It’s been an incredibly busy past three (or four? Yikes!) weeks. I’ve definitely let my ‘fear’ of not wanting to be a shit filmmaker stop me from getting out and capturing footage for my documentary BLUE, and playing in the editing suite. This really comes from a tendency to intellectualise everything I do, then follow through exactly. What I’m learning is that filmmaking can’t possibly be an intellectual exercise, not purely anyway. This is surely a given, but I had to learn it. Filmmaking is also obviously a very creative exercise, and the style of essay film I’m making very creative by virtue of it’s exploratory premise. So, there were some issues early on about my ability to really do justice to the strong ideas I had formulated in my Treatment, which was extensive.

However, I am savouring and absolutely enjoying the process of making BLUE. I’m learning so much, SO MUCH. Making a film on your own means the buck starts and ends with you – all my decisions create this film, the responsibility is all mine. This initially worried me (see earlier blog posts about ‘not being revolutionary’), but I’ve found since completing the Treatment and recently after collecting a shit load of footage to play with, that it’s such an evolving process. While it’s been important for me to revisit my Treatment, the project has equally evolved after contact with each participant.

The film itself is getting there. My three desired participants have been interviewed! Donna’s interview is locked off, Gerry my wonderful artist’s interview is locked off (she blogged about me!), and the interview with my laid back surfer Peter is cut but I’m not 100% decided on it at the moment. My opening sequence is cut, and I’m recording the voiceover with my soulful and very excited actress Katharine tomorrow. This is going to be a really important step, the voiceover. Robin mentioned that you don’t want it to appear like the voiceover has been shot to the film, or the film edited to the voiceover, but some synthesis in between. However, in the editing suite its become clear that I can’t really know timing of cuts until I have a backdrop to it (maybe this is the wrong approach, but it’s making sense to me?). I ended up recording the whole voiceover myself just to get a sense and have something to edit to; the script was drafted, edited and completed weeks ago. The sequences I’ve been messing around with and the script may both need to be altered to what my actresses brings.

It’s allowed me to move forward though to the more ‘self conscious’ part of my film, the three unique expressive sequences which follow each interview. These sequences are a collection of footage I’ve shot, mixed with archival footage that will explore an idea raised by the participant and visually tell the story of the woman in voiceover, as well as ruminate on the colour blue. This will definitely be the more time consuming ‘editing’ part, where the interviews were relatively straight forward. These sequences require a SHIT LOAD of footage to draw from, requiring a SHIT LOAD of shoots and therefore equipment borrowing, which can sometimes be inconvenient. A shout out to the Techs who are incredibly helpful and willing to share their knowledge despite stupid university heads who would rather undermine their generosity.

Anyway, in Film-TV2 we’re having rough cut screenings in class this week and I’ll only have completed about 70% of my film, so it could interesting. I have to finish off Peter’s expressive sequence which is very roughly half done, begin Gerry’s, begin Donna’s and shoot the Outro shot (a lingering take of a single object).

The next step will be to address sound. Including finding the perfect piece of music for my credits and Outro. There will not be any other piece of music, so I need to consider what sounds I want to layer in post within expressive sequences.

Caught up.

Executive Producer Adam Boland paid a visit to RMIT and I happened to be sitting right where the action took place, when it took place. He talked really fast, and get’s up at 2:15 in the morning. Fun!

Notes on breakfast TV engagement

Currently, Ch 10 less than 2% audience share during breakfast television. Sunrise & Today take about a 43% audience share each, this makes them risk averse (talentented producers but the EP won’t want try their ideas because if risks don’t pay off then the share plummets). Ch 10 has therefore hired six of Sunrise’s best producers, likely tempted by the opportunity to try new things (going from a show with a 43% audience share to less than 2% is where creative opportunities are). They’re creative people but can’t get ideas up.

Boland launched Sunrise in 2001 with a 3.1% audience share, but by 2006 Ch 7 dominated Today at an almost consistent 60% share. Ch 10’a new breakfast show Wake Up is possible, but it takes time.

Boland says that the passion levels in breakfast TV is gone at the moment. Sunrise & Today have morphed into each other and there is nothing unique. Ch 9’s clone strategy after 7’s domination recovered audiences but it’s stale.

Boland: The challenge was to come up with something fundamentally different (a la The Project). Breakfast television is ritualistic, so changing TV habits in the morning means interrupting personal schedules. Breakfast gives oxygen to your entire network shcedule – it punches above its weight in terms of unique visitors calculated cumulatively. It should be a front door to your network.

Ch 7 represents ‘heartland Australia’, it’s the network identity. Ch 10 used to own 16-39’s demographic but freaked when digital/multi-channelling came along and Ch 9 & Ch 7 introduced their won younger stations (eg. Go). ‘Second screen’ multimedia engagement also shook Ch 10. They consequently confused their audience by doing trying to engage older audiences that were already dominated by Ch 7 & Ch 9.

Network branding is critical. Who are we as a network? NOW: Ch 10 re-claim their identity as the destination for the youngest audience at 25-54’s. It’s the core demo for commerical TV land; advertisers want them to be there, still places Ch 10 as the youngest network.

A program called Wake Up with Tash, Tarsh & Matho:

Localism, the hosts, lack of studios, four dedicated social media producers, re-working advertorials.

“We have a separate digital team, we want to have a 24 hour conversations that just happenes to be amplified by a breakfast TV show.”

Announcement: Launching one show means it SINKS, so Ch 10 will be launching many. There will be an early news bulletin until 6:30am positioning Ch 10 to be the only network with this. After 6:30 engagement changes, enter the breakfast show 6:30-8:30. A morning show will ride off the back in-studio until 11am. Over the summer, engagement with breakfast television after 8am really lifts. Official ratings period is over but it will be a great sample period to get Wake Up right. Second target in February during Olympics (10 has the rights). Advertorials are essential to floating the show BUT 50% will be live, no advertorials for the first half of the show.

Morning shows traditionally schedule content in 2 minute quick hits on Lindsay Lohan. Bolan says you can’t lead a show with this as it lowers tone of the conversation. There’s a notion that commercial television can’t be intelligent (and fun).

Panel Show idea bookended with news. Laucnhig it all on one day. Keeping 10 young and being different: Studio will reside within a renovated Manly Surf Club. Evokes the landscape of the beach, ‘Home & Away Syndrome’ – Australians just get it. Gets the show out of a Central Business District full of bankers and lawyers (who Boland adds are ‘typically sad’). This way, Boland says, the “Fitness freaks are right behind us!”

Melbourne is a unique market so their Melbourne local content will come straight from Fed Square (in an agreement with the Victorian Govt & City of Melbourne). The shot? Flinders Street Station:

“It doen’t just plant us firmly in Melbourne…Imagine studio 1 in Manly and Studio 2 in Melbourne. All of a sudden we get to do an old radio trick and cut to local news. We’ll be the only breakfast show with live local news instead of pre-recording stories between cities. All of a sudden people in Brisbane are only seeing Brisbane news… localism does count.”

“Having these two studios enables making sure news is up to date.”

The driver for viewer change is to ‘wake up to something new’. The advertising campaign will involve people breaking their morning routines by waking up to different things like Miranda Kerr instead of their real wives… Disrupting viewer behaviour!