Post 7c - Genre continued

Post 7b - Genre

OUR GENRE: Mystery/Drama with elements of Sci-fi

Short film 1:Vacuity [Embedding has been disabled on this video]

I chose to look at this film [IMDb] as it is described as a 'Sci-Fi Drama' and whilst it holds a low level of mystery I feel it is still relevant to the genre of our own film. The tagline was also relevant to me 'Trapped in a dying space station airlock, Alan must choose survival to see his family again or sacrifice to save his crew.' the tagline includes the mystery of an option, as we have done in our own. This, from looking on websites [which state 'Writing loglines is an essential skill for screenwriters, from early development through to the pitch'] and talking to people, is something that can entice an audience.

Timeline of beats: Below is a written timeline of beats for the film 'Vacuity'.

Textual Analysis:


Short film 2: Memories

I chose to look at this film as it is a dramatic piece but also because it is a film about memories that brings about an air of mystery. Both these points make it relevant to our film.
This film also doesn't contain ANY dialogue, an idea I thought of for our film. The lack of dialogue adds to the film and uses he idea of focusing on what isn't said rather than what is.

Timeline of beats: Below is a written timeline of beats for the film 'Memories'.

0:03 - 0:08 - Character is introduced, as is location. 
0:09 - 0:18 - Conflict is shown within the character, the confusion on the actors face along with the starting effects of a memory showing. The plot of the film is introduced 
0:20 - 0:47 - Character starts to collect the film tape, development of the character, see a couple together in a memory. 
0:55 - 1:01 - Music becomes more sullen, the multiple tapes suggesting a loss of these memories.
1:01 - 1:10 - Character becoming more frantic with the tape, editing suggests a lot of movement between locations. 
1:13 - 1:19 - Conflict is dragging the character down, the slow walk up the hill with the tape trailing behind.  
1:24 - Loss of conflict but also loss of part of the character. 
1:37 - 2:00 - Character sits down to look through memories lost and dies.

Textual Analysis:


The editing of this film is someone I think our group should take away and learn from, the use of focus changes and special effects in regards to the change of locations from memory to memory is something we could use.

Post 7a - What is Genre?

What is Genre?

Genre is the classification of of a film made up of lots of different conventions: content, subject matter, themes, mood, plot, setting, style, stars, recurring icons, stock character and narrative events are examples of these. These conventions define what type of film one is.

Below is a diagram of multiple genres and the types of conventions which the contain:

Genre conventions and Paradigms
Paradigms are patterns in genres which audiences easily recognise in films. These can be a plot point or a costume or a stock character.
Grouping of paradigms:

• Iconography(ie the main signs and symbols that you see/hear),
• Structure (the way a text is put together and the shape it takes) 
• Theme (the issues and ideas the programme deals with).

Positives and Negatives of Genre

Positives: 
Genre provides a structure and form which allows filmmakers to follow a flow of ideas but also add their own challenging of convention. This can lead to the creation of hybrid genres and explore and improve current genres.

Negatives: 
Stagnation of a genre through the conforming of paradigms. As this happens, audiences notice repetitive plots and interest in the genre depletes. One of the more obvious of these was the Western Genre, over repeating of conventions lead to staleness in films and the continuous release of these identical films left audiences deflated. The film 'Brokeback Mountain', whilst released as a Drama/Romance, has Western genre conventions, but challenged these to a new level.

Post 6a - Group Work Continued

BEATS

• Beat 1 - Introduce the world the film will be in
  Character wakes up in their room in a house.
• Beat 2 - Introduce the character
  Character looks into a mirror, brushing himself down.
• Beat 3 - Introduce the problem
  Character walks downstairs and sees other characters standing confused in the kitchen, hears murmmers of these characters asking where they are and what they're doing. Character gains a headache.
• Beat 4 - How the character chooses to solve the problem
  Ignore the problem and goes outside into town to get on with his day.
• Beat 5 - The character experiences a major set back
  Notices the odd behaviour of people around him, notices people asking questions like they've forgotten something. Bumps into someone and is hit by a flash of pain along with a memory. When he comes back to reality the character he bumped into is talking about forgetting a very important memory. [Being married or who the main character is, if the secondary character is a friend]
• Beat 6 - The character is almost defeated
  Believes himself to be the cause of all this, starts breaking down and becomes twitchy and won't let anyone around him touch him.
• Beat 7 - The character rejects a solution
  Character tries to explain to friends what's going on, tries to explain why he can't touch them. They don't believe him, he rejects the idea of telling people.
• Beat 8 - The character discovers a solution
  [We're going to go for the opposite here] Character snaps and breaks down, the ending is unknown as we see he can't think of a way to fix this and instead slowly becomes insane from this.

GENRE
From a discussion with our teacher and in our group, we decided that the genre of the film would be that of a Mystery/Drama. Also on the 'Logline.it' website, it was suggested that the film would contain sci-fi elements.

Post 6 - Group Work

Now that I have a better understanding o how to write a script I am going to select, from within my group, the best logline that has been written by a student and then develop this into my final film.

LOGLINE THAT WAS CHOSEN
'While the rest of the world begins to lose their memories. A sole teenager starts to learn things about the world that they had never dreamed of.'

We decided to use this logline as it was the one which contained locations which we would be able to acquire, in comparison to the other two, one of which is set is Sweden and the other contained a wedding scene. Also the character was one which we would be able to work with, whilst he isn't the most interesting, he was one which we could mould into what we wanted, when creating him, I had only a few set aspects, he was a young adult; was at university and was from a working class family. The beats for the logline were also quite good as it gave us freedom to change it, but get a set story which we could develop. During discussion, we found that the ending would remain opened ended no matter how we changed it, with the character breaking down or snapping.

After discussion we realised that this logline was not to the standard we wanted and I took it upon myself to make it better. I found this website and uploaded my logline to it for feedback. The feedback I got was great and from the points which I found most important [see below], I will change the logline.

• It’d be good if you could tell us in your log line what the result of this new found knowledge is.
• Perhaps if your log line could address some of these questions it would help. When a rebellious teen goes underground from society…
  he/she discovers that…
  and must use the information to…
• This’s another logline that tells us situation but doesn’t tell us story. The story’s what the lead must do or who’s standing in their way.
• [I was given an example of how I could change the logline] “When a young recluse discovers he gains peoples memories while the rest of the world loses them, he must search his brain to discover clues to save the world before he goes insane.”
• If you tell us what his ultimate goal is then the genre becomes way clearer and it makes the story easier to visualize.

Re-witten Logline
'When a teenage misfit comes to a realisation that he's gaining the memories of the people around him, he must decide whether to be selfish or be selfless, as he slowly begins to go insane.'

BRAINSTORM 

Post 5 - Script Formatting

Before writing the first draft of my script, I took the opportunity to look at various websites with tips and outlines on the process of formatting. This website gave me a detailed overview on this process and from it I have selected aspects which I feel are most relevant for me.

Below is the information the website has on FONT, MARGINS, AND SPACING, as I have only written a full script once [my group's opening squence video didn't contain any dialogue and we did not feel a need for a script] for a previous media short, it is important I am aware of the specific features of this aspect of script formatting. 

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Screenplays live on letter-sized paper (8.5 x 11 inches). They're always written in Courier font, 12 point, 10 pitch. No bold, no italics.

Page Margins:
Left: 1.5 inches
Right: 1 inch
Top: 1 inch
Bottom: 1 inch

Screenplay Element Margins

• Slugline: left margin 1.5 inches
• Action: left margin 1.5 inches
• Character name: left margin 3.7 inches
• Dialog: left margin 2.5 inches, right margin 2.5 inches (or 6 inches from left edge of page)
• Parentheticals: left margin 3.1 inches, right margin 2.9 inches

Spacing Between Elements:

• Between Slugline and Action: double space
• Between Action and more Action: double space
• Between Action and Character Name: double space
• Between Character Name and Dialogue: single space
• Between Dialogue and the next Character Name: double space
• Between Dialogue and Action: double space
• Between Character Name and Parentheticals: single space
• Between Parentheticals and Dialogue: single space
• Between Action and Slugline: double space
• Between Dialogue and Slugline: double space

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I also picked on this point 'The very first time a character's name appears in Action, it appears in ALL CAPS.' I was unaware of this and the extract to the fright, from Marvel's 'Avengers' also brought this to my attention. 'Cap' and 'Fury' have been written as both characters have already appeared in the scene.