Like I said with the shot list, it all depends on what opportunities present themselves to me on location. It's good not to b...

Much more complicated than the last post with the Screenplay; and also far, far more time consuming to make. As I said with that one, this isn't set in stone, rather it's provided me with a rough look that I'm going for in each sequence. Given my location recces, I think I've got some ideas of where I can weaponise the environment to create interesting shots, but it all depends on what I feel when I'm there and in the shooting process itself.

  Location Recce Part 4 – Alleyn’s & Townley Road For the opening sequence of the film that establishes the character of Marco, I wanted to use a school setting. Luckily for me, I basically live in one at this point. Alleyn’s was a pretty obvious choice for the location here, and since I go there 5 days every week (sometimes more), it’s quite easy for me to figure out where I aim to shoot. The few shots I want in a classroom can be shot in the English corridor (I believe the exact room number is 211) as it gets good light and is the perfect, rather stereotypical, classroom. For the part where Marco runs out at about 400 miles per hour (give or take 20), I can just use the exterior of the main building and the route to the Lodge. Finally, for the last shot of the sequence, I’ll use the bus stop at the top of Hillsboro Road. Here, the camera will track Marco from the side as he walks into the bus stop, allowing me to transition seamlessly between the Dulwich setting to the Crys...

  Location Recce Part 3 – Sainsbury’s Now this is when things get interesting/extremely difficult. For the search sequence in the supermarket, I obviously need a solid location to shoot that in. Currently, this is looking like it will be the Sainsbury’s in Crystal Palace. Firstly, it’s near to the back streets from Recce Part 2, and secondly, it’s usually quite quiet. For blatantly clear reasons I’ll pick the timing of the shoot carefully, likely being early morning on a Sunday (based on research it seems this is the most sparsely populated time for shoppers). The biggest thing, really, is the permission to do this. That’ll need to be obtained a week or two before the shoot to be on the safe side. What could possibly go wrong?

  Location Recce Part 2 – Crystal Palace For the next part of my location scouting, I went on a hero’s quest, a massive, 407-mile long epic adventure up to Crystal Palace. The walk only took about 5 minutes I live right outside it. Here I was looking for a few sideroads that I tend to travel down to get to the Everyman cinema (because of course that’s why I’m there). I chose these roads because they are almost constantly quiet, especially early in the morning and late at night, obviously avoiding rush hour so there’s no traffic on the main road. It’s a pretty nice neighbourhood that I can use to shoot the ending segment in which the gang show up to support Adria. Plus, there’s a nice iron fence that obscures a place that I am convinced houses either gang activity or 47 homeless people and I can’t quite decide which one to settle on. Only issues really would be someone getting hit by a car. We can probably avoid that. Probably.

  Location Recce Part 1 – Croydon For the main dialogue scene of my short film, I wanted to find a location that creates a feeling of seedy dread and discomfort, something synonymous with illegal activity. What better location than a quiet car park? Luckily for me, my local area is the worst and we have quite a few such locations. I first investigated a car park attached to the Sainsbury’s in Crystal Palace (another location I aim to shoot at), but unfortunately it was too well kept and too well-lit to create a menacing atmosphere. I then turned my attention to Croydon because, well, it’s Croydon. That place is the geographical equivalent of purgatory. Knowing the area quite well, I knew that the Whitgift shopping centre had an attached car park, and luckily for me, it is one of the worst places that I have ever been to. As such I arrived there, ascended the stairwell that reeks of urine and snapped some pictures of a couple floors in the car park. The top 2-3 floors are almost e...

It took a lot of work - but this is the draft of my screenplay I'll be using for the production. Obviously, there's room for change here, this simply provides the structure and narrative of the project as opposed to every minute detail. I've certainly got some ideas for the look and feel of the production from this, so I reckon it'll shape up just fine

  Audience Research Following considerable research, I have decided to aim my short film at a teenage target audience. This is because of several factors, chief among them being that as teenagers have notoriously low attention spans, presenting a five minute short film to them stands a better chance of succeeding than presenting it to a more adult audience. This also enables for more cynical humour (my speciality) to be implemented into my screenplay as such a decision resonates more with teenage audiences than anyone else. Adult audiences also often search for deeper hidden meanings behind a piece of art (as one should, in my eyes), whereas teenagers are more likely to enjoy the ride without thinking critically. Whether this is a ruthless indictment of the comprehension skills of teenagers or simply a reflection on the current standings of stereotypical behaviour is another matter. Essentially, I’m aiming to make my film appear to a younger demographic akin to my peers (okay...

  Short Film Research – The Arrival (2016) This films centres on Anna, a young woman sat in a small public café awaiting the father of her yet-to-be-born child. The narrative is told through a voiceover of Anna’s internal monologue as she debates a potential abortion. The serious subject matter of this film is represented through a heavily desaturated, nigh muted, colour palette, with the café being displayed in deep reds and browns while Anna’s jumper is the brightest focal point in cream. Aside from that, Anna is presented as simply ordinary, her costume and make-up reflecting just a typical person, displaying a deeper truth that the film wishes to communicate – that many women have been in a similar place to her. The films is also, and notably, shot in a single long take. The camera starts behind a door, obfuscating Anna in the café before the door opens and the camera begins to eek closer and closer to her as it dollys through the harshly lit environment. The mise-en-scene ...

  Short Film Research – Over (2015) This film is fascinating for one main reason: the decision to keep the plot of the film obscured until the final few heart-breaking moments. Once revealed, you realise this film displays a reconstruction of the story of a man from Angola who had stowed away within airplane landing gear, unfortunately and tragically falling out onto a neighbourhood once the gear lowered for landing. The reverse chronology keeps the audience active in their viewership, as they have to piece together what little information, they’re given to establish the plot for themselves. For example, the film opens with flowers and blood being cleaned from the streets, thus the audience concludes a death, but not one so brutal. The cinematography is often static and positions the viewer at a distance, once more making the audience debate what they’re seeing and the significance of it, the only close-ups being to clue the audience in that a death has occurred. The infrequent...

  Short Film Research – Operator (2015) Once more a harrowing film, but in a much different sense. This follows a fire department phone line operator as they answer a call from a woman in distress. As the situation worsens, the fear and panic of the two become more evident. This film utilises very slow and infrequent edits throughout, instead focussing on the performance of the main actor in a very Hollywood way. It’s only right at the end that the most impactful edit hits as we jump from a close-up to a mid-shot, removing us from the tension of the scenario and returning to the reality of the office. The mise-en-scene also paints a terrifying picture of what it’s like being a phone operator for emergency services as the woman just appears to be a normal person. She wears the same uniform as everyone else in the room, suggesting that all of them experience similar calls to this every single day, and yet they still come in the day after. The use of sound in this film is nigh unp...

  Short Film Research – Slap (2015) This rather harrowing film displays a young man raised to be a boxer as they navigate the complexities of their own gender identity, culminating in those around them rejecting him for who they are. It’s a much more solemn film than I’d like to make, but it does an excellent job of tapping into the socio-political context surrounding it. I especially liked the use of editing in this film, as (in particular) the opening sequence is constructed in a way that gives the audience a very personal glimpse into the life of the protagonist. It utilises several close up shots with a slow editing pace to create a tender moment of self-discovery that the audience is given a privileged position to observe. After their dad interrupts, the film suddenly jumps into a more masculine environment, using over-the-shoulder shots, shaky cam, and a faster editing pace to situate the audience with the panic of the protagonist in this moment. The montage sequence late...

  Short Film Research – The Fly (2014) This is easily my favourite of the short films I’ve studied for the coursework component of this A-Level. Easily. The Fly follows a getaway driver as he does battle with the titular fly whilst awaiting his crews return. Hilariously, he fails to kill the fly at every turn, instead injuring himself comedically and resorting to increasingly drastic measures, culminating in him remaining unsuccessful and failing even his crew by shooting up the van they're supposed to escape in. What I commend this film for the most is that it takes a seemingly normal situation that the audience will already have a schema for and then plays with those expectations. Most audiences would imagine a getaway driver to wait around, and then to leave when needed, but this film explores, rather comically, what happens while the driver waits. In this case, he does battle with a fly who refuses to be forcibly shuffled off this mortal coil, so to speak. It’s a relatable ...

  Short Film Research – Echo (2011) Echo tells the story of a 17 year-old girl, Caroline, as she answers a phone call in public that reveals that her father has been killed in a motorbike crash. In this opening phone call sequence, the sound begins diegetic, swelling in proximity to the camera as the audience are positioned as an onlooker in a swarm of people. Caroline is accentuated from the crowd due to her turquoise hoodie that contrasts with the warm, muted reds and browns of the rest of the MeS. Throughout the call itself, we enter various mid shots and close ups of Caroline as she descends into a desperate, teary-eyed mess (the actor gives a very solid and convincing performance here). This sequence culminates with her being given money to get to the hospital, only for her to drop the act and pocket the cash for herself. The main thing to note in this film is the repetition of that sequence at the end of the film, though this time with some additional changes that makes t...

 Tight Jeans - Short Film Evaluation Destiny Ekaragha: “I think sometimes laughter is the best way to talk about serious issues, because it stays in your head longer. Dramas are great and I’d like to do one, but at the moment I’m loving laughter.” Do you think this is true? Can comedy be a way of finding deeper truths as much as tragedy? Personally I think that yes, comedy is one of the better methods of exploring darker themes. While darker topics should obviously be treated with a degree of respect and cautiousness, it makes sense to have a joke about them, because, as Ekaragha says, "it stays in your head longer". This is certainly a fine line though, as there have been way too many cases in which risqué jokes have gone too far, where someone tries to make a deep and meaningful comment about society through comedy, and it just comes across as plain insensitivity. This line means that this can either work well in displaying these deeper, more poignant themes, or it can back...

 The Ellington Kid - Short Film Evaluation The Ellington Kid follows a pair of friends who get some food at a fast-food kebab shop, as one of them tells the other about the Ellington Kid. Flashbacks depict the events as we see a kid get stabbed and hunted into the same kebab shop in which the present-day scenes occur. These flashbacks crescendo into the kebab workers preparing to face off with the gang that stabbed the kid, only to cut away, before Nathan asks Beefy "Why'd you think I only got the fries?", implying that the gang were murdered and turned into the burger that Beefy is eating. The ending is quite open, as we see the same kebab worker from the flashback staring the pair down while sharpening knives, meaning that Nathan's insistence that the story was fake could have just been to save their own skin, a shockingly dark ending. The narrative is presented to us through Nathan's telling of the story, positioning the audience with Nathan, who we get ever cl...

 According to the Oscars, a short film is any film that is under 40 minutes in length including credits, however I believe that this may in fact be too long for such a project.  Short films typically constitute of a short, punchy narrative, following a small cast of characters, who are usually portrayed by amateur actors who may not be getting paid.  However, in contrast to the mainstream, high-budget, and formulaic feature-length films (that don't currently exist due to an unknown virus of unknown origin), short films can be much more experimental, tackling concepts in a bizarre, expressionistic manner, further allowing for show-don't-tell to apply in an incredible meaningful and poignant way. These short films can also be made by anyone for any purpose, though the outreach of short projects is substantially limited as the people who are most likely to watch them are film fanatics. This also means that short films are usually uploaded to streaming sites (such as YouTube)...