PRODUCTION TASKS : Evaluation of script/storyboard

You should complete an evaluative analysis of  script or storyboard  production of between 750 and 1200 words and make reference to some of the short films selected for study from the compilation set by WJEC. The evaluative analysis will include all of these sections:

   1      narrative structure of the short film 250-400  words – an analysis of how the narrative features and dramatic qualities some of the short films studied are constructed, including through dialogue, highlighting key ideas which informed your own work. You should look at at least two films from the list including at least one that has influenced you in terms of narrative structure , genre, characters , themes or film form.

2         cinematic influences 250-400 words – an analysis of how visual/audio elements of other professionally produced films or screenplays, including short films, influenced your  storyboard or screenplay.

3        creating meaning and effect 250-400 words  – an evaluative analysis of how your script or storyboard creates meanings and generates responses for the spectator in relation to other professionally produced films or screenplays, including at least one of the short films studied.

PRODUCTION TASKS 2021

 2021 : Production work  :  due March 30

Learners are required to submit the following tasks :

 

  a screenplay for a short film of at least  800  words which includes one of the following:

·         a narrative twist

·         a narrative which begins with an enigma

·         a narrative which establishes and develops a single character

·         a narrative which portrays a conflict between two central characters.


Screenplay should closely  follow the standard screenplay format( look at examples ) and should be written in the present tense. 

It can be very descriptive in terms of mise-en-scene and action 
 The screenplay can also describe all elements of film form such sound elements in detail and  use of camera.

  
Consider issues like dialogue revealing plot and character, narrative structure and narrative tension in your screnplay as well as careful use of all elements of film form you have learnt from other films and screenplays.

Or 

a storyboard  covering  either the whole narrative or  a key section from the screenplay

 (   12-18 storyboard shots).    

The storyboard can be either handrawn or  use images  or a combination of both and should be accurate and relevant in terms of framing, shot type, type of setting  and lighting as well as any instructions and content about film form . 

You should  list the shot type, any camera movement or transitions and sound elements such as music, sound effects, dialogue or voiceover.

You can also  hand in other visual content such as mood boards and other images and annotations and notes  

templates available here

and 


  An evaluative analysis

Learners should  also  complete an evaluative analysis of their production of between 750 and 1200 words and make reference to some of the short films selected for study from the compilation set by WJEC. The evaluative analysis will include:

·         narrative structure of the short film 250-400  words – an analysis of how the narrative features and dramatic qualities some of the short films studied are constructed, including through dialogue, highlighting key ideas which informed learners' own production

·         cinematic influences 250-400 words – an analysis of how visual/audio elements of other professionally produced films or screenplays, including short films, influenced their short film or screenplay.

·         creating meaning and effect 250-400 words  – an evaluative analysis of how their production creates meanings and generates responses for the spectator in relation to other professionally produced films or screenplays, including at least one of the short films studied.

SCREENPLAY AND STORYBOARD HELP

 

EDUQAS marked example ( completed screenplay plus complete  storyboard and evaluative analysis) BAND 5/4

SCREENPLAY HELP 

EDUQAS Information about screenplay format plus example from Juno to complete



50 screenplays in various genres

Download or read examples to help with planning content and for the evaluative analysis






STORYBOARD TEMPLATE  YOU CAN  USE THIS TEMPLATE OR ANOTHER METHOD , BUT IT SHOULD COVER ELEMENTS OF FILM FORM , USE OF CAMERA AND SOUND IN DETAIL

Experimental Film : exam question

STARTER QUIZ 

 

EXAM QUESTION : TO WHAT EXTENT AND IN WHAT WAYS CAN YOUR CHOSEN FILM BE DESCRIBED AS AN EXPERIMENTAL FILM   ( 20 marks )

Consider the following questions  and  techniques and include at least some of the following content .

You should be discussing  how and why the film uses some experimental or postmodern techniques and 

decide in a personal response how "experimental" the film actually is. 

 

EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES

Is Pulp Fiction an experimental film ?  

Is it non-narrative cinema ( like some purely experimental films ) or does it feature narratives and more traditional cinematic storytelling ?

 Does the film contain any experiments or subversions of the rules of film form, narrative structure or  enigmas ?  Did any previous films or film  movements inspire these ? e.g  French New Wave . or postmodernism ?

POSTMODERNIST TECHNIQUES

Is it a postmodernist film ? Which postmodernist techniques does it use ?

What do these techniques add in terms of content or meaning ?

 

Intertextuality : For example, intertextuality.  Pulp Fiction has a huge variety of explicit and more subtle intertextual references. Does it make the film more realistic or change the meaning of the text in any way ? What doe these references add ?

Does it have a classic postmodern dark and ironic mood , with a casual attitude to violence ? Does the film have a single and clear meaning and resolution or a more ambiguous and fractured resolution ?

Eclecticism : Does the film have a range of influences from both high  culture ( e.g literature, European art film ) and low culture ( e.g comic books, American TV , action films ) ?

Are any whole scenes or stories complete pastiches or parodies of other films or genres or does Tarantino just use  intertextual references and occasionally steal plot ideas  ?  For example

Reflexivity : Does the film ( or any scenes ) draw attention to itself as a media text in a self-concsious way  e.g breaking the fourth wall ? I couldn't think of anything apart from some of the more extreme uses of framing and camera movement that feel "self-concsious"

Is Tarantino's Jack Rabbit Slims an example of  bricologe ( a collage of intertextual references to other films and actors or even a  a comment on hyperreality , where the media is more real to use than reality?)

GENRE

Does the film just follow or does it play with or subvert any audience expectations or conventions of the crime genre ?

Consider ideas of stereotypical or familiar characters in crime movies, familiar stories and iconography  narrative structure and resolutions in crime movies  and how enigmas are usually resolved in the crime genre

FURTHER HELP

exemplar answer  : not same question and a bit brief but good points about cinematography, postmodernism and French New Wave

excellent examplar on how experimental the narrative is

A reddit discussion

video on some more "intertextual references" Tarantino makes in his films and general discussion of postmodernist originality

Opening scenes

Let's get into character : talking at work

Jack Rabbit Slims : 

 a place made of intertextual references

Ending ( ?)

POSTMODERNISM FILM AND TV

 Postmodernism and Film/TV

‘Ultimately post modernism is a vague term. However in its eclecticism lies its power to be none or anti-essentialist. It neither has nor provides a fixed meaning, in its pluralism lies its ability to be read either positively or negatively’ 
Susan Haywood, 

Cinema Studies the key concepts, 2013


Generally postmodernist can be not as extreme in their experimental use of film form or narrative as other types of experimental film  and generally date from 1990s onwards as that was when the term became widely used and applied.

They may be of standard length  and may be released and consumed within the mainstream of  rather than linked to visual art movements or philosophical movements. They may bend the rules of narrative and film form conventions within a fairly traditional structure or feature more consistent use of cause and effect or mise-en-scene while using one or more of the central elements of postmodernist techniques listed previously.

TASK :  Select three films/TV programmes you feel are postmodernist and explain why they are, focusing on the postmodernist techniques and features they contain. ( reflexivity,intertextuality, eclectism, use of parody/pastiche,experiments in film form and narrative, focus on subjective experience rather than objective reality ,dark and cynical tone etc) 

EXAMPLES

Deadpool  ( reflexive voiceover, dark ironic tone )

Adaptation   reflexive narrative and reflexive and ironic use of voiceover

Dogville   artificial mise-en-ecene

Donnie Darko  fractured and cyclical narrative

Memento   fractured and reversed narrative 

Grand Budapest Hotel       deliberately artificial mise-en-scene

also many intertextual references and pastiches

     

                                               Reservoir Dogs   intertextual references , parody/pastiche of other films/genres, dark ironic tone, mixed low/high cultural references , 

Far From Heaven    extended parody/pastiche of 1940s melodrama


Mulholland Drive / Lost Highway  ( David Lynch ) fractured unresolved narratives

The Simpsons   use of  intertextuality and pastiche/parody, breaking 4th wall = reflexive

Rick and Morty   intertextuality, dark ironic tone, pastiche and parody, reflexive

POSTMODERNISM 1

The specific type of "experimental film " we will be specifically be applying to Tarantino and Pulp Fiction is the postmodern film.

We will be looking at the director , QuentinTarantino, as being a typically postmodern filmmaker and Pulp Fiction as being a postmodern work and debate how it uses some or any of the experimental techniques we have looked at  previously , and those techniques that form postmodernism.....

What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a literary, philosophical and visual concept which makes new assumptions about culture, identity and language. It is concerned with the uncertainty of contemporary life. It suggests that in a world driven by consumerism originality no longer exists, it rejects the ideologies of modernism and is typified by a sense of cynicism and irony.

  Postmodernism is anti-theory : it opposes all of the traditional structural theories and claims that the nature of modern life is so complex and fragmented that no theory can address all of these elements. Culture and identity are either self-constructs or defined by a new and ever changing set of relationships.

SOME THEORY....

 Jean Francois Lyotard in The Postmodern Condition (1979) argues that modern society has rejected ‘metanarratives’ (liberalism, Marxism, religion etc.) that we no longer believe in universalistic stories and overarching totalizing thought, rejecting not only theory but the cultural values of modernism.

Jean Baudrillard ,another influential postmodern thinker, proposed the notion of the simulacrum the replacement of reality with a mediated reality. He argues that we are no longer able to distinguish what is real and what is a representation and it is through culture and the media that this new reality is reproduced.

According to Hayward Post Modernism in general  is ill defined which is possibly its strength and it can be seen not as a theory but as a historical period (late 60-90’s) where assumptions around traditional conventions are questioned therefore reflecting a sense of ‘anything goes’. It calls into question the notion of progress, science, high and low culture and of western intellectual supremacy and because it questions modernism it also questions traditional accepted systems of knowledge and therefore opens up debates around, gender, race and cultural identity.

While there isn’t a definitive agreement on what constitutes postmodernism we can for the purposes of this unit identify some  central elements

1. Reflexivity : where a media or film text draws attention to itself as a constructed  media text , for instance through breaking the fourth wall

2. Eclecticism; A wide range of influences, contributions and techniques,including both high and low culture.

3. Intertextuality; An author’s reference to ,borrowing and transformation of another media
   text

4. Pastiche/ Parody; A humorous or satirical imitation of a media text . It can be an extended to a scene,episode or a whole film where not only the setting abd genre but key elements of film form and production is meant to be a pastiche or parody

5. Bricolage; A technique where works are constructed from various materials available :Meaning in media and film works come from how these elements are combined and mixed rather than any new element.

6. Hyperreality : As described by Baudrillard, the idea that we are all living in a "virtual" mediated world with little or no direct "real" experiences.  It can also refer to  the artificial constructed world of images we see in films which are not the same as the real world. Some postmodernist films also have narratives which refer to hyperrealities ( e.g The Matrix ) within the artificial world of  the film. 

PLUS

7. Acts against modernism; Postmodernism embodies scepticism towards the ideas and ideals of the modern era, especially the ideas of progress, objectivity, reason, certainty, personal identity and grand narrative. 

 Examples in your films of subversions, ambiguity and  experimentation in narrative structure/ resolution, genre convention, audience expectation, the elements of film form and other experimental techniques can be described as acts against modernism in film.


MORE HERE .




 These elements may be shown in films by some of the following techniques :


The disruption/subversion of linear or clear narrative structure and resolution, subjective use of sound, unrealistic or artificial dialogue, extended pastiche , a wide range of high/low  explicit cultural influences,  breaking of the fourth wall,  inconsistent or artificial  mise-en-scene, ambiguous or unclear character motivation, missing elements and ellipses in narrative,  and anything else that causes  the disruption of the rules of cause and effect or the world of the film  that most audiences depend on to create meaning. 

Films described as postmodernist may also be ironic, dark  or cynical in tone and deal with issues such as the breakdown or subversion of objective reality , the questioning of religion and morality and the nature of creativity and subjective experience. 

EXPERIMENTAL FILM : Introduction to techniques

What is experimental film ?  

Subverting /stretching/ breaking/  conventions of narrative, genre and film form elements  such as invisible editing, single-image, reliable narration,  linear time , narrative cause and effect , realistic or consistent mis-en-scene, clear character motivation ,  consistency of genre or setting, one-way relationship with audience and no breaking of  "fourth wall" and many others....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_film

eg the mise-en-scene can be deliberately unrealistic, such as in Dogville

e.g  there is no clear narrative cause and effect , and linear time does not seem to exist , such as in Meshes of the Afternoon 

Video intro to experimental film  here

MOCK FILM EXAM QUESTION PAPER 2B Silent film movements

 Discuss how far your chosen film or films reflect cultural contexts associated with a particular film movement ( 20 marks )

Submit via the moodle link by  Sunday January 24  at the latest

email David with any technical problems

Silent film written response

 Next week you will be writing an exam-style written response to Buster Keaton's 4 silent films and their use of film form and wider cultural contexts

In preparation  make sure you have analysed some of these contexts and can support them with specific examples from the short films.

Here is a  blog summary of the cultural contexts you can refer to

Possible questions :

Discuss how far your chosen film or films reflect cultural contexts associated with a particular film movement

BAND 5 EXEMPLAR RESPONSE

Discuss how far your chosen film or films reflect aesthetic qualities associated with a particular film movement

Explore how your film option might be considered as either a realist or expressionist kind of cinema. Make reference to a particular sequence in your answer

TRY TO INCLUDE ANALYSIS OF  AT LEAST TWO OF THE SHORT FILMS IN YOUR ANSWER , UNLESS YOU ARE ASKED TO FOCUS ON A SINGLE KEY SEQUENCE.

FILM MOVEMENT  = SILENT COMEDY 


CHOSEN FILMS =  4 short films by Buster Keaton  You should make reference to at least two of the films if it is this type of question


CULTURAL CONTEXTS =   can include the history and conventions of the film movement iteself ( i.e silent comedy , social and historical factors, the influence of vaudeville, the influence of art and cultural movements e.g surrealism, modernism. DON"T FEEL YOU HAVE TO COVER EVERYTHING


PARTICULAR SEQUENCE = an extended scene ( ideally in one location ) This can be up to 10 minutes approximately so may be half of  the short film . You should briefly make it clear where the scene fits in the film's narrative


e.g     One week :   building a house sequence, destroying a house sequence etc.

       The Scarecrow  :  the multipurpose room sequence, the dog chase sequence, etc.

                 Cops : police chase sequence

         The High Sign  :  shooting gallery sequence ,  assassination/ action chase sequence

FILM FORM ANALYSIS : ' One Week' 'The Scarecrow' 1920 ' The High Sign' 1921 'Cops' 1922

            One week

                                                             The Scarecrow

The High Sign

Cops

Analyse how all four short films 

demonstrate how Keaton uses film form , including how he follows or subverts conventions of silent comedy. You should focus on the following

Cinematography 

Use and purpose of framing and camera shots such as closeups, mid shots and long shots

Use of and purpose of lighting

Any shots which break the fourth wall  or cartoon gags

Editing

How often Keaton uses cuts or other transitions and why

Any other devices that give  the films narrative structure e.g title cards

Mise -en-scene

How the settings , props ( including animals)  and costume are used in the narrative and any stunts or routines

Performance

Use of body language , facial expression and how size of  actors are used within the frame , such as for contrast.

Keaton's use of his various star personae ( romantic suitor ,everyman or outsider clown)

Contexts and representations

Any links to how Keaton comments on social norms such as marriage  and gender stereotypes, how men and women are represented , links to any cultural or art  movements , representation of police and family.

  

PAPER 2C SILENT FILM MOVEMENTS Silent Comedy

Summarise the main conventions and use  of film form   and key figures of the silent comedy film movement , plus key information such as a timeline of silent film which mentions at least two other movements such as German expressionism . This post on the Silent Cinema blog page may help.

  We will be looking at the key texts  (4 of Buster Keaton's  short films) and his use of star persona next. 

PAPER 2A Pan's LABYRINTH/CITY OF GOD Aesthetics question

 

DISCUSS HOW AESTHETICS ARE USED TO COMMUNICATE THEMES IN YOUR TWO CHOSEN FILMS

MAKE DETAILED REFERENCES TO PARTICULAR SEQUENCES

PAPER 2A exam question

 Analyse how two of the elements of film form ( e.g cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, sound or performance) are used to create meaning in City of  God and Pan's Labyrinth

Focus on a key scene from each film and make reference to other  scenes  to support your points

PAN'S LABYRINTH : analysis

Analyse how film form is used to create meaning for the audience ( plot, character development , themes of the film etc. ) in the opening and closing scenes of Pan's Labyrinth.  You should cover all of the following elements:

Cinematography ( use of camera movement , angles and framing ,  lighting )

Editing ( use and amount of transitions ,narrative structure , postproduction effects )

Mise-en-scene ( including setting , iconography etc.) 

Sound ( voiceover , music , sound effects , dialogue )

Performance ( body language , posture , expression , casting )

The scenes are available on the Pan's Labyrinth page