BFI Academy 2013 Feedback on Outlines
Feedback, Questions and Notes - November 18th
Adam South’s Group;
This idea is great and really works in terms of shock value. However you need to
bring in another level of motivation for the main character or another plot point.
I would suggest doing additional work on the flashback and giving the audience
more information about the fight or why he has been stabbed. Currently
everything that happens feels coincidental and this doesn’t help me identify with
the main character.
Currently I understand that he is a ghost looking at his own body and that by the
end he is dead but what’s the emotional journey?
The ending needs further thought as to how you want the audience to feel.
The world going grey and him having the black hoody are good indicators of
SOMETHING but what is it? I think you are being too subtle at the moment.
, 2013
Questions to answer
• Why does the day start with sun and birdsong and finish with grey cold?
What has changed for MC since he discovered his own body?
• What world are we in with this film?
• Why does MC get stabbed?
• Why does MC see his own body?
• Why does MC have the black hoody on at the end?
• How should the audience feel at the end?
Notes
• Please give this project a working title and name the characters. These are
not definitive but we need to be able to distinguish your film from others.
• Please use your title as the name of the document so we know which
project it is
• Once you have answered the questions, please put your idea into the
script format I gave you
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Arts Leadership: Script Outline
Script Outline
EXT DAY, Canal side, sunny day, the birds are all singing.
Main Character (MC), late teens to early twenties, is walking along the canal
path. He’s wearing a light blue hoody. He is relaxed and enjoying the day.
There are ducks on the water.
Two people are walking towards him down the path, a mother
and a little child having a chat. As they walk past him they continue their
conversation, don’t catch his eye. As they move past him he can see the path
ahead. There is a dark shape on the floor at the side of the path.
MC glances over his shoulder at the two people, but they
have carried on walking away chatting normally. They do not appear to have
noticed the shape. He slows down his walk and continues towards the shape. As
he gets closer, he can see that it is a body, fallen on its side with its back
to MC. It is wearing a black hoody with the hood drawn up. MC cannot see the
face.
He is wary, but for some reason he is drawn curiously
towards the body. He is apprehensive. He crouches down and reaches out to nudge
the body’s shoulder.
FLASHBACK, EXT Night? (Or in black
and white?) There are two people, it’s the Body in the black hoody when he was
alive and another, in a grey tracksuit. Both have hoods drawn over their faces.
They are having a tussle, a fight and they are shoving each other. It is
shocking and frantic and violent.
PRESENT, EXT DAY, Back at the
canal, MC whips his hand away from the body. He looks shocked, apprehensive,
suddenly afraid. He has seen the flashback in his mind, a forgotten memory and
doesn’t understand what it means, but has a terrible feeling about the body.
Against his better judgement, he leans in again. Reluctantly, he pulls the
shoulder of the body so that it rolls over onto its back. He pulls the hood
back from the face.
Shocking reveal, it’s MC’s own
face. It’s MC’s dead body. He gasps.
FLASHBACK, return to previous
flashback scene, back to the fight. The Body character’s black hood falls back during
the shoving to reveal MC’s face, it’s him in the fight. The other character in
grey pulls out a knife. You see MC’s expression as he is stabbed and starts to
fall.
PRESENT, EXT DAY, MC is still
crouching by the body. Suddenly shockingly the body opens its eyes. MC yells
horrified and sprawls back away from it in terror. He looks forwards. It’s
gone. Slowly MC starts to get to his feet. He’s horrified and afraid. As he
slowly rises to standing he looks around and sees the colours have changed. It
is no longer a bright day, but the world now looks grey and colourless and
cold. The birdsong has stopped. The canal path is empty, there is no one in
sight. It is eerily, deathly quiet. MC is alone. He is stood there,
apprehensive, in dawning fear as he looks around. The body is gone. He is in an
empty world. He is now wearing the black hoody.
Abrupt cut to black, there is a
bust of radio static. END.
Arts Leadership: Cinematography workshop (Week 2)
Aims:
-To better understand the importance of cinematography
-To start to come together as a group
Today was all about the camera's... Cinematography! and we learnt a bit about sound but anyway I loved it. We also watched some of the first celluloid pictures to be projected. There was something strangely beautiful about seeing where it all began and thinking about how far it has come... We also learnt a bit about the camera's we would be working with, which were really great! I learnt a lot more about framing and how significant it can be in a film.
As a group we have started to come up with idea's and a draft for our short film... although I had some problems getting together the group and talking about idea's as for a start Alice had two facebook accounts and I sent a friends request to the wrong one! (stupid me) and then it felt like everyone always had something on.. It was very stressful for me to reach the deadline and get the Script outline sent in, in time... but when alas I did get everyone together and we all started talking, we came together really well as a group and had some fantastic idea's. Our final idea is about a guy who is walking on a seemingly ordinary day when he sees a dead body, he tries to help but every time he touches the body he gets flash back's of a dark night and someone arguing and gutting into a row. He then breaks this flash back and turns over the body to see his own face, the body is him.... or something like that haha, it needs some work but Sophie wrote up a fantastic outline of the script! I really think this is going to work.
Review:
-To better understand the importance of cinematography... I definitely achieved this, While we were watching 'workers leaving factory' which is, as it says in the name, simply people leaving a factory. I noticed how much time went into that. even that 1 minute or so clip. The lighting was perfect, each person was framed perfectly so the video felt more realistic and natural. It showed me, how much preparation has gone into every shot of a film and also highlighted how far we have technologically developed.
-To start to come together as a group... I feel like the group is still ever so slightly shy at this point... however it is is still early days, I still feel as though this has been partly met. I am still really optimistic about the future with the group. However at the minute it felt like everyone was slightly afraid to share their ideas with the group..
-To better understand the importance of cinematography
-To start to come together as a group
Today was all about the camera's... Cinematography! and we learnt a bit about sound but anyway I loved it. We also watched some of the first celluloid pictures to be projected. There was something strangely beautiful about seeing where it all began and thinking about how far it has come... We also learnt a bit about the camera's we would be working with, which were really great! I learnt a lot more about framing and how significant it can be in a film.
As a group we have started to come up with idea's and a draft for our short film... although I had some problems getting together the group and talking about idea's as for a start Alice had two facebook accounts and I sent a friends request to the wrong one! (stupid me) and then it felt like everyone always had something on.. It was very stressful for me to reach the deadline and get the Script outline sent in, in time... but when alas I did get everyone together and we all started talking, we came together really well as a group and had some fantastic idea's. Our final idea is about a guy who is walking on a seemingly ordinary day when he sees a dead body, he tries to help but every time he touches the body he gets flash back's of a dark night and someone arguing and gutting into a row. He then breaks this flash back and turns over the body to see his own face, the body is him.... or something like that haha, it needs some work but Sophie wrote up a fantastic outline of the script! I really think this is going to work.
Review:
-To better understand the importance of cinematography... I definitely achieved this, While we were watching 'workers leaving factory' which is, as it says in the name, simply people leaving a factory. I noticed how much time went into that. even that 1 minute or so clip. The lighting was perfect, each person was framed perfectly so the video felt more realistic and natural. It showed me, how much preparation has gone into every shot of a film and also highlighted how far we have technologically developed.
-To start to come together as a group... I feel like the group is still ever so slightly shy at this point... however it is is still early days, I still feel as though this has been partly met. I am still really optimistic about the future with the group. However at the minute it felt like everyone was slightly afraid to share their ideas with the group..
Arts Leadership: Project action plan
The course itself lasts 10 weeks however the making of our film should take place within the first 5 weeks or so. We have two key dates which are the 30th of November and the 1st of December; this is the two dates we are filming and editing the short film. We put it together into a video that lasts any time less than 2:20. I plan to take lots of pictures of the shoot while we film it, to show you what we are up to.
I expressed an interest in producing to Meabh (The head of BFI in Sheffield) and this lead me to be the producer of the group. I think I am going to learn being a better producer just by staying organised and on top of the work I get in BFI academy, I have already set up the closed facebook group and taken alot of time into making the page nice and adding cover photo's and mostly, being considerate to everyone in the group. My main goal is to give everyone and even say. I think the best way I am going to learn is through experience and what better place to get that than at BFI!
Week on week I want to see my team develop, I want to see us get closer not only as a production company but also as friends, I want everyone to enjoy it and hopefully get a fantastic film at the end of it. I think I will know if I have achieved this goal by how much I enjoyed working with my team, I want to have a calm atmosphere where we can be unique and creative. I think the moment I will know if I have done a good job is the moment where I will turn to my group at the premier of the short film we have created and I will ask them "did you enjoy making this film?" and I think at that point I will know if I have achieved my goal or not. I do plan to show this to my friends and family and I think the main way I will get feedback is from my group and if they are happy and enjoyed it, but I do also want the actual film to be a success and I suppose I will know if that is by how the live audience reacts to it. I set myself the goal of making our film be thought provoking and have some level of effect on the audience.
As you know, I am the producer of the group but what does this mean... in actuality what is it I do within my group.
Well first of all, I am trying to make sure everyone else has there role in coming together as a group to create the film. I have to check we stay on track, stay organised, remember things and are ready to film and know exactly what we are doing. This means thinking ahead, remembering to have things like fake blood, water and a cloth to clean up the fake blood, a umbrella to cover up the camera if it rains. However my most recent job as a producer is to find a way to work around getting a knife on set. If you have read the script Sophie Higget wrote, that I published on my blog you would know that there is a stabbing in the film. This presents allot of health and safety issues, If you are wondering exactly how many: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/etis20.pdf
Now after reading through all that and thinking of the best way to bring in a knife and make it safe, I ended up coming to two conclusions, 1.) my head hurts after reading so much and 2.) bringing a knife is over complicating it and not completely necessary. So I chose to get hold of a realistic rubber knife instead. This is just one example of one of the jobs I had. Although my main role is literally making sure everyone is happy and knows what they are doing.
I expressed an interest in producing to Meabh (The head of BFI in Sheffield) and this lead me to be the producer of the group. I think I am going to learn being a better producer just by staying organised and on top of the work I get in BFI academy, I have already set up the closed facebook group and taken alot of time into making the page nice and adding cover photo's and mostly, being considerate to everyone in the group. My main goal is to give everyone and even say. I think the best way I am going to learn is through experience and what better place to get that than at BFI!
As you know, I am the producer of the group but what does this mean... in actuality what is it I do within my group.
Well first of all, I am trying to make sure everyone else has there role in coming together as a group to create the film. I have to check we stay on track, stay organised, remember things and are ready to film and know exactly what we are doing. This means thinking ahead, remembering to have things like fake blood, water and a cloth to clean up the fake blood, a umbrella to cover up the camera if it rains. However my most recent job as a producer is to find a way to work around getting a knife on set. If you have read the script Sophie Higget wrote, that I published on my blog you would know that there is a stabbing in the film. This presents allot of health and safety issues, If you are wondering exactly how many: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/etis20.pdf
Now after reading through all that and thinking of the best way to bring in a knife and make it safe, I ended up coming to two conclusions, 1.) my head hurts after reading so much and 2.) bringing a knife is over complicating it and not completely necessary. So I chose to get hold of a realistic rubber knife instead. This is just one example of one of the jobs I had. Although my main role is literally making sure everyone is happy and knows what they are doing.
Arts Leadership: Producing Workshop (Week 1)
Aims:
-make new friends
-feel confident in a new environment
-Gain a better understanding of the role of a producer
It was my first day meeting all my fellow Film enthusiasts... I have always been good with people and luckily for me three of my friends had also got in to the course. So i suppose I wasn't nervous about fitting in or making loads of new friends but for some reason I was still nervous! I suppose it is because I was so excited about it and just hoped it lived up to all my expectations... In this workshop
They gave us 'A roller-coaster ride through the course' and I have to say I got really excited! in every aspect it sounded amazing! I even got to speaking to people there who I hadn't met previously. I have to say It was nice to say to someone that my favourite director is Paul Thomas Anderson and not have someone stood in front of my with a vacant expression gormless nodding along not really understanding a word I am saying. It is nice to talk passionately about films and not have people ignoring me and looking bored. It is hard to meet people who have the same love for films as I do but these people do! I spoke specifically to a boy named Kyle, It is fair to say I instantly liked him, as he was wearing an evil dead shirt.
We also got spoken to by Michael Knowles who talked to us about producing. I think I fell in love with him, he was really quirky and interesting. He made me want to be a producer... In fact I think this has made it clear what my plan of action must be! 'I want to learn more about producing and I want to be good at it!'. We also looked at the history of film and watched some of the fist celluloid films ever made, it was literally just people walking out of a factory but it was genuinely amazing to see where it all began and how far we have come since.
I am also aware we have a action project. This will be a short film and I am very excited. I am already trying to think of a genre our group could do... however I am not yet sure and am really open to ideas, it is just something to look forward to!
Review of session:
-make new friends... I feel I got along with Kyle well, due to our mutual love of evil dead, He seems like a really nice guy and even though I have friends on this course. I think it is good to meet new people too.
-Feel confident in a new environment... This was probably the easiest aim to achieve, this is because when I got there it became instantly apparent that everybody was in the same boat I am in. We are all nervous, excited and most importantly love films!
- Gain a better understanding of the role of a producer... Michael Knowles was a very knowledgeable man, I must admit I was slightly scared he would say loads of stuff I wouldn't understand and lose my interest. However I was wrong and he made it simple and easy to understand and explained the role of a producer clearly. In my A-level film studies class at school later that week, when our class was asked "what is the role of a producer" I felt more than confident enough to put my hand up and give the 'perfect answer' according to my teacher.
-make new friends
-feel confident in a new environment
-Gain a better understanding of the role of a producer
It was my first day meeting all my fellow Film enthusiasts... I have always been good with people and luckily for me three of my friends had also got in to the course. So i suppose I wasn't nervous about fitting in or making loads of new friends but for some reason I was still nervous! I suppose it is because I was so excited about it and just hoped it lived up to all my expectations... In this workshop
They gave us 'A roller-coaster ride through the course' and I have to say I got really excited! in every aspect it sounded amazing! I even got to speaking to people there who I hadn't met previously. I have to say It was nice to say to someone that my favourite director is Paul Thomas Anderson and not have someone stood in front of my with a vacant expression gormless nodding along not really understanding a word I am saying. It is nice to talk passionately about films and not have people ignoring me and looking bored. It is hard to meet people who have the same love for films as I do but these people do! I spoke specifically to a boy named Kyle, It is fair to say I instantly liked him, as he was wearing an evil dead shirt.
We also got spoken to by Michael Knowles who talked to us about producing. I think I fell in love with him, he was really quirky and interesting. He made me want to be a producer... In fact I think this has made it clear what my plan of action must be! 'I want to learn more about producing and I want to be good at it!'. We also looked at the history of film and watched some of the fist celluloid films ever made, it was literally just people walking out of a factory but it was genuinely amazing to see where it all began and how far we have come since.
I am also aware we have a action project. This will be a short film and I am very excited. I am already trying to think of a genre our group could do... however I am not yet sure and am really open to ideas, it is just something to look forward to!
Review of session:
-make new friends... I feel I got along with Kyle well, due to our mutual love of evil dead, He seems like a really nice guy and even though I have friends on this course. I think it is good to meet new people too.
-Feel confident in a new environment... This was probably the easiest aim to achieve, this is because when I got there it became instantly apparent that everybody was in the same boat I am in. We are all nervous, excited and most importantly love films!
- Gain a better understanding of the role of a producer... Michael Knowles was a very knowledgeable man, I must admit I was slightly scared he would say loads of stuff I wouldn't understand and lose my interest. However I was wrong and he made it simple and easy to understand and explained the role of a producer clearly. In my A-level film studies class at school later that week, when our class was asked "what is the role of a producer" I felt more than confident enough to put my hand up and give the 'perfect answer' according to my teacher.
Arts Challange Introduction
My BFI Journey!
I have always been very passionate about films, from a very young age I just got hooked! I suppose it all started when me and my dad went to our local video rental store. Me and my dad would go every weekend, I remember because the first VHS I got out was 'Brother bear'. My father is still amazed at how I watched this 5 times in one day without getting bored. I suppose I was just captivated not only by how beautiful the imagery was but also how much of an emotional response I got out of it.
Anyway, my love for films might have evolved and changed over the years but that initial passion, that fire never burnt out. I started to get a small collection of video's I liked and I was just amazed at how much entertainment I got out of these small little £2.50 tapes. As I got older and started to receive pocket money Every couple of weeks I would buy another DVD. There was something about them and and the time I couldn't precisely put my finger on it but in retrospect now I see... It was the way no matter what mood I am or how upset I am, when I put that film on, nothing else mattered, I was in a different world, a world where anything is possible! I could go on adventures and see things I could not even imagine and there was just something truly alluring about it.
I am not going to go on a sob story and talk about how miserable I was as a child, because I wasn't really... but my childhood could have been better, films really helped me get through any rough times, I suppose to an extent they still do. It was at this point I started to realize that I could have a job doing this! just the prospect of this got me excited. I decided to get some experience in filming through videoing my hobby which is freerunning, I messed about with the camera and got my friend to edit it, we created a couple but this on is my personal favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL6-xHbc3YA
Although I enjoyed freerunning (and still do) I wanted to create more meaningful video's. So me and some like-minded friends made some other video's, we learnt quick and we became really good friends! pretty much solely on our love for for film, We still meet up and not only make films but watch them late into the night, We do this roughly every month or two and I always have such a good time! After making these videos I knew.... This is where I belong... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX5E2u5fNMY
I had picked films studies at A-level at this point. I am loving it! it really gets me through the week with 5 hours a week of film (and an extra 3 if you count the after school film classes I go to). At this point in my life I knew for absolute certainty that there is nothing else on this planet I wanted to do more than be apart of film production. To be proud to see the films I make do well! and hopefully one day I can make a difference to somebody's life and help them get through hard times in the same way films helped me! This is the reason I applied to go on BFI film academy... the journey starts here! and i have never been more excited!
I have always been very passionate about films, from a very young age I just got hooked! I suppose it all started when me and my dad went to our local video rental store. Me and my dad would go every weekend, I remember because the first VHS I got out was 'Brother bear'. My father is still amazed at how I watched this 5 times in one day without getting bored. I suppose I was just captivated not only by how beautiful the imagery was but also how much of an emotional response I got out of it.
Anyway, my love for films might have evolved and changed over the years but that initial passion, that fire never burnt out. I started to get a small collection of video's I liked and I was just amazed at how much entertainment I got out of these small little £2.50 tapes. As I got older and started to receive pocket money Every couple of weeks I would buy another DVD. There was something about them and and the time I couldn't precisely put my finger on it but in retrospect now I see... It was the way no matter what mood I am or how upset I am, when I put that film on, nothing else mattered, I was in a different world, a world where anything is possible! I could go on adventures and see things I could not even imagine and there was just something truly alluring about it.
I am not going to go on a sob story and talk about how miserable I was as a child, because I wasn't really... but my childhood could have been better, films really helped me get through any rough times, I suppose to an extent they still do. It was at this point I started to realize that I could have a job doing this! just the prospect of this got me excited. I decided to get some experience in filming through videoing my hobby which is freerunning, I messed about with the camera and got my friend to edit it, we created a couple but this on is my personal favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL6-xHbc3YA
Although I enjoyed freerunning (and still do) I wanted to create more meaningful video's. So me and some like-minded friends made some other video's, we learnt quick and we became really good friends! pretty much solely on our love for for film, We still meet up and not only make films but watch them late into the night, We do this roughly every month or two and I always have such a good time! After making these videos I knew.... This is where I belong... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX5E2u5fNMY
I had picked films studies at A-level at this point. I am loving it! it really gets me through the week with 5 hours a week of film (and an extra 3 if you count the after school film classes I go to). At this point in my life I knew for absolute certainty that there is nothing else on this planet I wanted to do more than be apart of film production. To be proud to see the films I make do well! and hopefully one day I can make a difference to somebody's life and help them get through hard times in the same way films helped me! This is the reason I applied to go on BFI film academy... the journey starts here! and i have never been more excited!
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