Wednesday 17 October 2018

Coursework PITCHES

As part of the ongoing effort to simplify and streamline, I've put the key points into a Word doc, but there's a lot more in this post and others linked below.




Every post on genre (so therefore also the whole DBHorror blog too!) is useful for this; definitely read this post for one.

You will be filmed pitching. The footage is mainly for your benefit; one of the many multimedia features your blog will be able to boast. You can find footage from past pitches + the Q+A that followed on some past student blogs.

Following Qs from 2010 pitches, I wrote this post answering Qs about 'working titles' and use of copyright music. You can also find commercial filmmakers using YouTube to pitch.

If your pitch isn't of satisfactory quality you will be barred from working with anyone else, a serious disadvantage. You will be asked to re-pitch.
You won't be allowed more than one mouse click - any supporting visual/audio aids need to be put into one video or Ppt file (animated, self-timed if Ppt). You can if you wish pre-record your pitch and play this vid as your pitch!

TIME: 90secs
Its easy to caught out with this, and fail to deliver your full pitch with your timing you should practice your timings!!!
Think carefully about what to include, and what to exclude; you don't want to rush through everything and lose impact. Equally, it will look rather bad if you finish 45secs in.

FORMAT: verbal pitch

Wednesday 5 September 2018

OPENING EG: Billy Elliot TBC

I'll set this out as you might if doing a detailed single-film analysis. In future I'd start just by copy/pasting the formatted text/links from this post, so I don't need to waste time re-doing formatting that I've already done (just change the link/text).

, 2000 (BBFC 15)
# OF IDENTS + OPENING DURATION: 2  4:41


CRITICS: RottenTomatoes.com 85%; IMDB 7.7; Roger Ebert 3*.


BUDGET: £3m;   BOX OFFICE: UK £73m    US $22m    World: $109m

LINKS: WikiYT trailerIMDBboxofficemojo. Universal site. WT pageWT musical page. Guardian.






1: IDENTS
1st: Universal. 20secs
The classic ident. Notably longer as the parent company of WT/StudioCanal. Orchestral music, especially brass. Quite sophisticated CGI for revolving globe. Prominent URL. Fades in/out.
2nd: StudioCanal 15secs
Missing the usual audio. Relatively simple text FX only. Fades out.
Notable that the actual main production company (WT/WT2) gets no ident

2: AUDIO, MUSIC
DDD

3: TITLES
See below (1st SHOT) for the opening intertitle, a small, plain sans-serif font, all upper case and white on a black background, clearly connoting serious drama rather than comedy, and perhaps an odd choice if a young audience is really the core target audience. That young audience are unlikely to grasp the significance of the 'Durham Coalfield, North East England, 1984' - placing the film in the midst of the bitter miners' strike which saw a right-wing government (Thatcher) seek to brutally smash the trade unions.

Titles appear in this order. Timing is irregular: there is a lengthy gap between titles 2 and 3.

WORKING TITLE FILMS
AND BBC FILMS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND PRESENT [over 3 lines]
A TIGER ASPECTS PICTURES PRODUCTION


4: 1ST SHOT
We 1st get an inter-title anchoring the time + place, for 6secs
Immediate social realist conventions. Older UK viewers would recognise the time and place as linked to the miners' strike

When the hands come into focus the short nails are evident
We fade in from 0:42 to an incredibly long take of a CU of a record player and a pair of hands picking up an LP and sliding the (T. Rex, 70s glam rock, so likely the boy's parents' record - and the sleeve is well worn to denote it as an older record) record out, putting it on, and bringing the needle over - initially to the wrong place. Diegetic sound only until this take finally ends, though while we can see the legs jumping there is no clear diegetic sound of any trampoline/bed or simply jumping and landing, so we effectively end up without diegetic sound once the record has started playing.

The framing use of focus creates ambiguiety over gender identity: we can't see shorts or skirt, or footwear, clearly enough
The only initial signifier of gender is the very short nails, though the shallow field of focus means the character's legs and clothing/footwear are difficult to distinguish when the unidentified character dances. The use of the T Rex album cover reinforces the impression that androgyny is being connoted, glam rocker Marc Bolan being quite an effeminate figure. 
The record sleeve is worn; its a 70s record (so the boy's parents'); Bolan was androgynous...
the androgynous 70s glam rocker Marc Bolan

shot 2: very tight, shallow focus
Shot 2 gives us a slo-mo CU of his face with a very tight, shallow focus on his face, the slo-mo helping to create an immediate link between dancing and pleasure for this character and perhaps signifying he is a bit of a dreamer. The song lyric, I was dancing when I was 12, again suggests dancing is a key theme - and the focus will be on the young boy as the central protagonist, a smart means of providing this exposition.

The tight physical space of the room also denotes a working class home, as does his simple short, back and sides haircut. 

The take continues to 1:23, an unusual 41sec opening take.



5: MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION


6: NARRATIVE/PROTAGONIST


7: AUDIENCE + REPRESENTATION


8: GENRE SIGNIFICATION


9: TRANSITION TO MAIN FILM


10: EXCEPTIONS/UNCONVENTIONAL EXAMPLES


Monday 5 March 2018

SFX Create your own gore, masks etc

There are many others out there, but here's a teen YouTuber who looks beyond lippie {she notes the stick she gets for not sticking to girlie stereotypes} and aspires to Tom Savini status. If you don't know who Savini is you're clearly not working on a horror opening...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEngAKyn-q6tAB_arpzbXSg

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Health and safety post

Blog.
You've been asked (for months!) to do a health and safety check. Time now to finally sort that out. You should consider what post date you use [click on SCHEDULE under the LABELS box on the right before publishing your post]; this should be evidenced PRIOR TO SHOOTING.

The idea is simple. As is legally required of professional shoots, where companies are legally liable for employees' well-being/welfare (the whole coursework is designed to reflect industry practice), your company needs to evidence its consideration of possible risks from the shoots ... a risk assessment.

POST TITLE: Risk Assessment

The idea is very simple. Go through each location, including transport to and from and any catering (food/drinks), think through the possible risks, and briefly state how you will minimise or counter these risks, including communication to cast/crew/public. Below you can see a few snapshots of student examples: