Struck by Covid! Script

 

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Research Dossier

One example of a screenwriting competition is Bluecat screenplay contest. if you enter a screenplay into the competition you will get an analysis of your screenplay complementary . if you are a winner living outside the USA you will be automatically eligible for the Fellini award, this is given to the best international contestant. The winner of this award will be given $1000. They also have 3 different other categories that you could be a winner of such as the pilot category, the feature screenplay category and the short film screenplay category. they will each win $2000. The grand prize winner will receive $5000 all categories are eligible. The script you enter should be brand new and not have won any competitions in the past, if it isn't new or has won a competition in the past it will be disqualified and unable to win any of the categories. When entering the Bulecat competition they have a rule that all entries must be in English, the feature screenplay must be between 65-125 pages in length. The first part of the screen play is called the Pilot as it is the first thing that is being aired. When writing this part of the script it must be between 20-75 pages long and the short screenplay must be between 1-29 pages in Length. Bluecat will accept many features such as, episode pilots and short film script. Each submission must have one complimentary written analysis, the script they have sent in must be a PDF file and must have a properly formatted film with the same of of the script and who the script was written by. They do not have any title page requirements. When going through the process they have to commission content, when doing this they have a number of things to look out for, some of their strategic priorities include the following.

- To maintain a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to survive and grow 

- To strengthen production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside of London 

- To strengthen progress on diversity and representation both on and off screen 

- To strengthen progress towards environmentally sustainable production in the UK 

Another example of a screenwriting competition is The Titan International screenwriting awards. In this in the final round the judges will pick out the top 3 contestants after this the three winners will then have to read their work personally out to the judges showing emotion and meeting the correct criteria for the work. After they have done this they will be ranked by "the titans" who will exclusively determine their overall ranking, for example first, second and third place. The price for winning this is £500000 cash, lifetime access to all IS online courses and many more amazing screenwriting opportunities. However this is a good competition when you enter there is a £20 entry fee. The same rules of many apply to this for example, the work has to be your own, it has to be a new entry and you cant use work that you have already used and it has to fit the minimum of 100 pages long. 

A time when a writer took inspiration from a life event and wrote a film was the 2020 movie "I still believe".  In the film you see two people when they were young and fell in love for the first time, then one becomes very ill and at around the middle of the film they sadly pass away. The movie has two main focuses, Jeremy wants to pursue his music carrier but due to his partners illness he also wants to focus his attention on her to try and help her as much as possible. When they find out she has cancer Jeremy tries to balance both caring for his partner and his music career however this did not go to plan when she passed away as he lost his way. Towards the end of the movie we see Jeremy getting back to his normal way and honour her at the same time. This film is based on a true story that happened in 1999 and named after a song he wrote in 1998 and because of the powering message and meaning they actually used the song and had an actor sing it. "I still believe" is the second music biopic by Erwin brothers.

Another example of when a writer has used a true story to be able to film a movie is Charlie st cloud. This movie starts off as just a normal movie when the 2 brothers go out for a drive when the mum has gone out, about 5 minutes into the movie is when the story starts to shape up, the car that the 2 brothers where in gets hit by a car at the traffic lights because the other car was being driven by a drunk driver and ran the lights, this crash caused the younger brother to die and the older brother still seeing him in ghost form, since this has happened he has also been able to see him ex best friend who went off to war but because he could see his dead brother this also allowed him to see his friend walking around and spoke to him at the grave. Throughout the movie it shows Charlie's progression about getting over the death of his brother. Towards the end of the movie he has to chose between staying with the girl he has fell in love with or going to the same spot he and his brother used to practice baseball. The peoples story that this is based on wanted to remain anonymous but the writer had permission to make the movie without it being related to the real life events, this means that the writer has made some drastic changes to the story to make the movie more enjoyable. The director of the of this movie is Burr Seers, it was published in 2010 and was one of the biggest movies that Burr had directed. 

One primary resource that I can use when creating my screen play is a questionnaire about how lockdown affected peoples day to day lives. Another primary resource is a focus group about how people feel about Covid. 

The advantages of a questionnaire is that you get answers straight from each person. the disadvantages of this are that they may not have the option to answer how they want if its multiple choice. advantages of a focus group is that you get lots of opinions all at once. the disadvantages for this is that people in the group could influence on  others answers.

One secondary resource i can use when creating my screen play is the news, this will have peoples opinions in it. another secondary resource for creating my screenplay is a forum as this will also show peoples opinions on lockdown.

The advantages of the news as a secondary resource is that it is straight out of the governments mouth and this means it is factual. the disadvantages of this is that its not straight from the public about their struggles. The advantages of a forum is that anyone can post on it about how they are feeling about lockdown. A disadvantage of this is that it may not be 100% the truth about that person. 

The news was the most helpful when creating my screen play, this is because it helped me create my pm character. 

technical skills: lighting, camera, sound

 Audio task

The task was to compare different audio recording setups. For this task we were asked to go through a scene a few times using a different audio recording set up each time this was also done outside.

The equipment we used was a shot gun mic with a boom pole and an audio recorder as one set up. We also used a zoom audio recorder for another set up. We then used a dslr camera for the third setup so that we could compare all these. 

The result for this was that the shot gun and the boom pole set up was the best. This was due to being able to get closer to the person who was speaking. The worst one was the camera which is why you should never rely just on the camera for audio.

Photo task

The task was to take photos using a DSLR and led light panels and to use coloured gels on the lights. this was to experiment with high and lowkey lighting and to experiment with different colour lights.

For this task we used a Canon Dslr and we used Neweer led light panels with and without coloured gels. we done this in w16.

the result of this was that we managed to try all the different lightings. high key is for something that isn't meant to be mysterious where as low key works to make things mysterious. the colour gels showed us that you can make your video/photos look demonic with the red gel for example. 

Role of the writer

 

Job roles in media

Screen writer

-          A Screenwriter writes and develops screenplays for film or tv drama.

-          They prepare the script in a way that the reads are able to understand the setting and the emotion and the way it will work on screen.

-          They work with the Producers, Directors and actors to draft and redraft their script.

-          They often must work to tight deadlines.

-          Screenwriters are usually freelancers.

Screen writers are good at:

-          Writing screen plays (understand the good features of a screen play and know how to improve one)

-          Being creative (Express their ideas effectively in screen-play form)

-          Have knowledge of all genres of art (so they can understand a range of sources and understand the cultural context.

-          Have a passion for the genre and a love of the industry.

-          Freelancing (being able to find your own jobs, manage your own finances and be self motivated.

screenwriters work with:

-          They work with development producers and their assistants.

-          They are occasionally assisted by researchers (These people allow for screenplays to be fact checked.)

-          They may have their work overseen by script editors (they may also in turn be supported by assistant script editors)

In tv dramas they may be further assisted by:

-          Story producers and story liners (Story producers provide the framework season-long or series-long story arcs, which screenwriters can then go and write individual episodes. Story liners do a similar job, but they assist the story producer in order to write an outline document for a series.)

-          Script editors (they read the script and edit it to make it better)

How to become a screen writer:

-          Start writing screen plays as soon as possible. (practicing the form is essential)

-          Practice writing screenplays in a professional format.

-          Read existing screenplays online to familiarise yourself with the form.

-          Build a portfolio (Create work that you can show to tutors or employers. This is essential)

-          Network (go to Screen Skills’ events like open doors to meet people working in development departments. Meet producers and ask them if they would like to see your script. Give them your contact information)

-          Network online (Create a LinkedIn profile. Join groups on social media that are looking to make films or tv in your area. Find a film office near you)

Director

-          Directors are the creative leads of the film.

-          They hold the creative vision throughout the whole process, from pre-production through to the final edit.

-          The executive producer or producer is in charge of employing them.

-          They start with a script and work with a screenwriter and sometimes a script editing team.

-          Sometimes directors are screenwriters as well

-          It is the director’s job to imagine the script in a visual form.

-          The director works closely with the producers to assign different roles such as the director of photography and the production designer.

-          They also work with the producer to cast actors.

-          They also work with the director of photography to develop filming styles, including notes about camera shots and script changes.

-          Some directors will rehearse actors before shooting however not all of them do. They ‘block’ the performance with the actors before filming begins. (This means they choreograph where actors are positioned, where they will, over the course of a shot and how they will deliver their dialogue.

-          They will also instruct other members of the crew such as lighting, wardrobe and make up supervisors.

-          After filming they will lead the editing process, preparing a ‘directors cut’.

-          Directors may be employed by tv broadcasts, film or television production companies, or work on a freelance basis.

What a director is good at:

-          Leadership: shares the vision of the film with a range of people from different departments.

-          Imagination: envisage the film you want to make, see it, hear it. Create the vision execute it.

-          Arts knowledge: have a passion for and deep knowledge of film and tv drama.

Job roles within the commissioning process

- Commissioning editors - The role that commissioning editors working for a publishing house or magazines, is commissioning authors or journalists to write books or articles. This job can also involve developing ideas for new books and articles before identifying suitable authors and journalists to write them. To become a commissioning editor you  will need some college degrees, most editors have at least a bachelor's degree, usually in English, communications, or journalism. Some have graduate degrees but it is not a requirement. It is mostly important that you have a passion for reading and enjoy editing. 

- Independent production companies - A production company is normally run by a producer or director but can also be run by a career executive. A production company relies highly on talent or a well known entertainment franchise to raise the value of an entertainment project and draw in larger audience. The difference between an independent production company and a studio producers films to the general public whereas an independent production company works for other companies to help them produce their desired content. 

- Independent directors - This refers to a member of a board of directors, every public company is required to install a board of directors, who does not have a material relationship with a company and is neither part of its executive teams or involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. 

- Producers - A producer is the person who is responsible for finding and launching a project, arranging financing, hiring writers, a director and key members of the creative team, they over see all elements of pre-production, production and post-production, they do this all the way until the release date. 

- Competitions - competitions is a great way to get your work noticed, contributing to competitions will be allow you to get your work across and recognized. Some competitions will not take work that you have used for something before and may ask you to create something different and may have a specific genre that they would like you to focus on. 

Working as a writer 

When working as a writer there is a lot of things that you have to consider  here are some examples and why its important...

- Agent representations -  

- Optioning and payments -

- Professional presentation - When you are presenting a presentation it is important for it to be profession for example, not having childish images, no slang, it would have to be well said English this is because if you go unprofessional then others may not take you seriously and in the film and TV industry it is import to be taken seriously for your work 

- Time management - It is important be good at managing your time this is because you wouldn't like to go behind when your working because it will set you back and once you have lost some time it will be hard to get back to it so it is important for you to be able to keep up with everything and not full behind 

There are many different legal and ethical considerations for example:

"copyright" - The exclusive and assignable legal right given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic or musical material. So in other words if the work that has been realized hasn't been realized by the person who created it they can claim for copywriter which means they will be able to get some money from the person who realized it.  

-"bias" - this means that the person has a strong opinion on a specific thing and they are showing that, they will lean more towards one side than the other and in the case for tv and film you have to be biased and you have to be able to pick more than one side and they have to be able to show what opinion/ option they like better and sometimes they have to be open minded and see everything from all sides. 

-"censorship" - the genera; censorship occurs in a variety of different medias including speech, books, music, films and other artists, the radio, tv and the internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, child pornography etc.. 

-watersheds" - This is the timings of what goes on what, for example in the mornings and throughout the day they will have child friendly programs and after 9 that's when they start to get inappropriate for children for example sexual, horror and over 18 films.

-"libel"- A published false statement that is damaging to a persons reputation. 

-"plagiarism" - presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent. 

 

 The role of the writer 

screenwriters write and develop screenplays for film or TV drama. They do this either based on an original idea by adapting an existing story into a screenplay or by joining an existing project. Television writers develop stories, write scripts, make edits and revisions and help determine what an episode looks like in the world of TV. Writers are able to influence everything from the series that are told to how the sets are built.

The screenplay guide for the producers, director, actors, crew of exactly what will appear on screen. It is the common ground that everybody on the film will work with from start to finish of production. It tells the complete story, contains all action in the film and all dialogue for each character. 

One example for a screen writing competition is Bluecat. If your a winner living outside the USA, your script is automatically eligible to win the Fellini award, given annually to the best internal script and that is $1 000. They have a rule that all entries must be in English, the feature screenplay must be between 65-125 pages in length. The pilot scripts must be between 20-75 pages and the short screenplays must be between 1-29 pages in length. Everything that is submitted must be your own work, you are not allowed to copy or use anyone else's work, or previous work. The script that you send in must be completely new and its not allowed to have been previously won at any contests, competition or award of any kind. In this event there is a number of prices for example the grand prize winner will receive $5,000, the feature screenplay award winner will receive $2,000, the pilot award winner will receive $2,000 also and so will the short script award. Some of the things that they accept are features, episodic pilots and short film scripts, each submission with receive one complimentary written analysis, script must be in PDF must have a properly formatted by file name (name of script by author by Author First Last Name.pdf) they don't have any title page requirements and all entries must also be in English. 

 

When going through the process they have to commission content, when doing this they have a number of things to look out for some of their strategic priorities include;

*To support the supply of distinctive, British ideas to the BBC from across the UK

*To maintain  a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to survive and grow

*To strengthen production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside London 

*To strengthen progress on diversity and representation both on and off screen

*To strengthen progress towards environmentally sustainable production to the UK.

 

As part of the commitment to creative diversity they are prioritizing £100m of their existing TV commissioning budget over three years. They aim to make the decisions as fast as possible: entering into a dynamic, creative dialogue with producers and managed by the relevant commissioning genre. Every idea has different considerations but generally BBC television aims to work to following timescales. 

synopsis

Script proposal

Final version

First draft