Feedback from the Group for my 25 word pitch - Friday 30th September

Notes and feedback from the 25 word pitch presentation:

The dumped body seems to be tagged on the end - maybe doesn’t need to be in the film?

Why where they not friends still - was one of them going out of control, possibly a parent or relative was involved?

What do they do when they find the body? phone the police or investigate? phoning the police doesn’t make for a great story.

Does it have to be a drama? Could be a comedy, just a dumped body randomly and it could be a funny piece

Maybe it could be one leading somebody to the body on purpose to get involved with the murder.

Washed up body at a lake or old dockyard? Most likely place for someone not to have realised the body before hand.

Maybe the dead body could not actually be dead. Comedy twist?

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Straight away I feel finding a random body in the high street isn't very plausible, so if I was to go down the drama route, having a washed up body is much more plausible and that would change the setting to a beach town or on the beach?

I feel it could work very well as a comedy after hearing everyone feedback. Possibly play on the fact that there is a random body dumped. 

Possibly the two main characters could be drunk and that is why they dont phone the police straight away. It could have been a bit of time between them meeting and then finding the body. I'm thinking we could see them at a pub and then possibly walking along the beach?

I think a funny way to end it, if its a drama or comedy would be at the end the body bag or whatever the body is stored in to open up and the character would walk out. I think this would be a funny ending whatever the genre.

Opening shot could be the dead body, then right away we know what the main story is. Then it could cut back to the main characters.

Before I decide on the start i need to make sure I know the ending and i can plan it towards that.

Story Telling unit - 25 word pitch Draft

TITLE:  Lost And Found

25 WORD PITCH: Two friends who have not seen each other since primary school bump into each other. Whilst catching up they discover a dumped body. (23)

THE GENRE: Drama

THE MAIN CHARACTERS: 
James: A tall blonde haired teenager who enjoys sports, he plays for the local football team and has a big passion for cars.

Ryan: A short black haired teenager who is very quiet, he keeps himself to himself and his main interest is reading novels.

LOCATION: A small town high street, not much activity but local residents who are going to the corner shop, but that is really it.

SOURCE MATERIAL: 

The idea of meeting a friend after many years of not seeing them actually originates from personal experience. (I had not seen a friend since primary school but we ended up working at the same shop) In terms of discovering a dumped body I have seen a few shows where lost bodies are involved including BBC's Line of Duty. The idea of location is just what is most suitable, nothing too far fetched and that I could possibly film near home or in Maidstone.

THE STORY:

Two people are walking down the street towards each other, both looking down at their phones, they bump into each other. They then recognize each other and start a conversation. Whilst catching up and walking along they spot a body dumped, and they start to investigate. (Not sure how I will end it currently, It might just end up in a police investigation which they dont have any influence in. But more likely they are involved in finding out what happened.)

Mise En Scene, Contextual Studies - Thursday 29th September

Mise en Scene

Objectives:
Introduction the concept.
How we use it.
Understanding and interpreting it (Semiotics).

Mise en scene is defined as "what is in the scene"



The phrase originated in theatre and is used in TV as it has as much relevance.

4 Key elements of mise en scene:
1) Costume/Makeup - What the visual look of the characters convey.
2) Location/Setting - The environment that a story takes place.
3) Props - What the character is surrounded by
4) Lighting - How it affects the character

Star Wars 1977
Setting - Sci Fi futuristic genre
Costume - Militaristic, classic archetypes (Black vs white)
Lighting - Classic high key, dramatic
Staging - Dark and dramatic



Semiotics: the study of signs and their meaning
Denotation - The sign
Connotation/Signified - The concept meaning or association the sign refers to.

Context in mise en scene:
Something could appear different to what you expect, bad guys could wear white and good guys in black. Whilst it might throw you off from a still of the movie, but if you watch the movie you will know who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. It might be different to what we associate, but we will get to know good from bad very quickly.

Game of thrones castle scene - mise en scene:
Setting - Warm, rich and exotic.
Costume/Makeup - Luxurious and the contrasts.
Lighting - Soft, natural, fill light.
Staging - Dominant female



Game of thrones barrack scene - mise en scene:
Setting: Cold, austere and masculine
Costume/Makeup: Uniformity
Lighting: Dark,Cold blue and key light
Staging: Status and rank

How can mise en scene help us?
Useful visual shorthand show not tell. It can help define the characters. Defining relationships between characters.






TOWIE - SCRIPTED REALITY
Setting: Hyperrealism, Stage set?(Is it real or not?)
Costume/Makeup: Glamour, Aspirational?(Do we really want to be like them?)
Lighting: High key and dramatic
Staging: Imitates the conventions of a drama.

OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARY - Dispatches - C4

Setting: Authentic locations

Costume/Makeup: Defines social class?

Lighting: Natural lighting, most things are dark.

Staging: Contextual, suggesting social isolation

Realism in mise en scene - the presentation of of art as a simulacrum of a world as exists. Used to convey notions of authenticity, truth and representation.
Classicism is the presentation of art as a continuity with past, especially with formal notions of aesthetics, form, design and content.

Philip Defranco
Constructed to emulate a normal bedroom and we can tell his interests from what is hanging up in the back of his shot.
His clothing in his videos signifies that he is blue collar "normal" and not showing off like some multi-millionaires could do. However he sees that this could push away a lot of viewers.

MISE EN SCENE IN DRAMA:

Setting: Film/TV classically used studio sets

Costume/ Makeup: Designed as character specific 

Lighting: High key, trying to emulate natural lighting but maybe a little more extreme

Staging: Dramatic

MISE EN SCENE IN DOCUMENTARY:

Setting: Classically uses real locations

Costume/Makeup: Authentic but can be directed

Lighting: Traditionally natural but often artificially designed

Staging: Natural but definitely director specific 

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SAS Embassy Siege - First time they were seen in public.

Mise en scene for this scene.
Getting the picture owners permission to use their picture.
Interviews to get a personal view of what was happening
Possible interviews with someone involved, who may now have retired.

This newspaper front page is important because it is an authentic image, not a reconstruction. However a reconstruction of what might have happened inside would be important to any viewer as they can understand much better what actually happened on that day.

If you wanted to get an idea of the SAS, it would be interesting to look at the barracks. However as they are a secret service it makes it very hard to get any proper access to the site.

Camera Workshop 1 with Fergus - Wednesday 28th September

Today we had a 3 hour workshop with Fergus and Dan about setting up cameras and a general introduction on what to do with them.

After a short presentation we had to get into groups of three and get to know the cameras. As we had never used the kit before we did have problems with the tripod but Sam showed how to get it level and setup much better than we had attempted, including the stabiliser which would make it a lot easier to use the tripod correctly.

We then got to work with the cameras and trying to play around with the focus. With Oli and Andrew we tried different shots, including standing still in and out of focus as well as moving focus, whilst keeping the person in the correct shot.

We also tried out sound and we used the big boom mics attached to the cameras. Whilst you don't notice too much sound quality difference inside I can really see how it would make a massive difference outside with a lot more wind and background noise.

We learnt a lot about how the cameras work in a very short amount of time. As I start the course this is what most interests me about TV (video operations) alongside video editing so this really did help me get a good feel for the industry I want to work in.

We also had a look at white balancing, holding up a piece of paper to determine what was "white" and that would mean would have realistic skin tones. Whilst it was a lot of information all at once I did feel I took most of it in, but no doubt I will have to double check next time to make sure I am getting it right!

Short Film SOFT By Simon Ellis - Monday 26th September

Soft by Simon Ellis https://vimeo.com/19705053

Incredible piece that makes you think about many different things. Anger towards the Dad? Anger at the gang for what they are doing?

This story could have had many potential sources:

TV? Newspaper? Personal Experience? Seeing the act in place?

In fact simon ellis witnessed a kid being bullied and his father (who was a bus driver) saw his child being bullied and didn’t stop to help.

Coming up with pitches:

You want to tell the audience the best parts about the film but without telling the whole story. 

In the pitch you don’t have to tell the whole story, just the part that will make the viewer want to watch.\

Soft: Its main features. 

Genre: Drama / Social realism.

Setting: Urban - Average town community 

Characters - Father / Son / Youths (Gang)

Conflict: Violence / Boredom / Father and son domestic / Internal and emotional

Theme: Do what you think is right / Fatherhood - what you think you should do, but then actually doing it / Fear / Masculinity / Growing Up

25 Word pitch for Soft: 

“Social realist film set in an urban village, where both the father and son handle the same situation in very different ways, despite internal conflict.”

We saw the imdb listed the description as “A father rediscovers his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.” We didn’t want to copy it, but took the idea of confrontation to include the “internal conflict” in our pitch.

Our pitch could have been shorter as we didn’t need to double up on “social realist” and “urban” as its a given it would be in an urban environment. 

Analysing Soft

The only thing that really dates it is the phone camera, which is really bad quality, when nowadays it would be basically as good as the other footage.

The father perfects the park, we then can tell he has just come home from work. We can tell this from his clothes so we don’t need to be told, we can also tell what time of day it is possibly (5-6pm) because thats the time we expect somebody to be home.

This shot is mirrored later on, bookending the film more or less.

The shot inside the house, shows right away there is conflict in the household. We expect it to be a bad relationship between the two. First sight of the cricket bag, which will be important later.

The phone camera defines the youths, we know its them from the beating up scene. At the moment the one camera dines the youths and the high quality defines the father. As of yet the two haven’t crossed paths.

The father walking into the local shop tells us a lot about him, he is not very sociable and the ship keeper doesn’t really have a friendly relationship with the father.

The body dance shows the thug has achieved what he wanted, its the sign of his mission being complete? 

Looking at the thugs from behind “bars” blinds. That makes you think of being trapped and danger.

The phone footage shows us that it is related to the fight right at the start of the film, father and son both experiencing the same situation. 

The cricket bat was implanted in the viewers mind so it is no surprise when he picks it up and hits it.

Back to the same high shot of the house and in a short amount of time a lot has changed and this bookends the film.

Introduction to Story Telling First With Steve Coombes - Monday 26th September

Introduction to Story Telling First With Steve Coombes

Steve started off by saying that we only have a really limited amount of words to tell our story so we have to make sure we make the most of it. It's best not to use adjectives because we can be shown that and we don't have to listen to it. On the other hands its best to use as many verbs as possible to make it a good script.

Logline - Summary in a sentence what is in the script.

Bible - Overview of the character

Steve says you used to be able to make a good living off of screen writing but it is much harder now because of piracy meaning it's much harder to make money off the shows to pay the writers.

THE 5 RULES OF SCREEN WRITING.

1) The need to know: Only tell the audience what the really need to know, telling about other things may distract them from the main point which means the audience may not find the whole thing interesting.

2) SHOW DONT TELL: Instead off mass information being piled on you, it is better to let the audience see what is happening. For example using a news report mid film to give you loads of information is a pretty lazy way of telling the story.

3) Structure it as a joke: You set up the story, Include a distraction and then hit them with the punchline. It keeps the viewers interested and involved in what is happening.

4) Know your ending: You need to know the end before you can start, This is because you now have a point to aim to.

5) make sure you have moments: Moments are why people will watch your drama, having that moment you come out of the cinema talking about. It's what most people will recognise your film for.

The most likely reason that a show you are watching is bad is that it has bad structure.

People find it hard to understand screenplay.

- People don't understand the screen direction

- Hard to picture the stage directions

- The find it hard to understand the different accents in place in the screenplay.

Your screenplay can't survive a bad actor. Make sure that your actors bring the magic to the show (Gladiator)

Flashbacks mean that it is only a footnote . Flashbacks will never have you on the edge of your seat. The only exception is if you are waiting for what is coming next or why it was of relevance.

Billy Wilder - The audience is a genius. " An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius."

Contextual studies Introduction - Texts, Contexts and Culture. Thursday 22th September

Contextual studies Introduction - Texts, Contexts and Culture.

“The shock of the new”

• New students, exposed to new ideas and themes. Finding new ways of thinking and seeing.
• New Course, First ones to experience the course. Learning experience for all.
• New tutor

Group A Seminar Group.

Introduction to Louis Heaton: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372780/

-Studied Drama and film at Manchester University.

-Student Filmmaker using cameras, doing editing and directing.

-National film and TV school

-Film critic and arts reviewer

-Documentary producer and director for BBC and C4

-Series producer and executive producer

-Independent film producer

-Special editions producer, Criterion DVD

Birth of cinema - 1895 (Train arriving at a station by The Lumière brothers)

TV shape our culture, what we do and what we talk about. TV is a way for people to get into conversation and what has happened in the latest shows.

Tv has a massive impact on our lives because of what it can show to us, realistic or maybe showing things we would never be able to do.

What is TV texts and contexts? 

Exploring film and television through analysis of visual grammar and genre codes.. Also including conventions and critical theories and how these shape our understandings and interpretations of the visual media.

Our Key lessons in term 1:

• Mise en scene
• Cinematography
• Editing
• Sound
• Documentary

In our group presentation we had to select a TV show for analysis. It must be 10 minutes long and clips may not be any longer than 3 minutes of the presentation.

The presentations will be on the 10th and 17th

500 word essay for December 9th on a TV Show

Useful resources 

Film Art Bordwell and Thompson - key for mine en scene, cinematography, editing and sounds.

Understanding the main genres.

• The sitcom: screening and discussion of BBC comedy pilot Vodka Diaries
• The soap opera: screening and discussion of pilot episode of BBC’s longest running soap, Eastenders.
• Crime drama - screening and discussion of episode of ITV police series, The Bill

Understanding the key critical theories

• Alienation
• classicism
• expressionism
• feminism/gender/race
• gaze theory
• ideology
• modernism and post modernism
• realism
• semiotics
• surrealism
• the other
• the uncanny
• psychoanalysis

Louis advice on how to be a good filmmaker

• Read A LOT!
• Watch A LOT!
• View As much as possible (Looking at things with a critical eye)

25 Word Challenge - Wednesday 21st September

We had to write a 25 word story line for three titles set to us by Simon.

We had our own material in terms of newspapers to help prompt some stories. I had brought in a newspaper whilst Andrew, who I was working with, had an article and also used the internet to try and transform our set titles into an interesting story , mostly using ideas found in these articles.

The first task was “Big budget hollywood thriller with a big star”

We found an article in my newspaper about Daniel Craig so straight away we had our big star. Later on in the same paper we had an article about somebody helping children at risk of slavery, so this was our main topic. We then made up the rest of our story from ideas we had, so the final story was “Daniel Craig attempts to save children at risk of slavery, but gangs kidnap his wife forcing Craig to choose between the two. (22 words)

The second task was “A British comedy series for late night channel 4”

Tony Blair happened to be on the page we had open in the newspaper so he was going ton be apart of our story right away. Richard E grant was in the tv section, so we had our actor/comedian. The rest was made up around what would make into a comedy, so we came up with a title “God bless Blair” and a story of “Tony Blair portrayed by Richard E Grant, explains why he was a good prime minister, told through sketches based upon his time in office” We thought that this may not be a normal comedy, but thats why it’s on late night channel 4, because it is alternative. (23 words)

The final task was “Low budget short film based in a council estate” The only thing from the newspaper we got for this story was refugees being in some sort of trouble. The rest was made up to fit around the story given “Chaos in Clifton” and the story was “Refugees flock to clifton council estate but cause havoc for the locals causing unrest and unease. “(16 words)

I felt this task was a really good way of making us think about possibly story lines in a short space of time and also with inspiration from real life stories. Listening to everyones ideas, it shows you can come up with such a great story in a short space of time and also with such a limited amount of words.

Story Telling Short Project - Wednesday 21st September

Title: Abduction

Characters:

Single Mum (Allison)

Mid 20’s , has a strong personality and its currently unemployed. She lives in a council house with her son.

Escaped Convict (Dan)

Mid 20’s and its prison for an apparent abusive relationship with his partner Allison. He is the father of Allison’s child. He wants to see his son that he has not seen in years.

Son (Tim)

6 years old, very shy and is bullied for what happened between his parents. He doesn’t really understand what is going on between them.

Settings:

Birmingham 

Council House

Playing field

It is lunchtime and is busy.

Reason for meeting:

The reason for the meeting is he is trying to find his son that he has not seen in a long time, it is not by chance, he is purposely trying to find him.

Goal:

The goal is to escape from prison and abduct his son to have a happy life away from his ex-partner.

What is different?

The son finds out that the mother was having an affair and she purposely got bruises and scars to get her ex partner (Dan) in prison as she did not like him and has bad feelings for her. Dan wants to find his son to explain what really happened and he is not the person his mother Allison is making him out to be.

What have we learnt?

The father is not who he is made out to be.

Brief Outline of the story:

Allison, a single mother living in a council house in Birmingham struggles to make ends meet after her former abusive husband Dan was convicted to prison a little over a year ago. When she takes her son Tim to school she believes it will be just another day in the ordinary but things today will change. Dan has escaped from prison after longing to see his son and approaches the nearby playground where his son is attending. He recognises Tim and calls him over. Teachers unaware of whats happening he manages to lift his son over the gate and take him.


When the Lunch time has finished the children go back inside and a register is taken. Tim is nowhere to be seen and the teachers ring Allison to see if he has walked to his home. When Allison questions why they are asking this her heart suddenly drops and rushes to the school. The police have been rang and inform both the teacher and Allison that her husband has managed to escape from prison and are on the look out for him. To Alison’s despair she panics and drives around in her car looking for the boy but he is no where to be seen.


Dan is with Tim in an abandoned house and explains to his son that he wants to be in his life and does not deserve the outcome that he was given. It is then revealed that he was not abusive towards Allison but was framed by her as she was having an affair and wanted him out the picture.

Course Introduction - Monday 19th September

The course was introduced and we were given the brief on what we will be doing in this unit.
Our first brief was a ten page script or screenplay accompanied with a 10 minute film of the script. The title that we were given to base out story on was "the meeting"and the genres given were comedy, thriller and drama.

The first thing that came into my head was a drug dealer meeting with someone, which by the sounds of that was a very common idea because moments later Simon said someone had done this last year and it didn't work too well. So right away I was learning what would and would not work.

I knew starting this unit that personally this was not currently my strongest point and I wanted to take in as much as possible. Listing to simon talk about his experience and what he felt worked was interesting and it started to give me ideas that were hopefully better than my drug dealer meeting I started off with.

I now know that part of what makes a good story is one that has something changing between the start and the beginning, it sounds simple but when I think about it a lot of bad shows have a lot of action and funny moments but the show as a whole does not have any change meaning, so really... "what was the point?"

Even though as I said, I know my writing and scripting in the past hasn't been my strongest point, I feel I now have a good base to improve an hopefully develop things I never thought I would have been able to.

UCA Summer Project

Here is my first post, my UCA TV Production Intro: UCA Summer Project