Film – TV1 Readings – Week 1- Slogans

From the (Mackendrick) ‘Slogans for the screenwriter’ reading for week two the first quote which stood out to me the most was “a true film is likely to be 60 – 80% comprehensible even if the dialogue is in a foreign language”. This made me think about the aspects of film that make up the 60 – 80% so that it is comprehensible. Which then made me think about the early silent films like  this one i found on youtube Cook, Papa, Cook (1928) and the parts of the film that made it successful without any dialogue. The music, cinematography, acting, directing all play substantial roles in a film in order for it to be fulfilled production. I think this aspect of the film making process excited me the most as it will require me to look past the dialogue to see how the cinematography or the expressions of an actors face can be used to convey meaning in a different way to how dialogue usually would.

Another quote from this reading stating ‘Students films come in three sizes, too long, much too long and very much too long’. After watching some short films on vimeo, I was looking to see what they all had in common which made me enjoy them. I found that the simpler, shorter scripts were the most effective and the successful ones simply tried to capture a small moment in time, whether its a sought after emotion in the film or a sense of realisation within a character. In class Paul made a good point that a large script can be a good backstory to help an actor get into character, however for the purpose of the short film and the limitations that it has, a small moment within the script (the journey from pet crabs to a pet cactus) can sometimes be the most fulfilling and effective.