31.2

 Photo shoot planning

P2 Learners plan a photographic shoot

As part of your pitch you need to produce sample production materials and evidence of planning. To do this you will need to plan a photographic shoot for your title sequence. 

It is expected that produce about 30-40 images which will allow you to select the most useful for your title sequence. 

For your planning you will need to produce the following:

a) specific media product photos will be used for - This is the title sequence to a new TV show

b) theme for photo shoot - Link this to the theme of your show
c) relevant equipment, props, costume - This includes technical kit e.g a camera as well as props
d) recce of shoot location - This needs to have pictures and a location map, you may have more than one location. They all need a recce.
e) risk assessment - A template is avaialble here
f ) shooting schedule - A overall plan of the shoot, timings, locations, contact details etc..
g) legal/ethical considerations - Are you recreating illegal behaviour?

Planning Guidance

As part of your planning for your photoshoot you should be aware of key elements of how a camera, be it digital or manual works. Below is a diagram explaining how exposure works.

This explains how exposure works and the impact it will have on your images. It also provides an idea of how you can use these features to help create certain effects on your image.

Alongside this you should consider both framing and composition when thinking about what images you want to take. Some of the key composition and framing techniques are explored below.

Leading lines

Examples of pictures using leading lines by @dankhole and @adurnwirth from Instagram

Rule of thirds

There is more information here

Depth of field

16.3

For UNIT 16 LO3 you need to be able to develop ideas by creating proposals and sample materials for two original audio-visual products.

The way this will work is that you will pair up and each create an individual proposal that you will then share. You will need to create a document that includes pictures and thumbnail descriptions of your central characters. 

P3  

Learners select their two most appropriate ideas for original audio-visual products, and create the following for each idea:

a) treatment containing:

• outline of form, content and style

• the product’s potential position in marketplace

• a specified target audience

b) sample pre-production materials

 If you want a merit or distinction for this unit then this is the criteria you will need to meet.

M1
Learners create treatments for both ideas that have a good degree of feasibility and are appropriate for the needs of the specified target audience. The treatments include key scenes in addition to working title, format, running time, synopsis and character list. The sample materials produced for both ideas are fit for purpose and generally of a good technical standard

D1
Learners create at least one treatment that suggests further development possibilities for the original audio-visual product. Learners produce sample material for their original audio-visual products, which have a high level of appeal and are generally of a high technical standard

Below is the breakdown for The Wire by David Simon. It provides an idea of how much of the series have been thought through. The full document runs to 79 pages and includes a detailed breakdown of each episode in the series. You should also include a short summary of what would happen in each of your 10 episodes.

The sample materials that you will produce will be the title sequence which will use the photographs that you take.

Research to Presentation

You will need to transform your research about a long form TV show into a presentation. To help you make an effective presentation there is some guidance below:

• Make sure that you have a title slide with your name and the title of the show on it.
• Use the sub-headings to structure your slides e.g. Purpose, Form & Style etc...
• You can have more than one slide on each area, less text per slide is better
• Choose images carefully and make sure they link to the point you are making.
• Make sure you reference where you found the information e.g. BARB 
• Use a single font throughout
• Keep the background simple

If you want some useful advice about making good presentations you can find more here:
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2015/06/doing-the-hard-work-to-make-it-clear.html
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2015/06/doing-the-hard-work-to-make-it-big.html

Please remember to keep a copy of your notes and ideally upload some clips from your research to your blog as this will help to provide context.

Photographer research

Photographer research

As part of this project you will need to look and analyse the work of 3 different photographers. 

You should look at a range of photographers and different types of work as this will help you to develop a broad set of visual references for your own title sequence. When looking at the photographers work you need to consider the following elements:

• Photographic category - What type of photos are they? Documentary, fashion, sport, war, large scale, fine art?
• Purpose - what medium would that type of photography be used in e.g. online, magazines, newspapers. What is the images function e.g. to illustrate a news story etc...
• Image analysis - Discuss composition, lighting, focus, framing, cropping and fitness for purpose
• Meaning - Does the image have a narrative? How is it using visual language? 

Gregory Crewsdon

Gregory Crewsdon is an American photographer who is well known for creating large scale images that look as if they are perfectly composed stills from a film.

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters Trailer from Benjamin Shapiro on Vimeo.

His images often focus on small town America. He explains his work clearly in this interview:
http://theamericanreader.com/interview-with-photographer-gregory-crewdson/
and there is lots of information about how he creates his pictures here:
http://www.aperture.org/crewdson/

This short documentary provides an insight into the way that he works.




Below are some of the photographs that he has taken. Looking at them they think about how they make you feel. What type of TV show would these images have come from? What would the characters be like? What genre would the show be? How could they be used in a title sequence?

Photographer research task

Task

You need to choose 3 photographers whose work you like or whose images interest you. You need to create a separate blog post for each photographer. Their name should be in the title of the blog post. You need to include the following information about each photographer:

• A brief biography to provide some context about their work
• An outline of the type of photographs they produce (photographic category)
• A clear idea of what the purpose of their work is/was.
• A selection of 10 images that the photographer has produced - choose work that you find visually interesting.
• A close analysis of 3 of these images where you discuss the composition, lighting, focus, framing as well as the use of narrative and visual language. 

You must make sure that you save the 10 images that you have selected as these will be used in a practical task. You should end up with an image bank of 30 images. 

Top 100 contemporary photographers

15 contemporary photographers to watch

Wikipedia directory

Brief

Brief

You need to generate 3 detailed ideas for a new long form TV drama that uses the crime genre as a starting point.

The program is being commissioned by Amazon Prime to target an audience aged X-Y. 

The show will be released as a complete series and viewers can choose to watch each episode individually or as a whole series. 

The format of the show is 10 episodes of 55 minutes each, it must have a narrative structure that runs throughout the whole series. 

The show will need to have both a male and female lead actor. 

Guidance notes

For each idea you will need to generate the following information:

A mindmap - this should provide a snapshot of your initial thinking, it must include information about the shows genre. 

A moodboard - this will act as a visual reference for what the show would look like and can include a variety of images

Character biographies - These will be primarily for the 2 lead characters, 1 female and 1 male. It should provide a sense of background and offer a thumbnail sketch of what they are like. 

Content outline - this should provide an outline of what the story is about overall and any themes that the show would deal with. You do not need an episode breakdown as this stage. 

Pitching 'The Wire'

Watch these clips and try to think about how you would pitch this show?

Stringer and Boddie

McNulty and Bubs

You can see part of the pitch for 'The Wire' here.

The opening is to season one is here.


One you have thought about how you would pitch the show then try it out on someone else.
Upload your idea to your blog.

The pitch and bible for the show is here