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.