CONTEXUAL STUDIES: SHERLOCK (TV SERIES) REVIEW

The TV Series I have chosen to review is the first series of the BBC Crime Drama ‘Sherlock’.  Sherlock is a modern adaptation of the classic detective character ‘Sherlock Holmes’ created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over 125 years ago. Although Sherlock is classically set in Victoria London, this series sets the famous detective in 21^st century London and adapts the classic stories into a modern-day London. Sherlock has had 3 series and a New Year’s special, series 4 is set to be broadcasted in 2017. The show has won over 75 awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe back in 2013.

STORYTELLING UNIT: FINAL EVALUATION

During this project I have learnt many different skills, both with screenwriting and technical film making. As well as developed my current skills right through this project.

I feel that my final script has turned out really well. From my initial pitch of a Thriller drama when I was told that this couldn't be done since it didn't comply with the brief that we were given. I quickly changed my idea and developed it into a different story and was able to take inspiration for different short films as well as take a concept from the Doctor Who series and use my own family's past as a reference to a storyline and ended up making a strong 10 minute script which has been properly formatted and follows all the rules that Steve taught us in our lectures and I can confidently say I'm happy with it which for a writer, is really important. As regards to production, I've been told that I'm not only the first, first year, but actually the first TVP student to take a green screen into the car park and make successful use out of it. I feel I did really well with this and worked professionally throughout the production stage. When it came to setting up and working with the green screen I had excellent time management and got it set up quickly and correctly with plenty of time to spare. When an issue arised like when my actors dropped out on me the day before, I didn't panic but quickly solved the issue and found new actors and worked quickly to ensue I didn't fall behind schedule. I used my contacts and sorted things like getting the wedding ring made and using 2 different cars and also getting a crew together and communicating well with them all so that everyone understood what I needed and what it was we had to shoot. On set me and my crew worked professionally and worked to schedule, even when we went over schedule during the green screen shoot we got everything shot and done before losing the light of the sun which was the important bit. Looking into post-production, my strengths were with my green screen and audio. My audio work went well and when I was faced with the issue of Zak's audio, I wasted no time and got Zak into the studios and he re-watched the scene over and over until he got the timing right and we re-recorded his audio and I synced it up in post and it worked really well. As well as my audio editing making the 2nd scenes music sound like it's inside the house before the door opens and also adding a high pass filter to the music to make it sound like it's coming from the radio speakers which worked really well. As well as making the green screen look realistic and worked to make the concept of a moving car really well.

The issues with the production would have to be one section of the green screen footage where I couldn't matt it out due to bad lighting. I tried garbage matting and altering the ultra key settings but nothing could get rid of this section in the corner of the window, it's only visible for a few frames in one shot but you can see it and it takes away the realism of the car driving. As well another issue was the audio from scene 2, I chose to record this separately and this proved to be a really bad idea as syncing it became an issue and also the quality wasn't very good either. For the other 2 scenes I recorded into the camera and this helped much more and brought much better quality of audio. Finally, during the Production stage we had an issue with lighting which was that the opening shot for scene 1 was filmed in the morning and the rest of the scene was in the afternoon so there's a huge light difference with the sun, this annoyingly couldn't be fixed in post like I'd hoped it could since the lighting is far too obvious and really hard to try and colour out with colour correction. This ruins the video slightly since it takes away the continuity from the opening shot.

If I were to improve this in the future I would focus on my time management with pre-production and give myself more time if I am going to use actors instead of classmates. This is where my project nearly fell apart but could have been avoided if I'd have sorted secondary actors and ensured the actors were ready to film. Also ensure that my actors don't clash during the shooting days since this was an issue when recording the green screen and we went 3 hours over schedule, although we fixed this, it could have been avoided. Finally I'd ensure that all scene shots are filmed with the same lighting to avoid any issues with continuity in the future.

STORYTELLING UNIT: SCREENWRITING RESEARCH

When researching into screenwriting. I'd learnt so much from my lectures about constructing a story and the 5 golden rules of screenwriting, as well as the importance of structure and of dialogue. But what I still didn't quite understand was the layout and format of how to write a screenplay. I've written scripts before but for stage productions, not screenplays so this turned out to be a lot more difficult.
One of my classmates referred me to the website Australian Short Films which lets you look at different screenplays and this helped me get an idea on what sort of layout a script needs to be in and how different writers will write their scripts differently. Some will give a lot of detail on the characters and the type of shot they want. Others will give very minimal detail on the characters but a large amount of detail on the actions of the characters. It all depends on the writer and the type of script as well. But this website allowed me to look at different scripts and understand the right format for a screenplay which is:
1. Scene heading
2. Action
3. Character name
4. Dialogue
This obviously depends on what is happening in the scene but it helped me see the difference, since I was actually very unsure what needs to be in a scene heading and didn't realise that I had to specify if the scene was Interior or exterior.

As well as this I chose to look into two TV series scripts, one of which I chose was written by one of the screen writers I researched into, Russell T Davies. Having had the pleasure of meeting the Science Fiction writer and had the chance to talk to him about his writing he told me "I love the small details, attention to the shot and the focus on key points in the script, that's what makes a script work!" So from this I went on to find one of his scripts online and I managed to find the script for Episode 1 of Torchwood Miracle Day. When reading this I can see what Russell meant, he puts a lot of detail into his scripts including the types of shots he wants which I've not seen in many screenplays that I've already looked at. He describes the characters with little details "REX MARTHESON at the wheel - 30s sharp suit, sharp smile on speakerphone" very simple ways of explaining a character which I ended up using in my script as well rather than detailing everything about the character. What Russell does give a huge about of detail on is the scene actions. "WHAM! DOORS CRASH OPEN - REX wheeled in by PARAMEDICS! The scaffolding pole has been cut away, though a remnant still juts out of his chest. He's wearing an oxygen mask, with IV drips suspended above. He breathes hard, wild-eyed, willing himself to stay awake. In case he never wakes up" that scene action is hugely detailed on how the actor should act and is telling him exactly what to do. Sometimes you'll get scripts which will give the actors very minimal actions and allow them to ad-lib but Russell writes so that it's exactly how he wants it.

Another script I looked into was one by Steve Thompson who was a guest writer for the BBC series 'Sherlock' the modern adaptation of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle character 'Sherlock Holmes'. The script I found was for series 1 Episode 2 The Blind Banker. Steve also writes with huge detail on the actions but rather than the detail on character actions, its more about what we see in the actual scene. "Clang! museum doors are shut and bolted. Clang! The upper galleries are locked tight. Electrical switches. A security man flicks them off one by one. Lights go out through the upper floors" and also "In the gallery's centre is a mannequin - an Empress in black and gold dragon robes. Silently she dominates the room". Steve gives so much detail for everything within the scene and everything around the characters. Rather than the character action he adds to the atmosphere of the setting and creates this dominating environment even though we're only in a museum. But he makes it so that tension builds and we get a real feel for the scene.

STORYTELLING UNIT: EDITING SCRIPT (3rd Draft)

After making my second draft of my script 'Broken', I looked over it again and made some changes again to bits I felt needed changing. Firstly I showed my tutor Simon my new scene in my second draft, the scene where we see the party, and he suggested that I could word the actions of the party different and make it more simple. Below on the left is the second draft and on the right is the new third draft of the scene.


As you can see, it still tells us the same information about the scene but in a much more simple way. Without having to explain every single detail of the scene which isn't even that long. As well as this I also changed one of James's lines because it was also overly long and didn't need to be. The line I changed is below:

What I saw was that James already explains all that by showing Lily the photo, we can tell that he has carried that photo since the funeral and that he has been trying to stay strong. So instead I made it much simpler and changed it to this:

This again makes it much simpler and works better for the screen. The final change I made in this draft was when James gets signal on his phone. I wanted to have a moment between the characters, the phone has just gotten signal as they've just reconnected as Father and Daughter, it's a lovely moment in the script that I want to hold for a little longer. so I rewrote it to this:

I just wanted to hold this moment a little longer and make it more emotional for the audience as this is such an important moment in the script.

STORYTELLING UNIT: ROUGH CUT

During the post-production I showed my rough cut edit to my tutors and asked for some feedback. I had a full length edit with all my scenes together and it came up to 2:48 which is over the set brief. I was told that if that time is relevant

to my story this doesn't matter. But currently my edit was far too long and could be cut down. As well I just had cut to cut on dialogue which was very boring and basic and didn't look good for my edit, so I used the rolling tool to change the cuts with the audio and made it look a bit better. The biggest issue I had with my rough cut was my audio. I needed wild tracks constantly through my scenes as the wild tracks at the moment are cut up and all over the place. As well my audio from scene 2 isn't clear because of all the cars and background noise has made Zak's dialogue completely unusable so I'll have to re-record it and dub it later on. As well I need to add music into this and the third scene as well.

With the green screen I added the footage and added the effect 'Ultra Key' to the green screen footage and already it looks like good, the effect works and this is without editing and modifying the ultra key or colour grading. Although it isn't at a good enough quality yet, it's enough to show that this idea clearly worked and now all I need to do is fix the ultra key slightly and get rid of the white lines where the green screen is and also make it a bit more crisp. These were the only points that were brought but but the main 2 were my audio and the length of my video as well.

STORYTELLING UNIT: JAMES CORDEN

I looked into another screenwriter when I was researching for inspiration for my own script and one who I found I could relate to and I enjoyed his work was the comedy writer James Corden.

James Corden is mostly famous as a writer for the classic BBC 3 Comedy Series 'Gavin & Stacey' which was broadcasted on BBC 3 from 2007 but by it's third and final series it had grown so popular with views that it was moved to BBC 1. James Corden co-wrote the series with Ruth Jones, both also played main roles in the series. James played the character 'Smithy' which was Gavin's best friend and one of the most loved characters in the series.

James Corden never actually attended University of specialised in a course to get him into the Acting or Writing Industry. He did study drama briefly at Jackie Palmer Stage School before before moving on to Upper School. He was born is London but moved over to Buckinghamshire where he attended Park Middle School and Holmer Green Upper School. James Corden actually built his way up into the Industry. James admits in his auto biography that even though he did study drama briefly, he never actually saw it as a career and certainly not writing either. He actually built his way up into the industry. He took on small roles in TV dramas starting from 1997 and got his first big part in 'Fat Friends' in 2000, this was a British TV Comedy Drama. It was also through Fat Friends that he met Ruth Jones, a Welsh actress who he'd go on to work with as a Writer.

STORYTELLING UNIT: REWRITING SCRIPT (2ND DRAFT)

After receiving my feedback for my script from Steve Coombs I went on to rewrite my script. Working from the feedback and also making changes that I wanted to make myself as well.

Scenes 6-9
These were the biggest changes to my script that I made. With the final scene being completely re-written and made into 2 separate scenes.
Firstly with scene 6 in my first draft, this is where Lily and James are walking back to the car after having a big heart to heart conversation and sorting out everything. This scene can be seen below:

STORYTELLING UNIT: SIMON PEGG

A screenwriter I choose to look into is the British Actor, Screenwriter and Producer, Simon Pegg.

Simon Pegg was one of the main reasons I wanted to get into the Media Industry. After watching his first feature film 'Shaun of the Dead' back in High School, I was then fixed on his work but also saw that it was possible for an ordinary, British boy, to go to High School, University and then go on to be a stand-up comedian, later write a comedy series for Channel 4 and finally end up making what was thought to be a low budget and simple feature film and ends up being a smash hit at the box office and sends his carrier off from TV writer to Film maker.

CONTEXUAL STUDIES: CRIME GENRE

We started by watching an episode of 'The Bill' and looked out for the key points as we always look at.

The Bil (1983 -2010)
- Set in a fictional London police station
- Longest running UK crime drama
- Originally 12x60mins episodes
- From 1988-2005, became year-round twice-weekly serial
- Peaked audience of 11m viewers in 2005 rivalled Coronation Street

STORYTELLING UNIT: DOCTOR WHO SERIES 5

Although a Science Fiction TV Series, the Fifth season of Doctor Who was very inspirational when I was looking for ideas for my script after changing my idea from the feedback of the 25 word Pitches. I wanted to add something to the script, a secret almost, that the audience could slowly figure out piece by piece. However, trying to find something in my script proved very difficult and also how to go about doing it so that it's subtle but creates an impact on the audience.

Doctor Who series 5 was the next edition of 'The Doctor' where we changed actors from David Tennant, to Matt Smith. This also changed over writers from Russell T Davis to Steven Moffat so it was a completely new era of Doctor Who. We even got a remake of the Tardis.
Through this series is the Doctor not only becoming a new Doctor and growing his relationship with his new companions, Amy and Rory, but also battling all these different Aliens. All the time something serious going on in the background.

Episode one is where we first see the new Doctor and his relationship with Amy Pound begins and builds. The doctor crash lands the Tardis and is still regenerating. All the time he's adjusting and we're seeing the new Doctor. Amy finds him and asks if he's the answer to her prays about the crack in her wall. He fixes the crack in the wall by opening it and hears a voice saying "Prisoner has escaped" and after finding a giant eye ball alien in this crack, it closes and vanishes. The Doctor then runs off to fix the Tardis but without meaning to ends up returning 12 years later when Amy has grown up. Through the episode the Doctor tracks down Prisoner Zero and finds him and gets him back into prison. At the end of the episode after the Doctor has saved the world Amy agrees to run away with him and  they run off but see that Amy is to get married the next day.

What grabbed me about this series wasn't the adventures of the Doctor and Amy or the different storylines between the episodes. It's that after that first initial episode. We constantly see something over and over again in each episode. Which is that crack that we see in the first episode. At the end of each episode of Doctor Who, we see that there is another crack and these are all over the galaxy and even at different points in time. Below are photos from different

These cracks are seen at the end of each episode, apart from 2 where the Doctor actually see's them but no-one ever knows what they are. Finally in the last 2 episodes of the series we are given the truth and learn the importance of these cracks and that they are seriously dangerous and end up breaking up the fabric of reality and brought the critical episodes which these little mysteries had been leading up to throughout the series and the biggest episode of the series as well.

This lead up to the final episode by showing these cracks, the mystery and wonder behind them which leads to the be reveal of the truth really helps to make the series even more interesting and the writing for this was a brilliant idea. One object which is constantly staring people in the face and makes you question the importance to it is something I wanted in my script.
This was how I came up with the idea for the wedding ring that Jame's wears and always kisses when he's making a decision. When seeing these cracks, I realised that I could use this concept of mystery in my script. I decided to have Jame's almost refer to his ring when making a decision or when a situation gets too hard. Like he's still asking his dead wife what to do or asking her to give him strength. This would then make people question why he was doing that and the importance of the ring until the end of the film where we'll learn the truth about Jame's wife and that she past away. When writing this into my script I felt the impact of the wife's death was more for the audience with the reference to the ring constantly. It shows Jame's isn't over it and it still deeply effects him.

CONTEXUAL STUDIES: SOAP OPERA

We started today by watching the first broadcasted episode of 'Eastenders' and were told to look into the following genre elements:

Mise En Scene
- How many locations? - it's all set along the same street however, we go into at least 8 different locations through the episode; old mans flat, cafe, pub, laundrette, corner shop, market stall, doctors office, family flat
- Real or Studio? - I would argue that the locations are mixed between real and studio, the main street is real location, as this couldn't be done in a studio. Doctors office and pub could be a studio location and the doors are what gives it away as they're at the side where you couldn't see 
- Communal space? - Communal space is used in the programme such as the pub, cafe and the market. This is where the characters can meet or we see a number of different characters all through the programme.

Camera & Sound
- Single & multi-camera? - Single camera
- Diegetic or non-diegetic sound? - I would say that all the sound in this episode is diegetic, the main one is the dialogue between characters as there's so much through the episode

STORYTELLING UNIT: FINISHED FILMING

Today, I finished filming my final 2 scenes. We started at 11 by setting up the green screen and getting the car into position. We decided that since the green screen was going to be the most difficult and also the most important to get first since we were depending on the sun for lighting the green screen. We had the green set up and the car in position with Oliver ready to begin recording. However, we weren't able to begin recording until 3pm, nearly 4 hours later because Jemma ended up being late for shooting because she was on another shoot for one of my classmates.

When Jemma finally turned up we didn't waste anytime. We went straight into filming with the green screen. We set up the shot so that we'd only see the green screen behind the actors and nothing else. This was so in the edit we wouldn't need to cut or crop the shot in anyway. Below is how we set up the shot.

This was the style I wanted so that I could make it more realistic that they were in a moving car. When filming, I repeatedly pushed the car gently so that we got that slight movement to help make this more realistic. As well as this I had a member of my crew move a light up and down on Oliver's face to give the impression of moving past trees or lap posts, since you always get slight movements of passing lights when driving. We worked through all of this which took about an hour and when it came to changing sides for Lily's dialogue, we had to move the car around since that was easier than trying to move and re-set the green screen.

With the green screen footage, we actually had to use a different car from what we'd used for scene 2. Below are the difference in the cars used. The silver car in the second photo was the first that we used as it belonged to one of the crew, George Lock. However, when it came to filming the green screen footage, George wasn't able to make it to the afternoon shoot, He was only available for the morning but Jemma was not. So we decided to use a different car but we got the opening shot which was the steadicam shot of the car and the open bonnet and then of Lily's first line. After this we used another 

students car and set up the shot so that you could not actually see that the car was different on the outside. We found this worked well and you can't actually tell that the cars are different. 

After we finished scene 3, we went on to film scene 1 which was filmed just by the side of the car park which we filmed the green screen footage. This went much more smoothly although we did find a slight issue with filming this. We'd already filmed the opening shot of scene 1, but that was early in the morning when we had George's car and Jemma for only about 20 minutes. But, since then the lighting had changed as can be seen in the photo below, continuity would be an issue with this but since there was nothing we could do to change this, we had to continue to film and hope that I could fix it in post-production. We got on with filming and it worked well and went along very well. Once we'd finished filming we packed up and took back the equipment. 

(All photos are copyright to ©grstudios)

STORYTELLING UNIT: RISK ASSESSMENT

While organising the filming locations, I had to identify the risks that where at each location. With the risk assessment I tried to be as detailed as possible with the risks and identified as much as I could to ensure that there wouldn't be any accidents or legal issues on the shoots and to show that I was clearly putting the cast and crews safety first.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: SITCOM

We started the lecture by watching the pilot episode of Vodka Diaries. Watch out for:

Mise En Scene:
- How many locations? - Living room, bedroom, kitchen, hallway, stairway, outside the house
- Real or studio? - Real location
- Reflect characters?

Camera & Sound:
- Single or Multi-camera? - Single
- Audience laughter? - No
- Diegetic or non-diegetic sound? Diegetic - Music from phone, dialogue and door bell. Non-diegetic - music at the beginning and end of the programme, numbers changing during instagram photo

STORYTELLING UNIT: FINISHED SCENE 2

Today I had my first shoot for my script. Overall I feel it went really well considering we had a lot of last minute changes. Oliver and Jemma arrived on time and we started with Oliver and Jason's dialogue. We organised for Zak to play Jason since this is a very brief character and only requires 3 lines of dialogue. We worked through the dialogue of the characters at a good pace and working well and safely on the location.

We tried to work as quickly as possible since the weather was turning bad quicker and quicker as the shoot went on. We had a few issues, mostly with reflection from the windows during the opening of the door for Jason's entrance. The reflection of the crew could be seen no matter where we moved in the garden since it was such a small space, we managed to get just out of shot by going to the side of the door and making the shot a medium shot and recorded his dialogue again to have to cut to in the edit.





















As well as this we found a slight issue. The parking space in front of the house had been taken up by a neighbour's car and we had no way of knowing who's car it was and from the photos below, you can clearly see that there wasn't another place in front of the house where we could park the car to use during the scene. 

What we decided was to park the car about 20ft away from the house since there was a parking space up there and we made both actors walk there and did a handheld walking sequence which we can cut between in post production.

Other than these small issues the shoot went without anymore issues. We worked well through the shots and with the issues that did arise we worked through them and solved them quickly and professionally and on location we worked professionally and with good team work. 

STORYTELLING UNIT: ORGANISING LOCATIONS AND RECCES

When looking into my scripts settings I needed to find the following locations:
- Country Road
- House

Going into more detail on the house, it would need to be a house along a street, many not a private estate but more of a council flat or connected house, somewhere that the Father would have to drive quite far to come and get the Daughter since they end up in the car for quite a long time and also that you wouldn't go to a private estate and end up with a load of teenagers having a house party with load music. The photo below is the type of house that I'd like to find for my film.

This type of house is classic to what you'd see a standard, working class family living in as well as students. These are also what you would usually see in sitcoms or soap operas for house party's. This type of house is also very common for students accommodations in Kent so I decided to ask around my classmates for a location like this before contacting the Kent Film Office. My classmate, Victoria Simmonds, is currently living in a student flat, rather than the university accommodations. I asked her if it would be possible to film there and she agreed to ask her landlady.

Victoria told me that her landlady was happy for us to film as long as we were carful, no stunts were performed and also if she could see the finished film after it had been completed. Once agreed, I went over to the location for a recce. Below are the photos from the recce.

STORYTELLING UNIT: ACTORS DROPPED OUT

Both of my actors have now dropped out and cannot do the filming shoot. Samantha messaged me to tell me that she unfortunately has family issues at the moment and has had to drop out of a few different projects. Brett hasn't gotten back to me since I messaged him about the filming locations so I've had to go with the decision that he isn't interested in the project anymore.

My issue is that I don't have any other actors, I phoned Emma Miles and Julian Patten (both applied for the roles of James and Lily) but because of the short notice, they can't do it. I decided to ask my classmates for help with this to try and keep to schedule since my shooting days are tomorrow (9th Nov) and Friday (11th Nov). My classmate Jemma agreed to help and this works in my favour.



Jemma has previously done acting before coming to UCA so she understands the process of being in front of camera. She's confident and understands the lack of time so began learning her lines straight away. She also looks the right age due to her height (5" 2") which works in my favour as well.





After this I asked my classmate Oliver to play the Father, Oliver is very tall and looks much older than his real age (19).


As you can see from the photo Oliver is the best I could ask for in a class of students. He looks much older and could pass for a dad. His height (6" 5") helps make him look much older to Jemma and the beard is a huge advantage as well. Olly is a really dedicated and passionate guy as well and has had some experience acting so this again works in my favour.

STORYTELLING UNIT: PROP MAKING

With my script I noted that I had a few props which were needed for the film:
- Headphones
- Mobile phone
- Wedding Ring

Headphones and Mobile aren't an issue at all since I own both. The main issue was the wedding ring. Since the opening 2 minutes of the script focus on the ring at points I needed to get one for filming. I checked with my classmates if anyone had anything similar to a wedding ring but no-one had anything close to one. With this in mind I decided to contact a Jewellery Smithing student who is also in UCA. I contacted a second year called Domenic, who I know from living in the University Accomedations. I asked him if he could make me a wedding ring but that it doesn't need to be an expensive metal since I don't have a budget and this is only a small shoot. So we agreed to use copper to make the ring and the finished ring came out like this:

The size of the ring was measured from Domenic's middle finger, since we didn't have time to get the actors finger measured and he didn't know his measurements. But I'm happy how it turned out and how it looks.

STORYTELLING UNIT: FILMING INSIDE A CAR

After deciding on creating the opening 2 minutes I realised a difficult task I had with creating this. I need James to be driving a car. At first I thought I could just record the actor talking while driving a car for real but then found out there are serious health and safety issues with that and it isn't allowed, As well it would be really difficult to record Lily's dialogue as well if the car was moving. So I scrapped that idea and began thinking of other ways I could film this. I remembered that in sitcoms you've always got scenes where people are driving but it's actually green screen behind them or a projector.

 
However, I don't like the look of this. It's been used in so many sitcoms that I just feel it's too cheesy and doesn't look very professional in a short film. But using green screen was an idea that I liked and thankfully found a video by the YouTube channel 'Film Riot' who focus on DIY film making and created a video called Drive in a Car without Driving in a Car! where they show their viewers 3 different ways of driving a car. 2 of which involved confined spaces but the first with green screen involved lighting the green screen and then simply recording the footage and getting footage from a moving car later to add onto the green screen. I decided to take this but instead of trying to find a confined space like garage I could use the car park in the Maidstone studios and have the natural day light as my light source for the green screen. This way I can get the footage I need and don't have to worry about finding somewhere to use the car or the green screen.

STORY-TELLING UNIT: SCRIPT BREAKDOWN AND SHOT LIST

After completing my script and organising my actors I began planning out how I wanted my opening 2 minutes to work (shot wise). To decide on this I took my opening two minutes and broke it down, shot by shot. This way I could use this to put together a shot list. I had originally thought about doing a storyboard but I never really use them and don't find them helpful, I work better with a list of shots and then I can also work around them and see what looks best on the day. 

I made up 3 separate shot lists, one for each scene, so I could keep a track on all and do scene by scene.

STORYTELLING UNIT: SHORT FILM REVIEW 3

Since my two characters in my script are a Father and Daughter. I wanted to find inspiration from a short film on how the Father would talk to his Daughter, since I'm not a Father and I never saw my sister and Father sort out their differences, I had no idea how they'd speak. How I finally got the idea for a calm and protective Father to start with, as if he was talking to a 7 year old girl rather than a 16 year old girl. Was from the short film "The Talk" which can be seen here:

The TALK Short Film 

'The Talk' plays on the idea of a Father giving their child the talk about what sexual intercourse is, at first anyway. The idea that this is a very awkward situation to talk about with your child and that you'd want to discuss it when they're a teenager, so between 12-16 years old, rather than a younger age since children are often protected from sexual content or talk. This short film makes out as if the Father is about to have this talk with his Daughter and even by him holding back when saying "Your mum and I..." and then it changes to the Father is actually telling his Daughter that Santa Claus isn't real and that it's been the Mother and him bringing the presents and pretending to be Santa Claus. The film then goes into a more comical film by the Father opening up and telling his Daughter that she was an accident, he's always stressed, he stays at work late just to have time to himself and misses his old single life even though he loves his family. The writing for this plays with the feelings that some Father's do have after years of being in a family. He always goes back to tell his daughter to eat more pie as 'it'll help'. We think this is the twist as he goes from comforting and apologetic to very blunt and almost like he doesn't care, as he also eats her pie himself while telling her all these facts. 

The real twist and comical turn comes towards the end of the film though as at the end the Daughter turns around and begins to tell the Father facts as well like:

- She's not actually his daughter

- The Mother is having an affair

- The Mother plans to leave him in a few years

The writing for this is very clever and makes the script very unique in the sense that we think we've seen the height of the film and then suddenly we get a complete change where the daughter is actually having a much serious talk and acting like the adult and the Father begins to act more like the child and then the at the end we get a brilliant moment where the daughter passes the plate over and says "Here, eat some more pie, it'll help" which is what the Father tells the daughter at the beginning of the film. 

What I actually took from this short film was the way the Father acted. When writing my script I wasn't sure how to write the Father, I knew I wanted him and the daughter to argue but at the beginning of the script I couldn't have him shouting at her straight away because then there's not build up to the argument, I also couldn't have him mourning over his wife as this takes away the surprise at the end and takes away the build up to the discovery of her death. When having the script surgery with my tutor Simon he suggested having the Father trying to be nice and then from this film as well I saw this working. This idea of the Father being friendly, polite and caring, talking to Lily like she was a child would help get the audience on the Father's side and helps make more of a story then, this also helps the impact later discovering the truth of why the Father acts the way he does. 

STORYTELLING UNIT: GETTING ACTORS

Since I've created my first draft for my script I've begun thinking about how I'm going to film my opening two minutes. Firstly I began deciding on who I would have for actors. After speaking with some second years I learnt of a website called 'Casting Call Pro' which allows filmmakers to put up posts and advertise acting roles available and actors can then apply for the roles you've advertised and send in showreels, CV's, audition tapes, etc. and this allows me to decide on the best actors for this role. To start with I created an account and it asks for a 'company' profile and you'll be an employer for this.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: DOCUMENTARIES

We started by watching the first episode of the Netflix documentary series 'Making a Murderer'.


It took the makers 10 years to make this documentary series and they had it turned down by many different production companies including HBO Entertainment. The creators feel that the documentary is fair on both sides and get across the message really well.



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Difference between documentary and drama:

Documentary
- Unscripted (but often relies on classic narrative structure
- employs real people (but often requires a directed 'performance' element)
- typically shot handheld (but often employs classical fixed camera techniques)
- Does not use mise en scene (but still relies on classical precepts of framing composition and lighting)

STORYTELLING UNIT: SCRIPT EDITING

While writing my script I asked my tutors Steve and Simon for some feedback on the structure of certain parts of my script. With Steve I asked for feedback and his opinion on the opening scene of my script. This is the original opening for my script.

STORYTELLING UNIT: SHORT FILM REVIEW 2

Another short film that I looked into for inspiration for my script was one I found on YouTube called 'Inevitable'. This film can be viewed below:

Now all that I really took from this film was actually the opening, which is less than 10 seconds long. But what got my attention about this was that it was non-linear. The films opening credits give the idea of a lovely happy love story. When we're suddenly given a shot of a woman crying with, what we assume, a dead body on the ground with a bullet wound in his chest. When watching this I was actually shocked but it keeps the viewers watching all the way through.

Non-linear is a brilliant script structure to keep the audience watching. This particular film has used it very cleverly, rather than having an entire scene, it's simply showed that quick shot and then gone to the beginning of the film and carried on from there. Keeping the audience asking "What's going on?" "When will that happen?" and creating a mixture of interest and tension which keeps the audience watching and importantly, paying attention for the key 'moments' which you get in a script. As the film goes on we learn more and more of the characters and their relationships until finally we get to the end where we finally see this scene.

STORY TELLING UNIT: SHORT FILM REVIEW 1

To gain some inspiration or ideas for my 10 minute script we were shown some short films in a lecture a few weeks ago. One of these films was called 'Soft' by Simon Ellis. After changing my idea from a thriller involving a ghost, to a drama about father and daughter fixing their broken relationship  after their car brakes down. Thinking back on this short film I've taken some inspiration from it. The film can be seen below:

https://vimeo.com/19705053

STORYTELLING UNIT: TRAILER OR OPENING 2 MINUTES?

When deciding whether to do a trailer or the opening 2 minutes for my script.  I started by looking at my script and thinking about what would tell my story best. When looking at my script I felt that both could tell my script the best, a trailer could help tell the entire story but my opening 2 minutes also help to set up the entire story, we see the Father and Daughter arguing next to a broken down car and it then cuts to the Father going to pick up the Daughter from a party she clearly isn't allowed to be at. From this they then get in the car and drive off having a conversation which shows their relationship isn't good and is clearly on a thin wire. We also see the Father kiss his wedding ring twice which give an idea that something has happened to his marriage as well.

Deciding on which to do has been difficult but I decided after editing together my trailer for the short film 'Soft' by Simon Ellis, which can be seen below:

This task was given to us to give us some practice. The trailer had to be 1-2 minutes long and needed to sell the film as best as possible. I feel that I did this well, showing parts where things got heated in the film such as the Father and the Son getting hit, the Father walking away in anger, the son and his beaten face. As well giving the idea that the Father goes to protect the Son and then the Son's audio of "Are you scared?" I tried to make a simple but effective trailer with some basic piano music to help give the tone more.

After doing this and seriously thinking about my script I've decided to go for the opening 2 minutes of my script as I feel this will sell my script the best and already tells what the story will be about without having to show bits from the entire script.

CONTEXUAL STUDIES: SOUND

How important is sound?

This depends on you as a film maker, however sound is almost 50% of a production but you can make films without film and just sound and you can make films with just film and no sound. It's all down to the film maker.

Films that use sound WITHOUT moving pictures:

- Derek Jerman's 'Blue' (voices over blue screen)

- Chris Marker's 'La Jetee' (voices over still photographs)

Even 'silent' cinema used live musical accompaniments and sound effects

Function of sound

- Aural narrative (dialogue, voiceover)

- Sound ambience (mood, atmosphere, sound effects)

- Emotional or intellectual resonance or dissonance (music)

Key elements of film sound

- Speech (dialogue or narration)

- Ambient or natural sound

- Sound effects

- Musical score or soundtrack

Use of sound effects

- Heighten drama - abstract or enhanced effects deigned to affect audience perception or emotional state (e.g. audible heartbeats in horror films)

- Simulate reality - ambient background that underscores and reinforces unity of Mise En Scene and editing (e.g. traffic noise, chatter, room tone)

Aesthetic uses of sound

- Impressionistic - harmonious sound that evokes a mood, atmosphere or tone

- Expressionistic - Discordant sound that evokes abstract or dark psychological states

- Asynchronous - sound and visuals are mismatched for dramatic effect

- Diegetic and non-diegetic

Diegetic vs non-diegetic sound

- Diegetic - any sound that is intrinsic to the film space or implied by action (e.g. character speech, music performance)

- Non-diegetic - any sound that is external to the film space (e.g. voiceover, soundtrack, music/soundtrack

We went on to watch 2 clips from different films, both using Diegetic and Non-diegetic sounds. The first you could clearly tell which sounds where diegetic and non diegetic. However, the second there is a questionable sound of birds which you would say is diegetic but you don't see any birds or even trees so this could be non-diegetic. This is where we see the importance of context.

David Lynch - "Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual"

Sound and Emotion

Music and narrative device

- music underscores or accentuates visual narrative, emotion o r drama

- can create emotional or intellectual resonance or dissonance

- Use of leitmotifs: a short, recurring musical phrase associated with a particular person, place or idea (e.g. jaws theme, Darth Vader's march in Star Wars)

- Lord of the Rings uses motifs with locations such as 'The Shire'

- Pop songs as commentary/dramatic device: "When words fail, music speaks" - Hans Christian Andersen

- Dennis Potter's BAFTA-Winning BBC drama series, set in the 1930s, used popular songs from the period to allow his character to step out of the narrative to comment on the action

- This 'alienation' technique provides a contrast between the grim reality of the characters real lives and their romantic aspirations as expressed in music dance

- In its use of narrative-breaking devices, period nostalgia and musical homage, Pennies From Heaven displays several traits of post-midernisim 

Modernism vs Postmodernism

- Modernism - an aesthetic and cultural reaction to classicism, relying on innovations in form, material and techniques to create new modes of rational and progressive expression and representation

- Broadly ideologically utopian (e.g. Soviet montage)

- Postmodernism - reaction to failure of modernism's objective rationalism. playfully deconstructs form, fusing disparate elements of high and low culture (usually through homage or pastiche) and meta-reference (intertextually and self-referentiality)

- Broadly ideologically disruptive (e.g. The Simpsons, Pulp Fiction)

Use of narration

- First person subjective (monologue or contributors voice: e.g. Jarman's Blue)

- 'Voice of god' objective commentary (expository narrative: e.g. classic documentary)

- Conventions of male vs female voices (dominant vs empathetic); RP vs Regional (authoritative vs authentic)

STORYTELLING UNIT: STORYBOARDS & TRAILERS

Storyboards are a great way of preparing for a shoot and planning out how you're going to tell your story though shoots. Storyboards allow you to (basically) draw out how you want the shot to look. They are a series of sketches that are used to plan out the action of the story. Some are really detailed and very artistic and others are basic stick men. Storyboards concentrate on the KEYFRAMES that make up the scene. Keyframes are the important parts that tell the story.
Storyboards are used in all forms of films and programmes. Action films will often have the most heavily detailed storyboards out of any film since it has so much to plan out. Their storyboards can sometimes have frame by frame sketches for a scene. Below is a photo of the opening scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' which was very detailed storyboarded.

Storyboards are used mostly in Pre-Production but can also be used in the 'selling' of the script. They can be used to show the way the production would work for the commissioner. During pre-production, storyboards are used to plan and design the production. These are what will help you design, plan shots, etc. During Production, storyboards are used as a guide to setting up the shots on the day. Some productions use the storyboards as a first point of reference. Others will only use them as a rough guide or back-up. Some productions don't use storyboards at all! Some will only use a shot list and not create a storyboard, they aren't needed. It all depends on the Director and production. 

Storyboards can also be used during post-production. They can help the editor piece together and see the planned structure of the production and it can help the director with this as well. They can speed up the editing progress largely. 

SCREENWRITING: FINAL DRAFT

We started by speaking about moments. If you think of a moment, remember your first reactions to it. Remember what it did for you when you first wrote it. Although many drafts could get you questioning your moments, remember them and trust your first reactions.

Final draft
Every script has to be in written in the default font for to it be viewed by anyone. Final Draft is also the industry standard. No Producer, Director, Commissioner, Agent or Actor will read your script unless it has been written in Final Draft. Final Draft also works along with Movie Magic and you feed your script into that and it will produce the shooting script for the production.
Final Draft has many tools to help a writer like:
- Spelling - Press this 3 or 4 times after finishing the script and it'll check all the spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.
- General - This doesn't need to be altered and will show you the layout of the script.
- Set font - DO NOT CHANGE THE FONT.
- Documents allows you to add script notes, a title page, etc.
- Production - Here you can see how many scenes you have by clicking "scene numbers"
- Lock page is what you do when the script is finished. If the script needs editing the edited scripts are given to the actors on coloured paper to be able to track the edits

We were then given a 5 page word document which Steve asked us to put into Final Draft and reformat it so that it looked more like a script. Since I've already used Celtx in the past I decided to use Final Draft and learn to use the software.

I found the software quite straight forward to use and understood the layout as I've written scripts before. Steve showed us how to use the software and format the correct bits and from this session I also learnt the importance of re-reading and spell checking a script. After going through the entire script and double checking everything I noticed that there were some spelling errors in the script but these were actually intentional and Steve explained that here could be a good place to add in a script note to ensure this is not only noted but remembered as well. 

CAMERA WORKSHOP 3: 180 DEGREE RULE

In today's workshop we were divided into groups and given a one page script and asked to film this into a sequence. The key to this task was understanding the 180 degree rule and following it. The script was very simple, two characters come together, sit down across from each other and then have a small conversation and then one leaves at the end. We could interpret this in any way we wanted.

I chose to have my version with an entrance of both characters before they begin the dialogue. My idea was to have them both on 'oppersite' sides of the room, entering like in a classic western, with each character entering from a different side and being on the correct side of the camera following the rule. Then sitting down at a chair and having the conversation. I wanted to not only test the rule with dialogue, but with characters entering the scene as well.

From doing this I've begun to get ideas on how I could have my characters filmed in my script. Entering the room was something I wanted to practice the most. Having the characters entering and than panning with them to follow with the action. I moved the camera a lot to get the right shots and feel like I understood this rule and but it into good use. I got all the coverage I needed and worked well with my group. Here's my final edit for my video:

I'm pleased how this turned out. During the edit I worked through the footage and thankfully didn't have any issues with it. I chose to add in the classic theme from 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' as this is always associated with this sort of entrance. The music works well together with the entrance and then cuts off as we go into the action and dialogue, I did this as a sort of comical edit and going into the scene then.

I made the cuts quick and snappy, getting the pace going and running steady and smoothly. Finally, to work with that sort of old cowboy style I chose to colour correct it and give it a slight orange tint like you get in a western movie. Although the setting isn't the same I felt this worked and fitted with this style. I also feel I have understood the 180˚ Rule correctly and made it work well in this project.

EDITING WORKSHOP: TIMELINE & COLOUR CORRECTION

In our session with Fergus, we talked about editing on the timeline and using the editing tools that Premiere Pro has to offer such as ripple, cut, select, etc. and how this can help with with editing. Fergus gave us some footage and asked us to work through it and work on the audio side of it rather than the footage to start. Since there wasn't a constant audio track to cut from we had to use different parts of audio from different footage and make it all run smoothly together. Once this was done we worked on the footage and started to use L cuts which helped to change up the edit. Making the cuts between the clips slighting different but the audio still working well together. Once I'd done this I watch it back and Fergus suggested to cut the clips down and make the cuts happen a lot quickly and not have any long pauses and keeps the scene running and the audience interested. I found this really helpful since I often prefer to have pauses during moments such as in this seqeunce when the judge says 'Your father was a great man', However, Fergus showed me that this can just bore people and you want to keep the scene snappy and flowing unless it's said in the script.

After this we went on to learn the basics of colour correction in Adobe Premiere Pro, although there's a programme from Adobe called 'Speedgrading' which allows more detailed and complicated colour correction and grading for videos. However, Premiere Pro offers a good amount of Colour Correction. We started by looking at a effect called 3 pint colour correction which allows you to not only correct the shadows, midtones and highlights with the colour wheels. By changing one of these you'll effect the other two. They work together. As well the graph on the right side shows the level of whites and blacks in the shot and allows me to see what's over exposed. Fergus showed us how to balance the colours out and make it much more crisp and eye appealing for the audince. While doing this I learnt how much colour can effect a scene. When I brought the colours down and made it more blue and cold. The mood of the scene changed to be more serious and upsetting. But with a more crist and bright colour it became more intense and real life.

STORYTELLING UNIT: SOURCE MATERIAL

My initial idea was a 'thriller' about a Father and Daughter finding a lost girl at the side of the road, driving her home and then discovering she's vanished and later we learn she's a ghost. This needed to be changed as it was too close to a Horror script so I changed it to a Father and Daughter driving home, they aren't at good terms after the Mother was taken due to a medical illness and they break down and end up having to sort out their differences since they're stuck in the middle of nowhere.

After my lectures with Steve I looked for how I could develop this story more and how I could find inspiration for the Father and Daughter. Referring to plots and stories Steve told us "Write about things that have happened to you" and from that I looked to the people who for years I've known to argue until they finally got put in a room together and sorted things... My Dad and Sister.

My sister, Kirsty, and my step-father, Dave, are closer than any Father and Daughter I've ever met. However, this wasn't the case for sometime.  When my sister was 16 she had a boyfriend that my dad didn't approve of because he didn't trust him. This caused a lot of issues in our family and at one point broke the family apart. They didn't speak and wouldn't sort anything out. Finally, my Mother and I put them together in a room and locked the door. Slightly extreme but they were in a room which they couldn't get out of and this finally got them to sort out their differences.
This scenario has been used in Film and TV for years. Put to characters together in a room they can't get out of and they will have to sort out their differences and work together to solve the issue. But instead of a room I chose to have them in the middle of nowhere and have no phone signal, same concept but different location and works well for the story. Looking deeper into my Father and Sisters relationship though, Dave told my sister that the reason he was so protective of her is because we didn't have our real dad and he wanted to protect her because she'd already lost so much. From this I saw a moment I could use! Steve told me "If you can't think of any moments, steal someones else's and make them your own" and this is a perfect one, discovering that Dave wasn't just being a grumpy and horrible old man (which was the thought for some time) but he was actually doing it out of love and compassion and looked and Kirsty as his actual Daughter. This is what brought them closer together and fixed their relationship.

Although this wasn't the story I wanted to tell originally, it is defiantly something that fits with my story perfectly and gives me a perfect ending for the script as well.

CAMERA WORKSHOP 4: ON LOCATION FILMING

In today's workshop we focused on filming on an exterior location. We were put into groups of 4 and given the task to create a short sequence about anything we wanted in our groups but we needed to consider the location we were working on which was the far car park behind the studios. The main points we were told about working on an outside location were:
- Considering the safety of the crew
- Wearing High visibility jackets to ensure we could be seen by the public and any vehicles
- Check the risks of the location (e.g. trip hazards, vehicles, any dangers to cast of crew, etc.)
- Consistently working at a professional standard in the eyes of the public

We were assigned a camera and sound kit and given our high visibility jackets and sent out to the location. When getting there we checked over the location and saw that the ground was covered with thorn branches and had many tripping hazards with small bushes around. After checking the location over we decided to create a sequence where someone is running away from something. Like in the classic horror films. I took the role of Director and while my team mates set up the camera and sound equipment, while this I walked Ethan (our actor) through the sequence and the different shots i wanted him to go through.

While shooting we made sure that the ground was as flat as possible and only made Ethan run during the recording of a scene. However, although we did walk and block through all the shots before the recording. Ethan did trip over and fall while running on a patch of ground which was very hazardous with bushes and thorns as trip hazards. Realistically we shouldn't have used this area due to the hazards and even though we walked through the scenes and did identify the hazards, they were too high of a risk and we should have changed location for this section of the sequence. After this we changed it so that the actor just turned around and looked at the camera in horror rather than running and risk him falling again.

This is our final edit for the video. I wanted it to be quick and snappy since it's a running sequence. From this workshop I've learnt I need to survey the location better next time to avoid any injuries or accidents and ensure I walk through the scenes and plan ahead before shooting.