STORYTELLING - SCRIPT FEEDBACK AND DEVELOPMENT

After having a tutorial with Steve Coombs regarding my script, the main points of feedback that i got were
     -to show more and tell less (i.e. a bit to much explanative dialogue in some places)
   
     -Possibly introduce Dave's other daughter (the cause of some issues within the script)

     -Also a few ideas for a few new scenes

After having my feedback from Steve, i have changed my script in some ways. Now, Amanda was abandoned by her father when she was very young, instead of him not knowing she exists. She believes her younger sister to be facing the same neglect by Dave that she faced, and because of this she intervenes by talking to her sister and attempting to introduce herself. Thinking that she is just a meddling neighbour, Dave storms to Amanda's house in fury at her involvement, only once Dave opens up about his life issues and offers some explanation as to why he struggles with Amanda's sister, Amanda soon realises that Dave isn't as bad as he seems.

I believe changing the script in this way offers opportunities for the expansion of some scenes, for example Amanda meeting her sister, and also means i will be able to show more rather than telling.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES

Over the last few weeks, we have had some lectures with Louis covering the theory behind TV Production. The main aspects we have looked at include Cinematography, Editing, Sound and finally Mise En Scene. This helps with analysing TV as we can try to obtain why someone has recorded a specific shot or included something specific in a scene or used a certain time of sound (e.g. diegetic or non diegetic)

For our presentation, my group and I are looking at Channel Four's Humans. From the opening of the first episode we first have identified as a starter for our presentation the following -

A lot of the conventions are used in the clip to reinforce the genre, for example;

- Cinematography: Close up shot of an emerald green eye implying supernatural elements

-Sound: Non Diegetic Sound of the music playing as we have a first view of a synth

-Editing: Fast paced pan across screen to one synth out of the many standing there, representing significance of that certain character (who actually is one of the main characters in the show)

-Mise En Scene: Clean white floors and 'Warning' and 'Danger' signs

STORYTELLING UNIT RESEARCH - TV DRAMA

TV Drama: Waterloo Road, a long running BBC TV Drama. In the episode that i focused on for my research, school teacher Tom finds out that he has a son that he didn't know, who is now attending the school of which Tom teaches at. Waterloo Road uses effective cinematography in order to present the internal conflict that Tom goes through when finding out that he has a son he didn't know exists. This particular storyline influenced my own work as it displays similar ideas that i would like to convey. Whilst it differs in the fact Waterloo Road was a long running TV Show and therefore tells the story over a longer period of time than i am, it still presents this conflict between parent and child.

As you can see, Toms change in facial expression through a close up. 

 In my own work, i am telling a story about Amanda and her emotions as she goes through deciding whether to reveal herself to her father or not. Waterloo Road explores this storyline as Tom's son Josh reveals himself whilst he is a student at at Toms school. This highly influenced my own work as it portrayed Tom as angry because he's missed 14 years of his sons life and also shows Josh to be very upset and confused; something that i am hoping to adapt and portray in a different way with different reactions in my own work.

STORYTELLING UNIT RESEARCH - SCREENWRITERS AND HISTORY OF SCREENWRITING

HISTORY OF SCREENWRITING:
The use of a screenplay has constantly evolved since the beginning of film. Screenplay can be defined as 'the written form of a movie that also includes instructions on how it is to be acted and filmed; the script of a movie. Originally in its earliest years, the writing for a film was known as a scenario, after further development 'continuity scripts' came along, before what we know today; 'screenplay'.

The most widely considered first modern script was a 1902 George Melies' A Trip to the Moon, the silent film, was important for its transformative use of story, using descriptors that provided simple information about each scene.

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Screenwriter One: Danny Brocklehurst – is a screenwriter for over 15 television programmes, winner of many awards including BAFTAs and has also written extensively for radio. Danny Brocklehurst has written many different TV shows, primarily for the BBC. The two shows that I personally have seen and loved that he has written is Channel 4’s Shameless and BBC Ones Ordinary Lies. These are two very different shows in terms of their setting, characters and dialogue, however they both touch on everyday domestic issues, that comes across as very emotional to the audience.

Whilst I haven’t taken direct inspiration for my story from the work of Danny Brocklehurst, his writings are some of the programmes I enjoy most and the way in which his programmes take on everyday issues, similar to what I hope to do with my story, interests me a lot.

For example, within Ordinary Lies, the character of Pete has a child out of wedlock with a women he had a one night stand with, and she starts to use the child as a tool to get money from Pete. This is an extremely relatable story that could and is happening at any time anywhere.  After creating the basis of my story, I have found many news articles that relate to the issue I am presenting in my own work (father who doesn’t know he has a daughter) and the work of writers such as Danny Brocklehurst is what inspired to do a story like this. Another Example comes from Shameless Series 2, written by Danny Brocklehurst and a fellow writer Paul Abbott, in which the character of Ian goes searching for the father who also doesn’t know he exists, after finding out that Frank Gallagher, the father to all of his siblings older and younger, is not his father.

 

Screenwriter two: Tony Jordan who is a British television writer, he is very famous for his works and has been listed many times as number 1 televisions screen writer in the UK for many different magazines, such as Broadcast magazine in 2008. His most notable works and also most inspiring to me was as a lead writer and series consultant for BBC Ones EastEnders, in which as of 2006 he has written over 250 episodes. Other credits of Jordan include Boon and Minder

Jordan’s most inspiring work for me is an episode of EastEnders that he wrote, dated 1 October 2001, in which the character of Zoe finds out that her ‘sister’ Kat is in fact actually her mother. This obviously is a very inspiring story to me as it closely connects to my own. The most poignant part of the episode that is a very famous piece of dialogue to this day, was this simplicity of Zoe shouting “you ain’t my mother” and Kat simply screeching back “Yes I am”. This example of Jordan’s work connects to my own story very well and partly inspired me to flip this on its head, whereas in EastEnders the child was unaware that a certain person was there parent, whereas in mine the parent is the one unaware that a certain person is there child.

Crossing the line - Video

After our talk with Simon regarding crossing the line. A process by which within a 180 degree arc, all characters are placed on the same side, i.e, they stay on the same side of the screen at all times whilst the shots still change.

To demonstrate this, we created a small version of people explaining the 180 degree rule, whilst also applying i tin the cinematography. The one issue with his video was that the sound wasn't recorded properly as it was on mono-sound, therefore it can only be heard through the right side of ear phones and appears muffled at times. I didn't realise that this could happen so because of this i will make sure to check for this in the future.

The link for my crossing the line video on my channel is -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snk56l13ia4

Storytelling - Storyboarding Presentation and talk from Simon

-What are story-boards?

Storyboards are a series of sketches, that used as a planning tool visualise how the action of a story unfolds. Some are incredibly detailed, almost like mini works of art, while the others can be purely diagrammatical.  
-When are they used?
Storyboards are used in all forms of films and programmes, with some formats using them more than others. Storyboards can be used at all stages of a productions, at conception they can be used to convey the concept for a new production, detailed storyboards specifically can be used to help sell the story to a commissioner, it is a lot cheaper than test shots or pilots etc.
At pre-production, storyboards are used to enable the detailed planning of an entire production, each department such as sound and camera will use storyboards to work our what is required and when. Some productions, in the actual productions stage, use storyboards as their first point of reference, before the script. However, not all productions use storyboards, such as long running shows such a Eastenders who know what they're doing day to day already. In post production, storyboards can be used in the editing phase to help the editor visualise how the director intended a scene or sequence to be constructed.
-Story-board styles
1. Graphic - most detailed version of a storyboard, will always be used in action dependent films or series.
2. Diagrammatical - less artistic and most commonly used type of storyboard, they give less detailed amount of information about the design of a shot.
3. Plan View - this type usually consists of one drawing              for each scene, viewed from above.

-Shot descriptions
-Birds eye or Angles perspective                                              -Extreme Close-up
-Extreme long shot or wide shot                                               -Close up
-Medium Shots









Trailers - designed to hook the audience into watching a specific film or tv programme.

Trailers were first used in the cinema and originally shown AFTER the main feature, because they 'trailed it'. Mostly, they are cut from the film to form the trailer, however some are specifically shot, for example Hitchcock's Psycho.

Questions to ask/think about when creating a trailer - What is the story?
                                                                                    -When is it on?

The Chair

In our second camera workshop last week, we were tasked to create a simple video clip based on 'The Chair'. The point was to include a range of different camera angles and shots within the one clip. I think that as it is the first video I soley have created, it went well, because there were certain things i did well but also certain things that were not as great, meaning i can watch out for them in the future.

I think that in terms of the general tasks, capturing a range of different camera shots, i did effectively, i followed the character as they walked toward the chair in a range of different shots. I also cut effectively back and forth to different shots to enable better view of different things, for example as she put her glasses on. One thing i didn't do as well, that i will watch out for in future, is making sure every clip is focused properly. Some of my clips were not focused fully and do not look as good as the others in terms of quality.

The Chair;    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpuSXXzsWA