Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Main Assignment

Get your templates for the assignment script and storyboard from here.
G:\mmedia\Cert III Media 2010\Write Content\assessments

Here are some good examples of commercials of a community service nature. They were screened on channel 9 during C TV (or childrens' tv time 4pm to 6pm) every week day.

Notice there are several elements that are typical to a commercial that are often not present in films.

  • The images match what is being said.
  • There is a jingle.
  • The visuals suit the target audience.

Dirt and Germs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3GSgfdL_J8&feature=related

Dingalings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ayU8dWCLAM&feature=related

Why we eat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQdAHlQh18&feature=related

Vitamins and Minerals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlL9G0ugKmM&feature=related

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Workshop # 3 - A children's book

Weeks 4 to 5.

Your task is to write a children's book.

For an example of content review the books I have brought it, and for reference of pace and wording check out this video of a classic "Goodnight Moon".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F97is-K4n8

  • Minimum 5 pages.
  • Minimum 3 illustrations.
  • Published in Flash to be interactive.
  • Posted to your Artdes server.
Your target audiences are children from 1 to 3.

Children aged 1 identify colours, sounds and images.

Children aged 2 can identify numbers and assign names to objects.

Children aged 3 can count to 5 or 10 and know most of the alphabet - however focus on phonetics to teach the alphabet rather than A is for apple for example. Say, Apple starts with "a-eh". What are the sounds in Apple? "a-eh" and "pull", say "a-eh", "pull".

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Workshop # 2 - Choose Your Own Adventure

Task # 2 – weeks 3 to 4.

You must write the content for a Choose Your Own adventure story. The focus is on the content and the way the story is crafted, not the technical aspects to run the game. We will put the pages together using Dreamweaver, but the visual content is nowhere near as important as the words on the page.

You must weave your story convincingly to draw the player/reader in.

You may use combat, but use it wisely and easily. For example, in room 2 you could put the player in front of a massive dragon. You write something like, if you want to attack the dragon click here, or if you want to run away in fear, click here.

In context being able to kill a dragon on the second page is unlikely. Save it for room 10 for example. The path to room 10 went through room 5 where you told the player they had found a magical sword. So by room 10 you know they have the sword if you designed your room layout correctly.

Also have another room 10 (maybe room 11 which the text is exactly the same) which never went through room 5 so the player doesn’t have the sword, and if they attack are slaughtered immediately.

The examples above are just ideas, so please make up your own story, but you can use similar devices to draw the player through your game.

1. Create a flowchart using simple boxes and text to map out your choices as the player progresses through your game/story.

2. Write a description for each room with an exit description to each new room.

3. Write to suit the reader and theme (ie young fantasy reader, or seasoned RPG diehard)

4. It can be any theme you want (scifi, romance, horror, action, suspense, comedy, tragedy).

5. Keep the room count down to about 10 rooms.

6. Make it fun to read.

7. We will then enable it in Dreamweaver next week.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Workshop # 1: 3 minute short film.

Weeks 1 to 2

Write a 3 minute film script with a title page, and synopsis page (5 pages in total). Each page = 1 minute of screen time. You can make up your own story or use the one here and complete it.

Grab an example of the "Terminator" script from here for reference.
G:\mmedia\Cert III Media 2010\Write Content\scriptwriting

It needs to have at least one of each of the following...
  • Scene header
  • Dialogue
  • One CHARACTER (always type characters in bold)
  • Sound effect (left justified SF:) or visual effect (FX:)
  • Camera Direction (left justified PAN UP:)
  • Beginning (the setup)
  • Middle (the crisis)
  • End (the resolution)
Here's an example...

(synopsis)

Synopsis is a brief way of telling the ENTIRE story in one or two paragraphs.

One day a little girl by the name of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD set off to visit her GRANNY in a dark forrest. She comes across a menacing WOLF, that later eats her GRANNY (we believe) and takes her place in bed. When LRRH arrives, she immediately senses something is up, but is not quite sure. She begins to remark on GRANNY's new features ie "what big eyes you have". It soon becomes apparent that GRANNY is actually the WOLF who chases LRRH out of the house. At the moment of LRRH's imminent peril, a WOODSMAN comes to her aid and lops off the WOLF's head. As a twist the WOLF tranforms back into GRANNY.


Beginning, Middle and End

Beg: LRRH ventures into the forrest and sees the WOLF
Mid: Confrontation with GRANNY/WOLF
End: The chase and battle with the WOLF dying.

Shot sizes:

MCU: Medium close up (head and shoulders)
CU: Close up (Eyes and mouth)
XCU: eXtreme Close up (Eyes)
LS: Long shot ( full body)
M2: Medium 2 shot (2 people - waist up)
WIDE: Wide (opening scene - whole set/stage/room)
MED: Medium 1 shot (1 person - waist up)
LOW ANGLE: Looking up at an object/person (menancing)
HIGH ANGLE: Looking down (things look small and insignificant)

(scene header)

1 EXT. FORREST DAY 1


(action description) We see LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD running merrily along a path in the forest. While skipping along her red hood from which the villagers gave her the name, is bobbing up and down and seems to shine brightly. As she continues, the shine on her hood seems to dim, and she follows a dark path on into the forest. This visual aesthetic is meant to create a sense of impending doom.

(dialogue example. Notice the character is always UPPER CASE anywhere in the script)

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
(gleefully)
What a wonderful day, I'm off to see Granny.

(camera direction)
PAN UP to see the sun is setting rather quickly considering it was just midday. We assume this is some sort of time lapse.

(sound effect)
SFX: Wolf howling.

(visual effect)
FX: As the sun sets, the clouds seem to look like a menacing skull.

FADE OUT: