TASK 1. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING PITCHING                   

This is a series of tasks, to be posted to your blog in ilearn. They are due at the end of week 1, 3, 4, and 5.  They include:

• Pitch Powerpoint                       due Sunday 10-08
• Script Analysis Task                 due Sunday 24-08
• Tone and Movement Analysis    due Sunday 31-08
• Design Analysis Task                due Sunday 07-09

This series of tasks is designed to develop your skills and knowledge in all areas of filmmaking.  Each of these tasks will have associated readings, online lectures or tutorials,instructions and/or screen media examples in ilearn.  These tasks are time sensitive, meaning you must do them in the weeks that have been allocated for them – late submissions will be marked down. Each component of this task will be worth marks, you can lose 25% if you don’t submit at all.    

Assessment Criteria:

1. Clear and succinct identification and articulation ideas, themes or issues and how you intend to convey them in screen media (Pitch)
2. Insightful and clear analysis of how ideas, themes or issues are represented through techniques and creative devices in screen media. (Analytic tasks)
3. Accurate and sophisticated articulation of how practical, technical, creative and theoretical skills are working to convey ideas in screen media
4. Effective collaboration in the playful and adventurous realisation of an onscreen draft short fiction film (onscreen draft)
5. Synthesis of theoretical concepts in screen media to reflect on one’s own and others’ screen productions.

Task Details

• Pitch Powerpoint  due on your blog by Sunday 10-08-2014 Midnight

Make a POWER POINT PITCH with at least the following 7 slides, plus any others you consider necessary (maximum 10)

1. Title, Form (fiction/doco/hybrid/web-series and interactive website) Genre, & Theme, Idea or Issue

2. Summarize Plot or what will happen.  You could, for example, briefly describe describe character & conflict, action, events or changes that will occur

3-5 Visual/Aural Style - use reference images/sounds (with correct citations) to give indications of the look/sound you are aiming for

6. Reflection on where you need collaborative input to develop this idea

7. What fascinates you about it - why you care, why we should

• Script Analysis Task  due Sunday 24-08-2014 Midnight

Script Analysis – see ilearn for more details

• Tone and Movement Analysis  due Sunday 31-08-2014 Midnight

Choose a film from this channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr_xNJgOnbQQ_z5bTHCWD3u5dWy2XG7qC

Do a tone & movement analysis on the worksheet provided – respond to questions about:  sound & colour tone, space, time, & movement of images and sound how they convey theme or idea

• Design Analysis Task due Sunday 07-09-2014 Midnight

Choose an Australian short film, web series, tv program or feature film and analyse the design using the guidelines provided in the online lecture and worksheet.  Find one or more online resources to post with your analysis eg: images, clips, reviews of design, award citations for design or interviews with designers

Any assignment handed in late will incur a penalty of 5% deduction of marks for every day that it remains not submitted.  

CREATIVE COLLABORATION SITE

Individually you will contribute a series of exercises and ideas to a shared a Creative Collaboration Site for your major project.  These contributions are due in weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (x2) 7 and at the end of the break.  They include:

• Online Site with pages for project and crew              Due: Sunday 17-08-2014 Midnight
• Script draft,  questions and observations                  Due: Sunday 24-08-2014 Midnight
• Storyworld relevant sounds                                                  Due: Sunday 31-08-2014 Midnight
• Storyworld relevant images                                      Due: Sunday 07-09-2014 Midnight
• A thematic ‘resonance’ or reference and reflection     Due: Sunday 14-09-2014 Midnight
• A thematically relevant juxtaposition                         Due: Sunday 14-08-2014 Midnight
• Onscreen Draft                                                       Due Sunday 21-09-2014 Midnight
• Illustrated Creative Vision statement                        Due: Friday 03-10-2014

These tasks each require a fast turnaround response.  You may be lateral and creative in your thinking - your responses to the tasks will most likely not be part of the final production, but they may spark ideas, discussion or development.  Process is as important as product here - just doing them will increase your skills in screen production and understanding of the  decisions made in screen creativity.  These tasks are time sensitive, meaning you must do them in the weeks that have been allocated for them – late submissions will be marked down. Your mark for this task will be an individual mark.  You will lose 10% for any task you do not submit.  

Assessment Criteria

• Clear and succinct identification and articulation ideas, themes or issues and how you intend to convey them in screen media
• Depth and appropriateness of research and planning for the realisation of a short screen production
• Effective collaboration and on time delivery in the realisation of online media with fellow students
• Insightful and clear demonstration of how ideas, themes or issues could be represented through your choices of techniques and creative devices for the production
• Thoughtful and sophisticated articulation of how practical, technical, creative and theoretical skills will be applied to convey ideas in screen media
• Synthesis of theoretical concepts in screen media to reflect on your own and others’ screen productions.

Task Details

• Open Site for Creative Collaboration       Due: Sunday 17-08-2014 Midnight

Set up a WordPress site for you project including ‘front page’ with the power point material of the original pitch, and 8 additional pages labelled: crew bios, script drafts, sounds, images, references, juxtapositions, onscreen drafts and creative vision statements. Each person on the project: add a short bio, photo and crew role to the crew bio page on the site.  It is very important that the site is clear and easy to navigate.  Each page must be clearly identified and function so that crew members and lecturers can access them and identify who has made contributions and when.  Label your contributions with your name!

• Script draft,  questions and observations                  Due: Sunday 24-08-2014 Midnight

Director & producer upload script draft or treatment, each crew member to post a useful question and a non-judgmental observation. You will be assessed on the language you use in this task, so be thoughtful about word choice! Observations: Quote or point to specific parts of the script that you think are effective and describe what you think you will see, hear, feel and understand in the finished film.  Useful questions: could you tell me more about... Do you intend...  You could make use of the readings to help you choose words, too.  For example, Weston suggests verbs and facts are effective forms of language for directors.  Can you observe what verbs and facts are in the script?  You may not find all of the things Proferes refers to and this may be something about which you can ask useful questions.  Label your contributions with your name!

• Storyworld sounds in a progression                          Due: Sunday 31-08-2014 Midnight

Using any gear you have to hand, find (eg online) or record 3 sounds that might belong in your story world or be resonant with your theme.  These might be atmospheres, sounds the body makes in motion (foley), sound effects, bits of dialogue or voice over, or even samples of music (but not ALL samples of music)  edit those three sounds into a progression that reveals something about, for example, an event, a character, the tone, intensity or space in your project.  30 seconds maximum – may be less.  Write a few sentences to contextualise the sounds you upload. Label your contributions with your name!

• Storyworld relevant images                                       Due: Sunday 07-09-2014 Midnight

Find or create 3 to 5 images of places, things, colors, shapes, textures, that could be in your story world and upload them with a one-sentence explanation as to why you have chosen them.  These places, spaces, objects and images do not have to be things that will actually BE in your major project, they should be things that COULD be in that world.  Your short accompanying explanation should be about the properties of the image and their connection to your storyworld.  Eg. ‘The holes in these jeans are strategically placed to reveal that the character is skanky, not poor – they are designer artefacts, not patches worn away by hard work.’ Or ‘the holes in this fuzzy blanket have been worn there by the clutching hands of a toddler seeking refuge in a warm, familiar object- they are holes in a baby's blanket, not in a rag used for scrubbing.’  Label your contributions with your name!

• A thematic ‘resonance’ or reference and reflection     Due: Sunday 14-09-2014 Midnight

A thematic ‘resonance’  is a production that deals with similar ideas, issues, themes, characters or circumstances as your project.  Find one and post it or a link to it with a 300 word reflection on why you chose it, how you think it relates, what might be similar in your group’s approach, what might be different.  Your resonance may be very similar to the project you are making or very different, it may have within it only one relevant component or many.  Articulate what is similar or different, what is relevant and why, you can align this reflection with your crew role, eg. if you are the cinematographer you might choose to write about the cinematography in your selected 'resonance' production.  Label your contributions with your name!

• A thematically relevant juxtaposition                         Due: Sunday 14-08-2014 Midnight

Using whatever gear you have to hand, shoot or source (eg find online) and cut together a juxtaposition that is relevant to your group’s theme – max length 20 second, could be less, must be at least two shots.  The framing, movement and timing of the juxtaposition is relevant to its impact, so think about these.  It may only be indirectly related to the plot, characters or world that your major project is in – it is your opportunity to think laterally about the theme, issues, characters or world of you production.  Articulate your intentions in a brief explanation of the juxtaposition you upload.  Label your contributions with your name!

• Onscreen Draft                                                       Due Sunday 21-09-2014 Midnight

Working as a team, do a very rough Onscreen Draft of your project.  This should happen in a production meeting, using your phones, or handycams.  Use what ever you have to hand for props, who ever is there for characters, wherever you are for locations. This exercise is NOT assessable for quality, only for doing it.

The purposes of this exercise are SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT, RHYTHM and SHOTLISTING not design, composition or any other cinematic quality. Act out each scene in the time you think it will take, capturing it on your phone or whatever camera is handy. Cut it together and POST IT on the Project Site – do not worry about how rough and awful it is – use it as a playful experiment to learn from.  You can take it down after it has been assessed.  Each crew member should post a few sentences about opportunities, insights, problems or decisions you learned about from this process may arise in your production.  

• Illustrated Creative Vision statement                        Due: Friday 03-10-2014

This document is a briefing, to your self, of what you will contribute through your discipline to the realization of the ideas in the project.  It should start with a statement of your understanding of the project and then, depending on your role/s, be one or more of the following:

• Producer’s Plan or statement
• Director’s Plan or statement
• Cine Plan
• Design Plan
• Editing Plan
• Sound Plan

Label your contributions with your name!

*Full Descriptions of these will be posted on iLearn.

Any assignment handed in late will incur a penalty of 5% deduction of marks for every day that it remains not submitted. 

MAJOR SCREEN PRODUCTION

From the 'pitch' presentations completed in Week 2, a number of projects will be selected to go into production. A student whose pitch was selected will be designated as ‘director’. Students will then choose from the following crew roles: Producer, Director of Photography, Sound Recordist/Designer, Editor (Continuity/Script Supervisor), and Production Designer. Once teams have been selected, students will collaborate on the development of their screen works during the pre-production phase in readiness for going into production. Through tasks on the Creative Collaboration site, teams will be expected to research their themes, generate a strong script, pre-plan the visual and sound elements of their screen production through story-boarding, shot-listing, casting, rehearsing and other exercises on the Creative Collaborations Site. Teams will also be expected to familiarize themselves with their production equipment, hold regular production meetings, and perform camera and sound tests.

Over the course of the semester you will work collaboratively and individually to research, develop, plan, execute and present to the world a short 4-7 minute film or web-series of, for example 3 x 2 minute episodes.  (you have up to ten minutes, but shorter is usually better!)   Your work on this production will be experiential learning, problem solving and application of theory to practice, and you will be individually assessed for your contribution.  Everyone in all roles will be expected to help identify the themes, ideas and perspective on the work and come up with ideas and examples for how these can be communicated in a short media production.  You will use your research and analyses of techniques and devices in screen media to support the process of making decisions about your contribution and executing those decisions effectively.  Your collaboration skills will be developed through this process, in particular your effective communication with others, your reliable, timely and thorough execution of tasks you are allocated, and your creative contribution to enhancing, supporting and realising the intentions of the project originators.  As you work on this project you will be expected to draw on knowledge from MAS212, MAS202 and if you have taken it, MAS205, as well as the research and learning of this semester and to synthesise concepts into your practice, your communications with others, and your reflections on your own work.

Your reflective essay of approx. 500 - 750 words should comment on your specific work or contribution in each of the points above.  Note: things do not always run smoothly in film productions, in fact they rarely do.  You are encouraged to reflect on things that were less than ideal however please note: you will be marked down for blaming outwards.    If someone on the team does not fulfil their agreed responsibilities what action did you do to SOLVE the problem?  If communications were tricky how did you adjust your tone, approach or perspective to make them clearer?    If you meet challenges you were not able to overcome on your own what actions did you take to get help?  These should be noted in your reflective essay. 

Each team will be responsible for providing a full set of production documents including, for example; schedules, call sheets, location agreements, music copyright agreements and performer contracts.

Each student involved in the production group will receive a mark for their work in the role they performed in overall finished production. 

Marking Criteria:

1. Demonstrated skill in effectively conveying ideas, themes and issues through screen production
2. Depth and appropriateness of research and planning for the realisation of a short screen production
3. Effective collaboration and on time delivery of in the realisation of short film and online media with fellow students within MAS 213 and MAS 241
4. Insightful and clear analysis of how ideas, themes or issues will be represented through your choices of techniques and creative devices for the production
5. Thoughtful and sophisticated applications of practical, technical, creative and theoretical skills in image and sound creation, such as cinematography, lighting, production design, sound design, editing and skills related to working with performers as appropriate to your crew role
6. Synthesis of theoretical concepts in screen media to reflect on your own and others’ screen productions.

Any assignment handed in late will incur a penalty of 5% deduction of marks for every day that it remains not submitted.

Your attendance and participation in each day of the Intensive will be noted and you will receive a group mark for the film your group completes. 

Due at 5pm on Friday, 26-09-2014

Marking Criteria

1. Clear and succinct identification and articulation ideas, themes or issues and effective execution of role to convey them in screen media
2. Effective collaboration and on time delivery of in the realisation of exercises, 2-day filmmaking project and online media with fellow students within MAS 213
3. Creative choices and exploration of techniques and creative devices in exercises and the 2-day film exercise
4. Thoughtful and sophisticated application of practical, technical, creative and theoretical skills