The Spin Off: Mockumentary
As every form of art took a sense of post-modernism upon itself so parodies appeared. The Mockumentary is a clever fictional genre which shows the audience how easy it is to make people believe something that is not true really is.
The first and most famous Mockumentary, that wasn’t intended to be a Mockumentary at all in the first place, but had the effect of one, was Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938).
Halloween, October 30th, 1938 Orson Welles directed a version of H.G Wells War of the Worlds science fiction novel, to heighten dramatic effect in his radio play, Welles decided to perform the story as a series of news broadcasts, often interrupting music to bring the latest update on the “huge flaming object” had dropped on a farm near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The authenticity of the actors and the fact that many people had only tuned into the play after it had started, so where not aware it was War of the Worlds lead to the biggest case of mass hysteria ever, Americas everywhere thought they were under attack by aliens.
Next, a “parody” of Pennebaker’s rockumentaries came Spinal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi (1984), synopsised on the internet as:
“In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap’s attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap’s pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.”
Spinal Tap in fact never existed as a band except for the film and the soundtrack of the film. The film was a spoof not only of the Rockumentary but also of the rock and roll scene of the time.
It used aspects of drama in the pre-production and organisation of the film, scripting action, using actors, rehearsing, etc. However it display to the audience what looked like unrehearsed action happening as it was filmed, with handheld and cinematography which has a rushed, unplanned feel about it with natural lighting and what appears to be sound from the moment to create a fictional film that looks like a documentary. Many younger generations today watch the film, blissfully unaware that Spinal Tap were never a classic British band.
The latest region of Mockumentary is the Horror Mockumentary, obviously influenced by the effect Orson Welles had on his audience, many horrors for years have been using the “based on a true story” preface or ending to their films. However there are two significant films that went a step further, The Last Broadcast (1998) and its very similar successor The Blair Witch Project (1999).
Both films work on the concept that what is being shown to the audience is “found footage”, footage that was once filmed by the people who are in it and who disappeared. However the latter of the two was far much legendary than its predecessor because of a highly intelligent marketing campaign which suggested that this really was found footage and went into detail with newspaper cuttings, interviews online and more to trick the masses. To begin with, it worked! Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez become renown worldwide for their trickery and apparently original format of fiction filmmaking.
The Last Broadcast (1998) follows cable cult show “Fact or Fiction” as they recruit a couple of local Jersey fans in their search for the Jersey Devil. Whilst The Blair Witch Project (1999) saw three amateur filmmakers search for the Blair Witch.
Both films used 16mm, in fact The Blair Witch Project shows the use of 16mm overtly in the cinema release as it takes up only a small proportion of the screen added to the handheld makes the audience feel like they are moving with the camera. (And has caused many cases of motion-sickness because of this.)
Neither film uses dramatic lighting, sound effects which seem out of place in the “reality” of the film, they quite often use real people (actors or not). (Many of the people interviewed in Blair Witch weren’t actors and the actors were credited as playing themselves.)
Though the Producers of Blair Witch had scripted the majority of the action, they left the actors with little or no idea what each other would be doing, the Producers also lower their food rations on occasion to create greater emotional responses. Much of the reactions on footage WERE ACTUALLY REAL!
They were not the first horror films to look like documentaries or give the appearance of being so, even if they can be credited for the first to sell themselves as Real! Cannibal Holocaust (1980) directed by Ruggero Deodato, was so convincing in its portrayal of a scientist looking for filmmakers who had been documenting the habitats of cannibals across the border, that the producers were taken to court. Ruggero and the production company were only released after the actors themselves came to the courtroom as proof. Though the animal cruelty of the film is in fact sadly real. Horror has used this sense of Documentary to add fear since the 70s, its okay if the horror is on the cinema screen, you can sleep at night. But what do you do if it is real?
Monday, 22 November 2010
Monday, 15 November 2010
Screenplay
The opening
Whatever length of film you intend to make, you need a dramatic opening. This is part of the first act – the beginning. If you do not hook your audience in the first few minutes, you will find it much harder to keep them glued to the screen throughout. I find it best to write the opening last. You might have a good idea for the opening, but get your story worked out first, and then create an impressive opening scene.
Pace
You will want to vary the pace of the action. Think of it as a range of mountains with just one or two very high peaks, some troughs and several smaller peaks. For an action film the protagonist will need to be thwarted a few times as well as revealing exceptional powers of recovery, and the ability to escape from the most impossible situations. In the best scripts the highest peak, or climax, grows organically out of the elements of the story.
Periods of action can alternate with moments of reflection or character building dialogue. These are often called beats. A good film needs a beat –something new happening is another way of putting it - every minute or so in a short film.
Structure
The overall shape or structure to the story is important and should have a pleasing symmetry. The opening should complement the ending, or mirror it.
Slumdog Millionaire opens with an enigma which is resolved in two ways at the end. We guess from the title that the protagonist Jamal will be financially successful, but we don’t know how he will achieve it, or what the other element is.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing gives the audience subtle clues as to what might happen later, or how a character might develop. It sets up possibilities that can be developed later. A cleverly developed scene can plant an unconscious awareness in the viewer of what might happen. You don’t want to be too obvious and give too many hints and clues, but foreshadowing can lead to a more complete ‘closure’.
Foreshadowing can include special skills that the protagonist has acquired previously, for example a character might have great skill at cards, or be a very quick thinker or be a good shot with hand guns as the protagonist of a Western always is. It might include close-ups of objects, or hints of trouble at certain locations. For films involved with the supernatural, there is often a place or site that has attracted supernatural forces in the past. A most unlikely character may supply this information.
Treatment of time
The great thing about writing a film or TV drama is that you can do anything you like with time. You can make everything happen within a 24-hour timespan, or you can extend it over 50 years like Citizen Kane? You just need to remember that everything the viewer sees apparently happens in present time. You can create a specific time such as Christmas, with the simple device of a few decorations and a fancy dress party.
Early cinema directors exploited time with great effect. Events appear to happen ‘before your very eyes’. In fact, you can create any time period you wish – past, present or future – but it all will appear to be happening now.
You decide on what time span works best for your film.
To create a claustrophobic, intense atmosphere where the characters are under pressure, set your film in a tight time span, say one day.
Gothic horror in the Dracula mode is often set over a contained time span such as a weekend or one day.
Think carefully about the time span you want to put your characters in. It can make a big difference to the pace and feel of your drama.
Backstory
Backstory is Hollywoodese for a character’s past life. The difficulty for anyone starting from scratch is that you may know a lot about your main character, but the viewer knows nothing except what he or she looks like in Scene 1. So you have somehow to create a backstory for your characters, and certainly for your protagonist.. The backstory will show your character’s internal desire and illuminate the reasons for wanting his or her goal, whether it is for ultimate power or love or that old war-horse money. Backstory may mean dropping into the script factual details about the past, such as where a character was born and grew up, as in Forest Gump. It often works better if you can suggest a more psychological backstory, such as an inability to relate to the opposite sex owing to some trauma in childhood.
Incorporating backstory into the action
The problem remains as to how you incorporate details and psychological traits into your script, so that they become part of the action. Even more important is how you realize them visually.
Scriptwriter’s Storyboard
A scriptwriter’s storyboard is a good way to see whether your story is working visually. You do not have to be good at drawing to make a useful storyboard. You are just testing to see if your story works in a visual way. The important word is story not board.
A storyboard at the early stage of script writing is a tool to help you see if your story hangs together. All you need to do is put in the action with a variety of different shot sizes.
Once you have got your ideas into storyboard form, you need to make sure everything will work on the page.
After the script is completed the director – which may be you the scriptwriter - will make another more detailed storyboard. It may be reworked many times before it is actually used on the set. It is rarely necessary to storyboard every single moment of the film. People take different things from a storyboard. For example, the lighting director will worry if he sees that some scenes have the main characters in large hats – it could be difficult to light faces under big hats.
The storyboard has a direct relationship with the script; both will be revised constantly, but it is the director’s job to see that the storyboard is up to date. A storyboard is vital in the preproduction stage. The storyboard should be as simple as possible, giving an outline of the action, with shot size, camera movement and a few indicative lines of dialogue. You should not draw a frame for every movement or action. An average-length scene of two pages might take up eight frames or one storyboard sheet.
The opening
Whatever length of film you intend to make, you need a dramatic opening. This is part of the first act – the beginning. If you do not hook your audience in the first few minutes, you will find it much harder to keep them glued to the screen throughout. I find it best to write the opening last. You might have a good idea for the opening, but get your story worked out first, and then create an impressive opening scene.
Pace
You will want to vary the pace of the action. Think of it as a range of mountains with just one or two very high peaks, some troughs and several smaller peaks. For an action film the protagonist will need to be thwarted a few times as well as revealing exceptional powers of recovery, and the ability to escape from the most impossible situations. In the best scripts the highest peak, or climax, grows organically out of the elements of the story.
Periods of action can alternate with moments of reflection or character building dialogue. These are often called beats. A good film needs a beat –something new happening is another way of putting it - every minute or so in a short film.
Structure
The overall shape or structure to the story is important and should have a pleasing symmetry. The opening should complement the ending, or mirror it.
Slumdog Millionaire opens with an enigma which is resolved in two ways at the end. We guess from the title that the protagonist Jamal will be financially successful, but we don’t know how he will achieve it, or what the other element is.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing gives the audience subtle clues as to what might happen later, or how a character might develop. It sets up possibilities that can be developed later. A cleverly developed scene can plant an unconscious awareness in the viewer of what might happen. You don’t want to be too obvious and give too many hints and clues, but foreshadowing can lead to a more complete ‘closure’.
Foreshadowing can include special skills that the protagonist has acquired previously, for example a character might have great skill at cards, or be a very quick thinker or be a good shot with hand guns as the protagonist of a Western always is. It might include close-ups of objects, or hints of trouble at certain locations. For films involved with the supernatural, there is often a place or site that has attracted supernatural forces in the past. A most unlikely character may supply this information.
Treatment of time
The great thing about writing a film or TV drama is that you can do anything you like with time. You can make everything happen within a 24-hour timespan, or you can extend it over 50 years like Citizen Kane? You just need to remember that everything the viewer sees apparently happens in present time. You can create a specific time such as Christmas, with the simple device of a few decorations and a fancy dress party.
Early cinema directors exploited time with great effect. Events appear to happen ‘before your very eyes’. In fact, you can create any time period you wish – past, present or future – but it all will appear to be happening now.
You decide on what time span works best for your film.
To create a claustrophobic, intense atmosphere where the characters are under pressure, set your film in a tight time span, say one day.
Gothic horror in the Dracula mode is often set over a contained time span such as a weekend or one day.
Think carefully about the time span you want to put your characters in. It can make a big difference to the pace and feel of your drama.
Backstory
Backstory is Hollywoodese for a character’s past life. The difficulty for anyone starting from scratch is that you may know a lot about your main character, but the viewer knows nothing except what he or she looks like in Scene 1. So you have somehow to create a backstory for your characters, and certainly for your protagonist.. The backstory will show your character’s internal desire and illuminate the reasons for wanting his or her goal, whether it is for ultimate power or love or that old war-horse money. Backstory may mean dropping into the script factual details about the past, such as where a character was born and grew up, as in Forest Gump. It often works better if you can suggest a more psychological backstory, such as an inability to relate to the opposite sex owing to some trauma in childhood.
Incorporating backstory into the action
The problem remains as to how you incorporate details and psychological traits into your script, so that they become part of the action. Even more important is how you realize them visually.
Scriptwriter’s Storyboard
A scriptwriter’s storyboard is a good way to see whether your story is working visually. You do not have to be good at drawing to make a useful storyboard. You are just testing to see if your story works in a visual way. The important word is story not board.
A storyboard at the early stage of script writing is a tool to help you see if your story hangs together. All you need to do is put in the action with a variety of different shot sizes.
Once you have got your ideas into storyboard form, you need to make sure everything will work on the page.
After the script is completed the director – which may be you the scriptwriter - will make another more detailed storyboard. It may be reworked many times before it is actually used on the set. It is rarely necessary to storyboard every single moment of the film. People take different things from a storyboard. For example, the lighting director will worry if he sees that some scenes have the main characters in large hats – it could be difficult to light faces under big hats.
The storyboard has a direct relationship with the script; both will be revised constantly, but it is the director’s job to see that the storyboard is up to date. A storyboard is vital in the preproduction stage. The storyboard should be as simple as possible, giving an outline of the action, with shot size, camera movement and a few indicative lines of dialogue. You should not draw a frame for every movement or action. An average-length scene of two pages might take up eight frames or one storyboard sheet.
SCREENPLAY ESSENTIALS
Screenplay essentials
The last thing you want to do is to make the reader really mad. You want to create a warm glow about your screenplay. Make sure you :
Start a new scene for each new location or when time has passed in the same setting
Do not put any camera moves or suggest any shot sizes unless absolutely essential for the action e.g. close up of gun in drawer.
Forget post production wipes, dissolves and multi screen effects or flips that are properly left to the director who can put them in at storyboard stage.
For the screenplay you are just the writer, so no ideas about casting either.
Your Screenplay Should Look Like This:
THE OYSTER CATCHER
by Harry Rabbelle
SCENE 1
FADE IN:
EXT. A SMALL BUSY FISHING PORT.
Fishing boats weave in and out of pleasure craft. Slightly run down feel. The fishing industry is only just making ends meet. Boats look old and tired. A very attractive, expensive modern cruiser stands out.
DAY - THE QUAYSIDE.
A smart ocean-going cruiser ties up at the quay.
SEAN in summer suit and carrying a flight bag hops out of the back of the cruiser and walks quickly over to the fish market area.
SEAN
What you got for me?
The last thing you want to do is to make the reader really mad. You want to create a warm glow about your screenplay. Make sure you :
Start a new scene for each new location or when time has passed in the same setting
Do not put any camera moves or suggest any shot sizes unless absolutely essential for the action e.g. close up of gun in drawer.
Forget post production wipes, dissolves and multi screen effects or flips that are properly left to the director who can put them in at storyboard stage.
For the screenplay you are just the writer, so no ideas about casting either.
Your Screenplay Should Look Like This:
THE OYSTER CATCHER
by Harry Rabbelle
SCENE 1
FADE IN:
EXT. A SMALL BUSY FISHING PORT.
Fishing boats weave in and out of pleasure craft. Slightly run down feel. The fishing industry is only just making ends meet. Boats look old and tired. A very attractive, expensive modern cruiser stands out.
DAY - THE QUAYSIDE.
A smart ocean-going cruiser ties up at the quay.
SEAN in summer suit and carrying a flight bag hops out of the back of the cruiser and walks quickly over to the fish market area.
SEAN
What you got for me?
JAKE
Just come in. Six boxes. Scarce. Took time. Nearly lost ‘em.
SEAN
I’ll have all six. Hope it’s better tomorrow
JAKE is a young successful fisherman who uses ultra modern methods to catch high quality oysters. SEAN is his best customer buying most of the catch and taking them by boat to London.
SCENE 2
INT. RESTAURANT – NIGHT
KELLY is sitting at a table. She is 20 with dark hair cut in a fashionable short bob. She is dressed in a little black number, with bare arms and shoulders. She throws her head back and downs an oyster in one go. Then another.
SEAN ENTERS, in a hurry and out of breath. He is 22 with short fair hair and Bob Geldof stubble.
KELLY
Where have you been?
He learns over and kisses her on the cheek. Then she pulls his tie hard so he nearly chokes. SEAN laughs in spite of being held tight by KELLY.
SEANYou always want me twenty four seven.(coughs)I can’t. I must let my mind go. I must see through the haze of that night.
SCENE 3
EXT. AT SEA IN A BOAT - NIGHT
SEAN is driving the smart boat very fast. KELLY is at the back looking out to sea. They are looking for someone.
There is a fishing boat in the distance. They reach it quickly.
JAKE
He learns over and kisses her on the cheek. Then she pulls his tie hard so he nearly chokes. SEAN laughs in spite of being held tight by KELLY.
SEANYou always want me twenty four seven.(coughs)I can’t. I must let my mind go. I must see through the haze of that night.
SCENE 3
EXT. AT SEA IN A BOAT - NIGHT
SEAN is driving the smart boat very fast. KELLY is at the back looking out to sea. They are looking for someone.
There is a fishing boat in the distance. They reach it quickly.
JAKE
I told you not to come out here.They’ll see you.
SEAN
Tell me it’s not true. You musthave found out more.
KELLY
moves round to the middle of the boat so she can hear. She is trying not to be seen.
JAKE(whispers)
JAKE(whispers)
You couldn’t have seen anything.They wanted you. They wrecked your boat.
SEAN
SEAN
Who?
Friday, 8 October 2010
A2 FILM 2010 BLOG ADDRESS
adam amini http://adam-amini-filma2.blogspot.com/
arron bass http://arronbassfilm.blogspot.com/
louis cochran http://lnc-film-a2.blogspot.com/
jared costa http://jaredtheperson3.blogspot.com/
Harriet cressey http://harrietcressey.blogspot.com/
michael lee davies http://daviesmichael-lee-a2fm3.blogspot.com/
jenny dixon http://www.jennydixonfilma2.blogspot.com/
jack fisher http://jackfishera2film.blogspot.com/
jack gallagher http://jackgallagher17.blogspot.com/
geordan gaukroger http://geordangaukroger.blogspot.com/
billy harrison http://a2bhfs.blogspot.com/
andrew hone http://andysa2film.blogspot.com/ left course for apprenticship
abigail marrow http://abi-m-film.blogspot.com/
mathew merrylees http://matthewmerrylees.blogspot.com/
katie nethercoat http://katienethercoatfilm.blogspot.com/
katie o'connell http://katie-o-film.blogspot.com/
ruth ollerenshaw http://rutho93.blogspot.com/
kory watson http://www.korywatson.blogspot.com/ left course
arron bass http://arronbassfilm.blogspot.com/
louis cochran http://lnc-film-a2.blogspot.com/
jared costa http://jaredtheperson3.blogspot.com/
Harriet cressey http://harrietcressey.blogspot.com/
michael lee davies http://daviesmichael-lee-a2fm3.blogspot.com/
jenny dixon http://www.jennydixonfilma2.blogspot.com/
jack fisher http://jackfishera2film.blogspot.com/
jack gallagher http://jackgallagher17.blogspot.com/
geordan gaukroger http://geordangaukroger.blogspot.com/
billy harrison http://a2bhfs.blogspot.com/
andrew hone http://andysa2film.blogspot.com/ left course for apprenticship
abigail marrow http://abi-m-film.blogspot.com/
mathew merrylees http://matthewmerrylees.blogspot.com/
katie nethercoat http://katienethercoatfilm.blogspot.com/
katie o'connell http://katie-o-film.blogspot.com/
ruth ollerenshaw http://rutho93.blogspot.com/
kory watson http://www.korywatson.blogspot.com/ left course
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