Role of a Screenwriter

Screenwriters play a huge role in the production of film, they write the script of the said film or TV show in pre-production. Screenwriters don't just have to create the script beforehand they have to put a lot of research into their ideas to see whether it's a good idea or not. Screenwriters create the blue-prints for the producer, director, production designer, composer, editor, cast and crew. This is why the screenplay is such an important part as it allows these people to understand their tasks and what they need to do. A screenplay should allow the person reading it to imagine how the film will look and work on screen, featuring the characters, plot, setting, etc.


Screenplays have a specific format, all screenplays are wrote in 12-point Courier this is because Courier is a fixed-pitch font, which means each character is exactly the same width. It is designed this way so that one page approximately equals one minute of screen time. Here's an example of a typical screenplay:

Storyboard

Thriller Opening: Initial Ideas

These our mine and Emily's first thoughts and ideas for our thriller opening, we're going to do further research to help us develop our ideas further. 

Genre Conventions: Thriller

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and TV. They're often fast-paced with frequent action full of suspense. Thrillers are broad as there's many sub genres for example: spy, political, conspiracy, military, medical, forensic, psychological and horror thrillers. A thriller usually consists of a battle between the protagonist and the antagonist, as the characters and story develops through a chain of bad events tension is being built for the climax.

Typical CEMS conventions seen in a thriller:

• Low key lighting to create dark lighting and set the mood.
• Sound track is often dark and creepy with low tones to set tension, or loud sudden sounds for effective jump scares.
• Costumes are varied, however, they're really important and often in thrillers the antagonist is seen wearing dark clothing and a mask to disguise them which adds mystery to the film as it's unknown.
• A variation of camera shots are seen, but a main one used is low angle shots which shows dominance of a character usually either the villain or hero.
• Often there's use of quick cuts between shots, usually used to suddenly to scare the audience due to surprise. 
• The location of a lot of horrors usually have something in common, for example, it's usually a dark location such as an abandoned house or the woods. The location is often either of the extremes, either it's set in a remote area with no one around or a really populated city/area, but what both of these have in common is that they both provide tension as it's unknown where the villain is going to attack.

Thrillers are often cliché in some aspects purely so it grabs the audience and the audiences emotions so they can relate to it which helps the audience feel what the characters may be feeling, this makes the films personal to the viewer creating a more realistic feel.

Although opinions and feelings of thrillers vary from person to person the main intention of thrillers is often to keep the audience on edge through high-levels of anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety and tension. When you put it like that, makes you wonder why we endure such films.

Lighting Practice

This shot the light is dim and is underneath me this makes the person seem quite
dominant and scary and is often used in thrillers. Because the light is so dim
and the shot isn't close up the background is completely black and makes it look
as if I am walking through the darkness.

This shot the bright artificial light is to the side so half of my face is in the
dark and half in the light which creates a mysterious effect.

Similar to the first photo the dim candlelight is beneath me which enhances the
shadows on my face and makes it look scary as it's low key light.

This is a shot which is backlit by artificial light, a bright light behind the
object in the foreground creates a silhouette figure of the object/person
in front. Also, this can create shadows. Making it look mysterious.   

Natural light and backlit light. This shot is taken in natural light, so
colours are natural and nothing is exaggerated as no
artificial lights have been used. As well as natural lighting, this shot is
also displaying backlit lighting effects, because the light from the sky
is giving the trees the silhouette, dark figure.

Se7en Textual Analysis

Se7en textual analysis from amyheald

Title Analysis: Penny Dreadful

Penny Dreadful Title Analysis from amyheald

The "Penny Dreadful" Opening Scene:

Adobe After Effects Practice: Titling

2D MOTION TRACKING

I spent some time editing in Adobe After Effects and I tried out 2D Motion Tracking.


To practice for the Thriller opening I tried out 2D motion tracking on Adobe After Effects, this will help me in the editing process of the thriller opening task as I will be more familiar with the editing software, and rather than using the standard Adobe Premier Pro software for the titling, I could possibly branch out to make the titling of the thriller opening more advanced.

                                       

 On this task I focused primarily on the titling and how it would follow the motion of the footage to make it look and feel more natural.
Overall, I am pleased with the final outcome, although it is a little patchy in places and needs improvement as this is my first time using Adobe After Effects.

I used this YouTube tutorial video for inspiration and help: 

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluate your contribution to the group's work

In my group I worked behind the camera helping with camera angles, shots and framing, but I was also in front of the camera for a short amount of time during the end of the video where I had a conversation with Jordan where we used shot/reverse shot. During editing I helped and did some of the editing, such as cutting the clips together and helping with the titling by choosing fonts,  positioning and transitions to make it look as professional as possible.

I was quite flexible as I was apart of all aspects of the project - behind the camera and in front and also, editing. I also helped with pre-production, where I helped plan the video with my group and created the storyboard. I think I worked well as part of our group as we were all allocated our roles and I completed my tasks, as did everyone else. 

From completing this task, I have developed skills in using the camera and tripod and how to set it up and ensure lighting is good. Also I have gained basic skills using the editing equipment such as cutting and editing clips together. But I am also looking forward to further developing my skills in the next task.

Evaluation Question 5 - Feedback

Question 5 - Feedback from amyheald

Evaluation Question 4 - How well did you meet the brief?

Question 4 - How well did you meet the brief? from amyheald

Evaluation Q2 & Q3 - Success and Development

Evaluation Question 1

What have you learned during the making of your preliminary task?

During the making of the preliminary task I have learnt new technical skills such as:

• Using the Nikon DSLR camera and attaching it onto the tripods where we set it up the type of shot we wanted e.g. long shot, close up. Which gave us a better insight and more practice at shooting different camera angles and shots.
• Using the editing software, Premier Pro and developing our skills such as:
• Editing the clips together and cutting the clips accurately at the right places so the footage looks seamless to give it continuity.
• During editing, we also added a title and used transitions to make it all fit together and look more professional.

I have also learnt other skills throughout the preliminary task:

Time management was also important throughout the preliminary task, because we had a deadline for the video to be in so we needed to keep to a specific time schedule otherwise it wouldn't have been completed. Despite losing our footage during filming, we kept to the deadline by using our free time to ensure we got it completed.

We worked well together as a group as we all knew what our own tasks were and each completed them on time and we all contributed well together as a group. Whilst we were filming we all contributed our thoughts on what type of shot and angle it should be so we were all in agreement and happy with the footage. Jordan took to the main acting role of the video, whilst me and Fran were behind the camera focusing on camera angles and ensuring the 180 degree rule wasn't broken. I also took a small acting role in the shot/reverse shot.

I learnt that the storyboard is an important aspect of filming, we based our key ideas off of the storyboard, however we also added extra footage where we thought it was necessary because  we found it easier to visually see the areas we were filming in and what extra shots we would need rather than in drawings.

Our continuity was quite good throughout the short video, until we got to the shot/reverse shot where we made a small mistake, however it wasn't too visible. We filmed Jordan and myself talking before we should be talking, so whilst shot was on Jordan sitting down the shot after was me talking and then back to Jordan, who had still not sat down but she would have done. So this was an error.

Preliminary Task - A Stroll with Jordan

Storyboard for Preliminary Task

This is our storyboard for our preliminary task. Having a storyboard before filming is helpful because when you have visual representation of the plot you're less likely to forget to include a scene or miss out an important part. Also, adding extra text to the pictures makes it more informative such as adding camera angles, camera shots, location etc.

Preliminary task

The preliminary task is to create a continuity piece of footage by filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character who they exchange a few lines of dialogue with.






This task should demonstrate match on action which is a film editing technique where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shots action. An example of this is when within a class there's a fight in the background of the teacher so the shot moves to the fight.


It should also demonstrate the 180 degree rule which is basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should not cross, this creates special awareness and makes it easy for the audience to understand.
In this footage shot/reverse shot should be shown, which is usually used within conversation to display in detail how they react to each other emotionally and what they say as it switches between the two characters. In addition to this, the use of a variety of different camera angles and shots effectively and appropriately such as the close up, medium shot and long shot.




This task I'll be working with Fran and Jordan; we are all taking part in the pre-production which is the planning of the task and planning location, storyboards, logistics and casting which is the most important and main task. The second stage involves two of us are going to be in the footage and one of us behind the camera and the third stage we're going to work together to edit so that we all get a chance to work with the editing equipment and all give ideas on the process.

Shot Types

Our first task was to take examples photos of different shot types these are the images I got:

This is an establishing shot this is the opening shot which is used to set the scene, as we can see in this shot the scene is the entrance to the school, so the audience know that the rest of the footage 

is going to take place at school.

This is an example of a shot/reverse shot which is often used in conversations to show who is speaking and also the audience gets to see in detail how they react to each other emotionally as we can see on the left photo Emma is shocked at the news she’s heard.

This is a tilt shot which often shows speed, movement, action or an unsettled mood.

This is a low shot which is effective as it makes someone seem larger than life size which makes them seem more dominant, or to suggest we are seeing someone through the eyes of someone seated or small.

This is an extreme close up this is used to show and important detail, object, gesture or moment of contact or importance between characters. 

This is a medium/mid shot which is often of the character(s) waist up, which shows some part of the subject in more detail which shows enough for audience to feel like they’re looking at the whole subject.

This is a long shot which shows a character at some distance as we can see in the picture above the girl is quite far away from the camera and the character is often dominated by surroundings.

This is a close up which captures a specific item in more detail and focuses on this as there's not much background in the frame, if it's of a person it's usually just head and shoulders and in that situation is used to catch a characters emotional response to something.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog, I'm Amy Heald and I'm a A-Level media student at Tupton Hall!

I have not previously studied Media however I am excited to learn about how films and TV shows are created and the whole process that it takes to create our favourite films; some of my favourites include Whiplash (if you haven't seen this and require inspiration in your life this is for you) and Guardians of the Galaxy, how can you resist the ultimate charm of Chris Pratt?

I also really enjoy watching TV series' and I am guilty of binge watching ("just one more episode" always turns into 5 more, am I right?) for example Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead just to name a few - I absolutely loved these series'.

I am also looking forward to creating pieces of footage, filming and editing which I have previously done before with a few friends for fun; even though what was created was extremely cringe worthy and should be unspoken of as we were young but I really enjoyed doing this so I'm enthusiastic about starting our task which is to create an continuity piece so I can learn and develop my skills further and use different camera angles and techniques effectively.