Sophie Emmerson TV Production Blog

On October 21st I pitched my idea to Steve, Simon and the rest of the first years. It was a great learning curve standing up in front of a group of people to present my idea, something that I found quite nerve-racking, however it is great experience for when working in the Television industry. I explained the main idea for my story and then Steve and Simon asked about sections that were a little unclear or that I had not explained fully. This helped me to work out which sections of my story I had not linked up, for example 'what is May doing in the park?' and 'Why is the mum distracted?' Steve and Simon asking questions helped me to clarify parts that I had not thought about which then enabled me to link the story up. Steve then went through his '5 Golden Rules' and I had to tell them how they fit with my idea. For example with the 5th Golden Rule- 'moments' I told him that my main moment is when Tracy (May's mum) looks at her for the first time. S...

On 18th October we had our second camera workshop on COVERAGE. We were taught about the power of using multiple shots and angles and the emotion that can be carried out by doing this. We were shown the importance of having enough coverage for each scene so that if a certain shot does not look right or does not work then there are other options but also because it gives more options in the editing process. Project One- The Chair We were given a project to film someone sitting on a chair, but in any way that we wanted them too, I tried to get lots of different shots from many angles and worked them out by using my phone camera to experiment with angles and then set up the camera with the ones that I was happy with; this helped me to save time as I thought some shots would look good and then when I took a picture with my phone of the shot the layout did not look right so I could change the layout of the chair and the actor and then set the camera up in position. Before filming anythin...

My Pitch Title: No Purple Genre: Drama 25 Word Pitch: A child's world is a fun world, but it's not to be ignored. An ignorant mother soon learns this lesson.  Description: The relationship between a mum Tracy and her 9 year old daughter May is already breaking, but a trip to their local park compromises it even more. When Tracy cares more about her next fling than her daughter, May soon feels ignored. Tracy tells May to meet her at a park after school so May waits patiently on the bench for her mum. Tracy eventually arrives; showing no affection towards her daughter, who is excited about starting Big School soon. May begins to play around the park, while her mum won't even watch what she is doing. May is curious and wanders into the bush on the edge of the park. She runs out screaming that she has been touched. Tracy instantly looks up; this is the first moment of eye contact between the two characters- the first time their eyes meet. Tracy grabs hold of her an...

Camera Workshop One- Intro to Cameras On Wednesday the 9th of October we had our first camera workshop with Fergus; we were taught how to use the SONY XDCAM. Fergus taught us the following acronym on how to use and set up different parts of the camera: S- sound W- white balance E- exposure F- focus  F- framing We got to have hands on experience getting use to the cameras and filming short experimental moments. Sound: I had never worked with sound before so this was definitely a learning curve for me. Firstly we set up the gun mics and attached them to the boom poles. This was something that I struggled with as it took a few attempts to fix the boom pole at the correct height for our scene- now I know that when I use a boom pole I need to allow time for it to be set up as another important thing that we had to do was work out the correct distance to hold the boom pole from the actors, whether it was above them just out of shot or below them, however I le...

Today was our first edit workshop with Fergus. He taught us the shortcuts of using Adobe Premiere Pro, and although I have used the software a few times in the past, it now seems completely different to me as I now know some of the basic shortcuts which will make editing in the future easier, quicker and it will allow me to go into a lot more detail when editing projects. The Shortcut Keys that I used the most today were; 'K', 'J' and 'L.' These are stop, play forwards and play backwards. I also used the full stop and coma keys today which allowed me to overwrite and insert shots into the sequence. These were extremely useful as it meant that I did not have to use the mouse to edit majority of the very short film that I edited today: I did make a few mistakes when editing this short video such as overwriting some frames a few times therefore I had to use the 'Cmd Z' to undo the mistakes I was making. It also took me time to understand the expo...

Today we had a Pitch Development Day where we split into groups of three an discussed our initial ideas for Script to Screen. I found it extremely useful as it was great experience to give someone else feedback; other members of my group, and to hear feedback about my own idea. I was able to outline my idea and then they asked questions about sections that did not quite make sense and this helped me to link the story up together smoothly. For example I had a moment where a secondary character was needed however I had not thought of how they could enter the story, so working with two other group members enabled me to get a better flow to my story outline. We then filled out a sheet that split our idea into the following sections: Then we finalised our first 25 word pitch, this will probably change as the development process continues but my first pitch was: A childs world is a fun world, but an Adults world is something to be feared.  We stood in the green screen room a...

AWOL This is the country lane where the drama will take place; in the middle of a country lane in Devon. This is Julie, she is 52 and and has been a professional wildlife photographer for the majority of her working career. This is Laura she is from Devon, she is 27 years old and is a solider. She has been in the Iraq civil war for 2 years. The Main Story Idea The Pitch When everything gets overwhelming in Iraq during the civil war a soldier went AWOL... but can she stay hidden from the camera?       (22) Story Outline The scene is set in the peaceful Devon country lane. Laura is driving and listening to the radio. The news plays and mentions soldiers being killed, Laura gets distracted, it's clear that she is distressed. She turns the radio off and looks up to notice a sheep in the middle of the road. She swerves, crashing into a tree. She wakes up disorientated and flees the scene. As she is running down the country lane ...

Today we watched a short film called 'Soft' that was written and directed by Simon Ellis. It was 14 minutes long and was very engaging due to the choice of camera shots and hidden moments of plot used that Simon pointed out to us as a group. Here is my 25 word pitch for 'Soft': Fear increases as the relationship between a 'perfect' father and his vulnerable son is compromised when they get visited by a harmful gang. Watching 'Soft' has helped me to understand how crucial it is to have a clear change at some point in the story- such as the son being hit by the gang at the start to him standing up for himself by the end. This is definitely something I will use in my own work when writing my script I will make sure that there is a clear change in the characters; and their attitudes, just as there is in Soft. Soft-  https://vimeo.com/19705053