Key Location Descriptions

The Beach

The beach is where a majority of the action takes place between Justin and Kate. This is where they spend most of their summer together. They have picnics, build sandcastles, splash around in the water and lay together in the sand. It is here that Justin and Kate’s memories together were first created.

Kate’s House

Kate spends time in her house when Justin was not around. Specifically in this film, the kitchen area, where Kate first read a letter from Justin and the place she finds the space and time to reply.

Kate’s Room

It is in Kate’s room that she uncovers the letter with the explanation of the death of her loved one Justin. Kate spends her time here while she is in the grieving process. It becomes much of her soul comfort when Justin is gone.

Title/Log Line

Film Title: Beyond Belief
Log Line:

Summer is the season of love as Justin and Kate spend a romantic summer holiday together; finding love, exploring trust, facing tragedy and discovering within themselves what can be so easily found in the other.

Key Character Profiles

Kate Parker

Kate is a sixteen year old girl struggling with the normalities of an everyday school teenager’s life. She lives with her mother, father and two younger sisters, a coastal life by the beach. She has a close group of friends in whom she confides everything. She is a sensitive girl who is quite confident around her friends. Her usual attire is comfortable and casual. Kate enjoys reading and she loves going down to the beach. Kate has average school grades and sings with the school choir. She plays soccer and prefers to stay out of trouble. It is when she meets Justin that her world begins to fit together perfectly.

Justin King

Justin is a seventeen year old boy, originally from Australia, he moved to Canada with his family when he was eleven. He and his family are relatively wealthy and take regular trips to Australia to visit close family and friends. Justin plays football and is in his final year of school in America. He plays the guitar and loves travelling to Australia and surfing on the beaches. Justin is quite tall and strong, and he is relatively good looking. Justin begins the battle against cancer after spending a summer with Kate and returning to America. He has a determined and caring personality and he refuses to let his disease get the better of him.

Major Elements - Plot of Story

Romance/Tragedy

A teenage boy meets a teenage girl on a holiday in Australia, on the coast.

The boy is over visiting family after he made the move to America in the previous years.

The girl is from Australia and she lives on the coast.

In the summer, they hang around on the beach and visit families, spend every possible minute together.

When the summer ends boy leaves to go back to America

Girl writes letters to him everyday and he replies,

He plans his trip back to Australia in the winter

One day the letters stop.

Finally months later, the girl receives a letter from the boy’s parents explaining that he had died of cancer and that he didn’t want her to know because he was determined and he knew he was going to get better.

Girl is a wreck for days.

Friends try to cheer her up but nothing seems to work.

Finally she comes to her senses and packs away all her letters.

She steps outside and bumps into another young boy who knocks her over; he helps her up and smiles politely.

Girl smiles as they walk together and the camera zooms up out and into the sky where an incredibly cliché “the end” appears.

Genre Research

Romance/Tragedy

Narrative Structure
Keeps an overall romantic tone
Two lead characters fall 'head over heels' in love with each other and spend a romantic period of time together
whether that is over a summer period, winter holidays, long weekend...
Then, by fate, one of the two characters is ripped from the others arms and taken away somewhere
Both characters learn to either continue to communicate and attempt to stay together
OR
Painfully move on with their lives, never actually emotionally leaving the love they found in the other

Other Codes and Conventions

Generally use very emotional and expressive music
Voice over's of dialogue
Romantic Settings and Scenes
Introduction into the love scene at the beginning
Uses different techniques such as editing, sound and camera shots to immerse the viewer in the deep emotions of the film

Examples
"The Notebook"
"Dear John"

Storyboard Treatment Exercise

There is a villain and a victim in this scene. There is eerie and loud minor toned music used as a lower layer of sound in this scene to create a idea that something bad is about to happen/happening. The villain has been chasing the villain and has now cornered him in a church. We see the villain slam the victim up against a railing; a thud is heard as the victim hits it. Heavy breathing and panting follows. The villain is concentrating hard and looking directly at the victim. A low angled shot is used to portray the power that the villain holds over him. As the villain moves closer, the victim gets up and runs along the railing of the church, into another area of temporary safety. Running footsteps echo as he does this.

Reflection

The unit that we worked on this term I found challenging, to some extent. I enjoyed taking photos and watching movies from different film genres but I thought the continual work on analysing film repetitive and at times quite boring. I know the amount of work we did is compulsory and I'm glad that I did it because now i have a better understanding of film. Grasping my head around the concepts of different media terminology was quite difficult and I'm still going over and starting to gather a clearer understanding. I need to remember in the future to back up all the work that I do because I had a few experiences this term where I have lost work. Analysing one element of the film at a time made most of the work a lot easier to understand, in my opinion.
In writing my essay, watching the film over and over, each time focusing on a different element helped a lot. I didn't begin writing my essay until i had a complete and accurate base full of notes and information. This made it a lot easier to focus more on what I was writing and linking it together in one piece of work. The most difficult part of this term was definitely the understanding of technical terms to use in creative media. Also, the process of putting these words to clever use in my essay. I'm exciting to be moving forward to more film practical work next term.
I am happy with the overall result of my essay. If I could do it again, i would read over it and make sure everything I had in it was necessary. I also would have summarized my points more clearly and more thoroughly in my conclusion. I know I put in the work and I have achieved an acceptable result. I hope I can keep up the good work I am doing in Creative Media this year.