Summer Heights High was a critical smash and was successful upon it’s release. So much so, was that Chris Lilley ultimately revisited these characters, but in my opinion, had a different outcome. Why?

Well. Summer Heights High had all of the characters together within the one TV show. They never interacted with one another but that was part of the fun. You got to have an idea of the entire school from these 3 characters, of Jonah the rebellious trouble maker, Mr. G, the dramatic drama teacher and Ja’mie the spoilt private school girl. All 3 of these characters were all situated within the same school, and all of them had their own separate story arcs.

However, when Chris Lilley created seperate TV shows for Ja’mie and Jonah, they lacked the diversity. When you focus you’re whole attention on one character, they must have some sort of variety to keep them fresh and interesting. These characters really lack the diversity to have this, which in saying that makes them humorous, however on their own within a mockumentary style TV show can become repetitive and bland. Again, this is all my opinion, no scientists were involved in calculating this post. Here’s a trailer for Ja’mie:

The reason why the combination works, as opposed to the solo story, is that it gives a contrast in tone. Summer Heights High’s intercutting between 3 different dysfunctional characters created more comedy due to the fact that you’re just seeing the school day differently from different perspectives. It’s the blend of the troubled school boy and the upper classed school girl that creates a more diverse TV show as they’re both disrupting the world around them in different ways. When all the focus is on just the private school girl and her own little world, it began to annoy. When I watched Ja’mie, I wanted to have Mr G change the tone and show the funny world he lives in.

The results speak for themselves, as according to Wikipedia, Ja’mie’s viewership went from 0.92 million viewers in it’s first week to 0.62 million for it’s finale. That’s in contrast to Summer Heights High: it had 1.2 million viewers for it’s first episode and finished with around 1.5 million. This is quite a small analysis, but audiences tend to enjoy variety of characters, as opposed to just those characters.

That’s something that I know would be cool to have within our own mockumentary. Different characters who all have their own silly situations and stories, yet all have one thing in common; Melbourne.

REFERENCES:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Summerheightsratings.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ja%27mie:_Private_School_Girl

-youtube videos above…

So. From the few consultations we’ve (Jess, Ashton, David, Steph and Myself) had, I think we may be on to something cool. So, what we’ve decided so far, is that we will be working towards creating a Mockumentary style TV pilot, and hopefully by the end of the semester, be able to present segments and elements of this final product. So basically I’m hoping we’ll be able to either present some separate scenes, a table read out, perhaps story boards of some kind or something else along those lines.

And at this point I realise I haven’t elaborated about what idea we’ve considered. That might help.

It’s a mockumentary about Melbournians. And we’re hoping to incorporate multiple characters, all of whom have seperate stories arcs together in a pilot. I think they’d work together like A Chris Lilley show, in that the characters have the same setting but have seperate stories. That way we can have multiple characters and they don’t necessity need to be directly linked to one another.

I really think that there are so many possibilities in this type of concept. Firstly, you can cram heaps of different types of characters into the show. They may not relate at all, one may be a business man, another a bogan footy fan, yet they’re both a big part of what makes Melbourne, Melbourne.

Another thing is that it calls for different way of production. In a mockumentary, both the interviewer and the camera itself can act as characters. For instance in the US version of The Office, the fourth wall is often broken, which in many ways gives the show a more realistic feel, as well as supplementing the comedy. The camera often has characters glancing into it, which may seem spontaneous, yet the writers of The Office have stated that they’re intentional, which helps to give the camera a somewhat personification. It’s suddenly the reasonable character within a world of dysfunctional or weird ones like Dwight. K. Schrute, or Michael Scott.

Anyway, I know I haven’t had to write for this type of genre before, and I feel like it’ll be interesting in doing so. I’m happy with the idea that we can combine different characters in the same setting, but still be able to have diverse characters who will bring humour and comedy, (which I think will be the style of our prototype,) in their own way.

This style definately allows for more freedom in writing, however I still think we’ll need to collaborate closely when we’re editing as with each character, you’ll be getting a different tone. For instance, Jonah and Mr. G in Summer Heights High, which I’ll talk about in a different post for sure.

As you can see, I have especially lovely handwriting. Is it legible? That’s for the audience to decide.

But if you can’t I’ll talk about it here. The characters I’m writing, which I haven’t formally introduced to you all but will in another post, are going along okay.

However, on Thursday we are presenting our idea. IN the next post you’ll find out what that is too.

But anyway, I feel as if these consultations with the lecturer have been quite beneficial, we’ve refined our ideas into a mockumentary, which allows a high level of flexibility creatively, which I’ll also talk about in the next post. This post is basically the Deathly Hallows or Mockingjay Part one. Its whole purpose is to set up the next post.

SO in true ‘Part 1’ style, I’ll end on a a cliffhang-

This second exercise was something which I felt came out a lot nicer and more seamless than my last attempt at editing. In class, I happened to also be the director of this small sequence. But due to the need to be very faithful to the script, and a fairly short time frame, I was’t exactly able to get a full experience of directing people.

Anyway, I have to admit, that when I first saw the constraints within the brief that everybody was given, I got a little bit jumbled up. I saw the constraint of using 4 shots, which we adhered to, as only being able to make 4 cuts in editing, which is why you don’t get any other shots past the first few lines of dialogue. If I could do it again, I’d definitely add in another closeup of both the actors faces as their delivering their final lines, just to bridge the gap between the beginning of the sequence and the end. However, Tom Jones’ shot from behind over both of the character’s shoulders, (which was… not unusual and struck like a… thunderball… sorry those are the 2 Tom Jones songs which vaguely apply to my point), really created a nice mood. I’m happy I chose to use that shot, however again, towards the end I would have rethought and included one more closeup each towards the end.

I think it helps to talk to others about the constraints you’re given and to read briefs properly… Anyway, I feel like on a technical level, there happens to be a better continuity between this second attempt I made, and the first attempt I made. I feel this really helps to create a seamless story and one which audiences feel isn’t jarring.

I feel that my Premiere skills have improved, but I also am starting to get the feeling that through these technical exercises in editing a story, I’m being able to have some decent continuity and flow between different shots.

This first editing exercise was not the segment that our ‘B’ group actually shot, however I felt that I could try to reflect the story with the scene where I happened to be a star. A dumb guy, but a star. I’m the one in the red. Anyway, I found the exercise quite beneficial.

In creating, ‘Heist Guys,’ firstly I found it difficult to get a completely seamless continuity going, especially when the guys turn the corner, as theres a slightly awkward jump in space which I feel the audience may just recognise. Also, the final line of diologue happened to be given incorrectly (I can only blame myself…) and didn’t exactly make as much sense as I thought it would make, so in the editing I feel as if I rushed over the final cut to try and make audiences not realise what I just said didn’t make any sense. It instead made the editing feel rushed and not as considered. We definitely had takes where the dialogue was given in approximately the same location, but editing wise I feel I may have perhaps rushed it all.  However, I felt that overall the experience using Premier was quite beneficial, I hadn’t exactly used it before hand.