CHECKLIST

What you should be doing (or have done) by now:

Complete the preliminary exercises and post on your blog under the 'page' Preliminary Exercises' at the top. 
Use the media studio (empty Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, lunch breaks) or edit on your laptop. You can often film on your phone with good results. the aim is to show that yiu have practised.
The link that I emailed to you should prompt you to offer evidence of different kinds of filming and editing practice: 

• remember to label each (using text within the video work) so the word 'close up' for example comes before your examples of close ups
• close ups of different kinds
• continuity editing (the focus here is on editing together an establishing shot, shot reverse shot)
• the 5 Dollars or Banana Pancakes (the focus here is on editing titles and sound, as in Delicatessen or Immortal Beloved)
• some camera movement and shot types, such as tilt pans, arc pans, canted angles, perhaps a tracking shot
• focus pull
• any other photographic of video work, such as a short piece to camera, like a documentary, or other video work. One useful piece would be to film one of your characters in the the film opening that you are about to create as if you were interviewing them or 'hot seating' them.
• lighting exercises are also useful experimentation.
• Some editing techniques that involve transitions such as cross dissolve, fade or wipe.
• identify the shots in the writing that you provide below each exercise and, where possible, draw attention to how YOU might use such a shot or why you would find it useful. The examiners like to see a link between research and outcome.

What else should you be doing in November?

• post your research into 3 title sequences presented with image and url link to The Art of the Title
• summary of genre codes and conventions of film openings presented in Slideshare (or in an infographic such as Piktochart : sign up for free account)
• SUGGESTED slide titles: 

1. title page e.g. Film Opening Codes & Conventions (or similar)
2. The Art of the Title: what it is and why I used it
3. explanation of main conventions 3 or 4 points perhaps including
   names of principal actors, the director, screenplay, director of photography, title (and so on)
4. Narrative codes codes
5. Enigma (because you are all doing thriller style productions)
6. Logos for distributors, studios, production compamnies
7. Typeface  - where creativity and originality come in
8. genre - how the opening sequence establishes it
9. sound codes in an opening sequence - voiceover, soundtrack, dialogue

• sign up for a free Scoopit account to start collating articles of interest
• investigate the stories behind your film opening (such as historical or topical articles) and present them in Scoopit
• develop your film opening and pitching it to me
• when it has the green light, writing the treatment
• write a post about the top line and big question
• draw a storyboard - start with paper and PostIts
• location recces presented using a collage tool such as PicMonkey, Fuzl
• lists of props: what technology could you use to present this?
• hot seat your characters: script plus video
• more later....such as shot list and call sheets

What else is in the course? The exam:

• TV Drama
• The Film Industry

https://www.scoop.it/t/thriller-film-codes-conventions

NARRATIVE

Narrative = the plot and the characters
See Media Knowall
We look at various theoretical frameworks to discuss narrative:

• Todorov
• Propp
• Barthes
• Levi-Strauss

TV DRAMA

The Good Cop 
A disgraced former NYPD officer lives with his son, an earnest, obsessively honest NYPD detective.

Big Tony is a lovable, but not exactly honorable, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules. He lives with his son, TJ, a straight-laced NYPD detective who always follows the rules while solving Brooklyn's toughest cases. They may be an odd couple but they become unofficial partners with Tony Sr. offering his overly cautious son blunt, street-wise advice. Emmy nominee Tony Danza stars as the elder officer in his first starring role on a sitcom since the late 1990s, and Grammy nominated-singer Josh Groban portrays Tony Jr. in his first regular sitcom role.

First episode date: 21 September 2018

Production location: New York City

Network: Netflix

in point: immediately after opening title sequence

Out point: " having a Boy Scout for a partner"

S01 E01 · Who Framed the Good Cop?

21 Sep 2018

PLANNING: TOPLINE and BIG QUESTION

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 ‘topping’

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

TREATMENT See separate post for how to write a treatment. 

• After writing the treatment, you create a STORYBOARD  (hand drawn on the sheets that I give you)
• and a SHOTLIST (a collaborative document that you can do together in GoogleDocs).

RESEARCH: TRELLO

It may help you to keep track of your work using TRELLO

Trello  is an organizational tool that will help you track what you need to do and what you have done. This is my example. As you complete each task, you can move it across (like a fridge magnet) from To Do, then Doing, then Done..
I have created a Trello list for Planning, then one for Construction, then one for Evaluation.

October: Research
November: Planning

December: Construction (Filming and Editing)
January: Evaluation