Day one exercise for Story and Audience

The past two weeks, I've been doing the Story and Audience module.

First up, the teacher has been taking us through some steps in putting

together a story for a film.

Our first homework was to distill a movie plot into three sentences.

This is useful for 'pitching' a script, and it also helps focus the writer

on what important themes they want to express.

The 'three act' model is pretty universal in western films.

The film I'm examining is Love Serenade.

*Distilled into three sentences...*

Dimity, a young woman bored with rural town life, finds her curiosity

sparked by 'big city escapee' DJ Ken Sherry who has moved in next door.

Unfortunately her sister has also become desperately intent on capturing the

attentions of the smooth talking neighbour.

Competition between the two women escalates until Dimity is usurped in Kens

bed, and she realises that her sister is more important to her then this

aging playboy, so she removes his presence in their lives permanently.

*The emotional journey of Dimity (main character.)*

Words I would use...

Curiosity, desire, fascination, betrayal, retaliation.

Words from yesterdays chart...

Joy, grief, anger.

Last week I was watching...

*Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me*

*Ultraviolet*

British vampire show and pretty good.

*The Year my Voice Broke*

As good as I remember it. Great Ozzie 'coming of age' film.

*Tampopo*

Brilliant Japanese flick bout food.

*Fargo, City of Lost Children, and Love Serenade*

For school

*Punch Drunk Love*

Brilliant!

Was directed to this by our Audio teacher Mark, for it's interesting sound

track.

Saw Monsters Vs Aliens last week.

What a load of crap!

Never again Dreamworks, NEVER AGAIN!.

Latest Time-lapse video

Finally started to rain up in Gloucester NSW.

I was there over Easter and took some time lapse of the early morning mist rising up off the hills.
Also got a sun set and a couple of horses managed to walk into frame.

Gloucester farm time-lapse

Emotional noise

Traffic is royally screwing this city . Can't wait for the weather to cool down so i can walk to school

Sooooo nice to be doing something a bit more technical for the last couple of weeks. Less digging around in my emotional physique.
I'm stoked to be finally doing Audio as my video work up till now has been lacking without it.
That said, I'm also happy I wasn't in the first group to do Emotional Noise as some of the equipment they were supposed to use hadn't arrived at the school.

Started the week with our new teacher comparing the soundtrack of the original King Kong with the Pete Jackson remake.
then had a look at the opening sequence of Punch Drunk Love
I have to see this movie. It looks (heh,) sounds amazing.

2nd day
We all spent a day being taught how to use ProTools which is software for editing audio
Was a bit boring, but vital as most of us knew nothing about audio editing software.

The school is discovering that you can't get people to do basic audio/visual work without those students having some sort of familiarity with the software used to create these things.
AFTRS quickly organized Photoshop classes a few weeks back, when it became apparent that most students doing Image (refer to my previous post) didn't have the 'skills' to do basic photo editing with the software.
We're the first audio class to have a day devoted to Protools so that we will be equipped in some sort of basic fashion, to manipulate the audio that we will be capturing tomorrow.

3rd day
We get our hands on audio recording equipment. It's been six weeks and finally I can ‘check out’ and use the capturing devices such as microphones. Feel sorry for the poor buggers who have to wait nine weeks just to earn the right to use the mikes.
it’s no wonder most of the kids can't post their work on the net cause their using copyrighted audio.

We spent the morning learning how to use the little solid state audio recorders, then split into pairs, and spent the afternoon schlepping around the city recording sounds.
My partner and I ended up out at Bondi beach where we discovered that wind noise was a major problem with the onshore breeze that was sweeping up the beach.
We retreated to the suburban streets back off the main strip.

What is the deal with Sony???
Only one of the kits has decent headphones in it???
This is as bad as only having ten wide angle adapters for the thirty cameras available to the Foundation students.
Why can't Sony get their shit together?
It's not like any of this equipment is even Pro-sumer.

Forth day
was all about voice.
We did some interesting exercises where we all sat in a circle and played with our voices (chanting and such like.)

We're pretty lucky in foundation in that we get to be taught by professionals in all sorts of creative fields
We even get to be addressed by non-creative such as box office marketing.
The school is attempting to build artists that are 'cross discipline.'
People that can shoot, and edit, and lay down audio, and write, and what ever.
At worst, we are supposed to be able to communicate intelligently with a wide verity of specialists.

Second week
Learnt about temp tracks
Since the music is usually the last thing to be added to a flick. These music tracks are used as placeholders until bespoke music can be composed.

Tom Ellard who used to be an 'out there' electronic artist is now teaching.
We spent the morning discussing memes and V-jaying.

He made a comment about how pirating was killing the music industry.
Record companies are dieing, but this industry is a distribution industry, not a creative one.
In my opinion, Artists will still be exercising their creativity, but getting that art to the audience will change.
He talked of ‘paying ones dues’ in the old days. Artists still need to ‘pay your dues’ online. What makes people think that posting ones work on the net leads to instant fame and fortune?
A relationship still needs to be built with ones audience.

Online distribution is still too novel a concept to make any decisions over. What I do know is that there are a whole lot o Marketroids, A&R turkeys, and middle management that will be looking for new jobs soon.

cut up the samples that we collected last week and built soundscapes.
This is mine…

Emo soundscape exercise

Sweet Easter deal!

I couldn't help myself!

 

Six chocolate hot cross buns and a free loaf from Brumby's bread shop.
hummmmmm chocolate.
hummmmmm 12 grain fried bread.

Monday 16th March

Last Thursday we were given a fragment of a script to learn.
A dialog between two people.
We had to first dissect the fragment using the white board technique.

So what’s this script analysis about?

One gets hold of a whiteboard (is this mandatory? I wasn’t prepared to challenge the teacher on it.)

Then one divides the surface into four sections…

•    Facts
•    Questions (get three answers to questions)
•    Mysterious lines (lines that pique interest)
•    Images and associations

Now we examine each scene in the script and rigorously apply these four criteria to the text.
This helps the Director (or other production staff such as cinematographer) open their mind to possibilities.

We are presenting the fragment of script to the class on Monday, so I’m spending my weekends committing words to memory again.
As before, I’m typing this stuff out to help ‘seat’ it in my head.
Oh Joy!

Once again, feel free to skip it…

Say Goodnight Gracie

What next?

Steve surprises him

Excuse me, do you know what time it is?

Jerry. Holy shit!

Steve. Wait. Before you say anything. I’ve got something wonderful to tell you!

Jerry. What are you doing in my apartment?! You trying to give me a heart attack or something?!

Steve. Oh it’s ok, Ginny let me in. She went to pick up her dress at the cleaners. How’d the audition go?

Jerry. What are you doing in my apartment, Steve?!

Steve. Your weren’t right for the part, were you?

Jerry. Never mind!

Steve. Jerry, it doesn’t matter! Wait till you hear what

Jerry. Not now! Please

Steve. Oh boy! Just wait till you hear what I’ve got to tell you! Come
on: ask me what it is. I haven’t told anybody yet- Benny’ll be right
back, bobby’ll be here, we’ll be leaving for the reunion- come on!

Jerry. Where’s the Chunky Turkey soup?

Steve. Soup? Soup? Who cares about soup?

Jerry. Where’s the chunky Turkey soup?

Steve. I ate it! It was delicious! I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Jerry. You ate the chunky Turkey soup?

Steve. Yes! I was all alone, I was excited and hungry and I wanted to
celebrate and here was this little can crying out: Take me, open me,
eat me, I’m yours!

Jerry. In my cabinet, Steve, in my kitchen, in my apartment, there are the following items-

Steve. And do you know why I was so excited???

Jerry. 3 canes of chunky beef soup, 3 cans of chunky vegetable soup, 3
cans of chunky split pea and ham soup, and 7 family size cans of
Franco-American spaghettios. Are you listening?

 Steve. What are you doing?. Rehearsing a monologue!

Jerry. Early this morning, as I was about to leave my apartment, I
paused for a moment in my kitchen and looked in my  cabinet, and I made
certain that hidden away behind all those other items, there was still
one remaining can of chunky Turkey soup. Why did I do this?

Steve. 10..9..8..

Jerry. I did this because Chunky Turkey soup as you know, for some
mysterious reason, has become almost impossible to locate in this part
of the city and because I like it very much. In fact, I love it! Why do
I love it? I don’t know. I can’t honestly tell you why I love chunky
turkey soup. All I know is-

Steve. Hey, thanks so much for coming. We would have preferred hearing
something from Shakespeare, but this gives us a damn fine idea of your
talents, and believe me, if a part should turn up…

Jerry. All I know is: I love it! It is dependable. It is there. It is
the last thing I can be certain of in a world filled with uncertainty.
And in any case, I don’t believe that an emotion such as love has to be
explained. Don’t you agree?

Steve. Are you al right?

Jerry. Do you agree?

Steve. My Bad, it was only a can of soup!

Jerry. it was only a can of soup. Was that what you said?

Steve. Yes.

Jerry. Guess what word you left out?

Steve. I have no idea.

Jerry. Guess

Steve. I don’t know!

Jerry. Take a guess!

Steve. But I don’t know!

Jerry. What’s the word?

Steve. Hmmmmn, It wouldn’t be swordfish’ would it?

Jerry. Myz2 the word is ‘my.’ My my my my my! It was only my fucking can of soup!

Steve. You are very angry.

So today we’re all presenting our scenes as an actors rehearsal.
Which means I have to act.
Oh Joy!

This was another long day as not only did everyone perform their piece, but
we got to apply various tones, objectives, and actions to the text.
My turn was pretty much a multi-lane car crash.
I was so reliant on my partner feeding the correct lines for me to reply to, that when they didn’t, my brain froze.

Tried to work my way through it, but the second time through was almost
impossible, what with my partner acting like a crack fiend and feeding
me even less cues from the text.
I had a pot that I had taken in as a prop, and I was left at the end of the ordeal wanting to cave his head in with it.

Can’t blame my partner much though. Hell! we’re both inexperienced with this acting gig.

Doesn’t matter if they learnt the lines or not, cause when stage fright hits,
all the prep in the world an’t worth a ‘bucket o beans.’
Besides, it’s only an exercise. Learn from it and move on is the attitude I’m taking.
Despite any personal discomfort, everything we’ve been doing in this class is damn useful stuff.