Story Boards, Shot types and Trailers - Simon Welford 19/10/16

Story Boards

What are story boards?

Story boards are a series of sketches that are used as a planning tool to visualise how the action of the story unfolds.

Some are detailed, while others are purely diagrammatical

which ever form they take story boards concentrate on the key frames that make up a particular scene or sequence

what are the key frames.

They are used in all forms of films and programmes, with some formats using them more than others.

no set format

Can be used at any stags of production

show the conception, can help sell the idea, far cheaper than making a pilot or shooting footage

Pre production - enable the planning of the entire production, each department such as sound, prod design camera will use a story board to work out what is required to deliver the production.

Production - can be used as a guide to setting up the shots on the day.

Print a mini script A5

some productions use the story boards as the first point of reference often before the script. other productions will use the story board only as a rough guide or back up.

not all shows use story boards, some use a script and a shot list.

Post production, story boards can be used in the editing phase to help the editor visualise how the director intended a scene or sequence to be constructed.

be adaptable, the story board isn't the law.

pre visuals are becoming very popular in special effects based film

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/top-10-storyboard-software-of-2016-free-storyboard-templates/

3 main styles

Graphic - the most detailed version of storyboard and will always be used in action dependent films.

Diagrammatical - These types are widely used, less artistic they still give detailed information about the design of a shot.

Plan View - not showing the view, usually where the camera and scene layout will be..

Shot descriptions - The main descriptive purpose of a storyboard is to design the shot and frame size, to do this successfully you need to use the industry standard terminology

Taxi Driver

Birds Eye View or an Angel Perspective - good to use as an establishing shot BEV

Extreme Long Shot - ELS

Long Shot or Wide Shot LS/WS

Medium Shot - MS

Close Up Shot - CU

Extreme Close Up - ECU

Camera movements

Tilt Shot - tilts up or down.

Crane Shot - Camera moves down from a fixed position without losing depth of frame.

Pan Shot - moving left to right or right to left.

Tracking Shot - camera moves in parallel with the character or the subject.

Dolly Shot - the camera moves in or away from a subject or a character.

Camera Position

Two shot - a shot with two characters appearing in frame.

Low angle - camera is below looking up at the subject, gives the character a sense of power.

High Angle - Camera is placed above looking down on the subject, makes the character seem smaller and weaker less dominant.

Greg Tolland

Over the shoulder - OTS the camera is positioned over the characters shoulder, looking at another character or view, the amount of should in the frame varies usually denotes trapped feelings.

Steady Cam, first used in the early 1970's is now a shot that is widely employed and can combine all of the types of shots described previously in one single amazing shot.

Trailers

Designed to hook the audience into watching a specific film or programme.
trailer will condense a few key moments, making it the visual pitch for the idea,story.

first used in cinema, shown after the film, i.e they trailed.

usually made of the most exciting, dramatic or comedic or shocking moments in the film/programme and edited together with music and other elements such as voice over and text.

some trailers are shot specially.

TV Trailers - BBC often make a trailer that has no relation to the style of the programme.

What is the story?
When is it on?
Who is it aimed at?

Our project - Make a 1-2 minute trailer for soft.
Think about the scenes, key moments that sell the story.
Edit and upload to my journal.

Crossing The Line....

In our camera workshop on wednesday we were given a script and told to shoot it, this script was linked to a lesson on monday in which Simon talked about the 180 Degree rule (See my blog post Story Telling with Pictures for more information).

In our group we had myself, Trine Hagen and Ethan Collins. I worked with them to film their own videos and they helped me film mine, because of time constraints I was unable to get as many shots as I would have liked, but I am happy with my end product, I believe it is simple to follow and I spent some time to make an effect to show the 180º Rule in Action.

This is my finished Video.Crossing The Line - The 180º Rule

Story Idea - Plot Evolution

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.

-------

My initial changes to the story was to have Jason's father own the company that fired Daniel, to which Daniel then becomes in charge of alongside Jason.

I thought that this would add a link between them and add a new dynamic to the story.

----

After a lesson with Steve Coombes we were talking about how films can change in the middle, such as in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho you think its a Heist film but then at the mid point it switches to a murder and physiological thriller film.

I then decided to do the same thing with my story, Daniel decides to help Jason because of his own history with his father, he calls his work and they fire him, my hope is that people kind of guess the previous plot, that Jason will be left the family business and hire Daniel, however I decided to change that to Jason pulls a gun on Daniel and tells him to drive on the country roads as the police are looking for him because he robbed a bank.

I thought that this twist will add a much better dynamic to my story and make it much more interesting.

Daniel drives and helps Jason get away, using his knowledge of the area to avoid the police.

They reach a safe area and Jason makes Daniel get out of the car with the intention of killing him.

This is where I am up to with the ending.

I have three options in my mind:

1) Jason kills Daniel.

2) Jason hires Daniel on as a driver for a new heist.

3) Daniel kills Jason and takes the bag of money, investing it into a new business venture.

Camera Work With Louis Heaton

How the camera is used in television
the primary grammar of oil,

Basic Elements

The Shot - Affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through composition and speed.

Movement - Affects our emotional and psychological relationship with character and setting through changes in visual space and action.

Why Do we use shots?

The Basic Building blocks of visual grammar.

The visual equivalent of sentence structure.

If shots are words, mise en scene is meaning and editing is narrative structure.

The Basic shots

Wide Shot - Establish location, setting or character context in setting - convey sense of place and context, can also convey character relations ships to the environment or their social relationships.

Medium Shot - Characters dominate the frame - Focuses viewers attention on one or more principal characters, commonly used for dialogue scenes.




Close Up - Face or specific object dominate the frame - Conveys intimacy and emotion, often used for interior monologues voiceover or speaking directly to camera.





Extreme Close Up - selected part of the character or object fills the frame. - Conveys heightened emotion (fear,suspense, desire) Dramatic tension or a reveal.


GVS - General Views, Cover shots, Est shots.

The size of the image is important to the emotion, particular when yore using that image to have the audience identify with it. Alfred Hitchcock

Rule of thirds - subject placed at aesthetic intersections.
Derived from the golden mean - classical concept of natures balance and harmony reflected in art.






High Angle Shot - Objective alienating, diminishes character or subject in frame emphasising venerability or isolation.





Low Angle Shot - Empahsises character or subjects dominance in frame often used for hero shot or menace.

Dutch/Tilt - disorienting, creates psychological tension.

Expressionism - angled shots are a common feature of exp partially in the classic german expressionist films.

presents the world from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.

Speed - 
Slow-motion/Fast Motion - Alters audiences perceptual or emotional response to dramatic action.
(300)

Motion & Emotion
To heighten action or emotion
To convey objective or subjective viewpoints
Refocus the audiences attention within the scene
Explore or change the setting/enviroment.

I believe in using camera movement when it helps tell the story more effectively, i think one of the essentials of moving camera is the audience should not be aware of it. - Alfred Hitchcock.

Alienation - Hitchcock's use of the reverse crane shot is an example of alienation effect.
Is the extent to which one maintains a critical distance from a cultural production. The more immersive a piece, the greater the extent to which one is drawn into the fictional piece, often associated with passively experiencing the media.

Contrastingly an alienated audience remains removed from the media, critically considering the signs, narrative and so on. This is often considered in relation to artifice, with alienated media not attempting to hide the constructed and artificial nature of the production; showing scaffolding using minimal staging etc.

Camera Movements

Pan.tilt, zoom
Handheld, steady cam
Dolly,Crane

increases action and emotion through subjective POV
Switches between subjective and objective viewpoints.

Denotative (directing attention)
Expressive (bringing out feelings)
Decorative ( Flourishes or stylistic patterns that are independent or semi-independent of narrative design)
Symbolic functions (Invoking abstract concepts)

Uses of handheld in documentary
heightens action and emotion (conveys urgency)

Dynamics of transition (moving from one place to another)

Places character in context ( Life on the streets) Authenticity


EDITING
what editing is and how it serves narrative
different schools of editing and theories of editing
use of ending in cinema, television, and documentary

The assembly of visual materials into sequences.

construct a narrative that is linear or non-linear.

Manipulates Time (Condense, Lengthen , Flashback and flash forward.)

Juxtaposes Ideas and concepts (Visual and Intellectual)

Creating Visual Meaning
Mede-En-Scene and cinematography create implicit meaning within shots.
Editing creates meaning between shots.
match cuts
pschologial subtext

Four key elements of editing

Spacial - The relationship between different spaces and the editors manipulation of them e.g. cross cutting

Temporal - Manipulation of time within the film in relation to order duration and frequency - e.g. montages, dissolves, wipes, fades.

Rhythmic - Manipulation of the duration of the shots: Accents,  Beats and the tempo e.g. action and suspense scenes and jump cuts.

Graphic - the relationship between pictorial qualities of shots or scenes, e.g. graphic match cuts

Why editing is important
creates strong visual narratives from simple script description or unedited rushes
the most creative aspect of filmmaking.

A good editor can make mediocre shots work, a mediocre editor can ruin or ignore good editors.

 Shooting ratio have an impact on editing (Film is 10:1 Documentary is 60-100:1) how much footage you film versus how much you use.

Shot reverse shot
Alternates between two shots framed from reverse angles
often used to depict conversations

Match on Action
action begun in first shot is completed in second shot
maintains continous action (and therefore continuous sense of the passage of time) across edits

Soviet Montage
Formal theory and technique where editing serves an ideological purpose
not escapist drama through continuity, but challenging audience tho though and action through image montage
sergei eisernsten,, lev kuleshov.

Ideology
A set of opinions, values and assumptions that one uses to think about and relate to the world.
Ideology is not objective truth but perceived truth; a systems value
Is is common to conceive of ideally being the only way of understanding the wold. That there is no position of objective truth from which to interpret things.

Eisenstein argues that montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternative to continuity editing.

Montage is conflict where new ideas emerge from the collisions wishing the montage sequence

Thesis/shot A + AntiThesis/Shot B = Synthesis

The Kuleshov Effect

A Mental Phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation,
so each single shot has its own intrinsic meaning, and a new meaning when two are intercut.

Five Principles for Soviet Montage

Metric - Editing which follows a specific tempo (based purely on frame count) cottoning to the next shot regardless of action in the frame

Rhythmic - Similar to metric but allowing for visual continuity from edit to edit.

Tonal - uses the emotional meaning of the shot e.g., sleeping babies to denote peace  and calm

Overtonal/Associative- A fusion of metric,rhythmic and tonal montage intended to have a more intense effect on the audience

Intellectual - editing together shots that when combined, convey and intellectual or metaphorical meaning.

Modern Documentary Editing

Evidentiary (or expositional) editing - explicit meaning of edits is reinforced by narration or dialogue. shots are often illustrative, and maintain some visual continuity

Dynamic Editing - modern narrative style, dominated by jump cuts.shots are ordered by meaning but not necessarily by their relationship to each other in time and space.

The Chair - Workshop project

On Wednesday we had a camera workshop in which we were tasked with making a video with the only prerequisite being it had to contain a chair, the story was our decision, we had to film as many shots as possible to portray our story.

I was paired with George Wing and after he filmed his short sequence with me as an actor I filmed him.

The story I was trying to convey was that George wanted to sit down on the chair but he saw it as an inappropriate thing to do, he then sits down and it becomes a dramatic thing.

I also wanted to make it look the George and the chair had a rivalry going which is why George looks at the chair with an angry expression.

https://youtu.be/EJMq1NH4CQM

A Moment With Steve Coombe A beginning A Middle and The End

Plot is what happens,
Story is the significance of what happens.

Something happens
Therefore This happens
but This happens

a plot that goes and then this happened and this happened.

Dramatic irony the buts of a story

paradox and not what you expect.

Ideally a but is a culmination of a moment.

Road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Dramatic Irony - The bald man with a comb in his pocket.
When the audience has a greater knowledge of a character than the character has of themselves.
Sometimes they will be ahead of the story other times behind.
Having expectation of the character.

If you know your ending you know your target of the story.


Openings

Contradictions and conflicts, in an opening you want to create all these to intrigue the audience and setup the rest of the film.

What sort of things do you want to happen in the middle.

Character Development, Plot twist, Distraction

The middle is where you can turn the film on its head.
If the audience is ahead of the game this is where you can change that and make them behind the game.

What you thought the story was about at the beginning almost changes on its axis.


Endings

Toy Story Three

to grow up he has to give his toys up, an intensification of the dramatisation

Beginning is a but
Middle is a but
End is a but

Moments - That moment when

what you talk about when you finish watching the film.
no point of writing a screenplay that doesn't have moments

Original Producers

Audiences love moments, they don't notice plot, story character dialogue if the get moments, as soon as they do notice plot story etc they hate it, because they have to think about it.

Story Telling With Pictures

The 180 Degree Rule

                                          Screen Left                                         Screen Right

Where you position the camera in a scene is where you place the audience in the scene.

Where you put the camera can change the audiences perspective on the scene.

They can be an observer point of view, within the scene, a participant.

Between two people there is an invisible line called the axis of action, if you put the camera on a side of them, if you keep the camera on that side the audience will not get confused.

Good Will Hunting. 

To break the 180 degree rule the characters need to move to signify the change, or to have the camera show the shot changing between one 180 degree rule to another.  You need to orientate the audience, so they see it happen so it does not confuse them.

if you want to cross the line do it with a moving shot.

you can be clever and break the rule, to disorientate the audience for a stylistic reason.

The Shining Bathroom scene - To show how it might not be real becomes a indicator of his insanity.

Plan and shoot a short film based on the provided script crossing the line.

Edit and upload to the r&d blog.

Story Idea

Who 

What

When

Where

Why

How

is it dramatic

unpredictable

Original

Has it been done before

Key Elements

Theme - What is your story really about.

The Characters - Who are these people

What is the problem to overcome

what is the change of affairs

Avoid that he/she is now a better person

they learn something

know and understand characters

know the setting,goal and change

know the ending/

Shooting Plans

The opening two minutes of the scrips

or a trailer.

find your cast

Find locations

Find your Crew.

Plan the shoot, shot list, prod design schedule, testing.

Risk Assessment

Book Kit.

Steve Coombes - My Top Three Moments

My top three moments are as follows.

Number 3 - I Am Your Father - Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back 
Directed by Irvin Kirshner 
Written by George Lucas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lOT2p_FCvA

An oldie but a goodie, this scene is what many people talked about when walking out of the film, the scene in which Darth Vader reveals that he (Spoiler Alert!) is Lukes father and Lukes reaction. I remember first watching this film and feeling the shock when this was revealed. 


Since Star Wars is my favourite movie franchise, this is one that sticks in my mind. I particularly like how this isn't revealed as they fight but after Vader defeats Luke and chops of his hand.

This adds more suspense and thrill to the scene which rightly has gone down as one of the best moments in film.

When talking about moments my understanding is that a moment is something that you talk about after, that key scene or scenes which almost represent the film, such as the rose petal scene in American Beauty. In a way the reason Number 3 is a moment for me is the plot twist, it isn't necessarily the artistic shots or lines.





Number 2 - You Were The Chosen One! - Star Wars Revenge of the Sith - Written and Directed by George Lucas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3DOAyKhoTs

Again this moment is from the Star Wars franchise and I am committing a sin by taking my favourite moment from the prequels. This is the scene in which student battles master, with Anakin Skywalker turning to the dark side and being confronted by Obi Wan Kenobi. Even though if you watched the original films and you know how this ends, I could not help but be moved by this scene, it cements Anakins turn to the dark side. 







Although they battle with lightsabers there is more conflict than good vs bad, since Obi Wan looks at Anakin like a brother and has an internal conflict, being unable to kill him and instead leaving him to die.

Number 1 - KHAN!!! - Star Trek Into Darkness - Directed By J.J Abrams - Written By Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yESWsgJ__dY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ymcq7BNgiI

One of my favourite scenes of all time, the whole experience technically spreads across a few scenes but roughly ten minutes of film, The first part is where Captain Kirk is realigning the warp core, knowing that in doing so he will die. 




The second part comes into play when Spock is present when Kirk dies each placing their hand on the window and making the Vulcan "Live long and Prosper sign" with their hand.







 Spock who is a logical and cold person then loses control of his emotions and then screams Khan! as the USS Vengeance falls past the Enterprise, This is my favourite moment because 

Script Writing W/ Steve Coombes 3rd October 2016

Script Writing W/ Steve Coons 3rd October 2016

In this lesson we went over the do's and dont's of dialogue and how to make a character, we learnt that with dialogue long diatribes and speeches are very difficult to pull off, a piece of dialogue can sound too real and too fake and finding the balance between the two can be difficult, all speech needs to be necassary to further the plot and try to show things rather than telling the audience through dialogue.

With Characters a perfect character with no flaws is an uninteresting one, when watching a film a viewer wants to be taken on a journey for the self betterment of the character or even the opposite for a characters fall into evil or such. (such as the story arc of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars) a change is good, no matter if its a good or bad one.

When writing a character give them imperfections make them different from other characters in the script, make them use different words, decide on how they would react in a situation, what swear words they may use, what they wouldn't use. all of this gives more personality to a character rather than just have a copy of another character.

A character should always be under tension, being pushed and pulled, a young man leaving home misses his family (the pull) he needs to find a job to survive (The push). A character needs to make choices all the time and in a good story everyone is right.

Dialogue

Pulp Fiction - Christopher Walkens Watch Speech.

We watched a short clip from pulp fiction, in which Christopher Walken gave a speech, it was a long piece of dialogue about how this watch came from Butch's great grandfather, the point made was that long speeches rarely work out so well, having a great actor and interesting content can counter this but typically you want to keep dialogue short, no more than three sentences.

Keep it at a need to know basis.

AVOIDABLE MISTAKES

- if it doesn't advance the story get rid of it

- don't be too formal

- don't use names too often

- make characters speech diverse, give accents, traits and crutch words.

- don't be too artistic 

- don't be too grammatical or real.

when writing a character see how polite they are, phrases they would say or not say at all.

Read your dialogue outloud infront of a mirror to check its speakable.

Use grace notes, avoid long speeches, try to turn text into action, instead of saying "good to see you!" have the characters hug tightly. however don't overdo it.

Pay attention to syntax, don't give too much information, don't make a character a mouthpiece to send a message unless its a message no one agrees with.

Some speeches can show not tell with the use of provocative phrases.

interesting characters can be ones who are in denial "the man protesth too much" Denial can be subtext and apply pressure to the character.

whats interesting is what they don't know about themselves.

Immerse the audience don't lead them.

swearing has some of the most complicated grammar, when thinking about characters think about what type of insults they would use.

Think about the most extreme words your character will use and that will tell you something about what other words they will use.

accents can make things sound harsher than it actually is, swearing is a rhythm, Anger is talking and eloquent, Monsters Talk very powerful and furious, Always with fury and hate.

the poetry of insult and swearing, “Bull-Shit” has its own rhythm.

Full Metal Jacket

No greater tribute to good dialogue than to create a cliche

Character 

When you know someone well you know their flaws and strengths,  you have some insight into their flaws, eccentricities, vulnerabilities and so on.

Know your characters in your scripts just as well as you know your friends.

what they talk what they do.

Characters have flaws, usually failures or have failures

they fall short of their own expectation of their selfs.

Character journey

looks up at the world not down.

jokes are about servants laughing at masters.

little people not the big people.

small looking at big

Tells don't tell what a person is like, it shows what they are like.

Melodrama, all characters are wrong.

In drama all the characters are right, the point of sympathy is constantly changing.

Conscious or Unconscious tragedy, the difference between a drug addict or a recreational drug taker.

what type of person does he want to be,

doesn't know who he is

single woman- has to decide what type of person she wants.

Make one monster seem like a better monster by putting a bigger one next door.

Diner - Film

how a simple activity can be a metaphor for something much bigger.

“Its too complicated I just want to hear the music.” - Metaphor for marriage.

Music is something he talk to with his mates, its a privileged area, something they all bond with.

She doesn't understand him

she just wants to hear the music, he wants to know the flipside.

He remembers exactly the first time they met, but only because of the song that was playing.

The premise of any rom com, women choose, men display

if your a character and you don't know what you think how do you know what you are.

Feeling in-authentic - existential crisis

overwhelmed by the freedom that they have by having so many choices.

have them make choices 

Choice is what defines character

A character should be like a suspension bridge, pulls in different directions

1 Are they making choices

2 Whats keeping them tense

Next week beginning middle end, moments.

Louis Heaton - Mise En scene

Video Short hand show not tell

Define Character emotional stat and status

Define relationships through staging lighting and framing

Setting/Location - real or constructed

Costume/makeup - natural or designed for maximum aesthetic appeal

Lighting - natural, artificial high key or low key

Staging - natural where the characters are placed in the frame.


TOWIE - Scripted Reality
Setting - Studio - no photos or household items, Hyperrealism staged set. placed as if it is a play background. could be real, but dressed and lit to make it "hyper real"

Costume - Glamour & aspirational - fake authenticity

Lighting - High Key, Dramatic
Staging - imitates conventions of drama

Cultural Context

Natural Low-key Lighting

Staging - Contextual, Suggests Social Isolation
Social Isolation -

Cliches/Stereotypes

Lighting contrast between light and dark, symbolising the conflict of the character.

Documentaries - Mise en scene helps show where you are in the world. Implicates that it is inside, a family home.

youtube.confessional video - Emulates Geek bedroom.

Drama sets are typically artificial, along with makeup and costume design.
lighting - High key.
Staging director specific

Documentary

Setting - Real Locations
Costume and Makeup - authentic
Lighting - Natural but can be designed.
Staging - Natural but often directer specific

Further Links
https://collegefilmandmediastudies.com/mise-en-scene-2/

-------------------------Seminar ---------------------------
Why is Mise en scene important - Provides Visual context

Fergus - Premiere Test

This is my edit for our Premiere Pro assessment, this was to gauge our skills and competency with Premiere, I have used this program several times before but I am self taught and may have missed out important things.

I found the task easy but again I may have done things in a easier but less effective way.