Music Video Research and Planning

"Kyoto" Pre-production Paperwork

Edvinas Talent Release

Lewis Talent Release

Ryan Talent Release

Liam Talent Release

Music Video Synopsis

Budget Sheet

Risk Assessment

Recce #1

Recce #2

Recce #3

Production Schedule

Storyboard #1

Storyboard #2

Storyboard #3

Styles, Conventions & Techniques of Music Videos

If you collectively gather a range of music videos, you will notice they all have various styles and use different techniques to help reflect the particular genre or image of the artist. These styles set different moods and tones so the director and artist can choose how they want the audience to connect with the song/music. I will be discussing many techniques used to sell and promote the artists music and image.

In-concert and 'as live' footage

Many music videos take the route of showcasing bands and artists in a concert to help attract the audience to buy tickets to see them. It gives people/viewers a good insight before actually paying to see them and if you are already a big fan that for some reason can't go to a certain tour then it gives you a chance to still see them. Including footage from a concert can also give the director a break as this would just be shot from numerous cameras by different people during the performance. Aswell as this, it doesn't require as much thought processing as it just simply uses footage from tours which can keep the overall production value down much lower. On the other hand, some music videos feature concert footage that had been specially arranged just for the video, in this case it would have cost more to setup up and hire people to be casted in the video. It is always more controlled and the director can make the footage look much better than using standard concert footage, this is why most artists tend to chose this route than using average clips. Daughtry and their song "Battleships" have a music video that features both live concert footage and setup  concert footage. This is more attracting as a viewer as you get to watch a professionally directed music video aswell as seeing them perform on-stage. The director would get promotion from the video and the band will get good marketing from the concert footage, aswell as the directed video. Most music videos just include one or the other, which is why this song is rather unique.

Narrative and Interpretive 

It is a convention for most videos to include some sort of narrative that can be interpreted from the lyrics of the song. This is usually done through lyrics or just the motion picture itself as not all music have words. It is a great way of story telling and can create a lot of emotion for the audience depending the meaning, it also helps the audience connect with the song more as they can relate the video with the words and help create a better understanding of what the song is trying to tell them. It's also common that song repeat a main phrase of a song which is usually the title, to highlight the main them of the song. A piece of music by Keane "Sovereign Light Café" has a music video which lyrically narrates spending their childhood in Southwold and attending "the" café on a regular basis as a stand-out memory. The narrative digs deep and gradually goes on about them growing up and doing different things after eventually leaving. We can also hear the title of the song as the main phrase in the song which helps reflect the whole point of the narrative. What was so strong about this is that they are returning from where they came from and looking back to how things used to be, this can strongly connect with the audience as it is a relatable story for most people and conveys a strong emotion because of the theme of returning and looking back. The fact that the music video was shot at a local beach at Southwold means it will appeal to many more locals and will surprise many others that they actually came from there, it also helps the audience get to know the artist more as a person/people.

Surrealist and Absurdist

Surrealist videos are often unconventional and normally have little to no relationship with the lyrics to the song. When thinking about it, it does seem pointless quite confusing but at the same time it can have quite a quirky spin on things and can lead to being quite entertaining to see whee it finishes. It leaves it open to interpretation so audiences can judge what the narrative behind it is themselves and maybe create a stir on the internet which induces huge amounts of views and in some cases making the video go viral. In some cases, music videos that use this style can fail hard and not have the audience hooked at all, but songs like "Where's your head at" by Basement Jaxx and "My Homies Still" by Lil Wayne took off hugely, this has a lot to do with their popularity, meaning that using this technique when you are a small or independent artist may not end up successful. "My Homies Still" is a very weird and confusing video by remains exciting and funny to watch, if you like the song you are likely to carry on watching the video. The fact that it is so strange makes it stand out from lots of other videos that the artist has done, if it is not common for this artist to have videos like this then it is more likely to stay in your head amongst all the rest. From skeletons dress up in clothes to pink painted elephants, it definitely doesn't make a strong connection to the lyrics.

Impressionist

These type of music videos attempt to capture the true vibe and emotion tone of the music instead of the meaning behind the lyrics. As the whole video is not based sincerely around the words, it makes the performance and visuals more artistic - usually anyway. Back in the 19th century there was an art movement called impressionism which was focused soley on how the artist's surroundings affects them and what they feel, rather than recording the world itself. A main convention of this artistic movement is commonly soft light and edges, flowing and intermingling colours. Editing is normally used to show interesting and engaging effects to draw the audience in, bazaar lighting effects and fluent crossfades make a video more dreamy and sets a better atmospheric tone. It is easier for lower budget productions to create these effects in post production, as for higher budget, directors are able to use different tools and equipment, aswell as cameras to illustrate different effects which can create meaning like intense lens flares and bokeh effects on the screen. In the music video for Nero "Guilt" a mixture of CGI at the beginning and flamboyant colour effects transitions have been used to set a very dramatic vibe an powerful atmosphere. Some elements prove this video fits into other types of music video, however the main conventions of this video allows it to be seen as impressionist. the audience wouldn't focus purely on the meaning of the lyrics, they would be distracted by the cool visuals on screen which is what this video is all about. The words help to set the tone and abide well with the movements and editing. The environment of the video which is set in a nightclub/stripclub really sells the song as it is what you would expect to hear inside these places. 

Intertextual: Synergy, Allusion, Pastiche, Parody and Homage

Music videos can often refer to other subjects and issues to give a wider meaning to them. It may be a soundtrack from a movie which includes footage from the film, therefore creating some element of synergy. Some videos can also allude to other sources of media text, events, people or sometimes even historical or cultural references. A pastiche is a light hearted imitation of another persons band or style and some artists use music videos as a way to respect and thank other groups or solo artists for their influences, this is known as a homage. Parodies tend to 'rip-off' big hit songs and transform them into something more entertaining for their audience. Sometimes this causes a big controversy with the subject artist of the original track and can end up with the parody being removed from the media. Usually this isn't the case if the parody doesn't offend anyone and respects all legal issues.

An example I found for synergy is "Sucker for Pain" which was sung by many listed artists. This song isn't the main soundtrack but it help hugely to promote the film "Suicide Squad" directed by 'David Ayer'. It includes genuine footage from the film of the main characters which is seen as iconic to the audience. The fact that this song has had over 30million views on YouTube alone means huge recognition for the movie. Also because there are 6 artists in total that are featured in this track, each person will receive huge recognition from other artists audiences as they will watch the video because they know they are in it.

'The Midnight Beast', a small group that originate from a YouTube channel made a parody of the song "Tik Tok" by 'Ke$ha'. The band completely re-worked the lyrics to make them more entertaining and recorded the video in such a way that it directly imitated the original but with more amusing visuals of young lads dancing around in their kitchen. The video received around 16million views on YouTube which have them the boost they needed to get them where they are now, recording their own music and still making more parodies. Luckily there was no up-raw when it was release, but as already said, as they was nothing wrong with the video and they had all rights to be able to publish it then everything is okay. The fact that the original music video was a high budget production and then parody had a very low budget, makes the video even more funny as it was just recorded in presumably one of there (very messy) houses.

Animation

Animation is another style in which music videos can be presented, they usually offer more unique and interesting visuals on-screen to get the audience interested as to what is being shown. It enables the director to include many imaginative things that would be impossible to capture in real life and allows a story to be told in a more interesting way with normally exaggerated visuals. This technique is seen as a very creative way of telling a narrative and as audiences aren't as familiar to these videos as they are to other sorts, it is likely they will remember more about it and absorb more of what they see.

The 'Gorillaz' are an alternative rock band that have their image based soley off of cartoons - their early fan base grew up having no idea what they look like in person. This may seem strange to most but this idea has set this band apart other groups to make them extremely unique and stand out from all the rest. The music video for "Feel Good" is purely an animated video with some presence of real life imagery, featuring the Gorillaz and a floating windmill. Because this isn't your usual music video, people will react slightly confused by it and later stay stuck in their heads.

Lip Sync, Miming, Playback

Most music videos nowadays include some form of lip sync, whether it is through miming the songs lyrics or a technique called playback. Using these techniques allow the artist to change the pace/speed of the song whether it is slow or fast and fit the lyrics to it. Miming the track is also used when the artist might be moving a lot in the video or in a particular scene, they would usually get out of breath actually singing the lyrics so instead they just mime.

In the music video for "The Scientist" by 'Coldplay', a really cool and innovative idea was used to get the main singer to mime the lyrics backwards. The video shows the artist singing whilst everything is being played backwards, including himself. The singer had to actually learn most of his song backwards so in the editing stage when it's reversed the words will be heard as normal, a very clever idea. Again, as this is such a strange idea, people will remember it for such an awesome idea. Aswell as a music video it can also be seen as a piece of art.

Cutting to the beat

Cutting to the beat is another technique music videos use, it is where shots are cut to match exactly with the beat of the song, as a result this creates rhythm to the edit. The song "Sexy and I know it" by 'LMFAO' has a music video which cuts to the beat on the build up to the drop. Because the cuts fit perfectly in sync, the video flows really smooth and gives good pace with the music. The shots only cut to beat on the build up to make that part of the song stand out, this is the bit just before the drop so it needs to be dramatic and long winded so the drop can be exaggerated.

Post-production Effects

Post-production effects can be used for a number of different reason to serve different purposes, they may sometimes be added as a way to impress and 'wow' the audience or maybe because you have no choice and need to add CGI for a specific effect you need. There may also be a chance that some people don't really like the music track but really love the visuals and effects in the video so they keep on watching it. Depending on budget, the type of effects and scale of them will differ, on lower budget productions it may be very difficult to add CGI into your video due to cost but are able to adjust lighting green screen work. On the other hand, big budget productions can pull off almost anything CGI and effects wise, like in the video "Light it Up" by 'Major Lazer'. In this video, nothing is shown other than CGI and post effects from editing softwares. Although the simple backgrounds for every scene, they have used extremely well created CGI characters to dance on-screen. This would have been done by dressing professional dancers in motion capture suits and recording them with lots of different cameras. The recordings would then be passed onto computers and then models and different skins would be placed onto the animations to make them carry out the same movements. This is a very expensive process and will only be carried out by big budget companies. The other effects they use in the video is pretty simple (lighting, camera movement) and could be achieved by low budget teams aswell.

Example of Particular Effect: Split-Screen

Split-screening is where multiple pictures or videos are shown at the same time, it is an effect that is there to impress or engage and if it is to engage then the most common use is to show two things happening at the same time. Split-screen is different to multi-imaging but is now the modern equivalent as non-linear editing makes the process more efficient. An example I have is "Lovers on the Sun" by 'David Guetta', this video uses this effect a number of times during intense scenes to make them more dramatic. The point where to the cowgirl is staring at the villain, the screen splits in two and shows a close-up of both their eyes. Another moment is where they are getting chased on horses and the screen splits into three to show different perspectives of the scene. This usually makes scenes more diverse if used correctly and makes them much more engaging for the audience to see two things at once.

Example of Particular Effect: Chroma Key

Chroma keying is an effect that is added in post-production where a blue or green screen is used. This effect removes the coloured area behind the subject to reveal a transparent layer, this then allows the background to be changed to make the person/people seem as if they are somewhere different. In the music video for "Hurt" by Yung Lean, a green screen has been used constantly throughout specifically for shots with him in. By the director choosing to do this, they are able to put multiple images behind him without having to mask around him. It is a great way to be creative and gives the opportunity to make the impossible possible. Because of the ability to change backgrounds it can place the artist in different scenes with different images in each shot, this can be a great way to 'market' their look. This gives Yung Lean his image as true artist of 'Vaporwave'. This technique also always the audience to understand the theme better, if real life imagery was used instead of CGI and green screens, the message wouldn't be as strong and would make your imagination flow as well.

Camera Movements

Camera movements are the use of different camera angles, tilts, pans, crab and tracking shots to show a variety of multiple movements, it can create excitement for the audience by providing more diverse and dynamic footage. The the music video for "Stressed out" by 'Twenty One Pilots' mostly every shot is hand held which is evidently shown through the camera wobble. this slight shakiness to the camera gives a casual look to the video and makes you feel more involved with what is going on. You can really picture how important camera movement is if you imagine every shot being static with no movement at all. It would be very slow and each shot wouldn't flow as nicely. Movements bring the video to life which is very important for a music video as camera work has to fit with the tone/mood of the song.

Camera Shots/Angles

A huge mixture of shots, angles and lengths are used in a music video, quite like camera movements it gives the director an opportunity to create a specific mood  and tone for a media text. This technique allows to show different elements of mise-en-scene which brings across a broader perspective of the narrative to the audience. In the music video for "I'll Show You" by 'Justin Bieber' the variation of angles and shot types tells a unique story from his perspective. The massive contrast in shots really gives a diverse look to the video which shows off the location in all it's beauty, the wide/long shots help to capture the whole environment whilst still showing the main vocalist. The types of shots that are used in a music video can really setup the artists image, for example if in almost every music video for an artist there were low angles of them, they could come across as intimidating or aggressive and the opposite for other shots. For this video it was important to show the audience that the singer is free and enjoying life. These shots really show this perspective.

Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-scene is most commonly seen as the biggest thing in music videos, the way each scene is structured is what drives the narrative forward. It is a way to create an atmosphere and set a tone using lighting, costume, and location without the use of dialogue (however, sometimes dialogue is used). The story it creates has the power to highlight key social issues or promote a political message, the mise-en-scene is what the audience will associate the artist with, for example Lady Gaga is known for having quirky, and out of the ordinary music videos, this attracts a certain type of audience to her music. Therefore it shows as a positive way in which an artist can market themselves and their image, how they was to come across to their fans.

The aspects of mise-en-scene in "Hymn for the Weekend" by Coldplay, is very strong as it uses multiple elements to create a powerful message. The location for the video is in India which we know is significantly covered in poverty, the colours we associate with this are very dull and boring to set a miserable and depressing tone. This video however, uses bright colours, fireworks, fancy coloured clothes and children smiling to make people see the good side of the country. It really shows the place in a new light.

Single Camera Techniques

In this essay I will be addressing the key terms of single and multi-camera productions and explaining different elements that go into making them. In single-camera productions the camera is moved within a particular scene to create a personal and more realistic look. The scene normally has to be reset numerous times to tweak and change angles to capture action from different perspectives. In multi-camera productions there tends to be around 4 cameras that are used in total, there may be fewer or more but 4 is how many it usually takes to make a successful production. Three cameras are commonly setup stationary and the fourth will available for the director to use to focus mainly on any key aspects he feels needs to be shot.

Single-camera productions are filmed using one camera, directors feel it is a tool to get the audience into the action and allows the film/programme to have a more realistic/intimate feel. It is known that some single-camera productions film with more than 1 camera on occasion, but normally only if there is a very difficult scene to shoot or if a scene is particularly heavy on dialogue. The majority of directors tends to favour single-camera productions as they are given more control over the camera and are able to take their time to set up each shot one by one, making every scene that bit more accurate. Multi-camera productions can sometimes create problems for a crew in terms of locations due to logistical requirements, however with single-camera productions, you are able to shoot anyway(depending on permissions). As there is only one camera certain scenes may have to be shot and acted over and over again so the director can capture shots from different angles and to re-shoot anything with continuity errors or dialogue issues. With repetition like this makes the production more expensive in total but it does allow for the actors to get into character much easier. "Touch of Evil", a film made in 1958, had an opening scene that last 3 minutes long and was recorded with no cuts at all. This would have meant all dialogue would have to be spot on without any room of error and all acting had to be perfect. To re-shoot a scene of 3 minutes over and over would have take far too much time and money.



Multi-camera productions are best for filming media products that cannot be re-shot without any possibility of continuity errors or live TV. It is most common for actions films to include more cameras in production, especially during a large stunt or explosion as they will rely on multiple cameras to cover the event from numerous angles. this keeps costs down as they won't have to keep making the same explosion again and again. Aswell as this, scenes do not have to stop and start continuously to get the right shot and to ensure audio is correct, more cameras mean there is more of a chance to get shots you want without needing to re-shoot. One of the best things is that with more footage to deal with, you have a wider option of clips to choose from when editing, which is always handy. This scene from "Rush Hour" is a great example of this as more than one camera would have been set up to capture it from different angles, resulting in no time or money being wasted to reset the scene.



Lighting a single camera production is way more easier to control than multi-camera as you are able to light each shot individually, this allows for a more professional look as no shots will have any unvaried lighting or a flat look about them. You have the power to give your shots extra tone and a more intricate style to make them look the best they can possibly be. With multi-camera setups however, the light needs to be suitable for every shot, when done right it will look like every shot was recorded at exactly the same place but if done wrong there is a chance some shots will look flat and unvaried , making it seem like it was shot in a studio.

Sound is mostly used in the same way amongst both types of production, it is essential to use external microphones such as Rode shotgun mics to capture the full potential of your audio. Relying on built-in microphones is a bad thing to do as quality is lower and they often include much more background noise which is not something you want. Sound effects like Foley, dialogue any ambient sounds that are used are added or tweaked in post, for both types of production. In single-camera productions you will be using one, maybe two cameras and one microphone, because of this you need to include some slight overlay - meaning recording just before and cutting just after the scene. This will ensure that all of the audio was captured for that specific scene which prevents any jumpy starts. Having these awkward pauses in dialogue or any other audio can make a production seem very un-professional which is why overlaying is a great idea. As mentioned before some of these productions do need a second camera when particular scene is heavy on dialogue or any other scene which requires more camera.

With multi-camera productions it can often be easier to record dialogue as they can allow for the mics to be seen during the scene, like the "Jeremy Kyle Show". In this programme we see many camera setup around the studio and in the off-chance any people on the show run off stage, the camera normally follows them around the studio where we can see audio equipment being used to capture what they are saying. In soaps however, like "Eastenders", they attempt to hide all of the equipment by using very minimal long shots to prevent any cables or microphones showing, there may be a few long shots we see but on an average episode it is extremely rare to even see one long shot - this is because it can sometimes take a lot of preparation to setup the equipment so you can't see it. The source of audio isn't always seen on-screen, there are times where there will be a voice over accompanied by cutaways, this means the audio and footage doesn't always have to be recorded at the same time, which is quite common for single camera productions.

The editing stage (also known as post-production) is the time after filming where you gather every piece of footage to look over and add/tweak parts of clips you want to edit, this maybe changing the colour grading of a specific shot or adding CGI of a car. During this time you will have a lot of footage to get through to find whether the shots work or if you will have to re-shoot. In single-camera productions it's common to film every shot you need in a specific time frame and location and once you have the shots you need, you finish for the day. The trouble is you normally only film the shots you need which leads to you not having any extra footage if the certain clip you filmed isn't in focus or just doesn't work. It is always best to film more than you need so there is no worry of having poorly filmed shots. Unlike multi-camera productions you are not able to mix footage together live, all editing needs to be done once filming has finished.

Multi-camera productions can be mixed and edited as they are shot, so for example; the News. There are many cameras situated in the News studio which are controlled by the operators and then mixed together by people that work in the mixing room. They determine which camera is to be shown at that time and switch between them when necessary. The same goes for any live event, like live sports such as football matches and shows like "Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!". Everything is done there and then, edited whilst it's being filmed. However, for the moments that weren't recorded live, they would have used the same technique for single-camera productions and stitch together the chosen clips after they have been shot. Both productions sometimes use things called shot logs to help keep record of which footage was successful and what wasn't. It also helps if you have forgotten to shoot anything in which you will have to plan to shoot again.

The main two formats for single-camera and multi-camera productions are;

• Series
• Serial

A series consists of numerous episodes which include the same characters but a variated storyline in each episode. Although there is only normally one established plot in the episode, there can also be many different sub-plots that carry over into many other episodes that can sometimes be resolved in the last episode. Like in the series "Inbetweeners" there is a main plot per episode, but with Simon fancying Carly, this complication follows through into almost every series, allowing the audience to have more to follow and make a further connection with that certain character or even the show as a whole. This format is usually recorded in a single-camera production to enable it to have a more personal and realistic feel to it. It tends to be easier for series formats also as episodes tend to be shorter and hardly an intense scenes which require more cameras.

A serial is a collection of episodes that has one main storyline which develops across the each episode. "Harper's Island" was a TV series broadcasted back in 2009, it featured the same characters in every episode until one by one each character was killed off, and the same story continued throughout the whole season until we come to the conclusion of who the murderer is. These episodes can of course include multiple subplots to keep it more engaging, but the main plots proceeds continuously. Soap Opera's such as "Hollyoaks" and "Coronation St." also fits into the format of serial production but uses a form of narrative labelled 'Multi-strand', this is the overlapping of numerous storylines, a huge cast and no actual ending to the narrative. These and other soap opera's do not end, soaps run continuously for years or however long they are able to run for. This video shows just how important it is to have multiple cameras on set for serials like "Hollyoaks" as it's very efficient for what they have to shoot.


Some soaps like "Dallas" which was shown in America had to bring the soap to a finish and were faced with a hard decision of how to end the soap altogether, it was finally concluded that they would bring all the characters together in one building and have a bomb kill the whole lot, very cliche. Coronation St. has been running for about 57 years, the first episode broadcasted live in 1960. This being the first soap on television, many others have been created since then aiming to relate to lots of varied audiences like teens and adults. Hollyoaks started in 1995 which is quite a while after Corrie but it also aimed itself at younger adults and teens instead of adults and middle aged people. Serials are often shot using multi-camera techniques as there is mostly a lot more going on within scenes and are more heavy with dialogue.

The Journey of a Script

Job roles within the commissioning process

Commissioning Editor

A Commissioning Editors job is to identify scripts, books and other media products to publish by deciding whether or not it's worth commissioning by attending book fairs, performing internet research, surveys and maybe going to press conferences. This will help the commissioning editors learn about varied trends and different gaps in the market to find out if the idea proposed to them will be worth publishing and working out if it will be successful and make them a good deal of money. You can look at these people as basically a buyer of a product.

Producer

The Producer is a significant part of the writer's journey as they are the people who turn a writers story idea into an ideally profitable film. Producers will commission a writer to work with the production of their story or buy the rights to the screenplay, novel or whatever it may be. Once the screenplay is sold, the writer only has the rights they agreed on with the buyer. When and if a Producer buys a writer's script they can change the story however they wish, whether it is changing a few characters here and there or completely re-arranging the plot. However, writers get very angry because of this and unfortunately cannot do anything about it as from the moment their script is sold they lose all rights to it. In some occasions if the writer's story gets changed and the writer sees it as a terrible adjustment they take their name off of the screenplay.

Director

A Director is the most important person during the production of a film, controlling all the artistic and dramatic aspects of film. Once a producer purchases the rights to a successful screenplay, the producer will look for a director who will be in charge of interpreting the script and making it into a film with fellow actors and crew. In pre-production process, the Director will normally meet the writer of the screenplay that he's directing to gain insight and further understanding of the characters, themes and narrative. During production the writer can sometimes help and get involved with the filming process but this depends if the director wants any guidance, which is mostly the case.

This whole measure of receiving scripts, meeting with the writer, discussing certain elements and having further support is sometimes eliminated when a Director writes their own screenplays. Some directors do this because they like to see their own creations come to life or to bypass the whole exchanging scripts process with the writer. A great example of a director that wrote, directed and acted in his own screenplay is "Quentin Tarantino" in "Pulp Fiction", a black comedy crime film made in 1994.

Script Editor

Before anything, Script Editors normally work with the screenwriter to give a second opinion/view on it to help improve the strength of the script. This will give the screenwriter lots of help to understand where he might have gone wrong and what he needs to do in order to improve it. After this, Script Editors will work as part of the camera department to ensure that the production has continuous verbal and visual integrity. They must make sure that when different takes and scenes are finally decided on and edited, the production does not contain any eye-catching and distracting continuity issues. Script Editors/Supervisors look closely at every shot and take precise, detailed notes to give the Editors, Directors and anyone else who needs to know an authoritative reference.

Legal and Ethical Aspects of Writing

As a Writer, there are many legal and ethical issues that have to be taken into account when becoming a screenplay writer. This includes bias, censorship, liability, watersheds and copyright.

When Screenwriters write a script they have to take into account whether or not they are being biased in their script. Meaning having favouritism or being one sided on a certain topic, such as; ethnicity, disabilities, race, etc. Screenwriters are allowed give and express their views to viewers in their story about a topic, but offending someone or disrespecting anyone in anyway is extremely unacceptable. Every screenplay must respect all audiences, cultures and beliefs.

Screenwriters will need to be aware of watershed and any sort of censorship when planning/writing their script. Any sort of adult material which is going to be shown on TV must follow strict rules depending on what time the product has to be broadcasted. Ofcom states, "The watershed begins at 9pm and material unsuitable for children should not, in general, be shown before 9pm or after 5.30am.". When the target audience is thought of and you know who you are aiming the script at, research is needed to lookup age rating guidelines on BBFC to make sure all content you produce is appropriate for your target audience.

Copyright is another very important thing, first of all if you attempt to copy someones script you will be accused of plagiarism. Furthermore, if they have copyrighted their screenplay and you attempt to copy it you are liable to get sued by them. However if the issue has been taken to court and they haven't copyrighted their screenplay, they will find it very difficult to prove it is theirs, vice versa. Libel is the creating and distribution of a product which you know will affect someone or a group of people in either a harmful or emotional way. This is why screenwriters usually make characters not based solely on real people, in order to not harm them and create any legal issues.

Commissioning Bodies

A corporation is a large company or group of companies authorized to act as a single establishment. For the film industry there are massive film making and film distribution companies. There are four main commissioning bodies which I will speak about - these include;

• Corporations
• Independent production companies
• Independent directors and producers
• Competitions

Corporations will commission films and programmes to be created and aired on the TV or wherever it may be, one prime example is the BBC. Everything visual you see on their channels/website would have been written by usually a scriptwriter beforehand. On the BBC's website, they have a specific area for writers that wish to become noticed in the industry which offers tips and advice. Also, if someones material is at a high standard, there is a chance they may arrange a project to become of it, this obviously doesn't come easy.

Independent production companies will usually produce films and television programmes by being approached from corporations such as the BBC, asking to create them from screenplays they have maybe already obtained from someone. A great example of an independent production company is "Tiger Aspect Productions" which has produced some very iconic television series', these include; Ripper St. (BBC One), Benidorm (ITV), CUFFS (BBC One) and Mr Bean: The Animated Series (CITV)

Nowadays it is much easier for directors and producers to create and have an independent film produced without the assistance of a major film studio, due to the huge range of filming equipment that is now affordable on today’s market compared to how it was many years ago. Potentially if an independent producer or director wanted the film to become a bigger film, you would have to find an agent to help them so they could hopefully arrange and set-up meetings with a distributor if the film was potentially a profitable idea. The film "Paranormal Activity" was independently directed and produced by Oren Peli and Jason Blum with a budget of only $15,000, it was later distributed by Paramount Pictures, turning it into the most profitable movie ever made.

A great way to hopefully get your script known and to make your way into the industry is entering competitions. A winning script, as well as near winning scripts will be highly recognized and will help build your confidence to inform you that you have something special to bring to the industry with your skills as a scriptwriter. An amazing film competition is hosted by the UK Film festival called "3 Minute Script Competition", where you have to produce a script of 3 pages long, This is very efficient as it takes much less time than other contests, with the opportunity of gaining just as much recognition. There have been previous winners which received awards and have gone on to make more screenplays for other competitions.

How the Writer works

Having your life role as a Writer may seem easy, but in some cases it can be quite the opposite. Firstly a writer will be gin planning and brainstorming ideas which eventually leads onto the first draft of the screenplay. Throughout these stages, managing time wisely plays a huge part during working. Some writers have explained that they prefer setting a word count for the day, so for example if you were to set 2000 word count for the day you would spread out the course of writing with breaks and bring yourself to writing 2000 words before the day ends. For some people this doesn't work, they don't like the idea of having a set target to write towards, as ideas get messy and it is obvious that their ideas aren't really getting anyway. For these people they tend to break the day up with writing for so many hours, for example you may choose to write from 8:00am - 11:00am, have a break for a couple of hours and then resume your session straight after for another 3hours and so on. This way instead of having to write so many words, you can just work to set times instead and get as much done as you can.

Agents play quite a big part of this process as these are the people that help get the screenplay noticed by multiple directors and producers, these people will then hopefully want to drive the script forward and maybe put some pressure on the writer to get the script finished. These agents have numerous contacts in the industry to help do this. If an agent sees interest in a writers work they will normally get in contact with them to discuss their work and whether or not they will decide to represent them or not. the good thing about this is agents do not charge at all to represent a writer, they just get a paid a fixed percentage that is agreed upon with the client for when they're paid. This is why agents only choose to represent people they know will be successful and make lots of money.

Optioning is a process that most writer's go through where producers pay a certain amount of money to keep the rights to their script for however long. Within this time period, they will hang onto it while they option other scripts to find the one they like most. If then by the end of this time your script has not been chosen, the producers will just give you back your script and you can carry on finding someone who wants it after claiming back all the rights for it again. But if by the off chance you are successful with your script, the producers will pay full price for it and legal entitle themselves to it, meaning you have no possession over your script anymore. They are then free to adapt it, change it and do anything they want to it. The script will then go on to being filmed and distributed by further companies.

Royalties are payments that are made from the producer to the writer because of on-going use of their script. Every time the film is shown on TV or in Cinemas, the writer will receive payment each time. Also even if the script isn't made into a production, the writer will still be paid royalties to keep it confidential from any other production companies that don't have rights to it. Obviously the amount of royalties received depends on the success of the thing being sold, so having a film that is very popular will result in you being paid more money.

Role of the Writer throughout production

The producer has control over the majority of the production, this will include the script and it’s many rewrites. The writer will have to work closely with the producer to achieve something that will do exceedingly well when it comes to bringing the studio/company a profit. The writer will also have to work with the director to bring a screenplay into a visual story for an audience that will obviously have to be enjoyable to watch.

Once adjustment occurs and page lock-down, there will be no more rewrites or specific edits to the script, the script will be published and handed to the main department. If any particular scenes do need to be rewritten and/or changed, securing the pages allows this to be easily monitored, it will keep the edited and unedited pages separate which will evidently show the difference between the original script and the changes that have been made.

When finalising a screenplay, script editors are brought together into the project to help tie in both the screenwriter and producers ideas that they may have. They offer assistance to point out any problems and consequences of the current screenplay which in a rewrite, will help make it stronger when it comes to the actual production stage. Once the screenplay is completed, it becomes a shooting script which is then split by its scenes/shots and numbered, broken down to key components required for the film by the director. The directors and production assistants will then decide on an order for the scenes to be shot to make the best effective way of making use of resources, cast and locations. The shooting script also contains much more detailed description of the scenes to help everyone included in the production - this will consist of costumes, exact camera angles and so on.




Bibliography

https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom
https://www.writersstore.com/how-to-sell-your-script
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/commisioning_editor
https://www.bluecatscreenplay.com

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