Unit 29: Music Video Production (Being a Director)

A director is the driving creative force in a film's production they visualising and define the style and structure of the film and bring it to life. They carry out duties such as casting, script editing, shot composition, shot selection and editing and act as the crucial link between the production, technical and creative teams.


To do this role I will need to:

have exceptional artistic vision and creative skills

have unerring commitment

have a deep passion for filmmaking

be a strong and confident leader

make decisions

delegate and collaborate with others

have excellent communication and interpersonal skills

inspire and motivate the team

work intensively for long hours

pay attention to detail

remain calm and think clearly under great pressure

have great self-belief

be determined to succeed

What Does a Director Do?

Directors are responsible for creatively translating the film's written script into actual images and sounds on the screen. They are ultimately responsible for a film's artistic and commercial success or failure. Directors may write the film's script or commission it to be written, or they may be hired after an early draft of the script is complete. They must then develop a vision for the finished film and work out how to achieve it.

During pre-production, Directors make crucial decisions, such as selecting the right cast, crew and locations for the film. They then direct rehearsals and the performances of the actors once the film is in production.
They also manage the technical aspects of filming including the camera, sound, lighting, design and special effects departments.

During post production, Directors work closely with Editors through the many technical processes of editing, to reach the final cut or version of the film. At all stages, Directors are responsible for motivating the team to produce the best possible results. Directors must also always be aware of the constraints of the film's budget and schedule and manage the expectations of the film's financiers.

Class Task- Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri:

In over thirty years as a film composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. Born in Manhattan in 1950, Alan was first drawn to music at an early age. Beginning as a drummer, his love for instruments quickly grew to include the bassoon, clarinet, saxophone and guitar. Writing his own music and forming numerous bands during his early school days, his musical life would lead him to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was to enroll as a composition major.

Alan wrote the music for Back To the Future, the films success helped propel his career as afterwards he went on to write hundreds of scores for successful films including Forrest Gump (for which he received an academy award nomination for best score). He often composes for films by director Robert Zemeckis.




Trivia

Lives in Carmel, Northern California.

Attended Berklee College of Music in Boston.
He was originally hired to score Mission: Impossible (1996) and had written roughly twenty-three minutes of music before he was replaced by Danny Elfman. Bootleg copies of his Mission: Impossible (1996) score are in circulation.
During the late 60s Silvestri went on the road as a guitarist with the band Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders.
Was nominated for Film Composer of the Year in 2004 by the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA).

Unit 29: Music Video Production (Music Video Proposal)

Music Video Proposal:

Song: Jenny was a friend of mine.

Artist: The Killers.

Year Released: First released in 2003.

Duration: 4:04

Genre: Indie/Alternative rock.

Audience:  Young adults, mainly males.

Analysis of lyrics: The song is about a man who is accused of killing his girlfriend because she cheated on him. Throughout the duration of the song the man is being interrogated and the lyrics he sings recall the events of what happened. The first verse is a flashback to the night he killed his girlfriend, he sings about what she said and that she was going to leave him ‘she said she loved me, but she had somewhere to go.’ The lyrics from the chorus hint to us that he has been caught and interrogated by the police, the lyrics; ‘tell me what you wanna know’ and ’there ain’t no motive for this crime’ portray a desperate man trying to proclaim his innocence. The next verse is the man arguing with his interrogators, he is overwhelmed with guilt and remorse and breaks down; ‘I Just can’t take this. ’ After this the guilty man then says ‘She couldn’t scream while I held her close’ the audience now believe that the man killed his girlfriend but still feel empathy for him as its clearly from the raw emotion in the song that he loved her and didn’t want to kill her. The song then ends with a reputation of the chorus.

Class Task- Sitcom Log

TUESDAY (13/10/15)


Today me, Kane, Matty and Danny worked on our sitcom. Our idea was called 'Undercover: Lines of justice' and is about a desk jockey at the FBI who finally gets his big break and gets to go undercover in various scenarios, however he is inexperienced and clumsy and gets into some wacky situations. We pitched the idea to the class and got some feedback.  After this we created a story pyramid for our sitcom to help develop the main plot of the story of our pilot episode. Next we all researched different aspects of our sitcom, for example I researched the history of sitcoms and the location that we are planning to set our sitcom in. Now we are begging to develop our sitcom more and are creating a detailed plan to keep track of our ideas.

Class Task- Story Starter: A Bad Situation That Turned Out For The Best

A Bad situation that turned out for the best...

In class we gotten given a slip of paper with a premise of a story on it, we had to write something based on it as homework. Apology's for any spelling mistakes I'm tired. 

Suddenly Patrick awoke in cold sweats, the headboard rattled against the wall as he fiercely shook. It took him awhile to return to reality, for a moment he thought his biggest fear had come true. ''Christ'' he wept, as he checked himself so see if he was still in one peace. ''It was just a dream,'' he thought to himself as he reached over toward his oakwood end table to flick his bed side lamp on. The light blinded him for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light. As his vision came back into focus he slowly sat up, and reached for his phone. Unwillingly he checked the day. Friday the 13^th of November 2015, the day Patrick was set to start his new life in LA. He had just signed a new 3 year deal with LA Galaxy in America, this was his big break, finally a chance to get some first team action at a professional level. He was viewed by a good young prospect in football, but he couldn’t get his break in the premier league because of his lack of experience. The plan was for him to make his name in the states playing 'soccer' and hopefully catch the eye of a big premier league team and eventually come back to England and be a star. A reverse David Beckham. He exited the front door of his parents house at 7: 15 am only 3 hours until his flight. Patrick knew that he was running a little behind schedule but he didn’t live far from the airport and he had faith in his driving ability. His car, a BMW 4 SERIES, was a gift from his dad for passing his drivers test, he entered it alone to travel to the airport as he had said his goodbyes the night before. Then he began his drive.

Patrick slammed on the breaks as the car infront of him went from 70 to 0 in no time at all. Smash! Patrick went straight into the back of him, his face hitting the steering wheel he came to a sudden halt. He bellowed profanity’s as he questioned why the 'idiot' had just stopped with no warning in the middle of the motor way. The accident was bad and both cars blocked the road. They would have to call the police to clear the road and get traffic moving again and both cars looked written off. As Patrick swapped insurance details with the driver in front of him he came to the realisation that he was still meant to be catching that flight. ''No'' He shouted in frustration kicking the side of his already totalled car.

''You don’t understand im late for a flight'' he pleaded with the officers and medical staff at the scene of the accident. ''Theres nothing we can do about that sir, we have to question you its protocol'' said the officers. ''But it wasn’t my fault he just stopped!?'' whined Patrick.

''Please sir calm down, isn’t there another flight you can get?'' asked the officer trying to be sympathetic. Patrick explained that in order to make a good impression with his new manager he wanted to arrive early, before the start of next week to settle in and plus that was the last flight to LAX until Sunday night. But the officers persisted that due to the time the accident would take to clear and sorting everything out with the insurance company’s that Patrick would most likely miss his flight.

Later that afternoon Patrick was sat in waiting room at his insurance company when he got a phone call from the owner of his new club. ''Jesus Christ Patrick are you okay?''

Patrick was confused but the owner interrupted him before he spoke. '' On the News they said there were no survivors, I nearly passed out when I heard the news but I thought id call to make sure, thank god your okay, but how?!''

''What?!'' Patrick gasped horrified at the news. '' I missed the flight sir what happened?''

''It went missing Patrick, they think it crashed into the ocean!'' It took a few moments to sink in but if it hadn't have been for his car accident, then his biggest nightmare would have finally come true...

Class Task- 'What if...' Story: Synopsis

Last one out gets the lights:

What if  you woke up and you were the only person left in the world? After passing out at new years party, Enrique awakes to discover his friends and the rest of society are missing. He must team up with a strange 'man' leading the resistance against Earth's new alien population. Only with Enrique's help can the man restore the world back to normal order and save society from its new Alien captors.

Class Task- 'What if...' Story: Character Profiles

As homework for class we have been writing stories based on the premise 'what if...' My story is called 'Last one out gets the lights' and is based on the tag line 'What if you found out you were the only person left in the world.' Now that we've finished the story we must create characters profiles for our main characters. This is the charterer profile for my protagonist 'Enrique' and secondary characters 'Marshal' and 'Charles.' For a brief overview of the story check out its synopsis in the post above!

Character Profile - Enrique:

Dominant Impression:

Age: 17.

Sex : Male.

Mannerisms: Loner, Kind, Saddened, Tries to hide insecurities, Lacks confidence.

Clothes: Black Jeans, White T-Shirt, Bomber Jacket, Black Trainers.

Grooming: Medium length hair short at the sides, Well Groomed Beard.

Movement: Walks fast with his hands in his pockets.

Style of speech: Neutral English accent, Talks at a normal pace.

Dominant Attitude:

Intelligence: Well educated, In his 2nd year of college.

Personality: Loving, Kind, Honest, Negative, Helpful, Funny.

Temperament: On edge, gets stressed easily sometimes over nothing.

Self Image: Doesn't particularly like who he is or his appearance.

Fears: Not being accepted, whatever comes after death. 

World:

Relationships: Best friends with Marshal and a few others from the party, Single.

Ethnicity and Cultural Background: His mother is Spanish making him 1/2 Spanish, Middle class.

General History: Born in 1982, brought up through the late 80's/90's.

Personal History: Lived in Devon all his life, bad experiences with friends in the past.

Character Profile - Marshal:

Dominant Impression:

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Mannerisms: Funny, Confident, Natural leader, Instinctive, Reliable 

Clothes:  Blue skinny jeans, Baggy chequered shirt with a white a T-Shirt underneath. 

Grooming: Long but well styled hair, Clean Shaven.

Movement: Walks proud.

Style of speech: Enunciates his words well, talks slowly.

Dominant Attitude:

Intelligence: Not as clever as Enrique but has more 'street smarts'

Personality: Joker, Funny,  Smooth, Good with words, Helpful, Kind, Secretive.

Temperament: Chilled out and relaxed.

Self Image: Confident in himself.

Fears: Death, Airplanes, Elevators, The dark.

World:

Relationships: Has lots of friends but secretly likes Enrique the best. In a relationship.

Ethnicity and Cultural Background: White British.

General History: Born in 1982, brought up through the late 80's/90's Along side Enrique.

Personal History: Secretive past, His dad left him at a young age.

Character Profile - Charles:

Dominant Impression:

Age: 51.

Sex: Male.

Mannerisms: Selfish, Sceptical, Doesn't trust anyone, people see him a being crazy, Hard case.

Clothes: Ragged combat gear.

Grooming: Long messy hair, Doesn't look after his appearance, Long shaggy beard.

Movement: Walks fast to avoid contact with other people.

Style of speech: Loud, heavy Scottish accent.

Dominant Attitude:

Intelligence: He's wise but in a kind of insane way.
Personality:  Crazy, Smart, Straight to the point, Conspiracy Theorist, No time for others.
Temperament: Has a short fuse.
Self Image: Doesn't have time to care about himself.
Fears: Being wrong, not being able to save the world.

World:
Relationships: Distant from people doesn't have time for them, he thinks they slow him down.
Ethnicity and Cultural Background:  White Scottish.
General History: Born in 1948. Grew up around the threats of the cold war.
Personal History:  Joined the Army at age 16, Recruited into the SAS by the time he was 18 and served until he was 33, Dishonourably discharged even though he was a great soldier but he knew to much, Wanted for treason, Currently on the run.