Television Production

Constructive Analysis. Key Terms Appointment TV- watching TV when it's 'live' on the channel, as opposed to catch-up TV. Visual Grammar- What you see on screen- communicating without words Mise En Scene- Setting, design, lighting, costume, and staging and how they help us interpret what's on screen Genre- How it is categorised Cinematography- shots (i.e. mid shot, close up) and camera movement Editing- How meaning and context are visually constructed Sound- Aesthetic use of voice, music and audio effects Documentary- Critical issues of representation, authenticity and 'cinema truth' Read and Write Gold- Will read back work to you so you can ensure your work makes sense Matchware Mindview- Mindmapping software Critical Approaches There are 3 main kinds of critical approaches that can be taken, and these can be broken down into more specific themes, as colour-coded (duplicates are multicoloured). Aesthetic Aesthetic refers to the style o...

Turning up the Volume. Today we had a workshop with Steve Coombes, a screenwriter, who gave us invaluable tips for developing our stories and communicating with the viewer. Think of the moment He made a point of thinking about the moments that will stick with the viewer, and then write the script around that moment. This pinnacle moment is what the viewer will remember about your production, no matter what the production is. The audience is easily distracted, and so you should only tell them what they need to know. If you start writing a conversation about how the character's day was, no viewers would be interested or remember the story. However if you include too many 'moments' (i.e. too many explosions) there will be no specific moment that the viewer will remember. Dunkirk (2017) Dunkirk is a very popular film of 2017, released in July but still with viewings showing in October. This film is great because it has those memorable moments that stay with the vi...

This House Has People In It. This video is one of my favourite short films by YouTube channel Adult Swim. The video consists of (fiction) surveillance footage from an American family home. The shots show different angles from throughout the house and the production is edited in a format that is much like a security camera scroll- it goes from camera to camera as the scene unfolds. The parents are talking in the kitchen with the daughter lying face down on the floor. Eventually the parents turn the conversation to the daughter on the floor and try to get her up. They believed she was throwing a tantrum but soon realise she's stuck. As the family get more and more panicked she begins to sink into the floor and chaos unfolds as the cameras continue to flick between one another showing the rest of the house. Adult Swim The YouTube channel Adult Swim joined YouTube on March 2nd, 2006. Channel stats from Social Blade . Since then, they have made 8,302 public videos and ga...

Camera, Action, Edit. This week we did workshops on the use of camera and coverage, and Adobe Premier Pro. Camera We went over how to use the cameras for coverage of a scene and had a trial and error practice session with them so we have a chance to get used to using them when it comes to actually filming our projects. Our first session was to make a short production based on 'The Chair', which could be any interpretation we wanted, it just had to be a scene with someone sitting in a chair. This video is what I came up with as it was simple but had a basic plot to it. We had to focus on coverage; getting different angles in order to give us more options when it came to editing so that we could create more of a dynamic story. It keeps the viewers eye moving around the screen and keeps it interesting, however too many movements or cuts can be confusing and hard to keep up with. Positives I was happy with the plot that I came up with for this as it was easy to film and...

Update #1. This is my first report completely dedicated to my story idea. I've made progress and now have an indefinite idea that I can work on and that could become something. Crawl Space A first-time buyer at a house viewing notices a small door that the estate agent refuses to acknowledge. Where will her curiosity lead her? The Plot A first-time buyer is being shown around a house. Walking into one of the bedrooms, the buyer notices a small door in the corner of the room. The seller tells her that it's nothing special but something draws the buyer in. The seller excuses themselves to take a phone call, and the buyer takes their chance. Opening the door on all fours, they crawl inside, and suddenly, the door slams behind them. As they bang on the door, calling for help, the seller walks back into the room. Still on the phone, the seller says "send the next one in" and hangs up. Characters The estate agent is a well-dressed 20-30 year old man. He ...

Fast Story Production. The Brief We have been tasked to create a short story with 3 different prompts: a photographer , a serial dater , and a train station . We have to focus on the who, what, where, why and when of the story and create a brief outline of the story to present to the class. The Idea A catfish (Lena Dunham) has been using a photos of an instagram model and old school friend, Michele Alves, on her dating profile for years, hiding her real identity from everyone she's spoken to. She finds a connection with Nick (Jason Sudeikis) whom she meets through the account and it's time to come clean, but what happens when she sees Michele at the same train station she's meeting her date at? The Pitch Today is the day; Alice is meeting Nick at the train station. She's terrified of what he will think of meeting the real her. She's at the train station half an hour early, just to be sure. Everything is going to plan, until she hears "Alice?"...

The Beginning. Starting the Ideas For our first lesson we looked into the creation of a story and how an idea can be formed, taking a look at the 'ingredients' for a story and idea, and how that can eventually develop into a script. The starting point is 'The Meeting', and I've brainstormed a few very rough ideas that hopefully will expand into something more detailed over the next few days. From class I had already come up with 2 possible sets: a coffee shop, and a prison. The coffee shop set was easier to source and so I tried to think of a story that could fit into that scenario but struggled as I had already thought of a snippet of a story set in the prison idea: a son meets his criminal father for the first time and is ready to go in and hate him for what he did but ends up wanting to have more of a relationship with his father but has conflict from his mother who does dislike the father. My issue is I've struggled to think of how to create a realisti...