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)