Unit 24 Assignment 1 - Prep Script

1. HOW DO YOU BECOME A WRITER & WHATS IT LIKE TO WORK AS ONE?

A career as a writer doesn’t have to mean an entirely solitary life. Instead of sitting alone at a desk, drinking mass amounts of coffee, and scraping your mind for material, you could choose to huddle in a conference room with other writers in an effort to burst the boundaries of one human brain. And also drink mass amounts of coffee.

• Take classes.
• Enroll in a degree-granting program. 
• Invest in some reference books.
• Read other scripts/Actively watch TV from a writer’s perspective. If you’re lucky or skilled enough to dig up an actual script of your favorite show on the Internet, dive in and study it. If not, when you’re watching your favorite shows, ask questions: What is happening? How is it being conveyed?

2. WHAT IS A STAFF WRITER?

• Work in tandem with the lead editors and writers on the blog
•  Research and write quality posts on a daily basis
• Edit content as needed
• Establish connections with industry leaders for research, interviews, and quotes

3. WHAT IS THE COMMISSIONING PROCESS, HOW DO YOU GET AN IDEA 'COMMISSIONED'?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/how-we-work/how-we-commission.shtml


4. WHY DO YOU NEED AN AGENT AND WHAT ARE THE NAMES OF SOME SCRIPTWRITER AGENTS?

An agent is needed to find you work, a good agent should be able to hook you up with some bigger names that you probably wouldn't be able to get in touch with by yourself. Cynthia Whitcomb is quite a respected script writer agent and even holds her own classes.

5. HOW DOES A SCRIPT GET CHOSEN?

When a script is chosen there is a time that happens where errors can be addressed. This so called the option period. During this the option agreement is written giving rights to the written script to the production company that invested into the said script. Then a purchase price is made in the form of a contract or document.

6. HOW DOES A SCRIPT WRITER GET PAID?

A script writer gets paid weekly contracted for a certain number of episodes. The writers guild association that makes minimum payments the writer MUST be given.

7. WHAT LEGAL ISSUES DO YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT AS A WRITER? (PLAGIARISM/LIBEL?)

Plagiarism is a big legal issue which basically means taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own. And copyright, writers have to beware they don't accidentally steal other people's ideas and claim they came up with it when there could be a similar idea knocking around by someone else that could have it copyrighted. People could also mistake your work and you could have them done form copyright 

8. WHAT EXAMPLES ARE THERE OF LEGAL ACTION INVOLVING SCRIPTWRITERS OF TV AND FILM?

The show new girl is notoriously in the limelight at the moment. A woman is suing the writers of new girl for stealing the idea from their own show script. The case says that the writer of new girl Holly Harter looked at the script and told the writers it'd work better as a film. 

9.WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE SOME OF THE HIGH POINTS AND LOW POINTS OF WORKING AS A 
WRITER FOR TV OR FILM?

The positives Andy negatives working as a to writer are so vast. Positives are obviously seeing your ideas and thoughts come to life. You'd get to meet allot of respected figures and celebrities, the pay is obviously good for a job you enjoy. And I really can't think of many negatives apart from maybe spending allot of time on a project and getting it rejected! That must be a real motivation killer.

Unit 32 Assignment 2

Production Dairy:

9th December 5:33pm : I have started to lay down some ideas on a mind map for my ident thinking of the transitions, fonts and colours I want to work with. I'm aiming to keep it consistent through my ident suite so it creates a brand image and identity so then if it was used in the real world it'd become a recognised suite.

10th December 1:02pm : Made a mind map listing things that I feel relate to the target audience, I felt this gave me a broader sense of what I want to produce

11th December 02:07am: Its early morning, very early. but cant sleep and need to get some of this done, so doing my 2nd idea brief and 3rd idea, I have a couple of creative plans for these and im pretty chuffed with my visions for it. (using my step dads computer so don't want to download loads of pictures so I need to do the story boards later on today at college)

Mind Map:

The targeted age bracket (16-25) are often stereotyped to certain items, especially men are associated with electronics. Almost everyone now owns some form of media product that allows them to browse the internet, play games or listen to music/videos. A good majority of people own a device that does all 3 of them things within itself.

Money is a huge part of reality these days, people like to be materialistic with everything they do and have. If people can splash out abit of money and wear the newest gear then they will. People will go out to restaurants because they feel that they can so the shall. which in all fairness if you can do it then why not?

People will go to big name retail stores to buy expensive items when they could pay less for an item that's less known. For example, people will pay £300 for Beats Headphones when they could pay £60 for a pair of Ultrasone HFI-450 which are MUCH better on paper, with better specs and value for money, But as I said people are materialistic and will pay £300 just to have a beats logo on the side of their item. (I'm guilty of this and being a complete hypocrite)















 The statistics below are taken from: Mobile Tech Fact Sheet

90% of American adults have a cell phone

58% of American adults have a smartphone

32% of American adults own an e-reader

42% of American adults own a tablet computer

Planning:Design Brief 1:
'Music is magical'

My first idea is to get some kind of garage style/practise room and have two guitarists a drum kit and possibly a bass guitar. they would all line up with a gap between them around half a metre, maybe a little wider. The camera would do a rotation in a medium close up, so you wouldnt see faces, youd see from just under the shoulders to just under the waist. obviously including the instrument once the rotation is complete id have my 3D animated ITV logo that i created with Cinema 4D. I want to keep the overall colour scheme a dark deep blue throughout my idents. throughout all this there will be starry twinkling overlays representing that music is "magical" and on the ITV logo at the end if use lens flare to represent that magic style and feel.

Planning:
Design brief 2:
Reality

For my second ident its reality based on reality, so as my mind map shows I want to base it on social media. I want to get two people sat at a bus stop or some kind of café and they'll have their heads down looking at their phones and ill animate a speech bubble effect coming out of the phone and itll be clearly showed as a tweet and itll say something such as "3 Hours left of college :( nandos time soon!" then the camera would cut to the another person tweeting back at that person saying something along the lines of "Cant wait!!". This idea to me shows a perfect example of todays people and how people actually act. The fact the use of the phones shows reality and modern day actions then the response off the other person shows how people actually talk these days, people deem it easier to text or tweet someone rather than find them and have a face to face conversation. After the text is displayed the person will get up and leave then this will reveal the ITV logo.

Planning:
Design brief 3:
Music surrounds us

For this idea I would require a green screen. it'd show one person facing sideways with headphones on, it'd shuffle through different backgrounds but the person would obviously remain the same, as the background changes the music would change to suit the background. Example, Walking through a city so I could use hip hop, 3 seconds later it could be in a club so I'd change the music to a heavier dance track, then 3 seconds later maybe like a hilly/mountainous scene so I could use motivational walking music then possibly a desert scene so id use motown etc and so forth... eventually the person would walk straight forward into the off screen space then the landscape would disappear revealing the ITV logo.

Unit 32 Assignment 1 Designing Idents

PRESENTATION - SKY SUITE

What is an ident?

• A screen filler
• Logo
• Alerts the audience whats coming up next
• Can give the audience an idea of what the channel is showing
• To create an image for the channel

Why use an ident:

What are they for?

• Used as intermission
• Marketing
• To alert the viewer whats coming up

Why have more than one?

• To not be repetitive and boring
• Brings abit of diversity to the channel
• Target different audience
• To promote specific shows.

Who do they target

• Fans of specific shows
• TV watchers

This specific ident is to show the Doctor who Christmas Special in 2009, This ident shows the actor out of doctor who (David Tennant) This specific Ident targets Sci-fi fans and obviously doctor who fans

Purpose of an ident:

The purposes of idents are:

• Represent the channel
• Keep you watching
• To persuade
• To create a brand identity 
• To break up programs
• To Sell Programs
• To keep the viewer form turning over
• To Map out the TV schedule

TCM Ident

• Stock footage - Filmed footage
• Post production Editing - Transitions

Watch Ident

• Practical Set
• Effects
• C4D
• Pre Visualizations
• Adobe AE
• Text graphics
• Voice over

BBC

• Green Screen
• Cast
• Sound FX
• Animals
• Post production Animation

BBC 3

• Post production
• Cinema 4D
• Sound FX

Sky

• Stock footage
• Some form of VFX program (C4D, AAE)
• A Cast

Opportunities of Designer:

• Make allot of money
• Builds up a portfolio and reputation
• Might get used again to create for the channel, meaning more money

Opportunities of the Channel Owner

• More viewing figures
• To have a nice knew Re-vamp and look to the channel
• People will talk about your channel more ("Have you seen that new thing on channel...")

What Limitations Could you Face Working as A Designer for A Channel:

• A Vague brief that doesnt give much away
• Brand Lack knowledge of Tech so they could expect unrealistic things
• Software could be limited
• Constant negative criticism bringing you down
• Time given to create the ident could be short
• Failure - Which will lead to a negative reputation
• The target audience might limit what you can do and show
• The Timescale stated could only be 10 seconds and youve planned to make a 15 second ident
• Things that must be used could limit you badly, if you MUST use a certain logo or item, but it may not suit your style

The Following Idents are not so good and lack creativity

This Channel 4 Indent may be oldish, but its still so simple, its not complicated to make, nor does it showcase any skill, its literally just simplicity. Its a plain background with vibrant colours, you could argue that this is to represent the fact channel 4 'Stands out' but at the end of the day its still basic and isnt attractive in any way.

This ident is ITV, my opinion is the design, the dark scenery and logo makes it to see and comes across as very bleak and boring. It lacks imagination and creativity. This channel shows shows such as Coronation Street, Im a celebrity  get me out of here! and More...how does this ident suit the style of the channel? simply it doesn't.

This ident is again a very plain and standard ident. it has a lack of imagination nor creativity and again its too simple, its very similar to the actual channel 4 ident and looks likes theyve just sponged the idea off them, the sound effects are very cliche and common. 


ANALYSING A SUITE OF IDENTS

Design Elements:- Key coulours, text, speed and space.
Purpose:- Use for? Audience is targeting?
Creative:- More creative elements - Brand identity 
Compare:- Which ident is the most creative? best at targeting the audience?

BBC Arts: BBC Four channel ident by Laure Prouvost

They key colours are vibrant and really flat colours, such as 0;08 hand transition to pink screen. The text appears frequently after a few clips have played, the text saying "BBC FOUR". The Speed is fast, attention grabbing, The ident reassembles simplicity and realism. The Transitions are in different colours which could represent the different variety in content.
I think the ident. This ident is a high brow cultural ident. it aims for a more educated and developed audience that want to learn. The channel use thie ident to make the channel look mature and different.

BBC Arts: BBC Four channel ident by James Richards

The ident by James richards makes a good use of dark colours, The text is stuck and remains in the center of the screen, this entices the viewer, it ensure that all focus is on the text. The rapidly moving abstract birds also bring attention to the screen but with all the movement being so fluid and fast and the still image in the middle being still you notice it allot more. The audience is obviously again older people, old people are into art, this ident is classed as abstract art. The creative elements of this ident are clear, the motion of the birds are fluid and smooth, this could symbolise the channel is fluid and smooth

BBC Arts: BBC Four channel ident by John Smith

The Bee, Bee and Sea ident tried way to hard, whoever made it tried to be really quirky and for some people im sure they watch it and think its really clever and origianal, but really? theres no real movement to the ident and its just simply still images chopping and changing of two beas, sea and the number 4 in roman numerals. Key colours are yellow and blues and the black stripes on the bees so quiet dominantly dark colours, which is fine, eye catching in a certain way, it you look at it straight on the bees are an instant attraction and so is the ocean. The text is basic, its just slapped in the middle with no form of animation, seamingly pointless. the speed, once again is just so basic and straight forward. The bees just change every 2/3 seconds. The target audience however is reached. BBC 4 is known for documentaries, nature and programmes involving common life things, Bees and oceans are falling into that catergory, you could also argue Bees and See are documentary features in the nature depeartment. Compared to the other two idents this is hands down the least creative. Someone would of got payed an extorshinate amount of money to produce such a bog standard ident. i honestly feel like i could recreate this ident within 45 minutes. I feel like this ident was given to him as a task, he had say 3 weeks to do it, he forgot about it for 3 weeks then did it the nigh before deadline at 2am.

The ident i thought was the most creative was Lauras there is more variety in the shots - waterfalls, birds and jelly fish made it creative and enticing also that can link to the documentary aspect of BBC4. The speed of Lauras is fast paces, heart racing and is hooking, unlike the other 2, they are bland and lack different camera angles and just overall lack change. The birds ident was possibly the least creative because of the greyscale bleak colours that make the viewer bored, boredom will then lead to people changing the channel over. The bee ident was possibly the least creative because it has an unimaginative sounds and images, it was just a bland ident overall lacking any creativity besides the whole bee bee sea thing, but besides that, what even is it? theres no real purpose too it? against the other idents they kind of have a purpose, the swiping hands ident is creative, its showing variety and creates a brand identity. again, the birds one, its nicer to look at than the John Smith ident, the fact the birds ident uses motion gives it the edge of John Smiths. So in order of creativity, purpose and design, Laura has the best ident due to relevance and creativity, followed by James Richards due to just relevance (the birds...nature) then dragging its feet is John Smiths ident with little relevance and lack of spark to it.

Production Dairy

My Role is as a vision mixer, i have to say im pleased with this role, it involves the things that i personally see as my strong points. Editing is the main key factor of Vision mixing, if its editing shots, editing whats live on screen and editing the overlays, intros and music etc. No matter where you look at it, its editing. My strongest point in production. In the folder iv been responsible for all graphics used in the production, all the video clips used and also i made the opening sequence/intro. I think im committed to the group, i think iv put in as much effort as possible and been here every day when needed and my punctuality has been perfectly fine. Without being stush about it, im proud of how much iv done for the production and how much effort I've put in. I feel the idea is brilliant. The media relation to our idea i feel is relevant, enjoyable and entertaining to watch. Our production meetings have evolved everyone in the production team and everyone has got stuck in, the meetings have consisted of conversations about what our goals are, what we need to do and when we plan to do what we set out to do, everything we've mentioned or planned has been took into action and done. We've made good use of our rehearsals. The main objective for ME during who rehearsals was to get used to the technology i have to master in our production. When we first went into the studio i was slightly daunted and over whelmed, however i wasn't nervous or scared of messing anything up as I've used studios before but that was for Music, also that was nearly 2 years ago now...but i got the hang of that quick so i knew id get my bearings with the Media studio relatively quick. The mixing desk isn't as hard as i thought it would be, at first look, its scary and you kind of just look at it blankly but once things are broken down. There hasnt been problems during the production, there has been a few days where people have come in late or not at all but we've managed with what we had, however nothing has shunted our production. So overall, a brilliant experience that i feel has helped my advance and an enjoyable one.

Studio Production Presentation

Presentation

Review show:

Review show based on looking at the most current and popular FIlms. The but comparing them to other similar Films, comparing the actors to what they've been in before and going of previous work of the actors what to expect from them, will it be good? is it over rated? the problem with this is its biased opinions. but i think it would be interesting to have a debate between two people with different opinions. a segment of the show could be a minute rant/argument between a fan of a show and someone who dislikes the show. Viewers would enjoy this, everyone loves watching an argument. 

An Example of an Argument is When Kate Hopkins Went onto this morning and had a rant about "baby names" she was saying she judges her childr's friends based off their names. However another woman was arguing back that you cant judge your children's friends, especially because of their names that they didn't even choose themselves.


My target audience would be people aged 12+ mainly because im not doing films rated PG or under, its 12 rated films and over. This is so it can be a fairly serious show and i dont think the attention of kids could be kept through my show, so i think my audience has to be fairly old, at least teenagers.

Constraints could be there may not be good enough films out, but on the other hand if i do films released in the last 6 month there will at least be 5 good films out, other constraints is i need non biased people to do my review, i cant have someone doing a review on the wolf of wall street when they think they're Leonardo DiCaprios' biggest fan. i need neutral opinions off non biased candidates.  

Guests consist off 3 people, one to present the show, 2 two debate and then the presenter can add opinions also. i think this will add a good balance and give enough opinions and relevant information out.

My VT will be clips from each movie, possibly just the trailer from each film and a break down of each film, 1:50-2:50 minutes of discussion for each film this will make it fluent and not too long winded. 

Unit 23 assignment 1

A multi camera set up or, multi camera production means there is more than one camera used throughout the production. essentially because it gives a more fluent flow to the program, for example, if football was one fixed camera that panned left to right it wouldn't be near as entertaining to watch, instead we see it from all different angles and coverage, that brings flow and entertainment. The same can be said for talk shows, game shows and the news.

A single camera production means one camera is used, this is more common in films and productions that don't require as much coverage, also things that arent live recorded, soap opera and films are good example. The single camera can easily be moved and adjusted.

These sorts of programs are all single camera:

Coronation street - built in a set studio to replicate real life surroundings

Eastenders - single camera production, filmed in and around a replica street, not a studio but its a replica street built in private grounds

Bear Grills: Born Survivor - Live recordings following one man, using one camera.

Breaking Bad - Uses multiple real life destinations as the sets but once again, single camera.

NCIS - Uses multiple real life destinations as the sets.

The following web links talk about the pros and cons of working in a multi camera set up

http://lisagg2.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/the-pros-and-cons-of-multi-cam/

http://venture2thewest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/multiple-camera-vs-single-camera-setup.html

http://bartiib.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/multi-camera-case-study.html

Pros: 

• Gives more flow to a production
• Shows more insight to the production by giving us reactions of people on the spot etc
• Modern day live events such as sport wouldnt be entertaining at all if caputred with one camera
• Time Saving
• 
  

Cons:

• The aesthetic quality isnt as upto scratch as a single camera production
•  Costly
• Lighting change from different angle thus giving a different picture, most studios have lighting set up though. 

This Program is celebrity juice, one of the biggest pannel shows in britain. This is a multi camera production, this program would NEED to be a multi camera production, if it wasnt it would literally be one camera facing a panel of 6 people and wouldnt move. it would pan left to right, up and down at most. it wouldnt give us the coverage and reactions of the contestants and the audience reactions also.

The program above is the news. This is also a multi camera set up, again its essential that this would need to be multi cam. the news have different presenters for different subjects, i.e Sport, weather and general news etc. The reason this is multi camera is so they can chop and change as quick as possible and once again make the show run more fluently. If it was a single camera we would see the camera man walking over to the weather green screen for example, then back to the news table. Instead we get quick changing commands and a easy running view of whats going on. 

Football is a multi camera production, as are most if not every other sport. If football was a single camera production we would see one camera panning left to right, leaving us bored and probably quite noxious. Instead we get numerous views and aspects of the game from when players pass to when players score and run to the fans etc, we see all that head on thanks the the fact football is presented as a multi camera production.

Mock of the week, presented by Dara O'Brein, another news/panel show that involves the contestants walking around, again, if that wasnt done multi cam we would just get simple pans and possibly the cheeky track here and there. instead we have quick chopping and cutting to peoples reactions and actions. For example, Frankie Boyle could make a joke about Dara, We would get a straight away cut to Daras' face to see his reaction, small things like that can make a program what it is. IF it was single camera the joke would be dead by the time the camera got to Daras' reaction. 

Out of the 4 programs above i feel that the football and mock of the week make the better use of the multi camera set up to show their audience the best possible footage. With football i feel its absolutely 150% necessary, the camera work on football is amazing, showing all the best angles and coverage. Also football is probably the most viewed out of all the programs, However mock of the week also makes good use of its set up. The fact its a comedy show means jokes are thrown around and offences are just flung around at people so reactions are precious to this show. The news have different presenters for different categories of news. The news also uses their cameras in the same style of mock of the week and even celebrity juice, they're all in a studio and need to chop and change from different people for different reactions or in the news' case, stories. Overall id still say football needs the multi cam set up more and uses it more efficiently.