Production: Evaluation

Screenwriting

It has been argued that "the hardest thing about writing is knowing what to write" (Field, 2005:8). I decided at the beginning of this unit to carry on with my screenwriting idea from the previous pre-production unit because I wasn't sure what else to write. However, as I worked further on this script, I found that I had no idea what to write for drafts of that idea either. Getting writer's block in this way led to me aiming to gain more knowledge of screenwriting by reading books on the craft after coming up with a new story idea. I decided to do this because I began to feel like it was less of me not knowing what to write, than not being secure in the knowledge of how to write it. Writing on instinct can work, but just as often it doesn't (Egri, 1942:xviii). Whilst not knowing whether it will work or not is always true of writing, it has been suggested that it is possible to write "from the position of choice, confidence, and security that you know what you're doing" by turning this instinct into process, through learning screenwriting techniques which can be practiced and thus improved upon (Field, 2005:14).

Structure

Every film begins with an inciting incident, which acts to "set the story in motion" and gain the audience's attention - this incident can revolve around action or character, depending on the type of story being told (Field, 2005:131-3). What this inciting incident sets up in the first scene leads to what is known as "the key incident", which can be considered as the catalyst which moves the story into the second act, and towards its conclusion (Field, 2005:133). Due to this being the key incident's purpose, the key incident of a story should reveal to the audience, through visuals, what the premise of the story is, the central idea which the film is about (Field, 2005:136). For this reason, it has been argued that the whole story is "tethered" to what happens during the key incident (Field, 2005:138).

Learning about this allowed me to build on what I had learnt about structure from Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder in the pre-production unit, since Field's idea of structure can be seen to correspond to Snyder's.

Fig. 1 Field's idea of structure (2005)

For example, what Field considers as plot point I - this usually being what he calls "the key incident" - is considered by Snyder as the break into two (Snyder, 2005:79), and Field's plot point II is similar to, and occurs at the same point as, Snyder's break into three (Snyder, 2005:89). Field defines a plot point as "a function of the main character", which "moves the story forward...amps up the action and underscores the arc of the character" (Field, 2005:147).

Understanding this structure helped me when developing my screenplay. For example, the inciting incident which opens At The End of A Universe is Monica writing happily, which I wanted to establish in the opening scene so that this could lead to Monica's writer's block - which can be considered the key incident. This key incident shows the theme of the screenplay - love defies loneliness - since without her writing here Monica begins to become lonely, as her writer's block is really her giving in to her fear that if Vera leaves her, she will end up alone.

Theme

It has also been suggested that "everything has a purpose, or premise" - also known as a story's theme (Egri, 1942:1). A story should have one premise it will convey - since trying to convey more than one central idea in a story can become confusing and convoluted - but this premise should be clear and specific enough to show what kind of characters are needed to prove it, "the characters they must be to carry the premise to its logical conclusion" (Egri, 1942:11-4).

I initially based my screenplay on the theme of loneliness. However, loneliness is not a premise, since a premise gives a story a goal to aim for (Egri, 1942:6). Therefore, using an emotion like this as the base of a premise requires the writer to explore the different conclusions which a story can reach for in regard to this emotion (Egri, 1942:22). For this reason, I found that the theme of my screenplay could be 'love defies loneliness' since this implies that the story can reach for the point where the character has found love, which allows them to no longer be lonely.

I discovered this premise in my screenplay after reading about premise needing a goal. Despite this, a premise can be created in this way since it is possible to "develop a situation first and see that it has potentialities which need only the right premise to give them meaning and suggest an end" (Egri, 1942:22). However, I think that now I understand premise, it would be more useful to practice intentionally basing a story on a premise so that I don't do this on instinct.

To further my knowledge of screenwriting, I could look at books such as 'The Writer's Journey' and 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' to learn about how myth is connected to writing and stories. However, I think the most important thing I learnt about screenwriting during this unit was to let the material go where it wants to, since it doesn't always turn out like you think it will (Field, 2005:72).

Directing Actors

When working on my script analysis in preparation for the table read, I found it hard to break down the character's objectives. A character's objective has been considered as "what the character wants the other character to do" (Weston, 1996:98), therefore I found determining what this was difficult since during some of the scenes, Monica was the only character. I kept refining these as I worked on analysing the script since my understanding of the story developed, and my interpretation changed. This led to me re-analysing the dialogue scene of the script before the table read, as well as deciding to change Vera's objective to be to defeat Monica's writer's block, instead of to encourage Monica to finish the book.

Nonetheless, I found that working with the actors helped with understanding character objectives, since I found that how I described the character's objective affected how they played the scene. Therefore, I could adjust and refine these objectives to the performance in a way which most helped the actors, which, in turn, helped me to better understand the script and the characters.

Giving these objectives in terms of playable direction led to better performances, and thus I would like to learn more about playable direction, and practicing directing in this way more. To learn more about this, I could look at 'Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus' since this could help me learn more action verbs. Yet, having to adjust my direction to the actor's performances helped me to see that, like actors, it is also important for directors to let go of their preparation, and adapt to the moment by moment interaction of the scene (Miller, 2015). Hence, to make my directing approach more spontaneous I would like to get more experience directing actors, which I could do by either seeing if I could direct members of an amateur dramatics society or go on a course about directing actors.

Working on researching directing actors and the acting process this unit changed my view of directing completely. Although it is important for directors to know about aspects of directing such as framing, pre-visualization, and blocking, a director also needs to know the most effective way to direct the actors - which varies depending on each actor's work methods - especially since other crew members could help the director with other aspects of the shoot. It is the director's main responsibility to collaborate with the actors so that the performances can be the best possible, which is arguably one of the most important parts of the film.

Directing

However, as I haven't directed anything since during the transition unit over a year ago, I feel like there are some aspects of directing that I could improve on. For example, I often find ordering shot lists confusing, so spending more time doing this slowly could help, as well as seeing how shot lists work practically again. I would also like to practise staging a scene with actors and cameras since I have an idea of how to do this from previous projects but would like to see how this would work when considering the actors more given what I have learnt about directing actors. I could also improve my framing choices by learning more about principles of composition, such as aspect ratios and frame axes, as well as potentially different sized camera lenses, since "perceived distances and movement along each one of these axes can also be manipulated by the type of lens used, altering the visual relationship between subjects and the space around them" (Mercado, 2010:6) - (see fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Frame axes (2010)

I feel that working with the other crew members during lockdown has helped us to collaborate better, since, for example, our editor and I tried editing by her sending the takes to me, and then me giving her feedback on this, where we usually spend a lot of time sitting together and discussing choices as she edits. Continuing to let her edit takes and then showing them to me for feedback could help me become a more objective viewer during the editing process, which could help me give better feedback as I become less attached to the footage, as well as allow the editor to contribute more of her ideas, which could improve the film (Rabiger & Hurbis-Cherrier, 2013:428).

Thus, I learned - as Ron Howard did when collaborating with a storyboard artist on Angels & Demons (2009) - that I should use my own vision as a foundation and consider the ideas and interpretations of the cast and crew, with my own vision therefore being something to build on, but not necessarily to stick to (Rafferty, 2009).

Lockdown's Effect on Film & Television

Since we didn't get to film due to lockdown, we plan to make the film once restrictions begin to ease. Some guidelines for filming to manage the risks of the virus have already been released, and from these it can be seen that producers will be required to complete risk assessments in regard to the virus, as well as ensuring precautionary measures are being taken to keep everyone working as safe as possible (Pact, 2020). Producers must also "reduce the number of people involved" and "consider mental health and well-being" (Pact, 2020). Producers must consider areas such as travel, adhering to social distancing with this and keeping travel to a minimum, location by thinking about how big the space is, equipment used by ensuring that high touch areas (equipment, door handles etc.) are cleaned regularly, and having small groups of people working at a time by staggering working hours (Pact, 2020). However, to further ensure safety on sets, it is planned that crew members working in the UK film and TV industries will receive an hour's free online training, giving them "access to basic health and safety information to enable them to operate safely in the Covid-19 world" (Parfitt, 2020).

Although most filming is currently shut down due to lockdowns around the world, two productions are currently shooting - a science fiction series called Katla for Netflix in Iceland and a horror film adapted from a Stephen King short story in Australia (Sperling, 2020). To do this whilst ensuring that the cast and crew remain safe, the set of Katla uses a system of colour-coded armbands - yellow for those allowed near cameras, black for the actors, make-up and costume designers, red for producers and those who can watch from the monitor, with only those with a blue armband being allowed onto the whole set (Sperling, 2020). Each colour is only made up of a group of a maximum of twenty people (Sperling, 2020). Everyone working on the series is also tested for the virus each morning, and high touch areas are cleaned every hour, among other precautionary measures (Sperling, 2020). So far, production has been able to run uneventfully for a month (Sperling, 2020).

In Australia, producer Lucas Foster decided to film in a small town where the cast and crew could be completely isolated (Sperling, 2020). Additional safety measures included temperature checks, the cast and crew completing a "wellness questionnaire" twice daily, as well as cleaning surfaces and having a nurse, paramedic, and doctor on set (Sperling, 2020). Isolating in the small town cost the production a lot of money, but Foster believes that ""Every single thing that everybody in every department has to do" must be rethought" (Sperling, 2020). Thus, it can be seen from these examples, and from the efforts already being made in the UK, that by thinking creatively and paying very close attention to health and safety, it has been possible for the film and television industry to adapt and continue even during lockdown.

Continuing planning the film during lockdown gave me a chance to extend my knowledge and learn new skills through reading and research without the pressure of having to go into production by a certain date. Having this extra time means that the film is almost fully planned on paper, and now just needs to be filmed.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Field's idea of structure (2005) In: Field, S. (2005) Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. New York: Random House, Inc. p.143.

Figure 2. Frame axes (2010) In: Mercado, G. (2010) The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition. Oxon: Focal Press. p.6.

References

Egri, L. (1942) The Art of Dramatic Writing. New York: Touchstone.

Field, S. (2005) Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. New York: Random House, Inc.

Mercado, G. (2010) The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition. Oxon: Focal Press.

Miller, S. (2015) 'An Actor Prepares: 6 Performers Detail Their Processes.' In: American Theatre 16/12/15. At: https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/12/16/an-actor-prepares-6-performers-detail-their-processes/?_branch_match_id=681896033132986858 (Accessed on 26 May 2020).

Pact (2020) Pact and UK Broadcasters introduce new industry-wide guidance for producing TV safely. At: http://www.pact.co.uk/news-detail.html?id=pact-and-uk-broadcasters-introduce-new-industry-wide-guidance-for-producing-tv-safely (Accessed on 26 May 2020).

Parfitt, O. (2020) 'UK industry fast-tracks training to help film and TV production resume.' In: Screen Daily 22/5/20. At: https://www.screendaily.com/news/uk-industry-fast-tracks-training-to-help-film-and-tv-production-resume/5150056.article (Accessed on 26 May 2020).

Rabiger, M. & Hurbis-Cherrier, M. (2013) Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics. (5th ed.) Oxon: Focal Press.

Rafferty, T. (2009) 'The Professional' In: DGA Quarterly. At: https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0903-Fall-2009/DGA-Interview-Ron-Howard.aspx (Accessed on 26 May 2020).

Snyder, B. (2005) Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You'll Ever Need. California: Michael Wiese Productions.

Sperling, N. (2020) 'Two Projects Are Filming Again. Here's How They're Doing It.' In: The New York Times 15/5/20. At: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/movies/virus-filming-details.html (Accessed on 26 May 2020).

Weston, J. (1996) Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television. California: Michael Wiese Productions.