PLANNING: CREATING PROPS

• We set up shots to create our fictional company ROBOTICA.

The plan was to create props to dress the set of our office, such as publicity material, newspaper articles, press releases for the robot product.

• We dressed our three principal actors in office wear: smart suits, ties and asked them to look smart and clean-shaven.
• Stance (posture) was key in showing their assertiveness and sense of ambition. 
• We took about 20 shots and selected the ones that best represented their sense of ruthlessness and business drive. 
• They need to look super confident, arrogant, cocky and therefore unaware that their robot could actually be a liability that gets out of control.

We used Airdrop to send our photos to our computers.

Luca created a YouTube channel to upload the MP4 file.

We used the collage tool Fuzel to present this planning exercise.
Fuzel Collage  allows the creation of animated and still collages.

It led to the creation of authentic-looking publicity material and news reports that I present in my next post.

PLANNING: SHOT LISTS & COLLAGES

Feedback on shot lists and development of treatments.

PLANNING: CREATE SHOT LIST

When you have completed your post on your Treatment, the next step is to create a shot list, then call sheets for each shoot. (Info on call sheets below this.)
A shot list helps you organize the order of your edit, so that you think of the whole narrative arc. 
Start a draft version. It may change during the edit. 
This is a group task so work together on one Word document. Some people find a collaborative document like Google Docs useful so that you can all access the same document.
Below is an example, made in Word, for the start of a 30 second TV commercial (open link) made for Young Enterprise.

Look at each line from left to right across. The first box SOUND: LOVE HOME BAKING? describes what we hear (such as dialogue, music), the second box VISION is what we see at the same time (live action), the third box ACTORS notes the actors needed, then look to the right for the props PROPS.

Then drop down to read the next shot.

 

 

 

 

CREATE CALL SHEETS FOR EACH SHOOT

Each group will produce a call sheet for each shoot. 

A call sheet 'calls to action' the people, props and equipment for a shoot. It makes you look super organized!

Share the work: one person can do the call sheet for a shoot and another person can do the next one. Easy to prepare in advance!

Do not post your phone number, address, email or any private identifying details online.

Just let your group have it on the paper handout that you will each have for each shoot

OPEN this example.

• Title of page: Media Studies Call Sheet for [name of your film]
• Shoot date
• Location
• IMAGE: FROM GOOGLE MAPS
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email] etc..
• Camera equipment (this heading then lists camera stuff)
• Lighting equipment (this heading then lists lighting stuff)
• Props (this heading then lists all props)
• Wardrobe [name of character]
• Wardrobe [name of character] etc

 

 

BFI FILM ACADEMY APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

OPEN LINK HERE

PLANNING: TREATMENT

Write a treatment for your film opening.
Title of blog post: PLANNING: TREATMENT
Once I green light the treatment, you start the storyboard, shot list and call sheets.

HOW TO WRITE A TREATMENT

A Treatment will normally contain a:

• Title:              A dynamic one. It seems obvious but a good title is often a sign of a solid central idea.
• Logline:         A powerful one or two-sentence statement of the idea being proposed (about 25 words).
• Synopsis:       A three paragraph synopsis outlining the idea in more detail (about 300 – 500 words).
• Characters:   Short descriptive outlines for each of the main characters 

PLANNING: TOPLINE AND BIG QUESTION

Order of PLANNING tasks (there should be separate posts on each of these) to be completed by the end of November:

1. Topline and big question 
2. Treatment
3. Shot list
4. Draw storyboard

Watch this presentation by Frank Ash then write your own Topline and Big Question for your film opening. You write up a blog post explaining all this. You include a visual from the Frank Ash presentation, explaining who he is and what you learned from the presentation. Your blog post title is PLANNING:  THE TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

For Frank Ash, Creative Consultant who has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC and beyond, it is important to focus on the audience: what will interest the audience? How will the narrative develop?

"So, if you’re aiming for your film to reach a large audience online, making sure it has universal appeal will be key"

TOP LINE DEFINITION: Think about your favourite book or film or any ‘good story’ you recently watched online, could you sum up its narrative into ‘one elegant sentence’ to provide its ‘toppling’

BIG QUESTION DEFINITION: What was its big story question, and how important was it to your appreciation of the text?"

THE FILM INDUSTRY: AUDIENCES

Audiences continue to be robust in the congested and competitive film market,
according to The FDA Handbook 2017 which we study today.

"An unprecedented 900 individual titles were launched in 2016."

The top 10 films in 2016 show that The Big Six megafranchize model of film properties tends to be sequels or action films, typical of the last 5 years. Mainstream audiences visiting multiplexes account for 80% of cinema going and this looks set to continue.

TRENDS

Audiences turn to a variety of platforms for different types of experience and the continued explosion of digital platforms affords both high quality home viewing experiences on laptops, handhelds like mobile phones and game machines as well as entertainment on the move.
However, cinematic exhibtion is growing and will continue to grow. 

"Digital technologies have already revolutionised the ways in which films are made, marketed and watched – and that will surely continue to be the case. Notwithstanding the exponential improvements in smart TVs (increasingly with 4K image resolution), and consumers’ increasing migration towards
‘on demand’ streaming services instead of discs, cinemagoing itself enjoyed a robust year.
To the reported surprise of many, 2016’s cinema box-office overall kept pace with that of 2015, which was the highest grossing year in UK cinema history. The year’s box-office receipts soared past the £1 billion mark, setting a new record a full three weeks earlier than in the previous year." David Puttnam

Most audiences patronise multiplexes:

"Around 80% of modern-day cinema visits are of course to multiplexes, principally concentrated in the hands of three large UK operators. A few points of additional market share are occupied by specially designed ‘boutique’ cinemas, catering for local communities with sophisticated food and drink options, luxury seating and a tailored mix of films and events."

However, audiences are turning to more personal experiences offered by independent cinema chains and boutique cinemas such as Everyman and Curzon which offer niche audiences special experiences such as Q&A sessions with directors, preview screenings, foreign langauge films, additional content such as NT Live, intimate settings with lounges and bars, Pullman seats and food service.
"A unique experience, Everyman Cinemas is an independent network of boutique cinemas. With a passion for quality, from service of food and drink to seating and films, every cinema also has a unique bar or foyer space. Present venues (21) range from the iconic 100 year old Screen on the Green, to brand new boutique spaces in Canary Wharf and Birmingham Mailbox."
Curzon has 20 cinemas with 42 screens. Curzon's Rob Kenny, Director of Cinema Development, talked at the BFI in 2016 of opening 50 more screens in the next 5 years and since then Oxford, Hoxton and Aldgate have opened. Curzon cinemas all differ and know their individual audiences. Each cinema has its own identity and is designed with respect to the heritage of the local area. Curzon's Artificial Eye is its distribution arm, ensuring cinematic release for the films that it distributes.
Its Curzon ‘Home’ Cinema digital channels in front of 6 million customers Curzon is well placed to take advantage of the rapid advances in technology, such as its innovation of releasing  its own (and others’) films on the same date both in Curzon ‘Public’ cinemas and on Curzon ‘Home’ cinema digital platforms.

IMAX, 3D

The impact of films such as Avatar (2009) drove the ‘new’ 3D and there are now 20 IMAX screens across the UK. It provides immersive experiences because of the steeply raked seats and vast screens. What have you chosen to see in 3D or IMAX?

POP-UP CINEMA, OPEN AIR CINEMA, SING-ALONGA EVENTS