The purpose of the film treatment is to solidify your “essay” (what you’re attempting) and what you’ll want to represent—the obvious meaning of your essay, but also the deeper meanings.

Part I: Essay

In a paragraph, answer the following question about your film: 

 What is it you’re trying to understand by making this film?  (Think here about our discussion on “Good Workers.”  What is the obvious subject, and what is the less-obvious subject?)  Describe what you may already know, and what you still hope to learn or understand better by investigating your own experiences and memories. 

Part II: Defining Moments—Locate the story at the heart of your essay. 

The personal essay film has YOU at the center of it, so put your topic to the side for a second.  First, focus on the thing (idea, object, emotion, your self-understanding, etc.) that shifts in your essay—this is the fundamental moment that will suggest all of the other necessary scenes in your film. 

•  Write at least a paragraph that identifies that thing (NAME IT.) Explain where was it first, and where is it now (e.g., “I used to think ______, but now I realize _______.”) Explain how it gets there (what was the catalyst?  Who were the important people, events, indelible moments, experiences, etc.)
• Next, write at least a paragraph that explains the effect and implications of this shift: what were the results of this shift? 

Part III: Insight and Discovery

• Write a paragraph that describes what you think of now, as a result of this shift. what do you now know  about yourself and your topic now? What does this mean for who you are now?  What does it tell us about your place in a particular culture or the world? 
• Finally, write a few sentences that describe what you want your audience to learn.  Explain how your experience with your topic can lead viewers to a new way of looking at or thinking about a familiar topic (ie., weddings, nannies, horses, etc.). 

Storyboarding Assignment: Due Monday

A storyboard provides a detailed mock-up of the film you plan to make.  It functions as a map for the filmmaker and helps her project, plan, and play with the story she wants to tell and the way she imagines telling it.  A storyboard can include everything from image to sound and length of time for filming. For our purposes, however, we want you to focus on the visual images (still and moving) and the text (or language) you want to use. We encourage you to think in terms of scenes and to limit your scenes to 4-6. If you want to include more than 6 scenes, be sure that you have a rationale for why. Keep in mind that a scene is usually comprised of multiple shots.  (Review the YouTube videos under film techniques for examples; for instance, the Fight Club scene has at least 12 shots.) 

 

What you’ll need:

• Large piece of poster board
• Post-its
• Index cards

 Construct the Storyboard:

Post-its: Describe or sketch the images you want to use (think about shots here—close ups, pan shots, montage, etc.).

Index card: Any text or language for scene. This could include: text box, voice-over, etc.

On the posterboard itself: Write out the purpose of each scene.

Use arrows to show movement. (Think of your storyboard like a flow chart!) How are you going to move/shift from scene to scene?)

 Questions to answer for each scene (on the posterboard):

• Within each scene, what’s the relationship between the images and your story? Consider the relationship between language and image. What images can speak for themselves? What images need language?
• What effect do you want your images to have on the viewer? (What do you want your viewer to learn that they didn’t already know? What do you want them thinking, feeling, and wondering about when your film is over?)

 Three ways you could use language:

•  
  • Voice-over narration-you read and record (either your words or someone else’s)
  • Text box-captions, subtitles, explanatory notes, or words being typed onto the screen
  • Video that shows a conversation or speaking-pre-existing footage or an interview.

Working with images:

• Still images (Photographs, maps, books, letters, paintings, etc)
• Moving images
• Stock images available in the public domain (YouTube videos, anything from Blog Post #6 or #7)

For Blog Post #5, review the comments on your last blog post.  What are the recurring themes, ideas, questions that your commenters notice?  What do you think about what they’ve said?  List what you want to say back to them.  What does this suggest for the direction of your project?  Describe your concerns, your hopes, your new ideas about your project.  By the end, articulate a couple (2-3) questions that your project is attempting to answer or think through.  [There might not be an answer to these, but rather, your job as a filmmaker is to show us how complicated it would be to answer this question.]

For Blog Post #6, we’d like you to think about first about your indelible moments, and second how you might represent them for an audience.  For the first part, refer back to your partner discussion from this morning.  Pick two of your indelible moments and re-immerse yourself in them (close your eyes and try to put yourself there!).  As you remember the event, focus on the sensory details—what do you see?  Where are you?  what do you smell?  What do you hear?  Who’s or what is with you?  Use this to create a bulleted list of these sensory memories (which will act as a resource list).

For the second part, choose one of the lists above, and describe two ways you might represent this indelible moment.  What would people, objects, sounds, smells, would you focus on?  What kinds of visual images, sounds, etc. could you use?  What sorts of editing techniques?

For Blog Post #7, You’ll engage in some research about your topic, in order to find out something new that YOU didn’t know.  For this purpose, please locate and embed/link to the following:

• two unusual, interesting facts (statistics,
• surprising, non-literal image (e.g., if you’re writing about plumbing, you can’t choose an image of a toilet.)
• a link to a community (blog, YouTube video, online chat, etc.) that is invested in your topic.

After you’ve included all of these, write a paragraph that answers the following: what surprised you?  what new questions emerge?  What are the connections or disjunctions among the information you’ve located?  How might the ideas above inform your project (i.e., describe the relationship between your discoveries and your own experience)?

Camera Techniques

Point of View and Handheld Camera

(Cloverfield)

Low Angle Shot

(Do the Right Thing)

Zoom, Pan, Shot-Reverse-Shot (sample sequence)

(Fight Club)

Editing Techniques

Montage

(Team America)

Montage and Parallel Editing

(Rocky IV)

Sound

(Reservoir Dogs)

Once you’ve completed your record-breaking stretch of writing, spend a few minutes reading what you wrote. Pay attention to what interests you, what surprises you, what shows up, and what doesn’t. For this blog post, you’re selecting some of your insights and discoveries to share with the class.

• What is your topic? What about your topic interests you?

• Why is this topic important to you?

• What questions do you have about this topic and your experiences with it? (What kinds of things do you wonder, think about,and/or worry about in regards to your topic?)

• As an “insider,” what kinds of things would you want to share/teach/explain/tell to “outsiders”?

Read through your classmates’ blogs and comment on each one: What interests you the most (about their topic) and why? Where do you have questions or want to know more? What would you like to see them find out/investigate about their topic?

Good writers know they need to write a lot in order to discover what they think, feel, or know. Through brainstorming, listing, and freewriting, writers use the process of writing itself to open up new pathways and directions.  Filmmakers rely on process too–both the writing process and the visual process. Our goal here is to provide you with prompts that invite you to explore your topic in deep ways.  The writing you do will be private–it’s meant to be both a space for discovery and surprise (because the act of writing invites new thinking), but also as a resource “bank” for you to draw on as you work on your film.

Find a quiet place to sit with your notebook and dedicate at least 20 minutes to sustained freewriting. (The “sustained” part means that you keep your pen moving and don’t stop to plan or prepare your sentences. The “freewriting” part means that you use your writing as thinking and trust that the writing will take you someplace interesting. Set a timer. Seriously. If you feel stuck, loop back to another question, but keep writing. Bring this writing to class tomorrow).

Freewriting prompts (designed to help you generate material and ideas for your topic):

• Write about a “first” moment/experience with your topic. (What was the “first” time like of riding a horse/meeting someone with autism/looking into wedding planning?)

• Make a list of specific “indelible moments” that come to mind when you think about your topic. (Indelible moments are those shards of memory or snapshots that run through our minds.) Let this list be generous –remember,it’s private!

• Make a list of specific people associated with your topic (both in your life and in the culture at large).

• Make a list of specific places associated with your topic. (The stable? The break room? The passenger seat?)

• Make  a list of specific objects you associate with your topic.

• Look over these last four lists and circle one or two items from each list that interest you and that seem to suggest more to explore.  Freewrite about one of these.

• Write a paragraph that begins with this sentence: When most people think about _______(your topic)_____ they probably think _____________ or _____________. What they don’t know/or understand is ____________.

For your third blog post, it’s time to hit YouTube.  Your challenge is to find two videos that you think fit most or all of the characteristics of the “personal essay” (see the list we brainstormed in class) and embed them in your blog.  For each video write a short explanation of the characteristics you see. In addition, be sure to comment on three of  your classmates’ blog posts.

Be forewarned–searching on YouTube can be challenging–search terms can only be one word long (so, for example, “personal essay” will not work).   You can, of course, search for combined terms (like “personal” and “essay”), but given that YouTube is a medium devoted to the visual, what this yields might not be what you expect or want. Since the site is designed to search for content–rather than genre–you’ll need to think about different search terms.  This might be a good time to use some of the terms you’ve mentioned in your second blog post (knitting or yoga, for example) to see if you find anything resembling a personal essay film. The key here is to experiment and be open to possibilities.  It’s about trial and error!

practice link

embed video

flashbacks–use of memory  (signals this; e.g., “when I was younger”; changes in verb tense—past to present)

How it actually was vs. how he remembers it [subjective memory]

Paints a picture—description and images  [e.g.,  "faceless, breathing cold mist..." (40)]

Uses all/multiple senses (see it, feel it, “whiskey-colored light”)

Comparisons—stronger description for character (hoses like dead bull snakes on Hwy. 20)

Repetition and/or recurring themes (work, workers; hands, bleeding sores)

Cultural references: personal but not just about the individual (41)

Small moments turn into something bigger

Evokes a world that the reader/viewer doesn’t know a lot about but can connect to/learn from

question/curiosity in the author’s own experience; essay becomes a way of examining this and ending up somewhere else.

Welcome to Personal Essay Filmmaking: ENG 276!  In the next two weeks, we’ll be on a whirl-wind ride to becoming amateur filmmakers.  Get familiar with this site, and check it often.  It will be the place to look for course updates, assignments, the class schedule, and most importantly, your classmates’ blogs.