MDA2100 - Week 3

This week we looked at the Genre of 'Comedy'

I had never really studied or worked on comedy in depth, so I enjoyed the opportunity to see the theory behind a genre which you wouldn't usually think about in a 'scholarly' way
We looked at the 4 different types of comedy: (Superiority, Incongruity, Ambivalence and Release) and the way in which they are explored in films and even gained from everyday situations. The idea of a Payoff and Setup also was put across as being important within the genre.

One of the films we saw was 'Desserts' starring Ewan Mcgreggor, in which a man was hooked while on a beach and dragged into the sea. While the film had possibly deep themes of man's effects on the environment, I thought it was a funny, if morbid film (and morbid humour is always fun to be honest). The ideas of Superiority and Incongruity are where the humour was generated: Spectators felt superior to the character as he fell for the fish's trick, and the events were incongruous, as it is usually a fish getting hooked, not a man).

We then watched George Lucas in Love, which was a short, rom-com which generated comedy from using the traits of well-known Star Wars characters to generate humour, in showing a possible, unrealistic way in which George Lucas gained inspiration for the story. This was an example of 'exclusive' comedy, in which only people who understand certain aspects will get jokes. This could also in a way indicate superiority, as you get a joke other people may not.

In the afternoon workshop, we discussed turning our own experiences into stories, pitches, and how to write a pitch.

I found the own experiences aspect interesting, as it was useful to see how as you have been part of that experience, you may be almost biased in your thinking of an idea, and it was useful to see how other people responded to those ideas. We then had to make up a story idea based on one of the other people's experiences. This was interesting, as you really had to consider other people's views and how they may have been affected by an experience, and you had to get out of your own mindset and step into anothers shoes, which is a useful skill for when you write an idea based on an other person's life, for example.

MDA2100 - Week Two

In the second week we looked at personal experiences, memories, emotions, and how your own life itself (pretty much) can be turned into a story which you can adapt into a short film.

I found it very interesting when we talked about how emotions (such as love) form part of human experience and can form the basis of a story idea, such as how Love normally drives the subplot of a film (i.e. the romance in 'Witness', a particular favourite example of Middlesex Tutors).

I also found how each of the four primal emotions (Happiness, Sadness, Fear and Anger) can effect characters and story in strong ways, particularly interesting. When you think about it, they form the basis for characters' identities, their actions and stories and plots in almost every film you can think of.
The emotions all affect characters in different ways:

• Happiness - Brings a character 'up', often tied in with the character's goal (i.e. happiness from love, or achieving their goal)
• Sadness - Brings the character 'down', (often tied in with the character's failures)
• Anger - Drives a character forwards, urging them to further achieve their goal (e.g. the death of the yoda-like figure in the 'hero's journey' story structure can instill the character with a desire for vengeance assuring that they will be able to achieve their goal)
• Fear - Pushes a character backwards, hindering them, usually entwined with an aspect of their past which the character has to overcome in order to successfully achieve their goal (e.g. in the final addition to the Harry Potter series, Harry has to overcome fear of death, which gives him the power to defeat his enemy)

In the two films we watched in the seminar (Lynne Ramsay's 'Gasman' and John Giwa-Amu's 'Barrie the Barber') the ideas of emotions and experience driving characters and their story's became relevant (i.e. in Gasman, the young girl realising her father has another daughter, and her realisation that she must accept that, and in Barrie the Barber, the eponymous Barrie realising that dwelling on the past isn't doing him any good).

As evident in both films, there is no major change, it just becomes clear that the character has had a realisation and will probably (but in the case of Barrie, maybe not definitely,) make a change in the way they are in the future. 

Personally, I find the endings to these films (in which the story is not 'resolved' so to speak, it is just set up for the path of resolution) much more poignant and impacting than if the film had had a clear resolution. This, I think, is possibly because the fact that the characters' journeys aren't over, (they have changed and are possibly beginning), means that the spectator still identifies with the character's journey, (as their story is not yet resolved,) so they still have the character on their minds and feels for their story, meaning that even though the film is short, it still has as much an impact on the audience, as it could have done had it been feature-length. 

In the workshops we were given a writing task in which we wrote in constant prose without thinking too much about it, a scenario involving a character, and then we had to answer questions (in a similar writing style) about the character. This was a particularly interesting exercise, as I had never really thought about a characters motives in as much depth as I did for that exercise. 

After answering the question we were then asked to write the prose story in a screenplay format. Given the understanding of the character's feelings, past and motives, I found it much easier to translate her as a person in the specific situation to her actions within the script. 

My story, a noir-esque revenge story, in which a widow sought revenge against those who killed her husband, was given a whole depth by my considering the character's feelings, emotions and motives. In the exercise I found it much easier to script a character's actions when I knew them as in-depth as I did this particular character. 

MDA2100: First Assignment

This is the story I wrote for the first task, it has the 'Ritual Occasion' short film structure:


               Rose, a twenty-two year old magazine intern is running out of a London Underground station. She is meeting with her boyfriend of two years , Jason for lunch; running late, she texts him, also apologising for already having cancelled their dinner plans the night before at short notice, due to extra work needing to be done at the magazine. Understandably, her boyfriend isn’t happy when he arrives, and after having to endure half an hour of her lunch-break being an awkward, heated discussion, Jason ends their relationship, stating that Rose hasn’t got her priorities in order and that she cares more about her job than the relationship. He doesn’t listen to Rose’s arguments that she works a lot now to pay off in the future. With one last look at her as he leaves the café, and with an hour of her break left, alone, Rose breaks down in tears.
                A waiter at the café, seeing the girl alone, crying pays for two cups of tea and sits down at the table with her, asking what’s wrong. Rose, who is not used to people in London acting this way, is surprised but appreciative, and explains about how her career has been causing some strain on her relationship and she supposes Jason finally had enough. They talk for a while, moving off the subject of Jason, and as the time for Rose to leave arrives, the waiter leaves her his phone number, saying that he knows it’s too soon after Jason for any sort of relationship, but if she ever needs to talk to a friend, she knows where to find him. As she leaves, feeling down still, but surprisingly optimistic, Rose decides she might have a night off work later in the week, to have some time to herself. 

While as a film, I feel this tale-of-morality in a nutshell story may be a tad boring, It demonstrates the aspects of a short film and the ritual occasion structure.
were the story scripted, the fact that Rose is a workaholic would perhaps be shown by the character looking flustered and busy, perhaps implied by her cancelling the date via the phone.
While she doesn't actively do anything, the inciting incident would be her boyfriend breaking up with her, (something which happens to her), and the waiter approaches her, she does nothing.
There are also only three main characters, and there are no major plot changes, or high stakes.
The ending of the story is also similar to the typical short film, as while she doesn't explicitly change, she considers taking a night off work, which while a small action, implies that in the future she may change.
While I probably won't take this idea as far as making it my final idea, I feel confident in knowing that I can create characters and stories which can be applied to the short film.

MDA2100 - Week One

In the first MDA2100 Session the main focus was covering the Hollywood Restorative three-act-structure of films we first encountered in the first year's Storytelling for the Screen module.
It was initially useful to recap this, as a summer away gives a lot of time to get your head cleared of anything useful, and I also found it interesting how the Restorative Film Structure can be tweaked and applied to the structure of the short film (a type of film which I have never really studied theoretically).
These are characteristics of most short films and the ways in which the restorative film structure can be applied to the genre:

• Sub-Plots are pretty much (but not always) non-existant
• The exposition is not shown on-screen
• The film starts with the inciting incident
• Brief establishment of the Status-Quo
• Characters kept to a minimum
• Development is shorter
• 3rd act may be very short
• Turning points are not as impacting or reversive
• The plot is not as frantic as a feature film
• They cover only a short period of time
• A Short Story to the Novel is analogous to the Short Film and a Feature Film
• Not enough time to get 'into' a character so radical character development is not believable
• Unity of action is present
• Often but not always both a protagonist and antagonist
• Lower key conflict
• Characters are less goal-driven
• The stakes are not as high

We then watched 'The Lunch Date' (U.S. 1990) and mapped the story onto the three-act-structure.
It was interesting how the story, while initially seeming too short, could be applied to the Hollywood structure and as discussed beforehand, certain characteristics, such as the Third Act being much shorter, and the stakes not being as high were evident. I also found it interesting, how even though the film was only around ten minutes in length, there were still deep-running themes (race and class division, prejudice) and character traits (prejudice and 'self-righteousness' almost), exposition and personality aspects which were shown visually in the actions. Were it a short film, these aspects could be stated, but due to the time 'limit' they were visually implied. This definitely intrigued me and got me thinking about how I could put across themes and aspects of a film visually, given a short time constraint.

In the afternoon workshop with another David, we once again discussed the differences and characteristics which make Short films different to feature films, and then we thought about places from which we get ideas/inspiration:

• The World around you
• 'Stories'
• Cultural Stories
• Myths
• Legends
• Fables
• Fairytales
• Experience
• Your own
• The experience of others (from an objective point of view)
• Additionally, it is important to know what you write
• Dreams
• Things you overhear
• The News
• Other places or 'things' you experience daily whether direct or not

We then did an exercise in which on the spot, we came up with a character, and wrote about their external (physical) and internal (i.e. personality) traits. This ended up being a lot more difficult than I though, as I had never really thought that in depth about a character's personality before, and I found it especially difficult to do on the spot.

After this, we watched the French film 'Gare du Nord', and discussed the 'Journey' and 'Ritual Occasion' structure of short film.

as the 'Journey' structure was the one I had encountered the most previously, I was really intrigued by the idea of the Ritual Occasion film, in which a character doesn't actively seek a goal, until an event happens to them. 'Gare du Nord' was a Ritual Occasion film, as the woman, while dissatisfied with her life didn't do anything to change it, until the man encountered her. As it is a short film no large change happens, but given her shock at the random man's suicide, whether he was real or imagined, it is implied that she may be, for example, more spontaneous in the future. Or, possibly, the ending is more melancholic and the moral could be that if you don't take a chance when it comes along, you could be stuck in a rut forever. 

I also enjoyed the fiarytale/dreamlike quality the film had once the woman left her apartment and encountered the man. 

MDA2900 - 7D Induction / Guest Speaker: Serena Cullen

This week we were inducted to use the Canon 7D Cameras.

With regards to visuals, the 7Ds, in my opinion, are amazing, the focus/zoom capabilities and general quality of footage, as well as the effects of the different lenses, are of such a high quality. The main downside, I believe, is the fact that they cannot record sound using an external microphone. This means that for high-quality sound a zoom mic needs to be used, and then it takes a while longer to get everything sorted in post-production, as the sound has to be logged, as well as the footage and then synced to the video seperately.

The camera controls themselves, I find a bit confusing personally, but of course the only way I can get around this is by practicing using the camera, so I'm excited to take one out and have a mess around with it (though I won't be saying 'mess around' when I take it from the loan store).

This week we also had a guest speaker; Serena Cullen, a producer who has worked on many popular television programs and films, and who has done a lot of recent work for the BBC.

I found it very useful to hear from someone who had worked their way up, and she had many helpful tips and bits of advice.

She had five main tips for working in Film and Television

• developing relationships
• know every job on the set
• watch movies
• use real locations
• blend objective and subjective writing

and also another set of tips:

• character is very important
• keep all actors busy so they will not cause trouble
• think about scheduling
• be passionate about your work
• actors work the best on take 2 (according to statistics)
• producer has to answer all the questions

Her talk definitely made me think more about the responsibilities of a producer, and how much responsibility they have to make sure everything runs smoothly, and that everyone involved is doing what they are supposed to do, and are happy while doing it.

The main message her talk inspired within me, was how relentless you had to be to succeed. She told us about how strongly she fought for funding for her ideas, and the television shows/films she saw potential in and had a passion for, and I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to her and the advice she gave. We will have another talk from her in a fortnight.

MDA2900 - Introduction

In the first week of our MDA2900 - Producing and Directing module, we were given a) an overview of the module itself, and what we are expected to achieve throughout the year, and b) we had a workshop session exploring how important teamwork will be in the coming months and how working well and efficiently as a team is a vital part of making films.

As for first thoughts on the module, I'm excited and nervous. I think it will be challenging and intense, but I'm so excited to have the freedom to develop my own project from start to finish on a larger scale than I have previously. It may not seem very long to everyone else, but being students of film we can all appreciate the amount of work which goes into a 10 minute film (the final outcome of the module).

The team-working workshop was fun; used as an example, I was designated the role of director, while Arielle was producer, and we, along with a mock crew, were told to discuss, in front of the group, how we would go about creating a documentary project.

It was very interesting and useful, as Eddie really got us to think about how our decisions from the start should concern everyone and how they should be made carefully (moreso than any of us had really done by this point, I believe) and with consideration for all of the crew and people involved.

MDA2300 - Film & Innovation - Initial thoughts and First Assignment Brief

After looking forwards to starting the Film & Innovation module, (as I've long since had an interest in the more experimental and abstract side to film, and was looking forwards to learning about this and how different creative and technological developments have influenced film-making,) I was very interested in the first seminars.

We looked at early experimental and abstract films, created by scratching or painting onto celluloid film.
I found it interesting how the first major abstract films were created by trying to emulate the visual experimentation of paintings and 'fine' art, and presenting them through the medium of film.

After looking at many films like this, we moved onto different types of abstract film, such as John Smith's 'Om', in which audience expectations are subverted, due to the visuals of the film; (an apparent Buddhist Monk appears to be meditating, until it is revealed that he is a 'Skinhead' having his head shaved). The film uses similar sounding sound, and almost-similar imagery, to trick the audiences, and then make them rethink what they believe they see or are seeing in films).

We have also been given a selection of creative briefs to choose from, such as making an abstract film, using colours/shapes with no recorded footage, and making a film which subverts audience expectations.