Genre TV show

  • 6 episodes, 2 series

  • Miquel prefers no dialogue, this is a good opportunity for choreography

  • Its an apartment you decide decade and context

  • Anthology also possible

  • Info on google drive

  • Final Pitch 29.10.

  • Shoot start 8.11

  • Edit

  • Three shooting days per episode

  • Roles give points (note that some roles are automatically joint like director and writer

  • Minimum points 1;75

  • We will make proper production bibles and dossiers so start asap

  • Pitch book requirements online for all the pitches

  • Show runner position unclear if it exists or not?

  • shooting part is a pass/fail, weekly work, pitching and dossier are graded

Reelikas info session about studio safety

  • → clip of Robert McKees talk on the world in a story and the importance of keeping it small

  • E.g. how do you define suburbia? Who built it? For what purpose? Is it part of a certain architectural movement? Is there a business attached to the house or must they commute for work? Can they even commute or must they have a car? Example used is first suburbs of post-war Long Island, emergence of malls, necessity of cars etc → Effect on Stranger things, where Duffner brothers drove inspiration from. Their production bible originally was in this setting (old title was Montauk)

  • Examples of drug abuse portrayal in films and the differences (Trainspotting vs Pi by Aronofski) aka how the wolrd affects the story even when the topic is in many ways the same

  • We analyze Harmony Korrinnes Springbreakers script

  • Start developing your series concept.

10.9.

Concepts chosen: Dark comedy with three main characters (Kiril), and a scifi thriller (Leevi)

Second part of class:

  • focused on creating conditions per episode, some of which are universal for the series

  • Each genres previously established rules, that we continue to adapt and maybe expand

    • the different mood/tradition/rules/limitations of e.g. Sitcom vs horror etc

  • Example of Alien being essentially new Jaws; outside threat looming, everpresent.

    • After success of Star Wars, setting set to space

    • Ridley Scott gets a bare bones script with nothing special to work with, its flat

What do in this situation??

  • Find a fantastic art director

  • Work on the character with actors themselves, let them have freedom (highlight on protagonist)

  • Monster concept into a more unknown creature

What they did:

  • After checking portfolio, hired them for concept art (Chris Foss, Moebius)

  • Many derived stylistic influence from 2001, art is ok but just not right

  • Commission more concept art, ask around, finds Giger from Switzerland (who’s also an engineer)

  • Connected with construction people

  • Need estimate for costs, go find a line producer, they want to see clearly what is shown to create an estimate

  • Create storyboard with key shots to show where most money will go (drew around 600 shots for film, put in time to show how good it could look)

  • Estimate 8mil now, not 4mil anymore. They show estimate and storyboard to producers and they’re convinced that its worth the budget raise.

  • They move to production, start building.

    • Watch a clip of Gigers Alien documentary 1979

Basically:

  • Encouragement to work carefully on the creation of the physical world

  • Build a clear plan every need, what it needs to do, how to excecute it, is it usable through-out the series

  • Highlighting a way to work from art onwards, especially in a specific genre setting.

  • After break, we analyse script from Alien, scene where the alien pops out of a characters chest

  • How it compares to the storyboard Ridley Scott drew

  • How to indicate camera movement in shot (Scott was very specific here with sounds etc. Almost like a comic, and less technical than a shot

  • Then comparison to the shot scene:

13.9. Marts Class

  • Rules of 5 P's aka proper planning prevents poor performance

  • difference between plot vs story

    • Plot is concrete, what is happening in the visuals externally

    • Story is what happens in the visuals internally

  • Script Breakdown

    • break it down for yourself, according to your specialty

    • noting down special needs

    • organise your method

      • adaptable according to changes

    • Mart shows his breakdown sheet

    • Ask to list priorities; what can be compromised on, what can’t

  • Watched short film Mia & Liki

    • Mart tells of the production process

24.9.

Going through different ways to se stakes and relay the rules of the world you’ve built in an interesting manner. Building dramatic suspense, expectations

Analyse shower scene from psycho, then a scene from the script of mulholland drive (the scene at Winkies where the man is scared to death by the creepy person)

— good point of that most of all sound that is normally in a cafe is all gone; no ones talking is heard, even the other guys voice is lost once he goes to pay. Only some trafic, the door. Its empty. Everything is muffled if its there at all.

Cinema and Reality, Zlavoj Zizek

Long discussions on all the different individual truths people have, depending on ttheir realities, whether influenced by personal situations/origins, societal expectations/propaganda. The threat of what happens if you ”remove the cafeteria” from the world.

Scene from The Ring, Sadako attacking Ryuji.

— creating a mysterious foreboding, incites the wish in the audience for life, hope, rescue.

Create a shot list based on that:

  1. CU pan follow of Sadako coming out of the tv going toward Ryuji, shes left out of the frame for a while, but suddenly reappears

  2. MS of Ryiji, Sadakos reflection on glass near him (WS)

  3. CU of Ryiji from behind, looks back toward phone, then Sadako, then runs toward the phone, exit frame

  4. MS low angle tilt up to phone and Ryujis face at the phone

  5. Ryuji ots towards Sadako near the tv

After lunch: Group 2. Meeting

Change sc1 and sc12 (drugs plus helmet malfunction risk, helmet on both people)

  • Helmet used to be popular 10yrs ago, then discovered the effect it had on people, inducing an overdose of a nightmare.

  • Risk of divers to loose themselves in the mind, not be able to escape themselves

  • Divers more psychiatrists?

The dreamers get stuck, or dont want to get out. By accident or decision. Diving metaphor, oxygen ending

  • Change the bathroom into something else (no clear bathroom on set)

How to establish the helmet lore:

  • commercial? Archival material of the helmet going to misuse

  • Show a guy fiddling with it, taking parts off

  • Dying is a failsafe, it causes your body to go into a panic/shock that finally wakes you up

  • Maybe they get a fine for modifying the device

  • They fuck with the timer, get trapped

  • Killing is a failsafe to get out

The story is a cat and mouse chase

Moniker instead of diver: medic? Wakers?

When in the dream, do they have the helmet on?

30.9.

Masterclass on feedback (giving and receiving)

  • the expectation of a first draft; it will always be BAD. Always. What matters is that it is written.

  • it is there to be worked from, otherwise there is nothing

  • instead of focusing on only the things that dont work, make notes of what you find interesting and that might work

taking feedback

  • take suggestions as they were yourself, accept them once you deem them good

  • if a reader points out an issue, they feel there is an issue in the script but it might be elsewhere. reflect upon it

  • its the writers job to ask for clarification on notes they receive

  • say thank you, acknowledge their time, and this can motivate them to work with you again