Storytelling unit- research

I decided to go with the theme of racism in my story, because it creates emotion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYPaf6TiiGQ - I want to story to be told and filmed in such an innocent and sweet way similar to this advert i have posted

Storytelling unit - screenwriting

Screenwriting-
Give your audience all the ingredients of your story, time scaling, goals being set up

Each story should included

• Set up (beginning) 
• Development (middle) 
• Resolution (end) 

In every script must included, every scene, act, dialogue, action and movement 

The hook is the bulk of the setup, putting your character into action, making them who they are. My hook is going to be the mother of the white child coming to the park and taking the boy away and telling him not to plan with the black little boy because of his race, there must also be a pause for reflection after the climax 'breathing moment' so I'm thinking about having the little boy play by himself in the park and a peaceful scene no dialogue. 

There is then going to be a dramatic climax, the bit of the story that shows no point of return when the little Kenyan boy goes home to a quite violent mother, as parenting styles are different in a very African background as they have a stronger approach to their children and a heavy involvement with education and social lives, I was going to have a strict mother angry at her child for going out to play football she then gets angry with him and strikes her child, which to a different culture is a regular thing however to an English audience this would be seen as shocking. I might then have the racist family ban the other child from playing with the little black boy, however I wasn't sure how this could show a change, or an overcome problem, and shows no resolution at the end? 

Storytelling unit- Project briefs and ideas

A 10 page screenplay-

1. Based around a meeting 
2. Must be a fictional piece, created by myself 
3. Focus must be on two characters meeting 
4. Set in one main location 
5. The complete draft screenplay properly formatted must be submitted on Monday Oct 21st 

Potential ideas I had- 

• Mother And daughter story- mother middle aged, and a young timid daughter who she left at a young ages- daughter raised by single dad lacking in confidence, with a blunt rude mother meeting for the first time in a cafe, mother is an alcoholic with something to ask the daughter, mother turns up with no money, constantly looks over round, shifty. Tone changes from sweet, happy innocent to tense and uncomfortable then the mother comes on screen. Young girl brings photographs about herself but the mother Is not interested, turns out the mother only got in contact with for money? Or medical help? Such as a kidney? (Not sure) 
• Two little boys what to play football but caught up in a mixed background, and face very adult issues, themes? Childhood innocent? Racial awareness? Modem day parenting? The two little Boys cross paths at a park, unaware of skin tone or other things they just want to play football together, both a bit lonely. One from a Kenyan background and a lower class arrogant family but some how get along, however problems come when the little boys are torn apart as the little  black boy comes from a strict background and the white boy comes from a racism family. And both family's have problems with there issues 
• Another idea is about a brother and sister meeting after the son was asked to leave the family home by his parents, I was going to have a emotional journey of a sister as she wants to see her brother however doesn't want to upset the family, the twist in the plot is the brother is actually a bit of a mean person and gets his sister to steal money other things, but as the sister goes to meet the brother he doesn't turn up, making the dedication to her brother fade away

But these are all just potential ideas, and I am leaning more towards the two little boys story 

Storytelling unit- Website on pitch ideas

http://www.moviepitch.com/pitch/pitching-tips/

Storytelling unit- Prewriting

The pre-writing to a screenplay is more important then writing the actual screenplay, poorly developed characters can bring down a story and almost ruin the flow, characters and setting need to fit to maintain audience satisfaction and help them believe in the story, it is also important to write for a cause or a reason and get more involved in a story. Pre writing includes-

• The idea 
• The story 
• The theme 
• The character 
• Development of character/setting
• One aspect that is important to you 
• Brainstorming ideas 
• Who is it about? When, where, why
• Something you care about 

The theme- the idea behind your story 

Character and structure - getting your character right is important, including other characters, and answering questions who are they? What are their beliefs? 

When writing- collate your ideas, asking questions, building story, research these ideas and structure! As I start to ink of my own ideas I'll be going by this list to ensure a good screenplay outcome 

Storytelling unit- Pitches

A pitch can be the most important thing to producers, if an idea has a good pitch then producers will be interested and would read your screenplay.

As a mini project in lectures we had to create our own pitch for Soft mine went like this-
A hard hitting drama based around the lives of a timid father and son faced against some voile not neighbourhood bullies and challenges they have to overcome.

I leant that it is important to create selling elements in the pitch, so they are interested to find out more.

Storytelling unit- Story ideas

Where do stories come from?

• Newspapers 
• Personal experiences 
• Other peoples experiences 
• Imagination
• Film adaption?

We watched a emotional film made by Simon Elise, called Soft. An idea/theme can be created from anywhere and throughout the story you can create a seed to create interest in the story and hook the audience in.

Soft used camera phones which created a sense of realism,  the time span is important to show aswell, soft is films over the time of about an hour however some story's can take days, weeks, years. Creating good characters is important too, certain details about your characters such a traits or mannerisms need to be included into a screenplay as it generates interest and could be important to the story. The set up of a story can be important, a set up could just be a situation a that develops into story sucks as the setting of a pub, or park.

Storytelling unit-

Today Simon told us all about the storytelling unit we will be learning about-

We learnt about the script ingredients that need to be included such as

• Characters 
• Location 
• Sounds 
• Story 
• Plot 
• Theme 

And the story ingredients needed to create good storytelling 

1. Goal 
2. Problem to overcome 
3. Change 

The goal will be something the protagonist hasn't got, need to solve or need to find! Great storytelling involves a goal that is no longer needed which can create a twist in the story.

The problems a protagonist need to overcome (might be the goal) create drama and hurdles all the way along, this can be introduced at the beginning of a film or story. Which then continues to the. Change of affairs, the world created in the story must show a change, or a character development making it a true story, such as the Change a film we watched called Witness which was very interesting about a hard nut police office helping a young child (I won't give away the ending) but there is a noticeable change that he overcomes as a character. 

storytelling unit- Introduction

This is my media blog, I have lots of media ideas and throughout my course I will be posting and update all my research/development and production and decisions. Make sure you keep reading!