DMA Notes 5 July 2004
Intro to storytelling, brainstorming our
digital movie idea, background about story construction
DMA 5 July
2004
Digital Storytelling Part I
http://digitalmediaacademy.org/storytelling.html
Instructor Dean Mermell's website: http://www.storyfarm.com/
Common denominators for many of the films we indicated our favorites - story of a person trying to over come limitations and obstacles to accomplish something - Joseph Campell writes about the "heroes' journey" -- same story repeated over and over, it is easy for us to project ourselves into it
Today: we will create a script for a short film
Dean will give us info and act as a guide
Goals: - by Friday we will have shot a short film - we will move through this filmmaking process -- vague idea (germ) to fleshing out (treatment) -- script (3-4 pages) will move to shot list / shooting schedule -- during the production phase we will learn about shooting and sound - Wed and Thurs we will be in production - Fri we will view footage (after class, we will edit and send on DVD)
Radius made a product called EDIT-DV - Dean was 1 of the first beta testers - has made several films that have gone out to film festivals - DV is becoming like desktop publishing - visual and auditory storytelling - PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH STORYTELLING POWER AS THEY DO TODAY!
Focus of this class: - how to generate and strengthen your ideas, and how to capture and put them into video
this tends to be a very collaborative medium - more common today to work with some variance of a crew - we can all try different roles in production
the boot camp approach we will have is very realistic to the professional film world and the curricular / educational world
"the pitch" - story idea that is presented to a potential producer - reduction of an idea to a few sentences is a cruel thing to do to a writer, but it is a very focusing thing - each of us will come up with an idea for a short film (write it in 1 or 2 sentences) - we will vote on which one we will do - we will go from idea (pitch) to
Ideas for a film - where do ideas come from? - news headlines, personal experiences, patterns we recognize in human behavior, things we overhear others saying' - at home I have a notebook of ideas that I keep, different sections, each one is a film idea -- continually add to ideas and decide to work on one
is a very differnet mindset for short film vs feature film - we (in this class) are definitely focused / concerned on short films - exception to this is documentaries -- you can make very good documentaries for very little money, but it takes a lot of TIME -- can make good ones on a budget - some equipment and travel costs, but LOTS of time
Categories to think about for story ideas - constraints: 3 or 4 page script (see page 32 of curriculum for script example) -- a script is a sparse document --1 page of script written like this translates to about 1 min of film - our genres: comedy, narrative, music video, documentary, mocumentary (Spinal Tap), instructional / promotional / PSA (not necessarily story-driven but could be very useful) - no dangerous / undoable shooting - no controversial ideas unless everyone wanted to do it - no budget unless it is provided by the participants
one line pitch - one or two sentences - see curriculum p. 11 - strength of the "pitch" - really to sharpen your focus on what this thing is about
key word for what we are doing: "doability"
in a structured situation / working with other people: it is better to work within a structure like this (pitch -> script)
best documentaries have a lot of drama
Dean likes silent films set to music without dialog - got idea of "Modern Life" from a single image in a Buster Keaton film
My ideas for a short film:
- Identity: Perspectives on Identity: who do you say you are? to what extent do you perceive your identity as what you do rather than what you think / believe / express in other ways besides your primary vocation. Reflections on the theme of identity
- Passion For Teaching: What drew you to the teaching profession and what keeps you there today? What is one of your favorite stories you can share about your teaching experience or experiences as a student that motivates you to be and remain in education?
- Anarchy all around us: In what ways are you overwhelmed by the demands and stresses of everyday life? What are the sources of these pressures, and what are effective ways to deal and combat them to preserve sanity and thrive / seek balance.
More on ideas from Dean: - always end up with random pieces of paper - Elvis costello: favorite songwriter, always writing obscure ideas for lyrics -- a lot of his songs are taken from individual lines he has taken and writen down over the years
this process of writing and generating ideas is an important one, it is a great habit to get into - challenge becomes: how do I organize these ephemeral ideas - get into your tabbed notebook often, work in it - if you don't write it down, it will be gone! - also you can use the cell phone
a lot of people who work with DV are aspiring documentarians - a documentary is a story too - a lot is visual as well as research - great research tool is google (don't have to spend lots of time in library now) -- you can type in one word and get lots of information that becomes a source of ideas, this can become the source of the script - ideas are just in the air, and have no value until you figure out how to use them
Characters / People - when we see movies, we like to see people in our movies - so much of what we see/do in movies is us projecting ourselves into the people we see on the screen - it is very hard to create convincing characters( who we decide we like / don't like) - this creates identify to us, we decide who we are to an extent by who we like and don't like - try writing something in the voice of a character who you are creating, that way that person starts to take on your voice, you start to personally relate to them
how do you want people who view this to feel? - what are people going to like about this, dislike it - what do people leave the theater with - David Livingston saw "Mystic River" and was blown out by it - who were these people before we met them?
we have setting and story - a topic can provide a setting against which a drama unfolds
great thing about writing: get it "rolling down the road and steer it later" - push it around, change it, get it out there first and you have something to work with
Dean is an only child and has always been fascinated by the behavior of others / the reality of others' existence - often the most personal things turn out to be the most universal thing
whoever we are, no matter how far we push, we are still within our own perspective - we are defined by our perceptions of the world and ourselves
"Modern Life" movie is one of the first ones that was shot with DV camera and then - cost about $500 to make, mostly to feed the crew (just 4-5 people, 2 actors) - very limited context for film, all was shot in Dean's house
Sony PD 150 is what Dean has
- used in the Discovery Channel show about building choppers / motorcylces
- like campfire stories, same basic thing
- we are still not bored by this because we project ourselves into it
video: Motorcyle Girl from Disovery Channel
- shwo up on race day first
- then they flash back to a previous scene
- good technique
every good story has a good beginning, middle an an end
- Jean Luke Gerrard (leader of french new wave movement in 1960s)
first: get your character up in a tree
second: throw rocks at them
third: get them down
- these are basic phases of a screenplay
- also can initiate a subplot: in this example she is a fashion designer
Look at way shots are set up: character focused on is on the right side of the frame, NOT centered
- in background is a slightly blurred custom motorcycle
- way she is lit / posted is how documentaries are done: in background is the subject they are concerned with / talking about
-- the shot / composition of the shot is already telling the story
-- lighting in the shot is very important
Americans now have more pets today than ever before
- in this film there are cuts to the dog or the cat, this is put in to help audience connect / project into the film
later main character is featured on the side of the frame, and the focus of the scene is in the middle of the frame
- this lets the frame tell part of the story
a good composition contains content
this is a new type of documentary that is different than PBS type storytelling
- it is a type of reality TV, that in very short order has become "normal" on TV
- this format of storytelling is still finding its feet
- discovery channel is developing this, creating dramatic content out of real people's lives
Several different things going on
- interview / framed shot, she is telling her perspective
- intercutting that with different things happening in her life / informing her existence (fashion show / race prep)
2nd major plot point: she picks up the bike and goes to the race
- now everything is driving toward the conclusion
DV is a great medium for telling stories
Digital Storyteller's Handbook is a book Dean is writing now
- how to practically shoot a treatment / script
Story structure: the way people have been building scripts and all drama for 1000s of years
- visual representation of a suspension bridge
1- Setup
2- Confrontation
3- Resolution
Also think of this as a 3 act play or movie
- 1st act generally about one quarter
- 2nd and third acts: about half the movie
- 3rd act: last quarter
120 page script, about 30 pages in you will have end of setup, to page 90 you have the main body, then last 30 pages you have resolution
pylons or towers in between the acts are very important: PLOT POINTS
- specific areas in your story, after you do setup it catapults your main character into the action (like Joe in Joe vs Volcano, when he finds out he is going to jump into the volcano and sacrific himself)
at 2nd plot point, the resolution of the movie kicks in
- how do all the pieces of this puzzle fit together
- any modern film or story set in video has these elements
- a documentary can be setup this way, and be much more engaging than simply presenting a lot of facts
composition technique: putting a strong element in front to the side and letting the main action spill out / take place in the rest of the frame
- think foreground,
we need to suspend our disbelief when making a film like this
A very good day in Hollywood is getting 7 different shots
- every shot is a setup
Final Draft is a very popular script writing software
- website finaldraft.com
abbreviations
- int = interior
- ext = exterior
Search google for "scripts, film" and you can read a lot of them
- take a film that you know/like
- American Beauty is a good one to do this with (get DVD and supplemental materials)
- I believe the supplementary materials in new DVDs are the new film schools of the 21st century
- watch the film with the actual script in your hand
-- you can see what got dropped from the original script
- "Fight Club" also has some great scenes that were cut
- you start to see gaps between script and the visual product, because of decisions made by director and cinemetographer
film script for Joe versus the Volcano:
http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/JoeVSTheVolcano.txt
- preproduction version on http://www.mindspring.com/~waponi/jmisc.htm (zip file at end
Need an establishing shot for the location/place/setting and main character(s)
Websites aboutAuguste Rodin's "Gates of Hell"
- Boston College's Gates of Hell photos: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/rodin/rodin_gates.html
- Paris Web Museum bio of Rodin, with large image (clickable thumbnail) of the "Gates of Hell": http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rodin/
- Paris Rodin Museum's writeup and photos about the "Gates of Hell": http://www.musee-rodin.fr/senf1-e.htm
Digital Storytelling Part I
http://digitalmediaacademy.org/storytelling.html
Instructor Dean Mermell's website: http://www.storyfarm.com/
Common denominators for many of the films we indicated our favorites - story of a person trying to over come limitations and obstacles to accomplish something - Joseph Campell writes about the "heroes' journey" -- same story repeated over and over, it is easy for us to project ourselves into it
Today: we will create a script for a short film
Dean will give us info and act as a guide
Goals: - by Friday we will have shot a short film - we will move through this filmmaking process -- vague idea (germ) to fleshing out (treatment) -- script (3-4 pages) will move to shot list / shooting schedule -- during the production phase we will learn about shooting and sound - Wed and Thurs we will be in production - Fri we will view footage (after class, we will edit and send on DVD)
Radius made a product called EDIT-DV - Dean was 1 of the first beta testers - has made several films that have gone out to film festivals - DV is becoming like desktop publishing - visual and auditory storytelling - PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH STORYTELLING POWER AS THEY DO TODAY!
Focus of this class: - how to generate and strengthen your ideas, and how to capture and put them into video
this tends to be a very collaborative medium - more common today to work with some variance of a crew - we can all try different roles in production
the boot camp approach we will have is very realistic to the professional film world and the curricular / educational world
"the pitch" - story idea that is presented to a potential producer - reduction of an idea to a few sentences is a cruel thing to do to a writer, but it is a very focusing thing - each of us will come up with an idea for a short film (write it in 1 or 2 sentences) - we will vote on which one we will do - we will go from idea (pitch) to
Ideas for a film - where do ideas come from? - news headlines, personal experiences, patterns we recognize in human behavior, things we overhear others saying' - at home I have a notebook of ideas that I keep, different sections, each one is a film idea -- continually add to ideas and decide to work on one
is a very differnet mindset for short film vs feature film - we (in this class) are definitely focused / concerned on short films - exception to this is documentaries -- you can make very good documentaries for very little money, but it takes a lot of TIME -- can make good ones on a budget - some equipment and travel costs, but LOTS of time
Categories to think about for story ideas - constraints: 3 or 4 page script (see page 32 of curriculum for script example) -- a script is a sparse document --1 page of script written like this translates to about 1 min of film - our genres: comedy, narrative, music video, documentary, mocumentary (Spinal Tap), instructional / promotional / PSA (not necessarily story-driven but could be very useful) - no dangerous / undoable shooting - no controversial ideas unless everyone wanted to do it - no budget unless it is provided by the participants
one line pitch - one or two sentences - see curriculum p. 11 - strength of the "pitch" - really to sharpen your focus on what this thing is about
key word for what we are doing: "doability"
in a structured situation / working with other people: it is better to work within a structure like this (pitch -> script)
best documentaries have a lot of drama
Dean likes silent films set to music without dialog - got idea of "Modern Life" from a single image in a Buster Keaton film
My ideas for a short film:
- Identity: Perspectives on Identity: who do you say you are? to what extent do you perceive your identity as what you do rather than what you think / believe / express in other ways besides your primary vocation. Reflections on the theme of identity
- Passion For Teaching: What drew you to the teaching profession and what keeps you there today? What is one of your favorite stories you can share about your teaching experience or experiences as a student that motivates you to be and remain in education?
- Anarchy all around us: In what ways are you overwhelmed by the demands and stresses of everyday life? What are the sources of these pressures, and what are effective ways to deal and combat them to preserve sanity and thrive / seek balance.
More on ideas from Dean: - always end up with random pieces of paper - Elvis costello: favorite songwriter, always writing obscure ideas for lyrics -- a lot of his songs are taken from individual lines he has taken and writen down over the years
this process of writing and generating ideas is an important one, it is a great habit to get into - challenge becomes: how do I organize these ephemeral ideas - get into your tabbed notebook often, work in it - if you don't write it down, it will be gone! - also you can use the cell phone
a lot of people who work with DV are aspiring documentarians - a documentary is a story too - a lot is visual as well as research - great research tool is google (don't have to spend lots of time in library now) -- you can type in one word and get lots of information that becomes a source of ideas, this can become the source of the script - ideas are just in the air, and have no value until you figure out how to use them
Characters / People - when we see movies, we like to see people in our movies - so much of what we see/do in movies is us projecting ourselves into the people we see on the screen - it is very hard to create convincing characters( who we decide we like / don't like) - this creates identify to us, we decide who we are to an extent by who we like and don't like - try writing something in the voice of a character who you are creating, that way that person starts to take on your voice, you start to personally relate to them
how do you want people who view this to feel? - what are people going to like about this, dislike it - what do people leave the theater with - David Livingston saw "Mystic River" and was blown out by it - who were these people before we met them?
we have setting and story - a topic can provide a setting against which a drama unfolds
great thing about writing: get it "rolling down the road and steer it later" - push it around, change it, get it out there first and you have something to work with
Dean is an only child and has always been fascinated by the behavior of others / the reality of others' existence - often the most personal things turn out to be the most universal thing
whoever we are, no matter how far we push, we are still within our own perspective - we are defined by our perceptions of the world and ourselves
"Modern Life" movie is one of the first ones that was shot with DV camera and then - cost about $500 to make, mostly to feed the crew (just 4-5 people, 2 actors) - very limited context for film, all was shot in Dean's house
Sony PD 150 is what Dean has
- used in the Discovery Channel show about building choppers / motorcylces
- like campfire stories, same basic thing
- we are still not bored by this because we project ourselves into it
video: Motorcyle Girl from Disovery Channel
- shwo up on race day first
- then they flash back to a previous scene
- good technique
every good story has a good beginning, middle an an end
- Jean Luke Gerrard (leader of french new wave movement in 1960s)
first: get your character up in a tree
second: throw rocks at them
third: get them down
- these are basic phases of a screenplay
- also can initiate a subplot: in this example she is a fashion designer
Look at way shots are set up: character focused on is on the right side of the frame, NOT centered
- in background is a slightly blurred custom motorcycle
- way she is lit / posted is how documentaries are done: in background is the subject they are concerned with / talking about
-- the shot / composition of the shot is already telling the story
-- lighting in the shot is very important
Americans now have more pets today than ever before
- in this film there are cuts to the dog or the cat, this is put in to help audience connect / project into the film
later main character is featured on the side of the frame, and the focus of the scene is in the middle of the frame
- this lets the frame tell part of the story
a good composition contains content
this is a new type of documentary that is different than PBS type storytelling
- it is a type of reality TV, that in very short order has become "normal" on TV
- this format of storytelling is still finding its feet
- discovery channel is developing this, creating dramatic content out of real people's lives
Several different things going on
- interview / framed shot, she is telling her perspective
- intercutting that with different things happening in her life / informing her existence (fashion show / race prep)
2nd major plot point: she picks up the bike and goes to the race
- now everything is driving toward the conclusion
DV is a great medium for telling stories
Digital Storyteller's Handbook is a book Dean is writing now
- how to practically shoot a treatment / script
Story structure: the way people have been building scripts and all drama for 1000s of years
- visual representation of a suspension bridge
1- Setup
2- Confrontation
3- Resolution
Also think of this as a 3 act play or movie
- 1st act generally about one quarter
- 2nd and third acts: about half the movie
- 3rd act: last quarter
120 page script, about 30 pages in you will have end of setup, to page 90 you have the main body, then last 30 pages you have resolution
pylons or towers in between the acts are very important: PLOT POINTS
- specific areas in your story, after you do setup it catapults your main character into the action (like Joe in Joe vs Volcano, when he finds out he is going to jump into the volcano and sacrific himself)
at 2nd plot point, the resolution of the movie kicks in
- how do all the pieces of this puzzle fit together
- any modern film or story set in video has these elements
- a documentary can be setup this way, and be much more engaging than simply presenting a lot of facts
composition technique: putting a strong element in front to the side and letting the main action spill out / take place in the rest of the frame
- think foreground,
we need to suspend our disbelief when making a film like this
A very good day in Hollywood is getting 7 different shots
- every shot is a setup
Final Draft is a very popular script writing software
- website finaldraft.com
abbreviations
- int = interior
- ext = exterior
Search google for "scripts, film" and you can read a lot of them
- take a film that you know/like
- American Beauty is a good one to do this with (get DVD and supplemental materials)
- I believe the supplementary materials in new DVDs are the new film schools of the 21st century
- watch the film with the actual script in your hand
-- you can see what got dropped from the original script
- "Fight Club" also has some great scenes that were cut
- you start to see gaps between script and the visual product, because of decisions made by director and cinemetographer
film script for Joe versus the Volcano:
http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/JoeVSTheVolcano.txt
- preproduction version on http://www.mindspring.com/~waponi/jmisc.htm (zip file at end
Need an establishing shot for the location/place/setting and main character(s)
Websites aboutAuguste Rodin's "Gates of Hell"
- Boston College's Gates of Hell photos: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/rodin/rodin_gates.html
- Paris Web Museum bio of Rodin, with large image (clickable thumbnail) of the "Gates of Hell": http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rodin/
- Paris Rodin Museum's writeup and photos about the "Gates of Hell": http://www.musee-rodin.fr/senf1-e.htm
Posted: Mon - July 5, 2004 at 01:38 PM
Quick Links
Calendar
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category: 3
Published On: Jul 05, 2004 07:00 PM
Total entries in this category: 3
Published On: Jul 05, 2004 07:00 PM
