Legend tripping, location based games, Transmedia storytelling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_tripping

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling

Could these provide ideas for developing Gracious Lake?  Angry Cwm?  Salacious Quarry?

Ten rules for visual storytelling

ten tips

Pixar's storytelling..

..Tips

Scala cinema article

Scala cinema info

Antonioni, L'avventura and neorealism

https://cinephiliabeyond.org/lavventura/

A link to some rated short films

What do you think? https://pin.it/uwc262kzpcoi74

Short film flowchart

What do you think? https://pin.it/nr7fqoqdaptjvf

'Fridging' - Passive female characters reduced to McGuffins?

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/sep/21/from-bond-to-itvs-strangers-why-is-everyone-fridging

Documentary Film - A very Short Introduction by Patricia Aufderheide

Documentary sits between fiction and journalism.

Starts with 'Naming', a discussion on definitions of documentary.  Its complicated! The term was first coined by John Grierson, famous for 'Night mail'.  Earliest example possibly 'Nanook of the North' by Robert Flaherty.

Form - what do documentaries look like?  There are some conventions, typically designed to impart the impression of truth and importance of the subject matter.  Examples are 'voice of god' narration, headshots of 'experts', and 'b-roll', stock images from archives, and an analytical argument rather than a story with characters.  Conventions are important, as they help the viewer understand what they are watching.

Artists break conventions and experiment with form eg. Stan Brakage (see 'Moth light').  The economic context also affects conventions.  Documentary makers have three sources of funding - patrons/sponsors, advertisers, and users/audiences.

Ethics also influence the form that documentaries take.  For example, how much simulation of reality is acceptable?  Falsifying reality is not acceptable. 

After Grierson and Flaherty, the other founding figure in documentary filmmaking is Dziga Vertov, best known for his city symphony 'Man with a Movie Camera'.

Cinema verité (Observational cinema, Direct cinema), was a 1960's style of documentary brought about by the wartime development of light weight equipment.  Old equipment demanded lots of planning, scripting, staging, lighting, re-enactment and interviewing.  Filmmakers could now go where the camera had never been before, and also capture synchronised sound, which made narration redundant.  See 'Primary' by Drew and Pennebaker (1960) and 'Salesman' by David and Al Maysles (1969).

Cinema Verité has now been absorbed into the mainstream, and is seen in political advertisements.  It is part of the 'credibility apparatus' of cops shows, docusoaps and reality tv shows.  As Aufderheide says, 'the approach has lost its novelty but not its ability to convince viewers that they are present, watching something unconstructed and incontrovertibly real'.

Part two of the book works its way through the subgenres of documentary;

1. Public affairs
2. Government propaganda
3. Advocacy
4. Historical
5. Ethnographic
6. Nature

The conclusion - to follow.

Some marketing ideas - 'epk' (Electronic press kit).

http://www.showmeshorts.co.nz/building-buzz-for-your-short-film-marketing-and-communication-for-beginners/

The 'Lookbook'

See this

Vid Prod. Dawkins/Wynd (2) Doing: Prep for vid prod.

(2) Doing: Preparing for Video Production.

1. Ideas and the research process.
2. Planning and Management.
3. Process and Equipment.
4. Reflection.
5. Flexibility.
6. Drive, enthusiasm and determination.

'Video Production - Putting Theory into Practice' - Dawkins and Wynd (1)

(1) Knowing - The theory of Video Production;

'ICARLING' -

I - Institution - publicly funded eg. BBC?  Public service eg. Ch4?  Funded by ads eg ITV?
C - Context - Historical, technological, economic, social, political - It's all about meaning.
A - Audience - Who is the video aimed at? Who, what, when, where.
R - Representation - How are people/groups/organisations represented?
L - Language - Semiotics, signs, signifiers, mise-en-scene, what are the images/text/edits etc saying beyond the obvious. Barthes' 'Myth'.
I - Ideology - What values and assumptions are present/absent?
N - Narrative - Conforms to accepted norms (Hollywood/linear), or messes with them?
G - Genre - Does the video transgress the usual boundaries of a particular genre, or mix them up?

Frank barrett's 'Provocative competence'

The concept of 'Provocative competence':

“Many veteran jazz musicians practice provocative competence; they make deliberate efforts to create disruptions and incremental re-orientations. This commitment often leads players to attempt to outwit their learned habits by putting themselves in unfamiliar musical situations that demand novel responses.  Saxaphonist John Coltrane is well known for deliberately playing songs in difficult and unfamiliar keys because “it made [him] think” while he was playing and he could not rely on his fingers to play the notes automatically.  Herbi Hancock recalls that Miles Davis was very suspicious of musicians in his quartet playing repetitive patterns so he forbade them to practice.  In an effort to spur the band to approach familiar tunes from a novel perspective, Davis would sometimes call tunes in different keys, or call tunes that the band had not rehearsed.  This would be done in concert, before a live audience.  “I pay you to do your practicing on the band stand,” Hancock recalls Davis’ commitment to “Keeping the music fresh and moving” by avoiding comfortable routines.  “Do you know why I don’t play ballads anymore?” Jarrett recalled Davis telling him.  “Because I like to play ballads so much (Carr, 1992, p. 53).” [Barrett, 1998, p. 609]

See 'Yes to the Mess' by Frank barrett.

FOR THE DURATION: 'Screenwriting in a digital era' - Kathryn Millard

This book confirms my suspicion that since the end of the 'Hollywood Golden Era', filmmaking has been more of an ad hoc affair, and not tied to a worked screenplay that is slavishly followed.  This was required by financial backers when film production (actually using film stock) was an industrial process involving hundreds of people.  Equipment was cumbersome, and setting up shots was a time consuming business.  The 'story' was everything.  Narrative was king.  Formulas were followed.

As equipment became more compact, and driven by filmmakers outside the Hollywood system, the screenplay became a more flexible entity.  A more reflexive style has been adopted that maximises opportunities to be creative. 

Now that everything has gone digital, screenwriting is no longer about one (man) sitting alone in a room at his typewriter.  'Pre-production' as a separate stage of filmmaking is becoming less distinct, as screenplays are allowed to develop alongside the actual production of a film.  This allows a greater degree of collaboration between participants in the process.  It also opens the door to more improvisation.

Screenplays can now take a multimedia form, including photographs and audio clips.  Errol Morris even sees the short film as a documentary screenplay.  The screenplay used to function as a proposal for a film, presented to potential backers.  Now, short films can play that role.

Kathryn Millard's 'manifesto for sustainable screenwriting':

1. Reject script development - Research. Produce. Release.
2. Think small - avoid overly-familiar ways of doing things.
3. Think big - embrace creative and intellectual ambition.
4. Write for place - chose a location and write for it.
5. Use what you have - grab low-hanging fruit.
6. Embrace constraints - imposed, incidental or accidental.
7. Collaborate - in every aspect of designing and executing the screen idea.
8. Embrace 'provocative competence' - leave your comfort zone.
9. Work on and off the 'grid' - don't just use social media.
10. Develop prototypes.  Work quick and dirty.  Your script can be a map, sketches, photo-texts, a wiki, a list, scenes that form part of a jigsaw, a graphic novel, a video trailer, a short film...
11. Recycle everything - ideas and resources.  Adopt 'adhocism', bricolage, and improvisation.
12. Cast your net wider.  Have more projects on the go at any one time.  An evolving network of enterprises maximises the chances of accidental discoveries.  Write and collaborate for other art forms.
13. A film should never be able to be summed up in a topic sentence.
14. Remember: life is infinitely richer than most of the stories told by the cinema.

'The Rule of Six' from 'In the Blink of an Eye'

Walter Murch discusses what makes a good edit, and details the way the craft has changed with developments in technology.

The ideal moment to cut is dictated by six elements, which are in a hierarchy of importance, such that the ones lower down the list should be sacrificed before those above them (editing requires compromise).

1. Most important is Emotion.  The cut needs to conform to the emotion of the moment.  I'm not exactly sure what this means as there were no examples given.
2. Story comes next.  I would have thought this would come at the top - if the edit doesn't advance the story, it is redundant, and that is bad in principle.
3. Where you cut is also determined by rhythm - the point needs to be 'rhythmically interesting and right'.  I think this is closely related to pace.
4. Something I had not considered before, and is particularly apposite for editing material for the 'big screen', is eye-trace.  Every edit has a focus of interest, and this is where the viewer's eye is drawn to when they watch a film in the cinema.  This can often be the eyes of a character.  The edit that follows must not be too far from the previous focus of interest, or the viewer will become disoriented (unless this is the effect wanted).
5. An edit must respect the two-dimensional plane of the screen, or 'planarity'.  This is basically the grammar of three dimensions transposed to two, i.e. not crossing the 180 degree line, 'stage line'.
6. Finally, the three-dimensional space of action - an edit should respect the three-dimensional continuity of the actual space, where people are standing in a room in relation to each other.

So this is the list of priorities.  Murch add a percentage of importance to each one, such that the top three are by far the most important, such that the lower ones can be violated without much cost as long as emotion, story and rhythm are satisfied.  He also stresses that no higher priorities should be sacrificed for lower ones. So, to summarise ;

1. EMOTION          51%
2. STORY               23%
3. RHYTHM           10%
4. EYE - TRACE                                                          7%
5. TWO - DIMENSIONAL PLANE OF SPACE         5%
6. THREE - DIMENSIONAL SPACE OF ACTION   4%

Of course, all this only applies to Murch's Hollywood based movies - 'The Conversation',  'American Graffiti',  'Apocalypse Now', 'The Godfather' franchise, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', 'The English Patient', 'The Talented Mr. Ripley'.  However, it is all grist for the mill of someone interested in the craft.

Parys Mountain Mystery

Here

Screenwriting in a digital era

Milestones...

The mysterious disappearance of Mary, kickboxing tutor to the kids of Cemaes bay

Mary Hasselblad, kickboxing tutor to the kids of Cemaes bay, went missing in the summer of 2018.  There was talk in the British legion about her relationship with Kurt Shoemaker, the bad-tempered time-traveling geochemist called in by the county council to survey the local abandoned mine for useful heavy metal deposits.

Retired chief-inspector and amateur geologist 'Rolly' Saundersfoot can't drop the case.  He's convinced that a dried-up settlement pool at the mine holds the key to finding out what has happened to Mary Hasselblad, kickboxing tutor to the kids of Cemaes Bay.

A local photographer, Bobby Shutterstock, has a powerful tool for manipulating the flow of time.  Can he help Rolly find Mary, kickboxing tutor to the kids of Cemaes Bay?  Or is Bobby actually Kurt Shoemaker in another time dimension?

Will Rolly discover that he has strayed into a dangerous time portal in the dried-up settlement pool?  Will he find Mary?  Is Kurt Bobby?

The kickboxing kids of Cemaes bay want answers.

Parys Mountain Mystery

Short film idea 2.

A man is running...he is afraid - very afraid. 

We see him in a variety of different rural contexts, clearly being persued (in his eyes) by something terrifying. 

He finally stops running, but looks behind him wareily. 

He slumps to his knees, but then sees some magnetic tape at his feet. 

He looks apauled, clutches his head and then begins to roll around on the ground, calling out in pain, as if on fire. 

Slowly we see a disolving transition to the goddess Magnette, in all her scary glory, bedecked in magnetic tape and reels. 

End.

Short film forms

From 'Filmmaker IQ'

Lord Govatron's castle

'Witches Cradle' by Maya Deren and Marcel Duchamp

Here

A location: Treborth cycle tunnel

Maya Deren.

Bresson says....

Short film idea 1 - "Umbrellas of Caernarfon".

So, there's the outline of the concept, ready to be refined.  All lines of dialogue to be sung.  The group of men are framed by corporate-looking flags, which are burnt.  The shock troupe/troop of women dance into the sunset.  The men are left humiliated.

Shot one: photographer hearding subjects.

Shot two: marching girls.

Shot three: ties are straightened, toupee combed.

Shot four: big water pistols are revealed.

Shot five: closeups of looks of fright from men.

Shot six: grinning girls.

Shot seven: The men try to put up umbrellas.

Shot (n)...TV Batman water fight a la comic book.

Shot 37: girls laughing and refilling water pistols.

End.

Towards an aesthetic of slow in contemporary cinema.

Reading Bresson's 'Cinematography' somehow led me here:

http://www.16-9.dk/2008-11/side11_inenglish.htm

And then, after googling 'temps mort', i find;

https://theartsofslowcinema.com/tag/temps-mort/

The Broken Light bulb.

Last Saturday I went up to the derelict buildings in Nantlle quarry to get some footage to make a film along the lines of the exercise 'A Sense of Place' as detailed in the first semester unit of the Filmmaking MA led by Joanna Wright.

It is an atmospheric place with the melancholy of lost lives and lost livelihoods.  When the quarry was in operation, it was a place of great suffering, where poor people were exploited by those who owned it.  There are some accounts to be found on YouTube, one of which I used the sound track from for a video piece which used still images of a blank wall in one of the quarry buildings.

See here:

 

 

Anyway, I used a lightweight 'travel' tripod, and a tiny plastic table top one, but found that for some shots I could have done with something in between to have the camera at about 8 inches above the ground.  I noticed how quickly I worked to frame and set up the shots I wanted, despite having forgotten my homemade cardboard monitor hood.  On a sunny day this makes seeing what you've got in frame much easier.  It also helps with checking focus.

 

There was a light wind in the grass, and grasshoppers and crickets were chirping, so I was looking forward to using these natural sounds.  However, when I got home and reviewed what I had, there was an annoying hum on the soundtrack, which made it of limited use.  I had previously used the sound captured by my camera (Nikon 5200), but clearly for subtle background ambient sounds I need something better.

 

I tried editing using my hooky copy of Premier, but it crashed, so I reverted to Movie Maker.  Despite this being a very simple program, it does all the basics, and I can use it quickly.  This reminds me of an impressive use of the Paint program I saw when studying for my PGCE in ICT - if you know a program well, and are creative, you can do impressive things, even if it's not a 'professional' level piece of software.

 

I had 37 minutes of material on the timeline, which quickly came down to 10 minutes.  I played with the speed of the clips, and tried some colour grading, including monochrome effects.  I ended up with some quite 'contemporary' images reminiscent of perfume ads - at the beginning of each clip there is always a wobble from starting the camera, and when this is speeded up it gives a nice organic, down to earth, home-made feel, which has been used extensively for some styles of TV ad.  Needless to say, I immediately trimmed the clips to get rid of it. I also realised that leaving the footage effect-free was better, except for the time manipulation.

 

Further whittling brought things down to around 3 minutes.  Having discovered the central theme of the light bulb, I kept some of the ambient sound in for these clips, which creates a certain feel to that bit of the film.  The clips are in the order in which I shot them, so the film is a journey into a sad place.  The broken light bulb, for me, is a powerful metaphor.  We all feel like broken light bulbs sometimes; We have an identity, form and shape, but not in a functioning one...we are void of ideas...we have no ability to illuminate.  Some people feel like a broken light bulb hanging in a derelict building, swinging in the breeze, unseen.

 

I made a simple sound track using the 'chapel organ' pre-set on my keyboard, recorded using my phone.  I couldn't help humming along towards the end of the three minutes.  I'm not sure this works, so I think I will have to re-do the sound before I upload the film to my YouTube channel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Plot twists

From 'Writer'sEdit'.

'If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."  Anton Chekhov

Noone is safe.

The characters want the plot to twist, and will make it.

The audience wants its expectations to be subverted.

Freewrite.

Movie History

Went to the library on Friday, and read this;

It was quite good.  It had some nice pictures too:

She clearly wanted to be alone.

 

 

He loved cowboys.

 

 

Especially heroes, like this one.

 

But on the Ukrainian steppes, Earth was what mattered.

 

'Spinning Top' was not his real name.

 

 I didn't realise he died so recently. Obviously a good chess player.

He loved donkeys.

 

I am a European.

 

And I quite like rules.

 

It's not all about Hollywood.

 

But some of it is.

 

 

Kevin Brophy 'Creativity'

Will this be saved until I can get online?  No point in continuing until I know.  Ahh, now I'm home and online, I can see that a draft was saved, and can be published later.

Anyway, I had a brief look at Kevin's book, one chosen at random when I first got to the library this morning.

What is a 'story'?

I am not going to piss around with fancy fonts etc as this is a diary just for me and possibly some tutors in future.  I am going to use this blog as a reminder of the research I am doing in preparation for an MA in Filmmaking, that will start in September.

I am currently reading about stories - what they are and how they are put together, their structures and specific elements.  'Professional Storyboarding' (Paez & Jew) has a good, simplified chapter on this.  So -

Gestures create actions,

actions create beats,

beats create shots,

shots create scenes,

scenes create sequences,

sequences create acts,

acts create the story  (p90)

 

 

More specifically, I like the simple definitions, which help me to understand what a story IS;

 

A progression from point A to point B (p87)

This obviously implies change, and in the context of visual storytelling ie films, this often means a change of circumstances in a character, or protagonist, thus, a visual story can be defined as;

The emotional journey of a character in their pursuit of going from point A to point B  (p88)

 

 

In terms of the basic elements as listed above, a new one for me is 'beats'.  These are actions that describe a single thought.  An example might be a character picking up a cup and throwing it at a wall, the single thought being 'I hate him!'.  And we can 'drill down' beyond this to see each action as a number of gestures. 

 

 

 

When I worked with Jim Brook in Cheltenham, helping him produce a film based on the Oedipus myth for his PhD,  it was all about gesture, and its place in duration.  I've just picked up a copy of Henri Bergson's 'Time and Free Will' in the Red cross charity shop in Caernarfon, which is where all that duration stuff in Deleuze comes from. 

 

Anyway, back to the story....

 

More definitions;

 

Motivation - The driving force inside the protagonist, created by an 'object of desire'.

Character - The infusion of human nature into the story.

Conflict - This creates the interest/drama in the story.  Could be internal, personal (between friends?), or extra-personal (societal).

The antagonist - The personification of the force working against the protagonist.  The nemesis.

The inciting incident - The event that starts the ball rolling, unbalancing the protagonist.

Plot - The action of the story, usually external conflict.

Climax - The point of maximum emotional intensity or conflict.

Resolution - The epilogue, the point where the audience takes stock and reflects on the emotional journey.

Theme - The big idea: The character's relationship with the world at large.

 

 

 



Story idea 1. Science Hermit saves Britanya.

'Britanya', post-apocalypse (some time in the near-future).

The government opposition are being rounded up.  A woman quickly gathers a few possessions, including an old ring.  She looks lovingly at a photograph of an old woman with a young girl, who is herself many years ago.  A quick phone call - 'I'm getting out of here, and you should too!'.

The woman heads for the hills and sets up camp in a cave in the mountains.  She is 'Science Hermit', an eccentric wizard woman, of Asian decent, middle-aged, brilliant in her field of 'Energy Code Communications'.  The cave shows evidence of her creative problem-solving vis. Heath - Robinson gismos for water supply, air circulation etc.

Long shots of Science Hermit in 'Elysium'.

Ultimate Mountain Tracker Woman is a young, blond, athletic hotshot just out of training school.  Her dream is to serve the Status Quo using her superior fitness and intelligence.  Her government apartment is full of trophies, as well as an assortment of weapons and technical equipment. 

Dressed ready for action, UMTW looks out of her high-rise longingly at the mountains in the distance.

'Ultimate Mountain Tracker Woman' (UMTW) is hired by Lord Govatron to find Science Hermit as she is classed as a dangerous subversive who is also needed to help the authorities to crack codes to access free energy.

Lord Govatron is an elder statesman, concerned to maintain order at a time of increasing anarchy.  He spends a lot of time shouting down communication devices at subordinates.  He looks ill, is overweight, and wears two shirts, a wide tie and double-breasted jacket, in clashing colours.

UMTW is actually the second tracker; UMTW1 got drowned in a bog that she was tricked into crossing by Science hermit on Lord Govatron's first attempt to catch her.

After smart detective work, UMTW2 discovers Science Hermit's location, but after watching her from a distance for a while, she becomes entranced.  Science hermit again tries to trick her pursuer, but fails.  She is impressed by UMTW2's nous, and decides to seduce her.  This is a risk she decides is worth taking.

During the seduction, Lord Govatron tries to contact UMTW2 via her embedded comms device.  This is the point where UMTW2 has to decide whether to join the subversives, or stay with the authorities.  She joins.

The two women then plot together, using their different skills, to overthrow the authorities.  It will be a mission to destroy the seat of government - an imposing post-industrial castle - and kill Lord Govatron.

All goes to plan, except that the only way Science Hermit can see how to kill Lord Govatron is by tricking UMTW2 into carrying a bomb into the castle and detonating it while she is pretending to seduce her (former) boss.

After the explosion, we see Science Hermit walking amongst the debris of the explosion, cut with national celebrations and bell ringing.  She stops to pick up a ring on a bloodied finger - the ring she gave to UMTW2.  The celebratory bells continue.