Post 8: Decisions and Revisions

Thought process: My original plan came from an idea about a man who was an alcoholic and he had a girlfriend, but something happens, which makes him change his life around. But it was more like making it up as I went along.

Feedback I got: Some people said they liked the sound of It, but it was said my original script didn’t really have a resolving ending. Then I got some feedback saying how I could change it to a proposal at the end, and this is where my idea came from for my new script.

I researched different ways people have proposed, so I could get a realistic idea of how my character Henry might do it. Then I watched a series of short films which shows people trying to propose, so I could get an idea of how Henry might act.

My basic plot outline is that Henry is living with his girlfriend Eileen, and he decides that it is time for him to propose to her, but he has terrible confidence issues, and doesn’t quite know how to do it. Every morning he wakes up and practices in the mirror of how he might say it. He attempts a few times, but each time he does it fails. So he goes back to basics, and decides to propose to her where they had their first date. But Henry is so nervous, he decides a drink might calm his nerves, the only problem is, is that he has to drive to this place, and he ends up having too much to drink. Whilst driving, Eileen finds out he had been drinking, and they have a fight. Henry is drunk, so he can’t concentrate on the road properly, and they end up crashing. A few weeks later, Henry is waiting for Eileen outside the hospital, and he is proposing to her, but we never get to hear her answer.

When we watched 'Signs', a short film, in class; I decided I wanted to base my character Henry around the character in this film. He shares a lot of the same qualities as him, they both have confidence issues, and both want to ask the girls they like an important question, but doesn't know how, and when to do it.

First draft of script: Turmoil

Latest draft of script: The Proposal




























































For my latest script 'The Proposal', I got the titles idea from 'Donnie Darko' who reminds us of a time, and how much time is left, but we don't know what's going to happen at that time. This is similar to the titles in my script, as the date and times are leading to the crash that leads Eileen in a critical condition. I decided to change the ending. Originally, I was going to have Eileen come out of the hospital escaping with minor injuries to find Henry proposing. But I feel that this ending is better, as it not only leaves tension for the audience, but leaves tension for the character Henry as well. I decided to end it on the note that Henry had wrote a few days ago, as it leaves tension for both the audience and Henry, this may also make the audience want to watch on to see her reaction.








Independent Research:




As well as getting inspiration from 'Donnie Darko', I researched into ways of proposing. I read many magazine articles to find realistic ways of proposing. Most top answers included having 'Marry Me' spelt out in rose petals, putting the ring in a glass of champagne and creating a webpage that their partner will see. This gave me my main idea's for the way Henry was to propse to Eileen.

Notes on Audience theory

http://www.theory.org.uk/tenthings.htm


Passive audience- Negative theory issues of moral panic.

We are fed the information and we accept it.







Active Audience- We think we've got control!


Some may think that this isn't possible because:

• we can only watch what is presented to us.




• Watershed?




• BBFC




• Pegi




• Ofcom




• Self-regulating




• Parents.

Dominant Hegemonic Position- Audience agree's with preferred meaning.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position- When the audience understand preferred meaning but doesn't agree with it.

Negotiated Hegemonic Position- Audience has opposed or adapted preferred meaning.

Abberant decoding- Audience reads texts in a different way.

Audience theory:

· Genre theory and effects theory is still in debate, as no one is able to tell how an audience will react to a film and the genre chosen for it.

The Hypodermic Needle Model:

· This theory was introduced to try and explain how mass audiences may react to mass media.

· This theory was developed when the mass media was still fairly new.

· It suggests that the audience receive the information passively through the media text, without any attempt to process the data for themselves, i.e.- the media text is fed into the audiences brain.

· The theory suggests that we are manipulated into what the media producers want us to hear or believe. It suggests that the audience is passive.

· This is where the idea that the media is ‘brainwashing’ us.

Two-Step Flow:

· This theory suggests that the audience are influenced by ‘opinion leaders’.

· The information that they learn from these opinion leaders are passed onto others, and this is how the two-step-flow works.

· *very much like word of mouth*

· Doesn’t have to be a person

· We create a pre-conceived opinion of the film.

· This theory diminished the power of the media to their audience and decided that social factors are also important when considering a mass audience.

Uses & Gratifications:

· In 1948, Lasswell suggested these media functions for the media audience. Surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission.

· An audience’s need. Reflecting what the audience want. Active audience.

· 60’s- Bulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their own. They stated that that individuals may choose and use a text for these purposes (i.e. uses and gratifications) :

1. Diversions- escape from everyday routine

2. Personal relationships- using the media for emotional and other interaction (e.g. Relating soap opera’s for family life)

3. Personal identity- finding YOURSELF reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from these texts.

4. Surveillance- Information that could be useful for living.

· Since then, the list for uses and gratifications has been extended, especially since new media has been introduced.

Reception Theory: 80’s

· This theory explores the way in which the audience receive and interpret a text and how their circumstances affect their reading. (i.e. Gender, age, ethnicity)

· This theory is based on Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model of the relationship between audience and a media text.- The text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader.

· By using recognised codes and conventions, and by considering audience expectations, relating to aspects such as stars or genre’s, producers can position the audience. This is known as ‘preferred reading’.

The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies- Philip J Hanes

‘A text does not have a single meaning, but a range of possibilities which are defined by both text and audience.’- (Hart, 1991)

Andrew Hart is among many writers, theorists and researchers who identify and value the existence of the audience in relation to the media.

Supporters of the Effects model assume the audience is passive in the receiving and interpretation of media texts.

-*The Frankfurt school considered society to be composed of isolated individuals who were vulnerable to media messages. This school believed in the hypodermic syringe theory.*

The followers of the hypodermic model of Effects adopted a variation of Marxism, emphasising the dangers of the power of capitalism, which owned and controlled new forms of media.

However, other factors are presented in society, like personal religion, gender and age.

· The Effects model is considered to be an inadequate representation of the communication between media and the public, as it does not take into account the audience as individuals with their own beliefs, opinions, ideals and attitudes:

· “Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are.” (Abercrombie 1996)

In this, theorists were not asking how the media affects the audience, but how the audiences were using the media, and receiving it.

They suggested that audiences have specific needs.

The audiences in ‘uses and gratifications’ were seen as active, as opposed to passive audiences. U&G recognised that audiences have a choice of what media they can consume.

Despite this, U&G have limitations. This theory STILL suggests that the messages are viewed by all the audience in the same way. It does not consider how the messages are interpreted.

*The Uses and Gratification model assumes that the audience’s wish for satisfaction results in a media output to fulfil their desire, rather than acknowledging that audiences have to enjoy whatever is produced by the media.*

Screen Theory:

In the 70s, the academic journal Screen suggested that audiences were positioned by the media text

Screen theory suggested that all media texts have a "mode of address”. This suggests that media texts address its intended audience in a particular way, creating a relationship between the producer and the audience.

An example of this screen theory is that films are usually shot to suggest reality. A way of suggesting this reality is by using unusual shot’s and camera angles.

It is suggested that viewing is done in groups of family. This is why channels choose not to view any sex, violent, or drug scenes before a certain time, as it is assumed that the younger audience are not watching tv at this late time.

The mode of address is vital in constructing and audience’s thoughts about an issue raised in the media. *Just because producers of media texts have a certain opinion and meaning does not mean that this meaning is obvious in the text*

Semiotics- study of signs. (Codes)

Structuralism- study of formal structures. (Conventions)

The existing methods of studying audience do not measure how and why the audiences differ in their viewing. For instance the audience watching one episode of a serial will not necessarily watch the following episode or, indeed, any of the other episodes. Additionally, the existing methods do not consider what meanings the actual audience is constructing. Questionnaires are limited by the questions that they ask and audiences will be trying to answer what they think the researcher is trying to find.

Negotiating reading- we interpret something different to others. Adapting a preferred meaning.

*Laura Mulvey*- “Male Gaze”

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Post 7: Creating your own script

At the beginning of the lesson, we were told to talk about yesterday evening in one minute. Most the people in my class, including myself, chose to tell the story in chronological order in first person narrative. What we told was a story, we chose to talk about the exact events that went on in our evening. when we asked our teacher to do the same, her story was a narrative. She chose to talk about her events in detail, as though she was telling us a story from a narrative point of view, rather than a series of events.

In class, we were shown a picture of this yellow fish

We were told to write a story around this picture, in 2 minutes. This is my story:

"A man called Fred had recently moved from his home in Shropshire to a faraway place called Yemen. He missed his family dearly, so he decided that he needed something that reminded him of his home. Back at home he had a fish called Steven, so he bought a fish and called it Steven. In every way it was the same, it was yellow and it swam about and it was all lovely. He shared many fun times with his fish, him and his fish went to the cinema, and even went bowling. One day when Fred came home, the fish had gone, someone had robbed him. Fred was distraught as he grew attached to the fish, and therefore moved back home with his family and his previous fish love Steven. Eventually, Fred stopped having these strange delusions about the fish called Steven and he lived happily ever after."

We were shown this powerpoint in class to help us develop our ideas on Narrative.

http://klsmediadepartment.blogspot.com/2010/10/narrative-theory-powerpoint.html

To have a 'good' short film, you must start off with the basics. A world, a character and a problem.

Then you must consider what is driving the character. They must have a want, a need and an obligation.

Signs

In class we watched a short film called Signs. The film starts off with a man, at this point I created an analytical spider diagram.

MAN:

Quiet/shy
Desperate
Intelligent
Unfulfilled
Lonely
Socially inept

The world in this short film is a life based around work. The man has moved from the countryside in Austrailia to an ambitious job promotion in the city. The character is a man who is living an unfulfilled life without friends and family. The problem is his lack of confidence to talk to new people.

The want that is driving the character is a relationship, he feels he wants to be close to someone, this is proven in the scene where he smiles at a girl, but doesn't find the confidence to talk to her. This is his need, his need is the confidence he wishes to find. The obligation is to fulfil his parents desires, we can tell this from the phonecall he gets from his parents in the country telling him how proud they are of him.

These targets that are set for a 'good' short film are all fulfilled in this short film, as he overcomes his conifdence issues, and eventually plucks up the courage to talk to the girl he has been comunicating with through notes.

Part ways through the film, it was stopped so the class could guess what might happen next. There are a few times where we got it spot on, but there were a few where we were completely wrong. We are conditioned to think what the most typical response would be. But the film successfully keeps the audience interested in the film, by putting in little twists that we weren't to expect.

Post 6: What makes a good short film?

In our media lesson, just as we were starting to write our scripts, Rebecca Knapp joined us for a lesson on how to write a good short film. She told us the critical information and tips for a short film script.




Rebecca Knapp:

First, Rebecca told us that we had to visualise our scripts, to see if what we write in our scripts match the action you visualise or not.
After the time spent with Becky, I learnt that there are three different time lengths for short films.

The first is 5 minutes long. These short films typically show stereotypes and an ovbious visual experience. The short film 'The Black Hole' is a perfect example of this. It is set in an office, which is clearly recognisable to the audience immediatly, through the mise-en-scene and props used. He is clearly unsatisfied with his life, the film plays on the comedy of a typical office worker feeling this. The male character finds that he has the power to steal anything he wishes by reaching into this black hole on a piece of paper, and in the last scene, he reaches into a safe, but unfortunatly, as a result from his new found greed, falls into it trying to reach for more, and gets stuck in the safe. The storyline is easy to follow, well developed and has a character, a world and a problem.

The second time scale that is typical for a short film is 5-12 minutes. In these short films, the audience follows a characters, going through a life-changing senario where the audience can see a character change. The use of stereotypes are not typical for these short films, as there is enough time to develop the character without them in the amount of time there is. The short film 'About A Girl' is an example of this short film time scale. The audience are unsure of the girls situation, however the storyline is well developed throughout the film. In the end, we discover that the girl was pregnant, and throws her dead baby into the river, as she has become "good at hiding things" from her mother.

The final time scale is 12-30 minutes. There will be secondary storylines, those that are not unlike feature length films, as there is enough time to develop a character and a complexoty to them or a storyline.




Then Becky showed us scripts of short films she had been involved in.
The film I focused on primarily was 'Does God Play Football', as this was the one that immediatly caught my attention from the script alone.


Does God play football?

My initial reaction from reading this script was an unsure one. The plot seemed a little complicated, and the topic didn't seem too interesting. To my surprise, it was one of my favourites from the day.



The cinematography, I felt, was really well put together, which made the complicated script seem easy to follow. The contrasting colour between the flashbacks such as the 85 filter on the flashback to the childs past, made it easy to understand which were real time and which were flashbacks. The era was simple to recognise, as all the mise-en-scene were from the correct time (60's). The music also plays an important part in developing the era and the the storyline. The first example of music we have is chamber music, immeditatly suggesting the the story has religious content.
However, I still found that the script dragged on too long, and that the topic wasn't interesting enough for me. Nevertheless, if it was to my liking, I found it was done extremely well.

Therefore the script was written well in the ways it didn't give too much of the plot away, however it could have been improved by a little more direction in each scene.




On A Life's Edge.

This is a short film Rebecca produced herself.

Again, when reading the script, it seemed a little confusing. I didn't grasp the plot idea, so I was a little hasty when watching the film. Nevertheless, I was looking foward to it too. To my surprise, I enjoyed the film thoroughly. The shots and locations were very clever, and the film didn't give any of the plot away until the end, so you had the surprise factor. It didn't fufil audience expectations, but I believe that this is a positive thing about the film, as I tend to dislike the obvious plot films.




In short, Rebecca showed us these scripts to show us how important the script has to be in order for your film to get recognised.

We did some research on the book 'Get Your Short Film Funded, Made and Seen', written by The Shooting People Shorts Directory.
The booklet then told us that Short Films should include, 'having an idea for a novella and then deciding to tell it as a haiku’, which suggests that Short Films should be easy and simple to follow.

As mentioned above, the booklet suggested three area's that should be considered when making a short film, these are:

• A World




• A Character




• A Problem
  
  
  
  

A World:-

When creating a short film, develop the character's world. Make the 'world' easily recognisable to the audience, for example the world in 'The Black Hole' is simple, an office. However the world could also be events, such as Christmas, or a birthday party. By doing this, the problem is easier to develop, as it could be problems with work or being home sick (like the problem in the short film 'Signs') etc. Having a 'World' gives the film a defined time frame, which is also mentioned to be a key factor by the Sunday Times booklet 'How To Write A Good Script' by Marilyn Milgrom.

A character and the problem:-

Writers, directors and producers need to consider the character carefully, to introduce their problem that will be recognisable to the audience. The point of view that the story is from is also important, as the character's problem may only be recognised if the story is from their point of view. From the beginning of the film, we need to be following the characters want, how he will overcome his problem, their needs and any obstacles that prevent them from their need, or overcoming their problem.

As indepedent research, there was a short film in which I believe followed all these conventions of a good short film.

Different- A Short Film:

There is an obvious story line here, the short film presents us with a world (university life, possibly older living on his own), a character (the curious male) and a problem (his struggle with gender issues). As the 'Character, World, Problem' conventions are clearly considered and developed in this short film, it is an easy storyline to follow in a short space of time. It plays in 'real time' which again, according to the booklet, is the best time frame to go with, as it is easier to follow in the short amount of time you have in your short film.

We were then asked to consider target audiences for short films.

As scripts are the documents people in the industry need in order for a short film to be published, it must portray what you visualise enough for the professionals to see a potential, but also not to give too much about the film away in the script. People within the industry are the first main audience for your first short film, as they are constantly looking for new, promising writers. Short films are used to market your writing skills, therefore short films are important if you are an aspiring director or writer, as they get you on the market, and showcase your talents.

However, Short films are not only for the directors to get recognition, it is also for lighting technicians, scriptwriters, actors, and camera operators to show their talents off too.

We were then told to consider all these theories and conventions in writing our scripts for our short films. We were asked three questions, that would summarise what happens in your script. What is revealed that is significant to the plot? What is revealed that is significant to the audience understanding the character? And, Is there an identifiable theme?

In conclusion, the feedback we recieved from Becky has been extremely useful in the editing of my script, and has encouraged me to make some dramatic changes for the better. Also, learning about what people in the industry look for has helped in recognising what is conventional about my script that is fundamental for my target audience.




Independent study area's:

1) Cinematography- this can begin with rolls of film or a digital image sensor. Filters can be used as a technique in cinematography, this is to change the colour of the shot. These are used to enhance the mood or dramatic effects. Lenses can also be attached to the camera to give a certain look, feel, or effect by focus, colour, etc. Light is necessary to create an image exposure on a frame of film. The art of lighting for cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however, into the essence of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. Special effects, camera movement, camera shots and angles and frame rate selection are all part of cinematography as well.

2) Understanding 'Real-Time' - Real time within the media is a method of narrating wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. For example, if a movie told in real-time is two hours long, then the plot of that movie covers two hours of fictional time. If a daily real-time comic strip runs for six years, then the characters will all be six years older at the end of the strip than they were at the beginning. This technique can be enforced with varying levels of precision. In some stories, such as 24, every minute of screen time is a minute of fictional time.

3) Understanding tone: The tone of a film is usually linked to genre, as the tone of a film can be considered comic, or dramatic etc. Usually in a short film, there is one tone that you stick to throughout, so the audience find it easier to follow the plot of the film. In short films, you don't have time to make shifts in tone like you would in a feature film, as the audience are looking for clues as to what the tone is in the film, they don't have the time to decipher two different tones. The tone of a film emerges from the way in which each element supports the underlying meaning of the story. The first indication of tone comes from the script.