This past week I enjoyed a brief sojourn up to the Hunter Valley in NSW to see my parents. It was a really lovely time away but I missed two crucial meetings for my group so now have to catch up. But meanwhile here’s a picture of some stuff I did up there like opals, peacocks and vineyards.
Now back to work!
I’ve felt really good after starting the process of filming. It’s taken a while for us to get ourselves together so this step forward is really encouraging, and has already wielded some good progress.
We’ve so far done trial shoots (where we are not in costume, just using the writers as actors in place of casting) for mockumentary and sitcom. They’ve been a great asset in fleshing out our scripts and really exemplifying the genre disparities. It’s really brought to the forefront the theoretical question which began our assessment; which genre works the best for us, and in going through all these activities we’re actually assessing this.
Here are some of the shoots we’ve been doing on and off campus.
Sit Com; (multi-cam, straight on, very scripted)
And mockumentary. For this one (my favourite genre of them all) we wanted to communicate that is was someone shooting the video who was bored of listening to the mother’s bitching and also someone who doesn’t really know what makes a good shot, so they fool around a little too much. I think it comes across as okay, could be better..
YAY!
-continuing to work on mockumentary genre. formatting premise through the lens of this genre, then going on to character profiles and scripts-
hashtag sharehouse hashtag roomies hashtag besties hashtag cute hashtag sleepovers everynight
Nothing all that thrilling to report today except progress. We got to work filming, using ourselves as cast. We shot the multi-cam “keeping mum” scene and my monologue /confessional mockumentary.
Now, in preparation for today’s consultation we’re doing some on location filming before our meeting. I think we’re all going to meet in Carlton at the house Dylan is house-sitting and film there a little bit before heading in to the see Paul together.
Very little to report at this point, all systems go.
hashtag omg hashtag so drunk hashtag babies hashtag inspo hashtag friends 4eva
Yesterday Yun, Raph and I met with Paul to further discuss our group’s project. We were going in quite unprepared, and I was late (as goddamn usual) because of public transport. Therefore I didn’t have time to check in with Yun and Raph beforehand. But everything was fine, we talked through some good action plans.
Paul challenged us to up our schedule by five days and start filming on Thursday. This means that by tonight we have to all go through our script work and get it ready for shooting on Thursday, which will then be re-shot next Monday.
We’ve been tasked to complete 2 scenes/extended scenes by this time next week, which feels like a good step to me. It’ll shove us into gear and whereas I’ve been feeling that we’re lagging behind on filming, this will definitely invert that.
Here are my notes from the meeting:
ps rot in hell tony abbott u piece of shit <3
Presentation Plan (Kerry-Anne + STeve):
presentation premise
Presentation Timeline (Yun + STeve)
STeve Timeline – Sheet1
Presentation Powerpoint (Yun + STeve)
10SEPT PITCH PRESENTATION
These were the bare bones of our presentation today, which we fleshed out by speaking candidly about our plans for Lord Of The Land. I think the presentation went well – despite my nightmarish morning trying to get to uni with public transport turmoil. I stand with the unions but they sure made me late.
We discussed our plans with the class, how our project is based around process and research, and got some good feedback. We were last to talk, so everyone was pretty tired and hungry by that time, and thus we tried to be succinct. We didn’t receive too much criticism which was both good and bad; I would have preferred some peer-to-peer sharing of ideas for our project with the rest of the students but it’s probably better that the students didn’t have any major qualms. After seeing other presentations it became clear we need to get a serious move on and start shooting. Yun’s timeline was very helpful and thorough (she’s an angel) which will enable us to get good work done in good time.
Following our presentation and that of the other groups my immediate plans is to start filming (even just on an iphone) my scripts so far to have something to share with the group and to work upon.
Continuing to look into the college rom-com genre so I watched this. This was actually like the worst thing I’ve ever seen and now I want to punch myself in the face.
Fuck you reality bites.
Doing that activity for college rom-com I remembered something from a few months ago in line with what I am currently writing for school.
It all started with this photo:
which was taken on-set for this music video
I’d posted the photo with the caption “New teen drama coming soon to HBO” which my friend noticed I’d written before.
which lead to this:
It was actually pretty good practice for this activity. Sometimes writing Bold and the Beautiful/Gossip Girl romantidrama is fun. But if I ever had to do it seriously I’d probably off myself.
That week break was too quick. I am sad and in perpetual state of hangover. My brain is melting.
Today was the first day back and we met up to have a discussion. We decided for now to pursue writing scripts in different genres. I was given college rom-com which is probably the worst sub-genre of all time. I tried to write a script in these boundaries but found it too painful, so instead I created character profiles.
hide the knives.
I’ve been continuing to look into the genre of mockumentary because I think it’s my favourite thus far. I love that it is a format which makes fun of its self, and allows for so much diversity.
It also makes sense for this story line when it is contextualised into mocumentary; self indulgent young college kids who think their lives are interesting enough to document and for people to want to watch. It could be filmed from the third wheel character’s POV, perhaps he’s an aspiring film maker, and we could incorporate interviews into this format which would give a pretty opportunity for in-depth exploration of these characters.
Also from a practical standpoint, it would mean that our final product may not have to be the most polished, and we could make it look a little hackneyed and have fun with purposefully sub-par camera work. Whereas everyone will be working hard to make their product look the most professional, we would stand out by using amateur film-making tropes in a self-aware, ironic way.
I think there are lots of possibilities and potential so I’m continuing to look into it as a genre.
THUS I’ve been watching some episodes of The Comic Strip presents Bad News and it’s fucking excellent.
Here’s what it is: