Jim Krause | Classes | P351 Video Field & Post Production
Week 8
Announcements/Reality Check:
- No Lecture on Tuesday March 1. Instead, you'll take the open book Midterm Exam (via Canvas)
- In Lab this week we'll watch your Interview/Feature stories and carry out Peer Critiques. We'll also provide Art Video updates, share Final Project ideas, and talk about the upcoming Drama/Storytelling Exercise.
- Final Projects - Final Project ideas. The "official" proposals and treatments aren't due til the following week.
- We'll give updates to ongoing projects (Arrt Videos, Final Projects) and discuss the upcoming Drama or ALT Video projects.
- Screen Interview/Feature stories. As a class we'll be reviewing and critiquing each project (Your participation and feedback is worth 5 points).
- Remember:
- Projects must be exactly 2 or 3-minutes long.
- Do NOT include the slate in your timing
- Be sure your video starts and ends in back
- Do NOT have lengthy title sequences or rolling, ending credits. (You do not have to thank your subject.) Work minimal titles into your project tastefully and appropriately. It's bad form to put yourself more than a few times in the credits. (I might have "Produced by _______" artfully keyed over the video somewhere near the beginning orat the very end.)
- Remember:
Introduction to Storytelling
At our next lab, everyone will pitch a short story. Now is the time for you to come up with a proposal and treatment. My suggestion is to keep your characters to a minimum and story line simple. This way you can focus on the art of it- mainly production design. I also suggest minimal dialog.
Classic storytelling themes have been re-told countless times:
- Lovers who can't be together
- A lost dog or person trying to get home
- Someone small (E.g. a boy) battling something large (E.g. a giant)
Trying to obtain a goal and the conflict characters encounter trying to reach it are the essential ingredients to storytelling. Stories are also useful vehicles to teach moraiity or life lessons.
The Black Hole (2.5 minutes)
Conflict by itself (unexplained) is pointless. Two people fighting without any idea as to their character or motivation is pointless.
A one-way vector up or down does NOT make a good story as there is no opposing force or conflict. Here are a few examples:
#1 - A person wins the lottery - Just having something good happen does not make a good story. But what if it happened to a Buddhist monk, who rid himself of all wordly possessions?
#2 - Slow decline to suicide - Say you have someone who is depressed because their boyfriend/girlfriend died. The slow decline down to being suicidal is also a bad story, as there is no opposing force (conflict) or a goal, just a draw to the darkness. However the introduction of an countering force (E.g. hungry puppy who shows up) might be enough to bring about a re-appreciation of the value of life.
Stories have a beginning, middle and end. Your story should be resolved (happy or sad). If you don't have an ending or resolve it in some way you are not telling a good story.
