Rebecca Barrett - TV Production blog

In our first lighting workshop of the term, we got to know 'Three-Point lighting'. Three-Point Lighting is the most standard of all lighting set-up's that are used within film or TV production and is made up of three lights: Key, Fill and Back. Key : Also known as the main light in the scene. This light is normally the strongest and is the most influential on the overall look of the scene. It is placed on either side of the camera or subject so one side is well lit, while the other is cast in shadow.  Fill : This secondary light is placed on the opposite side of where the key light is and is primarily used to fill in the shadows that are made from the Key and is commonly less bright and softer. Back : The backlight is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps to separate the subject from the bac...

Background: Director = 3 ("The Strangers", "Mockingbird" and "The Monster") Writer = 4 ("The Strangers", "Mockingbird", "The Monster" and "The Strangers: Prey at Night") Producer = 5 ( "Mockingbird", "The Blackcoat's Daughter", "The Monster", "Stephanie" and "He's Out There" ) Bryan Bertino began his film career when he moved to LA, and, while working as a gaffer, began writing screenplays in his free time. His first film ‘The Strangers’ was submitted for a Nicholl Fellowship with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Although it only reached the quarterfinals, he was able to meet with Vertigo Entertainment and the script was later sold to Universal Studios.  Overall style: Unlike big horror directors, Bryan’s films, especially “The Strangers” doesn’t focus on being “a body count movie”, instead, Bryan focuses on his ...

To help my script out, a well as the other research I had done, I decided to also look at several 'Female Killer' documentaries related to killings over an affair as it would help me write the character of Alice in a better way. I noticed a pattern that while these friends or wives were, in the beginning, very faithful and loving, all it took was for a terrible event to happen and they become a cold-blooded killer. An example are the two below: (Taken directly from the Youtube videos) S tephanie  Erends :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_sgqmxP5A Stephanie is convinced her childhood friend Alicia Ernet stole her boyfriend, and after Alicia makes cruel jokes about Stephanie, She slits Alicia's throat with a wallpaper scraper. Rita Gluzaman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDin69zv-gk After becoming an activist in order to free her husband Yakov (a celebrated microbiologist) but after two decades of living in the US their marriage deteriorates...

For my script changes, Steve gave the feedback: The dialogue "gets bogged down in a long static and wordy scene"  I needed "more action and twist and surprise in the second half" There "is no sense of development to her character" For this, I chopped out a lot of the dialogue and replaced it for action that ramps up the tension in the scene. I realized that action can speak more than words, which is why I decided to make the changes that I did. I added a bigger twist to the ending, where we find out that Carla and John were actually planning to murder Alice as they wanted to be together - I added this change as I wanted there to be a dramatic twist, and my original ending of Alice dying during her struggle with Carla seemed too basic, with the voicemail, it reveals a definite twist. For Carla's character, I made her dialogue and spiraling emotions more apparent within the scene to make her character seem realistic towards the situation ...

For part of our research we had to look at a British TV Drama which would help support our film idea. I chose the TV series 'Apple Tree Yard', a drama/thriller TV series that came out in 2017 and was directed by Jessica Hobbs – an award-winning director who originally came from New Zealand.   The plot to this series is ' Married with two grown-up children, Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson) lives a contented, conventional suburban life. But her world spirals into chaos, when a chance encounter leads to an impulsive and passionate affair with a charismatic stranger (Ben Chaplin). ' This plot and series inspired my film script as it focuses on a married woman having an affair, although I changed this to suit my film, which was the best friend having an affair with the husband. This TV show enabled me to understand how quickly a normal life can spiral out of control because of a chance encounter – similar to how my sort film changes the characters from being c...

To help create our short film, we were told to look at three short films that would inspire our piece. Film 1: 'How to Murder a Best Friend' - 2017, directed by Rohan Yadav For me, the first short film I looked at was called 'How to murder a best friend'. For my original idea, I originally wanted the two main characters to be just a wife and mistress, however, after watching this short film, I soon realized how much more impactful the argument and characters could be made if the two were actually best friends rather than strangers. Although this film is in a different language, the basic premise is clear - three friends getting into an argument, and then planning and carrying out the murder. How to Murder a Best Friend:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpP7hlOv34Q  Film 2: 'Betrayal' - 2015, directed by Daniel Medrano  This short film revolves around a young female student who is with her boyfriend, she is later killed by that same boyfriend as ...

With the film script, it had to go through several re-writes, including input from Steve – who gave me constructive feedback on how to improve my script. When it came to my initial re-write before handing it to Steve, I realised that a lot of my action could be broken into smaller sections to help with any pacing issues during the shoot. Steve also gave the feedback of the dialogue not sounding genuine or realistic to the situation.  This feedback also made me realise , that even though I have been screenwriting for the past seven years, it didn’t necessarily mean I knew how to write a script perfectly, something which I quickly worked out. I also noticed when looking back on my script, that I was describing the ‘action’ too much and making the dialogue too expositional/formal, something which Steve didn’t agree with as he told us to only describe what the camera (the audience) can see and reveal only what they need to know. During pre-production, I had forgotten how much ...