Showing posts with label Idea development workshop. Show all posts
Today we had a workshop about Television studio production. The workshop was split up into two parts, the first was live studio production, in which we had to create a live studio set up, linking up the camera's to the vision mixer making sure that they're synced properly, lighting up the actors making sure there not under or over exposed, connecting the mic's up making sure the audio levels weren't peaking on the vision mixer, and recording a live recorded show.
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| we only used SDI out to go into the Vision Mixer |
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| This was before the Camera was connected up properly |
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| The vision mixed Andy was using |
The other part of the workshop was learning about how to use a green screen, in regards to lighting up the green screen and also your actor properly, making sure that your not getting any shadows on the green screen, and that your actor stands out from the green screen so that there's no spillage of green onto them. Once the lighting was correct, we then filmed and composited the footage over a tropical beach background, using after effects to key out the green leaving just the actor on the after effects timeline with the tropical background behind her.
Live studio Production
In the workshop we had to carry out certain roles which was:
Director Myself/Andrei
My role was to see the overall production of the show, to make sure that the actors were briefed on what they were to do, checkout out how the end result would look on screen, and amending anything i did not see fit, such as stage background, lighting, camera position/movement, letting Roxanne know if there was anything i wanted changing, as she would relay the message to the rest of the team.
Floor Director / Floor manager Roxanne
Roxanne was the second in command, anything i would ask her to do, she would relay the message to the rest of the team.
Floor director or floor manager, is the senior productions taff position in the studio, A floor director is like an all in-studio representative of the Director. He or she relays commands from the Director to the entire studio staff - some of these will be audible, and some will be 'translated' into hand gestures.
Camera operator Lex & Michael
Lex and Michael were responsive for operating the camera's. The set up we went for was Lex on the doll track panning from left to right, and Michael was in a fixed position, just behind danny
Vision Mixer operator Andy
Andy was in control of the vision mixer, selecting between either camera angle whilst the live show was happening.
Floor runner, Lighting Ck & Charlie
Ck and Charlie were runners and lighting operators, just generally sorting out the stage preparation, making sure that the actors were properly light, moving the lights around when requested, and also moving equipment around, cleaning the stage and so forth.
Interviewer and interviewee Aimee & Danny
Aime and Danny were the two people whom were performing on camera, Danny was the interviewer and Aimee was the interviewee.
Overall feedback
Overall the workshop was definitely a good experience, i learnt a lot on what goes into a live studio production, and it has definitely prepared me for the studio production unit that we have for next term, in regards to knowing what my weak points are; which was firm communication. However, given the short amount of time we had to operate in i feel that i did do a good job, and i've definitely taken pointers from the workshop on what to research for, so next time I'm faced with the Directors role of the task i will carry it out more efficiently, although, i do feel that i would be suited more to floor manager role where i know how everything works, so me being in that position i would be able to communicate with everyone a lot better, and focus on the setting up of the equipment, leaving the visual output to the director.
Tag :// Digital News Production Unit,
Tag :// Idea development workshop,
Tag :// Research,
Tag :// workshop
For todays workshop, we were given a press release and had to work in pairs. Within our group, we had to come up with a story from the press release that we had been given and create a script to it.
The press release that Me and Roxanne received was from the Department for Education, National College for Teaching and Leadership and The Rt Hon David Laws MP.
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| www.gov.uk/government/news/bursaries-and-scholarships-for-top-graduates-who-train-to-teach |
We decided to work on Google documents, collaboratively, which meant that we could both work on the same document,at the same time from our own computers, altering it real time as we researched.
At first when i was talking about the story with Roxanne, i mentioned that we should cover what the press release has told us, but then after brainstorming some more, she came up with a comparative suggestion, about how the nurses are being denied a 1% in pay rise, and bursaries are being offered out to top graduate, to which we checked this over with Helen, and she gave us the go ahead.
Here are the notes we worked on together
Here's the script that we worked on together
Further information can be found about the research that we done on Roxanne's blog post.
http://roxannemeatsbroadcastmeadia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/digital-news-workshop-research.html
Tag :// Digital News Production Unit,
Tag :// Idea development,
Tag :// Idea development workshop,
Tag :// Research
One of the ideas i mentioned to my group was about a recent incident that happened with the leaked photos of celebrities nude, hacked from their iCloud account, and how a P.R company pretending to be 4chan; made up a fake website called Emma your next, a day after Emma Wattson had given a speech on Gender equality at the United Nations.
After creating this fake website, and fake post (screen shot) of 4chan website, they then went onto create it into a news story, and made the news story trend alongside Emma Wattsons UN speech with the hostage EMMAYOURNEXT
The result of this was that a variety of different news companies picked up the story and reported on it, not know that it was actually a fake P.R marketing campaign. Not happy about it, the real member of 4Chan began to investigate whom was behind this scheme, and in the end found out it was a company called www.Rantic.com and also www.foxweekly.com. To which Rantic tried to start a viral campaign to close 4chan down, and that backfired majorly with 4chan and Reddit users hacking Rantics website, and starting their own hashtag campaign called ShutRanticDown.
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/21909/1/emma-watson-nude-photo-leak-outed-as-viral-marketing-hoax
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29341593
We were contemplating to go ahead with this story, but then found it to not possibly have much appeal to our audience, however, because of us talking about this, we came across another story which was to do with iCloud and the U2 album.
On Monday 31st of march, we had a Director of photography workshop with Peter Lloyd-Williams whom is an award winning cameraman of itv with over 20 years experience filming news, documentaries and features, sport and commercials in just about every conceivable location and with a wide range of people.
His professional contacts within the television industry are extensive.
Our areas of experience/expertise:
- Documentary/feature work
- Multi camera live work
- Drama
- Aerial filming (helicopters / light aircraft / fast jets / balloons / microlights etc.)
- Ski filming
- Yachting/boat filming
During the workshop, i worked with with Aimee Saunders, Andy Cox and Sam Creamer.
Some of the activities we done throughout the workshop was, prepare a camera & lighting setup for an interview within a restricted time-limit, emulating a real life scenario.
We had 30 minutes to shoot and edit a quick interview, which was improvised, and we had to use a selection of coverage shots that we had been taught within the workshop
A good tip that Peter told us, was to always have a piece of blue-tac on us when we're filming, incase if someone has a picture that we need to take a still shot of, and haven't got nowhere to put it, we can place in on the wall and get a steady shot of the picture.
For today’s workshop,
we were set a practical directors task. Working in groups of three, the task
was to be a director and produce our own version of one of the following
scenarios:
1) To sit down on a chair and look at your watch
2) To write something down on a piece of paper, then screw it up and throw
it into the bin.
3) Trip over with books in your hand and the books have to slide across
the floor.
The two people I worked
with were Chris Sarmiento and Ruby Rogers. We each took it in turns either
being an actor or a camera operator for our project task, which we had to be
the director of for one of the scenarios.
For Chris’s project he
choose scenario 2. Ruby was the
Actor and I was the camera operator.
Feedback
Had fun doing this, the story was
a good concept and set design helped convey this, we even managed to
do a cheeky live action FX where we tricked the audience into thinking ruby got
the paper ball in the bin without looking. We achieved this by making ruby
throw the paper ball as hard as she could in the direction of the bin, while
Chris: standing behind me, at the same time the first paper ball went off
screen, dropped another paper ball into the bin making it look like an intended
shot.
For Ruby’s project she
choose scenario 3. Chris was the
camera operator and I was the actor.
Feedback
Had fun being an actor
in Ruby’s project, where I haven’t done acting in yeaaaars, also, to top it off
I had to be a stunt man lol. Count
myself lucky that I remembered how to break fall. The story was good concept
and easy to follow once organised, allowing Ruby to also feature in her project
as the person whom opened the door. To get the books so slide precisely, Chris
filmed another take with me sitting up, then roll/break falling onto the ground
being weak with the momentum I drop the books, which made all of them fall
within frame.
For my project I
choose scenario 1. Chris was the
actor and Ruby was the camera operator.
Feedback
Had fun doing my own
project, was kind of rushed for time but managed to come up with a decent
simple concept. I had Chris instead of sitting down and looking at his watch,
take a small journey through the studio corridor/lift to outside the television
studio and make a phone call speaking in Spanish, then look at his watch whilst
waiting around. Ruby was following Chris walking behind him keeping the camera
steady, which was a tough task for her as the camera is really heavy but she
done it considerably well. If I was to re do this again I would have the frame
keep a more consistent flowing tracking shot of the actor, clean the lens as
well where there was specs of dust on it, and also view back the camera footage
to make sure the exposure on the shots are consistent as some of my shots were
under exposed and over exposed.
Here are our projects
The Wait
Directed by Andrei Allen
Starring Chris Sarmiento
Camera operator Ruby Rogers
The Fall
Directed by Ruby Rogers
Starring Andrei Allen
Camera operator Chris Sarmiento
Eye Draw
Directed by Chris Sarmiento
Starring Ruby Rodgers
Camera operator Andrei Allen
Tag :// Directions Unit,
Tag :// Idea development workshop
Task
For todays task we got set lunchtime homework to come up with a short story making use of a technique we'd been taught called "on the nose" and "off the nose"
To give an example of how this would be used in a screenplay, here are some examples below:
On the nose: someone saying i hate you.
Off the nose: someone saying i hate you without saying it i.e. through actions and emotions.
The homework we got set was a scene exercise to create a story using this technique. Below is the story i created
How this helped me?
This technique has definitely helped me in regards to telling a story better where i never knew of this method before. I might of used this method without knowing before, but now i know how to use it confidently when telling a story/screen writing
For
today’s lecture, we had a Development & pitch day session.
The whole
idea of this was, as a table or group, you discuss your ideas for the story you’ve
created called “The Meeting” in order to give and receive feedback about how
you could improve your story to then later adapt into a screenplay.
The idea
that I had chosen and pitched to both the groups I was in received really good
feedback. When I explained the summary of my story, I received good advice on
how I could improve my expanded pitch, which also helped me to improve the
reason as to how my characters where meeting. Where I was pretty sure that I
had a solid story before I had the group discussions, the groups helped me to
further improve the story that I had created by adding an established set up
into my story brief, because, the original story brief I wrote did not give
reason to my set-up (how my characters had gotten in
contact)
(this was my original idea i came to the lecture with, what pitched and gotten feedback on)
The set
up idea my group had given me, was, to have my main character Julius contact
Toru by email in the opening scene, doing this would help the audience to
establish a reason to why Julius is walking through Chatham town center to meet
Toru. Further expanding upon this set up, the audience would be able to
establish the time and date for the meet and also the set location, plus a
short explanation as to why Julius is messaging Toru, thus creating more build
up around the meeting of these two characters.
Here is a
fact sheet that we had to fill out, it’s also a summary of what I had created
at the end of today’s Pitch & development session
At the end
of today’s pitch and development lab session, we pitched our ideas for “The
Meeting” to our unit lecturer Simon. The feedback I received was, he
understood that it’s a story about someone trying to find them-self, however,
because I didn’t narrow it down in my original pitch (in speech marks below) as to what the newfound
abilities of Julius was, I could leave the audience open to think about
anything, i.e. even though its about super powers, It could be turned from a
super power movie to a normal everyday situation. So based off of this feedback I amended my pitch to focus on
what it is Julius specifically wants answer for so that the audience is able to
establish straight away what type of story this is.
Original pitch idea
“Demanding answers for his newfound ability,
Julius finds himself in over his head as the truth is slowly revealed about his
cursed inner secret.”
Task
Today Simon set us a
task to team up with another pupil from our lecture group and create a 25-word
pitch and a short story for a feature film called ‘The meet’.
Here is a picture of
the task conditions we had to work under
The member of my group
whom I teamed up with was CK.
The set location we
were given was a container yard. The characters we were given were, an office
clearer and an unemployed teenager.
Once we had gone
through that thought process and jotted down a few ideas, we narrowed down our
selections into a character table to insert our final decisions into each
characters section
When we had given our
characters an identity and a personality, it made it easier for us to create a
reason for why they would be at the container yard and include a plot into this
reason with minor adjustments.
Using our table to build off of, we then
put together a 26-word pitch, what would besides letting our audience know what our
feature film is about, would also remind us what we are writing about as we
then expanded that pitch into a short story.
Here is our final draft story.......
Here is our final draft story.......
Container Terminal 18
Theme: Action
thriller
Pitch
Unemployed during his 6thform Christmas break; Luke is
sent to work as an office cleaner with his granddad Harry at London’s notorious
Container Terminal18
Story
An
unemployed 18 year old teenager named Luke whom is on his school Christmas break is
currently helping his granddad out with his office cleaning job at the
container yard working night shifts.
One
night as he is waiting for his granddad to turn up to work. He lit a cigarette,
as he was 10 minutes early. Whilst smoking, he over hears multiple voices
coming from a part of the container yard he though was suppose to be empty.
As
he goes over to explore what is happening, he notices people loading bags into
a container where the noise was coming from. Suddenly a filthy child in
tattered clothing runs out of the container, this startles Luke making him jump
in disbelief that then notices the antagonist that someone is observing them.
Meanwhile
Grandpa
Harry (as referred to by Luke) has now turned up to the closed office, let himself
in and walked towards his cleaning cupboard. While preparing for the shift, he
becomes concerned for his grandson because he is now 20 minutes late. He tries
to contact him on his mobile but is getting bad reception inside the office, so
he makes the call outside. Once outside manages to get good with reception and
tries to contact his grandson, but his phone line is just ringing out. As he
continues to phone his grandson, Harry too hears a noise coming from the
distance, to which he then follows, as he gets closer, the sound becomes more
prominent and he recognizes the noise as his grandsons ring tone, until
eventually he was standing looking down at Lukes phone.
Feed back
At the end of the workshop
we pitched our short story to our whole class and tutor, our class and tutor
liked our story and we got some positive feedback on how we could improve it. Simon advised us that sometimes instead of giving a scenario a
professional from that background i.e. a builder building a house, make it
something that the audience would not expect to add more suspense and interest
to the plot i.e. a monkey building a house, the reason he told us that was because of the character profile we originally given Harry, a retired special ops mercenary
How
this helped me?
Well… it definitely has opened up my mind
to a more structural thought process when trying to think of an idea for a
short story, helping me to quickly establish logical explanations for my story
idea i.e. Who? What? When? Where? How? and also to keep the viewer guessing whilst establishing what they're seeing not making my screenplay too predictable
Task
At the end of today’s lecture, Simon set us
a homework task, what was to come up with a 25-word pitch for a story based on
a current news event.
The News story I chose to create a pitch
for, was, the Terrorist event that is currently happening in Westgate Mall in
Nairobi Africa.
Besides the Pitch examples that we were
shown in our lecture, to get a better understanding of a variety of Screenplay
pitches, I searched on the internet for Action films and was directed to a film
database website called www.imdb.com
This website had a humongous variety of
different film pitches which covered most main genres. I browsed through the
action section, because my pitch is an action themed screenplay, so that I
could get an idea of how these films sold their story in such a short
convincing way to try and see if I could get some inspiration.
While I was reading these pitches I jotted
down a few ideas so that I had a template to work off of
Examples
(1st person narrative idea)
We have attackers pinned down in the
shopping centre, but they still have hostages, tension is rising as their
demands are irrational.. How will this end?
Under siege, irrational demands, tempers
running wild, caught up in the cross fire, Lucas and his family find themselves
in the middle of a terrorist feud
The final idea that I came up with was
Attack on Westgate Mall
On September
22nd, 2013, Kenyan Special Forces heroically embark on a covert mission to try
rescue the remaining hostages held captive by the sinister AL-Shabab
I felt to go with this pitch because the
idea I had envisioned if this was turned into a film, would be very action
packed all guns blazing ect
Feedback
The reception I had gotten from Simon off
of this pitch was that the idea was good but the pitch was too predictable and
straightforward, that it pretty much tells the audience in a nutshell what the
story is about, without creating any tension or suspense in the pitch. Based
off of this feedback I decided to alter my pitch and make it a bit more interesting,
give it that edge what would make readers want to view it
Divine intervention
On September
22nd, 2013, Holidaymaker Timothy and his family survived what would be known as
Nairobi’s darkest day in history
