Television Production

Shane Carruth. Shane Carruth is a director, writer, composer and actor, and has directed films such as Primer (2004) and Upstream Color (2013), with another film still being developed called The Modern Ocean that seems to have been put on the back burner, holding a star-filled cast. His work is unique and captivating, and since watching Upstream Color , frankly, I haven't stopped thinking about it. He broke through with his head-spinning take on time travel in Primer , the story of 2 men who accidentally discover time travel and become trapped in a loop, trying to rectify their mistakes. I watched Upstream Color first, and was taken aback by the creativity, and near lack of a dialogue throughout the film. The stories that Shane conjures are completely unique to anything I've seen, and I've found the representation of his stories alienating, which makes them all the more enticing. Also inspiring is that in Shane's films he will take on most roles in productio...

Character Profiles. I have gone through my edited version of the script and analysed it as much as I can in order to created a detailed character profile. Lester Nygaard Age: 30-50 Job: Sells Insurance Traits: Afraid, shy, dependent, easily influenced, timid, cowardly, panicked, out of character, afraid of himself after he's killed his wife, too trusting, doesn't have many friends, just acquaintances. Appearance: Autumn friendly, toned down 90s, flannel, blazers, jeans or straight leg trousers, conservative haircut Likes:  Trying to prove himself, making sales at work Dislikes: His wife (secretly), blood and gore, violence, confrontation, change, anything out of the ordinary Lorne Malvo Age: 30-50 Job: ? Traits: Mysterious, unsettlingly calm, unfazed by violence, oddly endearing, lacks real emotion, never shows real anger or happiness. Appearance: Dark, 1 signature item of clothing i.e. Long coat or a scarf? Everything else black, grey, navy. There'...

Directing with Steve Finn. For this lesson we were lucky enough to have Eastenders director Steve Finn come and tutor us for a day on how to work as a team with a director. It was very useful to know how a real TV director works with his crew to get the results he wants. I was able to take a lot of notes and we also shot a pre-written scene, working together as actors, a director, a DoP, and a sound.  Collaboration is what creates a project. It's not all down to the director. We learned about the general rules that people in the industry run by. For example, to get 10 minutes of useful footage a day for TV is good, and 5 minutes for film. Now-a-days, production is about speed, and if something can be achieved faster then it will be done. An example of this is a multi-camera setup; as the name suggests, multiple cameras are used and will roll at the same time to get many different angles of the same scene so that there are options and coverage. A multi-camera set up also ...

Mood Boards. I made mood boards so that I have a clearer idea of what I want from my shots, and to give my cinematographer a view of what I want.

The Script. This is the original screenplay for the scene I have chosen from Fargo, Season 1 Episode 1. This is my edited version of the script that I'm hoping to use. It may need some refining, but this is as accurate as I could get it. I've had to narrow it down to half its length, but I feel like I haven't cut out details that I really need in there. I've aimed to keep in details of things that tell the story, and the audience won't be confused about what is happening in the action. I did have to look at reducing the descriptive paragraphs in size so that I could get the script down to the right length, as there was a lot of action and speaking in one scene it did take up a lot of pages. I am slightly concerned about the minute-to-page ratio; since there is so much description in the page, it might be slightly shorter in shoot and I might look into lengthening the script an extra page just to make up for that room, but I'm not 100% sure on that yet...

Fargo. For my production, I've decided to make mine a remake of Fargo. I like the style that it's made in, how the action is played out and the strong story line. I also think the characters are detailed but there are less of them, which will make my producing job a bit easier. My Chosen Scene I've chosen the Pearl death scene. In this scene, Lester murders his wife Pearl after she pushes him emotionally. He calls a hitman, Lorne Malvo that he met in a doctors office and asks him to help, and when Lorne arrives he finds Lester being held at gun point by an officer, Vern Therman, who had come to question Lester on the death of Sam Hess and in the process discovered Pearl in the basement. Lorne shoots Vern in the back and then disappears in the basement. To avoid being caught, Lester knocks himself out on a wall in the basement next to his wife. My Ideas Initially, this scene seems complicated, but I've broken it down and I think it's going to be fairly...

Perspective. It's important as a director to view a shot from every perspective to get to know the scene. You should also know who is going to be where when you arrive on set; this way you can get started quickly and have time for all the shots you need. It's important to remember you're the director and you make the decisions- plans should be made all the way up to the shoot, but if something is going to be changed on the day of the shoot, that's your call. On Set When you arrive on set, there are a list of actions you must do in order to start production. Recce of the location It's important to recce the location when you first arrive to ensure everything is as it was when you first recce'd. This gives you a chance to understand the area in which you're working. Talk with cast Next, talk with the cast and ensure they're happy with what they're doing that day. Talk with crew Talk with the crew and make sure they're happy...

Lighting. Lighting is an extremely important feature when creating professional productions. Lighting is very technical and personally, I don't feel very confident in it and don't feel that it is my forte, but it meant that I learned a lot in this workshop, since I didn't know it very well. In the workshop, we worked with basic 3-point lighting, which consists of a key light (the main light), a fill light (fills in/softens shadows) and a back light (gives the subject a halo to make them look more 3D and separate from the background).  The important features are: Brightness/ exposure This is important to ensure the colours and brightness look close to what your eyes see. If they are off it's particularly noticeable and can make the subject look unrealistic, dull, or unclear, and can be fixed by increasing or lowering light levels/ number of lights used. Colour The colours are important to get right as this will make it easier in post-production to col...

Step 1: Choosing the Show. For this project I needed to decide on a TV show that I could use to recreate. I went through a process of watching different series on Netflix, writing down the pros and cons of each series to help me decide which would be the most interesting, simple and something that I could add my own style to.  I jotted down features that I viewed as pros and cons of each series, until I reached one that I liked enough and knew of a scene that I thought I could use. I may have criticised shows that I enjoy otherwise but I think for this stage it's important to be critical because if I just choose a show I like I may choose something that is complicated or not exciting enough. Ozark The first programme I watched was Ozark on Netflix. At first I was drawn in because of the actors in it and the description of it being a drama. It was also on my watch list anyway so I thought I would start watching. As listed, I didn't choose to do Ozark because it was ...

Directions. In this unit I will be exploring working as a director through the production of a short film. I will need to display my directorial skills and consider the details when working on this project. Workshop We started the unit off with an introduction to the brief and a workshop on directing our own mini-scene. We were given scenarios and in our group we each chose a different one to direct and act out among us. I chose a scenario that involved one character tripping over and dropping things. For this I decided to make it a comedy skit, it was simple and easy to edit, and fairly easy to tell the actors what I wanted.  If I had had more time I would have tried to find a better soundtrack but from past experience I thought it would be better have an okay one rather than none at all. I did find it difficult to explain the shots that I wanted from the person operating camera. I kept feeling like I wanted to take the camera and place it where I wanted but I...