Monday, 8th 0f December 2008

Screenwriting 

We learned about character. The character should engage with the audience and should have a goal. When building our own character, we should know them inside out, from what underwear she or he are wearing to what he or she does alone and with people.

Tuesday 2nd of Nov 08

Andy was teaching us about game shows. We learned that the two key components of a successful game show is the host and the end game.  Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is a great example, It's easy to understand, it's intense, and interesting. The host Chris Tarrant  knows the game inside out and literally knows the answers these are traits of a good host. The host should not have a condescending attitude.

5th of nov 08

Friday 

We had Simon "the sound guy" all day. We went outside to record mock interviews, we rotated so each of us got a shot. That's what i love about this course, we learn practically.  It gives me a better understanding.

Monday 1 of december 08

Monday

 

         Screenwriting 

Heart to heart session, our classed gathered in a circle and offloaded things we needed to change about ourselves and we also had to come up with a theme that would deal with this problem. One of my problems was to keep my mouth shut in certain situations and my theme was can't quite remember. The whole point of it was to see if we could fit the theme into a story idea.

        Content Origination 1 

We were watching shorts and short shorts, that might be confusing read over it a few times. anyway they were inspiring, and was so inspiring to me that i wrote up a short short the next morning. The whole point in most of these shorts is to show skills of the people who are making them for example a cinematographer would focus on his part of the job to make the picture look good even if the story makes little sense, to add to a show reel.

27th - 28th Nov

Thursday

DFTV 1 visited Glasgow's world famous Panopticon. The field trip was fascinating, intriguing and cold. The music hall was old, antic. Our host gave us a history of cinema and an overview of what took place a hundred years ago, talking of legends such as Stan Laurel.    

Friday 

Sound was not all that exciting, more for technical people. Simon, who taught us, was helpful and made the subject a little more bearable. Don't get me wrong, sound is an extremely important part of the film production.  It took me most of the lesson to get my head around but in the end i prevailed after a few attempts.  

In the afternoon, format was the topic. Focusing on the sit-com. 

19th Nov - 25th Nov 08

We took part in a cinematography class with Ray. We were joined by a famous actor, James McAvoy (Wanted, Atonement). Ray talked about blocking while DFTV 4 were demonstrating the technique. 

Monday

Screenwriting: We used inspiration from pictures for ideas. I found it quite difficult to think about an idea that didn't cross with the obvious story behind the picture, particularly the picture of the soldier crying. We learned about theme; the message or statement of your beliefs. Every film should have an underlying theme which the protagonist learns during the course of the story.

Content Origination: We pitched our idea to the class. A 22 episode series about a Scottish prime minister competing in a man's game. Our lecturer critiqued the idea; he said it was a good idea but was unclear on how our character became PM. We learned that thinking of new ways for our story and characters to unfold is what storylining is all about.

Tuesday 

All classes were cancelled, so we booked out a camera and familiarised ourselves with the controls in the process of making short sequences.

18 Nov 08

Today I went in for assessment, not a pass or fail assessment, Ray just wanted to see if we knew how to set up and back focus. He also wanted to see if we were smooth on our pans and tilts. I coped well, I think I am confident enough to take the camera out and start shooting. 

17 Nov 08

I went in early to the RSAMD thinking that screenwriting class was on. I was mistaken, Richard my lecturer said we won't be at his class for three weeks. I mis interpreted and thought it was two. I learned a lesson, listen to information diligently and check for timetable updates. 

In the afternoon it was content origination with Adam. We learned about story lining meaning taking a character (say in a drama) and what he is going to be doing the following episodes.

We watched the pilot of' "The West Wing", and took part in an exercise afterwards. We were split into groups and given a character in the episode, we then had to look at this character and predict what  was going to happen to them as the series continued. I learned that when a character personality is introduced  the personality will be the same and continue throughout the story.

11th to 14th of November 2008

On Tuesday we had a screening of comedy, "For Your Consideration." The film gave you an insight of a what a Hollywood film set was like. Three actors learn that their respective performances in the film "Home for Purim" are generating award-season buzz. It is interesting to see how actors react when they are on the brink of getting nominated for an award. According to this film awards means a lot to the actors. Some of the things they do for them to be noticed are ridiculous. My lecturer said the film is funny because most of what happens is true.  

On Wednesday, a field trip to the cinema, to watch and review a press showing of Choke. 

We have to write a review for Monday saying whether we liked it or didn't etc. To be honest I'm still not sure if its good or bad, but I'll look further into that in my review. The experience of going to a press showing was different to public viewing. The reporters were all separated and spread out, no one said more than two words. There were no film trailers at the start of the viewing. It was an abrupt starting, the atmosphere was completely silent. I suppose critics and reviewers are at their work, so there is no time for enjoyment. 

On Thursday, we were discussing or own views of what the film was about. My view was, a sex addict trying to recover which is a more dominant reading. A class mate thought it was an offending pornographic and degrading, an oppositional reading.

We also discussed reviews are to advertise or simply just help the public choose a film worth watching. I agree that reviews are to influence the decision of the public  on whether to go see a film or not. Though it all counts on which company or critic is reviewing it, some members of the class tend to read Sight and Sound, others Empire, some the Internet etc. It all depends if you trust these sources to write a realistic view of the film.

In the afternoon we were looking at authorship. Who creates television? The question of who an author is, the role of the author as creator and the significance of the author's input into the material being studied. The importance of authorship began in the sixties. The television industry expanded and this allowed a generation of younger, working class, university - educated men and women to enter the television industry.  In a class exercise we studied a TV schedule, to find out who was the author of certain programmes. we found out that programmes like Harry Hill's TV burp, belongs to the presenter. Harry Hill is known to write his own scripts. But reality TV (Big Brother) tends to be producers who have the authorship, because it is not scripted as such.

Screenwriting 3rd Nov 2008

Paranoia, a crazy script, a streme of concience, inspired by Revolver. Richard liked the script, he said it was very adult. I did use words like shit (woopsy). Richard liked my three premises, two of them making a bold statement about gays and the other women. No harm meant. On one of the ideas, i wasn't even aware. What i need to do is develop them. Richard said if i develop them that will be a bold step. I think meaning i might offend someone.