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.

STORYTELLING UNIT: THE CHAIR FINAL EDIT

After shooting my 'The Chair' sequence, I got down to editing it.
My aim was to create a sequence where we focus on the actor walking along and we know they're going to the chair. We get focus and some tension to keep the audience watching, when the actor ties their shoe it's to get the audience to react, they want to know what is going to happen and this makes them wait more and more. Then we get the main bit which is the text 'i'm waiting' which brings mystery to the end of the film and makes us question what's going to happen next.

My edit can be viewed below:

I found that editing this was a little trickier than I thought originally as a few shots were quite shakey, the shot of the actors feet had to have warp stabiliser added to it to stable the shot more and make it more appealing to watch, although I couldn't get it perfect I could only solve it slightly. As well I had some issues making the clips work together at first. Although it could it working smoothly I found some shots like the slow up tilted mid shot of the actor stopping to tie her shoe lace was one I didn't like in the end and had issues cutting it to work with the previous shot.
My main issue with this was the sound. I forgot to record a wild track or the sound of footprints so when editing my sound I had to take one section of the audio and loop that with a cross gain fade so that the 'wild track' sounds consistent through the entire project. I did some basic colour correction as well to get the mood better with the film. I brought the colour to have a slight blue tint to it and also brought the exposure and brightness down, giving a sort of mysterious and cold feel to the film which is what I wanted with it.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: CAMERAWORK & EDITING LECTURES NOTES

What is camerawork?
- How the camera is used in TV and film to serve story, character and action
- The arts of cinema photography

Basic elements of camera work
- The shot - affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through composition and speed
- Movement - affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through changes in visual speed and action

Why do we use shots?
- The basic building blocks of visual grammar
- The visual equivalent of sentence structure
- If shots are words, Mise En Scene is meaning and editing is narrative structure

The basic shots
- Wide shot - Establishes location, setting or character's context in setting
- Medium shot - characters dominate the frame
- Close up - face or specific objects dominates the frame
- Extreme close up - specific detail on something specific (e.g. eyes, mouth, etc.)

- Wide shots conveys sense of place and context, can also convey characters relationship to surroundings, or social relationship to other characters as an 'establishing shot'
- Medium shot focuses viewers attention on one or more principal characters. Commonly used for dialogue scenes as 'two shot' or 'over-the-shoulder', emphasise personal relationships
- Close up conveys intimacy and emotion. Often used for interior monologues/voiceover or speaking directly to camera
- Extreme close up conveys heightened emotion (fear, suspense, desire), dramatic tension or reveal. With documentary making, you won't often see extreme close ups unless for extreme emotion. If you see your interviewers crying you might want to focus on that for the editing room so you have it

Alfred Hitchcock - 'The size of the image is important to the emotion, particularly when you're using that image to have the audience identify with it'

Classic framing and composition
- Rule of third - subject placed at aesthetic interest
- Derived from 'the golden mean' - classical concept of nature's balance and harmony reflected in art

Breaking Bad used a lot of different angles and speeds:
- High angle shot (overhead shot, birds eye view) - objective alienating, diminishes character or subject in frame, emphasising vulnerability or isolation
- Low angle shot - Emphasises character or subjects dominance. Often used for 'hero shots' or menace
- Dutch/tilt angle - Disorientating, creates psychological tension

Expressionism
- Angled shots are a common feature of expressionism, particularly the classic german expressionist films of the 1920s-30s
- Expressionism present the world sole from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality

- Slow motion/fast motion - alters audiences perceptual or emotional response to dramatic action

Motion & Emotion
Why do we move the camera?
- To heighten action or emotion
- To coney the object or subjective viewpoints
- Refocus audiences attention within the scene
- Explore or change setting/environment

Alfred Hitchcock - ' I believe in using the camera movements when it helps tell the story more effectively... I think one of the first essentials of moving the cameras that the eye should not be aware of it'

Alienation
- Hitchcock's use of reverse crane/tracking shot is an example of alienation effect
- Alienation is the extent to which one maintains a critical vista ce from cultural production. The more immersive a piece, the greater associated with passively experiencing the media
- Contrastingly an alienated audience remains removed from the media, critically considering the signs, narrative an so on. This is often considered in a relation to artifice, with alienated media not attempting to hide the constructed and artificial nature of the production; showing scaffolding, using minimal staging, etc.

Key camera movement techniques
- Pan, tilt and zoom - This are classed as the most basic camera movements you can do with the camera without having anything like dolls, cranes, etc.
- Handheld/steadicam
- Dolly/Crane
- Drone

We watched a small clip from the 1978 film 'Halloween' which was the first horror film to use a steadicam as a technique.
- Heightens action and emotion through subjective POV
- Switches between subjective POV
- Switches between subjective (steadicam) and objective (crane) viewpoints
- Refocuses audience's attention within the scene (movement through set and pans)
Explores character relation to environment

Elements of visual style (Boardwell)
- Denotative (directing attention
- Expressie (bringing out or magnifying feelingful qualities)
- Decorative (Flourishes or stylistic patterns that are independent or semi-independent of narrative design)
- Symbolic functions (invoking abstract concepts)

Use of handheld in documentary
- Heightens action and emotion (conveys urgency)
- Dynamics of transition (moving from one location to another)
- Places characters in context (life on the streets). Authenticity.

How the camera serves filmmaker and audience
- Narrative - visual story telling
- Aesthetics - frames the mise-en-scene
- Psychology - insight into identification with character
- Analysis/interpretation - objective/subjective POV pr artistic vision
                                                                                                                                                                                
Editing Lecture
What is editing?
- The assembly of visual material into sequences
- Constructs a narrative (linear or non-linear)
- Manipulates time (condense, lengthen, flashback, flash forward
- Juxtaposes ideas and concepts (visual and intellectual)

You don't HAVE to have editing, there are films such as Birdman, Russian Ark and Rope (1948) which appear to be done in one complete take and no edits involved.

Creating visual meaning
- Mise-En-Scene and cinematography create implicit meaning within shots
- Editing creates implicit meaning between shots

Surrealism film is where the film is almost like a bad acid trip. It's very artistic and can be very graphic at times as well.

Four Key elements of editing (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art)
- Spatial - the relationship between different spaces and the editors manipulation of them e.g. cross cutting
- Temporal - Manipulation of time within the film in relation to order, duration and frequency e.g. montages, dissolves, wipes, fades
- Rhythmic - manipulation of duration of the shots: accents, beats and the tempo e.g. action and suspense scenes, jump cuts
- Graphic - the relationship between pictorial qualities of shots or scenes e.g. graphic match cut

Why editing is important
- Creates strong visual narratives from simple script descriptions or unedited rushes
- The most creative aspect of filmmaking
- A good editor can make mediocre shots work; a mediocre editor can ruin (or ignore) good shots
- Shooting ratios have an impact on editing (film is 10:1, Documentary 60-100:1)

Two schools of editing theory
- Classical Hollywood continuity - Primarily used in mainstream cinema and television and drama and classical formal documentary
- Soviet montage - influences still felt in avant-garde documentary filmmaking, and independent and experimental cinema

Continuity editing - Set of editing techniques used to create a cohsive sense of space and continuous time by maintaining consistent graphic, spatial and temporal relationships between shots

180 degree rule - Scenes are constructed along an axis of action, spatial positions in the frame are consistent, eyeliner consistent across shots, screen direction consistent across shots

Eyeliner match shot - First shot shows the character looking offscreen, second shot shows us the character is looking at

Shot-reverse shot - Alternates between two shots framed reverse angles, often used to depict conversations

match on action - action begun in first shit is completed in the second shot, maintains continuous action (and therefore continuous sense of the passage of time) across edits

Soviet Montage 
- Formal theory and technique where editing serves an ideological purpose
- Not escapist drama through continuity, but challenging audience to thought and action through image montage
- Key filmmakers and theories: Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshow, Dzig Vertov

Ideology
- Set of opinions, values, beliefs and assumptions that ones uses to think about and relate to the world
- Ideology is not objective truth but perceived truth; a systems value
- It is common to conceive of ideology being the only way of understanding the world; that there is  no position of objective truth from which to interpret things
- Soviet filmmaker served a communist ideology: that film could serve a political education purpose for the betterment of society

Eisenstein on montage
- Eisenstein argues that montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternative to continuity editing
- "Montage is conflict" (dialectical) where new ideas emerge from the collisions within the montage sequence
- Thesis/shot a + antithesis/shot b = Synthesis

The Kuleshov effect
- a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation
- So each single shot has its own intrinsic meaning, and a new meaning when two are intercut

5 principles of soviet montage 
- Metric - editing which follows a specific tempo (based purely on frame count), cutting the next shot regardless of action in the frame
- Rhythmic - similar to metric but allowing for visual continuity from edit to edit
- Tonal - uses the emotional meaning of the shot e.g. sleeping baby to date peace, calm
- overtonal/associative - a fusion of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage intended to have a more intense effect on the audience
- Intellectual - editing together shots which, when combined, convey an intellectual or metaphorical meaning

Modern documentary editing
- Evidentiary (or expositional) editing - explicit meaning of edits is reinforced by narration or dialogue. shots are often illustrative and usually maintain some visual continuity
Bill Nichols In evidentiary editing expositional images "... illustrate, illuminate, evoke or act in counterpoint to what is said... [we] take our cue from the commentary and understand the images as evidence or demonstration"
- Dynamic editing - modern narrative style dominated by jump cut and other elliptical edits that often ignores classical visual continuity

In dynamic editing, concepts of matching and continuity rarely apply. Shots are ordered by meaning but not necessarily by their relationship to each other in time or space

Modern intellectual
The films of BBC documentary maker Adam Curtis combine evidentiary editing (narration and expositional archive) with increasingly stylised poetic montage sequences
His latest 'Bitter lake' explores how Afghanistan became of vital significance in the modern world

SCRIPTWRITING: BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END

Plot - What happens in the script

Story - The significants of what happens (The point of the plot)

A story is like a ball (when you throw it you need to catch it). With our 10 minute scripts we'd only have 1 story but we can do lots of throws and twists with it. TV Series could have many different stories but you'd have to catch them all at the end like throwing lots of balls.

You can have simple stories or dangerous stories as long as you throw them up in the air and catch them at the end. With the plot, there will be ironies, dramatic ironies. The writers of 'South Park' have said that a plot that goes "this happens AND THEN this happens' is a bad plot and is boring. Your characters should have 'BUTS', hard choices, make these 'BUTS' interesting and dramatic because they are what will power the plot into a story. These will be a truth, a turning point for the character. The aim of good screenwriting is to get enough good 'BUTS' into your script. A dramatic irony: 'A bald man with a com in his pocket'.

When talking to your audience. You want them to think they know the character better than the character knows themselves. Then when they think they know the character, BANG! hit them with a BUT and shock them and keep the script interesting. As well as BUTS and dramatic irony, You need to have one important thing before writing, THE ENDING. If you know the ending, you can start thinking about the moments to lead up to that ending. You can then work on the beginning, the beginning is where you introduce your characters and what they're like quickly but effectively. This is three beginnings we looked at:

STORY-TELLING: 180 RULE

The 180 rule is where you position the camera in a scene is where you place the audience in the scene. As an example of this we watched a scene from the film 'Good Will Hunting' which has two characters talking and we see a good amount of coverage from basically 3 different shots. The 180 rule is basically an invisible line which is where you can place the camera and the scene will work. This line is known as the 'Line of Action'.

As you can see from this photo, the line of action is where you can't cross, once the line has been drawn, you can make a 180 degree shape and you can then place the camera in any place within the 180 and it'll work with the scene. The way that this rule gets established is we get an establishing shot which has the characters standing and facing the ways that they need to be and then it cuts together and works well if the rule has been followed. What the audience see's matters, if the rule is going to change then the audience needs to see it otherwise it won't make sense. 

This rule can be 'broken' in a sense with a tracking or moving shot. If you've got a camera moving through the scene then the audience will understand and follow along with the scene and it will make sense. The rule has been known to be broken for stylistic reasons, "Rules are made to be broken" is a famous quote and this can happen here as well. A good example of the rule being broken is from 'The Shining' directed by Stanley Kubrick. The scene below is where this rules gets broken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc0_SYZJfzU

As you can see from this, the camera jumps behind and tries to throw the audience off but it works with the scene since this is where the main character is starting to go crazy and we can see it as the audience. It helps show that madness with the mixture of the acting and the bright red room.

CAMERA WORKSHOP 2: THE CHAIR

In the workshop we got to try out the Sony EX1R cameras again and just get familiar with them and the checklist 'SWEFF'. We tested and went through the cameras to make sure we knew how they worked and were comfortable using them.

After this warm up, Simon joined and gave us a task. He talked to us about capurting with footage and how detail helps to tell a story in a film. Detail on movements and actions, the more detail can sometimes make a simple scene really interesing and grasping, even if there isn't any dialogue in the scene. Sometimes the suroundings and objects in a scene can tell the story better. This goes back to Steve's rule for screen writing 'Show, Don't tell'. This is how we can do that. Simon showed us some good examples of story telling with 2 scenes from different films. The first was from 'Children of Men' directed by Alfonso Cuarón. This entire scene is done in a single shot and was done with a specially made camera rig.

EDITING WORKSHOP: COFFEE REFINING

In a workshop with Fergus, we were given our first task in editing together a sequence. All of this was to test us and see how comfortable and confident we were with the adobe software, since some have never used Adobe before.
I've been using Adobe Premiere Pro, Audition, Photoshop and After Effects for over 2 years now. Although I still have a lot of learn, I'm confident with the software and I know how to edit basic. Although from the workshop I've learnt some really helpful short cuts with Premiere Pro that I didn't know before.

The task we were given was a 2 minute sort of documentary about coffee farmers in Uganda with a voice over and some titles. When editing these clips and audio together, we weren't given a script or paper edit to work off, so we had to figure out the other of the story from the audio and then decide ourselves what footage fitted in where. I edit together my audio first to get a structure for my edit and then put in the footage in order of the process of making the coffee. Below is my final edit.

I choose to go further than just editing footage with audio and also added in wild track and background sounds in the film to add in atmosphere and bring the project more to life and give it some character. As well I had a few issues with the opening titles as they were just with a black background but I wanted them on the footage itself. I did this by adding a Luma Key onto the titles and changing the settings around to make the titles more clear and work better.
From this workshop I've already began to think about different ways I could use post-production in my first project. Specifically with titles and audio.

SCREENWRITING: THE MOMENT

Steve asked us to find a 'moment' in a film or TV Series that we loved and remembered and discuss it ready for the next session. The 'Moment' that I chose is from the TV Series 'Breaking Bad', Produced by AMC and created by Vince Gilligan. This 'moment' is from the end of an episode in season 3 and it's when Jessie is going to shoot two drug dealers, they see each other across a street, slowly start walking up to each other, as Jessue pulls out his gun, so do the the drug dealers, as they are about to shoot, Walter White drives up and runs over both dealers, killing one instantly. He then gets out of his car, walks up to the dealer trying to grab his gun, Walter picks it up and without hesitation, shoots the dealer. As Jessie looks in horror and fear, Walter looks up and says 'Run' and the episode ends. This moment can be seen below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH2-UGOhfWw

What made me remember and choose this moment is the shock that it gave me when I watched it. The fear you see from Jessie as he walks towards the dealers, we see tention build in the scene, we can see much fear in Jessie's eyes and facial expression as he walks up to the dealers. No dialogue here at all, just showing the fear and tention through facial expression and detail on the dealer cogging his gun. Then suddently, the car drives up and hits into both of the dealers, we then see the shock and surprise but also relife in Jessie's eyes as he knows he doesn't have to kill them and then we see Walter get out and grab the gun, without hesitation, hold back or even emotion he just shots the dealer and we see the monster begin to grow more in him. However, since he just saved Jessie from 2 bigger monsters (the dealer) we take Walter's side. Finally, the only piece of dialogue that's needed, what ends the episode on a huge cliff hanger and brings such suspense and shock to the audience, 'RUN.'

STORYTELLING UNIT: DIALOGUE & CHARACTERS LECTURE

Through our lecture with Steve Cooms, we discussed the importance of dialogue and characters in a screenplay and the different type you can get for each. Before discussing these two parts of screenplays, Steve reminded us that the 5 golden rules of screenwriting

STORY-TELLING UNIT: IDEA CHANGES

After pitching to my class mates and my course leader about my script idea I received feedback from both.

Simon (Course leader)
Simon explained to me that he wasn't hugely comfortable with my idea as it was going outside the project rules and moving too far towards a horror genre rather than a thriller with the use of a ghost and that I need to come back towards a thriller or a drama with this idea. Simon did explain at the beginning of the unit that Horror wasn't allowed and the 3 genres we had to choose from were Drama, Comedy and Thriller. Simon carried on to say that the 'ghost' character in the story was what was making it too close to a horror and this is what needs to be changed. However he likes the two characters (Father and Daughter) and the relationship and story that comes with them and suggested that I make that the focus of the story.
Simon did say that I didn't have to completely cut this ghostly character and could have a few jumps and scares through the story but the focus on the story will have to be on the Father and Daughter to comply with the project rules. I explained to Simon that I'm more confident writing Horror script and he went on to explain that the point of this unit is to get us out of our comfort zone and challenge us with writing.

Classmates
The feedback I got from my classmates was mostly positive. The characters had good feedback and I was told that their descriptions and stories worked well together and it made the story sound interesting. They did ask about the ghostly character and how she was going to be a part of the story and I did get pointed out that we know nothing about her so to show her back story so trying to tell the audience that as well as keep the focus on James and Lily would be really hard in only 10 minutes. My classmate Ethan gave a suggestion on how I could alter the story. He suggested removing the 'ghost' and making the journey to the house the aim for the Father as he would be going to meet an old friend but we later find out that this friend murdered his daughter and have the father and Daughter try to escpae.

Ethan's suggestion was really interesting and a good idea but I just couldn't see it working in my head. But after the feedback I thought about what I could do with the characters I'd made and I had an idea which works well. 

I decided to stick with my characters exactly as they are since the feedback from them was really positive and they work really well. I did as Simon and Ethan suggested and cut the 'ghost' from the story completely but also decided to cut the other character (ghosts father) and change the location to only have the country lane. I wanted this location for a horror/thirller script and this new idea could work really well in just one location which makes the script simplar as well. 
The story is now:
James and Lily are driving home down a country road one night, neither have opened up to each other about how the death of the mother effected them. Their car then breaks down in the middle of no-where, there's no cars passing by, no signal and no-way of getting help. The 3 mains point of the story are:

Goal - Find a way to get home and/or fix the car

Conflict - The daughter gets angry and tries to walk away, both characters argue due to each not understanding where the other is coming from or how they feel.

Change - They both learn how each other felt after the death of the mother and open up about why they're really like this and build their relationship back together. As well a car drive up and they can finally get help.

I feel that this already works better and changes the story to a drama as well. I still get to keep my characters and also get the challenge of writing a drama which I haven't done before so I'm out of my comfort zone with this.