Aurelija's TV production blog

For something done last minute it isn't the worst, but it could have been better if I haven't put it off.  If I've done this on time, I still could have refilmed some scenes that would have made it better and more believable (the scene in the car).  Script wise I have no idea. Am I proud of it? No, but I give myself points for trying. Is it bad? Probably. Is it a complete dissapointment to me? No, because even if it's really bad, it gave me experience that I didn't have before and even though I never want to write another screenplay again I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully when I have to do something like this again - I'll be better at it. Probably the most important thing I've learned  is that I need to figure out a way to manage my time and don't let things pile up.  As well as while taking out the kit - grab a light, because even if I end up not needing it, I'll have an option to use it and it would make filming way easier. I regret...

The first cut without the music, titles and colour change. The second cut with music and titles, I tried to do something with the colours but it ended up creating a lot of noise because of dark filming conditions. The final cut, I made the making tea a bit more dynamic by using quick cutting. Sadly I couldn't refilm the scene in the car and couldn't film more street footage and 'Harold' running to make it more believable. I ended up changing the title of the story and the titles overall because the first font didn't look pleasing for my eye. 

It's important to know the anwer to the question "what is it?" Hollywood uses sequels, prequels and reboots to avoid the question and make easy money (pre-sold franchise) Logline is the most important part of a hollywood screenplay Good logline has - Irony -A compelling mental picture -Audience and costs -A killer title.  It has to be about someone.The story has to have one or two main people we can focus our attention on, identify with, and want to root for. Important to know what genre you're wrting. 10 types of movies - Monster in the House(Jaws, Tremors, Alien, The Exorcist, Fatal Attraction, and Panic Room ) - Golden Fleece  (Star Wars; The Wizard of Oz; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Back To The Future; and most "heist movies." ) -Out of the Bottle ( Liar, Liar; Bruce Almighty; Love Potion ; Freaky Friday; Flubber ) -Dude with a Problem  (The genre that ranges in style, tone, and emotional substance from Breakdown and Die Hard to Titanic ...

MICHAELA COEL I found out about her while doing reasearch for this unit. She's mostly known for her show "Chewing Gum" on Channel 4. The shows idea started on stage. Michaela wrote one-woman show "Chewing Gum Dreams" for her collage graduation project (I wrote more about the show in another post). Personally I think she's a great writer and overall person, I loved her acceptance speach in BAFTA 2016 . As a female, who wants one day to work in TV, I'm very happy to see other women succeed in this field. CHARLIE BROOKER I chose him because I love his show "Black Mirror" and wanted to find out more about the mastermind behind it. First, of from what I read about him, he has very dark sense of humour which has got him in a lot of trouble back in the day. I was not familliar with his work before "Black Mirror", but after visiting TV Go Home   I would love to watch some of his previous work, such as Nathan B...

Screenwriting was definitely something that I was completely terrified of doing. I have never written a screenplay before and only had a rough idea how it even looks like. Throughout this unit I found out that coming up with the idea for a script isn't the hardest part. The hardest part is to materialize the idea into a script and make it 10 pages long. At first I thought I'd go with the idea of clashes of class which I described in this post , but after trying to write a script about it I realised I had no idea about what I was writing. Thus I decided to go with a very different theme. I was inspired by what happend to one of my friends. However I tried to imagine the story from a guys who asked her out POV and make it kind of rom-com style. The research I did before starting anything was watching a lot of short comedy films on this website and trying to analyse the pattern and the camera work. I noticed that comedy films have more dynamic camera work than, for example, ...

To be completely honest my shoot was done very last minute, so there weren't a lot of planing done beforehand. The location of the action was the easiest part to sort out. Because I was thinking about how I will be able to film the extract/trailer for the project I wrote it in the semi deatached house in suburban neighbourhood, which is the kind of accomadation I live in so I decided to film inside and outside my rented house and getting the premission of my landlord took me just 5 minutes. Casting also was the least of my problems, because I knew for some time that the character of Charlotte will be portrayed by my friend Gabrielė who as well studies at UCA. The character of Harold was a bit harder to find, but thankfully Logan agreed to help me out.  Because everything was very last minute I didn't have time to do any shot-listing , but because of short daylight hours I decided to film everything within two days. First day we did all scenes inside the house and the ...

CHEWING GUM (2015-2017) It's a sitcom created by  Michaela Coel. What I loved the most about it was the breaking of the 4th wall, which is not a very common feature. The show is set in a council estate and is about a 24 year old virgin black woman, who was raised in a very strict catholic family and the way she decided to live her life like a normal person. The show shines a light on racism ( 02x02), religion(throughout the series), class and sexism(02x03). The show only has 2 seasons and has been discontinued, but the shows witter Michaela Coel has mentioned that there's a season 3 in the plans, however nobody knows when it will come out. The sitcom uses lots of cringe-humour which I tried to replicate (not really sure how it turned out).  I tried to look into the characters more and the way they were more than clichés. For example in the begining Tracy's mom seems to be very religious and narrow minded and even throws Tracy out of her home for hookin...

While looking for short films I tried to look for rom-com style films where the guy faces rejection or is really awkward.   HI-GLOW RETRO One of the first short films that ticked my boxes was Hi-Glow Retro. It's about a high schooler who has a crush on one of the popular girls in school and his main goal is to sleep with her. In order to get laid after the 70's themed school dance he asks his colegue to teach him how to dance. In the end he spends most of the school dance sitting at the table because he was to anxious to go dancing and when he finally steps on the dancefloor he embaresses himself in front of everyone there. However he end up with his colegue instead of the girl he was crushing on. I really liked the fast pace editing (especially 4:32-4:36) and I tried to mimic it within my script. Here characters are geting ready to start the dance lesson, while I tried to show my main character getting ready for a morning run.   TWO DOSAS This short ...

In the last camera workshop for this unit we learned about 180° rule and its importance. 180° rule is having two characters facing each other and imagining a 180° arc surrounding them, as long as the camera is placed somewhere on that arc the characters will be facing the correct way and won't confuse the viewer. To put our newfound knowledge into practice we were given scripts and had to shoot a short video. Probably the most important thing we learned during the workshop is to film the whole scene entirely from a fixed camera position before moving to a diferent one. In the end it helped with the coverage and I could hide obvious 'actors' mistakes by using a diferent shot. 

In one of our camera workshops we learned about the importance of coverage. It doesn't matter that in the end we won't use all of the footage and maybe even end up using just few shots, it's important to have multiple shots from diferent angles so that we would have options while editing.  During the workshop we had two exercises. One of which was "The Chair": It ended up being pretty short video and I ended up not using half of the footage I got for it. For next exercise we were given scripts and had to interpret it in our own way.  While editing I wished I would have filmed few more close up shots and to have actually filmed the whole scene from fixed camera positions. 

 Title: Cakewalk Genre: drama Pitch : two people from completely different backgrounds meet. How this brief interaction will change their lives? Story idea: Poor boy sees other kids getting sweets and wishes to be able to afford it so he starts begging and looking for jobs such as raking leaves, walking dogs and etc. This way he meets the rich guy who treats him poorly and makes fun of him instead of helping him out. In the end the boy gets the money but after seeing a starving homeless man decides to buy him a sandwich instead. Location: shopping centre (?) Characters: Poor boy who sees other children getting cakes and wishes he could afford it too. Rich guy who's greedy and a total di**head and even know he has money, he can't spare some change for a little boy. Homeless starving man. Goal: the boys goal is to get enough money to buy a piece of cake. Conflict: clash of classes, rich guy treats the boy poorly (tells him off, pushes...

When a teenage boy obsessed with the supernatural goes looking for ghosts in an abandoned church to get away from home, he disrupts the quiet country life of a single mum and her child. But by looking for adventure, will this teenager finally find a home? Characters: Single mum, Susanne (or Anne for short) in her 30's. Has a son of 3 who is attempting to sleep when Luke begins making noise in the church next door to their cottage in the small town of  All Saints. Wants to stop Luke making noise which is how they meet. She immediately sees he is troubled and wants to help him. Unemployed teenager, Luke, 14. He is obsessed with the supernatural. Goes ghost hunting on a regular basis like the characters in his favorite TV show, Ghost Facers ,  to get away from his neglectful parents. Group project with Lauren