DIRECTIONS: 'Red Riding 1974' Script Notes

After Simon showed us a powerpoint about what a director does and looks at throughout filmmaking, we watched the opening of Red Riding 1980, directed by James Marsh. This is the second of a 3-part television series about the Yorkshire Ripper. After this, our task was to look at the script of the first one Red Riding 1974 and to think like a director by making notes about how, who, where and what - broken down these are the cast, crew, style, location, framing and sound design.

DIRECTIONS: Film Research

I need to start thinking about my film for the directions unit and how I will create the changing seasons scene in my own way. My initial ideas for this are using a calendar somehow to show the idea of time moving forward. Another film this reminds me of is Notting Hill, one scene in this shows Hugh Grant walking through the town and as he is walking the weather changes around him. He would be walking through leaves fallen off trees and then a couple seconds later would be kicking snow out of the way of the path. This, again, was a clever way of showing time passing as the different seasons flowed so smoothly. 

DIRECTIONS: My Chosen Director

Chris Weitz

One director I have always heard about and want to get to know more is Chris Weitz. Weitz has directed many well-known, big-budget studio affairs such as The Golden Compass and from the Twilight saga - New Moon. He also directed American Pie and About A Boy, both of which were Oscar-nominated for their adapted screenplay. I don't think Weitz has a distinct style because of the range of different genre of film he has directed, from the comedy American Pie to drama Twilight: New Moon. I like this about him as he can produce fantastic work for different types of film.

DIRECTIONS: Briefing (Lecture)

Yesterday was our first session with our second unit - Directions. I was looking forward to knowing what we had to do and to start thinking about it. When we first found out, I didn't have an idea, I actually thought it might be quite difficult thinking of the perfect director to look at for the right scene to use. I think I found this quite difficult because I don't really have a favourite director, I look forward to films with the same actors in rather than the directors work usually.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: 500 Word Television Review

National Treasure, Marc Munden, September 20, 2016

National Treasure is the television programme that I have chosen for my review. It was directed by Marc Munden and written by Jack Thorne. Marc was an assistant to other directors before he started directing documentaries for television himself. National Treasure is a four-part British television drama on Channel Four about a fictional TV personality who has been accused of historical rape, played by Robbie Coltrane. It is a modern drama and is set in ‘our’ time and includes people such as Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris who, in the last few years, have been in the limelight for the same crime.

STORYTELLING: Project Evaluation

Screenshot from my film

I thought this first unit turned out quite well. I learnt a few new things, for example, how to write a script and different ways/types of filming to help make my film the best it can be. I'm pleased with my script in the end, especially after the re-write as it made more sense after that. I was relatively pleased with my film.

STORYTELLING: British TV Drama Series Review

The Fall, BBC Two

I originally got the idea for my story from the British TV drama series The Fall in season 1. So what better series to base my review on for this unit. The Fall is set in Northern Ireland and was created and written by Allan Cubitt. It was directed by Jakob Verbruggen in series 1 and in series 2 & 3 Cubitt directed. The killer is Paul Spector played by Jamie Dornan and the detective in charge of the case is Stella Gibson played by Gillian Anderson.  

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Crime Drama

Our last lecture in the contextual studies sessions was about crime drama. We started by watching the one of the first episodes of The Bill (1983-2010). The Bill was set in a fictional London police station. It is the longest-running UK crime drama and originally they were twelve 60 minute episodes in a series. Then from 1988-2005 it became a year-round, twice weekly serial.

STORYTELLING: Screenwriting Research

Throughout the story-telling unit, I have been researching screenwriting techniques to help myself create the best script I possibly can. I followed up on Steve Coombes' screenwriting lessons and looked at many websites to find out what a screenwriter actually does, what exactly is a script and what makes a good story, so I could get into the mindset of an actual writer. 

STORYTELLING: Filming My 2 Minutes & Feedback

I have finished filming my opening 2 minutes of my script but I need to go back and film a few more bits with one of my characters. Filming so far went quite well, it rained on the first filming day but that didn't stop us and I managed to get all my outside scenes done, the next filming day was again a success and I was proud of what I had to show Simon what I had edited so far.

STORYTELLING: Short Film Review 3 - The Girl Is Mime

Screenshot from The Girl Is Mime

My final review is about The Girl Is Mime. This is a short film directed by Timm Bunn, it is about a mime who's wife dies and the police think the mime has done it, they just need to find the murder weapon.

STORYTELLING: Short Film Review 2 - Prosopagnosia

Screenshot from Prosopagnosia

My next film review is about Prosopagnosia. This was directed by Hugo Keijzer. Prosopagnosia is about a man who finds his best friend dead in her flat and gets accused of murdering her, however, he has seen the murderer but he has a condition which doesn't allow him to remember peoples faces.

STORYTELLING: Short Film Review 1 - Over

Screenshot from Over

Over (2015) was directed by Jörn Threlfall and won the Grand Jury Prize at Palm Springs in 2015 also. This short film was very interesting. It was based on a true story about a man who fell from a plane landing at Heathrow airport in 2012. The man was an immigrant and was trying to get into England while hiding in the aircrafts wheel-well, however, he didn't realise how cold it was up there and fell - his body was half frozen when he was found.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES - Documentary, Sitcom and Soap Opera (Lecture)

The last couple of contextual studies lectures have been very similar but with different types of genre. The first one we looked at was documentary. In this lecture we watched the first episode of Making A Murderer. This documentary took 10 years to film and they produced over 700 hours of footage.

STORYTELLING: Screenwriter Research

For a part of the story-telling unit we had to research two screenwriters. For this I chose Neil Cross and Allan Cubitt. 

STORYTELLING - Script Feedback with Steve Coombes & Rewrite

My feedback session with Steve was really helpful as I have never written a script before and I didn't think mine was very good. Steve suggested another route to take my story down and it was a lot better than what I had written as mine was a bit confusing and I just kept jumping to different ideas and plots.

STORYTELLING - Shot List & Location Planning

This week is the study week of this term. There are a few things I need to catch up on this week, such as the contextual studies presentation and to start planning the 500 word review. I also need to read a few books which Louis has recommended, I have only read Film Art: An Introduction so far.

STORYTELLING: Edit Workshop 4

Today was a catch up day with Ferg in our edit workshop. It was really useful as I needed to finish editing my films are it was good to have Ferg there to answer questions. I needed to make my SOFT trailer more of a trailer as I thought my first try just looked like a shorter version of the film. Instead I mixed up the clips so there were bits from the end at the beginning and I added a few title scenes in with a few words to build up the tension and to let the audiences' imagination go wild with thinking how it will end.

STORYTELLING: Finished Script!

On Friday, I finished my storytelling script. I never thought I'd get to the end. Today I downloaded a trial of Final Draft so I was able to put my script onto the software we need to use. I am proud of my script, but I can imagine that there will be a few things to change and talk about because the story makes sense in my head but out loud and to other people, especially a professional screenwriter, it might not.

STORYTELLING: Edit Workshop 3 - Audio

Today was our third edit workshop with Ferg. We concentrated more on audio today and like the last couple of weeks we had a few clips to edit together. They were from a day at the race track and another completely different called 'Blind Date', with interviews by some drivers and footage of the race and them preparing for it. Todays lesson was more about practising and playing about with buttons to get used to the shortcuts. We used the 'selection' and 'ripple' tools more and learnt about the 'slip' and 'slide' tool.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Sound (Lecture)

We learnt more about sound in contextual studies, we have learnt about it practically and used it in our camera workshops but today was about the theory side of it. Sound is very important in films and television. Some directors will focus more on either sound or moving images but a good director will get a good balance of both in their productions. We looked at Blue, directed by Derek Jarman. The clip was a blue screen with a voice over on it.
Also Chris Marker directed La Jetee, which again is a voice over but over still pictures rather than a blank screen. Even 'silent' cinema used live musical accompaniment and sound effects.

Functions of sound:
- Aural narrative (dialogue, voiceover)
- Sonic ambience (mood, atmosphere, sound effects)
- Emotional & intellectual resonance or dissonance (music)

Key elements of film sound:
- Speech (dialogue, narrative)
- Ambient or natural sound
- Sound effects
- Musical score or soundtrack

Use of sound effects:
- To heighten drama - abstract or enhanced effects designed 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 Scène and editing.

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 or dramatic effect.

Diegetic - Any Sound that is intrinsic to the film space or implied by action (character space).

Non diegetic - External to the film space (voiceover, soundtrack music)

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

Sound and Emotion
- Music dictates the emotion of the scene

Music as a narrative device
- Music underscores or accentuates visual narrative, emotion or intellectual resonance or dissonance.

Louis mentioned Reservoir Dogs which is a film I haven't seen so I will watch that as soon as I can. Legend, directed by Ridley Scott in 1985 was another he recommended so I will watch that one also.

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 modernisms objective rationalism. Playfully deconstructs form, fusing disparate elements of high and low culture.
- Broadly ideological disruptive e.g. The Simpsons, Pulp Fiction.

Use of narration
- First person subjective e.g. Blue, Jarman.
- 'Voice of God'. Objective commentary (expository narrative e.g. classic documentary)
- Conventions of male and female voices (dominant Vs empathetic)

STORYTELLING: Camera Workshop - On Location

Photo from our location shoot

Also on Wednesday we had another camera workshop with Ferg. This one was a bit different though and was outside on location. Our location was the carpark outside the studios. I was in a group with George W, Connor and Danny and our idea was someone who had escaped from a building and was trying to contact the police.

STORYTELLING: Storyboards & SOFT Trailer

Today with Simon we learnt the importance of storyboards. These can really help us when it comes to pre-production. This is the stage that story boards are most used, they enable the detailed planning of the entire production. They are also used in production, post-production and the editing stages. However, not all productions use storyboards - EastEnders is one. They simply use a script and shot list. We can go outside the storyboards, they are just a basic guide so we know where the story is going. Depending on director, storyboards can be very different.

STORYTELLING - Final Draft

Steve briefed us on moments to start with. He said to remember the first reaction to our moments. Remember what it did for us when we first wrote it and if we have a moment hold on to it. This outlined really how important it was to create moments in our screenplays for a successful film.

Today was I think our last proper session with Steve until out half hour tutorial with him and our scripts. We learnt about Final Draft, this is a software I had never heard of before. It seemed confusing at first, I would rather have used Word but Final Draft is the software the industry uses so I was pleased we were learning to use it.

We simply had to transfer a scrip on Word into Final Draft by using the 'Elements' button. This allowed us to put each line into a section, e.g. the scene heading, characters, dialogue and the action. After selecting each section it put it in the correct place of us on the page, such as, putting the dialogue and character's names in the middle of the page. The main things we have to remember are:
- Never change the font in Final Draft
- Script notes won't show up when printed
- Check spelling
- Scene numbers are useful, shows how many scenes you've done
- Most important button is the 'Elements' button

I have started my screenplay in Word but after today I will be able to transfer it into Final Draft so it looks like a professional piece.

STORYTELLING: Edit Workshop 2

Friday was our second edit workshop with Ferg. Again we had a few different clips of the same set of dialogue between two people. We focused a lot on getting the audio flowing right throughout the whole clip once put together. I found this alright to do but some parts were difficult in getting the audio exact as they spoke after each other quickly. Some clips were the same but slightly different, e.g. the dialogue was slightly different or some they were talking a bit louder than the others.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Camerawork and Editing (Lecture)

Today with Louis we had two lectures instead of a lecture and a seminar to catch up with last week. The first lecture was about camerawork and the second about editing. To start the lecture we learnt the basic elements of camerawork; these are the shot and movement. The shot affects emotional and psychological relationship with the character and setting through composition and speed. Movement does the same apart from it affects the relationship through changes in visual space and action. Shots are the visual equivalent of sentence structure.

If shots are words, then Mise en Scène is the meaning and editing is the narrative structure. The basic shots were next and these are a wide shot, medium shot, close up and the extreme close up. These I already knew from a lecture with simon about coverage.

Classical framing and composition were next and with this we learnt more about rule of thirds. I had completely forgotten about this when filming but luckily I think I applied it yesterday in the Crossing The Line project.

'Never, never use a shot without dramatic reasoning' - Alfred Hitchcock

Angle and Speed:
- High angle shot - overhead shot, birds eye view, makes people look smaller

- Low angled shot - emphasises character

- Dutch/tilt angle - off set angle, disorientating, creates psychological tension

- Slow mo/fast motion (Guy Ritchie, Zack Snyder)

Expressionism is another subject we touched upon. Louis related this to National Treasure like how he told me to research about it. I learnt that angled shots are a common feature of expressionism, especially, classic German expressionist films of the 1920s-30s. Expressionism presents the world from a subjective perspective, distorting it for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. National Treasure is classed as modern expressionism.

Why do we move the camera? This was an interesting thing to learn about because you don't really think of why, we just do it.

- To heighten action or emotion

- To convey objective or subjective viewpoints

- Refocus audience attention within the scene

- Explore or change setting/environment

Frenzy - Alfred Hitchcock (1972)

- Use of camera movement

Alienation was the next topic. I didn't know about alienation before today so this was very helpful. In Frenzy, the camera tracks two characters running into a house and upstairs, once they had gone into a room the camera went back down the stairs and outside, such as the reverse of originally tracking them. Hitchcock uses the method of the reverse crane/tracking shot as an example of an alienation effect. Alienation is the extent to which one maintains a critical distance from a cultural production.

Halloween, directed by John Carpenter (1978) was another film we spoke about. It was the first horror film using a steadicam. It used the camera movement to get the audience into action. The movement in Halloween heightened the action with a point of view shot where the audience was the killer which turned out to be a child. Towards the end of that scene Carpenter switches between a steadicam and a crane viewpoint and with this he refocuses the audiences attention within the scene.

Elements of visual style:

- Denotative (directive attention)

- Expressive

- Decorative (flourishes or stylistic patterns that are independent or semi-independent of narrative design)

- Symbolic functions (involving abstract concepts)

We did a few bits about documentaries which was useful to know as our final first year project is on this topic so it was nice to learn a little about it. The use of handheld in documentary:

- Heightens action and emotion (coveys urgency)

- Dynamics of transition

- Places character in conflict. Authenticity

The second lecture was about editing. Editing is the assembly of visual material into sequences, it constructs a narrative and manipulates time, either by condensing it or lengthening it. Louis recommended us to watch Rope and Russian Ark as they are made with long takes and include continuous narratives.

Creating visual meaning:

- Mise en scène and cinematography creates implicit meaning within shots

- Editing creates implicit meaning between shots

We then did a bit about something that is in Film Art, written by Bordwell. I have taken this book out but haven't got round to reading it just yet so it was interesting to have an insight as to what sort of information is in the book. The four key elements of editing:

- Spatial - 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 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

- Graphics - the relationship between pictorial qualities of shots or scenes e.g. graphic match cut

Why is editing important?

- Creates strong visual narratives from simple script descriptions or unedited rushes.

- The most creative aspect of filmmaking

- A good editor can make bad shots work

- A bad editor can ruin/ignore good shots

- Shooting ratios have an impact on editing (film is 10:1 and documentary is 60-100:1)

Eye line match shot:

- First shot shows character looking offscreen

- Second shot shows us what he is looking at

Shot reverse shot:

- Alternatives between two shots framed from reverse angle

Match an action:

- Action begins in first shot and is completed in the second

- Maintains continuous action across edits

Ideology:

- Set of opinions, values, beliefs and assumptions that one uses to think about

- Ideology is not objective truth but perceived truth; a systems value

Eisenstein on montage:

- Eisenstein argues that montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternative to continuity editing.

'Montage is conflict' - Eisenstein

The Kuleshov Effect:

- A mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of this sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation

- So each single shot has its own intrinsic meaning

5 principles of soviet montage:

- Metric

- Rhythmic

- Tonal

- Overtonal/Associative

- Intellectual

Modern documentary editing:

- Evidentiary or expositional editing

- Dynamic editing

The last two shows we spoke about were Horizon - How Violent Are You? and 'Excluded'.

STORYTELLING: Camera Workshop 3 - Crossing The Line Project

Today was our third camera workshop and we got straight into the camera work as we had a talk about what we were going to do on Monday. Today's project was 'Crossing The Line'. In this workshop we got to put the 180 rule to test. We had a script and had two people reading the lines, one person on the boom and one directing/on camera. I had an idea for mine the other day and I made what I had in mind.

STORYTELLING: Beginnings, Middles, Ends and Moments (Lecture)

Tin Men (opening) -
https://www.cineplex.com/Movie/tin-men/Photos

This afternoon we had another session with Steve Coombes about beginnings, middles and ends of stories and in the second part, about moments in films. He also told us that dramatic irony was good to try and include in our stories, as all characters need big 'buts' and they have to make hard or bad choices because of the 'buts'.

STORYTELLING: Storytelling With Pictures & the 180° Rule

http://yonicohen31.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/breaking-
down-180-rule.html

This morning we had a session with Simon with more tips for our stories. One of the things we covered was the 180° rule in order to help us when it comes to filming our trailers or first 2 minutes. This is the line that you usually do not cross when filming so the characters are looking in the correct way without confusing the audience. I had heard about this rule before but only when I came to my interview at the Studios when Simon told me about it.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: National Treasure

As we did not have a third contextual studies lesson this week, Louis recommended a few television programmes to watch which we can talk about in the next session. One he recommended was National Treasure on Channel 4. This is about a beloved TV personality who has been accused of rape from years ago and his journey through the accusation, including how it affects his family as well as his reputation. After watching the first episode I can safely say I am hooked, it was really good and I just wanted to watch the next one.

STORYTELLING: Edit Workshop 1

Today was the first of our edit workshops. We did a very similar exercise to Monday's premiere workshop. Again, on premiere we edited some clips to make a story. This time the clips were about coffee farmers and the work they do to provide us with our morning drink. They were also longer and more interesting clips than the 'I Think' ones so I found them more enjoyable to work with. We learnt more about the shortcuts in premiere today and how to actually import clips onto the timeline instead of just doing it and finding ways ourselves.

STORYTELLING: Camera Workshop 2 - Chair Project

Today was our second camera workshop with Ferg. We got used to the cameras to start with and then Simon presented a powerpoint to us about different shots, long ones and a lot of short shots edited together. After we had to create a short film about a person and a chair using short shots and then later editing them together. I found it difficult to think of the idea but was looking forward to actually shooting them. After storyboarding, I found an idea, Emma was my actress and we started filming. My idea was to have Emma walking towards the chair and dropping her pen on the way.

STORYTELLING - Dialogue & Character (Lecture)

This afternoon was our second session with screenwriter Steve Coombes. This one was about dialogue and characters in scripts. It was really useful to hear what he had to say as he gave us pointers for our own scripts, such as:

Dialogue
- It is the least most important bit of screenwriting
- Don't be too formal
- Don't have both characters speaking the same/talk how their characters would talk
- Don't be too artistic
- How polite are they?

STORYTELLING: Premiere Pro Workshop

This morning we learnt about premiere pro, I was looking forward to this workshop and eager to get into it as I would like to go into editing and this is the software that industries use. We had to download a file containing a few video clips in it and we had to edit them to make a story. After I learnt the basics to premiere by playing around with it, I found this workshop very useful.
Making a story from the clips was a great way to get our heads around the software and I cannot wait to edit my own film clips.

STORYTELLING: Reworked Pitch and Developed Characters and Story

Reworked pitch:

'A man enters a police station to help with a murder case, unbeknown to the detective the man is the killer.'

STORYTELLING: 25 Word Pitch - Feedback

Today was the deadline for our 25 word pitch and we received feedback from Simon and the rest of the group. I was really nervous to present mine because I wasn't sure if the others would like my idea and or if it made sense. 

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Mise en Scène (Lecture)

Yesterday was our first contextual studies lesson with Louis. We learnt about Mise en Scène and how to point it out in films and television shows. Mise en Scène means what is in the scene which was new information to me. Something else I learnt was the 4 key elements of Mise en Scène. These are setting, costume/make-up, lighting, staging. With these, we split up scenes in different films and television programmes into the key elements.

STORYTELLING: Camera Workshop 1

Focus, Sound and White Balance

We had our first camera workshop today which I found really useful. Some bits Fergus taught us I knew about and some I didn't, so I learnt some new bits about the camera I didn't know about. The first  part we learnt about was the focus. We had two people standing in front of the camera and we had to switch the focus between the two; this is called Rack Focus.

STORYTELLING: Introduction to Screenwriting (Lecture)

The afternoon session consisted of meeting and listening to Steve Coombes who has been a screenwriter for 27 years. He was funny and interesting which made us want to listen rather than having to listen to him. He told us what a longline, treatment and bible is in television terms. 

STORYTELLING: Short Film - SOFT

In todays lesson we watched a short film written by Simon Ellis, called SOFT. It was about a man who got attacked by a group of thugs and then at home realises his son was attacked by them too. The thugs then followed him home and started graffitiing his car and harassing them. We found that the man was afraid of the group and couldn't bring himself to confront them, leading his son to go out and scare the group away. 

STORYTELLING: Research and Ideas For My Script

I have not had any experience in scriptwriting, however, I feel as if I need to set the scene first before I can start any writing so I have an idea of what's going on before I put words with it. 
The first scene will be at the crime scene in the bedroom of the victim with the police and forensics. Maybe they can be talking about the cause of death and the evidence. 

STORYTELLING: Speed Pitching Workshop

Another story-telling workshop we were introduced to was speed pitching. The aim of this was to help us create a good pitch to sell our story in 25 or less words. This was good practice to help pitch our own ideas for the story-telling unit. We had to base our pitch on three things each time and we had to look through our newspapers and magazines to find an article which we could turn into a good story.

STORYTELLING: 25 Word Pitch

Befriending The Enemy 

Pitch: 'Man enters police station to help detective with a murder to be eliminated from their enquires, however, unbeknown to her the man is the killer.' 

Genre - Drama

STORYTELLING: Rehabilitated Love

As part of a story-telling workshop we had to pick out names of a hat, one name was a location and the other two names were our characters. With this we had to plan and briefly write a 10 minute story. I found this workshop actually quite useful, we had an hour and a half to plan a decent story and my group and I were rather pleased with what we came up with.

STORYTELLING: Briefing (Lecture)

The first day of the course was very insightful about the brief of the first unit. I already had an idea of what to base my story on, however I learnt more about what the criteria meant and luckily was able to develop my original idea to fit this. I had the idea of how the meeting was going to happen but I did not think about a beginning, middle and end until this first session.
I also learnt about the components a story must have to make it a good story. These are character, goal, conflict and change. From my initial idea, I now know the goal of my story is for the detective to find the killer. The conflict is that the man who she thinks is helping her is actually the man she needs to catch, and the change is realising the man is the killer and finally putting him behind bars. 

STORYTELLING: Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

'The Meeting'

When I read about the idea of 'The Meeting' I initially thought of 

- Office meeting

- Job interview

- Meeting long lost family member

- Confrontation between two people

- Policeman to criminal

THE BEGINNING: A Bit About Me

This was the summer project we were set to complete before we started in September.