Post 8: Decisions & Revisions

Thinking of an original idea of the top of my head to write a script on was proving to be quite a struggle. I had no idea at all on a character or a storyline that I could create what so ever. As this was the case I decided to use a secondary resource to help me develop my ideas. I went onto various news websites to see what was currently happening in the world of affairs.

The Websites I went on were:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

http://news.sky.com/skynews/

http://www.itv.com/news/

After spending time on each of these websites I eventually found an article that interested me. It was about the recent lottery ticket that was won in Britain and was not claimed.

This article gave me the idea to create a storyline about my character as the holder of the winning lottery ticket. I was looking at the possibilities of also including that my character had financial issues that could give you the story of him winning the lottery but does not know it when he is in really bad circumstances.

I decide do create a mind map and brainstorm ideas that I could include into my script about the lottery stroyline. This is the mind map that I created:

After some great debate and discussion with other class members this is the final script idea I decide to come up with.

Synopsis of my short film:


David Smith is struggling in the world. no money, no job and a marriage that is on the rocks. He is desperate for anything. So when his local shop keeper advises him to buy a roll over lottery ticket David ponders an idea that he has never thought of. Should he buy a lottery ticket? With a huge multi million prize waiting to be won has David brought that lucky lottery ticket?

Post 7: Creating Your Own Script.

In class we worked on how to create good short film ideas. The first thing we did was as a starter we went round the class and each one of us told our other class members about what we did last night. We each had a minute to do this. We had to continuously talk about our night and consider what to leave out and relate it to narrative.

We then watched a short film called Signs. The film was a love story about a guy who was struggling to fit into a new environment and suddenly meets a girl in a office next to his and communicates by using signs. When we watched the film through and paused it at significant events and discussed possible outcomes and if we felt the short film was good.

We identified as a class that each short film needs the following:

- A World

- A Character

- A Problem

- A Want

- A Need

- An Obligation










From watching the short film "Signs" this is what we identified about the main character:

This is some of the key words we came up with to describe him:

- Dry
- Shy
- Bombarded
- Scared
- Need

The Want: To be love - This is shown when he shows interest into the woman in the office block next to him an starts communicating via Signs.

The Obligation - Go to work, sleep, Parent Expectations - This is shown when they show his day to day life of getting up going to work and getting phone messages of his parents who are keeping up on him.

Post 6: What makes a good short film?

In class we received a visit from film producer Becky Knapp. Becky gave us information on how to write a short film and gave us her experiences of producing short films.

During Becky's lesson she gave us scripts to read. First we read the scripts through and gave feedback to the whole class about what we thought of the script. We commented on what we thought it was about. whether or not if we understood it and whether we enjoyed reading it. We read two scripts these were Does God Play Football and Donna.



We first read through Donna and as a class we agreed that Donna was not the most interesting of scripts to read. We then watched the film to see if our reaction would change. As a whole I thought that after watching the film I still had the same reaction as I did after I read the script. One of the main reasons was the fact there was not much dialogue involved and it did not really catch your attention for the whole film. Maybe this is something I can take into account when producing my short film.

The second script we read Does God Play Football? We all found this script to be a lot more interesting. There was more Dialogue and the overall storyline gripped you as you read through the script. When we watched the film I found it to be more interesting than the script itself. The fast paced storyline and the dramatic acting made the film very enjoyable to watch. One of the main areas of the film that I thought gripped you as the audience and made the film more interesting was the music they added in the background every so often throughout the film. This added great tension to the film and gripped us as an audience.

Does God Play Football can be watched by clicking on this link:

Does God Play Football?
















Reading these scripts will help me when I come to write my own script. With the information and guidance we all received from Becky and the feedback from the scripts she showed us it will help me into writing a good script.

I have decided that my short film script will need to be interesting and not full of long dialogue that will bore the reader of the script and audience watching. So with short dialogue and a simple storyline I will hope to achieve a good short film.

After Becky's lesson we was set independent study to further our intelligence on what makes a good short film. We was given a few resources to look at by our teacher and had to use our own time to research into them.  

The first task I did for my independent study was to read an article from The Times on how to write a short film.

The article can be seen by clicking this link:

The Times - How To Write A Good Short Film Script

The Times article says that there are no rules you have to follow when writing a short film script but if you want you're film funded then there are a few basic principles you have to follow.

The article states that no one is intending to make a living out of short films and usually make them to show a message or to teach something. Also as it is difficult to make money out of producing a short film you have to make sure you have a reasonable budget to make you're short film with.

It also says that to make a story for a short film you need 3 basic elements. These are:

A World - This will create an easily recognisable world in order to start exploring a characters problem. A simple world e.g a wedding or first day at school will help the audience familiarise themselves with the world.
 
A Character - Who is the main character?, What is their problem?, How will the audience recognise the problem? - The audience must be clear to know who the film is about.

What is the driving force for you're character?:
- A Want
- A Need
- An Obligation

This must all be clear to the audience.
 
A Problem - The audience must see the heart of the story which will be the main characters problem.

The Times article also gave you a sample script. The sample script can be seen below:

The Times - Sample Script

From reading The Times article on how to write a good short film it has given me a brilliant understanding on what I need to do to write my short film script. The World, Character and Problem is a great building platform to create you're story form. Also the Sample script will help me with the overall layout of the Script and reading through it will give you a good understanding of how long it needs to be and how to build you're story up.

 


  

Post 5: Audience Theory & My Short Film

For the first part of learning about audience theory we had to read some texts explaining what audience theory is. We then was put into groups and had to create a presentation on power point to show our understandings of one of the three texts. The text we produced a power point on was The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies by Philip J Hanes.

This is the Power Point we made:

http://klsmediadepartment.blogspot.com/2010/09/audience-theory-student-powerpoints.html

Next we had to watch four short films and using our knowledge from learning about audience theory analyse them using these possible audience receptions:

- Dominant Hegemonic Position
- Negotiated Hegemonic Position
- Oppositional Hegemonic Position
- Aberrant Decoding
- Moral Panic
- Mode of Address

The four short films I decided to watch analyse were About a Girl, Wasp, Cubs and Does God Play Football.

ABOUT A GIRL:

The first film I watched was About A Girl. The film lasted 9 minutes and 52 seconds. About A Girl was ironically about a girl telling a story about herself.

Dominant Hegemonic Position - About A Girl was intended to shock people with its ending and ask questions to the audience. Throughout the film whenever the girl builds up emotion it always cuts to a different scene for example with her Dad. At the end when she drops the baby into the canal it shows she can hind anything which she said she could from her mother. This makes the audience think into how she has a baby and why her Father and Mother had been so distant from her.


Negotiated Hegemonic Position - The negotiated hegemonic view that other people could pick up from watching About A Girl is what could the effect of teenage pregnancy of had on this girl. Could the pregnancy of been caused because she was so isolated from the rest of her family and as well as this when she is on the bus with her friends they talk about growing up and maybe this could of influenced it.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - From watching this short film many people would agree with the message that comes across but there are areas where the audience could disagree with it. For example the message of the baby being thrown into the canal at the end was quite clear but people might have disagreements with it. They may look into the fact that more should of been done to help the girl to deal with teenage pregnancy and why she was so isolated from her parents.

Moral Panic - The moral panic of this films leaves the audiences wanting to know more about the girl. The audience are left questions they want answering for example why she is pregnant and why is she so isolated from her parents?

WASP:

I then went on to watch another social realism film. It was called Wasp. It lasted around 20 minutes. Wasp was about a mother living with 3 children struggling to make ends meet with money. She eventually meets a man and goes on a date with him to the pub. But not being able to find a babysitter she takes the children with her and leaves them outside. Her youngest child eventually gets stung by a wasp. 

The short film can be seen below:

Dominant Hegemonic Position - Wasp was designed to show the struggle of single parents in council estates. It shows how the lead character is living in poverty and struggling to get by with her kids. From where  the main character Zoe makes all her child swear at another mother you get the impression of poor living conditions and the roughness in working class council estates. This is also shown when Zoe does not have enough money for a babysitter so allows her children to play outside the pub. The audience would feel that Zoe is not bringing up her kids not in the correct way.

Negotiated Hegemonic Position - The negotiated hegemonic position that other people may pick up from watching Wasp could be how wrong it was for Zoe to attend her date at the pub. As she could not find anyone to look after her kids. The audience could of felt that her baby getting stung by the wasp could of been punishment for Zoe and will teach her a future lesson.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - Some people may disagree with the message that this short film is showing because the audience may feel sorry for Zoe rather than against her. This is because it is clear that she is struggling with her kids and  maybe there should be more support for people like Zoe when times are tough.

  

CUBS:


Cubs is another short film I watched. It was another social-realism film and lasted for around 10 minutes. Cubs focuses on youth gang culture and how pier pressure is common in youths nowadays.

Cubs can be seen below:




Dominant Hegemonic Position - Cubs shows to great effect the effects of pier pressure in teenage life in British society. As an audience you see the main character Ben trying his best to fit in and impress. The audience would also feel sorry for Ben as you can see he just wants to be accepted into the gang and would go to any means possible to be so. This is shown when he shoots the fox.


Negotiated Hegemonic Position - From watching Cubs the audience would feel sorry for Ben's friend Davis. Davis says to Ben they wouldn't get picked and which they don't so. But after the idea of pier pressure is show with Ben he is persuaded to go and shoot the fox. The audience feel sorry for Davis as she is upset and disgusted with Ben's behaviour.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - Throughout Cubs the audience is always intrigued to see what goes on next. For example when Ben is being persuaded to go with the gang the audience is interested to see if he goes with them or not. Also when he about to shoot the fox the audience wants to know what is going to happen.   

Moral Panic - Cubs always keeps the audience intrigued the short film. With Ben falling into pier pressure and seeing whether he will shoot the fox or not. There is always interest for the audience to keep watching.

Post 4: Genre as a Media Concept

Post 4: Genre as a Media Concept:

In class we discussed Genre as a Media concept and looked at some of the issues that are highlighted when discussing genre. We then compared our thoughts and views to our opening sequences that we made for our A-S projects.

We first looked at Robert Altman's views on what he believed is genre. His views are that genre's are easily recognised and are predictable to audiences. For example a recent film called The Expendables features actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. From this you expect this film to be full of high action showing big explosions and a fast paced storyline. This is what the audience expects and gets when witnessing the film. He also argues that genres are ideological, this could mean that producers and audiences have the power to decide what a genre consists of and how they want the film to be portrayed. Comparing Altman's views to my opening sequence I believed my sequence "Thug Britain" can compare to some of Altman's views as the name of our film is basically what goes on in the film with two drug dealers trying to get through life.

We then looked at whether genre would be classified as a verb or an adjective. We had a group discussion about what we thought you would class genre as and each of us gave our opinoins and views about it. As a group we came to a conclusion that genre would be classed as an adjective.

After we classified genre we was asked a philosophical question. The question we was asked was:

Where Would You Find Tomato Pure In A Supermarket?

We discussed this question in a class debate and each said where we would expect to find tomato pure. Some of the places where my fellow class mates would expect to find tomato pure in the supermarket is next to the tomato's, with the pizzas, with the packet sauces and above the freezer section. The actual place you would find tomato pure is at the freezer section. This all links to genre because if the tomato pure was stored in a different place would the item be any different. This is similar with genre as would a comedy and romantic comedy be different?

Finally we looked at Neale's and Hartley's opinions on genre. Neale says that genre is dictated by industries, media texts and audiences and believes all three have the ability to decide what a genre consists of. Hartley believes that a contract between the audience and producers discipline choices and reduces desires. I agree with these statements as I feel us as an audience can dictace what we want to see.

Post 3 Skills

Post 3 Skills:


Skills Table:


For the second part of this task we created a table to record key skills that we learnt and used in our A-S project we presented it onto a poster . We put our skills into four different headings which were:


- Digital Technology
- Research & Planning
- Media Text Conventions
- Post Productions


We then classified skills into these headings then broke them down into the following skills:


- Cognitive Skills
- Technical Skills
- Interpersonal Skills


After we had finished the poster we had to do a voice over and explain the skills we had put into each section. I read the Post-Production section.


Here is our Table and voice over:

In class we was assigned the task of setting ourselfs 5 targets we want to achieve by the end of next year. These are the 5 targets I want to achieve:

1. The first target I want to achieve is to successfully learn how to use the edit suite. This is because in the preliminary task and the main task at A-S level I struggled to understand everything in there and was continuously asking for help. At A2 level I want to be able to get straight on with my editing and not having to ask for help. A way in which I could get better in the edit suite and using the software could be to film short clips then practise editing in the edit suite to get experience and to understand what I’m doing.

2. The second target I want to achieve is to be more organised with my work and keep my blog up to date. This is because at some stages I fell heavily behind on the work and was often playing catch up to get up to date with the work. This time around I want to make sure my blog is up to date at the time it should be. I can do this by doing weekly checks to make sure my blog posts are all on there according to the work we should of done and any unfinished work will be done that week.

3. Another target I wish to achieve is to be able to understand key media terms and equipment. This includes digital equipment, filming techniques, rules of filming, key terms (e.g. jibbing and panning) and vital equipment. Ways in which I will be able to understand these key terms and equipment is to practise with them and make sure I understand each and everyone.

4. The fourth target I wish to achieve is to create a well finished short film that appeals to our target audience. Ways I want to achieve this is by well plaining out our film and know exactly what we are doing before we go to film. Also I want to be alert to when we come to edit so we can edit in time and make sure we have enough time for the evaluation tasks.

5. The final target I wish to achieve is to be able to meet all deadlines and make sure my work is up to date. I wish to achieve this by spending more time on independent study outside lesson time and making sure all my work is up to date so I am ready to move onto my next task.

Post 2

Introduce the idea of "creativity":

Creativity is very important in the media industry. Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. It can be totally original and usually involves two stages thinking of the idea and then producing it.

Creativity is different in the media industry than the art industry. For example in the art industry if someone didn't understand the piece they was looking at they would still look at it and find it interesting but in the media industry if someone did not understand the film it would not be very good and audiences would drop.

In class we was looking at tasks to help us be creative and for one of the tasks we played the game consequences. We played consequences in a group of four. We each had to write down a adjective and noun in a special order to create a random sentence.

The sentence that we came up with was "The disgusting bucket drinking new rubber duck."

With this sentence we had to create a image to describe the sentence. This helps us be creative because we will have to think creative ideas in order to create the piece of art work for our consequences sentence and may give us experience in thinking creative when we come to make our film project.

This is the artwork I came up with:

For the second task we was given a camera and told we had to film a short video clip. The only other thing we was told was that our short video clip could be about anything but it had to include a pen in it somewhere. This we a very good way of being creative because we did not have much time to think of something so we had to use what ever came to our heads straight away and we had to put ideas together to make it work.

This is the short video clip that my group created it is called "Where's My Pen":