Post Nine: Creating a script

 SCRIPTS:

Our second workshop with Becky Knapp involved the process of assessing each other scripts; we all had to reach all of the scripts written and say how the could be improved, what we liked and what didn't work so well. Becky herself had also read all of our scripts and gave us the appropriate feedback.The assessments of our first drafts enabled the creation of the second draft to be produced to a better quality and a lot easier.





The first version of my script:

The feedback I received about my script was constructive as a whole with an appropriate amount of positives and negatives; as I received the feedback I made notes on what I needed to improve and how to get it done. The opinions were generally positive as Becky and the rest of the class agreed that my script was 'visually strong', which meant I had a strong basis to create a short film with. They also highlighted the two key problems with my script, the first was the format and structure; the amendments involved a simple case of changing the alignments on word and changing the font and font size. The second problem that there was nowhere near enough detail in my script, the character actions were far too vague and there was a lack of dialogue too which in turn meant that the relationship between 'the girl' and 'her father' was not fully established.

During Becky's feedback she advised that I watch Lynne Ramsay's 'Gasman' as like my script it was based on 'showing rather than telling' and was visually strong. Gasman is based in the Christmas season spirirt, 'Lynne' a young girl dresses up with the aid of her mother. 'Lynne' and her brother then leave to the pub with their father, along the way they meet with a woman who was has two children with her, of a similar age. 'Lynne notices that the girl acts all too familiar with her dad'.

                                             

After going into alot more depth in the detailing of my script and adding more dialogue where I found appropriate and where generally needed I created a second draft of my script.

***IMAGE OF HOW I THEN DEVELOPED MY SCRIPT***



Mrs Shipp said... Did your audience (class) understand your message was it clear? can you relate this back to the exam topic of audience reception theory and preferred readings, negotiated readings etc.

When showed the first draft of my script for my short film 'Bruises' the class understood the message I was trying to convey - According to the audience reception theory my class would have understood the meaning due to the fact that we all have a relatively similar cultural background, therefore we all interpret texts in similar ways. Within the terms preferred and negotiated readings media studies implies that no text is simply 'neutral' - therefore each media text contains a range of meanings/messages that have been encoded into the text either deliberately or unconsciously. This leads to the fact that the interpretation my audience had on my media product was intended by the maker (myself) therefore it is a preferred reading.

Post eight: Decisions & Revisions

Although at first  the creation and development of our scripts seemed like a relatively simple task, it was infact a lot harder than i first though despite all of the class notes and the workshop with Becky Knapp that we recieved. Initially I began the process by finding ways to develop my idea, the first step was to create a time line panning out the events that would occur in my short film, this including the two key turning points. This timeline enabled me to firstly, have a clearer idea of the best order in which to have events occur in my short and secondly, helped me have a much clearer view on the timings of my six minute short film.

After the creation of the time-line we discussed the layout, timings and plot of all of our scripts and gave feedback on what we thought would/wouldn't work and what could be improved. The next task I completed in order the get the the stage at which I could begin my script writing was to create my character profiling. Although we had characters in our coursework task last year, due to the fact that it was only the opening of a film, not a film in it's entirity the characters were not developed at all. Developing the characters for this coursework task required a signifcant amount more detail, instead of just focusing on the physical appearance of the characters I also had to focus of the emotional state of the characters at different points during the plot. In doing this I helped myself get a clearer visual image of my characters and a clearer insight into their lives.

The penultimate task I engaged for research was in was the study of texts that relate to the desired message, theme and plot of the short film I plan on creating. I decided to watch was a string of NSPCC adverts. The NSPCC is a world-wide organisation focused around preventing the abuse of children, Child abuse is classified as an adult harming a young person under the age of 18 and last year alone the NSPCC worked with approximately 250,000 children or adults concerned about children.


The first advert I watched was Cruelty to children must stop - full stop. This TV advert beings by establishing the vulnerability of the children, the victims of the abuse in the advert; this is done through the use of the camera work, e.g. high angle shots such as the following in which the vulnerable is placed low down, on the floor and the camera is in a position of power over the victim. The advert then plays of the emotions of the viewer with the use of audio, match-on-action is used as the advert contains sad music to match the tragic events we assume are happening. The third thing that the advert uses is the actors, the actors show their fear, grief and gloom clearly and successfully.

The next advert I watched was the most recent NSPCC advert, NSPCC - Open your eyes. This advert is based upon the lives of three children, ranging in age from a 1/2 year old boy left crying in his cot, a young girl who is beaten and a boy who is being abused outside of his own home, showing that there is no age limit on abuse. The main tool used to establish the abuse of the children and to create the sympathy and correct emotion desired from the audience in the advert is the use of emotive imagery e.g. close ups on childrens face's to show the unhappiness. Emotive music similarly to the first advert I watched is also used, different music but it creates the same desired negative and hyper-emotional tone to the advert. 

The third and final advert I wached was NSPCC - Talking helps, this advert unlike the previous two is not based on the abuse of younger children, the victim in this advert is a teenage girl which relates more to the short film that I am creating. This advert also differs from the previous two in terms of the focus of the footage, the focus of the other adverts was visual where as the focus of 'Talking helps' is based upon the affect of audio. There is no music in the advert, just a teenage girl sat on a bus replaying the abusive words and violent noises of an older male who the viewer will most likely assume to be her father. At one point the girl begins to speak, she stutters and does not regain her motivation to finish her sentence, this links to the title due to the fact that the girl cannot speak out but 'Talking helps'.

The final task I engaged in was to research real-life stories of abuse and the advice/help provided. I found a website for the organisation 'Tronie Foundation' who's focus is to prevent child abuse, much like the NSPCC. The websites includes information on types of child abuse other than domestic and sexual abuse e.g. human trafficing. The next website I studied was Child Abuse Effects, the website is full of useful information on how to cope with child abuse and also contains a section of tragic child abuse stories.

Post three (A): Target Progress

1) The first and possibly the most prominent target for me this year will be to improve the quality of my camera work and continuity, last year both I and the group in which I worked struggled to effectively recognise when we had broken the 180 º rule, otherwise known as ‘crossing the line’ in our filming. This affected the continuity of our production and therefore obviously had a knock on effect on the grade in which we received for our final product last year. This year I will spend a great deal more time making certain there are no faults in our filming and do further research into vital rules such as the 180º rule to ensure we do not have the same problem this year.

The camera work in my year 13 coursework task has moved up notches in terms of it's quality, continuity and general quality; we were given a higher quality camera with which to film this year, PD150 SONY. Due to the faults that were present and pointed out to me in my project last year I became more aware of several points whilst filming. The first being the 180º rule, whilst filming I became very aware of it, therefore taking more time and effort to make sure the rule wasn't broke. This also led to me taking several different versions of shots, to ensure no rules were broken and that the continuity was the best it could be.

2) The second target I have set for myself will be based around the area of editing, next year I wish to not only improve on the areas I can already do on adobe premier plus but to try and successfully carry out new and original editing styles. As we now know the basics due to the editing of our products last year, this year I plan on spending a significant amount more time extending my skills on the editing suites as to boost the grades I could possibly achieve in our final product.

The editing in my year 13 coursework; initially to help with this task as independent study I spent some time in the editing suites getting a better understanding of the programmes I was using and learning about what would and wouldn't look successful for what we wanted to achieve in our short film. This year compared to last we had a significant amount more knowledge about what we were trying to create and achieve within our projects as well as more knowledge of examples, codes and conventions of what we were attempting to create.

In order to get a grasp on what kind of editing we wanted to carry out on our film we watched other shorts with similar representations and messages to ours in order to help us get an idea of editing aspects such as what kind of lighting we wanted to involve in both our editing and filming.



3) Due to the fact that in the approaching academic year our task is to create a short film in its entirety the process of creating a treatment becomes more relevant and there is now a need for character synopsises. Another one of my targets is to improve the detail in which our narrative and characters are developed. I will achieve this by holding more group discussions therefore deciding as a group a lot more detail about both the narrative and the characters.
Due to the fact that this year we are creating a short film in it's entirety the role of the central protagonist was much higher than any projects i'd previously created. In order to ensure that our character 'Grace' was as realistic as possible I participated in a large amount of independent research into abused children. I achieved this by firstly, spending a lot more time speaking with the other person I was working with, together we decided the correct way to approach 'Grace's' character. Once basic decisions were made together about our central protagonist e.g. sex and age we moved onto more complex details such as Grace's physical build and what we could represent through this.

The next thing we did was to research characteristics or 'give aways' of abused children - a lot of this research included reading 'real life stories' that people had posted online and browsing websites such as the NSPCC, watching their advertisements and reading what they do to achieve the help for children.






4) In this years main task we will be not only creating the film product we will also be creating a ‘postcard’ for our film in terms of marketing. To create the previously mentioned ‘postcard’ we will need to use Photo shop or a programme similar in function to edit the image. In the editing we will need to interpret the conventions so that it is possible to create a unique style for our marketing ‘postcard’ to match our film.

This years project was not only based around the film product but our also around our marketing skills, the way in which we approach the task of marketing our short film was as key as the quality of the film itself. In order to make our postcard as good as it could potentially be both me and the other group member spent a lot of time together brainstorming and coming up with multiple ideas for both the design and desired message of our postcard.

We also spent a significant amount of time researching what editing programme would be best suited to our needs during the process of creating the postcard itself, we used several on the school system and several on our own computer systems out of school.

 5) My final ‘SMART’ target for next year is to work on the improvement of my interpersonal skills, group dynamics are very important when working in close proximity with other people although never having had any real issues when previously working in these groups I believe that if the group dynamics had been better then as a group we generally would have worked momentously more successfully and the work would have been more equally split. So therefore in improving my interpersonal skills the group meetings that are held will be more productive and the group dynamics will be pleasant and easy to work with.

From the beginning of this year I believe that my interpersonal skills have improved significantly from the previous years. A necessary precursor of the positive effects on the improvement of interpersonal skills is that for the practical aspect of the course this year the class was split into smaller groups, of two sets of three's. Due to this fact, the communication within the group was key in enabling the work to be spread evenly and to allow the group to successfully complete the work task with a good atmosphere within the group and for the group to be essentially happy with the finished product. Our group acted well as a group with no tension or negative confrontation when anything went wrong, instead there was no singular blame and any opinions were taken as constructive criticism. We were willing to share our ideas and re-work our ideas until we were in a situation in which we were all happy with what we would be creating.

I believe that I achieved this target through establishing better and more positive relationships between myself and the other people within the group in which I am working within. The relevance of these relationships was that there was no tension which made group discussions pleasent, there were no arguments and generally I enjoyed working within the group and did not dread having to do either the practical work or the written work because I felt we were all cotributing evenly and all wanted to achieve smiliar standards in our work.