Directions Unit: Research - My directing style

This isn't anything to go towards my director's statement; this is simply to help give an idea of how I style a film and how I envision the scenes.

I like dark films, not necessarily in terms of it's genre like horror but in terms of it's visual style and it themes and messages inside the film, along with the emotions it gives out. Examples of what I would class as a 'dark film' are:
Watchmen (also my favourite film)
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Green Mile
Sin City

I love sound, I like to focus on the sounds of a film, going for the rawness of what we see and emphasising them, instead of just adding typical sound effects. I like to try and link those sounds in with the current mood of the film, even if they're an unlikely grouping. The best example I can give is the street-shootout scene in the movie Heat (which is my favourite scene in a film ever):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSq_KeTNOw

Another aspect of sound I love is ambience: complete silence in terms of dialogue with the main sounds (if any) coming from background sources e.g. birds, or distant traffic. I like to play with the idea that you can create a powerful scene without any dialogue (we were shown the opening few minutes of There Will Be Blood which shows exactly what I mean). One of my favourite musical artists is Brian Eno who is known for his ambient music, mainly his 1983 song (and my all-time favourite song) 'An Ending (Ascent)'. The music can essentially work with anything, which is why I love it so much: because it can interpreted into many ways and really emphasise a particular scene. There are other ambient songs by other artists too which I shall link below.

An Ending (Ascent) - Brian Eno
Drift - Brian Eno
Ekki mukk (Moving Art) - Sigur Ros
The Oh of Pleasure - Ray Lynch

Moving on now to the actual shooting of the scenes. I purposely try to avoid convention in terms of cinematography as much as possible. For example, where you would have a shot-reverse shot set up for a conversation between two characters; I would try to do it in as little edits as possible or as one take or even just position the camera in a different place than usual. I have a love for continuous shots also, they feel more natural when watching as there are no edits to distract your immersion. I am quite fond of the director Alfonso Cuaron as he is known for having long takes, particularly in his 2006 film Children of Men which features several along with his 2013 film Gravity. A couple more examples of great continuous shots are in Oldboy (2003 version) and The Protector (2005).

The Protector Restaurant Scene
Oldboy Hallway Fight Scene

Directions Unit: Idea Development - Sharing and altering my idea

After thinking about how I could go about making my idea, we were told to group up into our theme groups (e.g. Loneliness, Sorrow) and share our ideas, hoping to get feedback and potentially improvements to the project.

I volunteered to go first and shared my dream sequence idea with the group, who liked the idea a lot, but I still had my concerns with it, mainly showing that it is in fact a dream sequence and the unlikliness of a person getting their friend to wake up just to hand them a suicide note. There was also the difficulty of showing the loneliness in the first place if it's supposed to be set before the person suggestively killed themselves.

After voicing these concerns they were a little stumped at first as what to suggest, so I proposed the film being about a person who is already alone: a homeless person. This then sparked a tirade of ideas based on certain aspects of the script. after a short while the group had suggested some great ideas alongside my own and I finally had an idea I was ready to go with:

The main character is Unnamed, a homeless person, looks early 20's.
He see's a public pay phone ringing and decides to answer it.
he then walks to a location where he meets a well dressed, almost god-like person, same age, if they were to smile their teeth would sparkle.  He hands our protagonist a nice-looking bag, it is clear there is something in the bag, maybe full of food.
After returning 'home' our protagonist is sat on a bench, obviously unhappy, sad even.
The bag is now a plastic shopping bag, and is empty.

What I like:
- Works very well with the theme loneliness.
- Ending is easier to understand as opposed to the previous one.
- Everything else, it just works well.

What I dislike:
- Some people may still not get what's going on.


So, to explain what's happened in the film further, our protagonist has lived on the streets for so long (safe to presume at least 6 - 12 months) that his mind isn't all there any more. He's seeing things that aren't actually happening such as the ringing phone, meeting the man, the bag of food. These things also suggest that what we are seeing are his desires: someone to talk to and food.

So the final question I had is: how do I subtly show what is real and what isn't? Since the film doesn't go back to show these and nor does it actually explain what's going on, I wanted to put something in for those who work out what is happening and to show that they're correct. I liked the idea, which I had a version of for my original idea, of hiding an object in the frame of every scene that isn't reality. For example: in the scene where the protagonist answers the phone an item will be in the frame also to show that this is a figment of the characters' imagination, an item that isn't blatantly there.

 I thought of a black scarf, as this can symbolise the protagonists' desire for warmth.
So in the pay-phone scene the scarf can be hanging from a tree branch in the background, or on the top of the phone cover itself (discreetly though).
In the scene where he meets the god-like man, the man is actually wearing the scarf as part of his attire, but no attention is drawn to it.

I feel I have a solid idea to work with now.

Directions Unit: Idea Development - The Script

After reading the script I initially felt like going for Loneliness might have been a bad idea as I couldn't think of how I wanted to do the film. But after some thinking I came up with a potential idea:

Our main character is dreaming the entire sequence, the 'new character' is their friend who passed away and so our MC is having a dream about the last time they saw their friend.
The package is a suicide note.

What I like:
- Interesting and provocative.
- Works well with the theme.

What I dislike:
- Hand delivering a suicide note may be unconvincing.
- Might be tricky to show that it's a dream if the film starts with the MC waking up.

Directions Unit: Idea Development - The Project

Our project consist of three separate pieces:

1. 4-minute film
2. Director's Statement
3. 1-minute sound film

For the 4 minute film we had the option of Sorrow, Loneliness, Love, Anger and Freedom.

The moment I saw the 'Loneliness' option, and before even seeing the script, I wanted to do that option. Mainly because the themes and genre of loneliness are similar to my writing and directing style (something I shall go into detail in a later post).

With my mind set on Loneliness from the get-go we were then given the script...

Story-Telling Unit: Post-Production - Editing Thoughts

I am pretty much done with editing the first two minutes, all that is left is to add in the voice-overs.

Thoughts:

- I am very surprised at how easily the two minutes were filled. I estimated that my storyboard would be around two-and-a-half minutes when in fact it was closer to 4/5!
- The editing was much easier than I believed it would be. Although I've done plenty of editing in the past, I still thought it would be a huge task. This might have stemmed from never having used Final Cut Pro before and so I was intimidated by the software.

Story-Telling Unit: Post-Production - Editing Screenshots

Sound effects being added in for the flashes.

Story-Telling Unit: Post-Production - Editing Screenshots

Using Ken Burns tool to animate the newspaper covers and give the effect that the camera is panning across them.

Story-Telling Unit: Post-Production - Editing Screenshots

Creating the flash effect that signals a transition between the character's perspective.

Story-Telling Unit: Post-Production - Editing Screenshots

The near-completed two minutes.

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Bloopers pt. 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETQPH3FSeFo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Ir8Dd5TTM

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Bloopers

Whenever you film there's always a times when you like to let off steam, and one time in particular where I was glad the camera was filming...

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Re-shoot

So I did my re-shoot the other day and it's safe to say that it went much better than my previous one.

What went well:

- Filming was very easy.
- Weather was decent. (Could have been a little warmer!)

What didn't go well:

- Absolutely nothing, there were no complications during the shoot.

What I have learned:

- Pre-planning: use it from now on!
- Although I enjoy improvising camera angles (something which I did do on the shoot along with the shots on the storyboard), the storyboard really made things easier. I shall definitely be using storyboards for all future projects.

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Storyboard

A storyboard for the first 3-and-a-bit pages of my script.

Story-Telling Unit: Development - Script Re-draft

My second draft of The Meeting. Major changes were made such as the ending and the eventual location, mainly based on having to re-shoot the first 2 minutes.

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Filming day

Yesterday I filmed the footage I needed for my first two minutes of my film.

What went well:

- Got what I needed done.
- Weather was pretty much perfect and there was no wind to affect the audio.

What didn't go well:

- I had to use a friend to play the role of Luke, unfortunately he isn't great at acting.
- I had to cast myself as Nick, I'm also not an actor.
- My cameraman had never filmed like this before so a couple shots were shaky.

What I have learned:

- Organise better. I feel I may have left it a little late to 'recruit' people.
- Have a back-up plan. I did have someone else playing the role of Luke but they had to cancel due to a chest infection.
- Do a production sheet. I'm not a great fan of them as I like to improvise the majority of my camera-angles on the spot but even so. I should prepare better.

Final thoughts:

- My plan is to do a re-shoot in a couple days time with a new cast and a production sheet/storyboard ready.

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Script Feedback

After handing in my script I received feedback on it a few days later:

Story-Telling Unit: Research - The Outcome

Although it seems late to be doing research now, I recently altered my story by having Nick Telson released due to there being insufficient evidence to charge him with kidnapping.

I was unsure on what it would be classed as (e.g bail). In fact, I believed that the term was acquittal but was informed that this is incorrect: acquittal is when it goes to court and the party(ies) involved are cleared of all charges.

So; I did a quick search and found that the correct term is simply 'released without charge'.

As long as you haven't been charged with an offence then you will simply be released. If the police charge you then you can either be detained until your court date or released on bail until the court date. However, in order to be released on bail the police must believe that you pose no threat to society (something which Nick would find difficult to do if he were charged with kidnapping a child).

I found a good website for law and came across the definition of kidnapping which could help in working out how Nick is released without charge:

"In order to be convicted of kidnapping it must be shown that the victim has been unlawfully seized by the defendant against the victims’ will. This crime can be closely associated with the offence of false imprisonment. Kidnapping can have quite a wide definition because in addition to the more obvious example of physically forcing somebody to come with you, it can also be enough if a person was induced by deception to make a journey that he or she would not have made had they known the truth. In that sense, if the victim was not physically forced to go with the defendant but was tricked, or forced by means of fraud, then the offence of kidnapping is still met."

Punishment for kidnapping can vary with the maximum sentence being life imprisonment. Sentencing can be dependent on whether other factors are involved such as the age of the victim.

Definition of bail and released without charge: http://www.antimedia.net/cookbook/legal.htm

Kidnapping quote: http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/criminal/crimes_a_z/500449.html

Story-Telling Unit: Production - Newspapers

For the first minute-or-so of my film there will be several custom-made newspaper front pages and news broadcasts (broadcasts playing as a voice-over). They will fill the audience in on what the base plot is in terms of the context. Below are 3 of the planned 5/6 I shall be doing.

What went well: The covers look convincing enough

What didn't go well: I'm not a wizard when it comes to Photoshop and so the covers don't look as professional as they could be.

What I've learned:
1. don't leave it so late to start making these!
2. Practise some more using the software.
3. Newspapers can easily 'manipulate' the audience.

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Brainwave

What if it isn't during the child's disappearance but after?

What I mean is that the accused man instead becomes the convicted man. So The Meeting is when the convicted man is released from prison. So The Meeting is set 11 years after the child went missing.

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Re-thinks

Without the police, gun and text: I now need to think of some new content for the film.

Ending ideas:

- Earlier in the film, the father's phone rings. He ignores it as he is focussing on questioning the accused man.
When the credits are rolling; we hear a phone ringing and going to voicemail: that father's.  His wife speaks in an excited tone. "They've found him! They've found him Luke! They found James! We're at the police station! Come quick!"

- Luke's anger, hate and desperation get the better of him: he kills Nick without realising it.

- Luke is persuaded by Nick that he isn't the one responsible. Luke lets him go. He's either lying or someone else confesses.

- Nick see's an opportunity and either attacks Luke or flees: both will prove that he is guilty.

A part of me wants Luke to come out as one of, or the bad guy.

Story-Telling Unit: Research - Script Writing

As a task, we got into pairs and were told to write a 3 page screenplay based on one of our journeys into uni today on the Final Draft software.

Below is said screenplay.

It's 'loosely' based on my journey to uni today.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2F61y8e2b_jVXQyYUo5dFlmUjQ/edit?usp=sharing

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Telling the idea

We took it turns to tell our pitches and then our ideas. After telling mine these were the areas that raised concern:

1. Police getting involved

Why? 

- It's too much for a 10 minute film.
- They really create a problem for the father.


My Opinion

- In my eyes; the police creates a problem for the father to an extent. With their involvement, this is no longer a quiet-low-down task for the father. As was his intentions.
-And for the "too much" case, I did have the film structured in a way that the 'standoff' is the majority of the film. Plus the film ins't in real time.


Counter-Arguement (provided by myself to avoid bias)

- The father would understand the potential consequences for pulling out a gun in public and essentially taking someone hostage.
- Yes but even so, this is a short film: no-one expects big stuff like this in a 10 min long piece.


2. The father having a gun

Why?

- Guns, in Britain?
- Using just fists makes contact more inflicting, more human. Instead of just using an object to control someone. It's easy (psychologically) to kill with a gun but not with your own hands.

My Opinion

- I always had the gun as a replica; it could never fire.
- Fist make for a more mature, potentially more violent film. Which might make it harder to watch.

Counter-Arguements 

- Even so, a replica gun. If I absolutely must have a weapon, why not a knife? Much more relevant and contemporary.



3. Text on screen at the end 

Why?

- It's too easy to end things with this method.

My opinion

- I quite like the text at the end: if done well enough you can land one last sucker punch on the audience. (Text at end will appear at bottom of this post).
- This a personal taste thing.
- It can help cut what could'e been 2-3 minutes or even more, down to 30 seconds. Which is valuable when making a short film when you need to use every second well.



Text on screen:

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - The Psychologist

I find the idea of including a psychologist interesting; it could provide some background information or present personality traits of the father.

Possible quotes:

Psychologist: "What about death? Do you want Mr. Telson dead?"
Father: "Of course; any parent who'd lost their child would want the guy responisble dead."
Psychologist: "Forgive me but...would you want to be the er...say, 'cause'...of Mr. Telson's death?"
Father: "You're asking if I would kill him?"
Psychologist: "Yes...I am."
Father:[Pause] I don't know...I'd want him to suffer but...I don't think I could do it myself..."


End of film:

Psychologist: "Mr. Roberts...do you er...do you think James could still be alive?"
Father: [Long Pause, we can hear his voice break a little] No...I don't think [exhales in a way to calm hismelf down] I don't think James is alive..."

OR

Psychologist: "Mr. Roberts...how do you think you would react or behave...if it turned out Mr. Telson was innocent?"
Father: [Immediately] He isn't."
[several seconds of silence, as if the psychologist is taken aback by the father's confidence]
Psychologist: "And why do you believe that?"
Father: "He was there...he took my boy...I just know..."

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Character names

Character names:

Father - Luke Roberts

Missing child - James Roberts

Accused man - Nick Telson

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development - Content

With a basic premise thought up; I need to think what's actually going to fill the time. Below are some 'spitballs'.

- Use of a psychologist, the father see's one to help him out with the stress.
- Father possibly mentions the psychologist to the accused; show him the 'path of destruction' his actions have caused.
- Police begin to prepare to move in a resolve the situation.
- After a beating or two and a lot of shouting: the accused confesses. (Either to just shut the father up or the stress is so much he cracks).
- Father, satisfied, drags accused out, telling the police that the accused man has just confessed and that they should arrest him.
- Police tell him to put the gun down and to move away from the accused man.


Options for ending:

1. Father argues with them for a short while, at one point he waves the gun in the police's general direction as he is caught up in the heat of the moment, thinking he's just pointing. The police open fire: both the father and the accused are killed in the hail of bullets. A few days later they check the location the father said the accused man hid the body: no body is found. The accused man lied.

What I like: It provokes a saddened response from the audience, shock tactics.
What I don't like: Both men dying seems a little Hollywood to me


2. Same as above but this time, the actual person who kidnapped the child comes foward and hands himself in, the body is recovered. Told via text on screen at the end.

What I like: Closure for the family, the actual criminal is arrested.
What I don't like: Nothing, this ending is pretty decent.

3. Either ending but during the credits a segment of a session with the psychologist is heard: the father is asked if he would kill the accused man himself. A response is given that stays with us. e,g, "I'm not a monster like him" (this would work if the father actually kills the accused man).

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development

I'm rather liking this new potential idea I have; it's certainly more engaging and interesting than 10 minutes of three people insulting each other.

I think I'm going to go with this idea instead.

So what about the 3 story ingredients?


Goal - Father wants Accused to confess and to give him the location of his son.

Problem - Accused protests his innocence.

Change - Father's son is found but Father is arrested.

Pitch:

An accused kidnapper gets an unexpected visit from the victim's father at a public park.
(15 words)

Story-Telling Unit: Project Update

On one of my train journies I got thinking about other ideas and the idea of an interrogation cropped up: inspired by watching a lot of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

I worked with it and came up with basic premise:
A police detective is interrogating a criminal who is a strong suspect in a missing persons case. The suspect doesn't give anything away and just when we think he's won: he slips up. Accidentally saying something he couldn't have possibly have known unless he was guilty.

This then morphed slightly into the missing person being the detective's son. I then looked at it from a family perspective, a parent having to come face to face with their child's kidnapper/killer.

After a little more tweaking; I ended up with this:


We learn that a fathers’ son has gone missing and that the prime suspect is released due to lack of evidence. The film starts with the released man in a public park, the father approaches him and a heated discussion is had. After a short while the father draws a gun on the suspect and drags him to the nearby public toilets. An eyewitness calls the police and soon it becomes a standoff between the father and the police.

Story-Telling Unit: Research

We paired up and chose two types of people from a box and then chose a location, all of which was from random.
We got an actor and a single mum. The location was a library.

With the same title as our project: The Meeting, we had to come up with a 10 minute short film about these two characters set in the location we picked.

Below are the notes I made:


Possible romance? Chance encounter?

Single mum - Might work there
Actor - Researching role, role is of single mum, plot twist!!

Actor's role: Gay man/married man, so into the role he stays in character as much as possible. She's heartbroken when she asks him out. She see's his film realises the truth.

Single mum's kid - See's film, tells mum.

Main Characters: Timid, shy, too afraid to ask guy out, gentle, soft spoken, caring, passive, middle aged 40's.

Actor: Mid 30's, appears to audience as gay but is just in the role, confident, passionate about career, up and coming actor, well dressed, fits sterotype.

Every now and then we see subtle clues suggesting that's he actually gay.

Kid puts mum on a dating site.
Her friends are pushing her into finding a guy.
Problem created when someone wants to date her. "Gay" actor see's her on one of these.

The gay character actor is playing, needs a profession.
Doctor? Curator? Historian?
Something that gives him reason to go to a library.

Changes to characters:

Actor - Focuses less on work and more on the single mum and kid. No longer selfish or rude to P.A, he realises what people do for him.

Single mum - Becomes confident, cares more about her appearance, change in career? Has ambitions.


Pitch: When a chance meeting evokes an unlikely attraction; exploration of self will either bring them together or push them apart.
(20 words)

Story Idea: Single mum likes history, she works as a librarian. Actor goes into library; he's rude, selfish and mean to P.A. He's researching history-related. She, being a history nut, approaches him. They learn that they like each other, but because he's rude and selfish; single mum is put off a little. Actor, blowing his chances, is told by P.A to be happy he must better himself.

Story-Telling Unit: Project Update - Quotes

Quotes for idea


Character names:

James
Matt
Joe

I wanted the comedy in this idea to be slightly mature; not rude or adult but not too childish either. Witty remarks are sought after as well.

Having conversations with friends is an almost guaranteed way to get decent one liners and insults. Here are a couple that stood out for me when chatting to some of my mates:

"Dibs ____ shares a bed"
"Dibs ____ has to sit outside the plane"

"I don't care where I sleep"
"50 miles from us!"
"Doubt my luck's that good mate!"

"I'm either blind or stupid"
"Try both"



One I came up with:

"[about a hotel] How about the bell?"
"I know what sort of bell you'd be!"


I mentioned a possible prank war between Matt and James, we see two aspects of that in the first scene:


James is removing screws from Matt's chair whilst he's gone.
Joe (the boss friend) enters
"Where's Matt?"
"Gone to the toilet"
"And what are you doing?"
"I...(stands up) am rigging said Matt's chair"


More examples of their prank war are given in a later conversation during the planning of the holiday:

[James has just been insulted by the other 2]
James: "Great, gang up on me"
Joe: "You deserve it"
James: "What've I done lately?"
Matt: "Ketchup in the coffee; ketchup in the soup"
James: "[Shrugs] I like ketchup, but you give as good as you get!"
Matt: "Such as?"
James: "Stapling my tie to the desk"
Joe: "What's wrong with that?"
James: "I was still wearing it!"
Matt smiles to himself in a satisfied way

Pitch for a news headline

We were given homework to do overnight: find a news article and write a pitch for it as if it was a new film.

Name: The Hacker

Pitch: Police face an incredible challenge as they hunt for a mastermind teenager who steals money through internet hacking.

Real story: An Argentinian teenager was arrested after stealing £30,000-a-month through hacking websites and having money sent to his bank account.

Pitch for Soft

We watched a short film called Soft Directed by Simon Ellis. Afterwards we were tasked with coming up with a pitch for the film.

My Pitch for Soft:

A quiet family's fears come true when a group of violent youths gather outside their home
(16 words)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og1w2KrEgVg

Story-Telling Unit: Project Update - Idea Suggestions

Idea #1

Story - 3 men in a car or sat on a bench; waiting to carry out a deal.

Plot  - Three men are sat on a bench/in a car. We learn that they are here to carry out a drug deal. Whilst they are waiting boredom begins to kick in and they trade insults on subjects such as intelligence levels, jibes at family memebrs and whatnot. Finally one poses a question: do we have the drugs ready to sell? As it turns out; no-one remembered to bring them, one final, but brief,  arguement is had.

Pitch - 3 best friends are waiting to carry out a deal, however they're not as well prepared as they imagined.

Pro's - Very simple idea, easy to produce, has  potential for great one liners.

Con's - Big chance that jokes are either hit or miss, too simple, 3 protagonists instead of two, no actual meeting is witnessed.




Idea #2

Story - Several office workers are in a meeting

Plot - 3 friends are called into an important meeting by their boss; who is also a friend. This group, however, are notorious for not getting much done/achieved. Going off into a tanget, trading insults and generally behaving like teenagers. The boss friend tries to keep everyone on topic but is fighting a losing battle. The meeting is dismissed after getting only one small area covered.

Pitch - An important meeting is called between 4 friends at their workplace. However they're notorious for not getting much done.

Pro's - Like the first idea: there is some potential and simple.

Con's - Hit or miss jokes, 4 protagonists all as important as each other.



Idea #2 does attract me to itself though, if I can think of jokes that will get laughs then I may be onto something here.

What if, instead of an important meeting, they're organising something?
A holiday perhaps?
And what if 2 of the protagonists have some sort of prank war going on?

Start the film in the 'main' office, protag 1 setting up a prank, they're called into a meeting, post meeting the characters return to the 'main' office, protag 2 suggests calling a truce on the prank war, to which he then springs the trap protag 1 set up at the start.
Rigging his office chair? Removing the screws?

Story-Telling Unit: Brainstorming for idea - Genre

Brainstorming for Story-Telling idea:



Comedy:

- Blunt/Deadpan
- Trading insults
- Wit
- Fast exchanges
- Clever comedy e.g. word play
- Physical comedy and its clever side e.g. gags in background


3 men in a car waiting for meet. Never happens. Wrong place.



Thriller:

- Not horror. Not action
- Tense, suspense
- Mess with the mind
- Fast paced
- Big twist



Drama:

- Strong emotion
- Powerful scenes/subject



I'm very much leaning towards comedy with what my brainstorming has provided.


Possible idea: 3 men in a car waiting for meet. It never happens because of a silly mistake on one of the protagonists' behalf's.

Story-Telling Unit: Research - Ingredients of a script & story

Ingredients for a script:

- Characters
- Locations
- Sounds
- Story
- Plot
- Theme


Ingredients for a story:

- Goal
- Problem to overcome
- Change



GOAL

- This will be the main goal of the protagonist. (Something they haven't got/ need to solve/ need to find)
- Great story-telling involves a goal that's no longer wanted.

PROBLEM

- The story must have a problem(s) for the protagonists to overcome. The problem might be a goal. But there should be problems all the way.

CHANGE

- By the end of the story we have a change of affairs.
- The "world" we understand at the start must be different by the end.
-Your protagonist must change.






STORY

- What idea gives you the best gut reaction?
- Who is it about? What? When? Where? Why? How?
- Is it dramatic? Can I dramatise it in a series of scenes?
- Look for the unpredictable, the original, uniqueness?
- Do I feel strongly about the story? Will an audience care about it? Is it something I know I should care about (war, homelessness) but don't truly?




Wilkinson's Wrap Up:

Basically, a story cannot function without the three ingredients. Your goal allows the viewer to understand what they are watching. Your problem can create drama; tension; conflict, it depends on the genre of the product and what the content is. the change is the result of your problem: has the entire diegesis changed? or just one characters' life?

When writing ideas, constantly think of how it's looking: what's your gut reaction? If it's going nowhere   or you're not 100% feeling it, scrap it.

Summer Project

http://youtu.be/Fh65G6awNOQ