Week 3 - Never Trust the Sound Guy

I seem to be traversing a creative wasteland at present. My imagination has dwindled to a lifeless flicker and, despite ample available time (we had five half-days this week), the creative impulse has turned rather stale. Perhaps Simon killed it. There was, it has to be said, very little to get excited about during that class (except the thievery of Murdo’s keys!) though I did develop a new found respect for the old ‘Attenuation’ since it is, despite any preconceptions I may have had, and beyond all sense or reason, the FIRST control to receive the Input Signal. It precedes even the Master Fader and that is honour indeed… please forgive my sarcasm; as I said, my mind is marginally and momentarily mouldy.

More therapy in Richard’s class which involved allowing our deepest darkest secrets to be read out anonymously. Although it is perhaps interesting to uncover some human debris on occasion I don’t think it is either necessary or helpful, unless as a way of letting go and forgetting. However, I am given to understand that most writers would encourage unearthing the hidden emotions and buried experiences and use these as integral sources. Andrew Davies (Novelist/Screenwriter) said:

“The most embarrassing and shameful experiences of your life; the things you can hardly bear to think about, let alone tell anyone else; your secret dreams, your darkest desires: these are your core material.”

I completely disagree. We have all performed deeds that we regret, said things that we shouldn’t have, thought or felt things that we would never reveal but this is not Truth; it is sin. Yet when writers engage with this material, use this material, wallow in it even, they produce works that, yes, contain something universally human, something everyone can relate to, something which endures… but again, people watch and are moved and can understand not because it is human truth, but because it is human nature: we are sinners, we are born into sin and we all have sinned. I’m really not trying to paint a depressing picture of humanity just for the sake of it. Often the most uplifting of films are those that contain such ruthlessly realistic representations of the evil in this life. But we must always question when it comes to that rude confession of humanity: are we wallowing in it; or are we showing the world that it is wrong.

Kim Miller made her first appearance on Wednesday afternoon, rather appropriately, in our class on Coronation Street. I admit I rather enjoyed our ‘Corrie Party’ on Monday night; not because I enjoyed watching it (I find it rather depressing actually) but because there was something so out of place about a group of young adults getting together to watch Coronation Street. It had that warm glow about it that only comes with happy get-together appointment viewing! Anyway, we discussed it in class, I tried to maintain a grasp on just who everybody was, and I got even more insight into the planning and choreography which goes into the Serial Drama.

A substantial and productive class on Thursday morning which mostly involved just watching a documentary called The Cutting Edge, which was extremely well made, very informative and even quite inspiring. I’ve always enjoyed editing (the little I’ve done) but the only problem is that I don’t like sitting down, staring at a computer for long periods of time except perhaps once in a while if necessary. Generally I’m an active sort of person who likes to be physically doing something or tangibly getting somewhere. We also briefly touched on the subject of Stars (Andy produced a big telescope and we marvelled at the beauty of the night sky) and we all had to name our favourite Star; mine being Charlie Chaplin.

So I was delighted to discover that Friday morning’s screening was City Lights (which tend to obstruct the stars actually) by the one and only Charles Chaplin. I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Kid or The Gold Rush, it didn’t seem quite as funny though it was hilarious at some parts, but perhaps that was a mixture of my mood at the time and a slight complacency on Chaplin’s part. Technically I thought it was a brilliant film with noticeably sophisticated photography and on one occasion I spotted the use of a tracking shot which was an obvious step away from Chaplin’s usual static camera style.

Abigail’s class was cancelled so that was it for this week and I was left to reflect on the apparent wasteland I’d been travelling through. Wasteland or not it seems there have been some very interesting rocks and I have a feeling that there’s an oasis not far off…

Coronation Street 2

The main focus seemed to be on Maria's storyline. No-one believed Tony murdered her husband, Carla phones the police, Maria speaks to a Police Detective who is completely unhelpful, she then hits Tony with her car and is taken to hospital while Carla states it was deliberate, Maria's baby is unharmed but the Detective suggests she may be charged for attempted murder.

Other stories seen are the conflict between Sophie and Rosie, Peter's drink problem landing him in rehab, Tina having problems with Gary and her boyfriend, and Ken meeting Martha, the woman on the barge.

Hooks:
1st Advert break - Carla phones the police
Episode break - Maria hits Tony and crashes
2nd Advert break - Ken meets Martha
Episode end - Maria may be charged for attempted murder

Character Status:
Maria - widowed, seeking justice
Ken - married, tired and looking for release
Sophie - single girl with a crush
Carla - married, vengeful
Tony - married, guilty murderer

Week 2 – L’Amour des trois oranges

No editing class on Monday morning (what’s new!) however those of us shooting the opera (Prokofiev’s ‘The Love for Three Oranges’) met up with Ray at nine to discuss times. So, in other words, I was forced to come in for nine in the morning (again!) to be told what I already knew. It’s good for me…

We learnt the basics of three-point lighting with Ray in the afternoon and were left to experiment ourselves with different set-ups which was both enjoyable and encouraging.
A unique and interesting exercise took up the bulk of our Screenwriting class on Tuesday. In essence a glorified version of the party game ‘Consequences’, it involved filling in one piece of information on twelve different story outlines and passing them on so that everyone was contributing to every story. What this did very well was highlight the importance of having a clear, strong internal character need or emotional flaw (i.e. theme) and a unique but useable external character goal. If these are well defined and interesting the rest of the story should flow relatively easily.

At lunchtime on Wednesday we had our first Production meeting highlighting the exciting plans for DFTV and TPA. All we really need is a fresh, inspiring idea for a short but challenging project that we could join forces to work on and allow some talent from both courses to collide. I’m still thinking…

Andy gave us a very detailed deconstruction of Coronation Street which was very enlightening as to how a miniature world is kept alive over such a period of time. What with Richard’s influence it’s rather easy to forget that there are other types of writing than film; and obviously writing for soaps (or Serial Drama) is very different.

We had a quick look at using Moodle, with Andy on Thursday morning and were officially given our assignment. I’m not much of a fan of Virtual Learning Environments, I’d much prefer to sit down and chat face-to-face but I suppose it is something I should make an effort to adapt to. We continued our classes on The History of Cinema by analysing the ‘Odessa Step Sequence’ in Battleship Potemkin and what amazed me most was how much I hadn’t noticed of how good the editing was on my first viewing simply because it is so similar to todays accepted method; a testament to Russian cinema of that time.

Later I had a tutorial with Adam about my TV Drama idea. All I really needed to know was; is it worth developing? I got the answer to that and much more so I can go ahead with confidence and try to make something of it.

Nosferatu, my first vampire film and my first taste of 1920s German cinema, was actually quite good fun. After all the warnings it turned out to be rather tame and, rather disappointingly, not scary. It seems to be a recurring problem with silent films that the score, towards the end, becomes wearying. Nosferatu was no exception and at one point I thought I would go mad because the score was so piercing and repetitive. Nevertheless there were some parts I enjoyed very much; like the scenes in Count Orlok’s castle, the shots of the schooner and the Count’s unfortunate resemblance to Mr Bean as he scampered hither and thither holding his coffin! Most impressive was the work done on production design with some staggering make-up, costumes and set-pieces.

Introduction to Production this week was all about considering what makes a good story. We watched a number of short films and afterwards simply questioned whether it was an interesting, worthwhile and compelling story. We have done essentially the same thing in almost all the other classes but it is very useful to approach this from a producing point of view and think whether a story is worth telling.

This week seemed to be dominated by opera. I had already organised to go and see the first performance with my dad on Friday night, before agreeing to shoot it which then of course required going to see it on Wednesday, and filming it on Thursday. So after seeing it three nights in a row I was officially opera-ed out (although it was very good) and ready to get back to good old films!

Week 1 - Tasting Term Two

We really hit the ground running this term. No classes on Monday.

Tuesday was intense. A full-speed action-packed introduction to lights with Ray. It’s all pretty much new to me but I grasped the basics fairly easily. Lighting is where it starts becoming much more impressive and professional, whilst, of course, becoming a huge amount more complicated and time-consuming.

Screenwriting has been newly allocated to Tuesday afternoons and I find this more challenging. Somehow I can think and concentrate better in the mornings as a general rule and it has to be said Richard’s classes are always among the most strenuous. However, this time it was a bit more relaxed than normal as we were recapping on last term. We came up with a story, as a class, in the last twenty minutes and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Sometimes writing seems so easy. The truth is: writing is easy, good writing is fiendishly difficult.

Wednesday afternoon saw us discussing television with Andy, once again, and more specifically ‘Appointment’, ‘Family’ and ‘Event’ viewing. We watched the Doctor Who episode Rose which was the very first of the new series, originally broadcast on BBC One on 26 March 2005. Incidentally I had not seen any complete episodes of the new series up to this point (shocking, I know) but I had seen some from the older series’. So I got the same experience that I’m sure many fans were going through when they first saw that episode. What struck me most was the action-packed, fast-moving, humorous and even childish (a burping wheelie bin!) tone of the new series. I seem to remember the older ones being slower, more serious and a lot scarier. I like the new style, I enjoyed the episode and I am now, I fear, dangerously close to becoming hooked on Series Four… and about time too!

I am genuinely pleased that we have started studying the history of cinema. I know very little history and yet I just love learning about it. As cinema is my passion I get double the enjoyment when studying its history. I can tell Andy enjoys teaching it also and so I look forward to the rest of this term. The birth of cinema is perhaps the most fascinating part and that is what we covered on Thursday morning.

A nine o’clock start! “It’s ludicrous,” I thought until I realised that school started then and therefore I’ve been starting at that time most of my life. It was quite nice to be going to work at the same time as everyone else for a change. We made a start on the promised silent Russian cinema by watching Battleship Potemkin. I couldn’t find any significant difference between the editing displayed in this film and editing in today’s films. Suffice it to say, it was well ahead of its time. The soundtrack proved to be somewhat wearying because it was more monotonous than we are used to but the story (although not entirely clear at some points) captivated me and held me to the end despite my ignorance with regards to the Russian Revolution. It is, I believe, by today’s standards a good film and therefore I can hardly imagine how amazing it must have been in 1925.

Finally we had our first class of a new module: Introduction to Production (has quite a ring to it!) with Abigail Howkins. Most of what she said seemed common sense to me but I look forward to discovering the secrets of that great mystery: what do producers actually do? Producing is something I can really see myself doing actually, and I’m keen to give it a go but I’m not sure if I really want to specialise in it. I feel more at home on the creative side of things. Anyway there’s plenty of time to decide, this is, after all, only the first week of Term 2 and I’m sure there’s lots of fun to be had in the coming weeks!

Coronation Street

Broadcast on Mon 5th Jan 2009, this episode focusses primarily on Steve. He is debating whether to leave Michelle for Becky, when he discovers Lloyd and his mother are together. This results in him not meeting up with Becky as he proposed.

Also, Dev is taken by surprise when he learns Tara's plans and Joe seems to be in some financial trouble. A snippet of Peter's problems are seen also as he claims he is not an alcoholic. Further complications arise when Molly recieves an urgent phone call.

The episode ends with Becky's disappointment, as she supposes she has been decieved by Steve.

Week 12 – "The End of All Things"

I can’t really call this a week. It was two days.

In Screenwriting we had some tutorial time with Richard on our outlines for our three minute films, and we’re to write them over the holidays. I’m looking forward to that actually, although mine requires considerable adjustment. We’re finally writing a screenplay though which is rather exciting.

On Monday afternoon I had a quick tutorial with Adam, just to see how this first term went and to discuss what next term has in store. Then of course there was the big deadline of handing in our Storylined TV Dramas and I think I got mine in with less than a minute to spare!

On Tuesday we watched the footage that we shot last week for our assessments and some of it was quite hilarious. On a serious note though some of it was quite poor and I’m hoping we, as a class, can take our technical skills up a notch in next term. After that we were done; finished Term 1, free to go home. Most of us didn’t though. We half decided to stick around and see if we could make something in the remainder of the day just as an extra. No-one really seemed that keen but the more time we wasted the more frustrated I would have been if we hadn’t made anything. Anyway, eventually we did produce a short gag which we called Tension (have a watch here if you wish: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=58YJBZxPGNY) and it was shot, captured and edited all in that day. It was tolerable but I’m just glad we made something.

I feel I should give a big reflection on Term 1 now, but I’m not going to. Bottom line is it was a fine introduction to a fantastic course and I’m at the stage I would hope to be at, at this moment in time, anyway. So nothing more remains to be said really. I’m going to enjoy the Christmas break and then… well… bring on Term 2! Bye for now.

Week 11 – A Bonnie Wee Genie May forget her lines

It’s funny that the first thing we are told about Character is “Don’t think of them as a character”. It’s actually quite exciting, the prospect of creating a real, living person and letting other people see them by placing them in stories. It takes me back to the old Play Mobil and Action Man days and I realised that I’ve been ‘creating characters’ all my life, in a sort of way. Even now there is something real about those Play Mobil men, who all have names, backgrounds and personalities and I am certain if I dug them out now it would feel like meeting up with old friends (in fact, I might do that over Christmas; there’s nothing like indulging in a bit of nostalgia after all). I was rather surprised, and worried, that Richard gave us yet more homework for the last week especially as it was to write the biography of a serial killer which is unpleasant at the best of times but more so when I still had Adam’s storylining to do. It seems Screenwriting is the only class which has been going full-pelt right to the very end, but I suppose it’ll make the Christmas break seem all the more welcome.

So usually we get emailed a time to turn up for these Technical Formative Assessments and we pop in for an hour, do our thing, then leave. This time though there had been no email so we were kind of confused as to what we were supposed to be doing. I decided to simply turn up at half past nine and see what was happening and then take it from there. As it turned out we were scheduled for an eight hour assessment! It was great. We were split into two crews and told to write and shoot a twenty second piece each, with everyone having a go at camera, sound and directing. It was interesting to see how we all behaved and worked as a crew and I could begin to pick out some who were finding their niche in a particular role. Most of all it was enjoyable because we were actually making films, we were doing what we came here to do and it was part of, or rather a requirement, of the course rather than something we were doing on our steam. Exciting stuff!

Sherlock Jr was more impressive than entertaining. It simply didn’t have the charm of a Chaplin film but it far surpassed them in technical skill. I feel that had that been the same film, but with Chaplin in the main role instead of Keaton, it would have been far more enjoyable. Unfortunately the music soundtrack was rather distracting. It was bearable up to the car chase sequence where the James Bond Theme suddenly broke through and for me that broke the magic of the black and white film.

One of the best classes with Andy so far on Thursday morning: we got to play with flick books and Zoetropes! I find I learn best that way, when I actually do something practical, and I’ll remember that class because we made our own Zoetrope films (and we got chocolate). It’s also interesting that we talk a lot about The Moving Picture when in fact the whole notion of a moving picture is quite ludicrous. Pictures don’t move (unless it’s Harry Potter) but thanks to our Persistence of Vision we believe that they do.

Our last class with Andy for this term and it was on Cop Shows. I haven’t seen many but I think it’s a fairly full-proof form and it was mildly interesting coming up with our own ones. We watched an episode of House which I did enjoy, more for Hugh Laurie’s surly comments than the actual show itself, and this followed the general format of a Cop Show but cleverly replaced the Cop with a Doctor (or the ‘Holmes’ with a ‘House’).

Filmed a pantomime in Drymen on Friday night and I quite enjoyed both the experience of filming a stage show and the show itself, which was Sinbad (or A Bonny Wee Genie May Call; and the genie turned out to be a young girl who couldn’t quite remember her lines, but it didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of it, in fact I’d say it added to it). It was great to get out into the world and do an actual job (I felt like a right professional cameraman) and of course the more use of those cameras I get the happier I am!