Summer

To my class: good luck during finals! Have a relaxing and enjoyable summer break!

Portfolio & Final Exam

Today, please study for your final exam (see previous blog posting) and prepare your portfolio.

You will be collecting the following for your portfolio/booklet:
1. FINAL drafts of short stories done throughout the year.
2. JOURNALISM articles
3. FINAL drafts of poems
4. Play & Film Scripts/Film projects
5. A self-evaluation

Self Evaluation: Write about how you’ve grown as a writer this year, what has been easy/hard for you, what areas you feel you need more work in; reflect on your progress as a writer, a reader, and as a student. Write about each selected piece you have chosen to include in your portfolio (per genre): why did you include these pieces in your portfolio? How does the piece show your growth and craft as a writer in this particular genre? What did you learn about yourself concerning writing from this assignment or project? Discuss what you learned about the form or genre of the work as you wrote, revised and crafted the pieces, what have you learned about yourself as a writer, etc.

All work should be considered your FINAL drafts, with errors, grammar mistakes, weaknesses purged and removed through the process of CRAFTING your work. All pieces should include a title. Essentially, show me that you learned something about the Craft of Writing through your original work this year.

Screenplay Due! & Final Exam

Complete your screenplay today. Use the lab time effectively to finish your work. Those of you who finish are more than welcome to "shoot" your film using your script, if you'd like. Of course, you will need access to film recording devices and cameras. Students who complete a FILM by June 18 will receive lots of extra credit for this marking period.

Next week, we will complete the 2-parts of our final exam. The portfolio and the content test. Please prepare and study the following film vocabulary & writing tips, Poetry/fiction/playwriting terms for your final exam (this will count as 25% of your grade, so please study):

Camera shot types and angles: extreme close-up, close-up, medium shot (all types), full shot, long shot, extreme long shot, deep-focus shot, pan, tracking, Dolly Shot, Crane Shot, Zoom Shot; high/low, bird's eye, oblique angles.
Styles of film: realistic/formalistic
Film terms: Story, Plot, Narrative film, Diegesis, Diegetic sound, Nondiegetic sound, Frame, Shot, Sequence, Sound Track, Cutting (a.k.a. Editing), Invisible Cutting, Shot/Reverse Shot Technique, Montage, Synchronization, Framing, Distance, Establishing Shot (a.k.a. "Master Shot"), Perspective in film
Lighting: High Key & Low Key
Formatting a film script (see blog posts)
Screenwriting tips (see blog posts)

In addition you should know the areas we studied this year: fiction, poetry, and playwriting key terms:

The writing process: brainstorming, composing the first draft, revision (composing 2nd and subsequent drafts), editing & polishing, publication. (pg. 3-20, blog)
Types of short stories (blog), The hook (pg. 203 & blog), In media res (pg. & blog), White space (pg. 164), Ways to open a story (blog), Ways to end a story (blog), Point of View (POV) 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person limited, 3rd person omniscient (blog), Character (blog), Characterization (pg. 156 & blog), Honest & Dishonest voice/reliable or unreliable, narrator/speaker (pg. 154 & blog), Setting (pg. 177, blog), Locale (blog), Symbols (pg. 243), Regional writer (blog), Flash forward/Flashback (pg. 234, blog), Stream of consciousness (blog) , Protagonist (blog)/Antagonist (blog)/Foil (blog), Minor, flat, stereotypical characters (blog), Dynamic, round characters (blog), Tone (pg. 216, blog), Mood (blog), Theme (pg. 270, blog), Tense (pg. 233), Conflict (pg. 231, 255, blog), Creating suspense in stories (pg. 205, blog), Dialogue (pg. 156-157, & blog), Dialogue tags: speaker, thought, action tags (pg. 158, blog), Repetition (pg. 168, pg. 189, 258, blog), Show don't tell (pg. 179), Plot (pg. 180, 189, blog entries), Plot elements: exposition, rising action, crisis, climax, denouement, resolution, etc., Short history of Drama (pg. 285), Elements of drama: character, action, conflict, language, theme (pg. 296), play script format (blog).
Poetry: free verse, line length, figurative language, imagery: metaphor, simile, personification, symbol, personification, allusion, internal monologue, found poetry, closed form: villanelle, pantoum, triolet

I suggest you look at your mid-term and review tests and notes, review the Craft of Writing text, review this blog and STUDY. Don't worry too much about terms and concepts you already know, but focus on those you don't know or understand. And, of course, ask.

Final EXAM schedule for Craft of Writing: NOTE DEADLINES & DATES!

Friday, June 4: Coffeehouse @ 7:00, Ensemble Theatre (students attending and reading will gain extra credit for this marking period!)

Monday, June 7: Study, prepare portfolio.

Wednesday, June 9: Term & Concept Test (see the explanation above to review for these)

Friday, June 11: Portfolio due! Students absent from Wednesday's test will have to take their written test on this date. The written test will likely take you about 60 minutes at least to complete. If you are absent on Wednesday, I suggest you come to class on Friday with your portfolio COMPLETED to reduce stress.

Monday, June 14: Late portfolios due. Completed but late portfolios will have a maximum grade of C+ (no B/A). Content and craft, of course, will determine the exact grade. No portfolios will be accepted after this date.

Friday, June 18: Extra Credit film projects due.

Script Writing Tips

Here are some basic tips when writing/planning a script:

1. Create interesting/compelling characters. The best characters are ones that have a specific goal or motive to be in the story. A character who is not involved in the plot, really shouldn't be in the script. Remove these unimportant or over-written parts to save money and time and to tighten up your script.

2. Constrict your protagonist by setting limits. Your protagonist should be challenged by the conflict. Conflict is what makes a story (and character) interesting. Sometimes setting limits in regards to constricting space or making a character deal with a deadline or time limit can breathe life into a story. This is why many action/crime dramas have that cliched scene where the bomb is ticking down. It creates a good amount of suspense. Time is often a way to constrict a character from saying, "well, I don't need to deal with this today," which can derail a story pretty quickly.

3. Character is established through characterization. Remember that what a character does (actions), says (dialogue), and descriptions (even descriptions of setting) help us understand WHO the character is. A character in a police uniform holding a gun is likely in law enforcement. This is immediately recognized by an audience.

4. Conflict moves a story forward. Make sure your character or film plot has an appropriate conflict for a character to deal with.

5. Remember your audience. Your film should at least excite you. If you don't like the story or the characters or the setting, the audience is likely to not care as well.

Script Project

Take out your treatments. Get into groups of 2-3. You may, if you wish, also work alone. Each member of the group should read and review each others treatment. Choose the best treatment to use to create a collaborative script. Please turn in your treatments today as homework/participation by the end of class.

Film scripts are a strange format. Please refer to the script format here.

Here are some sample scripts. Choose a few and read a little of each script. Pay close attention to where the dialogue goes on the page, how the shots are indicated, and other curious formatting.

After you are familiar how to format a script, please take your treatment that you selected and begin creating a collaborative script.

Agenda 5/27

Today, please view the class film explaining film shots and angles. Again, you should know the different types of shots and WHY THEY ARE USED or why a film maker might use the shot in a film. You will be tested on these terms.

Furthermore, please read and take notes below about other important film terms. You should learn these and be prepared to ask questions about them for the test next week.

Lastly, you are going to write a short film script in the next few classes. To begin with create a TREATMENT for your film proposal. Fill out the sheet and submit it by the end of today's class. While everyone will be creating a treatment, the film script will be a collaborative project. I'll explain details as needed.

Due today: The treatment; the vocabulary list of film terms; watch the class film on film shots.

Film Terms/Vocabulary

A few more film vocabulary terms: (look through these, take notes, and learn them)

Taken from David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993):

Story:
In a narrative film, all the events that we see and hear, plus all those that we infer or assume to have occurred, arranged in their presumed causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations. Opposed to plot, which is the film's actual presentation of certain events in the narrative.

Plot:
In a narrative film, all the events that are directly presented to us, including their causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations. Opposed to story which is the viewer's imaginary construction of all events in the narrative.

Diegesis:
In a narrative film, the world of the film's story. The diegesis includes events that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen.

Diegetic sound:
Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating from a source within the film's world.

Nondiegetic sound:
Sound, such as mood music or narrator's commentary, represented as coming from a source outside the space of the narrative.

From The All-Movie Guide Film Glossary
(Konigsberg, Ira. The Complete Film Dictionary. New York: Meridian, 1987.):

Narrative:
A term denoting a story in any form of human expression where no single individual is telling the story.

Narrative Film:
Narrative films can include a large corpus of fiction and nonfiction films including documentaries and dramas though the genre is predominantly fictitious. Narrative films primarily concentrate on story lines and can include character development but the drama and usual fiction are emphasized.

Plot:
The events in an individual narrative and how they are arranged. Arguably the plot and the story are not the same.
{Narrative includes everything that is supposed to have happened in the "story"; plot is more concretely the scenes that are presented in the film, in the precise order in which they are
presented.

Story:
The specific unfolding of a sequence of events in a film. It includes character involvement, settings, and an order that superimposed in an arbitrary manner by the screen writer or by a parallel historical sequence through which the themes are developed. The story is general whereas the plot is specific and includes both internal and external relations to the work.

"Basic Elements of a Film"
Frame:
Frames in essence are still images that are collected in quick succession, developed, and projected giving the illusion of motion. Each individual, or still, image on motion picture film is referred to as a frame.

Shot: In the process of photographing a scene a shot refers to one constant take by the camera. It is most often filmed at one time with a solo camera.

Sequence:
Segments of a film narrative that are edited together and unified by a common setting, time, event or story-line.

Sound Track:
That portion of the sound film medium to which are recorded the dialogue, music, narration and sound effects. The sound head and film gate on a film projector are physically separated from one another. This gap is covered during the recording of a sound-film by keeping the soundtrack recording a few frames head of the photographic image. The sound passes over the projector head at the same time the photographic image passes before the projector's light aperture/lens (the film gate).

3. "Basic Manipulations, and Assemblings of the Basic Elements"
Cutting (a.k.a. Editing):
The process of changing from one shot to another accomplished through the camera or by the splicing of shots together by the cutter (editor). This is also referred to as editing, the preferred term, and includes the decisions, controls, sensibilities, vision and integrative capabilities of the individual editing (cutting) artist.

Invisible Cutting:
Editing procedures that are so well-formed that the viewer is not aware that a splice has taken place. This is particularly important in action sequences because the audience is psychologically intent on the moving images that a cut in the film -- an unobstrusive cut -- is not noticed. This can easily be contrasted with Eisenstein's technique of quick cuts and jump cuts from one scene to the next without transition so as to unnerve the audience and evoke emotional responses in them.

[From the Complete Film Dictionary:
Shot/Reverse Shot Technique: A technique of cutting developed by the Hollywood studios in which the camera switches between two conversants or interacting individuals. ... See invisible cutting.]

Montage:
In the production and editing of film this term has come to refer to a seemingly unrelated series of frames combined so that one scene quickly dissolves into the next, shifting categories, effects and settings in such a manner as to convey a quick passage of time or an abstract unity through thematic devices such as meter, rhythm, tonality, and intellectuality (viz Eisenstein). Continuity, if it exists, is not captured in a frame by frame juxtaposition but rather through an abstraction. (Also see "mise-en-scene".)

Synchronization:
Correctly aligning the photographic and audio portions of a film so that the image and sound is heard and seen simultaneously.

Framing:
Properly surrounding the subject of a shot by the edges of the actual boundaries of the film. All that is seen in the viewfinder of a camera does not always translate directly into the proper centering of the subject. Framing is a technical nuance learned in the process of photography.

[Involves camera angle, distance, and arrangement of objects and people in front of the camera (the "mise-en-scene". Important in framing is the way that the edges of the screen make a sharp distinction between what is seen and what is not seen, what is included and what is excluded, in a particular frame.]

4. "Basic Elements of the Camera Setup"

Camera Angle:
This term refers to the point of view held by the focal point of the camera when it is positioned for shooting. Included in the angle is the perspective given by the camera to the depth of focus, height and width of the particular object and action being photographed. The angle also refers to whether the shot is taken from behind, in front, from the side or from the top or bottom of the particular view. Terms appropriated for these various angles include eye-level angle, high-angle, low-angle, sideview angle and the "Dutch" angle.

Distance:
Distance refers to the amount of relational space between the audience and the character on the screen. Though the characters are two-dimensional and the audience is distinctly separate from the screen by dead space (virtual reality in the theatre has not yet been developed) the camera's perspective, in effect, attempts to provide the amount of space desired subject to the director's discretion. This space often results in the interaction and psychological connection between the characters and the audience. The connection is achieved through the dynamics and varying degrees between long shots, medium shots and close-ups.

Establishing Shot (a.k.a. "Master Shot")
At the beginning of a film, episode or scene within a film, a wide-angle or "full-shot" is photographed for the purpose of identifying the location or setting. Thus the audience has established, or been given the opportunity to surmise an orientation. It also helps to establish the distinctions between the general locale and the specific details -- from subsequent shots -- within the general context.
[The Establishing shot is a wide-angle shot and/or a long shot.]

Perspective:
Spatial relationships. In film (painting, photography, theatrical performances, et cetera) perspective refers to the accurate depiction of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. (In experimental forms of film, of course, the accurate depiction is redefined.) Height and breadth come naturally to the surface but the added dimension of depth must be constructed through cameras, lenses, sets, and designs during composition. (See "anamorphic lens" and "composition").

5. "Basic Camera Movements"
Camera Movement:
Conventional uses of the camera to obtain camera angles and various perspectives while filming include panning, tilting, tracking or zooming of the camera. These camera ploys are also known as camera movement and rarely does the camera remain static. When a movement does occur, however, the camera comes to a rest providing a smooth transition to the scene. Movements are coordinated with the action in a scene so that the camera does not go in the opposite direction of the action (i.e. action left-to-right.) Of course, many alternative and experimental methods are used in the film industry and camera movement is no exception.

Dolly:
Cameras and other equipment, such as microphones and lights, are often carried around the set on movable platforms. These are dollys and are independently moved by the dolly grip so that the technician, be s/he cameraman, audio or lighting technician, can keep their concerns focused. Dollys are often run on tracks for special dolly pans, chinese dollys, or for mere structurally smoothness. Most of the time, dollys are used for camera work and can include booms for the cameras which allows for the lowering, raising and pivoting of the camera. All of these shots can be achieved simultaneously with an horizontal movement of the camera upon the dolly track.

Dolly Shot:
A camera perspective, on a moving or stationary subject, obtained while the camera is in motion on either a dolly or a camera truck. When the camera is so mounted and moves toward a closer proximity of the subject it is called "dolly-in"; likewise, when the camera is so mounted and moves away from the subject it is referred to as "dolly-out".

{From the Complete Film Dictionary: Tracking Shot: ... So called because it is sometimes photographed from a dolly that moves on tracks, also refers particularly to a shot in which the camera follows the movement of a subject.}

Crane:
A large camera dolly that can raise the camera as much as twenty feet above the ground. The crane has the capacity to move forward and backward and is usually operated by electronic controls. Motions are generally silent and the crane allows shots to be made over a wide ranging area providing great access to cover shots.

Pan:
From the Greek "pan" meaning "all" this movement of the camera is achieved by moving the camera while turning it on a horizontal access. At least four functions are served by this technique including an all encompassing view of the scene, a device for leading the audience to a particular person or place, following a person or vehicle across a distant scene, or giving the audience the visual images and perspective as seen by a character when turning her/his head.
{A turn of the camera up or down on the vertical axis is called a "tilt."}

[From the Complete Film Dictionary:
Zoom Shot: A shot taken with a zoom lens in which the focal length of the lens changes from wide angle to long focus or the reverse so that the camera seems to move in to (i.e., "zoom in" to) or away from (i.e., "zoom out" from) the subject while the camera actually remains stationary.]

Lighting:
High Key: Lighting that is used in film (or theatre) that attempts to flood the space with light. This is usually done to affect mood. The bright effect created by High Key lighting is often used in Musicals, Comedies, and other light subject matter.

Low Key: Opposite of High key lighting, lighting in film that utilizes shadows or darkness to affect mood. The shadowy/dark effect created by low key lighting is often used in mysteries, horror films, and other dark genre materials.