For the upcoming pitch I wanted to make sure that my presenting skills and overall pitch skills are improving from pitch to pitch, a major problem with my previous pitches is confidence and talking in front of people. This takes away from the pitch as if I can't get my words out its hard to make people understand what the idea is and get them on board. The skills I want to improve for upcoming pitches is public speaking and memorising and been confident in my idea, so I can pitch it passionately and have people more involved in it. I've made sure my powerpoint presentation is filled with the answers I have to questions at the moment, but when it comes to the idea, I want to pitch it from the top of my head, to know the ins and outs of the story well enough to pitch the film as if I just saw it and I'm describing it to a friend. I started looking online and watching videos about writers techniques and how to pitch an idea. A Hollywood writer and one of my personal favourites, Max Landis (Chronicle, American Ultra) has quite an open mind and talks and voices his opinions and thoughts online at his YouTube account. He's the son of director John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Animal House) and during a podcast discussed what pitching is and various ways to pitch successfully. The specific part of the podcast can be found and listened to here:
Max Landis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOgHtKpmbKI
During the conversation he talks about not allowing the person to become bored or disengaged and how that results in losing the pitch. You need to know and assess who you're pitching to and pitch in such a way that is suitable to them, maybe something there used to or something they've never seen before but are interested and seem to love. I've discovered that the best way to get someone on board is to infect them with your passion, to almost involve them in your pitch so they're following along, they're asking questions and making connections between points you're making, once they know the story and love it as much as you do, you've successfully pitched. If not maybe it's just not the right idea, maybe you try again with something new and fresh.
A method Max uses for when he's pitching is a beat by beat style, meaning not describing the whole story and boring the person, but describing the movie like you already saw it, so it's almost like you're selling your friends to coming to see this movie with you. This style helps and makes the pitch more chilled and personal, it takes away any nervousness or expectations of what the pitch can be and makes it fun and challenging in a new way. If you were pitching it to a friend, you wouldn't want to spoil or ruin the ending or certain parts, so Max talks about how you pitch the hell out of the first act, you don't discuss dialogue, you still pitch the plot in order but it's "Loose" and loose is good.
Marc Zicree Pitching- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6Lc-_tSN1c
Marc Zicree Breaking into Hollywood- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xo3F5rPqXA
In another video, writer/producer Marc Zicree discusses the art of pitching and the rule of 3 when pitching professionally, this is interesting when it comes to breaking into the industry and how to make friends and professional relationships with higher ups and the people that can help you progress with your work. He talks about knowing the people who can help you and talking to them and not pitching to them the first time, to build a relationship first because they're tired of hearing pitches and ideas thrown at them all day at work. In another video the same writer talked about having professional screenwriters read and give notes on your work and not just teachers or screenwriting guru's who may have never sold a script before, it's important to have people who work in the business and have experience to kind of mentor you and progress you in your writing style and career. This is good knowledge to have about screenwriters and the business for when entering the industry.
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Live Brief 2 - Producing a Pitch
Once I got my general idea for a short film out the way and detailed down, I'm able to think about a pitch and a method for pitching it. The synopsis is the basic outline I'm going to use to talk about and get my pitch across, and allows met to talk about the full story and reveal any hidden surprises or twists and explain the full story. I'm going to open with this so people no the idea and hopefully they'll be intrigued or on board. After that the next slide in my presentation is going to be a mood board of all influences or inspirations, this is going to show characters, shows and films that have used something similar to how I envision the project. This will mainly focus on shows that have successfully captured the tone I would like to use and characters that have similar and effective methods to how I folded mine. Television shows like Breaking Bad, Mr Robot and True Detective have played a big part in the development and unfolding of the story and writing process. After I've added more depth to the story and more detail for people to understand, I'm going to introduce the film festival I want to enter and why I think both the festival and the short film or suitable for each other and would provide a high success chance for screening. Through research and checking I landed on a festival called the British Independent Film Festival, which seemed to offer both a suitable category in which similar pieces of work have strived, a realistic deadline that is manageable and achievable and also has the screening before the module ends, and also not extremely costly. I think not only my short film but also other students ideas for short films may fit nicely in this festival.
After providing details on the festival, I will be moving on to suitable and local locations where to shoot. The film takes place in one area which helps make it more manageable and easier to organise but its still all about finding that one location, I provided a list of a few possibilities to show there are plenty of options out there if it gets green lit. After locations is a focus on the characters and details to use for if we cast them, just short details like age and features, to show they should be easy to cast and plenty to audition when it comes to it. The final slide in my presentation is going to discuss clothing for the characters and props used in the film, this is to make the tutors comfortable knowing that I've thought of what we need and that it all seems manageable and achievable in the time we have to get them, many of the props are quite common in films and we can use from previous productions, some clothing will be asked off by the actor playing and if they don't have any, they can be found and provided for them, this is just to save any money in the budget that could go to paying actors and transportation. Hopefully my presentation will go smoothly to the rest of the class and that the idea is universally like or interesting enough to gain interest for the production. I understand that the piece relies on a lot of dialogue and is not overly ambitious or out there but I feel it's something that would require a lot of thought and quality behind it and would produce a tight quality final piece, but I fully understand if it doesn't get picked, as there is a lot of great ideas circulating the class which could provide a greater challenge than mine.
After providing details on the festival, I will be moving on to suitable and local locations where to shoot. The film takes place in one area which helps make it more manageable and easier to organise but its still all about finding that one location, I provided a list of a few possibilities to show there are plenty of options out there if it gets green lit. After locations is a focus on the characters and details to use for if we cast them, just short details like age and features, to show they should be easy to cast and plenty to audition when it comes to it. The final slide in my presentation is going to discuss clothing for the characters and props used in the film, this is to make the tutors comfortable knowing that I've thought of what we need and that it all seems manageable and achievable in the time we have to get them, many of the props are quite common in films and we can use from previous productions, some clothing will be asked off by the actor playing and if they don't have any, they can be found and provided for them, this is just to save any money in the budget that could go to paying actors and transportation. Hopefully my presentation will go smoothly to the rest of the class and that the idea is universally like or interesting enough to gain interest for the production. I understand that the piece relies on a lot of dialogue and is not overly ambitious or out there but I feel it's something that would require a lot of thought and quality behind it and would produce a tight quality final piece, but I fully understand if it doesn't get picked, as there is a lot of great ideas circulating the class which could provide a greater challenge than mine.
Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Live Brief 2 - Quick Synopsis
Opens to a shot inside a small
café/restaurant, it’s fairly busy but we’re focusing on a table in the center.
Two men are seated across from each other, face to face.
The first man is smart, his appearance is
of wealth, he wears a suit with a very traditional haircut, he’s sat up
straight, he means business. His intimidation fills the room.
The second is closer to a boy than a man;
he’s early 20’s and is uniformed in a hoody and jeans. Despite being in the
presence of the first man, he is suspiciously confident and calm. He too is
smart.
The first man, Alastair Franklin is sat
with a device of some kind (Laptop maybe) with the ability to input numbers, in
front of him. He wants Matthew Anderson to input the code, as he is the only
one who knows it. He tries intimidating Matt and a conversation ensues, Matt
claims to not know the code but its clear he does. He also claims he’s trying
to help people.
Alastair then declares that if he wants to
play the hard way, he can play the hard way. A suited man nearby talks over
comms ‘Bring him out’. A young man around the same age as Matt is forced out of
a back room and thrown on to a chair at the same table as Matt and Alastair. Alastair’s
men clear the café/restaurant. Matts face is shocked, as his best friend Thomas
Mann is right in front of him. Matt begins reassuring Tom that everything is
going to be okay, while Tom is freaking out, he tells Matt that they have Becca
(Matts Girlfriend). Alastair has one of his guys tie Tom’s right hand down to
the table, he gives Matt one more chance to input the code, Matt inputs a
random code that fails, calling Alastair’s bluff. It’s explained that
Alastair’s company handles a lot of the digital transfers of funds for banks
and large business; Matt has hacked the company and planned on transferring the
money to those who need it. Alastair has a sharp knife brought out to him. Matt
and Tom begin freaking out and Matt and Tom are both held down in their seats
by Alastair’s men, Alastair in one clean swipe, cuts off one of Tom’s fingers.
‘You got nine more chances before I run out of fingers’
Matt apologies again and again to Tom,
while Tom is almost collapses in shock from what’s happened. Matt begs Alastair
to stop and continues claiming he doesn’t know the code. He inputs a two more
codes in that don’t work to demonstrate it. Alastair pulls out a gun out of his
jacket and shoots Tom in the head.
Alastair’s men remove Tom’s body from the
room. Matt becomes angry with tears in his eye, screaming at Alastair. Matt
admits he knows the code and that it was his hack and plan, and how he’ll never
give it up because of people like him. Alastair suggests trying this again and
has Becca brought out and thrown down on the same chair as Tom. Matt begs for
her life. Alastair presses the gun against her head. Matt gives in and says
he’ll input the code. He puts the code
and it’s successful. This gives Alastair’s company back control to reverse the
hack. Alastair takes the device and his men, as well as Becca and starts to
leave. He takes Becca as insurance until the hack is completely reversed. Matt
argues and kicks up a fuss but is restrained by Alastair’s man. Matt manages to
take a gun from the man and shoots him in the stomach while hiding behind him,
as the rest of Alastair’s men turn around and open fire. Matt manages to jump
and hide behind a booth but is now trapped. He pulls out his phone and looks to
be hacking. All the lights in the café/restaurant (and maybe the block) turn
off. The blackout allows Matt to escape from the booth, and multiple gunshots
can be heard. The lights turn back on and everyone is dead except Matt, Becca
and Alastair. Alastair has Becca hostage with a gun pointing at her. Matt has a
gun pointing at Alastair. A conversation ensues about both of them walking away
but Alastair shoots Matt in the head and then shoots Becca dead as well. Sirens
can be heard in the background and Alastair walks out of the Café/Restaurant
and fleas the scene.
Live Brief 2 - Short Film Idea
Developing short film ideas has always been a struggle for me, because I feel like i'm condensing and squeezing the entire plot of a feature into a few minutes, and details and scenes always seem to be left out and the story lacks because of it. I've started to take a new approach to short films, and that is thinking of stories as episodes. Television episodes can be 20-30 minutes and their stories are always quick and to the point, so now when ever I think of short films, I think of situations and circumstances that everyday characters can get into, like sitcom shows etc. My newest idea for a short film is quite dramatic and has the potential to be quite long, so I tried to apply the episode method and come up with the idea of shooting the end of what would be the script. To focus on the conclusion and finale of the story and use a cold open to throw the audience into this world and have them discover the story throughout.
The story centres around a young computer hacker, who has grown up poor and uses his skills to intercept large digital fund transactions from a large business. His plan is to take the money and give it to the poor, a Robin Hood type character. The film is going to cut in on a cold open that takes place after the hack and theft of the funds. It takes place in one location at a cafe/diner type restaurant and has the hacker and a high up executive at the company sat across from each other at a table. The story is going to be about the confrontation and the executive trying to get the money back, there will be smart and intelligent dialogue as they discuss whats happened and how its right or wrong, both growing up from different backgrounds, theres quite a friction between them. Once he realises the hacker won't give in, he has his friends brought in and used to intimidate him with the threat of torturing them. The hacker as the dilemma of sticking with his cause and doing what he believes to be the right thing, or saving his friends.
I want to be able to develop my writing of dialogue and thats why this idea will have plenty of back and forth between characters. It will always benefit whoever is on sound for the crew, as we've never really had a production that has had this much dialogue and that heavily relies on it. It will also be good for the director because the quality of the performances is what will carry and intrigue audiences throughout the story. I'm hoping to create a tense and intimidating tone like shows such as Breaking Bad and True Detective have been able to capture in their episodes.
The story centres around a young computer hacker, who has grown up poor and uses his skills to intercept large digital fund transactions from a large business. His plan is to take the money and give it to the poor, a Robin Hood type character. The film is going to cut in on a cold open that takes place after the hack and theft of the funds. It takes place in one location at a cafe/diner type restaurant and has the hacker and a high up executive at the company sat across from each other at a table. The story is going to be about the confrontation and the executive trying to get the money back, there will be smart and intelligent dialogue as they discuss whats happened and how its right or wrong, both growing up from different backgrounds, theres quite a friction between them. Once he realises the hacker won't give in, he has his friends brought in and used to intimidate him with the threat of torturing them. The hacker as the dilemma of sticking with his cause and doing what he believes to be the right thing, or saving his friends.
I want to be able to develop my writing of dialogue and thats why this idea will have plenty of back and forth between characters. It will always benefit whoever is on sound for the crew, as we've never really had a production that has had this much dialogue and that heavily relies on it. It will also be good for the director because the quality of the performances is what will carry and intrigue audiences throughout the story. I'm hoping to create a tense and intimidating tone like shows such as Breaking Bad and True Detective have been able to capture in their episodes.
Monday, 25 January 2016
Live Brief 2 - Learning Agreements Introduction
The new module of Live Brief 2, gives us our introduction to the learning agreements. These are written and completed at the start of a new project, and are similar to us writing our own project brief, allowing us to be specific in what we intend to achieve. It also helps us learn and understand how we will be assessed, and the aims and learning objectives that we should have in mind and be following throughout the projects duration. A successful learning agreement should help you identify what you want/need to focus on and highlight issues you'd like to overcome, it also helps with planning and gathering sources for research which will come in helpful during pre-production.
A main focus of the learning agreement is proposing your idea and synopsis for the module, and been able to plan out and develop what will be happening when. This improves and establishes an efficient time management skill, and provides yourself and your crew a schedule to follow and keep to. With the learning agreements been negotiable, it gives a more personal feel and allows for certain students to learn more of their speciality instead of the whole class learning the same thing, students can now help and teach each other areas that the others may not know. This specific brief is centred on producing a short film and entering it into a suitable film festival, therefore the learning agreement needs details on what the short film is about, how you intend to achieve it and what you hope to learn, as well as a film festival you can submit your work into and details of the festival, submission fees and dates.
The learning agreement will most likely change and develop throughout the first week or two of the project, while we're pitching and figuring out what roles we will be occupying for the short films, but we're going to start filling in and writing the agreement as if our idea is going to be green lit. This can be later changed and corrected once the pitching stage is complete and certain details are definite. I've started adding to and filling out my first draft of my learning agreement, so the tutors can see brief idea of the idea and path for the project, and can keep up to date and give advice on changes and point out mistakes in my work. Before work can be fully started on our productions, we need both our tutors to sign off on our learning agreements to make sure its completed professionally and is to the standard of quality that is expected from our level at our stage of education. Then after the learning agreements are completed and signed off, we can now follow and execute the objectives and schedule organised within the agreement.
A main focus of the learning agreement is proposing your idea and synopsis for the module, and been able to plan out and develop what will be happening when. This improves and establishes an efficient time management skill, and provides yourself and your crew a schedule to follow and keep to. With the learning agreements been negotiable, it gives a more personal feel and allows for certain students to learn more of their speciality instead of the whole class learning the same thing, students can now help and teach each other areas that the others may not know. This specific brief is centred on producing a short film and entering it into a suitable film festival, therefore the learning agreement needs details on what the short film is about, how you intend to achieve it and what you hope to learn, as well as a film festival you can submit your work into and details of the festival, submission fees and dates.
The learning agreement will most likely change and develop throughout the first week or two of the project, while we're pitching and figuring out what roles we will be occupying for the short films, but we're going to start filling in and writing the agreement as if our idea is going to be green lit. This can be later changed and corrected once the pitching stage is complete and certain details are definite. I've started adding to and filling out my first draft of my learning agreement, so the tutors can see brief idea of the idea and path for the project, and can keep up to date and give advice on changes and point out mistakes in my work. Before work can be fully started on our productions, we need both our tutors to sign off on our learning agreements to make sure its completed professionally and is to the standard of quality that is expected from our level at our stage of education. Then after the learning agreements are completed and signed off, we can now follow and execute the objectives and schedule organised within the agreement.
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Filmmaking- Music Usage
Since the start of the project I was determined to find and gain permission to use a high quality and professional styled song in the final edit of the Go Outdoors edit. I didn't want to have to use any copyright free music or some track from Audio Network because it wouldn't fit the style and tone of a commercial and I would prefer for this to have a professional look and feel, and that also incorporates the sound. The sound benefits the presentation and shows that it's more than just a project or a students work, its a commercial.
I had a song in mind that fit my vision and I felt would go well with the final edit. This song was called 'Shadow of a Man' by Neulore and I got in touch with the bands manager to ask for permission about using it in our commercial, the response back at first was positive as he seemed more than happy to give us permission and said there wouldn't be any push back from them. Unfortunately they were not okay with the song been used on an edit and then been uploaded to sites such as YouTube. I needed to be able to gain full permission for the song or it would be no good at all. I got in touch with the studio that licenses Neulore's songs and received a sheet back to fill out about our production and what song we'd like to use. I filled out the sheet accordingly and e-mailed my response back, unfortunately I heard no word back after this and was forced to find another song.
I began searching the web and looking on websites were I could get an appropriate music license for the production. I came across a website that feature this new band that was just starting off and I listened to their album. I found this song called 'Back To You' that I thought felt like the tone of the advert and would fit in well with the footage we had shot. Instead of applying and paying out for the music license through the 3rd party website, I got in touch with the band and the bands manager directly to enquire about using the song. They were very happy to be involved and gave me permission to use there track in the production after I explained what it was for and what was happening with the content. I also able to get a signed contributors license of the band for the song, saying they give me permission to incorporate it in the video. I'm very happy with the final choice of song for the edit and think it works well with the message and idea the advert is sending out to it's audience.
I had a song in mind that fit my vision and I felt would go well with the final edit. This song was called 'Shadow of a Man' by Neulore and I got in touch with the bands manager to ask for permission about using it in our commercial, the response back at first was positive as he seemed more than happy to give us permission and said there wouldn't be any push back from them. Unfortunately they were not okay with the song been used on an edit and then been uploaded to sites such as YouTube. I needed to be able to gain full permission for the song or it would be no good at all. I got in touch with the studio that licenses Neulore's songs and received a sheet back to fill out about our production and what song we'd like to use. I filled out the sheet accordingly and e-mailed my response back, unfortunately I heard no word back after this and was forced to find another song.
I began searching the web and looking on websites were I could get an appropriate music license for the production. I came across a website that feature this new band that was just starting off and I listened to their album. I found this song called 'Back To You' that I thought felt like the tone of the advert and would fit in well with the footage we had shot. Instead of applying and paying out for the music license through the 3rd party website, I got in touch with the band and the bands manager directly to enquire about using the song. They were very happy to be involved and gave me permission to use there track in the production after I explained what it was for and what was happening with the content. I also able to get a signed contributors license of the band for the song, saying they give me permission to incorporate it in the video. I'm very happy with the final choice of song for the edit and think it works well with the message and idea the advert is sending out to it's audience.
Filmmaking- Sound Editing
When it comes to editing, the editing of the video footage seems to be the obvious and most prioritised task but in fact sound editing is just as equally as important. For the Think! shoot, there was many sound effects as well as background music to sync up and attach to the final edit. For most of the sound effects I was able to use Jamie's foley work and synched them up to the edit so it flowed well as a film. There were some secondary sound effects that were found online and either copyright free or paid for and they were included in the final edit also.
For the beginning shot in seemed very quiet and was missing something key that was holding it back, I suggested looking for some ambiance music and so we searched online for the right sound for the video. We found a great sound file that was ambiance sounds for a town/city, and had the right sounds to match up with our edit. The majority of the edit is played to two different music files. The first is a swashbuggle/pirates of the Caribbean styled song which was cut and edited twice into the edit, and the other is more of a western/cowboy themed song for the end shootout, which was used 3 various times and cut together to build the end tune. All of the selected and recorded sounds worked well in the edit, and after seeing the final edit with and without sound, it benefits greatly and is enhanced with the sound.
I researched into the broadcasting standards for sound and volume and found this document stating the official broadcasting sound regulations:
https://www.cap.org.uk/CAP-and-BCAP-Consultations/Closed-consultations/~/media/Files/CAP/Consultations/AnnexAofevaluationnewTVadsoundlevelsrule.ashx
It states that the sound level should be no higher than 6dB and I back and changed all the sound files individually, to make sure that the peak of the sound and music does not cross over the broadcasting regulations. This also helped in making the edit sound better and helped defined certain sound effects more having all the sound keeping to one level.
For the beginning shot in seemed very quiet and was missing something key that was holding it back, I suggested looking for some ambiance music and so we searched online for the right sound for the video. We found a great sound file that was ambiance sounds for a town/city, and had the right sounds to match up with our edit. The majority of the edit is played to two different music files. The first is a swashbuggle/pirates of the Caribbean styled song which was cut and edited twice into the edit, and the other is more of a western/cowboy themed song for the end shootout, which was used 3 various times and cut together to build the end tune. All of the selected and recorded sounds worked well in the edit, and after seeing the final edit with and without sound, it benefits greatly and is enhanced with the sound.
I researched into the broadcasting standards for sound and volume and found this document stating the official broadcasting sound regulations:
https://www.cap.org.uk/CAP-and-BCAP-Consultations/Closed-consultations/~/media/Files/CAP/Consultations/AnnexAofevaluationnewTVadsoundlevelsrule.ashx
It states that the sound level should be no higher than 6dB and I back and changed all the sound files individually, to make sure that the peak of the sound and music does not cross over the broadcasting regulations. This also helped in making the edit sound better and helped defined certain sound effects more having all the sound keeping to one level.
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