Pitch feedback and development

Friday 30th September 2016

Today we had to pitch our script idea that we will eventually produce. It was a 25 word pitch with a title, genre, character information, location and a few extra lines of the story. Once we had pitched our idea, Simon our lecturer and the rest of the team gave feedback.

Mise en Scene

Today I learned Mise en Scene - this means 'what is in the scene or visual frame' and is the visual aspect in storytelling. It's a useful way of showing an audience instead of telling and can help define characters for example their emotional state and status. It defines relationships between characters and there are 4 key elements to Mise en Scene which are:

• Setting - location, environment (genre)
• Costume/Makeup e.g good or bad
• Lighting - how it affects setting and character e.g shadows for villains
• Staging - positions of characters or items in the frame

Camera Workshop

Wednesday 28th September 2016

Today we had our first camera workshop. We learned about assembling and using the camera and the boom mic and how to put people into focus and out of focus whilst they are moving or still.

Pitch ideas

Our first unit is 'Story-telling' and our first part is to come up with an idea for a screenplay from the starting point of 'The Meeting'. It has to be fictional but we can choose if it is going to be a Drama, Thriller or Comedy genre. It has to focus on the meeting of two main characters and have a main location. This then has to be presented as a 25 word pitch.

Storytelling unit - 25 word pitch

Title: Future.

25 word pitch: Rachel films everyday of her life to her online following, today she finds out if her life is about to change. Does she have Cancer?

Screenwriter Steeve Coombes

Monday 26th September 2016

Today writer, Steve Coombes, came into the studios and spoke to us about scriptwriting. Steve Coombes has written for shows such as 'Lovejoy' 'Hustle' and 'Outlaws'.  Steve gave us many tips, rules and general information that we may not have known about, for example loglines, treatments and bibles. He gave us some 'golden' rules to go by (although there may be an odd exception of breaking one here and there). We also looked at 2 versions of the same script 'American beauty'.

Screenwriting - 'Soft' short film

'Soft' vimeo (2011)

Monday 26th September 2016

Today we looked at pitching scripts and a short film called 'Soft'  from director Simon Ellis.