Tumgik
#Learning about the behind the scenes work and the original film and various production details and then wanting to rewatch it again
lukecordell90 · 6 months
Text
What Went Wrong With The Wicker Man Remake?
Tumblr media
I love the 1973 Wicker Man. I love the atmosphere and tone of the movies, I love Anthony Schaffer’s excellent script, I love the performances, particularly Edward Woodward’s Sergeant Howie and Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle. I love the mythos behind the production and distribution. The fact that Britt Ekland had to be dubbed and have a body double which begs the question why cast her as Willow, especially as she hated the bleak Scottish weather. The famous legend that the negative for the original cut is buried somewhere under the M4 motorway. It is amazing with the whole journey Robin Hardy’s film has come through, despite various cuts, that it is still so beloved and is deemed one of the greatest horror films ever made.
If you want to learn more about this movie that everyone seems to have a story about, heck out Mark Kermode’s excellent documentary called Burnt Offering: The Cult of the Wicker Man. It is a fantastic watch and an absolute treasure trove of information about the movie. We, however, will be delving into Neil LaBute’s 2006 remake starring Nicolas Cage. The remake so infamous that it is still used as an example of how to not revise a classic film. Is it really that bad though?
The plot follows Edward Malus (Nicholas Cage) as he receives a letter from ex-fiancée Willow Woodward (Kate Beahan) that her daughter Rowan is missing. After witnessing a traumatic road accident in the film’s prologue, he thinks it is the right time to resume his police work after a period of depression. He flies over to the island run by Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn) and conducts his investigation into Rowan’s disappearance. His presence is unwanted by the local matriarchal society who take an instant dislike to Edward and make his investigation almost impossible. As he gets deeper into the mysteries surrounding Rowan’s disappearance and the island, things start to take an unfortunate turn for the police officer.
It's interesting writing the plot like that because if you change some of the details and not mention the final third of the movie, the set-up doesn’t have to be associated with The Wicker Man at all. The setup is competent enough to warrant a film of its own about a female cult that ensnares a male police officer with the bait of a missing child to find. It didn’t have to be a remake in the first place with some changes here and there. If the film wasn’t called The Wicker Man, not as many audiences would be able to see the ending a mile off and might have been a pleasant surprise. Sure, people might have compared it to the original, but Midsommar shows us that there’s plenty of room for more great horror movies about cults.
Rather than take a stealth remake approach, LaBute does lean heavily on the source material in some scenes. This is apparent when Edward questions the local schoolteacher and pupils regarding their lost classmate. Much of the dialogue is identical to the 1973 script and, as a result, you just want it to go quicker and move on. It’s not a great look if the audience is waiting for a scene to end. There are small changes to some elements of the plot that try and give it a unique twist such as a bad honey harvest instead of fruit harvest being the catalyst for an island sacrifice. But it’s not enough to watch it in a double bill with the original.
Tumblr media
The biggest change, apart from location, is the matriarchal society that inhabit the isolated island. Director Neil LaBute has been known by critics as being a misanthrope and misogynistic. It is up to the viewer whether to determine this is the case. If you take a movie like In The Company of Men (1997), a black comedy about two co-workers who try to break the heart of a deaf woman for their own chauvinistic amusement, sure it is difficult to watch as Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy) toy with Christine (Stacy Edwards) but by the end of the movie, the roles are reversed and the she has the upper hand. Now, whether that is LaBute saying that women always get the upper hand, I don’t know, but all I know is that movie is a better context for his views on gender politics than the remake of a classic horror film.
In LaBute’s version of The Wicker Man, women are everything on the island. The men have been reduced to mute slaves living in fear. It is suggested that excess boys that are born on the island are disposed with and only the best stock are kept alive. Many of LaBute’s movies place women and men as competitors, as rivals, and I just don’t think it works here. It leads to the main complaint against the film which is its absurdity in the third act. Everyone knows this is the movie where Nicholas Cage punches women while dressed as a bear. You can try and engage a conversation of gender politics, but when your movie descends into complete madness, no one seems to be paying attention to that anymore.
The final half an hour of the film is frantic, bizarre, and chaotic and have led to it notoriously being called, “Unintentionally funny.” LaBute has said that he did intend to make it a black comedy, but it’s just straight-up silly. The character of Edward goes from being a relatively reasonable man to a lunatic. This character development does match with his psyche. He has been constantly getting flashbacks to his past, found out the girl he is looking for is his daughter, left overnight in a well filled with water, and been stung by bees which almost sent him in anaphylactic shock.
He has had enough and during the Festival of Fertility, he commandeers a bike at gunpoint, steals a bear outfit, punches some women, kicks LeeLee Sobieski in the head, and screams “You bitches!” at the top of his voice when he is captured, their plot is revealed, and his fate is sealed.
Tumblr media
When you compare it to the reveal in the 1973 movie, Howie is still trying to work everything out in his head. He is trying to find an escape route and even the God he loves so much cannot help him. It is much more impactful when he looks upon the Wicker Man and utters “Oh Jesus” under his breathe rather than screaming “You Bitches.”
Another issue with the final scene is censorship. Unfortunately, The Wicker Man was victim to something many films of that era were. It was cut in an attempt to garner a PG-13 rating in the US or a 12A certificate in the UK. This annoys audiences already because you are trimming scenes that they want to see and have sometimes been advertised in the trailers. It also looks like a cynical money-grabbing exercise to show you favour box-office receipts to your movie and will compromise the integrity of your art to achieve that. The film already suffers from the lack of creepiness and chilling tone of the original and now scenes that may give the audience something to squirm over are being deleted.
When the islanders have caught Edward, we see him being taken up to the Wicker Man beaten and dejected. He cannot walk and has bee stings on his face. This is because scenes where his legs are broken, and a cage of bees are put on his head were cut out. Apparently, these scenes would have sent the rating sky high and deem the film unsuitable for general audiences. But it is a horror film and making it more palatable so more people can see it is not good form. You can find the scenes on YouTube or the extra features of the DVD, and they aren’t too bad at all. The bee cage scene has become quite a famous meme even though it was cut from the final edit. I don’t think any audience respects a movie that pulls its punches like this.
It's a shame that The Wicker Man ended up like this as it had a decent leading man and a competent setup. It wasn’t liked by the director of the 1973 version, Robin Hardy or Christopher Lee who were actually in contention to make a semi-remake of the original film with Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Astin called The Riding of the Laddie. With any remake we must ask do we need it? Does it offer something new or improve the original? In this case, stick with the marvellous original film rather than this misjudged offering.
What The Critics Said - 15% Critic Score on Rotten Tomatoes
Just a note: This movie was not shown to critics which is usually a damning inditement. It shows that the director and producers don’t have a great deal of faith in the finished product and fear that critical retribution will be a financial disaster for the movie.
“Neil LaBute's utterly misconceived remake of Robin Hardy's 1973 cult horror film is a boring, fright-free catastrophe.” Nigel Floyd – Time Out
“To his credit Cage plays it with an admirably straight face, even when mugging a woman for her bear costume. But then he must have known from the beginning he was backing a loser.” Neil Smith – BBC
“It's never as scary or suspenseful as it aspires to be, but it might just be the greatest bad movie of the year, with its clunky writing resulting in some surprisingly entertaining kooky moments.” Christy Lemire – Associated Press
3 notes · View notes
marafilmblog · 5 months
Text
On-Set Production
SDSA Article
Link: https://www.setdecorators.org/?art=film_decor_features&SHOW=SetDecor_Film_KNIVES_OUT
Knives Out
Set Decorator: David Schlesinger SDSA
Production Designer: David Crank
Production design and set dressing plays a massive role in this film, completely immersing the viewer into the world of the film and portraying character through every detail.
David Schlesinger undertook a lot of research prior to filming, this included gathering up as many images as he could which represented how he felt the set should look and feel. He then shared these with the production designer and the two compared their ideas to consolidate their final vision to present to the director. 
After this David came up with a plan of how to tackle this project. There are many pieces included in this film with a tight budget, so he came up with a shopping strategy. A solution for situations like this is to work with vendors with large inventories and make ‘wholesale’ deals with them, as this will often give you better deals.
It was a challenge to ensure there wasn’t a lot of visual noise with the many layers of objects in each scene and to tell meaningful stories with set dressing. Some questions David kept asking himself were: 
“How does this object relate to one of Harlan’s books?”
“Who is Harlan Thrombey, and what do the objects he surrounds himself with reveal about his character?”
Similarly, he would ask himself this about other characters.
David focused on objects with scale and that had colours which would stand out from the background. Everything put on set, needed a story behind it.
Rian Johnson suggested displaying Harlan’s books alongside a key object involved in the Mystery. This was included in the film, David gathered a selection of key objects, and Rian created book titles to coordinate with it. The Art Department then created the books.
The film was shot in Boston, and most of the shopping was done in Massachusetts. The first people that David looked to were George and Judy Jagg. The Jaggs are named as one of his favourite vendors. Many of the knives and oddities came from them. Many more elements came from Newel Antiques in New York.
Tumblr media
David was determined to have Automaton on the sets. Automatons are moving mechanical devices made in imitation of a human being.  Primarily from the 19th Century, they are expensive, delicate, and rare. All the things you learn in Set Dec 101 not to put on a set. 
Schlesinger contacted as many collectors and museums as he could track down and after finding a museum with automatons the museum’s Charter would not allow the pieces to leave the museum. When he was put in contact with a restorer, he started looking at the process of renting automatons however, he realised how expensive it would be with crating, technicians, transportation, and rental fees. 
They used a local collector of magic-related objects for original magic posters and other objects, and by some miracle he collected automatons that could be used on the film.
Initially, the Wheel of Knives was meant to be a display over the mantel in the library. When they ‘tech-scouted’, the director and DoP blocked the scenes with the idea that the knives would form a halo behind the various characters being interrogated. They specifically wanted something that would not be solid, so light would come through and Rian wanted a sense of movement in the knives, as if they were all being thrown toward the centre. Several prototypes were made but none were exactly what they were looking for.
Eventually they decided to build an armature to hold the knives and hang it from chains from the balcony. They found a pre-existing metal circle and the crew were given the instruction of “treat it like sculpture”.
Tumblr media
In another case the stash clock seen in the film was a ‘lucky find’ which the set dressing department was happy they found as it was written in the script and this perfect clock meant they didn’t have to make any compromises. 
The Thrombey estate consisted of two separate locations and a built set. The Living Room, Sitting Room, Exteriors, and Harlan’s Office were shot in a private home that had many truly priceless items in it. 
The crew inventoried every item in the areas of the house we would be shooting in. They then identified with the homeowner which items would be removed by Art Handlers, be Set Dressing, or would be kept to use. Many things had to be removed just because of their importance to the family and delicate nature of old objects. The removal process took a couple of weeks.
Tumblr media
In the film there was a small board dressed into Harlan’s Study, and a Chess table dressed into the library, this is something David likes to include in all of his films.
“Chess has an opening, a mid-game, and an end game. I view Set Decorating with the same Strategy. The opening is research and establishing the look and feel of the show. It sets everything up. The mid-game is the sourcing and planning. The end game is the Dressing.”
David Crank wanted the set to build into a ‘crescendo’,
“The idea was that with each level you go up, things get stranger and stranger, each room getting more eccentric and more colourful than the last until you reach Harlan's domain...his hallway, bedroom and study...”
Tumblr media
David Crank took into account how the actors interact with the space they are in while designing the set. In addition to creating a stranger world as we move up floors, the top floor can be seen as the most personal spaces.
“One of the most fun things about working on Knives Out is that every time you walked into a new room, there were wild treasures everywhere. I remember the first time I sat down in the chair in the library when I realized the chair had two owls for arm rests... The closer you would get to any object, the more you’d realize something was just a little bit off. I love that. It reflects the whole tone of the movie, where you think you are in this beautiful estate with a family that has everything, but then you realize there is something amiss with them.”  - Riki Lindhome
Tumblr media
0 notes
sysig · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Don’t feed the plants
#Doodles#Little Shop of Horrors#Audrey II#Seymour Krelborn#Who saw that one coming lol#I really should've guessed#The months of buildup of wanting to watch it again and then finally getting to and enjoying the songs and the puppetry#Thinking about how fun Twoey would be to draw and whoops I was right#Learning about the behind the scenes work and the original film and various production details and then wanting to rewatch it again#Picking up more details and admiring the cinematography and just jfldsfjdsf#The more content there is - especially new - the more likely I am#Not to mention it's aliens again I'm so mad lol#Twoey is seriously cute tho! All his detailwork is so gorgeous ah he's so rewarding to draw#And then Seymour falls in the category of ''Bespectacled soft bastard'' so that was a lost cause |P#Morally ambiguous nerds speak to me more than I thought they did lol#His questionable innocence especially speaks to me ♪ How did he know to put newspaper over his clothes? :)#I really like his characterization he’s awful with big scared doe eyes hehe#Hhhh I’m so proud of that last one#I mean look at it it turned out perfect ♥#It was so fun and rewarding to scratch all the details into place ahh#On top of being cute Twoey's also really beautiful all his texturing and individual leaves and his vines so emotive ah#Suppertime is probably my favourite scene of the movie the way he drops his head and Seymour knowingly backs Mushnik towards him ah#They're so in cahoots by that point#The sunk cost fallacy Seymour! It'll getcha every time
55 notes · View notes
neocatharsis · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
NCT 127 Reveal The Hobbies & Obsessions They Can’t Give Up In Their Down Time
In Elite Daily’s series Rent-Free, celebrities unpack the one thought, memory, or unforgettable pop culture moment that'll always live in their head. In this piece, NCT 127 reveals the interests and hobbies even die-hard fans will be surprised to learn about.
In the past year, most musical acts had to cancel their highly-anticipated tours due to the coronavirus pandemic, and NCT 127 was no exception. That’s why its members — Johnny, Haechan, Mark, Taeyong, Jaehyun, Yuta, Taeil, Jungwoo, and Doyoung — have taken every opportunity to get closer to their fans with new music. After dropping their second Japanese EP, Loveholic, in February, the group returned on June 4 with “Save,” their latest single all about making unforgettable memories. Up next? An entirely new era. On July 7 (the group’s fifth anniversary), they announced their next album is coming in September. In celebration of all the exciting things ahead, NCT 127 opened up about how they wind down after a hard day’s work.
NCT 127 tells Elite Daily these past five years as a group have been worthwhile, and it’s all thanks to their fans, called NCTzens, who have supported them throughout their journey. “[We have so many] memories from practicing together pre-debut to our actual debut stage, and also all those times we spent working on our music and performance to meet our fans at our first concert and first world tour as well,” the group collectively says. “Each and every moment we spend on our music is for our fans, and we are working hard to better show ourselves in various different ways, so we hope you’re all excited!”
Fans have impacted the group so much that they’ve become the muse behind NCT 127’s biggest tracks. “The inspiration [behind ‘Save’] comes from wanting to save our precious memories with each other and with our fans,” the group says. And NCT 127 hasn’t let go of a single one. While they haven’t been able to perform in front of a live audience since early 2020, they held their online Beyond The Origin concert in May. They add, “It was new getting to meet fans from every part of the world at the same time.”
While the guys have their hands full recording their next project, they’re making sure to get some much-deserved R&R whenever they can. Below, NCT 127 reveal the interests that have been living in their minds rent-free.
Johnny
Johnny is a major fan of horror movies. “I love how they keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time you’re watching,” he says. His favorite scary movie of all time is Shutter, which is about a couple who accidentally run over a woman and then see her ghost in photographs they develop. “Even though I watched it when I was young, I still remember the movie, and it’s one I think about often. I’ve seen the movie multiple times since I first saw it in high school, and I recall being scared of red-lit rooms for quite some time afterward,” he says.
His most recent watch was The Conjuring franchise. He adds, “After I saw the movies, I looked up some articles about the behind stories. They were pretty interesting!”
Taeil
Taeil keeps music on his mind even after a full day of rehearsals. “Audio speakers really amplify music so you can hear the intricate details of the track, and there’s also that sense of excitement from when you hear a sound you like!” Taeil says, explaining his love for audio. “I like the speaker brand Focal. There’s still a lot I don’t know about speakers, but I find the brand very attractive since you can experience a flat sound that’s similar to what the songwriter intended to create.”
Taeil says the group’s sound has changed a lot since their debut in 2016. He says, “With time, our team color is definitely becoming more distinct and defined. I think the sound we have now is a very captivating one with strong hip-hop and R&B colors.”
Taeyong
The group’s leader enjoys connecting with others, but especially with NCTzens. “[Our relationship] is a very precious and one that I’m truly grateful for. Not only do we enjoy the same things, but we also try to improve and show that to each other. All of this is very special and meaningful to me,” he says. “It’s nice to learn of each other’s culture, and by singing in different languages, it makes me feel as if I’ve grown closer to our fans from those countries.”
Yuta
Yuta loves exercising because it’s very rewarding, and although he doesn’t have a specific fitness routine, he prefers working out at a gym rather than at home. “I like how exercising makes me feel stronger and helps me to build up my strength... which is very helpful when practicing group dances that require attention to body angles,” he says. “We had a short preparation period [to learn ‘Save’], but I was able to learn the choreography quickly and had a fun time preparing.”
Doyoung
Ever since he was cast as Axel von Fergen in the Korean adaptation of Marie Antoinette, which is based on the 2006 musical of the same name that originally premiered in Japan, Doyoung has found a newfound appreciation for theatre. “I find it very precious how you can share emotions through singing and acting,” he says. “It’s been very meaningful preparing for my musical debut, and it’s really all thanks to the amazing seniors and producers! The process in itself has been a very fun one, and I have been preparing with a heart of gratitude.”
Doyoung is set to make his musical debut on July 13 when the production opens at the Charlotte Theater in Seoul.
Jaehyun
Jaehyun says he “fell in love” with tennis in April because it helps relieve stress. “I’ve always enjoyed trying out new sports like basketball, bowling, and boxing whenever I had the chance. But I actually started tennis because my father recommended it,” he says. “I know this is the case for all sports, but tennis isn’t something you can master after a few tries. It requires persistence, and I started to enjoy it even more as I saw myself gradually improving.”
Jaehyun’s favorite tennis player is Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian athlete who competed in the 2020 French Open as the youngest quarterfinalist in the men’s singles event. He says, “I’d really like to go see a tournament.”
Mark
Lately, Mark is interested in taking better care of his hair. “It’s really important to me because I change my hair color a lot, and because I want my hair and scalp to be healthy,” he says. While he’s experimented with just about every color in the rainbow, there’s one he always loves going back to. He adds, “I think I liked my blue hair the most. It is my favorite color, after all, and I believe my fans liked it as much as I did. I was glad to be able to film the ‘Save’ music video during my blue-haired period. It fit well with all the scenes and the aesthetics!”
Jungwoo
Similar to Yuta, Jungwoo has also had exercising on his mind. “My life has become more lively since I started exercising. More so than exercising to improve my physique, I exercise in order to have a healthier, richer life. Also, it makes me proud knowing I’m spending my day more productively,” he says. “The first thing I do after I wake up is to start off the day with simple stretches that improve body balance... Stretching helps to warm up the body, which reduces the risk of injury, and can also boost your mood! I think this is why when I dance, I’m able to express those movements in more detail.”
Haechan
Haechan is now experimenting with all things fragrance. “I started using perfume since scents can give a sense of self-satisfaction and because I wanted to smell good all the time!” he says, adding he doesn’t have a favorite perfume. “The scent that suits me well, that I personally like, and that will suit me is always different!” However, there’s one scent that will always remind him of a certain memory with NCT 127. “This might sound funny, but I’d have to say the smell of sweat in our practice rooms,” Haechan says, adding it’s “satisfying” because it makes him feel like they worked hard after a long day. As for what draws fans to NCT 127, Haechan credits their “sincere music and performances.”
© Elite Daily
105 notes · View notes
reachexceedinggrasp · 3 years
Note
Would love to hear about your beefs with Lucas because I have beefs with Lucas
(Sorry it took me three thousand years to answer this, anon.)
They mainly fall under a few headings, with the third being the most serious and the thing that I am genuinely irl furious about at least biannually (and feeling unable to adequately sum up The Problem with it after yelling about it so often is a huge part of why this post has been in my drafts for such a long time):
1. His self-mythologising and the subsequent uncritical repetition of his bullshit in the fandom. Obvious lies like that he had some master plan for 10 films when it’s clear he did not have anything like a plot outline at any point. We all know the thing was written at the seat of various people’s pants, it’s blatantly self-evident that’s the case. There’s also plenty of public record about how the OT was written. Even dumber, more obvious lies, like that Anakin was ‘always the protagonist’ and the entire 6 films were his story from the beginning. This is preposterous and every time someone brings it up (usually with palpable smugness) as fanboys ‘not understanding star wars’ because they don't get that ‘the OT is not Luke's story’... Yeah, I just... I cannot.
Vader wasn’t Anakin Skywalker until ESB, it’s a retcon. It’s a brilliant retcon and it works perfectly, it elevated SW into something timeless and special it otherwise would not have been, but you can tell it wasn’t the original plan and there’s proof it wasn’t the original plan. Let’s not pretend. And Luke is the protagonist. No amount of waffling about such esoteric flights of theory as ‘ring structure’ is going to get away from the rigidly orthodox narrative and the indisputable fact that it is Luke’s hero’s journey. Vader’s redemption isn’t about his character development (he has almost none) and has no basis in any kind of convincing psychological reality for his character, but it doesn’t need to be because it’s part of Luke’s arc, because Vader is entirely a foil in Luke’s story. It’s a coming-of-age myth about confronting and growing beyond the father.
All attempts to de-centre Luke in RotJ just break the OT’s narrative logic. It’s a character-driven story and the character driving is Luke. Trying to read it as Anakin’s victory, the moral culmination of his choices rather than Luke’s and putting all the agency into Anakin’s hands just destroys the trilogy’s coherence and ignores most of its content in favour of appropriating a handful of scenes into an arc existing only in the prequels. The dilemma of RotJ is how Luke will define ethical adulthood after learning and growing through two previous films worth of challenge, education, failure, and triumph; it’s his choice to love his father and throw down his sword which answers the question the entire story has been asking. Vader’s redemption and the restoration of the galaxy are the consequences of that choice which tell us what kind of world we’re in, but the major dramatic conflict was resolved by Luke’s decision not the response to it.
And, just all over, the idea of Lucas as an infallible auteur is inaccurate and annoying to me. Obviously he’s a tremendous creative force and we wouldn’t have sw without him, but he didn’t create it alone or out of whole cloth. The OT was a very collaborative effort and that’s why it’s what it is and the prequels are what they are. Speaking of which.
2. The hubris of the prequels in general and all the damage their many terrible, protected-from-editors choices do to the symbolic fabric of the sw universe. Midicholrians, Yoda fighting with a lightsabre, Obi-wan as Anakin's surrogate father instead of his peer, incoherent and unmotivated character arcs, the laundry list of serious and meaningful continuity errors, the bad storytelling, the bad direction, the bad characterisation, the shallowness of the parallels which undermine the OT’s imagery, the very clumsy and contradictory way the A/P romance was handled, the weird attitude to romance in general, it goeth on. I don’t want to re-litigate the entire PT here and I’m not going to, but they are both bad as films and bad as prequels. The main idea of them, to add Anakin’s pov and create an actual arc for him as well as to flesh out the themes of compassion and redemption, was totally appropriate. The concept works as a narrative unit, there are lots of powerful thematic elements they introduce, they have a lot of cool building blocks, it’s only in execution and detail that they do a bunch of irreparable harm.
But the constant refrain that only ageing fanboys don’t like them and they only don’t like them because of their themes or because they humanise Anakin... can we not. The shoddy film making in the prequels is an objective fact. If you want to overlook the bad parts for the good or prioritise ideas over technique, that’s fine, but don’t sit here and tell me they’re masterworks of cinema there can be no valid reason to criticise. I was the exact right age for them when I saw them, I am fully on board with the fairy tale nature of sw, I am fully on board with humanising Anakin- the prequels just have a lot of very big problems with a) their scripts and b) their direction, especially of dialogue scenes. If Lucas had acknowledged his limitations like he did back in the day instead of believing his own press, he could have again had the help he obviously needed instead of embarrassing himself.
3. Killing and suppressing the original original trilogy. I consider the fact that the actual original films are not currently available in any form, have never been available in an archival format, and have not been presented in acceptable quality since the VHS release a very troubling case study in the problems of corporate-owned art. LF seizing prints of the films whenever they are shown, destroying the in-camera negatives to make the special editions with no plans to restore them, and doing all in the company’s considerable power to suppress the original versions is something I consider an act of cultural vandalism. The OT defined a whole generation of Hollywood. It had a global impact on popular entertainment. ANH is considered so historically significant it was one of the first films added to the US Library of Congress (Lucas refused to provide even them with a print of the theatrical release, so they made their own viewable scan from the 70s copyright submission).
The fact that the films which made that impact cannot be legally accessed by the public is offensive to me. The fact that Lucas has seen fit to dub over or composite out entire performances (deleting certain actors from the films), to dramatically alter the composition of shots chosen by the original directors, to radically change the entire stylistic tone by completely reinventing the films’ colour timing in attempt to make them match the plasticy palate of the prequels, to shoot new scenes for movies he DID NOT DIRECT, add entire sequences or re-edit existing sequences to the point of being unrecognisable etc. etc. is NOT OKAY WITH ME when he insists that his versions be the ONLY ones available.
I’m okay with the Special Editions existing, though I think they’re mostly... not good... but I’m not okay with them replacing the original films. And all people can say is ‘well, they’re his movies’.
Lucas may have clear legal ownership in the capitalistic sense, but in no way does he have clear artistic ownership. Forget the fans, I’m not one of those people who argue the fans are owed something: A film is always a collaborative exercise and almost never can it be said that the end product is the ultimate responsibility and possession of one person. Even the auteur directors aren't the sole creative vision, even a triple threat like Orson Welles still had cinematographers and production designers, etc. Hundreds of artists work on films. Neither a writer nor a director (nor one person who is both) is The Artist behind a film the way a novelist is The Artist behind a novel. And Lucas did NOT write the screenplays for or direct ESB or RotJ. So in what sense does he have a moral right to alter those films from what the people primarily involved in making them deemed the final product? In what sense would he have the right to make a years-later revision the ONLY version even if he WERE the director?
Then you get into the issue of the immeasurable cultural impact those films had in their original form and the imperative to preserve something that is defining to the history of film and the state of the zeitgeist. I don't think there is any ‘fan entitlement’ involved in saying the originals belonged to the world after being part of its consciousness for decades and it is doing violence to the artistic record to try to erase the films which actually occupied that space. It's exactly like trying to replace every copy of It's a Wonderful Life with a colourised version (well, it's worse but still), and that was something Lucas himself railed against. It’s like if Michaelangelo were miraculously resuscitated and he decided to repaint the Sistine Ceiling to add a gunfight and change his style to something contemporary.
I get genuinely very upset at the cold reality that generations of people are watching sw for the first time and it’s the fucking SE-except-worse they’re seeing. And as fewer people keep physical media and the US corporate oligarchy continues to perform censorship and rewrite history on its streaming services unchecked by any kind of public welfare concerns, you’ll see more and more ‘real Mandela effect’ type shit where the cultural record has suddenly ‘always’ been in line with whatever they want it to be just now. And US media continues to infect us all with its insidious ubiquity. I think misrepresenting and censoring the past is an objectively bad thing and we can’t learn from things we pretend never happened, but apparently not many people are worried about handing the keys to our collective experience to Disney and Amazon.
4. The ‘Jedi don’t marry’ thing and how he wanted this to continue with Luke post-RotJ, so it’s obviously not meant to be part of what was wrong with the order in the prequels. I find this... incoherent on a storytelling level. The moral of the anidala story then indeed becomes just plain ‘romantic love is bad and will make you crazy’, rather than the charitable reading of the prequels which I ascribe to, which is that the problem isn’t Anakin’s love for Padmé, it’s that he ceased to love her and began to covet her. And I can’t help but feel this attitude is maybe an expression of GL’s issues with women following his divorce. I don’t remember if there’s evidence to contradict that take, since it’s been some time since I read about this but yeah. ANH absolutely does sow seeds for possible Luke/Leia development and GL was still married while working on that film. Subsequently he was dead set against Luke ever having a relationship and decided Jedi could not marry. Coincidence?
There’s a lot of blinking red ‘issues with women’ warning signs all over Lucas’s work, but the prequels are really... egregious.
42 notes · View notes
redshirtgal · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media
As mentioned in our previous article, our Transportation Assistant Ensign Wilson was played by Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.  He was born in 1938 in Muskogee, Oklahoma but his family moved to Portland, Oregon when he was seven. It was during high school there that he discovered his love of theater and dance. At age 20, he moved to Los Angeles. His first movie part was that of a ceremonial dancer in the Roger and Hammerstein movie, South Pacific.
His dual talents in theater and dance paid off when he landed the part of Wilson in “The Enemy Within.” According to his son, Garland Thompson, Jr., there was no stuntman coordinator to block out the moves Thompson and Shatner would have to make during the fight scene between the two of them. Luckily, William Shatner had also studied dancing and the two of them went into a corner and choreographed the movements. By the time they were finished, the filming crew was ready to roll. Shatner and Thompson hit their marks perfectly, the scene was all done in one take, and the focus puller declared the film gate was clean. Which thrilled the crew because that meant everyone could eat an early lunch. 
Tumblr media
Garland Thompson performed on other television shows of the 60s such as The Lieutenant, Perry Mason and Bewitched. But he always preferred working on the stage. Even while he was on stage or before the camera, he still attended acting classes at various conservatories and workshops. The most influential of these was  Frank Silvera’s Theatre of Being Workshop. Frank Silvera was an accomplished black actor in film and on the stage (his performance as King Lear in the Shakespeare play of the same name, directed by Joseph Papp, is still considered one of the best). Silvera started his workshop as a way of improving racial equality in the arts by providing instruction and support for young black actors. He also helped them attain membership in the actors’ unions and he created a theater where they could perform. Garland Thompson gave full credit to Silvera for helping him attain success as an actor, a playwright, and a theater producer. His mentor’s  sudden death in 1970 at the age of 56 affected him deeply.  (photo on left is Frank Silvera and on the right is a playbill from one of his productions. Note the names Isabell Sanford and Whitman Mayo)
Tumblr media
Garland was already learning his way around and behind the stage as well as in front of it. He had served as the stage manager for Ray Bradbury’s plays in L.A. but then moved to New York to be the original stage manager and associate director for No Place to be Somebody by Charles Gordone on its first national tour as well as twice more during its run on Broadway. He also began to dabble in writing plays. This led him to realize how hard it was for black playwrights to have their plays produced.  As a result, Garland Thompson decided to join actor/director Morgan Freeman, actress/director Billie Allen Henderson, and journalist/ theater critic to form the Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop as a testament to his mentor and as a place for people of color to develop their play writing skills. He also served as its Executive Director.  Within weeks, Garland was leading Monday night readings (and later Saturday night readings) along with critical discussions at the Martinique Theater in New York, one of many theaters that housed the Frank Silvera’s Writers workshop over the years. These readings were almost always packed. But they allowed budding playwrights a chance to hear their material read aloud for the first time and critiqued. Some rewrote their plays after the first presentation and brought them back to be read and critiqued a second time. 
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Over the years, around 20,000 scripts were written and read at the workshop. Thompson also helped writers get their scripts produced on stage, including Ntozake Shange’ and her award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Consider Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf.  Many of the students in the workshop also learned how to work backstage in largely unseen but very important duties, such as those involving lighting and sound. This gave them a more complete education in the theater arts.  Garland Thompson even brought his own work in front of his students to be read and critiqued, then later produced.  A playbill and a newspaper advertisement illustrate production details of two of his plays. Many major figures in Black Theater participated in several aspects of the workshop. These included Ruby Dee, Angela Bassett, Adolph Caesar. Morgan Freeman, Debbie Allen,  Aduke Aremu, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTonya Richardson-Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, and Charles Dutton. 
youtube
In early 1999, Inside New York (a local TV news magazine) interviewed Mr. Thompson about the reasons he and his cofounders believed a workshop for people of color to write and produce plays was necessary. Do yourself a favor and carve yourself out some time to watch it in its entirety. This man’s charisma was  amazing as was his enthusiasm for helping young people of color enter the world of theater.  
Tumblr media
During his lifetime, Mr. Thompson worked with and often headed many other organizations devoted to Black Theater and received many honors in connection with them. He was the founding board member of the Harlem Arts Alliance and also served on the Board of Directors. In addition to being one of the founding members of the FSWW, he served as its director and was President of the Board of Directors of the FSWW Foundation, Inc. in 1981.  The AUDELCO awards were created to promote "recognition, understanding, and awareness of the arts in the African-American community." Garland Thompson was given the Board of Directors Award in 1976 for superior and sustained contribution to community theater. He also earned another AUDELCO award in 1981 as the producer of Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues. The photo above shows him along with two other recipients at the 1981 Awards. He also was the winner of the Washington D.C. One-Act Play Festival (according to the book Voices of Color) and the FSWW under his direction was awarded the Obie for playwrighting in 1989. 
Tumblr media
Garland also became involved in the National Black Theater Festival, starting with its second year. He set up and directed The Readers Theatre program, which grew and expanded over the years. He is shown above with his friend Ossie Davis, who was another major figure in Black Theater and who started the Festival’s first poetry slam in 2001. 
Tumblr media
(photo credit - Lia Chang)
Unfortunately, Garland Thompson suffered a serious fall in early November 2014  which resulted in being transported to the intensive care unit at Harlem Hospital. Unfortunately, he never regained consciousness and developed pneumonia and other serious conditions. He died on the 18th at age 76. Garland Thompson’s death was mourned by the Black Theater world. The first memorial devoted to his life and contributions was the addition of his life story to the “harlem is... Theater” Exhibition at New York’s Interchurch Center in December of 2015. Garland Lee Thompson Jr. is seen in the photo above in front of the the tribute to his father. 
Tumblr media
On February 12th of 2015,  Representative Charles Rangel of New York gave a speech in front of the U.S. House of Representatives to celebrate the legacy of Garland Thompson. This speech became an official part of the Congressional Record. If you wish to read it, then click here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2015-02-12/html/CREC-2015-02-12-pt1-PgE208-3.htm
Instead of a traditional funeral, there was a Three Act Performance Tribute, two of which were held on February 14th, which would have been Garland’s 77th birthday. The First Act was a Memorial held at St. James Presbyterian Church. In the photo above, Garland’s son (Garland Lee Thompson, Jr.) is holding a copy of the Congressional Record containing his father’s tribute along with a photo of his father.  Act Two was a reception later that day at the Johnson Theater for the New City. Garland Lee Thompson, Jr. and Sean C. Turner hosted an afternoon of readings, poetry, and performances which ended with a celebration of Garland Sr.’s birthday.   The final act was held in August of that year during Harlem’s National Black Theatre Festival. This is where Garland created the Readers Theater so Act III was a fitting final tribute to a man who had spent over 40 years teaching, encouraging, and nurturing writers and artists of color.  His son Garland Thompson, Jr., is a noted playwright, actor, cinematographer, poet, director and producer, although he has worn many, many other hats in the arts over the years. Since 2008, he has been the Coordinator for the Poetry Out Loud recitation contest for high school students in  Monterey County, California (this is part of a national contest funded by the National Endowment of the Arts) and hosts the Rubber Chicken Open Mic and Poetry Slam at the East Village Coffee Lounge in Monterey (which he co-founded 14 years ago). In 2014  he took over running his father’s Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop in New York. 
8 notes · View notes
satoshi-mochida · 4 years
Link
Tumblr media
Kadokawa Games has announced Root Film, the next entry in its mystery adventure series for PlayStation 4 and Switch. It will launch this spring in Japan for 6,800 yen.
Here are the details:
■ About Root Film
In Root Film, the voice actor idol unit i☆Ris sings the theme song and play the roles of the main characters, while ladies’ man voice actor Wataru Komada plays the role of the male protagonist. Additionally, the game is produced by Yoshimi Yasuda, who launched the Kadokawa Games mystery adventure series; written and directed by Hifumi Kouno, who has a reputation for working on adventure games; and features character design by Taro Mino, who also worked on the previous game Root Letter. Look forward to a new mystery title set in Shimane told by two protagonists, Rintarou Yagumo and Riho.
Tumblr media
■ Story: Murderous Intent Hidden in 29.97 Frames
Spirited young filmmaker Rintarou Yagumo is involved in a new TV project—a mystery drama production set in Shimane that also served as tourism promotion for the prefecture. It has been 10 years since the original pilot was shot, and while the project was discontinued for unknown reasons, plans for a revival seems to be in place. One of the characteristics of this project is that it is a competition between three filmmakers, and each filmmaker shoots using a different actress as the protagonist. Yagumo is excited to learn that the other two filmmakers are famous directors. Before long, Yagumo and the staff members head off to go pre-location scouting, but a murder occurs at their destination…
■ Characters
Rintarou Yagumo (voiced by Wataru Komada)
An up-and-coming young filmmaker.
Tumblr media
Rintarou Yagumo is a poor filmmaker with a small, personal office. While he manages to make a living by occasionally making small promotional videos and sham psychic DVDs, he is not satisfied with his current situation and is always trying to improve himself. He recently won awards at the “6-Minute Film Festival,” “Asia Movie Competition,” and so on, and is garnering attention as an up-and-coming filmmaker.
Riho (voiced by Himika Akaneya)
The other protagonist.
Tumblr media
The other protagonist, who is cheerful and often laughing. She was scouted in high school and transferred to another high school in Tokyo. She studied acting alongside her school studies and made her debut at 17 years-old. While it was a sober debut due to the fact that she signed with a small office, she is gradually gaining value within the industry for her talent as an actor.
Aine Magari (voiced by Yuu Serizawa)
The caring assistant.
Tumblr media
A foul-mouthed assistant who works for Yagumo Pictures. She is extremely skilled in the use of editing software and equipment. While she has a bad attitude and the air of a former delinquent, she is a good girl at heart. She takes notice of the smaller details and often looks after Yagumo.
Hitoha Amakata (voiced by Kubota Miyu)
A small office idol.
Tumblr media
An idol signed with a small office. She is one of the three actors chosen as the leads for the Shimane mystery drama project. Yagumo chooses her as a partner and together they travel around Shimane’s various locations.
Kyouichi Kanade (voiced by Azuki Shibuya)
The super beautiful cameraman.
Tumblr media
A cameraman who often hangs out with Yagumo. While he may still be learning, he has courage and cameraman will-power, and since cameramen tend to ask for a lot of money, he is a saving grace for the poor Yagumo. He is a quiet and takes pride in his work. He always comes off as somewhat sleepy.
Tomie Ao (voiced by Yuuki Wakai)
Riho’s friend.
Tumblr media
Riho’s friend from high shcool and a freshman at Shimane University. She is studying the work of Yakumo Koizumi. She moved to Shimane during high school. She has a deep love for her father, and can sometimes be strongly opinionated. She is cute, but does not have much of a fashion sense.
Ayane Kotoshiro (voiced by Saki Yamakita)
A friendly and strong-willed girl.
Tumblr media
A girl from the esteemed Kotoshiro family of Shimane. She is simple-minded and friendly, but can also be strong-willed and selfish. She is dating Kazuya Makida, who works for her, and even thinks she wants to get married.
■ Game System
One of the defining systems of Root Film is “Synesthesia Mode.” During conversation, words that have been singled out as “words that should not be forgotten” in your subconscious will appear on screen. The keywords you acquire can be used as part of your hand in “Max Mode.”
Max Mode is a debate between the protagonist and other characters in the game, which occurs in the resolution chapters you switch over to as you progress through the game. While this mode is carried over from Root Letter, it has the appearance of a fighting game and the system has been completed renewed.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Another characteristic of Root Film is the stylish user interface and text design themed around film work under the supervision of Hifumi Kouno.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
■ First-Print Purchase Bonus DVD: “i☆Ris x Root Film Treasured Footage Collection”
First-print copies of Root Film will include a “i☆Ris x Root Film Treasured Footage Collection,” a bonus DVD of the i☆Ris concert at Kadokawa Games Grand Festival 2019 and a behind-the-scenes look at the studio recording of the Root Film theme song.
Tumblr media
■ Root Film Theme Song: “Utakata no Hikari”
i☆Ris, who play the roles of the main characters in Root Film, are also the singers of the game’s original theme song. The theme song “Utakata no Hikari,” which was first unveiled at Kadokawa Games Grand Festival 2019, is a mature ballad with an air of suspense. Please look forward to a mature i☆Ris that is not often seen.
Tumblr media
■ Root Film Premiere Event
On March 27, 2020, a Root Film Premiere Event will be held in Kaguraza, Tokyo ahead of the game’s spring 2020 release. Consumers who pre-order Root Film will be invited to attend by lottery. Both Yuu Serizawa and Kubota Miyu will appear.
Tumblr media
■ Specifications
Title: Root Film
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Switch
Genre: Mystery Adventure
Release Date: Spring 2020 (Japan)
Price: 6,800 yen (physical / digital)
First-Print Bonus: “i☆Ris x Root Film Treasured Footage Collection”
Publisher: Kadokawa Games
Copyright: © 2019 to 2020 Kadokawa Games
Publisher: Kadokawa Games
Links: Official Website
Synopsis: Yagumo and Riho are the two protagonists. As you progress through each of their stories and unravel records of the past, you will witness the truth… Root Film is a mystery title developed with realistic and beautiful backgrounds from data that was carefully gathered of Shimane Prefecture, which is where the story is set. Enjoy the deep story written by Hifumi Kouno, which leads to a catharsis of the dark side of the Internet, madness, and art that are prevalent today.
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.
youtube
20 notes · View notes
productiongroupf · 4 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Film Shoot - The Chase
“For our first week of filming, we were given a choice of three titles to base our film around: The Chase, Pickpocket and Late Again. Our group decided to choose The Chase as we had an idea that we thought was more unconventional and would set us apart from the other groups. Seemingly other groups who chose to do ‘The Chase’ seemed to literally film a physical chase between two people, whereas we went for a more figurative approach and decided to do a story based around the idea of a boy ‘chasing’ a girl. 
Before filming all members of our group decided it would be beneficial to meet up a couple of hours prior to discuss what we were going to be shooting and how we would go about it, I think it was helpful to do this as it meant that it didn’t take away from our actual shooting time which was quite limited. In this time we printed out scripts and shot lists so that everybody on set knew what was happening at each time which made shooting a lot easier and straightforward. As this was our first week making a film in our groups, we did face some struggles getting organised and learning how to work well together but I think that it was a good learning experience so that in future weeks we could improve our team work skills. Before shooting we set up our scene to make sure the room looked like how we wanted it, we used props such as detention slips and a detention signs to anchor the audience into believing the two actors were students in detention. 
Shooting the film was relatively simple as it was all shot in one room with only two actors, but we still had to make sure that we had a large variety of different shots of angles so that when it came to editing we were able to have a lot of versatility. Shooting roughly took around 2 hours and we were able to shoot everything we needed, during this week my role as producer meant that I was involved in multiple aspects of the shoot, helping with setting up the scene and continuity errors whilst also taking photos throughout the shoot for our blog. 
During editing each member of our group took turns, each having an hour slot each to do what we wanted to do with the film, I think that this worked well because it meant that everyone had ample opportunity to edit and learn new skills from other members of the groups who perhaps knew how to do things that other members of the group didn’t. 
Overall I think that our pre-production, shoot, and post-production  was successful in that we were able to shoot everything on the shot list, however I do think that we strayed from our original plot slightly which during the screening of our film made it difficult for some people to understand what was happening. I also believe that we could have used a wider range of shots, close ups, wide shots etc. as this would make the film a more interesting watch and help to engage the audience. I think that all members of our group learned a lot of things while shooting which made it a valuable and educational experience.”
— Week 2 Blog post, Leah (Sound/Producer)
Tumblr media
“The title for the first film of this module we chose was The Chase but we decided to take a different approach to usual chase films and follow the story of a boy “chasing” a girl in an attempt to ask her on a date. For this week I fulfilled the role of cinematographer. This role is one that is centred around practical skills, before shooting I was already relatively confident using the Sony cameras, because of this I ensured that I was greatly involved in the preproduction processes as I have less experience in this stage of production. One of the biggest responsibilities I took on during this week was writing the risk assessment. I feel that this is a crucial skill to hone as completing a detailed risk assessment ensures the safety of all crew members. 
Another element of preproduction I engaged with was the shot listing and storyboarding of ideas. I had never written a shot list before so this week I closely observed our director while she was compiling her ideas and contributed and discussed my ideas with her. I now feel that I could complete a shot list alone and look forward to having this opportunity in future weeks. Creating the storyboard is something I hope that we will continue to do going forward because I found it useful as the cinematographer as it allowed me to exactly see the directors vision and allowed the shoot to remain on track. Something I found particularly challenging regarding this weeks brief was that one of the requirements was that the film could only be shot within the Parry Williams building. As our idea required a classroom it was stressful trying to find a location as the seminar room in which we hoped to film had been booked. Luckily we were able to use the edit suite to film in, resolving this issue definitely helped to develop the groups imagination and ability to adapt. Furthermore, from a cinematographer’s stand point, shooting in a different room than originally planned helped me to be more creative with my shot choices and composition as there were certain sections of the room that could not be shown in shot as they would have contradicted the story that we were trying to tell. Due to the way in which the scene was blocked I was able to practice with focus pulls and capturing deep focus shots with the use of parallel lines in the corridor scene. The nature of the film meant that both the director and I agreed that the majority of the shots should be static shots on the tripod. This further juxtaposed the nature of the assumptions made by the title. 
Another key element of the brief was that the film could not contain any dialogue meaning that the story needed to be told purely through visuals and foley sound. This was something I took into account when composing the shots as the close up reaction shots and cutaways were crucial in highlighting the key story points to the audience and driving the narrative. However, after feedback, I feel that this may have been lost through the edit meaning that it was more difficult for the audience to follow the story. Because of this, in the following weeks we aim to focus on the key beats within the story that need emphasis to resolve this issue.” 
— Week 2 Blog post, Maddie (Cinematographer)
Tumblr media
“At the end of the first week back at uni, we were plunged into planning, Friday evening to Monday afternoon. For week 2, The story we created was influenced by the given selection of topics, of which we chose to follow “the Chase”. Our premise was not conventional, as it was not so much about a literal chase but of the metaphorical chase of love interest. We decided to go for this story, as we wanted to do something outside of the box and quirky. All of us collaborated on the plot idea and agreed on how we would visually represent the story. I really enjoyed working with everyone and it was a good idea that we could all add our own touch to the story.
I learned that script writing was not one of my strengths, however since we were not allowed dialogue, the script was more of a short premise, a series of events and character reactions. We assigned our actors and turned up 2 hours early to prep and plan on the 3 hours of shooting. We prepared various props to aid with the mise en scene, however we did forget to plan where we would shoot which caused us to become delayed. 
With the absence of dialogue and an interesting mise en scene, it helped to use music to progress the story. We used music to help indicate a change of emotion or pace. The music we used was comical which I believed helped to set a light atmosphere, and to emphasise love stalking gone wrong with the twist at the end.
A problem I noticed that we came across in the edit was continuity errors and lack of cutaways in order to cover this up. It is especially noticeable in the first 30 seconds where the boy comes in with his hand on his rucksack, and then suddenly his hand is down at his side, and then up again in the next cut. We did not have much to play around with since we had only taken the shots that were essential to carry the story. This being so we only just had enough time to finish the essential shots, and therefore more guidance for actors and stricter planning might be useful in future.As we scrambled to find a room to shoot in, we were under-prepared and already running behind on time. Therefore, we got all the main shots we needed but with less detail and focus. For example, we couldn’t see the phone very well when the boy tapped on the screen and accidentally liked the girl’s Instagram post, and additionally the actor who was playing the girl’s role (me) didn’t have a very strong Instagram page. This meant that it was confusing as to who’s Instagram page it was, and it was also not very clear what the boy ends up panicking about.  Therefore, we needed more closeups to see the characters emotions and we also would have benefited from an improved mise en scene, as it is integral to storytelling.
I believe that it was a good first attempt to get back into making short films and hope in future that we can iron out problems in any areas we had trouble with this week.”
— Week 2 Blog post, Zoë (Scriptwriter and Actor)
And here is the short film: The Chase
youtube
1 note · View note
beansandco · 5 years
Text
Script for Documentary
Hello there, My name is George. I am currently enrolled at the Colchester Institute studying VFX & Animation. We create in adobe software and 3D software to composite effects into scenes and create movement of characters. However it’s really only Animation that I’m interested in, hand drawn and digital 2D especially. 
Now I’ve never been much of a detailed illustrator but I can deal with cartoons and really thats all I want to do. The idea of drawing a character so many times that they come alive on screen is really captivating to me. In college I’ve created a couple short animations, all of them teaching me what it’s like to draw digitally. I soon discovered there is a lot more to it than I had originally thought. Just drawing the character in different positions isn’t enough, you need to think about the fluidity, consistency and weight of all movements. I decided to study the rules of animation set forth by the disney founders. I then implemented these into my FMP which has given me a deeper understanding as to what really makes the difference between an amateur and a seasoned animator. I learned to become quite accustom to Adobe Animate while making them and I now enjoy using it as my main tool to animate.  
Despite all this, I’m held back by my lack of drawing skills. I enjoy drawing simple cartoons and with animation that’s generally a good thing. However since I have to make all parts myself for FMPs and such, backgrounds and other details are going to look lack luster, which could break the immersion. Working in a studio this might not be a problem, as there will be background artists and others that do the detailed work. Leaving the in-between animation my own duty. However you will still be expected to have artistic capabilities if you want to move up and become a key-frame artist or a producer/director. 
I learnt about this from hearing the story of Hayao Miyazaki. He actually is where I take a lot of inspiration. His work was always about high risk, high reward. He would pay close attention to every little detail of a scene. So much so that the production time would be a painfully long task. There’s a saying that if you pause a Studio Ghibli movie at any point, it would look like a stand alone painting. What has this got to do with me? Well his attention to detail and hand drawn method of making animations are exactly what I aspire to reach. He stared as a in-between artist at Toei Studios, became a key-frame artist and eventually branching off to make his own films in his own studio. He did this, through a long laborious gaining of experience. 
This is where university I think will help me. While I’m learning at university it will be far more specifically aimed at the practice of Animation, that I’ll be gaining lots of crucial practice. Most uni’s offer the chance to work with a partnered company for work experience at the end of the course which would be an incredible “foot in the door” opportunity. This is why my plans are so specific, finish college, go to uni and then get to work in a studio. Its the way a master like Miyazaki did it and its exactly what I plan to do. 
I specifically want to go to, Norwich University of the Arts. Its a dedicated arts university, therefore most of their resources are put towards helping creative practitioners. Its also only an hour away from where I live and the accommodation is much cheaper than that of London's.  
This all however depends if I can get into university. There are various obstacles that might make this difficult. The one I’m most concerned of is the creation of a portfolio. Portfolios are there to impress the Uni’s with things you have created and the creative journey behind them. For me I have a handful of short animations that took dozens of hours to create. My hope is they will understand this as animators themselves, how long a process it is to make them. With my lack of drawing skills however, that’s something I will have to just build up while I practice. My plan is to drawn progressively more detailed background for my animations, each one using a new technique like lighting and focus. 
I’ve followed many animators, mainly because they often have a lot to say. Many recommend not getting into animation. They say it’s a long and mind bending process. But one thing they all say is that the end result is always worth it. One animator, Zach Hadel said, “Anyone can animate, it doesn’t matter their drawing skills”. Animation isn’t how real it LOOKs, its how real the world they’re in FEELS. Thanks for listening.
2 notes · View notes
earthstory · 6 years
Video
vimeo
Original caption:
This short’s timeline is built around one fictional day on the beautiful island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It starts with the beautiful sunrises above the sea of clouds. Then embark on a journey around the island, visiting the Cacti of the south or the humid forests of the north. As the day unfolds we progressively climb the volcano to witness the magic of sunsets from the crater. There you can experience many twilight phenomena. For one the sun hanging right above the ‘Calima’- this cloud of dust and sand from the Sahara, giving beautiful colors. You can also appreciate the extremely fast twilight with Venus and the thin-crescent moon in the Earthshine setting on the western shore in the zodiacal lights, this strange pyramidal column of light coming from the sunlight being refracted into tiny interplanetary dust particles! From this moment when colors and light are fading away, you are in for quite a show… The second part of this film is the one I wanted to put the emphasis mostly because I’m an astrophotographer. 
> As I am following my journey into finding innovative sequences and techniques, this trip was the perfect occasion to test out these new skills on a part of the sky I was eager to capture: the center of our home galaxy and its many astronomical treasures. After twilight in April, you can witness the ‘winter part’ of the milky way setting on the south-western shore along with the famous Sirius, Orion constellations and its nebulae (Orion, Running Man, Flame, Horse Head, Rosette). It’s also a good time to peek at Vela, the Gum nebula and the Carina nebula (barely visible here because it is too close to the horizon to get a clean shot). I went to El Roque de Garcia to get a sequence of Orion setting behind the famous rocky pinnacles there to combine the red of the H-alpha emissions and the hues of the lava. Around midnight, you can watch Jupiter rise in the east followed by the head of Scorpius (Pi Sco, Dschubba and Acrab), announcing the rise of the milky way. About 15 minutes later, a very interesting region would lift up: The Antares region. For the first time in timelapse you will be able to gaze at the beautiful colors and shapes of the nebulae of Rho Ophiuchi along with Messier 4, and especially a signature shot of this area photobombed by some red and green airglow, making the yellow, pink and blue gas clouds literally change color! I also really wanted to get the best details of the core, which is rising almost horizontally 30 minutes later. I traveled and hiked to several locations for that and my favorite shot was for sure the core rising behind the telescope hill of Tenerife’s observatory. I used both motionless timelapse to get the red laser pointing at the stars, but also a tracked sequence to increase details and lights. Around 3:15 I switched to my 135mm lens to give you the best detailed view of the galaxy bulge seen on timelapse: the dark dust lanes blocking the light coming from a billion stars of the downtown region, the pinks of the Lagoon nebula and the pink and blue Trifid nebula. You can also watch many other wide angle shots of our home galaxy rising and hanging above the crater at various locations, whether it is above the Caldera, or the white dunes of Minas de San Jose, or even the many basaltic pinnacles of the craters. On top of that I also featured a 50mm shot of the Cygnus region and its nebulae, the Eagle and Shield region, The tail of Scorpius up to Norma with the Cat’s Paw nebula, the War and Peace nebulae, and the Prawn nebula all bathed in airglow. 
> 
> I am really proud and excited to share these unique and novel scenes with you in timelapse, and it sure took a tremendous amount of time, energy, ressources, preparation, work and learning to get to this point. I gathered 1 To of data, around 20 000 pictures, working from 4 pm till 8 am every day for 9 days with a 3 hour drive each day. It also took me an entire week of relentless work to post-process and edit the sequences and the film. All was recorded with the Canon 6D Baader modified, the Sony a7s, the Sony a7rII and a variety of bright lenses ranging from 14mm to 300mm. I used the Lonely Speck Pure Night and Matt Aust Light pollution filters to reduce light pollution and increase details, and also the Vixen Polarie to track the stars and get cleaner shots. Syrp Genie 3 axis system was used for motion control. All post production was made in Lr with the special timelapse plus plugin, Sequence for mac, TLDF, and final production was made in FCPX. I hope you like the movie as much as I liked shooting and processing it and I thank everyone of you for your support. All content is of course copyrighted AMP&F (except sountrack licensed through Musicbed), and no footage can be used in any way without the author’s permission. Please contact me for media and purchase inquiry. Please share and comment if you liked the video and follow me for more videos like this one! More at adphotography-online.com.
46 notes · View notes
hypeathon · 6 years
Text
RWBY & Cinematography, Part 1 - Establishing Techniques
Tumblr media
Animation has for a long time now struggled to crawl out of the stigma of appealing only to a younger audience. Combine that with internet animation in particular being very young compared to other film-making mediums, and you have projects within the platform that need to go through much trouble to make a name for themselves. RWBY is no exception to this, as from the beginning it has faced a lot of harsh ridicule by critics who are fans of anime, the very medium the web-series takes direct inspiration from. And despite having a growing fanbase and the production having come a long way in just five years, there are some aspects of the show that even much of its fans have neglected to refer to. If there’s one growing part of RWBY’s presentation that especially deserves mention. it would be the cinematography.
As stated previously, RWBY has always been inspired by and even aimed to emulate anime. As a cultural medium of entertainment, anime has been the pigeon-holed for its various tropes. The tsundere archetype, beach and hot spring scenes, shonen training arcs, transfer student character introductions, etc. And while the dismissal of seeing some the same tropes in many titles every season, every year is understandable, anime as a visual-storytelling medium has been cultivating itself for the past 60 years. With that much time, many names who have taken the positions of directors and storyboard artists in their careers alone have developed recognizable cinematic techniques. One example is Osamu Dezaki. Most may not have even heard of him due to his passing in 2011 or his works due to how old they are. But one may faintly recognize his techniques he pioneered that are casually sprinkled in many anime. Take the “postcard memories” technique for instance, a way of freeze-framing a shot into a hyper-detailed, sketchy still. It’s something meant to make the subject of such shots feel especially tense, mesmerizing or impactful and it can be seen in various works that some fans today have been exposed to like Sailor Moon, Kill la Kill, & One Piece.
Tumblr media
And Dezaki is just one name that uses certain techniques to create a vision in anime titles. There are many others who have gone to either provide storyboards for or direct some shows and films well-known within anime fandom to this day. With Takuya Igarashi, the director of Ouran High School Host Club, Soul Eater, Star Driver, Captain Earth and Bungo Stray Dogs, his works commonly have vivid colors and lighting through windows and characters on symmetrically-opposed sides to convey the contextual mood. Then there’s Shigeru Yamauchi, the director of Casshern Sins, Dream Eater Merry, A Town Where You Live, the 8th, 10th, & 12th Dragon Ball Z films, Digimon: The Golden Digimentals, and a storyboard artist of episodes of many, many anime. Yamauchi is especially known for having whole scenes depict close-up shots of a character’s face or showing half of their bodies and having settings be done in a specific, sometimes monochromatic color schemes that feels like something out of a painting. There’s also Naoko Yamada, a name from studio Kyoto Animation who has developed a resume of directing shows and films like K-ON, Tamako Market & A Silent Voice that, despite them mostly having a moe vibe through the character designs, are deceptively-enriched in scenes shifting from bright, pastel colors to more dull colors to provide atmospheric moods and having characters express themselves not through their faces but other ways such as their legs.
There are far too many names to point to, but even ones who have yet to direct a whole anime, manage to apply their cinematic ideas into episodes of anime. Even something like Dragon Ball Super, a recent installment of a popular shonen franchise that’s often dismissed for having characters mindlessly flying and throwing beam blasts and fists, can be known for having episodes with competent stage direction depending on who is working on it.    
With all of that said, it’s worth bearing in mind that RWBY, like the many anime it takes inspiration from, could also be credible for having and applying cinematic techniques. But this wasn’t always the case. Back in volumes 1 & 2, the process for storyboards would be led by Patrick Rodriguez, who is known for designing various characters in the show like Ironwood, Amber, & Tyrian, with the rest of the team consisting on Miles Luna & Kerry Shawcross, the writer and director of the show respectively and the animators. The problem however was that even with the storyboard team set up this way, scheduling was very tight, to the point where there was either little time or no time to make the boards for the show. Although the first two volumes were not entirely void of enticing shots, this led to needing to resort to basic camera shots and on few occasions, incomprehensible ones. By volume 3 however, this process changed. Among the many changes in the production pipeline, one of them was the overhaul of the storyboard team to be led by Joe MacDonald, an animator during volume 2 who had nearly 30 years of experience in the creative entertainment industry, with a newly established team consisting specifically of storyboard artist. The second was introducing a complimentary camera & layout team, also led by Joe MacDonald with some of the storyboard artists overlapping. Finally, the third was creating a camera bible. To quote from one of the storyboard and layout artist, Rachel Doda, in the volume 3 audio commentary:
“It was mentioned earlier too in some other commentary, but we originally created like a camera bible or at least tried to create like, stage direction in terms of just… hey! Ya know, If it’s a shot of Ozpin, it has to be kind of stagnant because he’s the most level-headed. And if it’s a shot of Ironwood, usually, they just, ya know, it has to be like he’s in power. So the camera has to be low to the ground. Then, ya know, just like all the characters themselves. Qrow has a little hitch to stuff.”  
Since volume 3, the camera served as was a big way to help express the position or mindset of various characters. Take the character, James Ironwood as referred to earlier. Compare most of his shots in volume 2 to his shots in volume 3 & 4, and the differences in his scenes will feel more apparent. Camera manages to communicate when he feels it’s important to be authoritative and when to be more reasonably submissive. And that’s the key word: “communicate.” If Rachel Doda’s words as quoted are of any indication, then multiple elements in cinematography such as lighting, color, transitions, framing, staging, & character posture could be at play to sell and help deeply interpret meaning behind character’s thoughts and intentions.
In the case of volume 3 where this major shift in the show’s direction began, there are several scenes that became very striking to this day. One of the biggest examples is this shot of Pyrrha witnessing the Fall Maiden, Amber in a comatose state in chapter 6. When watching it the first time, one may think that match-cutting from Pyrrha turning away to showing Cinder at the stadium is simply meant to indicate that Cinder is Amber’s assailant. But there’s also a matter of Pyrrha feeling bound to take a risk of having her destiny be Amber’s and not hers compared to Cinder who wants nothing more than to become the very thing the former hesitates to be. Pyrrha feels she can’t avoid any of this and is thus overwhelmed as shown in chapter 8 when she can no longer even attain peace of mind from a simple leaf falling towards her in a burning sunset, all of which from that point on referred to the Fall Maiden in her mind.  
Though as much as volume 3 had its strong sense of visual direction, RWBY’s fourth volume arguably pushed the direction further through a variety of ways. While it has been criticized for spreading its story too thin by jumping between multiple plot points, some scenes in plot points tied to certain characters can contain some strong cinematography. Take for instance Cinder’s training scene in chapter 11, which by itself doesn’t seem to say much. But think about the Grimm she fought. They were a bunch of Beowulves and a Beringel, which are the same creatures of Grimm that Ruby Rose fought in the character short. Although Ruby takes longer to defeat her foes than Cinder, the former is shot to end her fight triumphantly while the latter is shown exhausted and has to catch her breath after her bout. All of this can be interpreted as an inadvertent way of presenting how even more salt is poured to Cinder’s wounds.
Tumblr media
Another example in volume 4 are scenes of Weiss in the Schnee mansion in chapters 2 & 11. When comparing side-by-side, the shots themselves are practically the same but with three key differences. The first is the lighting, the second is Weiss’s facial expressions and body language, and the third is the fact Klein is accompanying her in the same shots in chapter 11. These shots show very effectively-opposite meanings with Weiss’s character who is first seen feeling lonely and submissive despite being in a fancy, spacious, brightly-lit home only to be feeling more defiant and at-ease when she has Klein to help her escape the home we learn she hates.
Tumblr media
It’s this use to linking shots in different episodes that also sheds light to the context of the song “Mirror, Mirror”, which frankly never made much contextual sense up until this point. How can someone who carries pride in her family name be the loneliest of them all as the lyrics go? Well, this visual direction sums up why. Her father and his business-oriented ambitions created a growing rift in her family and she needs someone she can trust to be empathetic towards what she’s feeling. This is also why she felt hurt when she found out Whitley never really intended to look out for her. Combine these moments with shots of her witnessing the Atlas ships passing by her window in chapters 1 & 7, only to finally manage to leave in one by chapter 12, and you have a phase of Weiss’s character story packed with meaning.
There’s also quite a few cinematic techniques regarding Qrow in volume 4. One of the biggest cases is the use of a low light by his side with whoever he talks to about Salem. In times where connection to other Kingdoms in the World of Remnant are cut-off, Qrow welcomes or advises cooperation with other characters out of necessity. Warm lights such as lamps and campfires help illustrate this. With Qrow and Raven in chapter 4, the lamp on the table is closer to the former than the latter who only wants specific information and will otherwise walk away (or make a portal in her case) towards the darker side of the Tavern. And then there’s chapter 8, where Qrow informs team RNJR with as much information about everything to do with Salem and the fall of Beacon as possible, leading to well-presented shots of Jaune stepping briefly outside of the campfire due to his anger and wavering trust. Even this shot where he bluntly referred to Qrow’s motives as using his teammates as bait is framed to show his stance on who he was looking out for and who he wasn’t. Most interestingly though, is this shot here of Qrow framed to be surrounded by the campfire as he describes his semblance. While the cinematic techniques in some scenes can be admittedly up for debate, this shot was actually confirmed by Kerry Shawcross in the volume 4 director’s audio commentary to have been drawn by Rachel Doda and was highly approved after going through every department in the production.
“We uh, the shot inside the fire, was definitely one of the shots that we had uh, Rachel had the idea to do while we were boarding, Rachel Doda. And uh, I told her, “absolutely draw that! I make no promises that’s going to make it all the way through. But every next department after that I explained the shot and it was like, “no, we should do that!” Um, so yeah, it was one of those things where it was like, it was just such a beautiful shot that everyone wanted to make it happen and everyone went out of their way to make it happen.”
One of strongest cases of visual techniques applied though was in the forest scene in chapter 2. Here, we see Jaune, an often talkative character in previous volumes, be unusually silent and uttering only shouts and out-of-breath exhales as he trains through Pyrrha’s recording. He is mostly alone in the dark forest with shades of dark blue and green and bright, blueish lights illuminating his armor. Most fans who see this scene are struck by the music and Pyrrha’s words and Jaune’s determined, yet saddened facial expressions. Alone, those aspects are effective at the scene being a tearjerker. But there’s one other element, a visual one that can add a whole level of meaning: the fireflies.
Tumblr media
In Japan, fireflies are theoretically that of Hitodama or “human souls” drifting in the night when away from their bodies. If we were to apply this motion to the forest scene in chapter 2, then the fireflies could be visually representative of the lives lost in Shion village. Thus what Jaune could’ve felt was not sadness for not being able to stop Pyrrha, but for being unable to do anything about tragedy of the villagers. Now to some, such an interpretation may be considered reading a little too much. While that response is fair, bear in mind that the villages seen in volume 4, Shion, Higanbana, Oniyuri and Kuroyuri are all named after flowers with specific meanings in Japanese, the matter of fireflies being that of human souls may not be that unlikely.
“I’m just tired of losing everything.” - Jaune Arc
If there’s any set of scenes that are arguably as striking in visual direction as in chapter 2, if not more-so, it would be in scenes of Ren and Nora in chapters 10 & 12. There’s the matter of how the reveal of Ren’s semblance after cutting from the shot of the lotus flower is representative of how a real lotus flower can bloom after being submerged in mud. There’s also the shots of Nora desperately holding on to Ren’s hand, one of which is out of fear of being left alone when they were kids while the other is to prevent Ren from risking being killed due to anger and reckless abandon. But probably the most powerful moment of stage direction is of this moment here.
youtube
That there concisely explains what Nora means to Ren. Bear in mind, Ren is a very quiet, calm & collected character. He’s the opposite of Nora in that regard, who wears her enthusiasm on her sleeve and openly express how much she enjoys Ren’s company. But up until this point, we hardly seen Ren’s perspective about Nora other than the occasional subtle smile at her antics. It’s not until the scene underneath the house in chapter 12 that we see what Ren sees when Nora is deeply saddened to the point of being in tears, something viewers have never seen her current express before. In his mind, Ren briefly sees the same frightened girl who he first met and swore that they would keep each other safe. He is all Nora has and if he realizes that if he gets himself recklessly killed, then she’ll be alone all over again. And that’s the last thing Ren wants to happen.  
Even after all of this is said and done, there’s still more examples of scenes with visual direction to be unpacked and interpreted in volume 4 alone. But those can be talked more depth another time as they help compliment scenes in the focus of the next subject to be talked about in part 2.
25 notes · View notes
faisalkhanlove · 3 years
Text
What makes Explainer Video Vital for Engagement Banking?
Bank services are more engaging and easily understood by your customers if they are provided with clear videos that explain each assistance that you provide so that the customer's journey will be more enjoyable and enjoyable. Making use of videos that explain your services particularly animation videos is an amazing experience in communicating between your customers and financial services. Explainer videos with animation can assist users to comprehend essential and intricate information easily without putting a lot of energy and effort into. It's the perfect time to make explanation videos to explain banking terms and to introduce them to engage with your customers.
Instead of sending the bank's offer and policy details instead, you could offer a one-minute, simple explainer video to dispel any doubts and questions regarding the financial policy and procedures.
Tumblr media
In this post, we're going to discuss the many financial benefits that you can get from an explainer video in order to focus on your top service and to create valuable material for your customers.
Customer engagement
There is no doubt that explainer videos, particularly animated explainer videos, draw the attention of customers since they bring us back to our younger self. Beautiful and vibrant backgrounds as well as hilarious characters of animated videos assist banks to create a fun and welcoming environment that can help your bank be different from other banks. Banks can transfer data in a innovative manner, which makes people aware of commercial and financial services.
Absolutely amazing!
Video explaining is a multi-layered video that moves through various scenes and creates an amazing interactions with viewers. The customers are able to comprehend the basic ideas of banking when you make it clear in a fun way. Banks may also make use of storytelling, which means that you will be more accommodating to your customers. It's a fantastic idea to include motion graphics into your explainer videos to concentrate on the most important elements of your message.
The art of gaming
Animation can be used to engage your customers by adding a bit of enjoyment and fun to their banking experience. It's the art of performing all the complicated processes of banking in a way similar to playing a game, and then turning into a similar experience. Many financial institutions employ this method to achieve the desired outcomes. Your company can also attempt similar methods to achieve the best results.
To sell an investment product
Do you also wish to market the financial services you offer in a unique way? If so then a brief animation explainer is your best response to that question. In just 60 seconds, it is possible to visualize the core concept behind your product using an animated explanation video. You can show the benefits and advantages of your product by it. Additionally the process of working can be visualized by using an animated explainer video.
It's not necessary to send emails, simply add your animation explainer video onto your bank's site and mobile application to let your customers know how your branch functions.
It functions as an helpdesk
There are so many concerns about banking services and facilities. They are interested in knowing about the details of their account, when they must fill in the major details and how to complete KYC and more. The majority of them spend so long to read documents that have a lot of terminology pertaining to their account. Explainer videos can be a crucial tool in answering every question that people needed to learn about. In simple terms, an FAQ video is the most effective to cut down on time and cost.
It helps build trust.
Explainer videos can build confidence in the minds of your customers regarding your business. When you communicate your policies and procedures in an explanation video that gives an unambiguous manner without ambiguity, customers are likely to try to purchase your services as you've gained trust and gained their loyalty.
This explains the mission of your bank.
Explainer videos inform people about your mission, goals and thoughts. Your Bank can be presented in a short, animated video to inform people about its current position and what its accomplishments are. It is possible to share the informative video via your social media accounts and include it within your web site.
The last words
Explainer videos can save your time as well as money. They allow you to prioritize your goals. Utilizing an explainer for financial and banking services is a great option, as we have discussed previously. It allows you to differentiate yourself from the rest of your competitors. It gives you with a great opportunity to interact with your clients. Videos that explain are a crucial element for success when you adhere to each step carefully.
It is true that the Adobe program catalog is quite large that's not unusual considering that The Creative Cloud suite encompasses pretty much every creative practice. It doesn't matter whether you're a web or graphic designer or photographer or marketing professional or you work in the field of television or film. It has the bulk of the tools one be familiar with as they are common.
We at Essential Studio can assist you in all aspects of your video production as well as marketing process. Visit our website to learn more. Best of luck and thanks for visiting.
Original content by this URL https://medium.com/@essencestudios2d/the-value-of-explainer-videos-in-interacting-with-banks-9f4351091dae
0 notes
Text
Progress Analysis final
A screenplay is a written work by scriptwriters for various occasions like films, tv programs and these could be either original or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. It’s mostly the movements, the actions, and also the characters that are narrated through screenplays. Even though the definition gives out what a screenplay holds I was a little bit confused as to what was required from my end to make this module meet success. I hadn’t heard about what a screenplay was and neither did I know what this was about. It took me by surprise and threw me to an edge. But I was able to welcome this challenge with open hands and I was willing to ride out of my comfort zone to research in detail and find out what a screenplay exactly was and how its functions are carried out. So I knew that there will be hours of dedication, proper approach, and determination if I was to get this right.
As I mentioned earlier, I did not know what a screenplay was and nor did I come across this word. When I started my research on what a screenplay is I had to go through some of the wonderful and marvelous cinematic productions that have been made. I read a lot of screenplays and even though it consumed a lot of time I still managed to pursue further. Eventually, I found out that writing a screenplay isn’t that different from writing a script. So, I thought it will not be all that hard since I have just got to come up with a story and put it into paper. Nonetheless, I encountered what every writer goes through at times like hitting a blind wall. Only then did I realize that I have not attempted to write a script before and it was the very first challenge that I had to encounter. I didn’t know if there was a particular format that needs to be followed or a set of guidelines that need to be adhered to.
The situation I was in was a bit terrifying since I had no clue whatsoever to put me on track and get me through this but still, I figured that not everything is about doing something that you know or that you have practice but it also has a learning edge. So, it was a nice experience to get on the right track organizing and arranging the process. However, when I ventured further into the subject, I found out that there are different formats and methods to make and build up a script. I never imagined that it would involve so many steps, processes, and a lot of pre-planning to go through to get a screenplay done since it was quite similar to a script.
When I was facing these challenges, what struck my mind was how I wished I had more knowledge about this and about the amount of knowledge I will gain on this subject. Gladly I learned a lot about screenplay all thanks to this module. Initially, I got the idea of what a screenplay is. Then I learned about the “show don’t tell rule” which was very vital. Unlike in a novel, which can illuminate and bring out a character’s thoughts his morals, mindset or spend time describing the setting or places, a screenplay should only contain information that you can literally “show” and not unlike a novel let the reader’s mind run wild in their imagination. It means that if a character is in a state of unhappiness or is sad, the writer must find a method or take a different approach altogether to portray the character’s sadness. 
I also learned about how a screenplay should be written down. In a screenplay, a page roughly equates to about one minute of screen time. So as per the general rule of thumb, screenplays typically run from 90 to 120 pages long. I also found out that since screenplays are made up of many scenes, each scene can either be as short as half a page or as long as ten pages as the extent goes. But usually, a scene is either three pages or less. The specific requirement for the Font for writing a play distinctively caught my attention. With consistent spacing, most screenplays are written in Courier font, 12-point size, single-spaced. The Courier font is a monospaced font which means that each character and space is the same width. I thought this was mere all the knowledge that was required to write a screenplay but then there were various formats to be followed as well.
Screenplay formatting consists of Scene headings – tells us where we are in the film and what day it is, action lines – describes the character movement in a scene, characters – the introduction of a character before their first line is a must, dialogue – any time a character speaks either loud or in voiceover the lines must appear thus and parentheticals – if the dialogue doesn’t speak out parentheticals can be placed above or between lines of the dialogue to indicate how something is meant to be performed.
So, with all these points I thought I started to write my screenplay. A few pages and about a couple of hours of work later I found it a little too odd as for the nature of my screenplay and so I sought to research what should not be included in a screenplay. I learned that in a screenplay one must refrain from overly elaborating a scene description especially ornate or poetic language to describe a scene if that language isn’t visible. One must avoid entertaining too many parentheticals because ultimately it is the actors and the director’s responsibility to interpret a screenplay and decide how to portray a particular scene or moment. Also, that it’s the editor’s job to decide how many transitions from one scene of a finished film to another. I also learned that one must avoid including camera angles or information for how to shoot a scene. With all this information I realized that it was not about putting the work behind the scenes and the story and everything associated with paper but a particular segment of it.
The completion of the screenplay was truly a very memorable moment since it was the very first time, I had attempted to write a screenplay. Not knowing what the process is and literally what a screenplay is to see the end of a completed screenplay was beyond satisfaction. I had to start from scratch to learn everything about writing a screenplay from A to Z but with the result, it felt like it was worth all the trouble and time that was spent on writing the screenplay and finishing it. I felt like I had improved my writing skills and also opened up new possibilities and areas as far as my imagination goes. I’m proud of myself for my accomplishment and that too at the very first attempt. With proper knowledge and extensive research I put into writing the screenplay I was able to finish my first very own screenplay and it was honestly a great achievement.
After all the information I obtained about what a screenplay is, how to write a screenplay, the formats in which screenplays are written, and what you should not include in a screenplay it was very clear that the story had to be very strong and amazing. So, I thought I’d make a story that any reader would feel as if they are making a subjective approach to the content. Since I wanted to write 10 pages, I had to pick an interesting subject to build a story or it would have gotten dreary midway. But since it was moreover a personal story, I was willing to write for 10 pages and was more than motivated to make it good.
This wasn’t all a self-accomplishment alone. I was able to get about 50% of the screenplay to success from my dedication and effort but without proper guidance and advice, I wouldn’t have been able to get it all together and finish it off in the wonderful way it was completed. The lecturers played a huge role in making it easier for me to complete the screenplay which I had attempted for the very first time. My lectures supported me and guided me along the right path to make sure my script turned out very well. Their valuable feedback got me motivated and moving forward or I would have been about 50 steps way behind. Their feedback assisted me to build my script and my story in a much better way than I thought. For my script to turn out and cruise through all barricades and finally get to a point where I can call it a “screenplay” with all the requirements it was the support of my lecturers. I feel satisfied and delighted that I have my script in the place I wanted it to be.
0 notes