The ante got upped this morning as official news came through on the fate of my projection department. Still waiting on specifics, but we've got a rough overview of how it's going to go. I'm not going to go into detail, but basically it's not great news for me personally, but not nearly so bad for the cinema-going public as I'd feared.
I want to get back to writing. I've had a response about the first draft back from a couple of sources now, full of some really useful criticisms. There's a lot of stuff there to work with and I've had a few ideas of how to improve it already. Once I've finished the second draft, I'll write a much more comprehensive post about how and why I've changed things, specifics of the criticism and if I can find somewhere to host it, I'll put the first and second drafts up online for all to view.
I'm going to leave it a couple more days though, so I can get a few more opinions. In the meantime, it's research, research, research. Since I was working in the evening and still waiting on feedback I decided to take a break yesterday and catch up on some Skyrim. Today is going to be all about Storyboarding, with occasional breaks to watch more short films from the NUCA vimeo channel.
So, storyboards. At first glance, it seems like there's no industry standard format like there is with scripts. It also seems like having really bad drawing skills is not necessarily an issue. Let's face it, I'm never going to become a professional storyboard artist. I just want to be able to convey my ideas. Still, I haven't drawn anything beyond doodles in a long time, so I think buying two sketchbooks tomorrow might not be a bad idea. One for serious work to display at the interview, one just to just keep sketching stuff in. As well as continuing this research blog after the interview, if I'm offered a place on the course I should probably start drawing things more often. Perhaps take photographs when I'm out and about and try to draw from them when I'm home. If I'm not too embarrased by the practise sketches, I'll take them along too just as more evidence of work done.
Basic Techniques for Drawing Storyboards has some good advice, once I've bought the materials I'll need tomorrow, I might spend the afternoon sketching storyboards for some existing works. Like I really needed an excuse to watch Drive again.
On to the NUCA 2011 short films. Trying to get through "Alfred" (dir. Patricia Rodrigues) right now. 'Get through' sounds too harsh. It's internet connection problems that mean I haven't been able to watch the second half, not any issue with the short itself. Okay, done. That was nice. Barely any dialogue, touching music, a very gentle pace building up to a nice climax.
Also enjoyed "The World Collector" (dir. David Bain). Much more dialogue here, in a documentary style. Could have brought the missing boyfriend in earlier, to add a sense of danger or adventure to the story since documentaries can be a little dry, but it's easy for me to criticise when I wouldn't have a clue where to start making it myself. I'll be honest, I didn't really get Robert Wartke's "Shrines". A little too conceptual for me. I like my art spelled out easy, preferably in alphabetti-spaghetti.
"What Potions I Have Drunk of Siren Tears" (dir. Joshua Carver) is my favourite so far. Sound mixing or recording or editing or whichever term I'll have to learn is the correct one, is a bit off at times making the dialogue hard to hear at the start but the shots are set up wonderfully, the opening one particularly beautiful, capturing my attention right away.
So tomorrow: Sketching and storyboarding. Wednesday I've work in the morning, so I'll probably just watch video in the evening. Music videos, I think, to mix it up a little. Comedian, actor and all-round nice guy Adam Buxton hosts a show called BUG, exhibiting the best and most interesting work in that field. Time to raid the archives of that. I'll leave you with my favourite piece from the last BUG show I attended, Manchester Orchestra's Simple Math, directed by Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan.
Monday 30 January 2012
Saturday 28 January 2012
First draft complete
Before I start with an update on the work I've done, I'd like to point out that today is January 28th and I've already seen two films that will definitely make it into my top five for the year - namely The Descendants and The Muppets - and another two that'll make the top ten at least - Margin Call and The Artist. I know, I know, it's awards season and this is when a lot of the best films come out, still I can't help but feel that this will be an excellent year for cinema.
I finished the first draft. Comes in at six pages, which might be a little too long. I've sent it to various friends who either know about scriptwriting or just like reading stuff. It's been pointed out to me straight away that I shouldn't use contractions. I'm aware of the irony in that sentence. Also, there're a couple of times I was too vague in my descriptions and once or twice I played director instead of screenwriter. I think the problem there stems from the fact that most of the scripts I've read have been shooting scripts and included things like camera directions. I've gone through and sorted most of them now, but I'll leave the first draft as is so in the interview I can point out all the things I learned along the way because look! I'm learning already! Go team me.
Tomorrow I start looking at Storyboarding. I suspect it's probably not time for that yet, but I'll be in town Monday so hopefully I'll have an idea of what materials I should buy.
I finished the first draft. Comes in at six pages, which might be a little too long. I've sent it to various friends who either know about scriptwriting or just like reading stuff. It's been pointed out to me straight away that I shouldn't use contractions. I'm aware of the irony in that sentence. Also, there're a couple of times I was too vague in my descriptions and once or twice I played director instead of screenwriter. I think the problem there stems from the fact that most of the scripts I've read have been shooting scripts and included things like camera directions. I've gone through and sorted most of them now, but I'll leave the first draft as is so in the interview I can point out all the things I learned along the way because look! I'm learning already! Go team me.
Tomorrow I start looking at Storyboarding. I suspect it's probably not time for that yet, but I'll be in town Monday so hopefully I'll have an idea of what materials I should buy.
Friday 27 January 2012
The Worst Laid Plans
The goal for today was to write a scene-by-scene plan for my script, then to watch every short film ever made, then to rewrite the plan to incorporate everything I've learned about short films. After completing a really super rough plan that barely included anything, I was more in the mood to start writing straight away than sit back and watch stuff. I'm starting on a first draft of the script itself. You know what I've learned so far? Rough plans should be abandoned in favour of very detailed plans. The first scene as written is very different from the first scene as planned-in-one-paragraph. Once I started writing dialogue all sorts of things that were needed in this scene that weren't in the plan became obvious, some of these were even mistakes I knew about in advance and had been trying to avoid.
First time I had a story rejected from 365tomorrows they were kind enough to let me know why. "Show, don't tell" is the maxim, and I'd just told. A screenplay, even more than a short story, should show everything and outright explain nothing. In the plan I'd had the main character, Tom, and his friend mentioning the PopularVote technology here and there but not discussing how it works until about halfway through. That was dumb. Reading through the finished first scene, I realised they should just have their conversation interupted with a vote coming through, and that's that. People don't need to know how it works, that's for geeks who read flash fiction websites. The base story was about PopularVote. The screenplay is about Tom.
Also, it might be longer than I intended. I'll have to do some pre-emptive editing to keep it down. I'm enjoying Final Draft though, it almost makes it look like I know what I'm doing. The "DEMO VERSION" watermarks on the printouts are annoying but no-one will expect me to pay for the full version just for an interview. I've just hit the start of page four and, it wasn't intended this way I assure you, the start of scene four. Scene four is the big one where everyone starts arguing, minds are made and changed, everyone gets drunk and the mood is set for the final scene. I think I'll stop here for tonight, watch some shorts while I eat my dinner. Short films that is, not the clothing. My sister started studying film but switched to fashion design halfway through the first semester. She's doing pretty well for herself now, it seems, but I don't plan on following in those footsteps.
As far as watching every short film ever made goes, it turns out there's a lot more than I counted on. I don't think I'll get through them all today, so I'm going to start with the NUCA FMIP 2011 vimeo channel and see how far I get with those.
First time I had a story rejected from 365tomorrows they were kind enough to let me know why. "Show, don't tell" is the maxim, and I'd just told. A screenplay, even more than a short story, should show everything and outright explain nothing. In the plan I'd had the main character, Tom, and his friend mentioning the PopularVote technology here and there but not discussing how it works until about halfway through. That was dumb. Reading through the finished first scene, I realised they should just have their conversation interupted with a vote coming through, and that's that. People don't need to know how it works, that's for geeks who read flash fiction websites. The base story was about PopularVote. The screenplay is about Tom.
Also, it might be longer than I intended. I'll have to do some pre-emptive editing to keep it down. I'm enjoying Final Draft though, it almost makes it look like I know what I'm doing. The "DEMO VERSION" watermarks on the printouts are annoying but no-one will expect me to pay for the full version just for an interview. I've just hit the start of page four and, it wasn't intended this way I assure you, the start of scene four. Scene four is the big one where everyone starts arguing, minds are made and changed, everyone gets drunk and the mood is set for the final scene. I think I'll stop here for tonight, watch some shorts while I eat my dinner. Short films that is, not the clothing. My sister started studying film but switched to fashion design halfway through the first semester. She's doing pretty well for herself now, it seems, but I don't plan on following in those footsteps.
As far as watching every short film ever made goes, it turns out there's a lot more than I counted on. I don't think I'll get through them all today, so I'm going to start with the NUCA FMIP 2011 vimeo channel and see how far I get with those.
Thursday 26 January 2012
2. INT. MY BEDROOM. NIGHT (19.30) 2
Well, The Fades didn't really do a lot for me. The script, however, did. I went through a phase of reading movie scripts a while back. Not all the way through, just dipping in and out, here and there, always feature films I'd seen. I was following Screenwriter John August's blog at the time, which I should probably get back into if he's still updating, and it made sense to read what he was writing about. I don't remember them being quite so... informal. I think that's probably the word I'm looking for. In The Fades we have this description: "We cut to behind HELEN's back. She's tucking a small gun into the back of her trousers. Yeah. A gun." I love that "Yeah." It's all "Yeah, you read that right. Weren't expecting that were you? This shit just got real." See now this is writing I can get behind. I prefer an informal writing style; it gives me room to make it mine and means I won't have to learn a whole new language, just the formatting and style.
The Blind Banker is really specific with its descriptions of action. It's clear that Mark Gatiss had every shot mapped out in his head. Between that and the times when The Fades looked so different from how I pictured it in the text, it's become clear how important storyboarding is going to be.
I'm downloading the trial version of Final Draft, a scriptwriting program. I'll spend a little time playing with that tonight before I head out, so when I sit down to write this thing, I'm not distracted with "ooh, what does this button do?" thoughts. Well, I would be downloading it if my internet connection was a little more stable. Curse you wireless, someday I'll finish drilling holes in the walls of this house, then you'll be sorry.
Wait hold on, now it's half an hour later and I wrote a short scene involving a conversation between two characters, FRANK and TOM about how they were both dudes. A party was planned. It was, in their words, rad. Now this isn't going to be winning any Oscars, but that wasn't the point. Final Draft seems easy to use, the Trial version lets me write and save scripts of up to 15 pages, which suits my needs just fine. I'm understanding most of the formatting. Just need to figure out how I'm going to print this off when it's done. Now I should go get some food before I head out to see if The Descendents is worthy of all those nominations. That's me done for the night.
The Blind Banker is really specific with its descriptions of action. It's clear that Mark Gatiss had every shot mapped out in his head. Between that and the times when The Fades looked so different from how I pictured it in the text, it's become clear how important storyboarding is going to be.
I'm downloading the trial version of Final Draft, a scriptwriting program. I'll spend a little time playing with that tonight before I head out, so when I sit down to write this thing, I'm not distracted with "ooh, what does this button do?" thoughts. Well, I would be downloading it if my internet connection was a little more stable. Curse you wireless, someday I'll finish drilling holes in the walls of this house, then you'll be sorry.
Wait hold on, now it's half an hour later and I wrote a short scene involving a conversation between two characters, FRANK and TOM about how they were both dudes. A party was planned. It was, in their words, rad. Now this isn't going to be winning any Oscars, but that wasn't the point. Final Draft seems easy to use, the Trial version lets me write and save scripts of up to 15 pages, which suits my needs just fine. I'm understanding most of the formatting. Just need to figure out how I'm going to print this off when it's done. Now I should go get some food before I head out to see if The Descendents is worthy of all those nominations. That's me done for the night.
1 INT. MY BEDROOM. DAY (15.33) 1
So, I've got a script to write, something three to five pages showing off an understanding of scriptwriting conventions and narrative structure, my own creative flair apparent within. I've decided to adapt from this piece I wrote, The Vote, precisely because as it stands it's terribly dull. 365tomorrows, the website it was written for, posts a new piece of flash fiction (a short short story no more than 600 words) every day, always about some potential future. It covers the whole range of sci-fi, from Star Wars style alien fantasy to the more believable Star Trekish hard sci-fi, to the more local social fiction of films like Moon and Gattaca, and TV shows like Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.
I mention Black Mirror because the problem I'll have is the same Mr Brooker had: In a piece where some new technology drives the story, how do you make it a story and not just an informercial for this technology? Episode Two, 15 Million Merits, was the best of the three perhaps because it didn't focus on the technology, more it just followed one rather likeable character who accepted everything we saw as science fiction as normal. Episode Three, The Entire History of You, which I considered the worst of the three, followed one slightly less likeable character who was himself obsessed with the Memory recording technology Brooker and co had invented. Best for me to learn from this and not draw attention to my sci-fi elements, instead just accept them as fact.
I'm looking at writing something that would be roughly four minutes long, while The Vote, the story I'm basing my script on, covers a period of time roughly thirty seconds in length, and most of it is spent describing to the audience how the PopularVote app works. Guys, it would be really boring to watch. So some serious changes are needed. To start with, I can't ever just explain how PopularVote works, it needs to be implied either through visuals or dialogue, and dialogue means a clearer idea of the characters. First thought is to have the main character, as yet unnamed but let's call him Tom, arguing with his friend Pete in the days leading up to the vote. It's mentioned in the story that the characters all decided to vote the same way no matter their personal opinion. Let's have that decision being made.
I'm getting ahead of myself though. Before I can write a script I need to know how scripts are written and to learn that, I need to read some. The BBC very kindly provide a nice selection of scripts on their Writer's Room website and the accompanying TV episodes on iPlayer. I like that Neil Gaimanesque mix of Urban Fantasy and Horror but I heard bad things about The Fades when it was first shown, so though I recorded it, I never got around to watching it. The script for the first episode is there so now I get to watch it and if it is bad, well.. doesn't matter, it's research. There's also the Sherlock season one episode The Blind Banker script up. One TV episode I watched first then read, one I read first then watched. Seems right. I'll be back in a few hours with some thoughts.
I mention Black Mirror because the problem I'll have is the same Mr Brooker had: In a piece where some new technology drives the story, how do you make it a story and not just an informercial for this technology? Episode Two, 15 Million Merits, was the best of the three perhaps because it didn't focus on the technology, more it just followed one rather likeable character who accepted everything we saw as science fiction as normal. Episode Three, The Entire History of You, which I considered the worst of the three, followed one slightly less likeable character who was himself obsessed with the Memory recording technology Brooker and co had invented. Best for me to learn from this and not draw attention to my sci-fi elements, instead just accept them as fact.
I'm looking at writing something that would be roughly four minutes long, while The Vote, the story I'm basing my script on, covers a period of time roughly thirty seconds in length, and most of it is spent describing to the audience how the PopularVote app works. Guys, it would be really boring to watch. So some serious changes are needed. To start with, I can't ever just explain how PopularVote works, it needs to be implied either through visuals or dialogue, and dialogue means a clearer idea of the characters. First thought is to have the main character, as yet unnamed but let's call him Tom, arguing with his friend Pete in the days leading up to the vote. It's mentioned in the story that the characters all decided to vote the same way no matter their personal opinion. Let's have that decision being made.
I'm getting ahead of myself though. Before I can write a script I need to know how scripts are written and to learn that, I need to read some. The BBC very kindly provide a nice selection of scripts on their Writer's Room website and the accompanying TV episodes on iPlayer. I like that Neil Gaimanesque mix of Urban Fantasy and Horror but I heard bad things about The Fades when it was first shown, so though I recorded it, I never got around to watching it. The script for the first episode is there so now I get to watch it and if it is bad, well.. doesn't matter, it's research. There's also the Sherlock season one episode The Blind Banker script up. One TV episode I watched first then read, one I read first then watched. Seems right. I'll be back in a few hours with some thoughts.
To Begin
Let's start with a brief overview of what this blog is about. I'm currently working as a projectionist but digital technology and computer automation are slowly taking away most parts of the job I enjoy. Some days I feel I'm just waiting for things to break so I'll have something to fix. Films don't need to be made up or broken down anymore. There's no careful lacing, no splicing joints in the dark. When I inspect a lamp these days I have to take a laptop with me. Admittedly I also have to wear kevlar which makes it feel a bit like I'm setting up for some extreme Call of Duty session - which is kind of cool - but overall things are getting dull, so it's time to move on before we're finally forced out.
The plan is to move right the way from the Finished Product end of the film industry, right back to where it all begins. To do that I'll have to go back to school because a degree in Artificial Intelligence and an average hundred films a year watched at the cinema probably aren't good enough qualifications on their own. In case you were wondering, my favourite of those four hundred-odd films I've seen since I started was Pixar's Up, and the one I spent all two hours thinking "I'm gonna leave now. I'm gonna walk out. I can't take much more of this. Although... maybe it'll get better soon?" was 10,000 BC. It got better neither soon nor ever.
I love film, I really do, I've got a little fake oscar trophy somewhere to prove it. I can tell you why I like what I like, why Brick is such a good film and why 10,000 BC was so terrible. I can deconstruct the final product, maybe not with as much finesse as I'd like, but I can take it apart and discuss the pieces. What I can't do is put it all together in the first place. This blog is here to show my research into production, my preparation for the course and finally to accompany the work I'll have prepared for the interview.
If I get accepted, this blog will continue all through the summer and perhaps carry on after the course begins, if I don't get accepted I suspect I'll lose enthusiasm, but for now I'm just going to focus on what will be needed for my portfolio and the interview. I don't have a showreel, or any scripts written. I don't have a background in creative or design subjects. What I have is a handful of flash fiction pieces posted on 365tomorrows and some experience at co-ordinating the approaching zombie apocalypse. What I plan on producing over the next few weeks is the script for a short film adapted from one of those fiction pieces I wrote, and to then draw a storyboard for it.
My experience of film and moving image is mostly feature films and TV series. Serieses. Serii. Whatever the plural is, I've watched a whole bunch of them. Anyway, the course I'm hoping to attend - NUCA's Film and Moving Image Production BA - focuses a lot on short films, so along with the scriptwriting and storyboarding research I'll need to watch a load of short films, encompassing short fiction, documentaries, music videos and adverts. Perhaps it's because programming was really quite dull and I regretted my course choice first time round, but it's a confusing sensation for me to actually be looking forward to all this work I have to do.
The plan is to move right the way from the Finished Product end of the film industry, right back to where it all begins. To do that I'll have to go back to school because a degree in Artificial Intelligence and an average hundred films a year watched at the cinema probably aren't good enough qualifications on their own. In case you were wondering, my favourite of those four hundred-odd films I've seen since I started was Pixar's Up, and the one I spent all two hours thinking "I'm gonna leave now. I'm gonna walk out. I can't take much more of this. Although... maybe it'll get better soon?" was 10,000 BC. It got better neither soon nor ever.
I love film, I really do, I've got a little fake oscar trophy somewhere to prove it. I can tell you why I like what I like, why Brick is such a good film and why 10,000 BC was so terrible. I can deconstruct the final product, maybe not with as much finesse as I'd like, but I can take it apart and discuss the pieces. What I can't do is put it all together in the first place. This blog is here to show my research into production, my preparation for the course and finally to accompany the work I'll have prepared for the interview.
If I get accepted, this blog will continue all through the summer and perhaps carry on after the course begins, if I don't get accepted I suspect I'll lose enthusiasm, but for now I'm just going to focus on what will be needed for my portfolio and the interview. I don't have a showreel, or any scripts written. I don't have a background in creative or design subjects. What I have is a handful of flash fiction pieces posted on 365tomorrows and some experience at co-ordinating the approaching zombie apocalypse. What I plan on producing over the next few weeks is the script for a short film adapted from one of those fiction pieces I wrote, and to then draw a storyboard for it.
My experience of film and moving image is mostly feature films and TV series. Serieses. Serii. Whatever the plural is, I've watched a whole bunch of them. Anyway, the course I'm hoping to attend - NUCA's Film and Moving Image Production BA - focuses a lot on short films, so along with the scriptwriting and storyboarding research I'll need to watch a load of short films, encompassing short fiction, documentaries, music videos and adverts. Perhaps it's because programming was really quite dull and I regretted my course choice first time round, but it's a confusing sensation for me to actually be looking forward to all this work I have to do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)