Foreign Film-making Project – Teacher’s Pack
Contents
1. Overview of the Project
2. Stage 1 - Development
3. Stage 2 – Pre-production: Scripting
4. Stage 3 – Pre-production: Storyboard & Shot-list
5. Stage 4 – Post Production: Editing
6. Links and contacts
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Project Overview
Aim
The aim of the film competition is for students in Key Stage 3 to write, direct
and produce a short film of any genre (max. 5mins) in a foreign language
(with English subtitles).
Process

There are two training days for Co-ordinators and one member of each
participating group will be held at Comberton Village College on 24th
November 2010 and 9th February 2011.

Making a short film is a complicated and lengthy process, so schools
should launch the competition at the beginning of the autumn term.
Students should be encouraged to work independently on the project
during their lunch / break / after school. They should meet regularly with
the School Co-ordinator to ensure that they are on schedule to meet each
deadline.

The competition has 5 stages to guide the participating groups through the
film-making process.

There is a deadline for completion of each stage of the competition which
is worth a percentage of the overall score for the film. Participating groups
must submit evidence of completion of each stage through their School
Co-ordinator and this is assessed centrally by a judging panel at Anglia
Ruskin University (ARU) who will allocate scores at each stage.

Films may be produced in any language apart from English and all films
must have English subtitles.

Participating groups are only permitted to use digital video cameras / Flip
cameras and Microsoft Movie-Maker – no professional film-making
software is permitted.

Films should be a maximum of 5 minutes in duration and should not be
animated films.

A Premiere Evening will take place at the end of the project where the best
entries will be premiered at the Picturehouse Cinema, Cambridge. After
the screenings there will be a formal awards ceremony.
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Stage 1 - Development

Teams should:
a. allocate pre-production roles:
i. Producer
ii. Director (has the overall vision for the film)
iii. Art Director (has a more visual role – thinks about lighting,
camera angles, set, etc..)
iv. Camera
b. decide on an idea and genre for a film – i.e. an action film, fly
on the wall documentary, comedy sketches, etc..
c. pitch their idea to their supervisor who will provide feedback
about the feasibility of the idea. The pitch should be a short
presentation to sell their idea, this should be videoed and
submitted to ARU.
d. write a film proposal. This is a written version of the pitch and
should consist of a two-line idea proposal.
e. produce an outline of the film. This is a short paragraph
detailing what happens in the film.

Deadline – 26th Nov 2010.

Percentage of overall score – 5%
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Stage 1 - Development
School
Co-ordinator
Team Name
Participants’ Roles
Name
Email
Surname
Forename(s)
Additional Team
Members
Video of Pitch enclosed
Film Proposal
Y/N
Outline plot (max. 50
words)
*For office use only
Comments
Stage % mark
/5
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Stage 2 – Preproduction: Scripting

Teams should:
a. produce a script for the film in the Target Language (TL).
b. submit the script using the film industry script format (example
enclosed)
Deadline – 17th Dec 2010
Percentage of overall mark – 30%
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EXAMPLE INDUSTRY SCRIPT FORMAT
“STYLING WITH MICROSOFT WORD XP”
by
Cynthia Randall
(Title with author(s) – centrally justified)
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1234 Your Street
City, State ZIP Code
Telephone Number
(address and contact details centrally justified)
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FADE IN:
IN A PICKLE IS CATHY
Cathy is sitting at her computer. She is
frustrated and mumbling to herself.
(camera instructions are in capitals and
left justified. Instructions for the set
are not in capitals but are also leftjustified)
JOHN
How’s it going, Cath?
You don’t sound so
good.
CATHY
No, I’m not. I’ve been
messing with styles
and formatting in
Word, and I can’t
figure out how to show
just the ones I want.
JOHN
Yeah, they changed the
styles and formatting
feature in XP - you
are using Word XP,
right?
CATHY
Yes.
JOHN
It’s a bit weird at
first but is an
improvement over the
last version. Here,
let me show you. (the
script is centrally
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justified and not
capitalized - apart
from the character’s
name.
John takes hold of the mouse and pokes
around in Word for a few minutes to see
what styles Cathy has been working with.
JOHN
So you’re building a
screenwriting
template, eh?
CATHY
Trying to.
JOHN
It’s these 11 styles
you want, right? –
character, dialog,
Cathy, interjecting, points to each style
in the task pane…
CATHY
Scene heading, the
end, title, trans in,
trans out, your
address, your name,
and action.
JOHN
A girl who can finish
my sentences powerful stuff, Cath.
And speaking of
action: You’ve been a
bit low on the gas
lately, if you know
what I mean…
(John has been
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trying to date
Cathy since the
second grade;
they’re now in
first year
university and
Cathy still has
no
interest.)(extra
background
information is
centrally
justified in
small letters in
brackets)
CATHY
John, stop it! I need
to get this done!
JOHN
Okay, okay, now where
was I? So when you’ve
got all the styles you
want, the way to show
just them and not all
the others - which, by
the way, belong to
Normal.dot - is to
first enter each style
in the document, and
then here at the
bottom of the task
pane in the Show box,
choose Formatting in
use. See, now when you
go to choose a style
from the Formatting
toolbar or from the
task pane, just your
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11 styles appear.
CATHY
And these styles will
always be here? I
mean, when I close the
template and open it
again, everything will
be the same?
JOHN
Word saves the last
state you were working
in – this is called
“sticky”. Just your 11
styles will be in the
styles list on the
Formatting toolbar and
shown in the task
pane. But when you
reopen Word, the task
pane won’t be open.
You’ll need to click
the Formatting and
styles button on the
Formatting toolbar to
open it back up again.
CATHY
Okay. And it looks
like I can still add,
modify, and delete
styles in Formatting
in use view, yes?
JOHN
Yep.
CATHY
Thanks, John! You’ve
been a big help.
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JOHN
Yeah, you probably owe
me one come to think
of it.
CATHY
Owe you one! Owe you
one what?
JOHN
Relax Cathy. I’ve had
enough action for one
day. See you in
Biology.
Smiling, John closes the door behind him.
FADE OUT
THE END
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Stage 2 – Preproduction: Scripting
School
Co-ordinator
Team Name
Participants’ Roles
Name
Email
Surname
Forename(s)
Additional Team
Members
Script in industry format
enclosed
*For office use only
Comments
Stage % mark
Y/N
/30
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Stage 3 – Preproduction: Storyboarding and Shot-list

Teams should:
a. Produce a story board of each shot in their film. The
storyboard is a series of sketches, each sketch depicts a shot in
the film and helps the directors and the camera to set up and
frame the shot adequately. An example story board and a
storyboard template is enclosed. The story board can be in the
form of stickman figures, no extra points are allocated for the
quality of the artwork.
b. Produce a shot-list. Each of the shots on the storyboard
should be given a number. During the shoot, it may not be
feasible to shoot each shot in the order depicted in the
storyboard, rather it may be better to shoot all shots in each
location together. The shot list is a list of numbers showing the
order that all the shots will be filmed.
Deadline – 28th Jan 2011
Percentage of overall mark – 15%
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Example Storyboards
1.
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2.
Storyboard Template
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Example Shot-list
Stikkup shot list - Shots 1 to 6
Shot 1:
Long Shot establishing the view of a bank that is not too well known.
Shot 2:
Medium Shot of Dick and Tom walk across the view of the camera.
You get a view of their head and the side of their body. This shot is to
only to show they have arrived at the bank.
Shot 3:
Big Close Up Shot of Dick and Tom. They look at each other and then
they separate.
Shot 4:
Medium Long Shot of Dick walking to the writing desk.
Shot 5:
Medium Shot of Dick at the writing desk.
Shot 6:
Extreme close-up shot of Dick’s hand picking up a deposit slip and
writing on the deposit slip “This is a stiikup. Put all your muny in this
bag”.
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Shot-list Template
Shot
Description of the Shot
Shot 1
Shot 2
Shot 3
Shot 4
Shot 5
Shot 6
Shot 7
Shot 8
Shot 9
Shot 10
Shot 11
Shot 12
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Stage 3 – Preproduction: Storyboarding and Shot-list
School
Co-ordinator
Team Name
Participants’ Roles
Name
Email
Surname
Forename(s)
Additional Team
Members
Storyboard enclosed
Shot-list enclosed
*For office use only
Comments
Stage % mark
Y/N
Y/N
/15
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Stage 4: Production

Teams should:
a. film the movie. Students should film the shots using their shotlist and storyboard to help them.
b. save the shots they are going to use in Microsoft
Moviemaker. They should now put the shots in the correct
order so that they are ready for editing and they should delete
any outtakes.

Suggested deadline: 19th March 2011
PLEASE NOTE: THIS DATE IS FOR GUIDANCE ONLY – THERE IS
NOTHING TO SUBMIT
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Stage 5 – Production and Post-Production

Teams should:
a. edit the movie. Teams should use Microsoft Moviemaker to
edit the shots, ensuring that the film runs in sequence and that
the transitions between shots are smooth.
b. add subtitles. Teams should use Microsoft Moviemaker to add
English subtitles to their films – this is so that parents, judges
and other viewers can understand the film.
c. add music. If required, teams can add music to their films to
add ambience. Please note that this music must be opensource and not subject to copyright rules.
Deadline – 20th May 2011
Percentage of overall score – 50%
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Stage 5 – Post-Production
School
Co-ordinator
Team Name
Participants’ Roles
Name
Email
Surname
Forename(s)
Additional Team
Members
Completed film
enclosed
*For office use only
Comments
Stage % mark
Y/N
/50
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