Extended Media Diploma Work

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Production Process

All production was handled by me over the course of two days. No filming was required as all i need was the scene i planned to edit, which i had taken off of YouTube, and some editing software, which was provided by the college computer systems. 

In total it took me less than two hours over two days, where i bleeped out all swearing involved in the scene and blurred out and wrote ‘Censored’ over any scene demonstrating graphic violence. 

The idea I came up with quickly and just went with. And all prior research was handled by me and demonstrated in the previous two tasks. 

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U4 Production Management

After going through the arguments presented by those who believe violence in all movies should be censored (see task one), i began to search for a scene that is well regarded in the history of cinema. My plan was to take a violent, profanity filled scene from a movie, and blur out all the violence and add the obnoxious bleep sound over every swear word. My goal here was to show that censoring all this media actually hurts the media itself. And to suggest that it should all be censored is a ludicrous idea. 

The scene i chose was the ‘Mexican Stand off’ scene from Reservoir Dogs. The film that launched the career of the infamous Quentin Tarantino.  

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Research And Development of Ideas

My idea was to make a video exploring the ludicrous notion that violence in films causes violence in real life, and to show my opinion of the argument that all Violence or content that could be considered harmful, should be censored. So the research i mainly conducted was that of finding arguments from people who believe violence and content considered harmful to youths should be censored. 

 http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-we-ban-violent-films

This is debate.org. A website in which the general public can throw up an argument and people vote either for or against it, and state their reasons why they voted the way they did. Here i mainly payed attention to those who say it should be banned, as those were the arguments i was trying to counter with my video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL3k5NtBUaI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrsJDy8VjZk

Here are two interviews with well acclaimed director and the godfather of violent movies, Quentin Tarantino, where the interviewers argue with him about how violence in movies is harmful to children. Now whilst i don’t agree with everything Tarantino says in these interviews, i do back the fact that he shouldn’t have to censor his films because of children. And instead it should be up to the parents to monitor what their children watch.  

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Unit 35 - My experimental film

My Film will be entitled “Censorship”, and will explore the ridiculousness that violence and obscene language should be censored in film. My plan is to take a violent scene from a rated 18 movie, and blur out all the violence, and bleep out all the bad language, and show the audience how flat and lack lustre the scene becomes. And see how they feel about it then.  The scene i am choosing is the climax scene from the highly acclaimed Tarantino classic, “Reservoir Dogs”, where the tension builds to a ‘Mexican Standoff’ and results in the main characters all shooting each other.  Now i understand when it comes to children focused films the violence should be toned down and the obscene language should be absent. But the argument that 18 rated films should be censored because they promote real life violence is ludicrous. There has been countless studies to suggest there is no correlation between real life violence and fake violence in film. And those who think any film can work without the violence and language, I attempt to show them otherwise, so that they might reconsider. 

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Narrative structure

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U22 Task 4

Shooting Script

Script

Proposal

https://reubenmediablog.tumblr.com/post/158622820872/u24-lo3

Hazard Assessment: 

Schedule: https://reubenmediablog.tumblr.com/post/160296175657/u22-task-2

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Team meeting evidence and hazard assessment sheets.

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U24 Script

The Gift (Working title) 

Keep reading

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The script me, Reuben Henderson and Meg Norbury worked on for our single camera drama.

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U22 Task 4

Shooting Script

Script

Proposal

https://reubenmediablog.tumblr.com/post/158622820872/u24-lo3

Hazard Assessment: 

Schedule: https://reubenmediablog.tumblr.com/post/160296175657/u22-task-2

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Team meeting evidence and hazard assessment sheets.

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Unit 22 Single camera drama task one

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This is the script’s first draft (Left) compared to the final draft (right). And as you can see it has improved drastically. The first draft felt very bloated and full of needless lines of dialogue and tended to repeat lines over and over. Where as the second more polished draft feels more clear in its intentions and flows far more smoothly. One thing that definitely still needs doing is the aligning of the dialogue for the script. So each line of dialogue starts from the same position. 

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Legal and Ethical Considerations

Copyright - Is a very important part of the business especially when it comes to writing. If you as a writer make your own world, characters, lore and other things entirely from scratch, then its important that you copyright it. This ensures no one else can steal what it is you are working on, and no one else can jeopardise what you have created by writing a considerably worse story using all your created assets. For example, if a writer created a fantasy world and the screenplay sold really well, but they didn't copy right it and someone else came in and wrote another script in that world, and that script performed poorly it might leave a sour taste in the audiences mouths, and make it so when you release another film set in the world, that they just have lost all interest. It’s also good to keep copyright in mind as a writer, so that you don’t unknowingly break the law by incorporating other franchises or characters into your own writing. For example, if i wrote a totally original superhero movie, but included the likes of Superman, batman, iron man etc. Then i would be dealing with a major lawsuit from Marvel and DC, and it could potentially put an end to my career. 

Bias - Having a bias when writing a script can be a very dangerous thing. Especially if it is under the basis of religion or ethnic groups. For example, if a racist white man wrote a story about all muslims being terrorists and portrayed it that way in his story, then he would be letting his bias show through. And could end up in a great deal of trouble. An example of this happening is when Mel Gibson wrote and directed “The Passion of Christ”. A film he felt very passionate about which tackles the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And in the film he portrayed all the jewish people as traitors who gave up Christ. Something that sparked controversy in itself, though old Mel didn’t help matters when he went on to say “Jews are responsible for all the worlds wars”. This was Mel Gibson showing his bias against the jews. 

Censorship - Usually proteins to violence and sexual content within the production, depending on when the show airs and what network it is one. For example, a show like the Simpsons, which airs before the water shed, has to be tasteful with the jokes it makes and what it can show on screen. Homer will get into some precarious situations but nothing graphic will be shown or nothing too violent. Then if you look to game of thrones, which airs after the watershed and is on the network HBO. This show is allowed to show nudity, swear till it’s heart is content and show extreme violence, as well as acts of sexual abuse. But then we have shows like the walking dead. Which are after the watershed, but are on a network like AMC, which allow violence and graphic content to be shown, but do not allow anything like nudity, and limit the shows use of profanity greatly. 

WaterShed - Keeping in mind the Watershed is a good idea as a writer in particular. If you are tasked with writing for a show that airs before the watershed then you have to make sure your script doesn't include profanity, extreme violence and other things that may be stress inducing to younger viewers. It’ll make you more professional and more likely to be asked to write for the project again if you abide by these rules. 

Libel - Is something else to keep in mind, especially if you are writing about a real person’s life. Libel tends to be a remark about a person or an indication of something they have done that can ruin their reputation. For example, if i was to write a movie about Mike Tyson, and in that movie i gave him a comment where he admits to doing illegal activities such as drugs or more violent crimes, then that would be Libel because it could easily influence people into believing it actually happened and therefore damaging his reputation. 

Plagiarism - Plagiarism is essentially theft. If i came up with a unique idea i was writing about, and someone saw that and before i could finish it they copied it all and released it before me, then that would be plagiarism. This can lead to deep legal trouble, fines, and possibly prison time. 

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Task 4 Script Proposal

Proposed working title: ‘The Gift’

Genre: Thriller/ Horror

A psychotic man kidnaps a young woman.

The story is unique in its exploration of themes including religion and mental illness, and aims to captivate audiences with dialogue driven scenes in one fixed setting.

The initial premise focuses on a young woman who has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by a psychotic man. 

Our target audience is adults aged 18 and upwards who are interested in psychological horror.

The narrative focuses on themes of religion and mental illness and how these can be mistreated and the consequences of it. We researched into the symptoms, causes and treatment for schizophrenia to inform our narrative. The character of Peter’s mental illness and religious beliefs plays an important role in driving the narrative forwards and conflicts with the character of Bethany. 

Our message is to explore the idea of a worst possible outcome out of the special set of circumstances we are presenting, shown through the character of peter and his mental state.

Peter (young adult male)

Bethany (young female aged around 18)

Character Biographies

Peter

Peter is mentally ill young adult male who is socially isolated and driven by extreme religious beliefs. In his own eyes he is a hero and is doing Bethany a favour. He isn’t evil, he’s just the victim of his own mental state who seeks identity through religious beliefs rather than medical assistance.

Bethany

Bethany is a young innocent girl raised by a loving religious family, and has never wronged anyone in her life. She is the audiences window into the madness, as she becomes the victim of Peters religious sacrifice. She gives the audience someone to sympathise with.

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This is our group proposal for our script. 

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Script Purposes

Scripts come in many different formats, here are a few examples and how they differ and relate to each other. 

Factual - Factual scripts are more about serving up the correct information pertaining to the situation in which the script is covering. In terms of documentaries, for example Planet Earth, they would film what they needed to film, write a script with the information that was needed, and then have him read it out whilst watching over the footage filmed. This is very different to how most script and productions are worked on. But things like news would have a teleprompter where the news presenters will read off what is happening in the world. That tends not to include things like stage directions and/or actions, because its just focused on them getting out the necessary information. 

Informational - Informational scripts are similar to Factual in the same way they have to have all the information they want to put out correct, and have to make sure they do it in a way most people would understand. This is more in relation to things like Government information shorts, promotional shorts, things like that. This can also be used for advertising purposes like how an advert for car insurance will try to sell you the insurance by using the information on the insurance company in a fun or interesting way to grab your attention. 

Entertainment Programming - Quiz shows are a form of entertaining programming, and their scripts are somewhere in between fiction scripts and factual. They have scripted events and lines from the host, such as answers to questions, jokes, stage directions etc, but has the factual basis as the questions being asked need to have a definite factual answer. 

Music or Performance Broadcasts - This is more performances based so the script would be very stage direction heavy. With choreography and the lines of the song the performers would need to learn. This doesn't really require much factual basis as it is a creative project. 

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Location for our single camera drama 

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location scouting for out script. 

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Background Material (Research)

A) Research is important for projects wether they are based on true events or not, because it helps ground your story in reality and make it more believable. For example, if you are writing for a hospital drama like ‘Casualty’ or ‘ER’, you’ll need to know the correct terminology, and the correct symptoms and treatments for illness. It also needs to be correct as it could potentially be offensive to anyone who might be suffering from a certain type of illness. It also helps add more weight to your script.   B) Research on my own script Background to do with the story of the script - Our script focuses heavily on the dialogue between  distressed woman in peril and a man with Schizophrenia. So to make sure we get the personality traits of the man, who we named Peter, I need to conduct research into schizophrenia. The website i mainly used is the NHS official page on Schizophrenia or “Psychosis”. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Schizophrenia/Pages/Introduction.aspx This states that the main four symptoms of someone with Schizophrenia is as follows - Hallucinations - Hearing or seeing things that don't exist.              - Delusions - Unusual beliefs not based on reality.              - Muddled Thoughts - Based on hallucinations or delusions.              - Changes in Behaviour - Some people think schizophrenia causes a "split personality" or violent behaviour. This is not true. The cause of any violent behaviour is usually drug or alcohol misuse.

Finding more out about the symptoms and behaviour patterns of someone suffering from this means we will have to keep that in mind. And make sure we write Peter with all these symptoms prevalent in the way he acts and speaks. 

The Genre in which this script conforms to is along the Horror/Thriller line. So finding other horror films in a similar genre with similar themes will help me with my pitch. The basic story of my script is two people in a confined space during a traumatic event of being kidnapped. The kidnapper is an unhinged individual with a quick and rapidly changing temper. So it falls under the sub genre of isolated horror. 

The Thing 1982

Split 2016

Alien 1979

Don't Breathe 2016

The Shinning 1980

These are all horror movies across the generations that have all done well at the box office, earning double or even triple their original budget. So it shows that this type of horror never really goes out of fashion. And there is always an audience and a market for it. Split, one of the most recent films on the list above, is about a mentally challenged individual who kidnaps a bunch of girls and holds them against their will in a small confined room. This is basically my concept for the script, though different in a few ways, it has the same level of intensity and the same kind of vibe. And Split performed incredibly well at the box office, earning 222.6 million USD, which shows for this idea in particular there is a good market for it. 

To find out if we were definitely heading in the right direction with the idea i conducted some primary research with the target audience of young adults. 

As you can see from this data, the audience we are targeting seems to be on board with the idea i have for the script. Which makes it easier when pitching to show that we already have people interested in seeing the product. 

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Working as a Writer

What do the following terms mean? 

Agent Representation - An Agent who sees something special in a writers work and takes them on as their client. They then try to sell the script to the film industry and take a share of the profits made. Agent representation isn't a must have for a writer, but it definitely makes life 100 times more easier. And means the writer just has to wait for the agent to get them and sale or a job on a writing team. 

Royalty Payments - This is the amount a writer earns from their product after it has sold. So if a movie sells well, that they wrote, they will receive a small percentage of what ever the movie makes. And this will be on an annual basis. Royalty Payments are good for at most a year, then as the buzz around the movie dies, so does the money its drawing in. And so the royalty payments lessen. 

Professional Representation - This is similar to being represented by an agent. But instead you are represented by a company. So for example, if Sony, Warner Bros. or Lionsgate hire a writer to write their movie, and then take you on board as a full time company writer, then you are therefore now professionally represented. 

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Writing for TV- Commissioning Process

The process goes as follows.

1) A writer writes a script. The script is then picked up by an agent who represents the writer, if they see something they like they’ll sell the script to a production company. If that goes to plan, the Script is then picked up by a director. 

2) The director then starts to write a shooting script draft of the original script. This involves more technical aspects, like how each scene will be shot with which particular camera angles and which cast and crew will be involved. This can change the outcome of how the project feels. Another person who comes in during this phase is the script editor. Who helps tidy up and in some cases, re-write entire sections of the script. Mainly to make it flow better or to appeal to what the director is trying to do. 

What makes a good script?

1) Controversy - Films based on controversial subjects such as Racism, Terrorism or extreme violence, can create a buzz around the script. Making it more likely to pull in curious viewers.  2) Originality- A good way to bring people in with a promise of something they haven’t seen before.  3) Relevancy- Based on real world and current events that might effect people on a certain level. Wether its a certain event, like a terrorist attack, or a real world problem, it can help resinate with audiences and make a more impactful and well received film. 

4) Cost Viability - how likely it is that the script will bring in more money than was spent on it. 

5) Culture- Films based on culture could help bring people to the theatre to learn about how people of different cultures live, or at the very least its likely to appeal to those of that culture, so that helps a script sell as well. 

6) Voice or a Message - a specific voice for a script can help make it fresh and original, or a specific message that seems to work with other films.