Kalila Snow Jan: For Peace, Paradox. - short film story board developement

To start with

In our campaign, we have decided to create a campaign about peace delivered by the internet; we started with research about wars and peace, and the elements that cause war and fights in our life.

To start with, we created a Facebook community page that's private within all of our team mates in it.

Peace group

We share our discussions, research, knowledge and ideas through this page.

There are 4 of us in our group: Myra, Faizal, Jaja and me Kalila. We have decided the members to focus on the certain part of campaign to work with, Myra and Jaja are focusing on the graphic part such as logos. Faizal and me are focusing on the short film we are going to produce.

The short film is about bringing people together and make them realise that world peace is constructed by each one of us on this planet; having a peaceful heart about everything is going to make our life better and make the human race live in peace.

"Peace" people think

I've found this source from a video Faizal has shared on our "Peace Group" It is an interview video on youtube, it's asking and interviewing about what people think about "peace", watch the video click on: http://youtu.be/29SixPDoYUA

So most people think that peace comes from the individuals. The opinions that I have found valuable are: "Fights are among everywhere, in children's playgrounds, in adults's work stages and sports, people are always looking for a fight,"

"We all see things differently, speak differently, eat different, talk different and do things differently, but one think we have in common is that we are all humans, I guess that should be enough for us to want to live in peace."

"The only way to find peace inout society is us individuals find peace."

"If every human being on the planet had inner peace, our planet will be in peace."

Knowing what people think about peace is the key to start a concept on our campaign, but it's not everything that we need to start off. After the research of how people think about peace, I've started doing research on what the famous people say about peace. So I came out with many quotes about peace said by different famous people.

The notes of quotes I've found online

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

This quote is the best I know, said by Elbert Einstein. World war 3 has yet not started, according to the world weapons now, if world war 3 has started, none of us will be able to get rid of the pain the war caused us; chemical weapons a very destructive weapon that effects human beings and environment by gas. nu-clear weapons is also a very destructive weapon that cause explosion in a big amount of land.

World will be destroyed by the world war 3, so the next war after world war 3 will be fought with the very natural and original materials of the planet.

"Peace is always beautiful." - Walt Whitman

Peace unlike anything else, it is a thing that makes the world and people balanced, and it is a very beautiful thing that exists in our world.

"Peace can not be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein

No one in this world can tell people to be peaceful and they will be, not the government, not the head of the world, it should be understood by everyone in the world to build a world peace.

"The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war." - Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

"Death must be so beautiful, to lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow, to forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace." - Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

Peace can be found by death which is a paradox logic to analyse peace, but death is not the only way to find peace.

"Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men." - Herbert Hoover

The quotes that I have found will be used in the film to direct the audience. With these materials, I have started building a story for the short film development, these quotes are going to be references for this short film.

For Peace, Paradox.

The name of the entire short film project are going to be called "For Peace, Paradox." Why is the name like so? First of all, it is a story using paradox; A boy who lives as a photographer who cares about peace so much that he finds peace in a wrong way, that is to kill people and himself to let them find peace in death, which is true that peace can be found by death, but death is not the only way to find peace.

Storyboard sketches on notebook

To start with this short film project, first of all, I need a story board, the image above is the first story board sketches I have done on my sketchbook, it is a simple story board that has not much information into it, so I have decided to start with a concise story board that's based on A4 format.

In this story board, we can see the first scene of the entire film, the first shot and story line is the main character found dead on his sofa (where he sleeps) with the alarm clock "bee bee" at the background sound. then a flash back motion to what happened at the beginning, and how/why he is found dead. The main character wakes up on a usual day, he leaded himself doing the usual morning stuff such as brushing teeth, washing face, cooking and eating and reading news on his laptop.

Story board page 1

With further discussion with our guidance Mr. Kamarul, I have decided to change the scene 1 a little; instead of showing the main character found dead, we can show this scene with shots that metaphorically represent someone's in trouble and situation of death. To do that, we can shoot this scene involving a car, the movement of the car and the fast movement, with a ambulance siren sound. It could be the movement of the wheels (how fast they move)

In scene 2, the main character reads news about war and peace, that shows how much this character cares about topic "peace"

Storyboard page 2

When the main character was reading news, he had received a message from his friend, "Can we party at your place tonight?" he replies"OK" as a response. The next shot is the main character grabbing his camera and going out of his house for a walk.

In scene 3, originally I drew the scene that's in a shop, the main character buys magazines about world war, but I have added another scene into it which I haven't added on the story board, this new scene involves our campaign project.

Our campaign logo designed by me

This logo is going to shown in this new scene, the main character walks up to a ad board, and found this flyer on the board, and next to it, there's an envelope that says"take a peace"on the surface; he finds this very interesting, he took a picture of it and took a few "peaces"/ flyers out of the envelope.

In scene 4, the main character comes back home and sits back to his laptop and started working till late and dark outside, in the shot of him working in front of his laptop, we are going to use time lapse technique to show this shot.

In scene 5, it's getting dark, his friends came for the party as mentioned in scene 2.

storyboard page 3

A party has started, in the party, things like fighting, girl friend yelling at the main character had happened, and things like painting on the magazines and the flyers he had bought in the shop some funny stuff also had happened, these make the main character pissed off and hate his friends and girl friend for being not peaceful and respectful for peace.

In scene 6, he started being mad, and created a folder named "for peace" on his desktop, and dragged his girl friend's picture into the folder, afterwards he started feeling dizzy and fell asleep.

storyboard page 4

In scene 7, the character wakes up in dizziness the next day, and did the same routine in the morning. surprisingly, he found his girl friend dead in the news page, and received another message from his friend: "we heard it, rest in PEACE" the word "peace" had leaded him to the folder he had created the night before, he opens the folder and found his girl friend's picture became black and white with a red cross on the surface. Did he kill his girl friend?

storyboard page 5

When he found out his girlfriend has died, he wants to delete the folder he had created, but the memory of what happened in the party won't let him, and leaded him to drag other friends of his into the folder, he had fell asleep again…

In scene 8, the next morning when alarm starts kicking in, empty bathroom, empty kitchen, and empty laptop with no one sits in front of it, he did not wake up.

Storyboard page 6

Later in the evening

In scene 9, the main character wakes up in misery, and had found more of his friends dead on the news, to feel relief, he grabbed cigarettes and went to the balcony for a smoke, while smoking, he heard fighting noises from the neighbours, and that made him pissed off again, grabbed his camera and going out wanting to take pictures of those people who are fighting, and kill them in the folder. but by the moment when he opens the door, something had changed inside him, he realised that he can't kill everyone to find peace. He sat back to his laptop, opened the Photo Booth and took a picture of himself, and dragged his own picture in to the folder…