Witness

Watched Peter Weir's 'Witness' on Thursday. An entertaining story and one my favourite Harrison Ford films! It was interesting to see how films are structured, in depth and found it satisfying to work out each Turning Point and analyze each 'Act' from Set up through development to the resolution. To the annoyance of my housemates, me, blabbering through at least 4 films this weekend telling them about TP1 and and TP2! At least I remembered it though! Apologies for the late post and generic cheesy blog title!

Spaced Treatment

My Treatment for TV series,

Spaced

Written by Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson

TX: Thursday 10pm Channel 4/UKTV Gold
Target Audience: 16-25

Spaced is a unique quick-fire British comedy that dives head-first in to the lives of 5 twenty-something’s in their North London flat. Your run of the mill, heady sci-fi!

Spaced plots the lives of a skateboarding, comic book obsessed failing graphic artist Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson), a wistful, so far unpublished writer. To land a flat, by chance Tim meets Daisy. They devise a cunning ploy to pose as a ‘yuppie’ professional couple to wino landlady Marsha (Julia Deakin) who unwittingly never tags onto their deceit. Enter, Brian Topp (Mark Heap), an odd-ball conceptual artist who lives downstairs. Best friend of Tim, Mike (Nick Frost), a lover of outdoor pursuits, military paraphernalia and member of the Territorial Army, still in angst and bitter by never being allowed into the ‘real army’. And there’s Twist (Katy Carmichael) tactless and fashion obsessed, infinitely incompatible, but is currently flirting with Brian.

The action mostly takes place at cosy 23 Meteor Street. Never bereft of a Lambert and Butler and a glass of red, landlady, Marsha plays host to ‘professional couple’ Tim and Daisy. Inside this snug 3-bedroomer we discover gunfights, zombies, miniature Uzi’s and countless cups of tea.

With the addition of Colin, Daisy’s Miniature Schnauzer dog, you can expect this group of wiry individuals to encounter nemeses and allies alike in the form of a rival Robot Wars gang and an evil comic book boss. To a drugged up nitro-talking bike courier named Tyres and Bilbo, Twiglet lover and comic book shop owner. A hangover from the Simpson’s and the X-files, this is Spaced.

Search & Pitch 2

Here is a pitch for a fictional dramatisation of Margaret Thatcher designed for the BBC. I feel it would be played coinciding with my previous documentary. I was conscious in my casting, choosing a talented younger actress in Tilda Swinton, as I was unsure of an older actor to cast.

“Part of the BBC’s “Powers in Politics” We see Tilda Swinton takes on the role of Margeret Thatcher. This feature length depiction of “The Iron Lady” follows Thatcher from Finchley to Falklands in this landmark drama from the Director of The Alan Clark Diaries.”

This could easily be in a 9pm slot on both BBC 1 and BBC 4.

Search & Pitch

Our Brief: To find an article in the media (i.e Newspaper, supplements or leaflets) and find a suitable story and relevant pitch for either a drama or documentary.

I shortlisted by ideas as follows:
> Donald Steele obituary
> Costa Rica's First female president
> Ethiopian skier
> Floating bus
> "God likes to laugh" - Westboro Baptist Church

I used the subject, Costa Rica's First President and here is my outline:

TX: Tuesday 9pm BBC2 and repeated on BBC4
Target audience: Adult 30+
Part of a season: "Powers in Politics" shown in 2 Parts

"Following Costa Rica's first elected female president Andrew Marr looks into women's role in World politics. As part of "Powers in Politics" season female leaders from Maggie to Merkel will be put under the microscope. Over 2, hour long specials, "Power in Politics" documents significant heads of state and government spanning the last 50 years. We will portray the stories of leaders in The People's Republic of China to the high proportion of women ministers in Scandinavia: Scaling through modern History for those special women."

All Spaced Out!

Incisive days work, looking at pitches and treatments for Spaced and Panorama's "I helped my daughter die".

Seen Spaced back-to-back so many times but I always find stuff I didn't notice before! I had a feeling the gun scene ep. would be played, such a classic. Fascinating to see the comedy connections of Edgar Wright, Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead), Simon Pegg, Mark Heap, Nick Frost, Peter Serafinowicz etc. Loads of references popped up as we chatted about. The audio commentary, I remember, is particularly good and Edgar Wright reels through all the references, so worth a quick look. Blabbering on about Spaced. Sorry! Here is my pitch for Spaced (sounding like Mad Men now!)

"Spaced is a quick-fire British comedy that follows the loves and lives of 5 twenty somethings in their Tufnell Park flat. Think the Simpson's come to North London."

A couple of things I thought about this pitch was the reference to Tufnell Park, I felt it was to specific. I did like the use of The Simpson's "coming" to N. London.

Anyway.

Panorama's "I helped my Daughter die" was a completely opposite genre and concentrates on the story of a mother aiding in her daughters suicide. Screened on 1st feb it pegs on to the result of the mothers court case. Jeremy Vine (not my favourite broadcasters but is a good journalist) presents and asks the questions in a 30 minute special. Here is my take on the billing of the Panorama Special.

"Moving documentary fronted by Jeremy Vine, telling the story of a families struggle to come to terms with a mothers part in her daughters assisted suicide and it's consequence in court"

Edgar Wright Short

Watching Spaced tomorow - looking up edgar wright and saw this short. Its filmed on Super 8 and its just a really fun bit of film. Nick Frost is in it too.

Wright also mentions the slow-motion gunfight which is also in Spaced. Heres the link! night!

Straight 8 - Forced Hilarity

Todays Shoot

Fun shoot today! A great eye-opener, thought our angles were spot-on, although my acting left a bit to be desired! I thought Cat was flawless on the camera, I, maybe should have had a go at some shots as I'm still not up to speed technically.
Some really cool films as well today particularly Steve and Casey, some thoughtful script writing from Casey and slick work behind the camera from Steve.

I had a track in mind all through filming today...

DJ Shadow, "...meets his maker" would slide perfectly over our piece.