Holding Pattern

Treatment - Holding Pattern

As mentioned before, the treatment is the first step of a production, this takes place even before the script is written. The following is a list of what I intend to include in my treatment for Holding Pattern:

- Plot
- Underlying Themes and Issues
- Casting & Character Profiles
- Location Profiles
- Equipment
- Crew
- Mise-en-scene (Costume / Set / Props / Lighting)
- Sound
- Scheduling
- Rehearsals
- Administration

Pre-Production Documents

There are various stages of film production and one of the most important parts is the pre-production. This includes various documents that should be done thoroughly to ensure the smooth running of the rest of the project. One of the first things to be done is a treatment. This includes all the information a producer would need to know in order to make important decisions regarding finance for the film. For example plot, casting, location, eqipment, scheduling etc. The following is a list of documents that I intend to produce as part of the pre-production process of Holding Pattern:

- Treatment
- Storyboard
- Film Production Overview Sheet
- Schedule
- Rehearsal Plan
- Lighting Plan
- Release Forms
- Recce Sheet
- Health & Safety / Risk Assessment
- Contingency Plan

Characterisation Exercise 1

Exercise Brief: 'Pick an object and invent a scenario based on emotion and intention. Then block out some action and camera shots.'

Object: Book
Scenario: Reading a book, it late at night. Have to finish the chapter for lesson tomorrow. Falling asleep and can’t stay awake.

Blocking Action & Camera Shots:

- Sitting down at a desk, the lamp is on and there are cups of coffee on the side next to a pile of books.
- Close Up of eyes
- Medium shot to show the desk and the character’s back
- Birds-eye shot of book (blur / out of focus shot to show character is falling asleep and can’t concentrate.)
- Birds-eye shot of character flicking through the pages of the book (emphasising the chapter is still not finished)
- Close up shot of clock (diegetic sound of clock ticking)
- Medium shot of character with eyes closed leaning on their hand
- Close up of character awake and with a shocked expression (its morning and the chapter is still not finished)

Action Verbs:

These are some action verbs that could have been used to describe the ‘actable moments’ to the actor:

- Calculate
- Weigh down
- Suffocate
- Engage
- Complain
- Pressure

Directing Actors

Working with actors is a major aspect of becoming a director. It is very easy to tell someone what to do, but directing someone is an entire technique and skill on its own. You need to be:

- Organised
- Creative & Technical
- Autocrative / Authoritative / Democratic
- Visionary
- Self Motivated
- Entrepreneurial

Especially when working with actors you need to:

- Provide constructive feedback
- Earn actors’ trust and respect
- Understand different communication techniques
- Allow them ‘act’ rather than ‘do what you told them’
- Read through the script with them – Primary Blocking
- Make key notes (i.e. position, posture or even actor suggestions)
- Ask them questions and ask for questions from them
- Encourage actors to develop their character background
- Work through the script from ‘beat-to-beat’

Blocking

This means physically working out how the scene will work. This includes the positions of actors, the camera, the set and props.


Scene Descriptors

These are emotional events of a scene. These can be used as tools to generate appropriate beats and action verbs.

Action Verbs

These are words are very useful on set when trying to achieve a particular emotion from an actor. They describe an ‘actable moment’ clearly for the actor to ‘feel’ as a character and then act it out through the script. Below are some examples.

Facts

When directing an actor it is more practical to use facts in your explanation rather than psychologising. For example if you are explaining a particular scene and say “she can’t cry” is harder for the actor to ‘act’ that out. Therefore a simple fact like “she doesn’t cry” would be a more appropriate way of communicating your idea. In addition to this, describing what a character is or isn’t like complicates things further. A fact about what that character does illustrates the direction you are trying to achieve from the actor.

Characterising Beats

There are various types of beats that are involved with actors:

Plot Beats

- Story beat – progresses the story / plot
- Preparation beat – sets up the beginning of a sequence
- Expository beat – reveals information about the previous circumstances
- Crisis beat – reveals a problem or conflict in the story
- Mood beat – presents an emotional circumstance
- Reversal beat – reverses an action

Character Attitude Beats

- Dispositional beat – reveals a personality trait
- Motivational beat – expresses desire and provides reason for actions
- Deliberate beat – expresses a reflective or emotional thought
- Decisive beat – indicates a significant decision

Character Thought Beats

- Emotive beat – expresses what a character feels
- Reflective beat – expresses what a character concludes considers or discovers
- Informative beat – presents information relevant to the film
- Exaggeration beat – expresses maximising or minimising of a topic
- Argumentative beat – contains a conflict or problem

[Lecture Notes: Julius Ayodeji - 13/11/06]

During the seminar we discussed our choice of script with a tutor and other students that chose the same script. I have chosen “Holding Pattern” for my final film project.

After reading the script I felt the story is about a Romanian character named Bogdan who is unemployed and currently living in the UK. He makes various attempts to apply for a job to earn a living. Bogdan is not very fluent in English however seems to be an intellectual and bright person. He has very less money and is awaiting a reply from the unemployment office at the local council. He receives a letter from the council and is left unemployed and homeless.

This script really appealed to me because of various factors. Firstly there is not great detail about the set or the actual plot. The script leaves many parts to the reader’s imagination to interpret in their own way. I feel this is a good thing as it will allow me to use my own interpretation of the story and develop it from script to screen. Also there is no dialogue in the script. Once again I see this as a positive factor as it will obligate me to use visual grammar to convey the story instead of speech. Based on my interpretation the script can have a linear or a non-linear narrative structure, which gives me more room to experiment with developing the beginning middle and end. The script has different locations; I see this as a challenge as there will be different shooting conditions at each location. Bogdan is the only character in the film, therefore his character can be developed more as it is a short film and there is limited time. Finally I feel that the subject of unemployment and immigration is interesting and can be explored and developed to give a particular message to the audience.

Units & Beats - Intro

The Dramatic Unit

The dramatic unit is a particular section of the film where :

- A problem is highlighted
- The obstacles that prevent the solution are overcome
- A change occurs
- A resolution is found.

This resolution may highlight further problems; hence another dramatic unit has begun. This cycle continues until the ultimate resolution has been found.

The Beat

The beat is a significant part of the dramatic unit can be described as ‘a moment of changed awareness’, which is normally a result of a decisive moment in the plot. This realisation can happen to a character or the audience (when they understand more than the characters in the story – another form of dramatic irony). These audience / character / plot beats can be used to prepare guidelines or steps for actors to follow.

Discuss ‘WANL’

The seminar session was about the ‘vision’ of film-makers. We watched several versions of a short film made by different students and were asked to answer a set of questions for each.

1. What was the vision?
2. What are the underlying themes?
3. How are these ideas / themes are visually represented?

4. Are there contradictions or faults present? If so what are they?

The main plot of the film was about a script writer working on a project. After watching the films and doing the exercise I learned that although the plot was the same, and almost all of the dialogue was the same, each film was very different in its own way. Each version had a different approach in terms of mise-en-scene, mood, environment, atmosphere, framing and direction. In addition to this, even though the actor was playing the same role, he was a completely different character and personality in each film. Therefore a story can be interpreted and portrayed in various ways, which can be dependant on the storyteller and the techniques used to illustrate it in the form of a film. It will be interesting to see how the scripts that our year has been given to produce will be developed into different versions.

Week 12: Production & Direction for Camera - Intro

Our first lecture was an introduction to the module ‘Production & Direction for Camera’. We were introduced to what we will be covering through the year, what we will be assessed on and also how we will be assessed.

During the first term we will cover creating and developing story structure, rehearsal processes, working with actors and ‘screencraft’. This involves seven basic aspects of putting together a scene – ‘Seven Visual Blocks’: space, line, tone, shape, colour, movement and rhythm. In the second term we will study the seven visual blocks in further detail and also discuss approaches to shooting, editing and basic production techniques. Finally in the third term we will mainly be concentrating on producing the final edit of our film and all the documentation to go with it.

We have been given five different scripts to read, out of which we need to choose one to produce and direct.

Week 26: Review of Portfolio Exercise 7

Overall I feel that all the videos met the brief of showing a passage of time in the story. Most of them were an illusion of real-time and ellipsed time. Also all fellow students made an effort to incorporate images and sound as a combination to convey the story. A lot of the sound was recorded by themselves, for example a popular one was the alarm clock. It is an efficient way of showing passage of time and is also an easy diegetic sound to record and compliment the image.

Most of the audiovisuals were fast paced as they were trying to show time passing by. It would take too long and would become boring if they were in literal real time. The stories were mainly clear and straightforward so they could be conveyed simply. Music was a popular source of sound and was a form of portraying the emotions and atmosphere related to the story. Like the storyline the composition had to be clear enough to understand and interpret what was happening in the shot. Therefore simple things like a yawn or someone trying to open the door were exaggerated slightly.

Director Portfolio Exercise 7

For this exercise we were required to produce an audiovisual project that shows a passage of time. It was to include 10-12 images and also three sources of sound (one which recorded by ourselves.)

Need a Job

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My audiovisual project is about finding a job. The story is simple, the character is looking for a job, applies at various places, waits for a reply (passage of time), recieves a letter and an interview date and finally gets the job. There are 15 images and two sources of sound. At the beginning there is a 'click' sound representing the job search online, and I created the song (background music) on Cubass using MIDI. I initially recorded the sound of paper printing for the CV image, and also some dialogue indicating the interview date. However the sound quality was really was really bad and did not flow with the rest of the project.

Self Inventory Exercise

This exercise involved reviewing my own experiences, breaking them down into groups and seeing how these experiences can influence my creative work. This exercise was helpful and interesting as it made me see how most creative work always has a personal edge to it. An idea evolves from an experience, which can be a memory, something you saw or heard that affected you in a certain way. For example in the first year of my course I made a one minute narrative about camping. This idea came from one of my first experiences of camping. I experienced this at a later stage however my film was about how exciting your first camp is even if it is just in your garden, as it was for the character in my film.

Direction: Seeing Scripts Seminar

We were given the task of reading a film script that we hadn’t seen and then writing a story outline on it. I chose to read Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. The main themes of the story are the meaning of life and relationships. The main character Kanji Watanabe discovers he has cancer and only has a year to live. Until then he had spent up to thirty years working in the same office doing the same job. After finding out about his condition he tried to make the most of his time by going out and having fun, seeing a girl and working on a project at work that made a difference to other people’s lives.

http://www.varley.net/Pages/top_25_movies.htm, 2006

Kurosawa has a distinctive style of directing, he has made many critically acclaimed films one of them being Rashomon. In this film the story is told in four different points of views. It is very interesting how Kurosawa portrays each character and their version of the story. In a similar way in Ikiru the audience learns about Watanabe working on this project after his death through his work colleagues at his funeral. The rest of the story is told through flashbacks. In addition to this the characters in the film realise Watanabe’s great actions at the same time the audience does. Therefore it was like putting bits of the puzzle together. Each colleague remembered certain times they had with Watanabe and all the bits added up – why he had missed work, why he was so full of enthusiasm all of a sudden, how hard he had worked on the project. Once again Kurosawa used different points of views to deliver the narrative.

I would really like to see the film now; it would be interesting to see how the shots look on screen.