Lighting on Monday last week was good. I've known the principles of three-point lighting, but this is the first time I've had a chance to see the difference it can make and play around with it. Slightly annoying that we had limited kit to play with, but I got a lot from the lesson none-the-less.
The less said about the Screenwriting stories on Tuesday perhaps the better. Some worked out, whilst others fell apart like the Frankensteined stories they were. The sheet that we used for this exercise, though, is very useful to me in trying to understand the structure better. I think I may use that format when I'm planning scripts.
Wednesday's class on Coronation Street was interesting. From my time at The Network I am surprisingly well-informed by the inner-workings of soaps; particularly Corrie and Hollyoaks. So I was aware about the tedious planning and storylining that goes on. Still, there was plenty that was fresh to me. I'm becoming aware that I'd actually happily work on a soap. I'd probably enjoy it, and it's certainly a place to be seen in the industry. I know that a lot of my own favourite television writers and producers started out on soaps. Soaps, or Children's TV; which would also be awesome. I do hope that we get an assignment to go and watch CBBC at some point.
Thursday's lesson carried on from our viewing of Battleship Pokemon, and it was fun to look at a scene for a second time. I think that it was necessary, certainly, to look at it more objectively. For instance, there's not much I could say about the way in which Nosferatu was put together without rewatching a scene or two, as I was too involved with the film's story whilst watching it the first time.
Speaking of Nosferatu, that's what we watched on Friday morning. But I've spoken about that before. After that we had a Production class, which I really enjoyed. It was nice that Abigail recognised that the first lesson was very management-and-responsibilities heavy, and so hit us with the creative side of producing. Producing is certainly on the cards for me, as I've always been the sort to do both creative things and the logic-based things. I'm one of those people who is both left and right brained, and - to keep myself sane - I need to have a bit of both in my life. And I'm certainly getting both from this course!
And that cheesy-line, dear friends, is the end of this post.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Monday, 26 January 2009
Coronation Street Party Madness
Well, I certainly enjoyed our little Corrie-Shindig. Different; and I like that. Here follows my version of events.
Two Synopsises. Or synopsi. No, synopsises:
7.30 Episode
Sally: Mother
Rosie: Mean sister and a little bit promiscuous
Sophie: Sweet girl, single (but with a love-interest)
Audrey: Whilst Maria's boss, she appeals to her as a friend
Maria: "Implacable Avenger" (thanks Andy)
Tony: Murderer, Respected boss
Carla: Tony's partner, defender
Eddie: Dodgy Geezer
Gary: Young Dodgy Geezer and Manipulative to boot
Anna: Suspicious mother/wife
Ken: Unhappily married
Martha: Unhappily lonely
The others had too little screen time to define their status, in my opinion. But, if I'm wrong, I'll happily add those others!
Two Synopsises. Or synopsi. No, synopsises:
7.30 Episode
- Sally tries to fix things with Sophie, and help her get along with Rosie.
- Audrey asks Maria not to return to work for a while. Maria, offended, argues with her and then throws her out.
- Blanche tells Leanne that Peter is returning that day with Ken.
- Anna is suspicious that Eddie and Gary had something to do with the robbery from the building site, and warns them that she had better not find out they were involved.
- Ad-Break Hook: Carla has called the police about Maria attacking Tony.
- Maria goes to the Police Station about Tony, and asks to speak to the relevant officer.
- Ken returns without Peter, and reveals to Leanne that Peter is in rehab.
- Gail confronts Eddie and Anna in the street.
- It is revealed to Maria that Carla had called the police on her. She is taken out of the station.
- In the car, Maria sees a happy family and breaks down crying.
- At the pub, Gary and Len believe that their robbery was a success.
- End-of-Episode Hook: Maria hits Tony with her car, and then crashes into a wall.
- The reaction to the crash, as people rush out onto the street to see if Tony and Maria are okay.
- Carla tells the police that Maria had deliberately driven at Tony, and that she should be locked-up.
- Gary tells Tina that David has set him up because he's jealous that Tina likes him.
- Ad-Break Hook: Ken's dog falls into the canal, but is rescued by Martha. He is invited onto her boat.
- Ken and Martha "eat soup"...
- Audrey and Kirk encounter Tony at the hospital, who wants to hear how Maria is doing. He finds out that her baby will be okay.
- Ken and Martha "drink wine"... and Ken reveals his family issues, but not that he is remarried.
- Kevin tells Sophie that they can talk openly, if she ever needs to.
- Ken returns home, and - not revealing that he's been on Martha's boat - has to have some of Deirdre's bland soup, to cover-up where he's been.
- David overhears Tina say that she think Gary might be innocent.
- End-of-Episode Hook: Maria is told that she could be charged for attempted murder.
Sally: Mother
Rosie: Mean sister and a little bit promiscuous
Sophie: Sweet girl, single (but with a love-interest)
Audrey: Whilst Maria's boss, she appeals to her as a friend
Maria: "Implacable Avenger" (thanks Andy)
Tony: Murderer, Respected boss
Carla: Tony's partner, defender
Eddie: Dodgy Geezer
Gary: Young Dodgy Geezer and Manipulative to boot
Anna: Suspicious mother/wife
Ken: Unhappily married
Martha: Unhappily lonely
The others had too little screen time to define their status, in my opinion. But, if I'm wrong, I'll happily add those others!
A Not-So-Mini Mini-Reviews
Right, this has sat unfinished in my blog-writing-bit for far too long! I've added in the two recent films from History of Cinema, just so I don't fall too behind with my blogging.
Twilight - I didn't know what to expect with this. I had heard there were complaints about it from people who adore the books, just as there were complaints that the book sucked, therefore the film will also suck. But, for what it's worth, there was little that sucked - apart from the vampires. In fairness to the team behind the film, it was quite a sweet romance. I did find that I hated the two main characters for the first two minutes of their respective introductions, but then I really liked them: perhaps a statement about books and covers? Oh, and there was clever use of dramatic-irony, playing on the fact that we know he's a vampire, so they needn't explain it to us. Again, a film which felt very non-commercial for all the franchise-exploitation that accompanies it.
LOTR Extended - Okay, so I did need to give this another chance. So much happens in the films and I wasn't even a teenager when the first came out: there was quite a lot that flew over my head! Even now, there's a lot of Kings, rings and things to make sense of. But with the confusion removed, and the extra footage added, I can really appreciate this trilogy properly now. I watched it in 6-parts, as that is how the film is split onto discs (with a change in the middle of each), and I think that worked out for the best. I know I would get bored if I watched any of them all in one go.
Merlin - I really, really enjoyed this series. Okay, argue that Guienivere isn't meant to be black; argue that the castle is from the from century; argue that Merlin should be much older than Arthur; but two things: (1) It's fiction. (2) There's a dragon. A talking dragon. Colin Morgan stands out as a very gifted young actor, but the rest of the cast is strong too. I did find that the plots became very formulaic in the middle of the series, and the CGI was often mis-used. I look forward to the Second Series, though, because it became quite good in its final episodes (excluding the slight cop-out in the last episode, which annoyed me greatly).
Survivors - For a show that royally pee'd me off with it's first episode (by killing off two characters played by actors I like when I was led to believe they would be in the entire series) it actually turned itself around. For a start, I really disliked the main character - Aby Grant. Over time, however, I did become attached to her. I also really like Nikki Amuka-Bird who played Samantha Willis. I've seen her in Torchwood and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (which is coming back as a series!) and I've been really impressed with her. Not so much in Survivors, but hopefully she can shine in the Second Series.
The Diary of Anne Frank - Not the sort of show I normally watch, but the casting of Tasmin Greig and Lesley Sharp intrigued me enough. I really enjoyed the series. I've read the play before - in fact, I remember reading in as Peter Van Daan - but this version made Anne less of a hero and more of the teenager she actually was. What made this version particularly touching was the very distanced relationship between Anne and her mother. Her mother tried so hard, and yet Anne still treated her appallingly. A very visual show, and it was a wise choice to play it out over a single week.
The Battleship Potemkin - I enjoyed seeing this from a film-maker viewpoint, but not so much as an audience member. It was very unique, and it did establish some brilliant things for Cinema. The construction of scenes was very impressive, but occasionally things didn't feel right to me. But it's unfair to look at this film in the same way one look's at the latest Oscar contenders. It would have been a very powerful film at its time, and I can see its importance.
Nosferatu - This I did enjoy. Whilst I'm not a big fan of scary movies (not because I'm scared of them, but because they often fail to scare me) I did find moments in this creepy, which is impressive. Count Orlok was rather intimidating, particularly when he just stood still, watching. I found this harder to deconstruct as we went along because I was more involved with watching it. I look forward to the discussion that will no doubt ensue this week.
Twilight - I didn't know what to expect with this. I had heard there were complaints about it from people who adore the books, just as there were complaints that the book sucked, therefore the film will also suck. But, for what it's worth, there was little that sucked - apart from the vampires. In fairness to the team behind the film, it was quite a sweet romance. I did find that I hated the two main characters for the first two minutes of their respective introductions, but then I really liked them: perhaps a statement about books and covers? Oh, and there was clever use of dramatic-irony, playing on the fact that we know he's a vampire, so they needn't explain it to us. Again, a film which felt very non-commercial for all the franchise-exploitation that accompanies it.LOTR Extended - Okay, so I did need to give this another chance. So much happens in the films and I wasn't even a teenager when the first came out: there was quite a lot that flew over my head! Even now, there's a lot of Kings, rings and things to make sense of. But with the confusion removed, and the extra footage added, I can really appreciate this trilogy properly now. I watched it in 6-parts, as that is how the film is split onto discs (with a change in the middle of each), and I think that worked out for the best. I know I would get bored if I watched any of them all in one go.Merlin - I really, really enjoyed this series. Okay, argue that Guienivere isn't meant to be black; argue that the castle is from the from century; argue that Merlin should be much older than Arthur; but two things: (1) It's fiction. (2) There's a dragon. A talking dragon. Colin Morgan stands out as a very gifted young actor, but the rest of the cast is strong too. I did find that the plots became very formulaic in the middle of the series, and the CGI was often mis-used. I look forward to the Second Series, though, because it became quite good in its final episodes (excluding the slight cop-out in the last episode, which annoyed me greatly).Survivors - For a show that royally pee'd me off with it's first episode (by killing off two characters played by actors I like when I was led to believe they would be in the entire series) it actually turned itself around. For a start, I really disliked the main character - Aby Grant. Over time, however, I did become attached to her. I also really like Nikki Amuka-Bird who played Samantha Willis. I've seen her in Torchwood and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (which is coming back as a series!) and I've been really impressed with her. Not so much in Survivors, but hopefully she can shine in the Second Series.The Diary of Anne Frank - Not the sort of show I normally watch, but the casting of Tasmin Greig and Lesley Sharp intrigued me enough. I really enjoyed the series. I've read the play before - in fact, I remember reading in as Peter Van Daan - but this version made Anne less of a hero and more of the teenager she actually was. What made this version particularly touching was the very distanced relationship between Anne and her mother. Her mother tried so hard, and yet Anne still treated her appallingly. A very visual show, and it was a wise choice to play it out over a single week.The Battleship Potemkin - I enjoyed seeing this from a film-maker viewpoint, but not so much as an audience member. It was very unique, and it did establish some brilliant things for Cinema. The construction of scenes was very impressive, but occasionally things didn't feel right to me. But it's unfair to look at this film in the same way one look's at the latest Oscar contenders. It would have been a very powerful film at its time, and I can see its importance.Nosferatu - This I did enjoy. Whilst I'm not a big fan of scary movies (not because I'm scared of them, but because they often fail to scare me) I did find moments in this creepy, which is impressive. Count Orlok was rather intimidating, particularly when he just stood still, watching. I found this harder to deconstruct as we went along because I was more involved with watching it. I look forward to the discussion that will no doubt ensue this week.
Monday, 19 January 2009
Corr, Blimey
Here's my synopsis of the 20:30 episode of Coronation Street broadcast on 19th of January, 2009:
After finding out Joe is staying with Gail, Audrey tells Gail that he is a labourer. Gail asks him about it, and he gets mad and leaves.
Steve claims to have left Michelle for Becky, but she says she is committed to Jason.
Gary and his Uncle Len plan to steal from the building site. They do, and are later seen driving away by David.
John has been sentenced to two years in prison. Fiz is somewhat upset, whilst Rosie celebrates with her family.
Tara and Amber try to convince Dev to let Amber learn to drive.
After finding out Joe is staying with Gail, Audrey tells Gail that he is a labourer. Gail asks him about it, and he gets mad and leaves.
Steve claims to have left Michelle for Becky, but she says she is committed to Jason.
Gary and his Uncle Len plan to steal from the building site. They do, and are later seen driving away by David.
John has been sentenced to two years in prison. Fiz is somewhat upset, whilst Rosie celebrates with her family.
Tara and Amber try to convince Dev to let Amber learn to drive.
A Rousing Return
Wow. This past week has been pretty good. Really good, in fact. Lots of enjoyable classes, and certainly a really nice way to return after a holiday. There's always that slight dreading about going back - less so now than those times at High School - but it was completely unjustified!
Firstly, on Tuesday we had a Technical Class with Ray in which we moved onto lighting. It was an enjoyable class for me. Some of the terms which are also used in theatrical lighting were familiar, and a lot of the "how-they-work" I've covered in Physics. After that, playing with manual white-balance with the lighting was quite interesting. I agree with Ray that when something is perfectly white-balanced it doesn't always look right, so it can be an idea to adjust it to where you like it's look.
Next on Tuesday was Richard's screenwriting class. This was actually more tiring in the afternoon than first thing on Monday morning. Strange, huh? But it was a good lesson. I'm now far less happy with my script because I felt we covered some things which helped me realise where I could improve it. But I quite like the assignment of confidentially sharing our secrets. Some people have claimed to have no secrets. Okay, maybe you have nothing that you've never told anyone, but there must be something. Everyone has something.
Wednesday. Squeee. Wednesday was fun, because not only do I have a potentially-unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who, but the area of TV I'm most interested in is that BBC1 Saturday 7pm Drama slot. I'd love to work on Doctor Who, or Merlin, or maybe even the new Sherlock Holmes (which I think is going for that slot). I really like those types of show. So this lesson was nice and relevant in every way.
Thursday's class was good, too. I quite enjoy the history of cinema. The inventing, and then the evolution of a new art form are both really interesting. It's particularly strange looking at the original ways that film-reels were shown.
I'll cover The Battleship Potemkin in the next post, so I'll talk about Friday's second class - Introduction to Production. Abigail was really nice and she was particularly clear in setting out the role of a Producer, and the producerly things they do. That's a tough job, because the role of a producer is not only hard to define, but it can differ for each production, depending on what is required. I'm still open towards producing - the big list didn't scare me off - but I'll need to see how I feel after a few more classes!
I certainly hope that we have a few more weeks like this in our time here!
Firstly, on Tuesday we had a Technical Class with Ray in which we moved onto lighting. It was an enjoyable class for me. Some of the terms which are also used in theatrical lighting were familiar, and a lot of the "how-they-work" I've covered in Physics. After that, playing with manual white-balance with the lighting was quite interesting. I agree with Ray that when something is perfectly white-balanced it doesn't always look right, so it can be an idea to adjust it to where you like it's look.
Next on Tuesday was Richard's screenwriting class. This was actually more tiring in the afternoon than first thing on Monday morning. Strange, huh? But it was a good lesson. I'm now far less happy with my script because I felt we covered some things which helped me realise where I could improve it. But I quite like the assignment of confidentially sharing our secrets. Some people have claimed to have no secrets. Okay, maybe you have nothing that you've never told anyone, but there must be something. Everyone has something.
Wednesday. Squeee. Wednesday was fun, because not only do I have a potentially-unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who, but the area of TV I'm most interested in is that BBC1 Saturday 7pm Drama slot. I'd love to work on Doctor Who, or Merlin, or maybe even the new Sherlock Holmes (which I think is going for that slot). I really like those types of show. So this lesson was nice and relevant in every way.
Thursday's class was good, too. I quite enjoy the history of cinema. The inventing, and then the evolution of a new art form are both really interesting. It's particularly strange looking at the original ways that film-reels were shown.
I'll cover The Battleship Potemkin in the next post, so I'll talk about Friday's second class - Introduction to Production. Abigail was really nice and she was particularly clear in setting out the role of a Producer, and the producerly things they do. That's a tough job, because the role of a producer is not only hard to define, but it can differ for each production, depending on what is required. I'm still open towards producing - the big list didn't scare me off - but I'll need to see how I feel after a few more classes!
I certainly hope that we have a few more weeks like this in our time here!
Monday, 5 January 2009
Bigger is Better
A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to y'all! Like nearly everyone else, I've taken a little break from blogging to do... well, very little indeed, myself. Okay, I've watched a lot of films and TV as one would expect, and that's been particularly good for one very silly reason. Christmas is a time for excess, so I got my dad to borrow a projector from work over the holidays and watched all manner of things on a massive white wall in my room. The novelty wore off after a while, but it was still fun having my own little cinema.
Now, because I've not been particularly busy post-Christmas, I've found that I've had too much to blog about. Probably because not doing much gives me too much time to think, and then I want to express those thoughts on 'ere. More for my own benefit, I think, than really to share them with you, because it helps me clarify it all in my own head.
But none of that for now, because I'm going to do a slightly less formal post about Christmas and New Year, and then get back onto topic with a large set of Mini-Reviews later in the week. Crazy. Oh, and I'm saving all the big Doctor Who stuff for its own post - 'cause I can, and you can't stop me!
Santa was good this year, as along with money and chocolate I got the following DVDs: Wall-E, The Austin Powers Boxset, Coupling Series Boxset, The Arrested Development Boxsets, and the Extended Lord of the Rings Boxset. The last one was partly given to me because I once said something along the lines of "I'm beginning to think I don't like LOTR any more", and I believe that person may have wanted me to take that back. Okay; I take it back. And 'cause I didn't get The Dark Knight, I went and bought it for myself.
In-between all the visual-indulgence that fits the season, I've used this opportunity to meet up with all my Edinburgh friends to its full extent. This included visiting Woolworths on its last day and getting myself 12 Terry's Chocolate Oranges for £3. Well, not just for me; I shared them. But when everything is 90% off, one just goes mad. One of my friends got Futurama Series Three for £3.50 instead of £35!
Well, that's enough nonsense for now. Expect more soon!
Now, because I've not been particularly busy post-Christmas, I've found that I've had too much to blog about. Probably because not doing much gives me too much time to think, and then I want to express those thoughts on 'ere. More for my own benefit, I think, than really to share them with you, because it helps me clarify it all in my own head.
But none of that for now, because I'm going to do a slightly less formal post about Christmas and New Year, and then get back onto topic with a large set of Mini-Reviews later in the week. Crazy. Oh, and I'm saving all the big Doctor Who stuff for its own post - 'cause I can, and you can't stop me!
Santa was good this year, as along with money and chocolate I got the following DVDs: Wall-E, The Austin Powers Boxset, Coupling Series Boxset, The Arrested Development Boxsets, and the Extended Lord of the Rings Boxset. The last one was partly given to me because I once said something along the lines of "I'm beginning to think I don't like LOTR any more", and I believe that person may have wanted me to take that back. Okay; I take it back. And 'cause I didn't get The Dark Knight, I went and bought it for myself.
In-between all the visual-indulgence that fits the season, I've used this opportunity to meet up with all my Edinburgh friends to its full extent. This included visiting Woolworths on its last day and getting myself 12 Terry's Chocolate Oranges for £3. Well, not just for me; I shared them. But when everything is 90% off, one just goes mad. One of my friends got Futurama Series Three for £3.50 instead of £35!Okay, time for something relevant: Richard's Assignment. I've been trying out different things to get myself writing, and it's certainly proving a little bit of a challenge for me. Not the actual writing, but coming up with the missing elements. In my one-on-one, Richard and I discussed the main issue with my script: it had no 2nd-Act. No middle. It went Equilibrium > Inciting Incident > Dénouement. I think this could be because it had a sort of punch-line quality, and we both noted this isn't too strange in short short-films, but the exercise is to try writing in the structure we've been talking about. So I'm still developing it, in honesty, but I'm confident that the more effort I put into working it all out before I write it means that there will be less to iron-out once I've written it. My self-enforced deadline of tomorrow evening should help, too.
Well, that's enough nonsense for now. Expect more soon!
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