Parys Mountain Mystery

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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.