Filed under: media industries 2, reflection, seminar | Tags: documentary, final, reflection, self assessment, seminar
Contribution and Collaboration
My contribution to the seminar was that of post-production, where it was Eric and my job to edit the seminar footage as well as consult with the steering committee. This role was mainly a 2-way collaboration, with little to no issues along the way as Eric and I worked well together to formulate the highlight video. We worked together in that I would formulate the structure and he would do the technical aspects of putting it together so our skills worked well together in terms of complimenting each other. Due to the nature of my role being within the post-production section, which I could only really contribute to after the seminar was over I also helped out in some of the pre-seminar tasks. This included coming up with a set of questions with Gabriel and Ruby prior to the event and also talking through with Candice the questions, once both our host and back-up host were ill. Therefore, the major problem that arose through the process of hosting our seminar was our two hosts becoming ill and not being able to attend the seminar. This required a great deal of team work in terms of going through the questions and key topics with Candice as well as being on top of all the other elements that had to go into play to put together a great seminar.
Refer to: http://hannahfilmtv.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/editing-seminar-footage/
Proactive Learning
My proactive learning came in the form of going to see documentaries and also attending a masterclass on documentary filmmaking. I felt that I made a conscious effort to immerse myself in the field of documentary, which really helped when it came to formulating questions as I already had formulated some through my reflection on documentaries. In reflecting on the documentaries that I had seen as well as the masterclass allowed me to be more aware and also more involved in putting this documentary seminar in place as I felt that I already had key knowledge in terms of what made and didn’t make a documentary work. This also became incredibly important when it came to formulating the highlights video as I could dissect what was important in terms of relaying this to an audience. In conjunction I felt that I technically learnt some new skills in editing with Eric, the more you do something, the more you learn and I felt that this was clearly evident through this collaboration.
Participation
Most of our group collaboration and participation was done through a Facebook conversation in conjunction with our weekly class meetings prior to our seminar. In these collaborative environments it was difficult to participate fully due to the scale of the group and having all different members working in different areas. I was able to participate more when we broke up into our separate groups. In our separate groups participation was easier and there was a better dialogue happening between each of the groups, which worked a lot better. In terms of my own levels of participation I felt that I always made a conscious effort to respond to facebook conversations if appropriate and attend most of the editing sessions with Eric. However,I felt that I could have participated more in the final editing of our highlights video. Whilst I participated with Eric in the earlier editing sessions it got increasingly harder to make times that both of us could edit. I felt that I could have made a more conscious effort to finalise the edit with him.
Refer to: http://hannahfilmtv.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/is-this-reel-life/
Connections and intersections
One of the most valuable things I learnt through putting together this seminar series is how happy people are to talk about what the are passionate about and that networking is one of the most valuable things to take out of this course. Being able to approach people, even if it is simply via an email can be really difficult and daunting, yet really there are a lot of people that are willing to help you out. In conjunction to this it is really obvious to me that the value of the seminar series, is that you learn a lot from a practical perspective the ins and outs of documentary, not just in terms of content, but how to realistically apply what we have learnt in subjects such as ‘True Lies’ and ‘TV2′ within an industry-based context. For instance, some of Dennis Smith’s real documentary scenarios allowed you an in-depth perspective on what it’s like to deal with difficult subject matters and how to ethically approach documentary scenarios. What I have learnt about myself is that I still find it incredibly difficult to network, to approach people and to be confident about what I am interested in and I think this seminar series along with my own Personal Networking Report have encouraged me to become more sure of myself and confident in the skills that I have learnt throughout this course. However, at the same time I have also figured out that my previous career interest in being a Project Manager is not really what I want to do anymore, because I feel I don’t have that extroverted quality in terms of contacting and speaking to people, which is needed for this role.
Overall, I found the process of putting a seminar together quite challenging, yet extremely rewarding, mainly due to the content delivered by our fantastic guests. In our hosts both not being able to make it I felt that I learnt a lot about not getting flustered and the importance of being really organised to put swift actions in place to resolve the issue. This ability to resolve an issue comes not only from yourself but from good collaboration between yourself and your group members.
Filed under: media industries 2, reflection | Tags: documentary, PNR, transmedia
This post is slightly postponed and should have been written way earlier but I have been horrifically sick so lets start today with possibly what may come to be quite a large blog post. The main thing I want to cover is how shocked I was that the masses still chose television and film and why this is. I want to talk about this as I think it is really interesting that after two and a half years in this media course, where we have covered all aspects of media production that there is still a lack of enthusiasm for transmedia projects. I also find this interesting due to the fact that a lot of media industry 1 projects were on these new media avenues and how film and television are adapting to these environments. To be honest I was really disappointed that everyone was still so determined to get into film and television when more than ever the media industry is an exciting place that is moving in exciting new directions.
I don’t hate film and television
This is the first point I want to make, in fact I love films and television but perhaps my interests lie more in watching than making. Throughout this course I have found narrative film making to be so confined to a set of rules of ‘how a film should be made’ in terms of how it should look and the correct process to go through to get to that finished product. I find this restricting to the way I want to work and maybe perhaps I am wrong about this point, but I find documentary and transmedia projects much more free in terms of creativity because film production, especially what we have covered in this course relies so heavily on technical perfection and getting everything right in terms of executing your pre-production plans. I like projects that open up rather than close in and I find that really rewarding with documentary and the online project we did last semester, where participants decided what direction our project went in. Therefore, in terms of defining my own media practice I really like the idea of projects expanding and morphing as they develop, not closing into an original idea, especially within the production component. Production for me should be more organic, where you have pre-production ideas and a plan but there is the freedom for those ideas to adapt and expand, or perhaps even completely change.
Transmedia
Or new media or whatever term we can use to describe where this media industry is heading or perhaps part of it and I think all of us as media students should be excited because it opens up more opportunities than ever for all of us as we head towards graduation. What excites me about transmedia is that we are the ‘experts’ we grew up on social media sites and we contribute everyday or every couple of days by blogging, everything you post online has the possibility to turn into an online to offline sensation and I think at the very least is a really great starting point in terms of getting your stuff out there. It is exciting also because I feel that you don’t have to start at the bottom in a job that you hate as you slowly work your way up to a job that you may or may not like. I feel like transmedia opportunities start wherever you want them to start, and you don’t need the funding or the money to go with it either. In conjunction I feel that this course has trained us really well in areas that other people would know nothing about, which makes us kind of ‘semi-experts’ in these fields. So when I think of the opportunities and think of all the amazing stuff I have seen online I ask myself why is there not a majority of us interested in this? And what I think is that people have the attitude that it’s not ‘real’ media that people respect, if everyone can do it using a webcam in their bedroom why should I waste your time? What I think of this is that if you make something AMAZING online it will get noticed over all the other stuff, if you put it in the right places. I also think it is so pretentious to think that it is not a worthy part of the industry because more people sit on the internet than watch movies, and more people are watching television online. What I am basically saying here is that the future of media production excites me rather than puts me off and I am excited at all the opportunities that I will encounter when I graduate.
What to take from this
I can obviously see from this my own interests in terms of the direction of my Personal Networking Report in either the fields of documentary or transmedia. So, transmedia documentary? I see these two fields as places that compliment my work ethic and areas that I would really enjoy working in once I leave RMIT.
Since, our blogs are due in tomorrow I thought I would do a brief reflection on my reflexive practice so far. This semester I feel much more engaged in the course and feel that my blogging reflects this. I blog on a range of things that fit but aren’t limited to posts on lectures, tutorials, readings, making our documentary and various forms of research, which include watching documentaries and reflecting on those.
I feel that after completing True Lies I have a bigger grasp of this subject and aren’t afraid to reach out and explore things beyond the lectures, tutes and readings. I really enjoy watching documentaries to gain inspiration and have watched many that relate to our own documentary.
Even though I have missed a few of the readings I feel that I have engaged with the one’s that I have read and am determined to get on top of the rest. It is quite challenging to find time to read the lengthier readings, yet I should make a more conscious effort to read the ones that I haven’t as I feel that lots of the readings have really directed my next move and channeled how I approach things in terms of our own documentary.
Another area that I have not focused on is the Digital Dossier. I think this is mainly because I have been trying to focus my watching on documentaries that directly target homelessness as they will be more useful to our project. Also we have access and watch great snippets of documentaries in our lectures and now in our tutorials, which I have made a concerted effort to reflect on throughout. However, I probably could make the time to watch and reflect more on the documentaries from the digital dossier.
I also think I could reflect more on our group work, however this remains in Google Wave where we communicate quite regularly. I feel that I need to make more of an effort to blog on the progress of our group and outline meeting notes, etc. on my blog.
Overall, I feel that the quality of what I have written this semester has improved enormously since last in terms of engaging with the material. Even though there are a few black holes I feel like nothing that I have blogged about has been skimmed over, but explored in depth. For the rest of the semester I will work on blogging more on our ongoing group collaboration, the digital dossier and finishing off those readings.
Image reference:
Foxtongue, I’m Blogging This, flickr, CC-Attribution, http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/24720422/
It seems crazy that our film has now been completed and overall I am really pleased with it. I thought I would look at it and be self critical looking at things that worked, things that did not work and how they could work better next time. I think I’ll do this in a list type of way to make my thoughts more coherent. I will pick out things from all stages of production from pre to prod to post.
ACTORS AND AUDITIONS
Always choose more than less, people are busy. I wanted to narrow down the list too much I should have just asked everyone to audition. Choose as many people as possible as people are busy and can’t always make it.
Have more than one audition slot people work. Our first audition slot was on a Wednesday morning between 10:30 and 1:30 this was rather stupid as we only thought of it in terms of when we were free. Always have an evening audition slot from 6pm or later, just because we don’t work doesn’t mean that others don’t.
Don’t wait for a free room. I found that getting room access always took time and I wouldn’t inform my actors before I got the room. In hindsight just tell them to meet you in a certain spot and then take them to the room. It became that I would leave things to the last minute, which was unhelpful to my actors.
Rehearsals are the best thing you can possibly do to prepare your actors for the day. Having auditions made the shoot day run really smoothly in terms of direction for the actors. They all knew exactly what they had to do and therefore made the day run smoothly and quickly. Hence 2 and a half hours early.
ALWAYS get your actor’s mobile numbers even if they insist otherwise. Email does not work when your actor shows up an hour late.
SCHEDULING AND THE DAY
Your schedule goes out the window about 2 hours into the day. You can never truly anticipate how long anything is going to take. Keep your schedule flexible and chat with the director every hour or so in terms of how the schedule is going and re-schedule if need be. Eliza and I had a brief meeting at lunch to go through what we had to go through next and the order we had to do it in. This made us both aware of exactly what needed to be done.
Think of every possible shot that you could possibly ever need. Even though we finished up early we still should have got more shots, as we only had some shots from one angle we could have had more. I think we just really needed to think about what every shot should look like. The storyboard really should have been used more.
The 180 degree rule will kill you. It’s more confusing than you think, where we do go ever so slightly over that line. In your floor plan draw so many lines, as many lines as possible, and because we couldn’t see the floor in any shot we should have jus masking taped the whole location.
Tapes, buy extra, always buy extra.
White balance- it is easy to turn everything blue just use a light cream piece of paper
Never use the screen on the side of the camera as your screen always look through the viewfinder as it is a larger frame and boom poles are very annoying.
THE EDIT
Be organised and book all your edit time in advance.
Communicate. I found this way a major let down in the editing process because it got to the stage where I got no reply from anyone in terms of who was editing, which became quite frustrating. It also got very confusing because I never knew who was coming to edit and people would just rock up. To solve this I think that it really just required us all to sit down and go through how we were going to edit beforehand rather than letting it be all muddled up. Delegate tasks for each person to do in terms of what they need to get done in editing, and then it doesn’t leave the task of editing to only a few people because everyone has a responsibility.
Spend more time rather than less time and double, triple check everything. Editing takes time and patience and can get ridiculously tedious and frustrating. Keeping everything organised can be really helpful in terms of minimising confusion, keep everything in folders and edit your scenes seperately before you put them together for the rough cut.
OVERALL
For a project to be successful it needs to have really good communication between all your group members everyone needs to know what is going on and everyone needs to talk. Awat from communication everyone needs to know what they have to do in their specific role and try not to dominate it needs to be a fair working environment.
As a lover of individual work this project has been an amazing learning experience, where I now feel a lot more competent in terms of working with other people and creating a great environment to work in. It’s been heaps of fun and I really look forward to next semester
Ok so editing has been an extremely tedious experience and one that still needs a lot of improvement. However, I feel like I have already learnt a lot about editing and using the software. I have also never treasured more the brilliance of having good footage in the first place. I wish, I wish our lighting and colour was all the same. However, it isn’t and luckily there is colour correction. Albert and I have been doing lots and lots of editing, with Albert doing lots of the sound stuff and me working on the images, with Eliza doing lots of work as well in terms of creative input in the editing. In doing our fine cut it becomes so intricate that I feel as though I’m being so petty, however I feel like everything thing we do will make it better in the end. Anyway here are some of the problems we’ve encountered and how we have achieved these problems, which I think is good to list if the same problem a occurs next time.
The first problem we had when putting all our footage together for a roughcut was that one of our clips was not translating across in wide screen, but in 4:3. This was solved by looking at the settings of the clip and finding that anamorphic was not clicked for some reason. This just required control clicking the sequence that the scene/clip was in and then clicking settings.
Second problems flipping images. We needed to flip one of our images to have it in align with the 180 degree rule and there was no flip option, which would be the oppriate name for the option, however no it is flop and is in the effects menu.
Third issues colour, colour, colour and lighting. This has been rather tedious in terms of finding the right tools to use in order to fix up colour and lighting problems. I have found the the RGB control has been really helpful for us because we want to maximise blue and make some of our images colder rather than warmer, which can be done by minimising the amount of red in the image. Colour correction has also worked really well for more specific colour problems such as making a white wall blue.
Fourthly music is always an issue with these projects because the always have to be under Creative Commons. Music is really when you need to have lots of people around you to make an informed opinion. I have found that it requires a lot of trial and error. You may think that a song sounds good for that scene but when you put it in it doesn’t fit. Therefore it requires you to try everything in order to find music that corresponds with the images. Sometimes music fits really well other times it doesn’t and people have different opinions whether we should have music in that scene or not, which can make things a little trickier.
The main problem for me in the editing process is a lack of direction I feel like we all have different ideas in terms of what we want with the film and therefore whenever anyone goes to edit they change lots of things that you thought were really good because they were going for a different approach. Next time before we go into editing or after we have watched all our footage I would have a long meeting in terms of exactly the style and tone and direction we want our film to go in instead of the feeling that your five hours of editing has gone to waste because it doesn’t have the right feel.
Anyway making films is a huge learning process and of course you always realise all the things you would have done differently after the film is complete, which is just one of those frustrating realisations. However, you then learn how to do it better next time or a different approach you would take. As our film approaches its final days of editing I think I will use this blog to do lots of reflecting on the whole process and work out what are the key moments of success, failure and turning those failures into successes next time. Everything you do is a learning curve, and its about embracing those failures rather than letting them get you down.
In our class yesterday as well as going through how a shoot should run we watched all our Lenny videos. It was impressive to see the difference between them all, and not in a bad way.
The first group’s Lenny was dramatic and went for an extremely emotional approach to the script. The cinematography was amazing with the still montage at the beginning highlighting the concrete harsh landscape. The cinematography was also very effective in terms of colour saturating the screen in dull shades of grey and diffused greens, browns, etc. The whole atmosphere was diffused. The drama was heightened by the building orchestral music and the cutting between Sharon and Lenny building up their confrontation and when they finally meet with the wideshot of Sharon running towards the collapsed Lenny to give the audience a full indication of this pivotal moment. The editing was effective and mostly used in terms of continuity editing, keeping the audience orientated and amongst the action. Overall for the first production I thought they effectively conveyed the script of Lenny keeping within the rules of production, such as obeying the 180 degree rule and knowing the camera very well in terms of exposure, focus and white balance. Out of all the films I thought this was the most technically professional.
The second Lenny used nearly the same location, but the feel was much different. It was highly saturated with a yellow glowing tinge, which Paul suggested was a white balance issue but anywho it was a very different feel. The shots were similar to the first with Lenny walking, Sharon’s shoes, the box, etc. However, it was slightly disorientating, which I didn’t notice till Paul told me explicitly so it wasn’t an extreme problem for me. The costuming was done well, with the high heels on Sharon as she struts in an amazing shot of her feet centered in the middle of the frame and the clicking of her high heels, which heightened the melodramatic style of the acting; Lenny in a suit and Sharon in a black dress. The dialogue sequence between Lenny and Sharon works really well with the cuts and doesn’t cross the line, using over-the-shoulder shots to create a sense of place and continuity that isn’t as present in the opening meeting sequences that were slightly disorientating.
Overall, both these films use similar things: music to heighten the emotional intensity, over-exaggerated acting and a large feeling of despair. However, they achieve these in different ways. The first one through the bleak, concrete setting emphasising the glowing red blood and the second one through the melodramatic heightened music and melodramatic acting.
In terms of our Lenny, i think it was highly different to the first two because it used rather extreme low and high angles, where at points we had the camera positioned on the ground. We also used a quite different setting. Even though ours wasn’t as polished as the others in terms of the audio I think we went a bit abstract. I wanted the main emphasis to be showing Lenny’s vulnerability, by 1. showing Sharon tower over him and 2. have really low angles of him, where the camera grounds itself within his subjectivity. Therefore I wanted to use extreme angles for this short exercise. Paul pointed out a few things that we could of improved on such as the exposure on Sharon’s face and having a reflection of Sharon in the mirror of the box, just to add something and make it better. Obviously, there are a few things we need to work at.
I thought I would quickly, since our blogs are due today reflect back on this semester so far and talk about what I’ve done, and hope to achieve, improve, etc. This semester has been really busy and I have found it incredibly difficult to keep up to date with my work and I feel like there’s a giant amount of work colapsing on my head. However, this really isn’t the point. The point is my development in this subject. Throughout this semester I have blogged reflectively and consistently, averaging on about four blog posts a week and attempting to connect readings, lectures and things that I have watched or seen. This I don’t think has been as successful as I would have liked because once I start connecting all these things my blog posts become extraordinarily long and rather dull. Therefore I attempted to seperate these aspects, connecting them via refering to previous blog posts. I have tried to vary my blog posts in terms of different aspects of this course, including posts on the lectures, readings, production progress and things that I have seen and relate to the course. I have liked using my blog to build my thought process in terms of production work by using short films and other examples to build from in terms of finding examples and applying them in terms of what I have or more what we have to achieve as a group. I believe strongly that you learn from experience so by being able to reflect on my experiences within this subject I have understood different aspects of this course.
Ah I’m feeling a great sense of relief because my script is done, and I’m reasonably happy with it. In light of everything we have learnt about story and screenplay writing I think I have established a script that demonstrates that I have thought about desire, motivation, thwarting desire and character development in terms of driving the script. I also considered genre and setting. The main problem with my script was the ending because it was somewhat unsatisfying as nothing really happened. I wanted to amp up the drama but not to a ridiculous scale because I still wanted to maintain a subdued quality to the drama and keep the anger of both my two characters under a layer of composure that is slowly unwinding and becomes somewhat malicious, particularly from the point of view of Holly. My ending is now a realisation by Ryan that he’s not what he used to be and even though he is keeping all these records as a nostalgic presence in his life it seems hardly worth it anymore, particularly when they’re collecting dust in the corner. However, I also think that it ends on the verge of a compromise. The ending is meant to be sudden. Holly and Ryan are not rational people; they think and decide on feelings and therefore the sudden break of a record that Ryan has always wanted represents the start of a compromise, the start of them being happy together.
In my script I wanted actions to speak louder than words, as that is representative of real drama. I wanted there to be a realness to their struggle and to heighten the sadness. The film is more about being sad than being angry. The setting highlights this through the tacky furniture and the confinement, which also builds the drama as small confined spaces put people on edge. In terms of a producer’s perspective it also makes filming easier when there is one somewhat small location. The cheap and tacky interior emphasises the fact that he is truly spending a large percentage of their money on records, it’s not just him affecting himself, it’s him affecting both of them. It also needed to expand beyond the records into a lifestyle, which is pinpointed at the end by the P.O.V. shot from Ryan’s perspective in which he realises the extent of his obsession not only with records but with the past. The money struggle deepens the problem of his obsession and the simple task of collecting Holly’s dry cleaning carries a poignant message that 1. he puts his records above Holly and 2. that getting a job is important to Holly and by not picking up her dry cleaning he is showing that he doesn’t care about what is important to her. It also emphasises their lack of money and more her financial independance- “you’re spending all our money.”
Holly’s malicious attack on Ryan is a result of the pent up anger she feels against himl; it is meant to be somewhat stupid and pathetic, but highlights how she seeks him to pay more attention to her and subsequently shows how much she pays attention to him- she knows the record that he has been wanting for ages. Her revenge is well thought through and builds up the drama as she owns something that he wants- it sends him spiralling. However, this act by Holly backfires when she fully realises that these records actually hold a large significance for Ryan, larger than she could ever imagine, highlighted by her saying to herself ‘this means so much to you, so much to you’ and when she attempts to break the record she cracks “I want you to show me that this doesn’t mean more to you than anything else, but I look at you and it’s all you can think about.” As much as it is her cracking, it is filled with a numbing sadness and a sense of envy. She has realised that perhaps he will always choose those records and more that life over her.
Ryan’s last action of cracking the record is a very poignant act against that life and the records, which resolves the film. It is the first time that he realises how much his records have taken up and how little his wife has. The breaking of the record shows this rather than tells this, which works better, because one small action can express exactly how he feels.
Filed under: reflection | Tags: brainstorming, formatting, script, short film
CeltX is the greatest download ever, everyone should use it to write their scripts it’s AMAZING. It does all the formatting for you, especially putting in all the appropriate indentations and the continued elements. However, the reading from last week is still really important because you need it for all the parenthesis stuff and how to do flashbacks and so forth. However, it terms of time saving CeltX is great and allows you to save as a pdf file. It also allows you to view your script in several ways, where you can single out the dialogue and the action if you just want to work on one or the other, and futher allows you to single out just one character’s dialogue so it’s pretty terrific.
I thought that I just needed to start writing my script otherwise I never would start because I know what I’m like. I just jumped on the computer and began. I continuously wrote for around 2 hours I think and good about 4 and a half pages of drafting. It is not over-looked in anyway, however I’m really happy with my storyline, which I have again modified in response to Christine’s suggestions. Basically, I need Ryan’s desire to be thwarted even further if she just sold his records that would be it so I made it that she bought the record that he want more than anything but tells him he cannot have it because by not having it it will prove to her that she is more important than his records. Ryan then because he thinks that she is telling him that if he finds the record he can have it searches for it and returns to find her with divorce papers in hands and therefore it is this great moment where he has the record and she has the divorce papers and they just look at each other. However, just thinking about it now I’ve changed my mind about a few things. Firstly, in my script (which you can find the draft of here) it is revealed to the audience before it is revealed to Ryan about the divorce papers. However, I think there will be way more drama if the camera follows Ryan on his search and returns and the audience finds out at the same time as Ryan, so it creates a twist and inherently makes it more DYNAMIC. I also need to go back through both character’s dialogue to make sure there is nothing that doesn’t sit true to the character. I also think that it might be unnecessary to have the other record room, because I might be able to keep the location to a singular room, which would be easier and require less production design.
I mean still there is a lot of work to do, it is just an initial drafting effort, but atleast it’s a start. I’ll keep you posted. On a final note BLADE RUNNER has a fantastic opening screen description that I read on script-o-rama of course. It is filled with highly visual language and I feel like I can see the scene, because it is so visually detailed using metaphor, it’s beautifully dynamic. It also stimulates some ideas for my scene descriptions. I really want to add temperature to my scene, a sense of the weather because I want to create a large amount of tension between the characters, even before they begin arguing, this also leads me to believe that maybe the house should be messy. I want the situation to be fuelled and dramatic, but not over the top. It’s kind of instinctive as well. The characters are stuck in something they can’t escape.
It's magnified and deeply revealed. Flecks of green
and yellow in a field of milky blue. Icy filaments
surround the undulating center.
The eye is brown in a tiny screen. On the metallic
surface below, the words VOIGHT-KAMPFF are finely
etched. There's a touch-light panel across the top
and on the side of the screen, a dial that registers
fluctuations of the iris.
The instrument is no bigger than a music box and sits
on a table between two men. The man talking is big,
looks like an over-stuffed kid. "LEON" it says on
his breast pocket. He's dressed in a warehouseman's
uniform and his pudgy hands are folded expectantly in
his lap. Despite the obvious heat, he looks very cool.
The man facing him is lean, hollow cheeked and dressed
in gray. Detached and efficient, he looks like a cop
or an accountant. His name is HOLDEN and he's all
business, except for the sweat on his face.
The room is large and humid. Rows of salvaged junk
are stacked neatly against the walls. Two large fans
whir above their heads.
The lecture for week two was on writing screenplay, with special emphasis on drama, protagonist vs antagonist, genre and character. The example used to highlight each of these notions is a short film from last year called Clown Train. I found this lecture quite helpful in terms of creating our own scripts because it set a nice kind of guideline to how to create a dramatic story, within a certain genre and how to create dynamic characters. The most helpful was the character stuff, where I got the following from:
- give your character a desire, and make it hard to achieve- this immediately causes a tension, and a sense of frustration and angst in the character, they somehow they are being blocked and must get past the block in order to find some form of fulfillment. In this scenario you’ve already created your beginning, middle and end, eg. Character wants something, something/one blocks character from achieving desire, character defeats said block and finds some sense of fulfilment. This already creates the conflict that is prominant in order to create drama.
- use your antagonist in an inventive way- this is more ambiguous, what does inventive mean? In terms of thinking of an inventive protagonist I immediately think of The Joker played by Heath Ledger in Batman Returns. He is so inventive because he has this rather crazy view of the world, in terms of pretty much creating havock, which is the opposite of what Batman is trying to achieve. He’s inventive in terms of the way he goes about it and of course the bizaar costume that he wears that already makes him intriguing, especially with the personality to match. He’s also inventive because he is more interesting (well for me anyway) than Batman, because he’s spontaneous and you never know what he’s next move will be, whereas Batman is more predictable, he’ll be cleaning up the mess, saving the people, etc. I think this is what creates an inventive antagonist, someone that really gets to you and makes you uneasy as to what they are going to do, or how they are going to block the protagonist, to what extreme will they go to? If you create an antagonist that is willing to do whatever it takes to stop the protagonist it makes it harder for the protagonist to reach their desire and therefore makes the plot more interesting.
- put your character under a great deal of stress (with something they don’t want)- a build-up of stress makes everything more chaotic, because when a character is completely stressed it is unlikely that they will act rationally, this then leads to more stress. I like the idea of someone who is compacted under stress to the point that they melt down (well I don’t like it but it is good in movies). It is always great to see how a character will overcome this mounted stress and find some sense of peace. Stress can come in so many different ways. It can be stimulated by the antagonist, as the Joker does in Batman Returns to the point of ridiculousness, or it can be something that the protagonist mounts on themselves because they cannot control their environment, which means that they need to be able to react to situations better and more productively. Often in romantic comedies the protagonist is stressed because they are under a large workload, it is not until they meet said person that this workload becomes less important or they meet another workoholic and then compliment each other.
In thinking about all these character points you will make a really facsinating story because there is so much conflict that needs to be addressed and overcome untill the character can feel contentment and happiness. In Clown Train all these points are ticked off for numerous reasons, firstly the protagonist has a strong desire to get off the train, however that is particularly hard to achieve because a) he doesn’t know where is b) the clown is unhelpful in telling him where he is and then c) the clown makes it nearly impossible for him to escape. The antagonist is inventive because like The Joker his creepiness mounts as the narrative progresses, where at first he seems unhelpful and then just ends up being scary, highlighted through the movement and reappearance closer finally by the quote “see you on Friday.” The thing that also makes the antagonist inventive is because we are unaware of the Clown’s motives, why is he making it so hard for the boy to leave? This obviously mounts into a ridiculous amount of stress for the protagonist because he cannot escape and not being able to do something you want to do immediately mounts you under a lot of stress, especially when this person is a physchotic clown.
