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Before you turn on a camera, you must plan and prepare. Write a script, make lists, and think through all the scenarios. Get all your equipment and materials together and your people committed.
Wikipedia's Pre-Production
The concept or premise of a property is the fundamental core idea that drives the plot and sustains audience interest. A "high concept" is an intriguing idea that is so simple and pure that it can be stated in ten words or fewer, one sentence at most, and is easily and completely understood by all. "Scientists discover that an asteroid the size of Texas will hit Earth in 48 hours" is high concept.
High
Concept Defined Once and For All
by Steve Kaire
Yours will probably be closer to the more common: a potentially intriguing idea that is still forming and can be stated in fifty to a hundred words but can't stand alone. It needs you there to explain it.
The classic situation is the elevator pitch. You find yourself alone in an elevator, going up, with someone who has the power to make your dream come true, and he/she seems willing to listen to you at least until the elevator stops.
In this case, it would be a producer with a lot of money or a star actor who you'd love to play a part. You have 30 seconds. Pitch your concept.
At the other end of the process, this concept is the short description that will appear on the YouTube page to entice viewers to click and watch.
It is most important to remember that you can change this concept at any time, although the longer you take to do that, the harder it might be to catch up.
Most of all, a concept is short. It can be said quickly.
In 25 words or fewer, what are you going to do for your
video? It's perfectly OK if you write, "The first scene of the Odd
Couple (female version) exactly as Neil Simon wrote it." I would also
encourage you to do something that seems different, risky, ridiculous,
impossible, beyond your
abilities, or just downright silly.
Visualize
and describe.This is a time for divergent thinking, so go for it! I
recommend that you write this pitch off-line and save it.
Then copy and paste it into an email to me.
The audience for this concept pitch is the people who could fund it, work on making it, or watch it when it is finished. Your job is to present it to them enthusiastically. It's exactly like getting a job and having to enthusiastically represent a product or service to customers, suppliers, employees.
In the real world of media development, an agent often plays this role. The creative person -- the writer or director -- develops the proposal, passionately, and then the agent delivers it, dispassionately but enthusiastically.
The pitch is the gateway to the next phase of the process. A concept is pitched, as is a property. After the video is finished, its trailer (aka preview) is a pitch for the distribution of the video. A pitch will be issued as a press release. The written pitch is the database metadata info at IMDB.com as well as the blurb for the movie listings.
Wikipedia's Pitch
What you do in class on September 20 will be somewhere between a concept and a short pitch.
This idea of pitching a concept is not just for arts projects. For many professional projects to proceed in any industry, they go through a series of checkpoints or gateways. Inside the organization, these checkpoints often involve competition. There's X amount of budget available, and the bosses ask for 2X or 3X worth of ideas to choose from. Outside the organization, these gateways involve venture capitalists, loan officers, and other people whose money or other resources you would like to use.
Your ability to not just survive in a job, but to thrive, may well depend on your ability to succinctly explain your ideas to others.
Demo video archives
Ideas are, in reality, cheap and easy to find. The media capitals of the world are full of folks pitching concepts and properties. Your life is full of pitches (trailers, ads) for the finished songs and movies. Part of the function of the pitch is to keep you from having only one egg in your basket and too much depending on it.
How to Pitch Your Movie Successfully
Transcript of a Successful Movie Pitch
We'll try to avoid the murder part, but the 15 seconds is real. Make it short!!
After seeing BARACKY II, this was Zach's pitch:
The video he ended up with is on the course YouTube channel.
See GEN 230 student pitches from previous sections of this course: Matteo Ricci's Channel
How to Pitch Your Movie Successfully
Transcript of a Successful Movie Pitch
We'll try to avoid the murder part, but the 15 seconds is real. Make it short!!
The pitch for a dramatic movie would summarize the plot.
The Women
The pitch for other genres would similarly summarize what the media consumer will see when the project is finished and what it's appeal will be.
storyboards, flowcharts, mock-ups, outlines, and site maps
Wikipedia's Treatment
In many ways, the treatment is the most important document that you will produce for this course. If you get this "right", it will make everything else possible in the next two months. I put the "right" in quotes because I want to emphasize that there is no One Right Treatment. It is certainly something you can change, but it is not something you would "correct". So don't be afraid.
If I gave your script to two of your classmates and
asked them to make a video from it without consulting each other, they
would come up with different videos. Both would be based on the same
script and would contain the same dialogue, but almost everything else
about them would be different. Why? Because of the two different ways
that the two different directors "treated" the script. Your treatment
document is your description of what you are going to do that other
directors would do differently. Don't worry about them when you write
it. Concentrate on what you
are going to do.
Start with your concept. Now think it through, imagine, envision. It's the end of the semester, three months from now. We're all sitting in the Lecture Hall. Your video is up next. There's this pause while everyone turns expectantly, hopefully, curiously toward the screen.
What will we see?
Use words, as many as you need, to help us now to see
what you see. Complete sentences are good, but you can use lists of
them or within them. You can write what looks more like a paragraph.
How to write a treatment for a script/screenplay
Free Hugs Amsterdam - high concept, low-budget, but takes a couple of special actors
Treatment ideas for projects with lots of still images
Videomaker's Treating Your Video Right
Trivia note: From Joe Halderman's point if view, he sold a treatment to David Letterman.
Letterman
Blackmailed
by Kevin Allocca
Oct 02, 2009
At the beginning of every media project, there is a need to define a desired treatment. Any concept can lend itself to a wide variety of successful treatments. A treatment outlines what the finished project will be about. For example, a music video could show, as a concept:
the artists performing the song in front of a
live audience or by themselves
a story line with actors and sets
compelling images to complement the music in a
more abstract but still purposeful way
Each of these concepts implies a different treatment. The treatment describes:
look, sound, and feel, visual and
aural design
each location or setting; where and when;
indoor/outdoor, day/night -- list them all
each
situation -- storyline at this location; what's happening there?
cast:
characters/actors, costumes, props
crew:
camera placements, microphone placements
pacing
tone,
color, lighting
images,
music, text (to be added in post-production)
Even though most treatment writers don't follow
specific guidelines or structures, a well written treatment is one that
can successfully communicate complete ideas to the other
people, especially the money people, involved in the project.
Well done, a video treatment underlies the process of creating the
production budget where items identified in the treatment are included
in the budgeting process. It is a planning document.
In short, the treatment is a necessary phase of every project. It
allows the production company -- that's you -- to communicate its ideas
to the artists and it allows artists to make decisions regarding the
direction of the project. The treatment also helps you write production
budgets and gives artists clear expectations when committing to your
project..
For someone who is inexperienced with making videos, the treatment will save time and help ensure consistency, and thus watchability.
examples: two treatments
At YouTube, look at the two videos eventually made from the treatments:
Kym Marsh's Sentimental (no longer available)
MC Harvey's Get Up and Move
The quotation below from Egan and Barry mentions "mock-ups or animatics". They are also known as storyboards.
Wikipedia's Storyboard
Music
Video Treatment Basics
by Jeff Clark
MVWire.com
Writing
Music Video Treatments
by Maureen Egan and Matthew Barry
MVWire.com
The script is the foundation -- the verbal description, the dialogue and instructions -- for a creative project that will involve many people over a long period of time. The script will change and evolve and develop, of course. But after listening to the pitches, the people who will be involved in the project want to read the script. They want to be guided verbally through a visualization of the finished project to help them decide whether to commit to it.
If you don't have a script, we will not be able to plan your part of the production phase of the process. A script will let us find potential problems before they occur during shooting or when it is too late to solve them.
To
use an architectural analogy, the script is like the floor plan and the
sketch. You haven't actually built the thing, but the script shows the intention: the
structure, the characters, and the overall movement. And all the
dialogue, of course.
What does a script look like? It can look and read like an essay, paragraph following on paragraph. It can look more like this web page, with lots of short sections with subheadings. It can have lists. It can look like a Shakespeare play, all dialogue with a few stage directions. It can be a poem, with short lines.
It can be a combination of all the above. It doesn't matter what it looks like as long as the format is consistent and it uses words to help the reader see and hear the final project.
We are going to take several class days to look at your scripts. That will give us about 15 minutes per script, on average, though some will take more time than others. It is important that you understand the value you can get out of listening to a discussion of someone else's script. If you're listening, you will get far more out of the 290 minutes we talk about everyone else's scripts than during the fifteen minutes that we talk about yours.
On or before Monday, September 26, send your script to me via email.
The script specifies what will be audible and visible on the screen when people watch your finished video. This document will have all the words that the actors in your video will speak, including voice-overs. It will also have any text, if any, that will appear on the screen. It may also have some stage directions.
Starting at the beginning, after the title sequence, what will we see and hear?
In addition to the voices -- dialogue or narrative
voice-over -- a shooting script will also note instructions about
technical and dramatic elements such as sound effects or use of props.
The rule of thumb is one page of shooting script per minute of screen time. That's "page" in the old-fashioned sense of an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper and "script" in the format on the right -- lots of white space so that the actors can more easily pick out their lines.
If you are aiming for a four- or five-minute video, you should write a script for about five or six minutes that you can tighten when you edit. Aim then for five or six pages (if it were printed out).
As with all our documents for this process, your script can be edited at any time.
Your scripts will probably be best expressed by using one or several of these formats:
straight paragraphs as you would
in an essay, article, or report
This format will work well for a documentary video or video essay that relies largely on a voice-over narrative.
traditional dramatic play format
for dialogue (example on the right and your Odd Couple script)
This format will work well for a scripted video with multiple characters interacting.
lists and tables. For example,
your table could have these column headers: scene number, scene name,
time, setting, actors, action, basically an expanded shot list (see
below)
This format will work well for a music video where the music determines your structure and the lyrics are half your script; the other half is the images we'll see on the screen: setting, actors, action
storyboards -
especially if you are doing a mash-up, your script may resemble or be
able to use storyboarding techniques. Here's what the Wikipedia has to
say about them:
Note this phrase: "find potential problems before they occur." If you can't draw, you are welcome to use words to describe the scenes.
the Odd Couple script that
you will rehearse
sample script from Wikipedia
Simply Script's movie scripts
narrative
coherence
Does the story hold together and make sense in our world? Is it
probable or at least plausible? Is it implausible but enjoyable or
interesting?
narrative fidelity
Does the story match our own beliefs and experiences? Does it portray
the world we perceive that we live in?
How how to start thinking like a maker of media instead of just as a consumer of media.
Video Maker's Pre-Production (note the article on voice-over techniques) -
Before you begin shooting, I should have approved the
following list of information about your video. This list will go on
the table lower down on the reports page. It will also be the basis for
the Genny Award nominations. Send me this list via email ASAP.
writer / director (you)
working title of your video
15-word concept - the blurb on the TV listings
settings / locations
cinematographer (camera operator)
actors
production managers: lights, sound, sets, props,
costumes, continuity. One or more people.
budget - if any
shooting locations
shooting dates other than your one in-class day
any special
considerations?
Along with your script, these lists will give me the information you and I need to move into the production phase prepared to make the best use of our time.
Where the actors have their scripts, the director and camera operators have their shot list, which is their best friend during taping and editing.
A shot list breaks the script into short segments of dialogue or action and adds meta-information about each shot.
Your shot list is a crucial, required document. I will not pass you through the first gateway without it. To produce it, you will have to visualize your video down to the most detailed level that you can imagine.
Break your script into scenes, the scenes into sequences, and the sequences into shots. For example, let's say that the second scene from So You Think You Can Dance is the judge's table right after a dancer has finished his routine. The third sequence is where Judge 1 disagrees with Judge 2 and jumps up from his chair. The first shot of that sequence is the two of them together from the front while Judge 2 talks. The second shot is a close-up of Judge 1 reacting to something Judge 1 said. The third shot is Judge 1 jumping out of his chair. The fourth shot is the reaction of Judge 2.
The format:
|
Shot number |
Scene 2 Sequence 3 Shot 1 |
|
Action |
Judge 2 talking, Judge 1 turned toward Judge 1, listening |
|
Camera instructions |
MCU of Judge 2 with Judge 1 on right. No pan. |
|
Dialogue |
JUDGE 2: That was the most terrific dance I've seen in years! |
Other audio |
Contestant gasps, audience shrieks |
|
Visual effects |
none |
The final two will be more useful during editing than during taping.
Depending on your situation, it may make sense to arrange your shot list in the order in which the shots will be taped, not the order in which they will appear in the final video. The numbering may still be in the order in which the shots will appear in the final video.
Either way, you have a list to follow when you get all
the actors and crew ready at the location. What do you do next? Follow
your shot list.
Types
of shots
Don't forget to shoot "noddies" (from the verb "to nod"), which are medium close-up shots of all the actors listening and non-verbally expressing a variety of emotions. During editing, you will cut to those reaction clips to cover jump cuts.
shot list for the first scene of the Odd Couple
This example from AdShack is organized by location. Steelcase/NEOCON Promo Video SHOT LIST AND SHOOTING SCHEDULE
Media College's Abbreviations for and examples of camera shots
Media College's Terms for camera moves
Email these lists to me by October 8. If I approve it, you will be finished with the pre-production process and ready to begin the production process. You will be in excellent shape to make good use of everyone's time during production, when on stage, studio, or location.
How to Tell a Story
by Gary Provost
and Peter Rubie
Writer's Digest Books, 1998
What decisions do you need to make?
who,
what, when, where?
why?
cause and effect. He died. She died. Tragic but not as interesting as
this: He died because she died. Cause and effect. Stories have it and
real life often doesn't, or doesn't seem to. Real life seems more
random and arbitrary where a story is purposeful and controlled.
How
to Tell a Story
by Gary Provost and Peter Rubie
Writer's Digest Books, 1998
Time:
Place:
Here's the character:
This is what s/he wants:
This is the obstacle:
This is the outcome:
It leads to:
A script is all dialogue with notes for scenery, props, and action implied.
A novel or short story is the dialogue plus descriptions of things and actions. A narrator (3rd person) or character (first person: "I") is telling the story in a voice that we like listening to or are compelled to listen to.
Even though we say "tell a story", there is a difference between showing and telling. More accurately, the narrator should "show the story" in the sense of let it unfold, let it reveal itself like a movie does. Don't write an essay.
example of telling:
example of showing (from Baghdad Exceeds Its Object):
Look at all your backstory material. Make lists of characters and other types of information. Start to make groups.
Place the photos of your characters next to each other in pairs, think about their biographies, and get them disagreeing about something. What are they saying to each other? Listen and write it down.
Wikipedia's Backstory
"ring the changes" (origin of this phrase)
Model another story; repurpose other media
Retell another story. First, re-situate a story from its time and place to your time and place. Reverse the gender of all the characters. Now re-write the story, word for word, making the changes you need to to fit the new time, place, and people.
Do the same thing with a movie. Re-situate and retell. In another class, the students watched Ibsen's A Doll's House, which takes place in Norway over a hundred years ago. Resituate it to South Buffalo in 2007.
For example, illustrate/film on of these old-time radio shows
Let the story grow organically.
Let's ring the changes on the Gary Provost quotation above. First, we'll change it from 3rd person to first person singular.
Now first person plural.
Now let's ring the changes, layering in your backstory.
Write out from the center.
Then you have two choices:
give
yourself permission to lie, to change what really happened to what
could have or should have happened
tell
it as it really happened and then ring the changes (see above) on it
Example | Start with the wedding and work back to when they first met.
Especially good for historical events
Sketch it out, sort of advanced doodling. Sketch out flashes and snapshots of action, then assemble them chronologically.
The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations -
short
list |
expanded list
by Georges Polti
http://www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard/articles/NFW-031.htm
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