Script-writing

This week we'll be thinking a little bit about how scripts are constructed, and you will be writing your own scene using Celtx. To get a clear idea about what a finished script should look like, follow the links to scripts for The King's Speech, 127 hours, Death at a Funeral, and  Megamind. Also check out the BBC scriptwriting page, from which we'll be looking at the standard format for certain types of productions.

Films we've looked at so far

Jurassic Park
Little Caesar
The Wizard of Oz
Rope
Nine Lives
Citizen Kane
Exit through the Gift Shop
Matrix
Michel Gondry's Levi's commercial

'Rope' director Alfred Hitchcock's comment on using long takes in film

…if I have to shoot a long scene continuously I always feel I am losing grip on it, from a cinematic point of view. The camera, I feel, is simply standing there, hoping to catch something with a visual point to it…The screen ought to speak its own language, freshly coined, and it can’t do that unless it treats an acted scene as a piece of raw material which must be broken up, taken to bits, before it can be woven into an expressive visual pattern. - Alfred Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock

REMINDER - Keep a Production Journal

Production Journal

For ALL YOUR practical work - add as a regularly updated entry on your blog

What you are planning to do?

What you actually did during the shoot?

Why did you choose to shoot the film this way - camera angle, camera movement, length of shot, focus, editing?

What other elements of production did you have to consider - mise-en-scene issues?

What practical/technical/ post-production problems did you come across – how did you over come them?

What were the results? Did you achieve your main aims? Why not?

What would you change or improve for your next shoot?

Do you have any other notes or feedback for other members of your production team?

Have you seen examples of what you tried to do in films you've watched recently, by directors you admire?

Include sketches, scripts, story boards, to-do lists etc.

Description and analysis of first dinosaur scene from Jurassic Park

For next Thursday - Write up your notes on the scene we watched from Jurassic Park (1993). First write up a straight description of the scene - what did you see on the screen, first impressions, feelings and emotions inspired by the scene. Then using the scene analysis grid (Mr Dunn will hand this out in his lesson) write a 250-300 word analysis of the scene, discussing the effect of the use of camera angle, lighting, sound - diagetic, non-diagetic, composition, use of colour, contrast, close-up shots, establishing shots, editing, chronology and narrative viewpoint. Use your IB Film glossary to help you define these terms. Put your work on your blog (make sure you have your answers to the film questions there too.)


Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg

Film-making activity #1 - Interview your partner

During today's film-making activity, you will pair up and start to plan your filmed interview. That means we will have four groups of two making a 2-minute interview per group. So you need to decide who is going to be the interviewer and who's the interviewee. Both of you should appear on camera during the film. Before you start shooting: we would like you to write a very simple script which should include the dialogue between interviewer and interviewee, as well as what basic camera shots and lighting you plan to use. We aim to shoot the films in the drama studio under the stage.

Here's Katie Holmes talking about her career in film: http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/arts/movies-critics-picks/1194811622317/index.html#1247466702770

Your interview should cover some or all of the following topics:

Please state your full name:

We'll start with some firsts:
... cinema experience?
... actor/actress you admire/worship?
... director you became aware of?


And the last...:
... film you cried in?
... film you saw in the cinema?
... film you switched off or walked out of?


And some favourites. Your favourite:
... childhood films?
… recent films?
... all time films?
... cinema?
... piece of cinematic trivia?
... actors and actress?
… directors?
... scene? 


Either/Or:
Speilberg or Scorsese?
De Niro or Pacino?
Subtitles or dubbed?
Hollywood or Bollywood?
Julianne Moore or Julia Roberts?
Zak Efron or Bela Lugosi?.
Star Wars or The Matrix?
Sci-Fi or Rom-Com?
Bourne or Bond?
3D: the future or a phase?