(Please note that the last two days are a joint blog because I decided to focus on writing a short script over two days at BUStation).
So for the past two days I have been writing a very short script with Jessica Davies and some editing help from Becky Keegan.
The Fifth Day.
After spending four days working on LunchBox Live I decided it was time to focus back into the world of script writing; it has been a while since I have done so what with my coursework focusing on a Bible which involves characters and episodes outline.
Again I decided to work with Jessica and we spent a while deciding what we actually wanted to write about and what would be achievable. We had to think about budget, the length and genre (particularly if we wanted to get TV Production or anyone else to produce it). In the end we decided to have a go at writing our own advert for an imaginary website that does online dating.
We wanted something cute but obviously straight to the point. We decided to focus on the idea of an umbrella. An umbrella, we feel, symbolises 'love'; it shelters you from the rain (hard times) and is also a great sharing device. True it has been used many times and seems a bit clique but we were having fun :)
We discussed what location would suit best and thought about a cafe; however we decided against it as it might be hard to film inside a coffee shop (especially this time of year where it is cold and everyone wants a hot drink- very busy not to mention way out in town!) In the end we decided to be a bit different and have it set in a supermarket; so the basic scenario it starts to rain and both the protagonists end up in the supermarket wanting to buy an umbrella.
Then we needed some kind of conflict that resulted in them noticing each other. We came up with the idea very quickly and decided to have only one umbrella left! Both at the same time their hands would touch and their eyes would meet... happy ending right? Well not quite.
We thought if the characters suddenly ran into each and fell in love there and then it might feel a bit patronising to some viewers or too quick. We wanted to love to take a bit of time and not 'instant'. That is not how the real world works... (not in my eyes anyway).
So we decided to have the male protagonists offer the last umbrella to her in which she takes and wanders off leaving the poor guy alone still dripping from the rain.
But as he is leaving the store- the rain about to worsen his day he suddenly can't feel the rain drops. Its the girl and she is sheltering him from the rain.
So after quickly jotting down the main idea and our characters we quickly wrote the script out in a rough draft; the end result was clunky and full of mistakes but we were happy with our main story. Tomorrow we would edit.
Sixth (and final) Day.
Me and Jessica were ready to complete and finalise our script. We took out time and decided to focus on simple quick sentences: with an advert you have to deliver the audience the message precisely and quickly.
We spent the rest of the day working on the script and slowly but surely we came to a happy finalised script. Thanks to Becky Keegan in that day she helped us edit the script, even adding a tagline to make it feel professional.
So I present to you 'The Tale of One Umbrella' written by Emma Aldom and Jessica Davies. Hope you enjoy!
THE TALE OF ONE UMBRELLA
EXT. STREET (GREEN SCREEN)- DAY.
A woman, Maria, in her twenties sits on a bench. She has long brown hair, ruffled, unkept but pretty.
She looks downcast, much like the weather with its dark clouds surrounding her.
A couple walks by, hand in hand, in love. She stares at them sadly, looks to the empty space by her.
EXT. STREET 2 (GREEN SCREEN)- DAY.
A man, Tommy, in his twenties leans against a lamppost.
He takes his mobile phone and punches in a number.
FEMALE VOICE
You have no new messages.
He sighs before hanging up. A single drop of rain splashes against the screen.
He looks up, the clouds rumble with thunder.
EXT. STREET (GREEN SCREEN)- DAY.
Trickles turn into a downpour.
Maria runs through the street trying to shelter herself with her flower bag.
INT. STORE - DAY.
She runs into the store, breathless and hair dripping.
She pushes her way through the crowd, tripping several times as she does.
She reaches the aisle under the sign headed 'accessories'.
And there a single bright red umbrella. sits in the basket.
Her hand stretches our, her face full of relief. Then a hairy hand snatches the umbrella.
She leers into the face; her anger quickly melting to
Its Tommy; his ocean blue eyes gaze bcd into her chestnut brown.
TOMMY
I'm sorry was this yours?
MARIA
Yea thanks.
She walks off towards the checkouts; leaving him standing there disappointed by her lack of interest.
EXT. OUTSIDE STORE - DAY.
Tommy stands outside, shivering from the cold and the rain.
Suddenly the rain stopping dropping on his head.
He looks up and a bright red umbrella shelters him.
The owner of this umbrella? Maria. She catches his eye and smiles.
He smiles back.
'IT'S THE LITTLE GESTURES THAT MAKES THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE.'
'SHARE YOUR LOVE TODAY AT together.com WHY NOT?'
So I hoped you enjoyed reading it! Anyway what have I thought about the whole BUStation experience?
Personally it has been quite enjoyable and great to explore and expand my knowledge on the different parts of the media world. Although I do feel that six separate days are not helpful in retaining new skills and knowledge; after all I am a student and I am learning new and different things every day! I think it should be either a week or two collaborative project as we did at the end of Level C: so the scriptwriters could write a short script for any genre; whether that is advertising, horror or what ever and have it produced into a game or a short clip. I think this would have been much beneficial. Or even have one week of that and one week of learning a new skill such as visual director, sound mixer, presenting or what ever the person wants to learn.
Anyway that is all from me on BUStation.
Later! :)
Sunday, 25 March 2012
The Fourth Day.
Hello and welcome to the return of my blog for the BUStation of the second term.
So today's BUStation has been a successful and productive day. Before coming in I decided to give my other written blogs a quick glance to see if I had decided to focus or apply myself to a certain area. Which has turned out true; focus on more scripts!
And today that is exactly what I did. Fortunately I was paired up with Jessica (my friend from my course) and we were assigned to write a presenter's script (focusing on the news in the local Bournemouth area). The person in charge came up to us and gave us three news article to covert into a script for the presenter. However when we looked at the articles we found them rather boring to read and could not find the motivation to write them as a script. (True that is biased and very subjective but I have learnt from past experiences you write better at what you enjoy.) We spoke to Trevor and asked whether we could look at other articles and he said that was fine.
So we decided to focus on a mixture: a happy story which involved two rabbits rescued after being dumped in a bin, a horror story involving a stabbing (which worried us a little) and something a little political in order to keep the audience happy and interested. After spending half the morning researching news and picking out the most essential bits of information (because in news you have to be precise and to the point - like any normal scrip then), we decided to have a go at writing the weather and sea reports for the following weekend. This was new to me and I have never actually thought about writing scripts for the weather: it was interesting to rediscover information I had been taught during secondary school in geography. Plus everyone wants to know what the weather is like so we felt it was an important part of the LunchBox Live. In fact I felt very pleased with the overall script.
The time finally came to put the show on air and I felt happy and content with the work I had done. But it wasn't over yet. I was asked to be a camera operator which I wasn't too keen on doing because it had been a while since I had done it previously. However after a quick recap I was soon back on form.
Overall I felt that this day was very productive and enjoyed it very much.
(Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the script! Sorry guys!)
So today's BUStation has been a successful and productive day. Before coming in I decided to give my other written blogs a quick glance to see if I had decided to focus or apply myself to a certain area. Which has turned out true; focus on more scripts!
And today that is exactly what I did. Fortunately I was paired up with Jessica (my friend from my course) and we were assigned to write a presenter's script (focusing on the news in the local Bournemouth area). The person in charge came up to us and gave us three news article to covert into a script for the presenter. However when we looked at the articles we found them rather boring to read and could not find the motivation to write them as a script. (True that is biased and very subjective but I have learnt from past experiences you write better at what you enjoy.) We spoke to Trevor and asked whether we could look at other articles and he said that was fine.
So we decided to focus on a mixture: a happy story which involved two rabbits rescued after being dumped in a bin, a horror story involving a stabbing (which worried us a little) and something a little political in order to keep the audience happy and interested. After spending half the morning researching news and picking out the most essential bits of information (because in news you have to be precise and to the point - like any normal scrip then), we decided to have a go at writing the weather and sea reports for the following weekend. This was new to me and I have never actually thought about writing scripts for the weather: it was interesting to rediscover information I had been taught during secondary school in geography. Plus everyone wants to know what the weather is like so we felt it was an important part of the LunchBox Live. In fact I felt very pleased with the overall script.
The time finally came to put the show on air and I felt happy and content with the work I had done. But it wasn't over yet. I was asked to be a camera operator which I wasn't too keen on doing because it had been a while since I had done it previously. However after a quick recap I was soon back on form.
Overall I felt that this day was very productive and enjoyed it very much.
(Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the script! Sorry guys!)
The Third Day.
Today, the 9th of December 2011, probably one of the most coldest days I've ever had to experience and endure but it was what I had hoped for - focusing on my writing skills (but directed at BUStation).
So today is the day after the Media Mosh. Unfortunately those who attended today did not actually go (including myself due to lack of finances). However I believe this only spurred us on to find out whether the event was a success or not (personally so I can determine whether to go in 2012 or not). So a small group went off to find any (surviving) students to see what they thought.
With that we decided to see if we could get someone who organised the event for a live interview. So whilst that was happening I decided to come up with question to ask them which involved: 'What were the reasons for bringing it back?' and 'Will you be carrying on the tradition?' However in spite of this we did not successfully have a participant/ interview. This was a rather annoying as I spent half my morning researching into the Media Mosh and calculating informative questions which would result an answers to inform the watching audience.
I also had a go at constructing a Presenter's script but, in the end, was not used by the Presenters who instead talked about TV Production on a whim. I felt rather embarrassed because it felt that we had not done any work this morning and the end result was rather a 'sorry excuse' for LunchBox Live. This was also due to because we were suppose to have a live interview with Jack Downes on his Documentary which focused on the scenes behind the Moscow Ballet Company ‘La Classique'. Oh dear. However this has only motivated me into creating more presenter's script for next term's BUStation.
It's taken a bit of time to understand BUStation and how it helps with my Scriptwriting course. However I do believe it is important to stretch out and learn different techniques and skills within the world of Media. I have learnt many skills but to be honest I will not advance on them. My focus is on writing and nothing else so for next term's BUStation days I will focus on scripts; whether that is presenting or for shorts.
See below for the original script to be used (until everything went a bit pear-shaped).
Good afternoon and welcome to LunchBox Live. My name is ................. and today we have a terrific line up for you.
As most of you know ‘The Media Mosh’ was held last night at the ‘Old Firestation’ and we’ve been asking students, who survived the night, about what they thought of the event.
We also have an exclusive interview with Jack Downes who went behind the scenes of the Moscow Ballet Company ‘La Classique’.
And to finish off we have a small interview regarding the ‘Surf Reef’ and what the locals think of it.
The ‘Media Mosh’ made its return last night after 5 years for all Bournemouth Media students. This morning we asked students, who managed to come into University, about their thoughts and opinions of the event.
CUE VT. (Get Jack microphone and ready to answer questions.)
So it looks like everyone had a fantastic night which will hopefully become a traditional celebration. It’s a great way to finish off the first term of Uni life and the start of the Christmas break we all deserve.
Now we have a special guest at LunchBox Live; Jack Downes. Good afternoon and thank you very much for coming in. We’ll be asking you a few questions but first lets take a look at your documentary.
*comment on documentary*
What inspired you to do a documentary on the Moscow Ballet?
What is your most memorable moment whilst filming?
Have you ever done ballet yourself?
Do you aspire to focus on documentaries or will you look at other genres?
From your documentary we can see there is a lot of work that goes into each performance; were you surprised by this?
Are you pleased with how your documentary has turned out?
Thank you very much for coming in Jack and good luck with your future projects.
We now have a quick glance into Boscombe’s ‘Surf Reef’ and the impact of the decision to close the actual reef for maintenance and repair work due to the reef’s structure and profile altering over the years.
VT (Remove microphone from Jack).
*comment on the VT*
That is all we have time for on LunchBox Live. Thank you for watching and from everyone on today’s team ‘Have a brilliant Christmas and New Year.’
So today is the day after the Media Mosh. Unfortunately those who attended today did not actually go (including myself due to lack of finances). However I believe this only spurred us on to find out whether the event was a success or not (personally so I can determine whether to go in 2012 or not). So a small group went off to find any (surviving) students to see what they thought.
With that we decided to see if we could get someone who organised the event for a live interview. So whilst that was happening I decided to come up with question to ask them which involved: 'What were the reasons for bringing it back?' and 'Will you be carrying on the tradition?' However in spite of this we did not successfully have a participant/ interview. This was a rather annoying as I spent half my morning researching into the Media Mosh and calculating informative questions which would result an answers to inform the watching audience.
I also had a go at constructing a Presenter's script but, in the end, was not used by the Presenters who instead talked about TV Production on a whim. I felt rather embarrassed because it felt that we had not done any work this morning and the end result was rather a 'sorry excuse' for LunchBox Live. This was also due to because we were suppose to have a live interview with Jack Downes on his Documentary which focused on the scenes behind the Moscow Ballet Company ‘La Classique'. Oh dear. However this has only motivated me into creating more presenter's script for next term's BUStation.
It's taken a bit of time to understand BUStation and how it helps with my Scriptwriting course. However I do believe it is important to stretch out and learn different techniques and skills within the world of Media. I have learnt many skills but to be honest I will not advance on them. My focus is on writing and nothing else so for next term's BUStation days I will focus on scripts; whether that is presenting or for shorts.
See below for the original script to be used (until everything went a bit pear-shaped).
Good afternoon and welcome to LunchBox Live. My name is ................. and today we have a terrific line up for you.
As most of you know ‘The Media Mosh’ was held last night at the ‘Old Firestation’ and we’ve been asking students, who survived the night, about what they thought of the event.
We also have an exclusive interview with Jack Downes who went behind the scenes of the Moscow Ballet Company ‘La Classique’.
And to finish off we have a small interview regarding the ‘Surf Reef’ and what the locals think of it.
The ‘Media Mosh’ made its return last night after 5 years for all Bournemouth Media students. This morning we asked students, who managed to come into University, about their thoughts and opinions of the event.
CUE VT. (Get Jack microphone and ready to answer questions.)
So it looks like everyone had a fantastic night which will hopefully become a traditional celebration. It’s a great way to finish off the first term of Uni life and the start of the Christmas break we all deserve.
Now we have a special guest at LunchBox Live; Jack Downes. Good afternoon and thank you very much for coming in. We’ll be asking you a few questions but first lets take a look at your documentary.
*comment on documentary*
What inspired you to do a documentary on the Moscow Ballet?
What is your most memorable moment whilst filming?
Have you ever done ballet yourself?
Do you aspire to focus on documentaries or will you look at other genres?
From your documentary we can see there is a lot of work that goes into each performance; were you surprised by this?
Are you pleased with how your documentary has turned out?
Thank you very much for coming in Jack and good luck with your future projects.
We now have a quick glance into Boscombe’s ‘Surf Reef’ and the impact of the decision to close the actual reef for maintenance and repair work due to the reef’s structure and profile altering over the years.
VT (Remove microphone from Jack).
*comment on the VT*
That is all we have time for on LunchBox Live. Thank you for watching and from everyone on today’s team ‘Have a brilliant Christmas and New Year.’
The Second Day.
Today, the 2nd of December 2011, was my second day at BUStation. I had been scheduled for the 25th of November to follow my first day but unfortunately was not very well. Anyway let us continue on with blogging the important stuff; what I did and how it went.
Today was to be far different from my first day; it seems I have chosen a good week to come in.
It is ‘One World Week’ which celebrates international and national diversity amongst students and we fortunately had people working in BUStation who ranged from not only different parts of Britain (Scotland, Wales etc) but also from different countries. One student from my class of scriptwriting for film and television, Petter Vielberg, was present and we decided as a group that we should interview him as part of the Lunchbox Live show in order to see how an international student felt about Bournemouth University. (He was also one of the presenters on the show). But my part in producing questions was very limited and I was left to other devices.
In fact my role as a writer was very limited and I found myself sat at the computer consistently logging into BUStation’s Twitter and Facebook accounts in which I updated status’s informing others what our show would entail. To be honest it wasn’t exciting and we had a large group in so there wasn’t a lot to do apart from that. Not the most exciting job in the world and definitely not the most productive. I was quite bored and decided there and then I would not end up in this role again.
However things were about to take an interesting turn; our show was to be shown at an earlier time and so I was asked if I would like to be a camera operator. My mind’s first reaction was ‘no chance’ but then after a couple of seconds thinking about it I decided to give it a shot. What was the worst that could happen?
Trevor was very helpful and guided me through how to operator the headphones and the microphone when and if I needed to talk to the Director to follow his instructions for camera shots and angles. Fairly simple and so far so good.
Next came actually being out on the studio floor with the camera; they are big and on first glance very confusing. However the other two camera operators understood that I was unfamiliar on how to use the camera; they showed me how to track vertically and horizontally with the wheel, how to zoom in and out and also how important it is to keep the camera firm and steady during the live show. I didn’t want to mess up so I held tight!
Anyway it was actually nice to be out in the studio where the actual interviews and presenting take place (especially having been sat down and at a computer all morning!) This meant I could focus on what was being said and learnt what the other students had done that morning.
Because of the strikes that had taken place the previous week they managed to bring Kate Jones (Vice President of Education for SUBU) and calculated questions which resulted in very informative answers; I personally learnt and have understood why teachers decided to go on strikes due to their pensions. But also felt a bit annoyed. This is our education and we are paying for it and at the end of the day if teachers go on strike then our education is being affected! There was even a mention that school field trips had been cancelled!
All in all a morning which did not start out very productive but, in the end, a very informative one. However I shall now make sure I do something more active for the third day (hopefully something to do with writing!)
Laterz :)
Today was to be far different from my first day; it seems I have chosen a good week to come in.
It is ‘One World Week’ which celebrates international and national diversity amongst students and we fortunately had people working in BUStation who ranged from not only different parts of Britain (Scotland, Wales etc) but also from different countries. One student from my class of scriptwriting for film and television, Petter Vielberg, was present and we decided as a group that we should interview him as part of the Lunchbox Live show in order to see how an international student felt about Bournemouth University. (He was also one of the presenters on the show). But my part in producing questions was very limited and I was left to other devices.
In fact my role as a writer was very limited and I found myself sat at the computer consistently logging into BUStation’s Twitter and Facebook accounts in which I updated status’s informing others what our show would entail. To be honest it wasn’t exciting and we had a large group in so there wasn’t a lot to do apart from that. Not the most exciting job in the world and definitely not the most productive. I was quite bored and decided there and then I would not end up in this role again.
However things were about to take an interesting turn; our show was to be shown at an earlier time and so I was asked if I would like to be a camera operator. My mind’s first reaction was ‘no chance’ but then after a couple of seconds thinking about it I decided to give it a shot. What was the worst that could happen?
Trevor was very helpful and guided me through how to operator the headphones and the microphone when and if I needed to talk to the Director to follow his instructions for camera shots and angles. Fairly simple and so far so good.
Next came actually being out on the studio floor with the camera; they are big and on first glance very confusing. However the other two camera operators understood that I was unfamiliar on how to use the camera; they showed me how to track vertically and horizontally with the wheel, how to zoom in and out and also how important it is to keep the camera firm and steady during the live show. I didn’t want to mess up so I held tight!
Anyway it was actually nice to be out in the studio where the actual interviews and presenting take place (especially having been sat down and at a computer all morning!) This meant I could focus on what was being said and learnt what the other students had done that morning.
Because of the strikes that had taken place the previous week they managed to bring Kate Jones (Vice President of Education for SUBU) and calculated questions which resulted in very informative answers; I personally learnt and have understood why teachers decided to go on strikes due to their pensions. But also felt a bit annoyed. This is our education and we are paying for it and at the end of the day if teachers go on strike then our education is being affected! There was even a mention that school field trips had been cancelled!
All in all a morning which did not start out very productive but, in the end, a very informative one. However I shall now make sure I do something more active for the third day (hopefully something to do with writing!)
Laterz :)
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