As Live- update

Today i had a tutorial with Helen about my As Live unit. I explained to her that i have 2 ideas (both of which I blogged about in my last post.) When Helen heard about my ideas her first problem was the same as what i have been thinking. How are we going to make it possible to cook in the studio with limited budget and time? Knowing this my idea for the student cooking show was pushed to the side and we concentrated on the cookery dating show idea.
One of the ways we thought of to get around having to build a kitchen on set, would be to have the 3 potential dates cooking for the singleton in his/her own home and using my 3 VT's for this. The As Live part of the show would come from the second half of the programme when it will be shot in the studio with an audience.
The scenes being shot in the studio are going to be 2 rounds, concentrating on the singleton getting to know her 3 potential dates a bit more. Whilst all of this is happening there will still be the Blind Date side to things in which all 3 hopefuls identities will be withheld from the singleton until his/her final choice is revealed.
Another idea that has been thought of is that round by round another section of the hopefuls will be revealed to the singleton. For example whichever hopeful wins round one, would have a panel removed to reveal part of their body the the singleton.
I clearly have more planning to do on this and will be doing it in the coming days.

As live-ideas

I have been having some trouble trying to decide on an idea for my as live project. I have decided that my programme will be based around cooking and i have 2 main ideas that i am going to develop.

The first idea is a programme about student cooking. There would be 2 teams from 2 different universities, who would compete to make the best 3 course meal from a limited budget. There would also be ingredients that the teams would have to use in their cooking, the ingredient would be something that is considered typically 'studenty.' For example baked beans or supernoodles. The best 3 course meal which comes on or under budget would win.

My second idea was another cooking show mixed with a dating show. There would be 3 male contestants, all wanting a date with the bachelorette. They would have to cook a 2 course meal for her with a budget and at the same time as cooking they would need to try and 'woo' her. I was thinking of bringing another element to this by having screens up so that the bachelorette cannot see them and has to rate them on their cooking and personality.

I obviously need to do some more development on these ideas and will be doing that over the next few days.

Fiction Adaptation- research

I have been doing some research for my fiction adaptation unit. I thought that if I did some research into the writer of my chosen poem i could find out if there is anything i can include to make it more personal to the poet.

The writer of The Listeners is Walter de la Mare, born in Kent on 25th April 1873 and died on 22nd June 1956. People have said he had two distinct aspects to his imagination, the childlike and the boylike. Walter de la Mare wrote a significant amount of ghost stories, with around 40 of his 100 published books being written around this genre of supernatural content. He also wrote some subtle psyhcological  horror stories, "Seatons Aunt" and "Out of the Deep" 2 of the main books he received praise for.

Finding out that Walter de la Mare was a very keen horror story writer has made me think that I can have the opportunity to make a film which is even more scarier then what i had originally planned. I want read through some of the books and poems he wrote to see if i can get anymore inspiration for my filming.

As Live

We had a lecture today about our As Live project. This project is based around me coming up with an idea for a 30 minute programme that will be shot 'As Live.' 

We were taught about things such as what timings should be set for certain segments, checking the sound and making sure the set is appropriate for the type of programme you are wanting. We also learnt that if you are doing a programme that will have a series of questions and answers between the presenter and guests that the positioning of the guests and presenter is key, and the shots that should be used, making sure that they do not cover their faces up with their hands etc. 

In the afternoon we did a workshop which involved us doing a mini As Live set up and put ourself in some of the roles that are needed. I had a chance to be floor manager. I really enjoyed this experience and it made me realise that there is a lot to this job and also that communication is key. 

Fiction adaptation- ideas for shots.

I have been thinking some more about my fiction adaptation unit and in more detail about the way i will shoot it. I was originally planning on having the whole thing shot from a POV angle with a few other shots of the scene here and there, but now Helen has given me a suggestion of possibly using the idea of voyeurism. Voyeurism is based on a person who has an interest in someone who is doing something that is considered private. A good example of a voyeurism film is the 1960 film Peeping Tom directed by Michael Powell, in which a young man murders women, using a video camera whilst in the process to film their dying expressions of terror.
I would use the method of voyeurism in my film by having the stalkers POV on the young innocent girl. This would not only give the impression of the girl being much more innocent but in a more vulnerable position. Along with sounds such as heavy breathing from the stalker and fast panicked breathing from the young girl, this will create the effect I am looking for.

Ideas for fiction adaptation

I have been brainstorming some ideas for my fiction adaptation unit. my chosen poem of The Listeners, first gave me the image in my mind of a young girl alone and scared, with the feeling that she was being watched or followed by someone. I have then expanded this idea by thinking about things such as sounds, locations and lighting I think would work well in this concept. Below are a list of rough ideas I have come up with so far, I will expand even more on these ideas over the coming weeks.


Emotions wanted-

• Scared
• Alone
• Panic
• Lost and trying to find a way out 
• Hiding
• Feeling of being watched
• Innocence

Sounds

• Nursery rhymes 
• Wind chimes
• Silence
• Whispers
• Voices becoming louder and louder

Location

• Woodland
• Derelict house
• Secluded
• Cold
• Eerie

Main character

• Young girl
• Innocent and scared of the unknown
• Having flashbacks of the life she used to have
• Running away from something
• Crying
• Wanting to go home
• Holding onto a teddy bear for a reminder of happiness and memories

Ideas for how to convey words of the poem.

• Words to be shown on screen for audience to read themselves, with a backing track of creepy nursery rhyme music.
• The stalker whispering the verses.
• The girl whispering the verses.
• The words being said aloud by a voice over.

These ideas are just a very brief outline of what I have been thinking of for my film. I still have a lot more detail to go into and will be doing that over the next week or so. 

Fiction adaptation- first lecture

Today we had our first lecture with Helen on our fiction adaptation unit. This unit will involve us picking one of four poems and adapting it into a film. The poems we could choose from were:

• Jabberwocky- Lewis Carrol
• The Listeners- Walter de la Mare
• The Burning of the Leaves- Laurence Binyon
• The Horses- Ted Hughes
• An Arundel Tomb- Philip Larkin

I chose the poem The Listeners. This is because when i read this poem I straight away had a idea in my head of how i could translate this piece of writing into my own piece of film.  

The other part of this unit is a essay in which we have to pick a book that has been made into a film and discuss which adaptations the film has from the book and whether or not they are for the better or worse.  I have not yet decided which book I am going to use for my essay, but have started thinking about some ideas.