Audience Feedback to Rough Cut

These are the audience feedbacks to my rough cut of my short film when i showed it to my class, also from some of my friends as well.

Level - 2, Mark - 22
I liked the stop motion bit at the beginning. I didn't really get the girl at the end though, or what she was trying to put across

Level - 2, Mark - 23
Isn't the music copyrighted? I think you could get better narration. Some of the arm movements in the stop motion animation seems pointless. You could have music in the background of the narration? Would a teenage girl care about Barbie? Is she deluded?? You could of had more camera shots.

Level - 3, Mark - 29
Original idea! The backgrounds work really well and so does the concept. The title suits the theme perfectly and is really well made

Level - 4, Mark - 32 (more when finished)
LOVE the song, narration! Stop motion is grrrrrrreat! CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE the cocaine bit. Steph is so funny! So so so so good. Snaggle arm adds to the realism!

Level - 3, Mark - 27
Stop motion work well and was a perfect mix of funny and sad. Overall I really enjoyed it!

Level - 2/3, Mark - 23/24
I like the mix of footage and stop motion. Very funny story. I think the real life Barbie needs more development. Stop motion is good

Level - 3, Mark - 30
Effective stop motion. I like the narration. Funny footage.

Level - 3
Good use of stop motion, very impressive. Narration goes well. Steph - very good Barbie impression. Very clever concept - looking forward to seeing end of it.

Level - 3, Mark - 31
Such a creative idea! Very original! You've obviously spent a lot of time on this - very well executed. Hilarious script

Level - 4, Mark - 34
Very funny twist on a common everyday story. Frame rate was off, which I found a tad off-putting. Stop motion was very effective. Really good!

Rough Cut

Narration for my Short Film

I decided upon narration for my short film as I didn't want to voice the Barbie and Ken dolls. As I've said before I wanted a Morgan Freeman type voice or James Earl Jones to narrate my film, but both of those actors were otherwise occupied when asked to participate. Instead I settled for my friend Lawrence to narrate, at first he tried to emulate Morgan Freeman, but that didn't go so well as he has a distinctive Norfolk twang in his voice! So instead I gave him the script and he read it normally. We did numerous takes at first trying to record it on my camera but that didn't pick up his voice too well, then we moved onto my laptop. I had recorded my voice on it before and it worked fine but when we tried to record Lawrence's it sounded muffled and we had to change our recording device once again. The third device we used was his laptop, but again it sounded muffled and almost robotic.

Lawrence playing with his Rubik's cube whilst I tried to sort out the technical difficulties

The fourth recording device we used was my phone, when we tested it, it sounded good. We then recorded the whole script but then when playing it back it had a strange buzz in the background! So we moved on to the FIFTH recording device!! We used Lawrence's iPod and miracle of miracles it worked!! After 3 hours, going on 4 we finally finished recording the narration for my film!

Barbie turns to prostitution!!

Today I ventured outside to film the final scene of my short film, when Barbie hits rock bottom and turns to prostitution for drug money. As I filmed all of my scenes inside and on a set scenary, apart from the cocaine but that was just my dining room table, it was a shock to film outside again. Brought me back to my AS days filming in the cold outside! For this scene Barbie is trying to find a "John" to give her money but is not having any luck. As seen below I used a remote control camper van to drive past Barbie while she's trying to get their attention.

Poster Planning

This is a rough draft of my poster. It's supposed to look like she is having her mug shot taken the strung out version of Barbie post Ken cheating.

I also thought about doing a poster of half a Barbie Doll face and half Steph's face. 

                                          

                                         

But the more I played around with this idea the more I decided against it, I didn't think it would look as authentic.

Final Script

NARRATOR - In this day and age people care more about their looks than getting a good education. Meaning there are walking talking Barbie dolls living among us. As children young girls were given these dolls to play with, there is however, one story they didn't tell you.

CREDITS

BARBIE IN A CLUB DANCING

NARRATOR - Barbie never paid attention at school, she didn't care about her education. During the day she works as a personal assistant and at night she likes to go out with her friends.

ENTER KEN

NARRATOR - One night when she was out, she met Ken.

BARBIE AND KEN DANCE

NARRATOR - Ken was everything Barbie had ever dreamed of, they fell in love at first sight.

BARBIE ON HER OWN

NARRATOR - Soon the honeymoon period was over for Barbie, the day she realised she was pregnant. She and Ken had only been dating for a few months, she didn't know what to do!

KEN AND BARBIE TALKING

NARRATOR - When Barbie first told Ken, he freaked out and left.

KEN LEAVES

NARRATOR - Leaving Barbie all alone.

PREGNANT BARBIE, ENTER KEN

NARRATOR - But he then returned and proposed to Barbie, she was over the moon

PREGNANT BARBIE BRIDE AND KEN GETTING MARRIED

NARRATOR - And they were soon married.

BARBIE, KEN AND NEW BORN BABY

NARRATOR - Once they were happily married, Barbie gave birth to their son, Ken Jr. They were a happy family - or so she thought.

BARBIE WALKS IN ON KEN IN BED WITH CINDY

NARRATOR - One day Barbie came home to find Ken in bed with another woman - CINDY!

BARBIE DRINKING ALONE, SNORTING COCAINE

NARRATOR - This destroyed Barbie, she turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. Social services took Ken Jr. away from her, calling her an unfit mother. Causing a downward spiral she soon hit rock bottom, turning to prostitution for drug money before overdosing on cocaine leaving Ken Jr. without a mother.

FADE TO BLACK

NARRATOR - Do you understand now?

REAL LIFE BARBIE HOLDING THE DOLLS LOOKING CONFUSED

REAL LIFE BARBIE TALKING ABOUT HOW SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY BARBIE WOULD TURN TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL BECAUSE SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT BECAUSE SHE'S REALLY PRETTY AND EVERYONE LIKES BARBIE COMPARING HERSELF TO BARBIE

Filming Real Life Barbie

Today we filmed the "Real Life Barbie"

Started off as Steph - pre Barbie transformation

Choosing Barbie's outfit

Adding the final touches

 Once we finished filming the scene where the Narrator explains to Real Life Barbie the perils of skating through life on her looks we took some photos for the poster. I have two poster ideas; the first being a cut between an actual Barbie and then Real life Barbie, half Barbie's face half Steph's. This is the image I'd use below of Steph.

Barbie-fied

The second idea is of a strung out image of Steph with the title "Barbie: The Story They Didn't Tell You" above her. We took a lot of photos for this poster idea, we smudged Steph's Barbie make up and messed up her hair and she put a hoodie on as well. We also did a couple of photos that make it look like she is having her mug shot being taken which I would then layer over the top of a striped background as you would see in a police station. We also found half a bottle of Jack Daniels which we used in a couple of photos to show how far "Barbie" had fallen - hitting rock bottom.