This was my first official day on the course, ridiculously excited for the day ahead! I got there on time, the buses are a pain, but I'm pretty confident that I know the routes now.
So, the first topic that we started on was a very big open question; what is a story? This is not a question I'm very good at answering, so I didn't have many ideas to submit to the rest of the class, as this was in the conference room (I hope this is the name of the room!) but anyway, a story is a telling of an event, whether fictitious or not. This would be the cornerstone for the unit (storytelling). Simon then went into the Script and Story ingredients, which we would then use later in our own story, with the project brief that we were given. From the initial introduction I know I will like this unit, plus the fact that if I need any support on the course in terms of this I can be helped, Simon is a pretty black and white stand up guy, he won't beat around the bush if my work is crap, which I like!
We then went further into the different ingredients that would be in the story. Simon said (haha, Simon said, that's amusing) about different factors such as the goal, problems to overcome and change. The key to great script writing is by including and implementing these factors effectively.
We were then introduced to the unit handbook that we would follow through the next couple of weeks that included all of the information that we would need for the unit. The most important part for me was the project brief, as this is what the unit will be focusing around. This unit is entirely portfolio based, and I shall be including a lot of the different areas I cover such as research and production in this blog. Here is the overview of the brief.
It is split up into two key parts, screenplay and the visualization and re-write:
The title of the screenplay is 'The Meeting'.I was set different parameters that I would follow to create what I desired. This included:
Focusing the meeting of two main characters
Set in one main location
A fictional story but can be sourced from factual material
Can be a comedy, thriller or drama
All to be submitted on the 21st October, which is about a month, it is then preceded by the visualization and rewrite, which shall be my favorite part, the production. As long as I document everything I do, I shall be fine. I will then rewrite the screenplay based on feedback and submit both products on November 25th.
Overall, I will enjoy this project a lot, as the course in itself lets you take the ball and run with it so to speak, I just can't wait to start it!
The next part including watching the award winning short, Soft, and then making a detailed analysis of the story breakdown and creating a script that would therefore be added alongside to 'sell' the film off.
Soft (Short film)
It was surprising how many subliminal messages was actually included in this short film of around just 15 minutes long. Credit to Simon Ellis for creating such a masterpiece in such a short amount of time. Anyway, after discussing the different plot points and devices used to immerse the viewer, we went on to the pitch, here was my pitch:
'A realistic, hard-hitting drama that follows the path of a timid father and son due, dealing with intimidating youths in the local area.'
I thought it explained the story rather well, Simon did too.
After all of the different ingredients were explained, we were set a class task that we would then work on the next day. What we had to do was create a pitch based on a story in recent media. I chose the recent mall siege in Kenya. So I promptly came out with:
'Gritty Thriller based around a know terrorist group holding up a popular mall, with hostages including the Kenyan President's family.
I've also thought of ideas for the 'The meeting'. I thought I might post my inital thoughts here:
-I've chosen thriller, something about the connection between thriller and meeting switches on a light in my head.
- Two uni brothers meet at an empty property looking to invest and get themselves onto the property ladder, so they have made an appointment with a local agency to set up a showing of the house
-when they get to the house, it is empty, the door is slightly open, after knocking for a certain amount of time, they enter the house
-inside the house's front room is a dead body with a sack over the head tied to a chair.
-one of the brothers immediately freaks out and checks for a pulse, when nothing comes back, the brother starts shaking the chair in hope that the person wakes up.
-the person drops a phone, with a play button on the screen
-a silhouette of a character tells the two boys 'sorry about this, just at the wrong place at the wrong time' followed by a random countdown, also police sirens are heard.
-unknown to the brothers at this point, fingerprints are all over the victim, but they leave anyway.
That's how much i've thought of! Hopefully, I can shape these ideas into something more stronger and thicker.
That concludes this day, I'm really enjoying this course and the studios in general (apart from the travelling on buses there and back), I can't wait to dig my teeth into the unit and the meeting project and look forward to tomorrow!
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