10 minutes by Ahmed Imamovic

This is a very powerful short film. It shows how much life can change in 10 minutes. It contrasts between life of fear, danger and the development of technology. The film follows two simultaneous story lines: one set in Rome, and one in Sarajevo, in 1994, the worst time of the war in Bosnia. While 10 minutes in someone's life mean nothing, they can be fatal in another: a boy and his loving family, tragedy in a war-torn city, death and destruction. In the film there is a magnificant sequence done all in one shot following a boy to get water for his family. This film has won many awards in the short film category and was voted best european short film in 2002.

Dj Kentaro

This is a documentary on my favourite dj. It's a brief look into his life and how he tries to bring the concept 'No walls between music' to people. With the developments of cdj, digital decks and computer programs djing with vinyls is becoming a dying breed. Kentaro is setting new standards and a new idealism of mixing music. I would definately recommend seeing a live performance.

The Orphanage

This film is Juan Antonio Bayona and writer Sergio G. Sanchez first feature film. It is the first film for a while that actually scared me. It build the intensity through the music and sounds. It very well put together from the cinematography to the editing.

PLOT
A women decides to open a orphanage where she used to live for diabled children. She, her husband and young son move in to prepare for the opening. But strange thing start to happen and her son starts to play with his imaginary friends.

Graphics

Recently I have been offered to design a flyer for the Second Year Dj show for the Soical Studies specialized in Music. I have been developing my graphic design skills and researching for ideas. I have will be arranging meeting with the group to see if they want me to record the evening and develop a dvd of the night. I feel that I could develop posters and t-shirts to sell at the event giving a percentage to the group for their final year show. This will allow me to gain experineces in a live project and working to deadlines while developing and graphics, photography and audiovisual portfolio. I could also use this oppotunity to meet other music practioners and increase my contacts.

Act Support - Channel 4

I have been watching a show on channel 4 called Act Support. A 15 minute documentary on the roles of certain people to help create film.
A bollywood choreographer explains how bollywood films are based around main themes such as family values, good vs evil, love, drama and action. She interprets these themes through dance and facial expressions. She explains that dance is universal, there is no bollywood dance only a dance through the music. But certain situation call for certain dance moments such as tradition to modern. A major difference in making dance in western and eastern culture is, in a western dance scene it is reheard weeks prior t the scene being shot and in eastern dance the dance a fragmented into small sections. The actors/actresses are shown a small portion of the dance routine and is instantly filmed by the director. If the dance sequence is not right then it would take minimal effort to re-shoot the small section. It is the editors job to make the sequence look as smooth and effortless as possible.



A location finder talks about how he searches for locations for directors to give them as little hassle as possible in certain sections of London but giving them the freedom to shoot as much as possible. He mimic the locations of major citys around the world that can be found in the U.K. A good example that he had worked on was Jackie Chan Around the World in 80 days. He finds places that 'would' look like certain areas e.g. the back of buckingham palace. He continues to talk about the relationship between the location and the audience and how it connects to them, make them believe that they are there. It is certainly experience that allows him to find these locations, many places that he has used but photos taken from different perspectives.

Act Support - Channel 4

Plot Concept

Luke lives his life constantly reminded by his past. His girlfriend was murdered in a gangland shooting a month ago. Luke blames himself for the incident and is constantly haunted by the memory of that day. He lives each day searching for answers that the police, family, friends and religion cannot provide him. His quest for answers become more conflicting and confusing as reality begins to crumble as the guilt consumes him.

This concept is based around the effects of crime and how certain people deal with it. Luke feels the guilt of letting his girlfriend be put into this situation. this leads to the certain factors that effect not only his family and friends but everyone that surrounds him. His memory, a key tool of survivial and the seperation between human and animals, remind him constantly of the mistakes that have been made. But what if our memory become our own path to self destruction, a never ending torture.

Developing Story Ideas - Michael Rabiger

Making a Working Hypothesis

"A Working Hypothesis is a planning statement for a narrative - Fictional or Factual. Starting from particular conviction you hold, it describes particular events befalling particular characters in a particular world, and defines the feelings and realisations you mean to awaken in your audience. Making one for an intended work forces you to be clear with your intentions. Remaking it after any big round of changes during the project is an excellent reality check."

A working hypothesis has helped me while I have been re-writing my scripts. It outlines the main ideas and concepts that I want to share with the audience whether it is factual or fictional and I think that it will help me clearly express the intentions for my final year project.

By completing the following sentences, it helps me focus on the main points of storytelling.
-In life i believe that....(your belief in relation to this topic)
-I will show this in action through....(topic)
-The main conflict is between...and...(main opposing forces)
-The point of view characters will be....
-I want my audience to realise that....
-And to feel that....

Finding Locations

I have been set a task for finding locations for a 3rd year fashion student to take photos for her portfolio. The main concept is futristic fashion. The brief is to find a futuristic type location to compliment the type of clothing created or find locations with that contrasts the futurisic clothing with a urban setting near or in nottingham.
I have been researching websites for such places with accessability. Below is some links that I think may fit the brief.

Derby Railway Station
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=30830

Above Pit and Pendulum
http://www.dieselmonkey.net/UEpit.htm

Annesley Colliery
http://www.derelicte.co.uk/annesley-colliery

First Version of Script

The link below is the script I had written. I feel it is very average and cliche. I feel that i have not built up the relationship between the characters and the audience. I also feel that it may be too long for 6 minutes and need to improve the qulity of the dialogue. Please leave comments/critisms

http://www.drivehq.com/folder/p3777898.aspx

Shocking Entertainment - A Viewers Response To Violent Movies by Annette Hill

Building Character Relationship

A major problem with my script is the relationship between characters and how they interact in certain situations. I feel that i have to build sympathy for the characters so i have doing some research and reading on the subject. i found this book very useful on how to achieve a better respond for the audience and the relation between them and the characters.

Even if you cannot identify with the characters then build on character relationship. Relationships are dynamic and fluid. Utilizing a number of factors of building character relationship - consumer choice, personal experience and perferences, imaginative hypothesizing and character expansion. These factors combine to create complex and varied interpretations of the scene.
RESPOND rather the IDENTIFY = Process of viewing violence

Questioning the Identification
-Identify with actions but not character.
-Feelings fluctuate according to context, characterisation and personal opinion.
-'Sympathy, empathy, relate, feel for, understand were used to qualify what identification meant to individual particicpants.

Question of Entertainment
-Participants differtiate between real violence and fictional violence.
-Participants consider mediated images of real violence. Problematic in relation to their respone to viewing fictional violence.
-Participant consider degrees of emotional involvement with real violence, mediated images of real violence and fictional violence central to their response.
-The term 'responsibility' and the role of 'witness' are sigificant to degrees of emotional involvement and response to viewing real violence,and mediated images of real violence.
-Participants consider real violence violence as abhorent and in no way entertaining.
-Participants consider the target films to be entertaining.

The Ring (Ringu)

Directed by Hideo Nakata, a graduate of journalism from University of Tokyo. I think that his personal experience and the fascination of the paranormal play a significant part in the way the film is put together. i think this film is truly one of the best horror films made in the last decade. Many say the film is not perfect but the unanswered questions left is the main reason why it was such a success, the unknown stay unknown. It sets itself apart from other horror films by not shown the horrors of it's victim. Unlike western horrors there is no gore or bloodshed but the terror of building up anticipation. The sound or silence is the key to the build up to each death in the film. I think that this is key factor that i should look at in for building up the suspense in my film.

PLOT
A mysteries unlabeled video emerges from nowhere, many say an urban legend, and when watched the parcipitant recieves a phonecall. They then have one week to live before they die for usual circumstances of heart failure. Reiko Asakawa, a journalist investigates after her niece dies for these circumstance. She finds the tape in a cabin where a group of teenagers, including her niece, watch it and all die. She then teams up with her ex husband Ryuji to solve the mystery before it too late.



Here is a funny clip of the impact the film has had over in asia. enjoy.

Developing Story Ideas - Michael Rabiger

I have recently had trouble finalising my script. I feel that the structure is not strong enough, there is not enough dialogue and I have not been analytical enough.
I started to read Developing Story Ideas by Michael Rabiger to help me improve my ideas and script.
I used a story making game called CLOSAT.
C = description of chararcter who could be used in a story.
L = intresting and visual locations.
O = curious or evocative Objects.
S = loaded or revealing Situations.
A = unusual or revealing Act.
T = any Theme that intrigues you or that you see embodied into life.

I was reading the chapter about Artistic Identity and how is it achieved through experience and curiousity to make sense of things. By growing and changing and using my experiences of life to determine the choices and actions i use to contribute to the film.

"Artistic Identity is the source of creativity that you carry within. Shaped by temperment and biographical circumstances, it is the inner force powering your search for answers to the 'unfinised business' in your life."

I've been reading an intresting section on displacement. By alter certain characters and places to protect sources and not being type casted by the readers. I think tht this helps me write a fiction script but uses ideas from my experience. It becomes more personal than just writing a script which i have no attachment or feelings to.

"Displacing your underlying concerns into other areas of life lets you avoid the quicksand of autobiograpy. Using fresh characters and fresh circumstances lets you explore truths and your relationship betwwen them."

My research in the last project led me to use crime culture as the theme to use in the 6min film. There is alot of news acticles about gun and knife crimes in nottingham so i read chapter 16 Ten minutes News Inspired Story. My main concern was how to say alot in a little time. So i used a dramatic arc, start with the apex;
-What can you put at it's apex? (This is the dramatic focus of your piece)
-How little of the rising action (setup) do you need to get us there?
-How much or little of the falling action after the apex must you show if you are to plant the idea of change and resolution?

"The famous war photographer Robert Capa (1913-1954) is renowned photograph (above)from the spanish civil war that shows just how how much be impied in a single moment. We see meagerly equipped peasent soldier with his brains flying from his cranium at the instant of his death. Before this moment he began charging down the stubbly slope toward the enemy. After this moment he will collaspe and become another corpse on a rural battlefield. This hundredth-of-a-second moment forcefully captures a single, tragic truth about warfare: In one irreversable moment, someone beloved by family and friends forfeits his life to a belief. Differcult and even terrible issues about the human thirst for conflict flows from this."

Writing Screen Media

Story is supreme - character are what they do.
Story events impact the characters and the characters impact the events.
Actions and reactions create revelations and insight, opening the door to a meaningful emotional experiencefor the audience.

"Structure is character - story is what a movie, transforming a good film into a great one" Robert McKee

"You have to have total myopic devotion. Writing is such a firm commitment. Writing is about re-writing. You're never going to get there through the first draft. We were willing to - and did - throw out entire draftstwo days before taping. If it's on the page, it'll be on the stage." Max Mutchnick, Creator, Executive Producer, Will and Grace

"I'm an observer, a writer, I observe humanity and get the best of them and put them in my movies." Mel Brooks, Writer, Producer and Director

How We Control

We use action, characterisation,situation, dialogue, exposition, complications, climax and resolution as control methods.

Writing is re-writing
Writing is one elelment over many control methods. This writing for screen media.

Writing for the Audience

"What the hell do they know"

1. Writing to be read not to be seen; blowing the bubbles
2. Instant Story; Taking the story elements and creating something.
3. Characterisation; Active characters, intresting situations.
4. Treatments/Outline/Pitch/Premise; should be first oppotunity to engage on audience
5. Interviewing for character. Open and Closed questions
6. Story Structure. Exposition, Complications, Resolution
7. Show me, Don't tell me; Characters defined through actions

When do we let audience in?
We seek to control information

Detectives show as example;
COLUMBO; Audience knows and 'we' know that columbo knows so it becomes about how he knows. He explains at the end.
Agatha Christie/ Hercule Poirot; Audience doesn't know we 'know' that aggie and poirot know. They reveal at the end how they know.
CHINATOWN (GRITTES)/USUAL SUSPECT; Audience and Grittes find out at the same time. Reveals as surprise.
CSI; Audience and detective find out at the same time as the case builds fact by fact.

Film Outline

Story
-Decide on a story (setting and circumstances)
-What genre or style will be used to tell the story?
-What is the story about?
-What is the setting and context of the film?
-What are the key events in your story?

Character
-Characters
-What do they look like? (wearing, facial features)
-What kind of personality do they have?
-What kind of gestures, mannerisms do they have?
-What is their background?
-How will the characters be used to contribute in your narrative?

Locations and Settings
-What location would you use for your scenes?
-How will the locations support the narrative?
-Are there any specific props and objects that are included in your narrative. How will these props contribute to the narrative?
-Using the script start to mark the shots you will use to cover the action.

Think about:
Shot size
Shot timing
Shot sound
Shot movement
Shot relationship
Shot length
Lighting, sound and action

Think about fully covering the action for the edit

Freeman's Deepening Techniques

-General Deepening
-Scene Deepening
-Character Deepening
-Empathy Deepening
-Dialogue Deepening

Freeman has a specific number of technique for each.

LAYERS
The importance of creating intresting, three dimensional characters and the avoid of cliche.

General Deepening (add complexity)
1 - Layer (most importance thing to have)
2 - Pain (expressed or hold in)
3 - Humilation, Shame, Regret
4 - Aesthetics
5 - Understation or angled spiritually
6 - Widsom, insight
7 - Responsibility
8 - Self Sacrifice
9 - Mystery

CHARACTER
"Every actor must create the part differently than every other actor would because it's a marriage of their essence with the character's essence." Dustin Hoffman

SUBTEXT
Language is what we say with words and subtext is what we really say with our body language, with our tone of voice, with our eyes and expression. WESTON pg.85

BUT HOW TO WRITE IT
Metaphor, behaviour, attitude can be written in and then it's up to the director and actors spot it.
Reaction of the character to something beautiful.

Traits of a Character
-Wild
-Wired
-Electric
-Essentric
-Obsessive
-ETC

PARIS, JE T'JAIME

This film is about Paris, the city of love. The film is directed by twenty filmmaker each with their own styles and genre in differnet parts of the city. Each director is given about five minutes to tell a story of the different types of love. I found the film intresting in by how the narrative was put together even though they are different short films. I researched further into how the film was made and they were put together by transitional interstitial sequences, and the introduction and epilogue sequences of the film. "Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film." (www.imdb.com)
I think this film is superbly put together, a great bit of storytelling. It accompanied with great music score heightening the viewing pleasure. The success of this at the cannes film festival allowed writer and producer Emmanuel Benbihy to produce a new film 'New York, I Love You' based around the same idea with twelve directors such as Coen Brothers and Wes Cavern.
I was having trouble writing a script for my 6 min film but it inspired me how to tell a story in such a short space of time.

Writing Screen Media

I wrote a script for my 6 min film titled 'night out'. I had used my research on crime culture to generate the ideas for the script. The plot of outline was based around three friends that go out for night out and one of them make the mistake of pulling the wrong girl. The girl's brother, a gang member, doesn't like her choice in men men and decides to kill him in the toilets. We find out that they were deeply in love and the road of revenage start to unwind.
I decided to let a 3rd year fine art student Peter Williams read my script and discussed the problems with the script.