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.