Another script for tomorrow’s group meeting / studio class.
Hopefully we’ll be able to film this in future, but this particular scene is set at nighttime so if group STeve did choose to go ahead with it for the assignment we’d have to organise a time to shoot when it gets dark.
This is my script in the genre of classic horror / slasher, also a genre I love as much as Lovecraft.
In preparation for this Thursday’s class my group have all been tasked with bringing two scripts each to our studio, all using different genre tropes.
I put my hand up for slasher/classic horror (Wei Yun was taking care of psychological horror) and Mockumentary.
I wasn’t completely sure what constitutes as mockumentary so I tried to do a little bit of reading using our library page.
I had a quick peruse of this work by Cynthia J. Miller, which I hoped would surmise what kind of cinematic factors classify a work as a mockumentary. Rather I discovered that it’s not so much typical visual/textual tropes which define this genre, but its subject matter. Essentially a mockumentary is a work presented as non-fiction with a satirical purpose.
Out of this work I read the Prologue: Nothing New Under The Sun – Or On Film, Part II: Popular Culture As Commentary and the Epilogue: Mockumentaries Meet New Media.
None was particularly helpful so I threw this script together.
Today we had our first meeting with our lecturer and we filled her in on our ideas. Prior to that we had a group meeting which I feel went well; it was mostly just good to be able to conceptualise in person and understand through face-to-face communication what the other group members had in mind.
Here are our feedback notes and my thoughts after today:
– Good process based project
– Another group has a similar genre idea but there are key differences
– I feel we need to create set characters and work off those, but also see how these characters change given the genre
– I was happy our lecturer said it was a project about process, and a writerly process at that, because both of those aims were my key things to concentrate on this semester. I’m happy our approach seems to skew the normal progression of film creation and that we are thoroughly exploring all possible trajectories before deciding on one.
– My only concern at this point is I can see how maybe we could deviate on the final genre and fuck around too much and not get to the final product we need to pitch.
– I’m fighting my natural instinct to create thorough character profiles and backgrounds which is how I’ve been taught through acting/writing in the past. My instinct is use these characterisations to inform plot/dialogue, kind of like a Stanislavsky technique in reverse (writing script not reading script)
All in all, good good let’s keep punchin the clock.
Yesterday I had a work photoshoot take place at my home. It was really really awesome – the day was a complete success even though I’m still really sick.
My new understanding of off-side and on-side lighting came in handy, as we use film photography in the shoots and it is vitally important to consider lighting. We were truly lucky to have such beautiful weather and I think the photos will turn out amazing. I was doing some behind the scenes filming so will hopefully turn that footage into something (promotional material for the brand probably) but here’s a sneak peak of the shoot reposted from our official instagram.
Before tomorrow’s meeting with our lecturer we have to prepare a script to bring to our group meeting. Considering I was unwell last Thursday I missed what exactly we were doing (though got the rough idea from our facebook group), I prepared this one page script of an interaction between two housemates.
It’s very simple and straight-forward, and probably would amount to something very little if it were used in a final piece, but mostly it’s just so I have something to contribute tomorrow lol. Hopefully after tomorrow I’ll be able to present scripts with some more context.
Because I had to go home early last Tuesday, I missed my first group meeting. But through the magic of the internet (and our project facebook group) I was able to see what I missed out on. The basic concept was listed here:
My thoughts upon reading these are as follows:
* 4 characters; do we want the same 4 characters used every time or do we change them? Could be interesting to see how they change in each genre setting.
* They could be archetypes of share-house characters (for example; freeloader/do-nothing lay-about, dominant “in-charge” type, trouble maker/rule breaker, very clean or very dirty one, etc)
Hello world, this may be my last public first-person writing as I believe this cold will be the death of me.
I’ve been sick in bed for four days now, only getting up to try to go to class yesterday. Despite waking up at 6.30 I had to leave uni early and spewed walking toward my tram on Bourke Street.
Ew.
Anyway, yesterday during my brief stint at uni we watched everyone’s edits from last weeks exercise. I didn’t do mine because I’ve been busy dying and my whole body has turned to mucus.
This morning I had to get up at 6.30 AGAIN (this is very unnatural for me, a confirmed nocturnal creature) to go to a bulk billing doctor without waiting for three hours in a que. The light was so beautiful I decided to film a bit walking toward the doctors surgery.
My film-maker friend Havas suggested to me the iphone app version of iMovie which is actually goddamn EXCELLENT. I made this movie using the footage and am going to use this app to practice my film making.
Here are my notes from yesterday’s tutorial
I felt really on top of my game during this tutorial; as if I could handle myself throughout the rest of the semester. This is a pretty alien concept to me, as I’ve been having a bit of a hard time adjusting and feel like I’m not as capable as my other classmates. But I felt really good today, I was engaged with the topic, I found the content really interesting, and I took some really good notes (above).
Learning about the significance of on-side and off-side lighting was really important, and made me want to rewatch Chinatown (I really didn’t like it first time round. Cinema enthusiast sin.)
I’d like to be able to solidify my understanding of this and execute off/on-side lighting. We have been charged with using off-side and on-side lighting in a scene set in RMIT which we then need to story-board and film. We’re to quickly write and plan this scene which would use only three shots. I didn’t get around to filming mine but the plan of my shots is in the above entry and reposted here:
3 shot scene plan (monday 17th)
And the storyboard for my shots are my shoddy but not completely rubbish drawing here:
(Rated R for goRe)
In today’s class Paul reminded us to collect inspiration from astounding directorial work. Horror films (especially those of the 1970’s) are a particular interest of mine, and I think Dario Argento and his team did a fantastic job on Suspiria. Of course, looking back, its easy to dismiss the special effects and acting as hokey and typical of the genre, but I think it’s very craftily made.
In this death scene, the shots begin longer and take their time moving in a slow pan or slow zoom. As the drama culminates, they proceed to quicken the speed of the edit and there’s less tracking motion. For me, the set design is so masterful, so much so that I get slightly distracted from the plot. Also the contrasting colours used by the lighting department, the vivid blue and red, are incredibly surreal and dramatic.
The soundtrack, (by Goblin, an Italian prog act), is so incredibly creepy and experimental and perfectly heightens the tension with all those discordant notes and that wall of noise. On a whole this movie is all about the aesthetics and not really about the content (the acting isn’t great).
The revelation that the second girl (the one that was not shown being murdered in such detail) also died a gruesome death is done expertly. Completely takes the viewer by surprise.
My aim for this course has moved towards deconstructing the traditional processes and roles associated with writing for film, and filming for writing. Through ongoing discussion of the steps taken in film-making, especially how the script arrives “finished” pre-production, I have become very interested in subverting this formula. I’ve been thinking how a scene’s dialogue could evolve throughout production, and potentially create a more visceral cinematic experience, because the script was not set in stone, but fluid enough to change organically. And I know, of course, that these sound like the fanciful ideals of a 1st year media student wanting to change the entire industry. But a more democratised production style, with fluidity of roles and contributions, sounds pretty good to me.
Of course, I’m maybe just being selfish because I really, really want to do more writing for film than filming for writing. I ADORE studying film, but I’m much better at conceptual ideas than at practical film-making. Working with our tech equipment doesn’t come easily to me, and I often second-guess my instincts and knowledge. I often find myself thinking I don’t have the know-how to be behind a camera or to be telling those behind the camera what to do. In general group structures I’m a contributor, a collaborator, someone who works better in a hive mind where communal ideas are central to the final product. Of course, the groupings in which this format work are always very hard to find, and making a good product that everyone is happy with is even harder. A lot of the time it can only be done through finding a good collective of people who have the same general vision to you, but varied experiences and talents.
So even though I am doing the filming for writing side of this course, I’m curious to see how inverting these traditional production methods (where the script is finalised before shooting), opens up for a more collaborative approach to the whole process. By having the script set in wet concrete, rather than stone, perhaps the entire method of creating this work can be more collaborative.
I realise that throughout this entire post I have sounded like a hippy. I am not a hippy. I really hate hippies. Sorry for sounding like one. Damn hippies.