Post 17: Script Feedback from Professional Script Writter

Here is a recording of the conversation I had with the Professional script writer Dudi Appleton. The script writer has given me a lot of effective feedback on the script I wrote and gave me some suggestions of what I could do to develop and make the script much more effective. I found the conversation we had very helpful as the script writer gave me a better understanding about different script techniques and ideas about how I could expand and make my idea better and more interesting. He also put me in my character 'Josh's' shoes to see how If I was Josh, how I would react and respond to certain situations.




To go alongside the conversation above, Dudi Appleton also sent me my script back with additional feedback. 

Post 16: Representation of Woman

Post 15: Representation of Men

How are men represented in my genre? 

The genre of my Short film is Drama. Stereotypically in Drama films and also across most media, male representations tend to be based and focused on physical and intellectual strength, power, independence and attractiveness. Male characters are often presented as being self reliant and isolated, which I have created the male character ‘Josh’ of our short film to be like.  The main protagonist of the short film is ‘Josh’ and he has been developed as a rebellious but vulnerable character, which is portrayed as being very isolated from his family issues. Where in contrast to this we have created a male police officer character that is represented as a powerful leader, who is introduced to try fixing and controlling the situation, as Josh is seen as being aggressive and angry.


Representations of Masculinity in Film

Representations in all aspects are subject to change, historically, politically and socially. Representation defines the way social groups such as masculinity is constructed for audiences , where as collective media identities, implies that general groups all behave the same way and have common representations that are recognised by audiences .  Key theorists such as David Gaunlett and David Buckingham explore the theories and notion of masculinity in films, this is supported by hyper realism and the ideas of hegemonic (dominate) and more plurastic (basic) representations.

Post 14: Audience Positioning

 

Below are some links to resourceful websites of which go into more depth about audience positioning.

http://www.slideshare.net/reigatemedia/stuart-hall-audience-positioning

http://www.slideshare.net/david-rowland/audience-positioning

http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-54_u-247_t-641_c-2382/purpose-audience-ideology-positioning/nsw/purpose-audience-ideology-positioning/skills-by-mode-viewing-and-representing/required-skills-and-knowledge-concept

Post 13: BBFC Film Rating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification

The BBFC have many rules and conditions of which they must follow when considering whether to classify a piece of work at a particular category, the BBFC are required to consider many different acts, so that they pass a piece legally and without causing any harm to the specified audience, of which the organisation will do this to the best of their ability.  Three key things I am going to keep in mind when rating my film is the Law, Artistic freedom of the piece and Protection of the audience which I will have to decide whether the film will cause any potential harm to viewers.

Based on the current times, it would be suggested that the film "dead dad" should be given the rating of a 12A, I would personally rate it this myself due to the fact there is knife violence and fowl language used, also rebellious behaviour and students making a mockery of the educational system, meaning for anyone under 12 could be influenced to copy behaviour or situations within the short film, but this could also be argued that it is too high to class the piece as a 12A as nothing is actually shown it is only implied, such as the situation with the knife, where in the piece it is only suggested that the main protagonist has used it wrongly.

It is also advised by the BBFC that before allowing a child to view a piece of work that parents are advised to consider carefully the classification, together with any accompanying. So by placing the short film in the 12A category it would mean that wider audiences would be able to view the piece on terms that it is under the parent’s decision and control if their child is under 12 years of age.

A key classification decision that had to be taken into account is that in two to three scenes in the piece there is a detailed portrayal of criminal and violent techniques, which in some aspects glamorises knives. Also there is a slight portrayal in the montage of anti social behaviour meaning it would likely receive a more restrictive classification.  But due to the anti social behaviour and knife crime being seen as wrong and against the law in the piece, and the character having to receive consequences for the actions, it shows an educational purpose and suggests the piece is not of harm to young people.

Here is a list/chart of all the British Board of Film Classification ratings there are with a brief explanation of what each one stands for.

Post 12: Script - First Draft and Feedback

Here is the first draft of the script, for our short film. It is currently very rough as was uncertain of what particular characters could and would say in a real life situation similar to this as want the short film to be as realistic as possible. I sent this draft script to my teacher and showed to other members of my class to get feedback that would be able to help me expand and portray the idea more clearer. 

Here is the same first draft of the script but with the notes and suggestions that were made along the side. I am going to take all the new ideas and alterations into consideration and try to produce a more detailed and specific script.