Production Meeting

we had a production meeting with our group discussing which roles each individual will take. It is important that everyone sticks to their own role.

Smile- Character breakdown

Charlie

• 16 year old white boy
• from London
• goes to college
• nerdy/geeky
• nervous/shy
• has only one friend
• has a crush on the popular girl
• studies, maths, chemistry and biology
• an only child living with his mum and dad
• big imagination

Max:

• 16 year old white boy
• geeky, but not as geeky as his friend Charlie
• from London
• goes to college
• studies P.E, maths and english
• lies about previous experiences
• lives at home with dad, mum, older brother and younger sister

Gabriella:

• 16 years old
• from London
• goes to same college as max and charlie
• most popular girl in school
• charlie’s crush
• confident but ditsy
• has a best friend called sophie
• lives at home with just her dad
• studies P.E, photography and art

Stereotypes of Our Characters

Girlfriend Geek Smartly Dressed/Good Looking Jock

In our film 'Smile' we have decided to stick with the conventional exaggerated stereotypes typical used in other films. This is to stick with our comical humour which is used throughout our film.

Smile - Our New Idea

Group Meeting

We had a group meeting where we discussed our ideas and scenes. We came to the conclusion that there was just to many story strands to narrow down into a short 5 minute film. We then decided to take the basic idea of a boy trying to get a girl and take it into a new direction.

This is the scene list we came up with

Opening Scene:

Open to Charlie riding his bike to college.

Scene-1

Max and Charlie are sitting in a room; Charlie is staring out window at Gabriella. Mean whilst Max’s voice is in the background trying to have a conversation with him. Charlie zones out (Imagines him approaching Gabriella, dipping her and giving her a kiss). Max hits Charlie back to reality telling him to stop staring and that he could never get a girl like Gabriella.

Scene-2

Max and Charlie walk out room and are standing outside, they hear the girl telling her friend how her and her boyfriend just broke up, and starts to describe her perfect boy. Charlie and max over hear the conversation and Charlie begins to hatch his plan.

(smartly dressed, Good looking, nice body, cool hat, laid back personality, charming & most importantly an amazing smile and someone who makes her smile) – Ideal man

Scene-3 (Montage)

Charlie goes out to try and achieve the girls ideal man, with max’s help.

Scene-4

Charlie finally gets everything together, approaches girl with a cheesy chat up line dressed in the way she had described her ideal man. Girl laughs, rejects Charlie and walks away.

Scene-5

Next day Charlie comes back, back in his normal clothes. Girl spots Charlie and realizes how hard he tried to impress her. Gabriella smiles at Charlie and scene fades out.

We decided on the title Smile because the girls ideal guy is just someone who can make her smile and smiles at her too. We also felt it gave a warm feeling to the film and it was a nice simple title.

Characters

Charlie:

- Nerdy/geeky/unpopular

- Middle class

- Book smart

Max:

- Not as geeky as Charlie, but still geeky.

- Slightly more sociable

- Middle class

Gabriella:

- The girl Charlie admires

- Popular

- Beautiful

Sophie:

- Gabriella's best friend

Our film

This was our first main idea for our short film:

Scene List
Scene 1. Int
Charlie being beaten up in a dark room by security

Scene 2. Ext
Charlie sitting outside, expensive car pulls up, Gabriella gets out car with boyfriend, kisses him goodbye and walks into collge.

Scene 3. Int
Charlie is in the library (doing maths homework) and staring at Gabriella. Max is sitting across the table and notices Charlie staring. Speeks to Charlie and tells him hell help him to get Gabriella in exchange for help in school looking at books and talking about the girl he has seen, Max tells him the only way he has a chance is by making money. They then spot a book “counting cards”
- Charlie helps with Max’s maths homework, in return for Max to teach him about girls.

Scene 4. Int
Fast forward cross cutting of Charlie learning how to count cards, then playing and then racking in chips - montage

Scene 5. Int
Charlie is playing a game of cards in a dark room, with 3 others, plus the dealer. voice over of him counting the cards, he’s then grabbed on the shoulder and voice over stops. He is taken into a room.

Scene 6. Int
Charlie being beaten up in a dark room by security (Scene 1)

Name
We came up with the title Five Card Charlie, by researching Blackjack slang and terms used in the game. We found these on Ildado.com. Five Card Charlie in blackjack terms is a blackjack rule variation where if you get 5 cards without busting, you win that hand. We picked this particular term out of all the others because we thought it had a good ring to it and we imagined it would be a catchy film title which related well with out film.

Characters
- Charlie: main character, nerd/geek, unconfident, lower/middle class, from London
- Max: Charlie’s best friend, not as geeky as Charlie, can still get girls
- Gabriella: girl Charlie admires

Exploring ideas

Genre - horror

A girl is home alone making dinner for herself. She starts hearing funny noises, she calls her mum- no answer. She goes to the bathroom and finds writing on the mirror she wipes her eyes and its gone. calls her mum again- no answer. She goes back downstairs to find a knife in the lettuce. She looks into a mirror and sees a reflection of herself with a man in a mask standing next to her.

Shame remake

A girl who has a unusual feature- something her mother is ashamed of. We hear her voice over to create suspense.