Sophie Emmerson TV Production Blog

The Script to Screen unit has been very different to how I expected it to be. It has challenged me in many ways and I have found new interests in topics I thought I would dislike. I will outline each area of the production process and what I have learned from it. COMING UP WITH THE IDEA As soon as we were told the brief for the unit I was always thinking about what my story could be, You will be able to see from my earlier blogs from this unit I initially wrote down all the ideas that first came to mind when thinking about 'The Meeting'. I then started to loosely try and attach them together but one of the issues I was having was that I had too much story and plot but not really any characters. Simon had told us that when creating a story come up with the characters first and work the story around them. So I decided to create my two characters and then I could fit the story outline around them and their lives, and I will do this again in future rather than getting overload

PHEOBE WALLER-BRIDGE Pheobe Waller-Bridge is an actress, producer and writer. She is probably most famous for writing and starring in her comedy-drama Fleabag, and for being the executive producer of the thriller 'Killing Eve'. She has received multiple awards and nominations for her screenplays and 'Killing Eve' and 'Fleabag' were described by The Guardian as 'two of the greatest televison series of the 21st century'. Her work Personally Killing Eve and Fleabag are two of the best Tv series that I have ever seen. With 'Killing Eve' the contrast between the two main characters Eve and Villanelle is gripping as there is always a fight for power over each other along with their developing yet unlikely friendship and relationship.  Fleabag is extremely unique and before watching it I had not really seen anything like it before.  How her work has developed Waller- Bridge describes how she struggled to get into the writing for ce

HEIDI THOMAS Heidi Thomas was born in Liverpool in 1962, and she is best known for being the writer of the popular TV drama 'Call the Midwife', this is a show that I have always watched and find each series more and more captivating as they are created. Heidi Thomas has been nominated for four Baftas which reflects that she is a very talented screenwriter. Her work My favourite show that Thomas has written is definitely 'Call the Midwife'. This is because I enjoy seeing society in the 1950's and 60's represented through strong female characters and a high quality production. Something that I find interesting is that the show is not just about babies and midwifes but what was going on in society in the time as well which ads some good context. For example there was an episode that featured the introduction of the contraceptive pill and how it created a new wave of feminism, then she linked it to how it affected each character which gave the show a

WATCH WHAT I DO Watch What I do was created by Million Youth Media in 2019. I was written by Shazia Rashid and directed by Teddy Nygh. Reviewing Watch What I Do When watching 'Watch What I Do' it was clear that it was a high quality production, due to the amount of locations used and the different costumes involved. At times I thought that there were too many locations used in twenty five minutes and the costume and makeup was a little over the top which sometimes distracted me from what was going on.  I did like the music used in the film it fit in well with the style so it did not seem out of place. The shots were also of all high quality and were all interesting in their own was which made me want to keep watching.  How did Watch What I Do impact my work? The first way 'Watch What I Do' influenced my work was with how the shots are focused. There are moments in it such as when main character Leila destroys her living room where the focus is on a br

WASP Wasp was written and directed by Andrea Arnold in 2003. Reviewing Wasp Wasp, a compelling story about a mother and her four children living in poverty was very extremely interesting to watch and the first thing that I realised was that every shot was hand held and this reflected the story as everything felt very unstable. The locations used such as a rough council estate and a pub car park also reflect that it is a low-income neighbourhood. The use of diegetic sound in Wasp is a factor that suggests it is a social realism film, as there is a scene outside the pub where the mum is dancing with her daughters to the song '5,6,7,8' and the song is playing from the pub rather than being added on in post production. This technique does give the film more more emotional depth. How did Wasp impact my work? The first way that Wasp majorly impacted my screenwriting was the way that the mum (Zoe) interacts with her five children throughout the film. She star

STRANGER DANGER Stranger Danger was created by Johnathon Connolly in 2016. Reviewing Stranger Danger Stranger Danger was a simple concept that was quite predictable with little twists however I thought that this worked as as an adult watching it I could see straight away that she was not talking to someone her age due to the stock image of the young boy and the messages sent such as "I need to delete these texts" and "don't tell your mum" it is obvious she is talking to an adult. However it is also clear that she as a child would not realise it is an adult due to the 'One Direction' references. I liked this as it told different stories if I thought about it from the girls point of view compared to the man she is talking to's point of view. How did Stranger Danger impact my work? Stranger Danger impacted my work in a few ways, firstly I liked the use of contrast between light and dark. For example int he shots where she is s

Posters and letters My production was an outside public children's play park so I wanted to make sure the public as well as my cast and crew were all safe during the shoot. To help with this I created some signs that stated 'filming in progress' that I placed around the outside of the park, this was so that any members of public coming in would know that I am filming and to be cautious of the area. I also typed out letters explaining that filming would be taking place and gave them to all the local houses a few days before so they knew what was happening. In one of my scenes there was a scream so I wanted to warn local residents of this, I would definitely do this again in future if I was filming something similar. Shot List and Storyboard Looking back now my shot list was very rough and I wish it was more detailed, it was three pages long and I have posted a picture of a page of it below. I was very worried about lighting due to the time of the shoot so

There was lots of paperwork involved with this project, the part that probably took the longest was the risk assessment as it was the first time that I had properly done one, therefore it was great experience. Risk Assessment The Risk Assessment was very new to me as I had never done one before, therefore it took me a couple of attempts to get it right. First of all I printed off the template for it and and filled it in roughly with a pencil, this was so that I could get a rough idea of what to say. One of the things that I struggled with was finding scenarios where there could be risks so the columns were very useful but even with them I still was not being as precise as I needed to be so I listed every single scenario where there could be a risk and then I elaborated on them. Then I typed out the assessment with lots of detail on every risk that could happen and how it could affect the cast and crew, Laura said at this point that I had maybe included a bit too much detail as I ha

During this editing workshop we were taught about some new tools as well as modifying different audio channels. We were given four clips and had to modify the audio channels in order to find the clearest one to use, to start with it seemed very complicated but then the more that I practiced it the easier it got, and this will be useful for when recording using clip mics and trying to find the different recordings as most cameras record up to four channels.

5 Golden Rules In our first lecture with Steve we were taught about the Five Golden Rules: -Show don't tell: Steve taught us that showing is believing, we watched an extract from the film 'Don't Touch my Records' where we analysed different moments where show don't tell was used, this was helpful as we saw the impact that showing a moment could have rather than just narrating it. It makes it have leave more of a mark on the audience rather than them being told what is happening. -Intelligence principle: Make the first 5 minutes powerful, imagine you are impressing the president. -Structure everything like a joke: Have a setup, then a misdirection, then the punchline. This is because distraction will surprise any audience. We watched a clip of the writers of the show Southpark talking about how to structure a screenplay and something they said was "never use 'and then' use 'therefore' and 'but' in order to add a punchline".