Friday 30 September 2016

Unhappy Circumstances - Pitch

Unhappy Circumstances


Daniel Greene has to make a choice between his job or a stranger he just met, will he choose an unhappy career or doing the right thing.

Genre - Drama

Characters


Daniel Greene - An unhappy office worker who is constantly under stress from his menial job, he always wants to move up the corporate ladder but is passed up constantly by people who are less skilled but friends or family of his boss. He always dresses smart.

Jason Deaton - A young man who had a big argument with his father and ran away, he hasn't spoken to his father for years and is distraught to find out he has passed away, he is barely keeping up with his payments on his rundown apartment and feels like a disappointment to his father.

Main Location - 

Country Road - Where the car accident takes place, isolated and no phone signal, far away from any garages or help.


Car Interior -  Daniel's Car where a portion of the story takes place, organised and clean.
Apartment - Where Daniel lives and is writing his cv in the last scene.

The Story

Daniel Greene is on his way to work when a car comes round the corner at a high speed, Daniel brakes and swerves to avoid the car which loses control and hits an embankment getting his car stuck. Daniel gets out of his car and runs over to the other car and a young man in a hoodie gets out.

This is Jason Deaton, he looks over the car and runs his hands through his head exasperated, obviously very agitated, Daniel runs up to him to make sure he is ok. Jason is fine but upset as he is on his way to his fathers funeral and he is running late since it was so far away. They try to call a taxi and a tow truck,  but they will take hours to get there and they are miles from the closest garage.

Daniel is about to leave but then decides to take Jason to the funeral, he calls up work explaining what happened and telling them he's going to be late, they tell him if he isn't in on time he is fired.
After hearing this Daniel loses his temper and tells them to stick it.

He takes Jason to the funeral and on the way finds out that Jason and his father had a huge argument a few years ago and haven't spoken since, Jason is upset that he never got to say goodbye and how he feels his father passed thinking little of him.

Daniel then pulls over and they quickly change clothes, so Jason is wearing smart clothing for the funeral, Daniel drops Jason off is invited inside, he declines but stays in the car and has a nap.

It cuts to the next week and Daniel is sending off CV's he gets a phone call from Jason, who tells him his father left him the large family business and needs someone to help him run it.



Inspiration - The idea of this story comes from a experience I had when I got stuck in really bad traffic and had to call work to tell them ill be late, my job at the time didn't believe there was traffic and told me if I didn't come in I would be fired. I took pictures of the traffic and kept my job.

I added another experience where a girl in the car in front of me was in a collision and the other car drove off,  I stayed with the girl who was upset and waited until her mother and aunt came to pick her up.


Wednesday 21 September 2016

Contextual Studies With Louis - 22/09/16

Today we had our first Contextual Studies lesson with Louis.


Texts, Contexts and Culture.

The Shock Of The New
Ways of Seeing

Class Etiquette
No Facebook
No Reddit
No 4Chan
No Porn
Study Purposes only
Feel free to ask questions, no idle chatter.

Anyone disrupting the class will be given one warning then be asked to leave.

Be Punctual

Im in Group B

Louis Heaton
Lecturer, Film and Television(Middlesex Uni, Winchester Uni, UCA)
Studied Drama and Film at Manchester Uni
Student Filmmaker (Camera, Editing, Director)
National Film and Television School
Film Critic and Arts Reviewer
Documentary Producer/Director
Independent Film Producer
Special Editions Producer, Criterion DVD


1895 Birth of cinema Train

The Seven Samurai 

Text is referring to what we are studying (Individual tv programs)
Term 1 (8 Sessions) weeks 2 - 8 --Mise En Scene, Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Documentary

Outcome - Students should be able to critically analyse and discuss the use of these subjects in their own and others films.

Term 1 - Weeks 8 - 10
Understanding Genre - Analysis of narrative and aesthetic Archetypes, codes, conventions (and cliches) of tv's most enduring and popular formats.

The Sitcom (situation comedy) - Screening and discussion of BBC comedy pilot, Vodka Diaries
The Soap Opera - Screening and discussion ofThe BBC's longest running soap, Eastenders
Crime DramaScreening and discussion of the ITV Police Series, The Bill

Review


Presentations

Students will form groups of 3-4 people. All are to make a contribution on the content and verbal delivery.
Week 3 deadline for group formation
each group will select a TV Programme to analyse for its use of these elements, 10 Mins.
Clip must not exceed 3 mins.

Discuss the artistic and technical merits
Powerpoint - Prezzi - Keynote

10th and 17th

Film Art
Bordwell & Thompson

Key Critical Theories

Alienation - To feel or be separated because of differences, to be alienated.

Realism - the quality or fact of representing a person or thing in a way that is accurate and true to life.

Classicism - the following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship, especially from the Renaissance to the 18th century. the following of traditional and long-established theories or styles.

Expressionism - a style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express the inner world of emotion rather than external reality.

Gender/Race - To be judged or acted again due to gender/Race/sexuality racism,sexism, homophobia

Gaze Theory - Where someone looks, a man could stare at the stars to show wonder, or at his shoes to show submissiveness

Ideology - a collection of beliefs held by an individual, group or society. It can be described as a set of conscious and unconscious ideas which make up one's beliefs, goals, expectations, and motivations.

Modernism - a movement towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas, to evolve from the past

Post Modernism - almost the reverse of modernism, where a person goes back to traditional ways, such as a carpenter only using hand tools rather than drills and electrical equipment.

Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. 

Surrealism - a way of "releasing the unconscious imagination" pieces of art which are irrational and illogical.

The other -  a critical contextual theory we use to examine issues of 'otherness' or 'the alien'  in film and television.  Typically it is linked to ideas of representation, race and xenophobia:  literal fear of 'the outsider'.  But it can also examine symbolic representations:  for example,  sci-fi and horror films which use the 'hidden alien'  or parasitic disease as a metaphorical manifestation of 'the other'. 

The uncanny - When something is different but strangely familiar, a theory called the uncanny valley shows that humans dislike something that looks almost real, such as a lifelike doll, yet will like a robot or a something that is obviously not human.

Psycho Analysis - Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses.

How to be a filmmaker

Read - A LOT
Watch - A LOT
View - As much as possible, with a critical eye



Lonesome Road

Lonesome Road

Characters 


Private Investigator - Sarah Turner
36, Female, Tidy, High morales, Organised, Recently left police due to an unknown reason, single, no children, 

Beach bum
Richard Tugger
young male, regularly gets drunk at the beach, low self esteem, unmotivated 

Sarah is hired by Richard's mum to find him as he has been out for two days, she says he is usually at the beach. she drives down the country lane at a high speed when someone walks in front of her car, she hits him and brakes, she gets out of the car and realises its Richard and he is dead. She is then faced with a decision, does  she tell the mother that she killed her son, or does she lie and tell her that she found him like that, if she tells the truth she could lose everything. but if she lies she will lose her honour.







She decided to leave him and got away with it, but struggled to sleep at night with the guilt

Sunday 11 September 2016

Onwards By Simon Lawrence

This is the introduction video I made for university. I decided on using a horror genre as I believed it to be a challenge and change to my usual style.

https://youtu.be/3G1GMdISjVo