Filming Thanassis

In conjunction with the subject of Filming for Writing, Writing for Filming, the group sought to utilise filming as a method of expanding the depth of our characters. As part of our screenwriting process, we shot some of the scenes we had written not for release, but rather to see how our words would be translated on the screen. For myself in particular, a lot of the scenes I write tend to have long periods of silence and awkward interaction between the characters. I favour portrayal of an underlying dilemma through the actors’ movement and facial expression, rather than confrontative dialogue.

This is evident when we shot one of my character episode’s opening scenes. The scene, directed by Julian, was set as a car ride with Thanassis and his son, Manuel, after having just picked up his father from the airport. The silence in this scene is supposed to forewarn a secret between father and son, that would be revealed later in the episode and cause drama amongst the characters – the revelation of Manuel’s homosexuality.

It was disappointing to see how slow the story turned out in this scene. Perhaps it is the lack of visuals in combination with our amateur acting, but I don’t think I was successful in portraying Manuel’s yearning to confess to his father, through the script. Lacking in feedback for my scriptwriting, it is evident that I must continue practicing the subtlety of tension building, keeping the dialogue to a minimum while providing action for the actors to portray the drama effectively.

The only thing I could think of changing as a director (in place of Julian), is to utilise more shots that would maintain the beat of the scene, capturing each of the characters’ minute movement as clues to the coming drama.

Absentia as a series

An essential idea the group established when we first brainstormed was to create a series that was entirely independent from the element of time. I realise I haven’t spoken about this concept on the blog, so here we go.

The thought was that if someone was to begin watching the series at any point, there would be no confusion as to what was happening. But the challenge was, how were we going to create coherent material that allowed people to jump around the episode order? So, we took this by the horns and adapted a non-linear sequence which completely eliminated a time concept. The pilot episode, which was established to be important in introducing the characters within a single space, was decided to be Hitch’s funeral. This would then be followed by an organic order of our character episodes, some with Hitch still alive and some (like mine) occurring after his death (in fact, my character flies to Melbourne because of his death).

2. Flame (by Julian)

3. Revive (by Vania)

4. Glass (by Paul)

5. Inhuman (by Darren)

6. Searching (by Tristan)

7. Cross (by Arthur)

We planned to implement consistent motifs and subtle character connections that would only be picked up by audience members who does see the series from start to end. An example of this is Hitch’s relationship with Britney and Max. Even though they all attend the same high school, their lives are quite independent from each other. However, a diligent viewer would discover that Hitch and Britney attend the same therapist, Ingrid, whose role in Max’s tale remains unestablished.

Another challenge we had to face is writing the series finale. Easily enough, we decided to maintain the non-linearity of the series and collaborate on the episode by writing our characters’ last or favourite moments with the Hitch character. Not only does this effectively resolve each of our characters’ plights, we also provide them with an element of closure, by reminiscing on what has been lost.

The Pitch Presentation

Having missed out on the last consultation to deal with some last minute Media 6 dramas, I caught up with those who attended and conceived an idea for the format of our final presentation. We decided to use this opportunity to portray a professional production pitch, selling our package complete with casting details, location information, details of script development, table read-throughs etc.

Not only does this provide us a frame for presentation, it allows us to take an enthusiastic or rather aggressive marketing stance on selling the Absentia series. This means that instead of running around attempting to create a feasible media product (as the other groups I believe are doing) and filming crumbs of a series, we will be producing content that would be provided to potential investors in a real pitch.

In preparation for this, the group has begun to formalise a fantasy cast through StarNow. Here are some of the main characters in my episode, Cross.

12122657_10153052055016428_7027591516668292277_nHitch AKA Ben Hitchener

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Thanassis Dimitropoulos

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Bernadeth Dimitropoulos-Hitchener

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Manuel Dimitropoulos

The group also plans on creating inspiration boards for the episode settings, a filmed table read and potentially, opening sequences for our chosen marketing strategy (TBA).