T351 Week 9 - Spring 2008

Agenda

• Review Quiz
• Art Videos / Story structure / Dramatic scenes
• Review scripts & treatments
• Production tips

Reality check

Many of you are missing paperwork (critique, proposals, etc.). You need to turn this in ASAP if you want to get any points from it. Anything that Marc doesn't have by the end of the week will become a 0.

Right now you should focus on shooting your Art Videos and completing the pre-production work for your Storytelling Projects. After spring break we'll cover advanced editing, and technical issues such as digital video codecs, color sampling and compression.

We will have a short lab this week. The primary purpose is for you to pitch storytelling ideas and decide on stories. There is a lot to turn in during lab this week:

• Art Video (script or storyboards) You should have already turned in your proposal and treatment)
• Final Project proposal and treatment
• Storytelling pitch, proosal and treatment

It is fine if you would like to pick your own storytelling partner. But everyone will need to turn in a pitch, proposal and treamtn. You should meet with your storytelling partner (if you have one) this week. I suggest that you touch base with each other right after today's lecture. You'll need to have the completed drama script in lab the week you come back from spring break.

• Storytelling Project Description

And if you haven't done so already, turn in your Art Video scripts and /or storyboards.

 

Art Videos (cont.)

This week you should be finishing shooting. Some of you are already editing. I know a few have already finished their projects.

An interesting site for music video producers is mvwire.com. (check out their faq area)

 

Stories & story structure

Relevant web links:

• Screentalk (a great web resource with many scripts on-line)
• Screenwriters Guild of America
• Script Magazine (Great magazine. On-line visitors should browse the e-articles)
• Writers Guild of America
• Writers Weekly (good forums)

Articles (Recommended reading):

• Complete eejit's guide to film-making - Sharks and structure (great story structure demonstrated with Lego)
• Complete eejit's guide to film-making - Case study: Shark attack (Jaws as told with Lego characters)
• You can write a short story: Part 1
• Story Structure
• Story Structure Gurus

Conflict is essential to storytelling. People never live happily ever after until the end of the story, after the conflict has been addressed.

• Lovers who can't be together
• A dog who is trying to find his way home
• A boy battling a giant
• Two nations at war

Stories have a beginning, middle and end.

Inspiration

You can write your own story, or base it on a real-life event. Many movies and TV shows are based upon real events and people.

Apollo 13
Braveheart
Bonnie & Clyde
Cinderella Man
Cops
Elizabeth
Erin Brokovich
Hidalgo
Law & Order
Patch Adams
Saving Private Ryan
Sea Biscuit

Your story doesn't have to revolve around a person or an animal. Last summer someone wrote one about a pen. (The character arc was kind of difficult.) Whatever you do don't write one more about the "worse day ever" or being "late for class" or "and then the test was canceled" or have your character then wake up and realize "it was all a dream". OK if you really insist you can try one of these, but they are tired and have bveen done time and time again.

Keep your storytelling projects short & sweet! It's much better to have 4 minutes of gold than 10 minutes of yuck.

A good goal is to always try to make the viewer wonder, "What's going to happen next?"

[Look at examples]

Scripts & treatments

Start with a treatment, then move onto a script. It's much easier to refine a treatment than to make changes to a script. After you are happy with the treatment, move on to write the script.

A treatment describes the TV program and conveys the mood of the production. Treatments use the present tense and a narrative manner. The treatment can be bropken down into scenes. The function of a scene is to further develop the plot or characters.

What’s in a script? Read Jim's Script Overview.

Two-column vs. film style

The single column script is best suited for writers who are leaving the visual decisions to the cinematographer or director.

Production Tips

In general I've been impressed with many of your videos. Here are a few tips to make them even better:

Pre-production:

• Nothing saves you more time in production and makes your project better than pre-production- a.k.a. planning. Simply put, spend time thinking about your projects. The more time you spend picking your script and shots apart before production, the smoother and quicker it will go.
  • Visualize every single shot! Beethoven could write his music entirely in his head. You can do the same thing. Imagine the first fade up from black. What do you see? You can do this with every single shot along with the soundtrack. Put it in writing in the form of your script and shot sheets. If you can learn to do this you will have great success producing your projects.
• When writing a scene - don't forget the basics, such as establishing time and location. When in doubt start with an interesting establishing shot, then start moving the camera in.
• When blocking two-person exchanges OTS (over the shoulder) shots work well.
• TV is a close-up medium. Avoid using too many long shots and medium long shots. Use close ups and extreme close-ups to to tell your story.
• Everything, every shot, every sound, every character should be there for a reason. If it doesn't push the scene or the character along cut it out.

Shooting:

• Lighting - Always plan on enhancing the appearance through lighting. Occasionally you will get some nice locations that don't need much (shooting outside on an overcast/diffused day) but almost every single indoor scene will benefit from at least a little soft fill.
• Keep the camera level and smooth. Don’t slightly tilt the horizon. Keep it level or really tilt it (cant / Dutch angle) Keep your movements smooth and steady.
• Don't use hand held shots - unless they are specifically motivated! Hand-held implies a documentary feel. Many of the hand held shots I've seen have been unmotivated and of marginal quality.
• Lenses: Occasionally check to see if lens has water drops on it. You often can’t see these through the viewfinder. Never touch the lens with anything other than special lens cleaning paper.
• Gain switch - make sure it's turned off
• Remember the 180-degree rule and how to cross it
• Remember to motivate your edits and avoid jump cuts. For good edits (think about this when you shoot!) I also like the 3- shot rule: Think about the shot you're shooting, the shot you'll use before it, and the shot you'll use after it. Also consider what will motivate your edit. Action? A sound?
• When shooting B-roll, shoot mini-continuity sequences. These will cut together very nicely.

Editing:

• Always start and end your sequence with a fade- unless a pop on or pop off has been specifically motivated.
• Start and end programs with both video and audio. In other words as you fade up on your first visual, we should hear something. At the end, your music should end right when we fade to black.
• Only digitize the audio that you need. In other words if you've recorded your interview or primary audio on track one, don't bother digitizing track two, or don't bring it into the timeline.
• When using B-roll, don't just drop in one shot, instead use a sequence of 3 or more shots.

 

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