Rebecca's Unit 22

Lesson 1

TV Drama - Formats

• Single Drama
• Series
• Serials
• Soaps

Single Drama: It used to be a staple of television, however, it is usually rare to see nowadays. It uses a one-off story. They usually use topical issues - it usually is a subject matter that producers would make appropriate to the television, and it is usually based on a true story, e.g. 'Dirty War".

Series: It is a programme that is broadcast, either daily or weekly, this is where there are the same characters and use a basic situation which would be used to tell a different story each episode.

Serials: This is a format that uses the same characters and locations (like series), but episodes are not complete as they have cliffhangers and they would continue through to the next episode which would encourage us to continue watching the show. Usually story narratives would carry one storyline.

Soaps: It has multiple characters, they carry different story lines at once. Usually there are no story line that would dominate and story lines would carry on for weeks or months before it comes to a conclusion.

Lesson 2

Single Drama

Boy A is a movie about a boy (Jack Burridge/ Eric Wilson) and his best-friend (Philipp Craig), they had murdered a young girl by beating her to death and throwing her in the nearby river. This film was inspired by the murder of James Bulger, a two year old kid that was in a shopping centre with his mother but she had lost him in the mall and two kids had taken him. They raped, tortured and then murdered him. 

Lesson 3

Narrative Structures in Film

Linear: A Film that follows an order.

Non-Linear: A film with multiple story lines.

Flash Backs: Films that look into the past.

Realist: A realistic film.

Anti-Realist: A non-realistic film.

Open Ending: A film/television show that end on a cliff-hanger.

Close Ending: A film/television that ends on the plot. 

Narrative Form

• Narrative form is the structure in which movies tell stories.

• Narratives appear throughout media and society. They can be found in novels, plays, comic books, television shows and even commercials. While they are most common in fiction films they do appear in all basic types of films.

• A narrative is an account of a string of events occurring in space and time, they don't unfold randomly but instead they unfold as an ordered series of events connected by the logic of cause and affect. The logic of cause and effect ties together character traits, goals, obstacles and actions.

Key Events in Spider Man: Homecoming

• Peter Parker gets the Spider Man suit from Tony Stark 

• Peter Parker achieves his first heroic goal by stopping a bank robbery  

• The villain is introduced for the first time he's intentions are revealed

• The villain gets hold of illegal weaponry

• Peter Parker's best friend finds out about his true identity as Spider Man

• He finds out the girl of his dreams has a crush on Spider Man but is unaware who is Spider Man

• The villain engages combat with Spider Man and shows his true intentions of destroying the city.

• Peter's classmates went on a trip to the Washington Monument which ends up being attacked by the main villain

•  Spider Man arrives on the scene to help keep the monument intact.

•  Spider Man finds out that the villain is doing an illegal deal on a Ferry nearby and decides to  confront him.

• Spider Man and the Villain engage in a fight while putting thousands of innocent lifes at risk while Spider Man receives aid from Iron Man (Tony Stark) to help clear up the mess Spider Man caused.

The Three Act Structure 

The first act is usually used for exposition, to establish the main characters, their relationships and the world they live in. Later in the first act, a dynamic, on-screen incident occurs that confronts the main character (the protagonist), whose attempts to deal with this incident lead to a second and more dramatic situation, known as the first turning point, which will signal the end of the first act, ensure life will never be the same again for the protagonist and raises a dramatic question that will be answered in the climax of the film.

The second act typically depicts the protagonist's attempt to resolve the problem initiated by the first turning point, only to find him-or herself in ever worsening situations. Part of the reason protagonists seem unable to resolve their problems is because they do not yet have the skills to deal with the forces of antagonism that confront them. They must not only learn new skills but arrive at a higher sense of awareness of who they are and what they are capable of, in order to deal with their predicament, which in turn changes who they are. This is referred to as "character development" or a "character arc". This cannot be achieved alone and they are usually aided and abetted by mentors and co-protagonists.

The third act features the resolution of the story and its subplots. The climax is the scene or sequence in which the main tensions of the story are brought to their most intense point and the dramatic question answered, leaving the protagonist and other characters with a new sense of who they really are.

How Narratives Unfold

• Exposition 
• Series that unfold due to cause and effect
• A new situation arises - mainly through character choice and conflict - it restores equilibrium to the world of the story and brings about the end of the narrative. 
• A new story equilibrium almost always results in a character change.

Lesson 4

Character

• Narrative films generally focus on human characters and their struggles.

• Characters are typically responsible for pause and effect in narrative.

• Flat characters are minor characters who don't go through any substantial change throughout the story or have much substance to them. (Sterotypes)

• Round characters are fully developed characters who may experience a change during the story. 

How do writers develop round dynamic characters?

• Through conversations with other characters.
• Through group associations.
• Through direct description of that character.
• Through reactions to conflict.   

Character Traits

• Traits are attitudes, skills, habits, testers, psychological drives and any other qualities that distinguish a character.

• Traits in opening scenes are relevant to later scenes, this is related to cause and effect. 

Goals and Objectives 

• Goals might include locating treasure, choosing a foster parent or looking for love etc. 

• Characters encounter obstacles in pursuing these goals, the collision of goals and obstacles create conflict and thus drama. 

Choices

• Characters create cause and effect through choices that lead to conflict and consequences.

• These patterns are designed so that the viewer clearly sees and understands them. 

• Characters posses traits, face conflicts, makes choices and undergo changes that enable or hinder pursuit of a specific goal. 

Character Profile

Name: Adam Weishaupt 

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Birth Place: Germany

Ethnicity: White

Hair: Black

Eyes: Black

Height: 6ft 2in

Weight: 12 Stone

Personality: Adam is cold hearted and cares about nothing else but achieving his goal of making every human suffer for his isolated childhood. While he shows no feelings towards any human he does have a slight soft spot for his loyal friend Saint Germain who while disagrees with Adam and his treatment of humans has sworn to be by his side no matter what. 

Bio: Adam's childhood has seen him grow up without any parents and any friends, during this time being isolated he has grown to hate mankind and wishes nothing more then to see every human suffer a long painful death. 

Lesson 5

Structure of briefs 

Contracted: You can tell a contractual brief apart from the others easily, you will have to sign it. A contractual brief is descriptive, it describes what is required from you. It is used in situations where there are a large sum of money involved. If there is a lack of trust between the client and the employee. You can face legal action if the contract is breached. 

Negotiated: It would argue that all briefs are somewhat negotiable; however this brief is almost entirely up to the employee, as the client is open to ideas. A negotiated brief would give more leeway as you alter almost all of the briefs aspects. This would mean that you get to use more of your creative version.  

Formal: A formal brief is a document that outlines the specifications of a product or service. It would be well set out and structured in a neat and orderly fashion. As it is a formal language this means no slang or abbreviations. The document would be thoroughly explained so the employee knows exactly what they are doing, this is to make it look professional and would have the clients logo on it. 

Informal: A informal brief is a short piece of text or email that requests to someone to do some work for them. An informal brief doesn't have to be written and can just be a verbal agreement. This is usually seen with friends or when a little amount of money is involved. A trademark of an informal brief is that it is written in informal language which can include slang. 

Commission: A commission is where a company commissions a worker to fulfil a brief. A commission is usually only to give a company who clients had established relations with.   

Competition: A competition brief is a brief which is opened to the public. This kind of brief allows for a wide range of people with a spectrum of talents to create a product which is based on the brief for free. As this is a competition brief, only the winners will get the prize or monetary reward. This means that less money is spent on a product, and you have a wealth of different ideas to choose from.

Tender: It is similar to competition as it requires a client to post a brief that is open to outside companies. After receiving the brief the companies have to come to pitch on the clients to vi for the work. The best will be selected and then they would be given the chance to work for the client; this is to develop their ideas and creating their product. 

Co-Operative: A co-operative brief is where two or more companies are contracted to work on the same assignment. This may be done for a number of reasons, perhaps the most common is for multi-skilling, one company may not have the expertise to complete all the assignment by themselves. Another reason would be tight deadlines, if the deadlines too short then two companies will be able to finish the work faster than one.

Reading a brief

When reading a brief you must pay attention to what kind of brief it is: is it a contract, tender, competition or co-operative. By knowing what brief it is will help when coming up with ideas and actually working on the project. The things in a brief that you need to pay attention to are the final dates- When are your deadlines? How can you meet them?,  The Timescale-How long do you have? Is it plausible? and What is required?- What are you being asked to do? Is there any special requirements  while Negotiating the brief.

Negotiating a brief

 All briefs are negotiable to an extent, so when you receive one its always best to carefully read through and check if there is anything that wouldn't be possible or that you would like to change. Negotiation can be crucial especially when something isn't plausible or that will put you out of pocket. For example, if you are supposed to be filming a snow scene in them middle of summer; you may ask to either change locations or get rid of the snow. Negotiation can also be used with tight deadlines or small budgets, if you believe that the constraints are too much then its worth negotiating and asking for an extension or more funding.

Opprtunites 

New Skills

Self development
Multi-Skilling
Gain contacts
experience
travel
communication skills
portfolio/cv
meet clients or important people in industry