Stifled Stake-out - Pitch

Caspar Hayes - Unit 8 FMP

Synopsis
In this short film we follow the two incompetent officers,
Michael and Thomas, played by Finlay Bell and Caspar
Hayes (myself), on a stake-out for a drug deal. We follow
the two officers as they find themselves bored and
annoyed with each other, as the day goes on more and
more goes wrong for the two.
Bristol
Independent Film
Festival
My chosen film festival for submission was the Bristol
Independent Film Festival.
The Bristol independent film festival is a UK based
independent film festival. The festival is made to encourage
a variety of productions from young filmmakers, priding
itself on allowing new people to enter the scene, be it short
films, feature length films, animations and documentaries.
They accept submissions from outside countries, since
2016 they've received submissions from over 120 different
countries.
The judging process is handled by industry professionals,
judging the film for different categories: best feature, best
short film, best feature documentary, best student
documentary, best short documentary, best animated, best
experimental, best actor, best director etc.
Rules and
regulations of the
festival
Pre-Production
Pre-production took place between March and April,
starting on March 22nd and ending on April 30th, with
research, script writing and storyboarding having been
done.
Script writing
Scripting began with a few separate drafts, written from
late March to mid April, different jokes were tossed
around and some were added thanks to feedback from
classmates.

Final draft was crafted by April 25th, after receiving

multiple bits of feedback from classmates that were
positive.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding was started on April 29th and finished on May 1st, following on from script
writing finishing these was key for visual direction.
Production
Filming lasted from 2nd of May to the
11th of May. Main filming for scenes in
the park was all on days of May 2nd,
5th, 7th and the 11th. Filming in this
location included actors, Finlay Bell, Rio
Sousa-Darani, Thomas Simmons and
Peter Hennessy, including scenes that
had myself in them.

Filming at the secondary location for the

scenes with the police chief was on May
8th, actors included were myself, Finlay
Bell again and Toby Griffin as the police
chief.
Platform
The chosen platform to put my film on was
YouTube.
. YouTube has many benefits in its use, being the
second most searched site next to google itself.
. Over 80,000 hours worth of content uploaded
every minute.
. Can reach more people.
. Can use video tags and video restrictions to reach
a target audience.
. You can use analytics to keep track of video traffic
and change and improve your content.
Target audience
My main target audience are teenagers and young adults,
ages 14-24.

For this I sent out a survey to my class asking them what

they’d prefer from my film, with the given synopsis and
their own preferences.

Main questions asked for my film were: if they watched

many short films, if they watch many comedies, if they
enjoy cop films and their preferred sense of humour.
Idea generation
Satire

Immature
Comedy characters

Cops Ideas
Ideas Situational
comedy
Stake-out

Takes place in one

Break the location primarily
conventions of Dark humour
a crime film
 Research
For research I took the codes and conventions of
crime and comedy films and wanted to try work
with both of theirs and make it entertaining.

Along with this I took inspiration from lots of

separate sources for the form of humour I
wanted to nail with my film.
 Comedy codes
and conventions
. Subversion of tropes in stories and characters.
. Camera work involving a variety of shot types
for different jokes for the benefit of comedy.
. Snappy and effective sound design.
. Use of colour to establish a light hearted tone.
. Exaggerated mise en scene.
. Comedic and quick paced editing.
Codes and conventions used
for my film
. Subversion of tropes, specifically in cop
and crime films.
. Camera work, used for a variety of
shots within my film
. Snappy sound effects, this and
energetic music is used throughout.
. Comedic and quick paced editing.
Codes and
conventions
of crime films
. Serious in tone, usually.
. Use of alcohol or drugs.
. Moody lighting.
. Lack of snappy sound effects.
. Wide and close-up shots used
heavily for tension.
Codes and
conventions I used
in my film
. Wide and close-up shots.
. Mention of drugs but no substance
abuse.
. Story takes itself seriously but the
film isn’t meant to be.

. Morally grey characters.

. Rise and fall narrative.

. Violence.
QUESTIONS