Micro Drama

"Create your own micro drama and apply most of the 4 key theories to your own fictional narrative"

 The 4 key theories:

1. Propp's character archtypes 
2. Todorov's model of narrative structure
3. Levi-Strauss' binary opposition concept
4. Barthes' narrative enigma idea 

Below this you can see the video for our final cut of our Micro-Drama.

Below this you can see the storyboard, which was created by Bronwen Vaughan.

Pre-production:

Before we started with filming we had to do a lot of planning. This involved a brainstorming session, where we had to make decision about the genre and target audience of our micro-drama. 

We immediately chose "melodramatic horror" as the genre and young adults/students as our target audience. 

In addition, we discussed the possible narrative threads and the possible casting. This was important, since we had to apply the key theories of Propp's, Barthes, Todorov and Levi-Strauss and therefore had to figure out who would act, which role so it would apply to these four key theories.

Furthermore, Bronnie Vaughan and Riona Dragonsfeldt from our AS media class decided to start drawing and creating the storyboard for our micro-drama. A storyboard is useful and meant to show the character details, mise-en-scene and the different kinds of shot types.

Moreover, I then wrote our script for this short micro-drama. For this, we had decided to work with Adobe Story, which is a website with a scriptwriting software to efficiently help people to create their scripts. → https://story.adobe.com/de-de/index.html

Lastly, we took the rest of the time to scout for locations and think about where we could create our setting.

Production: 

For the actual production of our micro-drama, there was a rehearsal of the created script.

After this, we decided to do a test shooting to figure out which camera shots and angles we should use in our movie. This is always very helpful to do, in order for everyone to know what their task is in order for it not to be more time consuming than it already is.

Furthermore, we were shooting on two different locations. One of these was at a house in the city of Luxembourg whereas the other location was in a village called Junglinster in Luxembourg.

These two locations were fitting into our story, since the setting was "6 students huddled around a bonfire" and then "leaving to go see the haunted house". The village Junglinster was very fitting, since it has this old mansion, which we were then able to use as a haunted house for our short film.

Finally, after we had gotten all of our material, we started editing. This short film was edited by Jonathan Paris and Kristian Ovreeide from our AS media class.

Post-production:

For the post-production of our film, there was a public screening in our classroom. After this, it was very important to crtically reflect the effect and meaning of our chosen shot/angle types and sound effects.

In addition, we then had to analyse how the narrative theories had been shown. 

When creating and analysing your own personal short film, you realise how much work there needs to be put into it and how time consuming it is. You also notice, after it has been edited, what you could have done to improve it or change it. 

In the case for this short film, the first shot was a mid-shot of two of us sitting on a bench. There should have been created an establishing shot instead for the opening, since this would have allowed the audience to create a setting.

The next shot, on the other hand is a long-shot that let's the audience establish a setting, since you can see the bonfire, a garden and how many character's there are.

However, when you continue to watch the film, you will notice that these are the only shots that appear before the scary stroy is being told. This means that there are no close-up's of each individual to show emotion or their reaction.

As mentioned before, the task was to apply some of the 4 key theories to the film. In this scene, we are all talking about a Halloween party and what we will dress up as. Through this, we tried to apply Propp's character archetypes theory.

For example Kristian (wearing blue and red on the right) says that he wants to dress up as superman. This can be taken as a hint for this theory since he is the one who we find out to be the hero later on. Another example, is that Jonathan says that he is "going as the devil". This again, could hint that he is going to be the villain.

In addition, we applied Barthes concept of the narrative enigma. In this case there was a code such as the enigma code, since there are clues being dropped such as who is which character in Propp's theory of character archetypes.

So in this case, we somehow linked the two theories together.

However, after having done our public viewing in class, we noticed that the clues dropped weren't as clear as they could have been. Due to this, it was difficult for the people who watched it to understand the hints we dropped. Moreover, we talked about that we could have done this differently by making everyone wear costumes (e.g. Devil horns and devil stick for "The Villain" ) from the beginning onwards.

There is a change of a shot, when I start telling the scary story. This shot is a low angle shot, which usually shows the dominance and strength of the character but in this case emphasises on the scary story.

Again, this is the only shot, while I am telling the story. There could have been some extreme close-up's to show the other character's emotions and the effect the story has on them.

There is then a straight cut that leads to the next shot of the haunted house. There is a sound effect and special effect of a thunderstrike to emphasise on the scarifying setting.  Moreover, we applied the theory of Levi-Strauss's binary opposites. For example in this case there is a binary opposite since the first setting was very calm around a bonfire and the next setting is scary and in the darkness.

In addition, the camera shot is from a low angle, which is supposed to affirm how scary it is but also the dominance of the house and the darkness.

After this, there is created an establishing shot of the house where 5 of the character's are standing in front of it. However, it is very dark outside and you can not really see the actor's on screen. Due to this, we could have made sure of better lighting.

On the other hand, this scene is better in the way that it allows the audience to establish a setting from the beginning onwards.

The following shot, is again a low angle shot that is made to emphasise on the scarifying house. Kristian decided to add the sound effect of an owl and Grasshoppers, to underline that the house is outside in the forest.

The next shot is a shot of Kristian "The Hero" saying "The Princess is gone". This shot is a close-up of him and is good because it is dark around him and the entire focus is on him and his facial expression when he says this.

As well as the shot of "The Hero", this too is a close-up of Jonathan "The Villain". Here again, we applied to the Levi-Strauss concept of binary opposites. This we did by letting "The Hero" wear blue and red clothes, which are the colours of Marvel's Superman, whereas "The Villain" is holding a devil stick in his hands.

The last shot is a mid-shot of Kristian "The Hero" and Bronnie "The Princess", where she has just been rescued and Kristian is standing there in a superhero position.

This last shot was once more used to emphasise on the fact that Kristian is "The Hero" in his blue and red clothing to show the understanding of Propp's theory of character archetypes.

Screenplay:

Script for micro drama from Sophie2401