Story Telling Project: 25 Word Pitch

Below is the initial pitch idea that I have come up with for this story telling projet, based around the theme of "The Meeting" it features a very breif plot sumemry and details about the primary caharcters and settings.

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Sibling rivalry takes new form in this gripping drama, two brothers meet to find old memories cause a feud that threatens to sever the family.

Genere: Drama 

 

Characters

 

Jason: A well manoured 26 year old guy. He is a very grounded person and despite having a misguided youth, turned his life around and now focuses on his wife and home life more than anything as he plans a future for the two of them. Through the help of old friends he landed a high paying job that attracts unwanted atention from

                      people he'd rather forget.

 

Liam: The younger wilder 21 year old brotehr of Jason.Unlike his brother, Liam never lost a taste for trouble. While his brother found it easy to setlle down, Liam is always thrill seeking and finds it hard to stay in one place. Sooner or later he inevitably ends up in some form of scrape, only this time he disapeared and hasn't been heard from in months. He is very arogant and has persuasive tendancies that he tries to exploit on his brother since he seems to have ended up over his head in some kind of trouble, appearing unemployed and overly on edge.

 

Setting

 

Initial setting is a typical high street, this allows for effective establishing shots and a relatable introduction to the characters. It aslo allows for easy transition in to the primary location.

 

 

 

 

Primary setting is a high street cafe. The location provides a relatable and iconic way for the charactesr to isolate themselves and allow the audience to focus on the stagong and dialouge between them. It also allows for the introduction of other minor characters should they be needed.For example otehr customers or staff could over hear or interveen just as may occur in a real life situation, however being a drama it can be exagerated for entertainment purposes. Th elocation also features effective mise en scene allowing for quuick cuts and closre ups in decent lighting conditions. 

 

Feedback: Ireceived the following feedback from my peer group and advisors \/ \/ \/

1. There is no need for the word "gripping" in the pitch as this should be obvious. 

2. Keep the script/scene on the move, if it is stuck in one location it can cause loss f interest, action and plot.

3. Atempt to use clothing to demonstrate the diference between characters and their situations.

4. Think about what would happen in a real life situation.

5. Consider addding aditional characters for more development in the action.

Following this feedback i actioned a few changes. I removed the coffee shop to keep the scene on the move, and added in the aditional locations of a house and a graveyard.

I also re wrote the reactions my characters initially have towards each other to make it more realistic.

I wrote in some aditional characters to help create more depth in the story. 

 

Story Telling Project: Steve Coombs Guide To Screenwriting

Following our recent lecture with Steve Coombs there were a few key points i picked up on when it comes to screenwriting. Since I will have to write a screen play for my story telling project the following points are what i found most important.

1. The average screenplay for an hour of television is approximately 12000 words, for our short piece we have 2000 words.

2. A 'treatment', is the summary of an entire story and is roughly 10 pages. 

3. A 'bible' is a summary of an entire series and details the story that will feature, the locations that will be featured, what characters will appear in the series and how the will develop.

4. After this the screen play will then take its mostly final format and become a 'shoot script' which is fit to be read by actors and directors ready to be filmed and put on the air. However depending on the opinions and creative experience of actors and directors this 'shoot script' can still be modified in order to improve it.

5. Another important thing to note when writing a screenplay is that a film can survive a bad director, snd a bad producer, but a bad actor will ruin it. So be creative when writing a screenplay and allow for as much expression in you dialogue as possible so your actor can bring it to life.

5 Golden Rules

We also went over the 5 Golden Rules of screenwriting. Which were the things Steve Coombs felt were the most important things to remember when screenwriting. They are as follows. 

1. Give detail but only about things people need to know, and not go overboard; and write at whatever pace you feel is appropriate fr the scene and allow the viewer to figure some things out for themselves.

2. SHOW DONT TELL!!!

3. A screenplay should be structured like a joke; first you set up the scene, then you create distraction, and then hit the audience with the 'punch line' or 'OMG' moment.

4. Know what your ending will be before you start so that your narrative flows well with the story.

5. Count your 'moments', try to incorporate memorable scenes of action or dialogue, that the audience will want to talk about as soon as they leave the cinema. 

Story Telling Project...Three Short Stories

Durign the same session that we produced the script ideas presented earlier, we were also given another assignment. We were split in to pairs and given three diferent breifings. Working with Zak we looked though newspapers in order to find inspiration from current events that we could use to generate stories that fit the breifing. The results are presented below, each had to be 25 words or less.

Senario 1: Big Budget Hollywood Thriller With A Major Star

 

Our first scenario was to produce a low budget Hollywood Thriller staring a major celebrity and a twist based on current events. We took inspiation from teh recent "Branjalina" break up, and the threat foreign hornets pose to the Bee population, and went with.... 

"Brad Pitt is an undercover agent working to save the environment, but he wasnt prepared for the enemy's secret weapon, giant mutant hornets!"

 

Scenario 2: A New Late Night Channel 4 Reality Show

 

Our next scenario was to craete a new late night channel 4 show that related to current events in the media.

We went with two political leaders that have been in the media recently, Teresa May and Jerany Corbyn, and took a populer channel 4 show, coach trip. Our tagnile was as follows...

"May and Corbyn star in a coach trip spinoff, traveling around britain to raise popularity, joimed by diferent comedians to keep things running smoothly...they dont".

Scenario 3: A Low Budget Drama Set In A Council Estate

 

For our third short story we were given the breif of a small budget film or drama series, set in a council estate. After flicking throigh the news we noticed that the royal family had been presented in the media of late, and thought the juxtapositioning of royalty and a council estate would be amusing. The tag line we came up with is as follows...

"Prince Charles must defend against conflict with a hord of chavs at a local council estate after getting off at the wrong buss stop"

And there you have it. Those were the three scearios that we devised based on local events in the media (using newspapers for inspiration) and adhearing to a breif. In order to practice and develop our skills for the story telling unit.