Lecture 21/10/19: Pre-Production

9am Lecture with Tim

Pre-Production: What should be done by today

• Locations - Chosen!
• Casting - Started!

Pre-Production to continue

• Planning 
• Storyboarding
• Script Development
• Lighting Plan
• Set Designs
• Costume
• Makeup
• Design

Pre-Production to get on with

• Cinematography
• Production Draft - Complete!
• 1st AD's - Start Scheduling 
• Shooting script
• Technical Recce - organised by the 1st AD, all crew to go.
• Production Meeting after Technical Recce
• Read through

Producing Masterclass 14/10/19: Producing 101

Producing Masterclass with Raph Assaf

Advice from Raph

• Learning from everyone's mistakes.
• Keep open-minded
• Ask for advice

Keys to Making a Great Short

• "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage"
• Playing team sports
• Teams
• Attitude
• Maturity
• Communication
• Selflessness
• Quality the baseline - Discussions, no one is wrong
• No preciousness
• Kind OVER Correct - Better to be kind rather than correct - pick your time
• Honesty
• True to yourself

Failure

• FAIL = Churchill - "Success is going from one failure to the next with enthusiasm"

Producing

• Frank Marshall - Producer
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
• Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
• On Story 720: Frank Marshall on producing from the creative side.

Producer

• Problem solver
• A diplomat
• Solution Producer

Most important Role:

• Focus Puller

Problems

• Problems create magic!
• Mistakes can help you
• Something wrong happens - something good will follow.

Lecture 14/10/19: What is Drama?

9am Lecture with Tim Leandro
I have added in photos to explain the lecture

What is Drama?

• Protagonist - Who the Story is about. Who the story follows. Doesn't have to be a good guy.

  

Left: Sigourney Weaver as the Bad-Ass female hero, Ellen Ripley in Alien (Ridley Scott, 1797), Right: Ryan Reynolds as the Anti-Hero, Wade Wilson A.K.A Deadpool in Deadpool (Tim Miller, 2016) 

• Antagonist - The force against the protagonist. This doesn't have to be a person.
• Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) - The Great White Shark is the antagonist

Jaws - Brody and the shark

• Dr No (Terence Young, 1962) - Dr No is the antagonist (opposite protagonist: James Bond)

Dr No in his Lair in Dr No

• Alive (Frank Marshall, 1993) - The mountain and the forces are the antagonists.

The Team after the crash in Alive

• Conflict - Protagonist and Antagonist must be in conflict. A drama must have this!
• Change - The protagonist must change from the start to the end of the drama. It is Essential!

Drama and the Greeks

• Drama is an invention.
• Almost 500bc in Ancient Greece.
• It happened around the same time as democracy began.
• Drama is not natural - It was created.
• Drama - Acting stories out.
• Comedy and Tragedy
• All actors were male and wore masks
• Tragedy evolved into Modern Drama
• Tragic Flaw and Tragic Hero - Become the Dramatic Flaw and the Dramatic Hero

Aristotle

• Aristotle - Script Guru, 300bc, philosopher
• Modern Script Writers
• Robert McKee
• Syd Field
• John Yorke
• Chris Vogler
• Codes of what scriptwriting is
• Aristotle and Poetics
• the term 'drama': i.e that the poets imitate people doing things (Aristotle, Poetics, 2.3)
• We take delight in viewing the most accurate possible images of objects which in themselves cause distress when we see them (e.g. the shapes of the lowest species of animal, and corpses).   The reason for this is that understanding is extremely pleasant, not just for philosophers but for others too in the same way, despite their limited capacity for it.   This is the reason why people take delight in seeing images; what happens is that as they view them they come to understand and work out what each thing is (e.g. ‘This is so-and-so’).  If one happens not to have seen the thing before, it will not give pleasure as imitation, but because of its execution, or for some other reason. (Aristotle, Poetics 3.1)

Mimesis

• Mimesis - realism, imitation, truth, recognition of truth
• Mimesis: 'the imitative representation of nature of human behaviour' (Collins English Dictionary)
• Truth is an art of mimesis

Hippolytus

• Gods, monsters, supernatural
• Still has mimesis in it
• Recognisable human tragedy

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)

• Deckard - recognise his humanity
• Mimesis in movies today
• "Everyman"

Plot

• Made up of events and actions
• Beginnings, Middles and ends - Artistotle
• Cause and Effect

Character

 

Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) in LOTR (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) - He is a really good example of a character who has an impressive character ARC, his character is complex but at the same time understandable. Is he the protagonist of the film? 

• A person who does things
• Revealed through actions
• CHOICES
• Protagonist Cannot be Passive!
• Fatal Flaw - tragic hero

Lecture 07/10/19: Adaptation

Lecture: Adaptation

I have added in photos to explain the lecture.

The Gernsback Continuum (William Gibson, 1981)

• Sci-Fi
• Psychological
• Set in America

Tomorrow Calling (Tim Leandro, 1993)

Above: Protagonist of the film (Portrayed by Colin Salmon)

• Adapted from the short story The Gernsback Continuum, by William Gibson.
• Adapted and directed by our lecturer, Tim Leandro.

Tomorrow Calling and The Gernsback Continuum - Similarities

• Male Protagonist
• Photographer
• Voice over with a lot of dialogue from the text.

Tomorrow Calling and The Gernsback Continuum - Differences

• Set in the UK (Not USA)
• Mobile Phones (Mobile Phones didn't exist in the 1980s)

Race:

• In the short story, we presume that the protagonist is a white male
• William Gibson (Author) was a white middle-class male
• Photographer was an elitist calling

Theme:

The Gernsback Continuum tells the story of a man projected into an alternative present as imagined in the past by sci-fi. Writers and futurologists. It's a nightmare. A sinister totalitarian and scary place to be

Sci-Fi Culture and Monoculture

• Futurologists - 1930s
• Imagining the future
• Never imagined our world
• Envisioned a utopia
• Sci-Fi isn't about the future at all - it's all about the present culture
• Star Trek - 'Wagon Train set in space'
• Western in space
• Present concerns

TOP: Star Trek (Original) Left: Captain Jim Kirk (William Shatner), Middle: Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Right: Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelly)

BOTTOM: Star Trek (Reboot) Left: Captain Jim Kirk (Chris Pine), Middle: Mr. Spock (Zachary Levi), Right: Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban)

Sci-Fi is about today

• War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells, 1897)
• Fear of Invasion
• Fear of the coming wars (WWI, WWII)
• Metaphorically talking about the present.

  

Left: Book (H.G. Wells), Right: War of the Worlds (Steven Speilberg, 2005)

Directing Workshop 30/09/19: Casting Actors

Workshop with Tim (Monday 30th September 2019)

Directing Workshop:

Tim invited two actors, Sam and Jan.

Sam Callis:

        

(Left: Callis recent Headshot, Right: Callis in The Bill as Callum Stone)

Sam Callis from West Sussex, England, born in 1973.

Best Known for portraying Sgt. Callum Stone in The Bill and Adam Benjamin in London's Burning.

Actor/Director. 

Jan Anderson:

        

(Left: Jan, Right: Anderson in Casualty as Chloe Hill)

Jan Anderson from Wales, born 1974.

Best Known for portraying Nurse Chloe Hill in Casualty. 

Actress

This workshop was about CASTING ACTORS.

The lecturers from all of our modules across Level 5 have reiterated that the main problems with student films are with the casting of actors. Therefore, Tim (Module leader for Production) gave us a workshop masterclass in it. 

Questions I asked in the Workshop:

1. Where should we cast? London?
2. Which sites should we put roles out on? 
3. How much do you pay actors?

Answers from Tim and the actors:

1. You don't need to cast in London. You can cast anywhere.
2. Spotlight, Starnow and Mandy are good casting sites. But you can go to other sites too. You can also find the actors reels on some of them. Or on YouTube.
3. It is acceptable to pay minimum wage to actors in a student film.

What I learnt in this Workshop Masterclass:

• Make sure to cast competent and credible talent. 
• Always make sure they actually read for you.
• Make sure to film all of your casting tapes.
• Stand up and shake the actor's hand.
• In the casting, have at least: The Director, the Casting Director and the Producer.
• Be polite and respectful: You're representing the university and yourself.
• Don't cast your friends!
• Make sure the actor is right for the role. Don't hire the first person so you don't have to go through loads of casting.
• Have water and snacks for the actors casting. It can be a long day of casting.
• When reading with the actor, try to make sure you're "in" the scene with them. They can play off you and give you a better performance.