Roles within Group task lecture

Executive producer – Ron and Andy. Very hands off, ultimate decision of what gets made – name attached to companies.

Producers – bean counters, control budget. Generally tell you, get everything finished on time or they get sacked. Producers are responsible for putting together the production schedule. Make sure everybody knows what they are doing all the time.  Its about co-operation and being part of the team. Book voice talent, studios, pulling together the crew, wages, tax, insurance. They sign things off.

Director – stands between the crew and producer, director is a nurturing role, a good director will keep the team on board, so when you need to ask someone to stay on they will do so, a loyal army. Be aware of that the project requires, and what the team are good at, the director takes a project and story boards it, or a camera script and give it to a story board artist. Director is there to direct the action with in the shots to insure continuity. It’s a tough role, not very glamorous,

Animators – doing the graft, its your job to animate, when the animators feel like they have a contribution to a film works best, more passionate. A form of negotiation between the animators,  directors and producers work best.  Negotiation and compromise is the key.

Production designer – person that designs all the sets, backgrounds, over view of the charater designs, someone needs to step into this role by negotiation of the director. Everything you see on screen needs to be designed by the production designer.

Layout artists- these people generally do backgrounds, not glamorous, but essential, more of a 2D role.

Sound designer – the moment our project gets going we need to think about sound – its 50% of the film. Those of you who have a interest in sound should put themselves forward. Talk to director, what sounds do you think we need. Record dialogue, Foleys etc. No copyright issues, as it isn’t going on the web etc. But normally you have to be aware of copyright.  Carefully lease with the producer and director.

Editor – the editor should be working with the project from the start, The director would be working with the story, and break down into a camera script. Camera script – break down the story into individual shots – what action takes place and how would you frame it? Make sure you have got a nice rhythm between shots. Next stage is so block – a plan view of the set or location with the movement of characters and set. As much of the responsibility as the director – gather up all the shots as and when the come in. mail it to them on a memory stick so they can drop it into the time line, the editor and director will then short the shots.  

Notes from Lecture - short hand

·      Plot

·      Character

·      Setting

·      Point of view

·      Style, tone, language

·      Theme

·      Symbolism, allegory and image

Give our character a personality – characterization:

Protagonist – the stories man character

Antagonist – character made to conflict with protagonist

Round character – a complex fully developed character, often prone to change

Flat character – one dimensional character, typically not central to the plot.

Fictional character – strangers to us until they become fully developed. Our impression is based on visual clues – genderm age, hair colour etc

Visual – charactes appearance

Aural – the sound of the characters voice.

Interrogate out character

The more we know about our character the more we are able to know how they would react to certain situations, etc.

Start developing a  Biography – give them a name, and build a relationship with the character. Create a short biography.

Personality outline –

·      temperament,

·      Morals

·      Political stance

·      Hobbies

·      Habits

·      Quirks

·      Likes/ dislikes

·      Short / long term goals

·      Long term dreams

·      Star signs.

Inspiration:

It sometimes helps to look through newspapers, maragines, internet to find pictures and photographs.

Keep that image with you are you work, complete a brief bio beneath.

Sketh some ideas for your character work..

Develop your protagonist points of view as much as possible, this builds a sense of empathy for each piece of information uncovred through the journey of your film.

There must be a obstacle.

Secondary characters should only have one fundamental problem to solve.they don’t need to be as in depth as your protagonist. Minor chracters do not have to have any problems to solve at all. However, this is only a one minute film so we don’t need secondary characters or minor characters.

Seven standard character types:

·      Confidante – someone who the central character confides, revealing the main characters personality, thoughts and intentions – marge Simpson perhaps

·      Dynamic – changed dueing the course of the film, the change in outlook or character in permanent. Sometimes referred to as a developing character.

·      Flat Character –

·      Foil – enhance another character trough contrast – Cinderella’s grance and beauty is opposed to her nasty self centred sisters.

·      Round – well developed character who demonstrais varied and sometimes contradictory traits. Usuall dynamic but different as they demonstrate contradictions. Snape from Harry Potter??

·      Stock – a special kind of flat character, instantly recognizable, businessman or shushing librarian. They are not developed or focused in the story. Mr. Burns.

Summary of standard characters:

Some characters are too opposite and therefore cannot be considered. There fore someone cannot have a character who is flat and round, or a static yet dynamic character.

Make them  special. They don’t have to be eccentric to be engaging but should have qualities and quirks that set them apart and make them memorable.

Behavior – the behavior of a fictional character should be based on your knowledge of human psychology and your work experiences. Every character you create will bea a reflection of some aspect of yourself.

Unique – you cannot make your characters act and be like characters from other films. At the same time characters inspired buy you or the people you know should have their own identities because you and the people you know don’t live in the world of your script.

SCREEN PLAY GARY PERVES –relys completely on movement – no facial movement just body movement.

Contradictions -   once you begine to write and set your character in motion your premise and the psychology you’ve invented for your character will determine their behaniour and actions.

Don’t say it – sometimes what is left unsaid in a conversation becomes the most potent part – screen writers use dialogue subtext or what is under the text to hint at a conflict with out actually identifying it.. 

Summarise – essential skill in creating rounded believable characters comes principally from the depth of research and background that you give them.

Look at pdf on uce

Go to library get a dvd – take a character with sound turned down and study the moment. Ask yourself why do I understand what is happening?

Notes from Lecture

Story boarding:

 What is the point of story boarding?

·      The storyboard if the first time you draw out the key scenes, and movements in your film. Without one you can never hope you have a structured narrative that makes sense! So what do we need to start?

·      Follow these basic steps to get the point of storyboarding from idea to paper:

1.     Initial concept

2.     Synopsis

3.     Story development

4.     Camera script

5.     Blocking

6.     Storyboarding.

·      Initial concept: the initial idea of a few ideas you have, it’s the theme f the film – what is it about/ from this you can take your ideas & then write it up as a story, and from there divide it up as a series of theoretical shots. For our films however, this will be a ‘seed’ of your story. Don’t try and build your film too quickly, rather start with an initial concept and then layer it up.

·      Synopsis – summary of your film

·      Story Development – once you have completed your synopsis you should have a clearer idea of the direction of your story. This development should be somewhat organic as you go back over and make alterations.

·      Camera scripting –this is a process of turning your story into a basic script which in turn you will turn into a camera script. Put simply, a camera script is where you as a director make the decision on where to cut from shot to shot based on the action and dialogue that you have written. You should start thinking at this stage about how these shots will be framed.

·      Blocking / staging – this is where you turn your idea into a plan In it you plot the position of characters and key parts of the environment. You plan where the characters move to and from. Most importantly though this is where you decide from which angle to film, or to draw your subject. You should stretch cameras looking at the subjects.  Blocking gives you a clear sense on geography.

·      The story board:

·      You should now be ready to finally produce your story. By following the stages mentioned you will arrive at this point with a clear idea as to the structure of your film, as well as how individual shows will look.

Story boarding: draft story board consist of little sketches and thumbnails, Then this is developed to a standard to present to clients and