Live production: Pitch & Proposal

The shows main themes and features it had from the original format had been kept, however with only a few tweaks regarding the running of the sequence, here is a script from the day of the pitch.

Jason and I have come up with a concept for an original educational game show, aimed at a peak time audience of both adults and children.

Here is our topline: “An adventure spanning through the ages in which contestants battle through challenges to escape the Time Trap”

We like to think of it as Doctor Who meets Horrible Histories meets Pointless, combining elements of time travel with fun historical facts, wrapped up in a competitive atmosphere.

The show will involve four average Joe’s competing against each other - they have not met before and should not come from a background in history or any historical studies.

The show is aimed at a peak time audience consisting of both children and adults, and would air around 5 and 7 PM.  We imagine this is the sort of thing that parents and children could watch together after work or school - tea time telly.

We’ve seen in the last few years, particularly since 2013 that general knowledge quiz shows airing around this time have been a success with audiences.  In particular, Pointless and The Chase have led the way with viewing figures and have both been nominated for and won NTAs for Best Daytime Programme in recent years.

We feel that the Time Trap will add a new and exciting twist to the quiz show by introducing the trope of time travel and most importantly, a more focused aim toward educating the audience.

So onto the details of the show itself:

We want to go for a science fiction / steampunk sort of aesthetic.  ‘Time’ and ‘history’ are the key themes of the show so we’d like a lot of clockwork and historical imagery in the set.

We feel two presenters would work well for the show’s format.  It is important to note that they will be playing characters as well as presenting the show itself and that their portrayal of the role works in play to drive the show forward.

We have the nameless ‘Time Traveller’ - an eccentric and swashbuckling genius, sort of like a cocky Doctor Who.  In the presentation this character is male, but could easily work for a female as well. He or she is joined by Larry - the Time Traveller’s long-suffering assistant.  I feel he should be the Igor to Dr Frankenstein, but also be the loveable idiot - like Baldrick. I picked out this clip which I feel illustrates the sort of dynamic between the two that I would like to see.

The show itself will consist of four rounds which we’ll go into a bit more detail shortly but in the meantime, we’ve worked out a rough running order for how the show will fit together.

HAND OUT RUNNING ORDER

We have a rough layout of how we envisage the set layout to look: we have the seating area by the hydraulic door… We want to put a screen here through a “window” in the set to look like the Time Traveller’s “computer”.

We also have a green screen backstage, which will be used when contestants are eliminated.  They will stand in front of the green screen as a looped clip of a particular time period is played in the background - creating the impression that they have been trapped in time.

Onto the first round: “Who Said It?”.  In this round, a sound clip of a quote from a famous historical figure will be played aloud to the studio - the first contestant to buzz in and answer correctly is through to the next round.  Another quote is played for the remaining three contestants, and again until there is only one contestant left that has not answered a question.

Now we have a few quotes to test your knowledge and to get a better grasp at what the round is about:

1 - “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” KARL MARX, author of the Communist Manifesto and architect of Marxism

2 - “Trust in God - She will provide.“ EMMELINE PANKHURST, leader of the Suffragette movement

3 - “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” MAHATMA GANDHI, activist and leader of the Indian independence movement

This round will also end with a short sketch involving the three figures and our presenters getting up to some mishaps to add to the entertaining element of the show.

Round 2 will involve our contestants watching a clip of our presenters living in another time period - this draws on experiential shows such as The Victorian Slum which took ordinary people and put them in the lives of people living during the 19th century.  Our clip will last around 2 to 3 minutes and we will see the Time Traveller and Larry living the lives of ordinary people in the given time period - the contestants will then have two minutes to answer questions about the time period and the clip, the contestant with the fewest points is eliminated.

Afterwards we have round 3: Artefact Analysis.  The two remaining contestants are each showed two different historical artefacts.  We see a VT clip of the first object with hints to facts about the object, such as what it was used for - they must guess where the object is from and when it was found, made or invented.  The second contestant does the same with another VT clip, and whoever answers closest to the real answer wins the round and is through to the final.

Just to help demonstrate the concept, I’ve brought along an object for you to guess where its from and what year it’s from:

I’ll give you a few clues: this belonged to my great great grandfather, John Reade.  He was a stretcher bearer for the army and its place of origin is often referred to as ‘the forgotten front’

It was found in Thessaloniki, now known as Silonika, Greece in which the Allied Forces entered the region to fight back against German and Bulgarian forces after the collapse of Serbia in 1915 - World War 1.

We feel that this round, as well as being educational would work as a nice segment to bring about small fun little anecdotes such as this in which my great great grandad found a horse hoof in the war.

The university has contacts in the Rochester Guildhall Museum so there is potential to ask for objects from there, but I had this in my house - history is everywhere and I feel we could achieve the same thing with objects from crew members, from antique shops; practically anywhere, and we don’t necessarily need to rely on external contributors for obtaining these artefacts.

The final round is a simple 90 second quickfire answer round based on the time periods covered previously in the show.  They must answer 10 questions correctly in order to win the trophy - the Time Core - the power source for the Time Traveller’s time machine.  If they fail they may walk free, but without the Time Core trophy.

So that’s the show and a just to clarify a few things to consider in terms of logistics:

We will need to find locations to shoot the VTs depending on which time period we are shooting.  We would also need to hire actors to work alongside our main cast.  Props and costumes are something we would also need to consider, and as I said previously the objects can be obtained through a number of routes - through museums and historical societies or from people’s homes and antique shops.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our pitch - we feel that Time Trap stands out for being both educational and entertaining with an appeal to all ages.  We want to use aspects of experiential formats combined with the competitive nature of a quiz show to add tension and life to fun and learning. Any questions are welcome.

I was super impressed with how myself and Alex composed ourselves for this pitch, we went in with the right mindset and approach and i feel it paid dividends, possibly not enough to get us first position, however we did get runners up. Obviously we knew that with this concept being a game show, we were already at a disadvantage due to previous years creating the latter, however it was an idea we both felt really worked and was definitely achievable in the realms of a studio based show.

Live Production: Unit briefing and initial concepts

So we were briefed on our new unit production which entailed a list of things for us to do.
Our main task was to come up with a concept that could be screened 'As live', so any TV show format in the realms of being realistically achievable, i.e chat shows, fashion programmes, game show etc. 

We were put into pairs to work on our concepts together, I was put with Alex and we both decided to come up with our own idea initially, and then see which one would work best.

Alex came up with his concept called 'Time Trapped', which was a historical game show with 2 presenters, mine was called 'Out of Context', a musical themed game show with 1 presenter. 

We spoke with Helen briefly about our initial concepts and she knew that we needed to research more and find a better angle for both 

Live production: Development of concept

Having had a discussion with Helen regarding both of mine and Alex's concepts, we decided collectively it was probably best to drop my idea and continue further development on Alex's as his had a more cohesive, stronger structure & concept. 

(Alex's initial concept)

So having two minds focusing on one concept benefited quite relatively, we added a feature of a segment of my show, onto Alex's, which was a lyric from a famous musician/song, and contextualised it into something that would fit the tone of the show, that being a famous sentence of a historical figure. 

We still knew there was much more development to happen and we just needed to narrow down what the segments would include & what the VTs would be, but it was slowly coming together before the pitch. 

Fiction Adaptation - Critical Evaluation

Having come to the end of our first term being back at university, i can honestly say i've absorbed a variety of technical an theoretical attributes that have contributed massively to the final piece of this unit. 

   
Pre-production
What worked and i was later thankful to myself for, was my preparation on my shoot days in terms of planning out a storyboard and having a shot list. This kept structure throughout the day and sped up the process of actually filming. I felt organised throughout the entirety of pre-production, and once i got my concept i found it natural in what direction i was going with it. 
Initially the concept was a bit frail and didn't have much of an arc, but with persistence and finding that running theme, i was able to attach another layer to it which created within it a subtle narrative. 
I feel some things could of gone better in the preparations, possibly doing more research on the poem, so that i'd have a much more greater understanding as that is absolutely pivotal in an adaptation of anything, to know 100% what the source material is trying to convey and its origins. 
At the end of it though, looking back, i'm content with how i managed my time and prepped shoot days, i've taken a lot away from this experience.


Production
All the shoot days went relatively smooth, i was extremely happy with the footage i recorded and how efficient i was gathering it all. It was definitely due to the work put in beforehand with all of the preparation achieved which set the tone really for the rest of my production, in terms of being ready and set. 
However there is still always room for improve and i feel that if i was that little bit more prepared, i could of actually filmed on just one day instead of over two. I think this could of easily been accomplished if i would of prepped just that little bit more and if i gave the weather a bit more attention. I lacked general common sense of the first shoot day as i completely forgot the sun setting stupidly early and lost precious time because of that. Also, even though i was able to get some great looking shots, i still need to refine my skills with the Panasonic DVX 200s. They're great cameras but i still don't fell 100% comfortable with one of them, so maybe i need to take one out in my spare time and have a play around. 
Again, there're things that what i set out to achieve, had been, but on the whole i can see looking back now that there is still a lot more learning to be done in terms on theory and practical.


Post-production
The edit was the part i was dreading, i knew it was going to be the sound that would make or break the video and to find juxtaposing sound designs that worked was going to take me some time. What i also wanted to try and incorporate into it was some style of soviet montage editing, i was thinking intellectual, or possibly some rhythmic as well. I'm not sure if i captured it but the scene where i cut from the water drop to a drop of water splashing on the leaf with a huge 'bang', was my attempt at the rhythmic montage, i'm not too convinced i had achieved it. I was happy with the general flow, but i appreciate the feedback off Mike in that there was a kind of lack of cohesiveness, however i felt the awkwardness of a mishmash of shots quite useful for the narrative especially in the middle section of my film. 

I'm still not sure on the end sequence, the quotes from the poem, i'm not sure if it ruins the entirety of it as it doesn't really fit my aesthetic that i was going for, or just that its an exposition of the poem which i really wanted to steer clear of in the first place. 

The conflicting noises were also a risk but i felt my reasoning behind it justified the decision, i felt the ambulance sirens definitely had more of the desired effect i wanted than the gun shots. I was happy with the flow of the heartbeat throughout as i felt that carried the piece in a slow progression towards the end very harmoniously. 

Obviously there were a few issues with the edit and i didn't really give myself a lot of time as the trip to Manchester didn't allow me so. I feel looking back on the finished edit, with that extra time, maybe look more into the sound design of the piece, focus more on that. To also make think more about the composition's cohesiveness, fluidity and shot selection. 

Overall though i am pleased and pleasantly surprised with how the finished edit has turned out. I can say for the first time that i'm actually kind of satisfied with myself in terms of the work that has been produced. 

What have i learnt
There were some effects utilised that i've never actually used before e.g the mirror tool, manipulating that was very satisfying an especially with the result i got out of it. 
I've also became more aware of how important time management is, and how costly it can be, so going forward i know now that preparation is the key to success. 

Having a small kind of understanding of soviet montage editing from last year, i felt it was vital to look over those editing methods again as they have useful ways in evoking emotional responses. You can create tones an emotions with what you place next to a certain image and i did try to project that into my work, but i'm not fully convinced it worked. 


What skills could be developed
There are a ton of things that could be further developed, i want to be 100% comfortable with the cameras, i want to use the lighting equipment more to be able to use them to convey contrasting emotions an evoke responses. Also throughout the majority of my composition there wasn't a great deal of camera movement and i know how effective it can be, in terms what the emotional response it can create, unfortunately i just couldn't carry back all the equipment plus a dolly to Manchester. I think as well, i possibly need to begin to start putting money into my projects, to fork out for taxis so i can get all the equipment i need to actually carry out what i had initially planned to.

Conclusion
Overall at the start of this unit i was apprehensive and unsure what to make of all the sonnets, i felt isolated and had a serious lack of creativity flowing in the cognitions. Though as the weeks progressed and research began it became apparent pretty quickly that i had a concept that would allow me to be creative and still have a subtle structure to it. I'm pleasantly surprised with how it has ended and i'll have a lot to take away from this unit in terms of all the production aspects. 

Fiction Adaptation - Critical choices & why

I just wanted to create a post which would shed light on some of the decision making and my cognition's on a variety of aspects that i feel may not get a mention otherwise. 

Sound design -
At the half way mark of my film i decide to incorporate sounds that i would associate with life and death, the passing of life especially, reasoning for this is simple, the poem speaks innately about life and the mourning of people dying and that we're not to linger on it. with the sound and visuals, I wanted it to be shocking and conflicting, to play on that fear as it adds a greater depth of layers an sophistication. 

Visual display - 
In essence to me the poem is about life, the remnants of the dead with the living and the dead transforming into something fresh and reborn. That is why reincarnation is themed visually throughout with the ice melting sequence. I tried to convey how life is cyclical with it but i'm not too sure if the audience will grasp it as it is quite obscure. I feel for what my concept was, i have displayed what i set out to achieve, but maybe some people won't be able to see link the creative metaphor with the poem as they're not open minded to the abstractness of the piece? 

Inspiration - 
A film that i had seen fairly recently, Mother, by Darren Aronofsky, left a profound feeling deep inside of me. The films biblical themes, and its usage of symbolism throughout the narrative was extremely engaging and breathtaking. 

The film popped up in my mind when i knew the theme of my poem, and the interpretation of it, as Mother is about mother nature, which just keeps giving, even know man kind keeps repeatedly destroying it, eventually killing it, it gives new life, and the cycle begins again. I intended to try and start and end with the same shot, how the film does, as it conveys the message so beautifully how cyclical the world is, unfortunately though i couldn't justify starting off with the ice cube melting as i felt it would make the structure of the narrative less powerful. 


Editing -
I was in two minds in regards to having the burning furnace sound coinciding with the flames visually, or to have it running with the ice. But in the end i decided to go with the burning sound under the flames to add emphasis on the heat, an to keep the authenticity.  

The final shot of the red robin leaving was intentional, as this is the last time we see the bird i felt it was significant due to the poems direction towards the end of it, it goes from these beautiful visuals, to an authoritative tone, so i cut in the heartbeat soundtrack which contrasts nicely with the imagery.

The end sequence with the mirror effect was chosen to signify life and death, life being represented by the shot facing upwards, and death, by the shot turned by 180 degrees. I wanted to play with the theme throughout, and that essence of remaining, just not being able to see. 

Fiction Adaptation - Film/Rough Cut Feedback

FEEDBACK FROM MIKE -

- Fits the brief, is experimental. Ice works well, the jump cuts are effective. 

- Think more about the sound design. 

- Think more about bringing it back to the poem? Possibly add titles at the end. 

- LINK BACK TO THE POEM

- Currently it is ' an inspired piece by the poem, not a true adaptation. ' However I can change that by adding titles. 

- Make it more cohesive, give it a natural flow by using the imagery and sound creatively.

Overall the feedback was positive, with the main focus being on the sound design and its development. I now need to think more about what will fit the piece and add to the cohesiveness of the visuals and the accompanying sound. 

I did have some concerns about the ice shot, as i felt the jump cuts didn't quite fit naturally, however mike liked the juxtaposition of the fire and ice. One issue regarding the opening fire scene was its duration, so i'll think about possibly shortening it, as looking back it does drag quite a bit. 

Now its just about giving it the final few tweaks, at the end especially. 

Fiction Adaptation - First rough cut

Here is my rough cut, now what needs more concentration and time is the sound design on the sequence, especially towards the end of the film.

Feedback was took on and implemented immediately, its just a case of figuring out how it can be achieved effectively. 

(Don't stand at my grave and weep)

What worked - 
The initial concept was to have a theme of reincarnation throughout it, which is displayed through the ice melting sub-narrative. I wasn't too sure if it working but after being viewed by Mike he felt it had achieved what it had set out to. 
A fair amount of content conveying the main chunk of the poem, i.e the beautiful locations, landscapes and nature itself was captured quite successfully so i was pleased about that. 


What didn't work - 
I still don't really think the narrative that i was going for really ever progressed distinctively enough, in hindsight maybe i could of been less obscure and brought in a character to really play on the loss/passing of a human. As well as this i think i included too much imagery, for what my narrative was, possibly it worked, but 


What can be improved - 
All the sound needs to be refined and looked at with more detail an scrutiny. I want to have more contrasting sounds and visuals, keeping the juxtaposition theme running throughout as i'm playing with two extremely powerful topics, life and death. 


What needs to be the focus - 
Sound and minor continuity editing issues. See how i can improve the sound and fill the spaces appropriately.