Making a film on Paper Focus Group 2019/2020
To get the most out of this group you need to be currently planning to develop and produce a moving-image work designed for the cinema or gallery. You need to be prepared to show material in progress to the group and discuss it and actively participate in the discussion of others’ work.
Why this Approach?
The work of making a film 'on paper' is a necessary stage in any production. It acts as a 'gateway' to making the final project. It allows you to rehearse and consider decisions while they are still open to revision, and it allows you to create material to involve others in the production: from backers of the project to the crew for production and post-production. It creates a flow of documents that form a low cost, flexible place to try out and test ideas.
This approach also allows you to create a practice that acknowledge that, as a filmmaker/moving image artist, you will generate more ideas than are finally fully realised. It creates a process where you can learn, and deepen your experience, prior to the actual physical production of a project.
Topics we will cover:
Each topic will be covered in two sessions: in the first we will outline principles and best working practices, in the second you will bring completed examples to share and review with the group. Sessions will look at the rationale for and the conceptual approach to the documents; as well as practical issues of organising and formatting documents.
Identifying your subject: the synopsis & the pitch document.
Identifying your approach: the treatment & statement of purpose.
Creating a road-map for filming: the script & character breakdown.
Creating a visual world for your filming: the mood board.
Motivating your shooting decisions: the scene breakdown / concept of intention.
Rehearsing shooting decisions: the storyboard or a plan view of each scene
Making it happen: breakdowns, budget & schedule.
Making a Film on Paper: Step One.
Synopsis Using a three-sentence synopsis as a tool for outlining at the most basic level the core topic and driver of your project. Three sentences – each identifying one aspect of your project.
THREE ELEMENTS OF STORY PREMISE create an INVISIBLE STRUCTURE
Beginning - Protagonist: who or what is your project focussed upon. The main character or characters in fiction, the main character/community/situation in documentary, the main visual proposition/relationship to the viewer or audience in experimental work.
Middle - the conflict: what is the desire in your project? What is the resistance in your story? How do these two opposing forces meet and create conflict.
End - Resolution: How does the conflict between desire and obstacle play out.
Character, conflict and ending. All stories have this archetypal structure: if it does not have this structure it's not a story. The structure resonates with everybody because it represents an archetypal aspect of human experience through time. Human beings use archetypal structures to make decisions and to order and make sense of what they experience.
SEVEN ELEMENTS OF STORY PREMISE create an INVISIBLE STRUCTURE
A more advance breakdown taken from
ANATOMY_OF_A_PREMISE_LINE Jeff Lyons
CHARACTER - every story revolves around a person or person-like thing.
CONSTRICTION - pushes the character from one line of action to another (Inciting incident)
DESIRE - with any human being there is desire - what is the protagonist's desire. Make it strong and clear to sustain through action.
RELATIONSHIP - what relationships positive and negative does the character enter into to further their desire?
RESISTANCE - what resistance, friction and hostility does the pursuit of this desire encounter?
ADVENTURE - how do the above throw the protagonist's life into chaos and disarray?
RESOLUTION - how does this chaos resolve in a way that answers (positively or negatively) the protagonists desires and how does the resolution help the protagonist resolve his fatal flaw? The story must result in substantial change - either a radical change, success and evolution or a radical stasis, failure and devolution.
USEFUL ADDITIONAL READING AT THIS STAGE
Wired for story Lisa Cron
A brief and clear exposition of the basic psychological mechanisms that hook a reader into a story.
On the origin of Stories Brian Boyd
A ground-breaking academic work that explores the current developments in the cross-breeding between literary criticism and evolutionary theory. Asks the basic question: why has story telling proved to be a universal human adaptive mechanism.
Hero With A Thousand Faces Jospeh Campbell
theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths.
NEXT STEPS TO MOVE THIS FOCUS GROUP ONLINE
We'll plan to meet bi-weekly on ZOOM - I'll send out invitations.
To help focus our online discussion I will use a past production of mine SHOCK HEAD SOUL as an example.
I can then find examples of each stage of the 'paper trail' of the film in my archive and share them with you for discussion. Each session will look at one of the aspects of making a film on paper as outlined in the intro above. To make this more concrete and hopefully useful I will post a viewing copy of the film on a private vimeo link and share the password with focus group members.
As a brief introduction to the project here is:
The trailer: https://shop.submarine.nl/portfolio-view/shock-head-soul/
The website: http://shockheadsoul.com
As we progress through the weeks I'll post relevant documents to each heading below.
Identifying your subject:
Shock Head soul Research documents, Synopsis, Pitch document
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:20100710_SHS_SHORT_SYNOPSIS.doc
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:Excerpt_NL_FIlm_Fund_Notes.doc
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:Schreber_micro_history.xls
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:Schreber_macro_history.xls
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:Schreber_German_history.xls
Student Synopses for discussion
Please upload here the synopses and other early stage story documents that you want feedback on.
Annalisa
"A young man is tormented by a recurrent dream which story he can always recall in the morning except for one detail. As his obsession grows stronger for the missing piece of his dream, he devotes himself to the making of a machine able to record the images of his oneiric activity. Once the machine is completed, he undergoes the test and succeeds in transferring the film of his dream to the memory of his computer. The moment the object of his desire is at hand, the young man hesitates and find himself afraid of watching. Finally, the dreamer watches the video of his dream and sheds a tear."
Identifying your approach: the treatment & statement of purpose.
GROUP PROJECT _ AN ADAPTATION
Tomorrow I want to embark on a group project: as I think we can work our way through the paper trail of Shock Head Soul — but we badly need a collective endeavour to work on together - to get the discussion in the group going. Hopefully something that can be fun and spark discussion.
So the plan is to write the documents and develop a screenplay for a film - an adaptation of an existing story - each of you creating your own version of the same story and sharing and discussing them in the group.
I thought it would be interesting to choose that most archetypal of film genres: the Western.
So take a listen to the the source material:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agdoeRpTfHg
and read the transcription:
I’ll see you all tomorrow.
Simon
The festival was over, the boys were all plannin' for a fall
The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall
The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down
Anyone with any sense had already left town
He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts
He moved across the mirrored room, "Set it up for everyone, " he said
Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads
Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin
"Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?"
Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts
Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs
Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair
Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide
A gentle breeze was blowin', you could feel it from inside
Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts
Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine
He made his usual entrance lookin' so dandy and so fine
With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place
He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste
But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts
Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town
She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown
She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear
"Sorry, darlin', that I'm late, " but he didn't seem to hear
He was starin' into space over at the Jack of Hearts
"I know I've seen that face before, " Big Jim was thinkin' to himself
"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf"
But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him
Starin' at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts
Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child
She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled
She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere
But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts
The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined
The drillin' in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind
It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king
No, nothin' ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts
Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife
She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife
She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide
Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died
She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts
Lily took her dress off and buried it away
"Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him
"Well, I guess you must have known it would someday
Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint
I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint"
Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts
The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair
"There's something funny going on, " he said, "I can just feel it in the air"
He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk
As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk
There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts
No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick
The door to the dressing room burst open and a cold revolver clicked
And Big Jim was standin' there, ya couldn't say surprised
Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes
She was with Big Jim but she was leanin' to the Jack of Hearts
Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wall
And cleaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haul
In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
For one more member who had business back in town
But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts
The next day was hangin' day, the sky was overcast and black
Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back
And Rosemary on the gallows, she didn't even blink
The hangin' judge was sober, he hadn't had a drink
The only person on the scene missin' was the Jack of Hearts
The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair"
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw
Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law
But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts
Creating a road-map for filming: the script & character breakdown.
Creating a visual world for your filming: the mood board.
Motivating your shooting decisions: the scene breakdown / concept of intention.
Rehearsing shooting decisions: the storyboard or a plan view of each scene
Making it happen: breakdowns, budget & schedule.