BCre8ive – Blog | Creative notes to explain and inspire

“So Surprise Us’ – Collingwood & Co

Posted on 12/08/2016 by Phil

This blog highlights the work of one of BCre8ive’s Lab partners Collingwood & Co. They are an established animation company with a 25 year history of making award-winning animated series and specials, to critical acclaim around the world. Series include in house ideas: Oscar’s Orchestra, Yoko Jakamoko Toto, The Secret Show and our current production Ruff-Ruff, Tweet and Dave. We have also had success with adaptations, working with DC Thompson on Dennis & Gnasher and Dr Seuss’ Estate on The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

Here Jude Spencer, Development assistant at Collingwood & Co sets out what Collingwood & Co are making and what they hope will come in from members of the BCre8ive community.

Our programmes have ranged in age from pre-school through to 11-year-olds. Our current focus in development is predominantly pre-school and cross-over shows for 3 ½ to 7 year olds. With each new idea we look for a new challenge, both in the way in which stories can be told and in the way the series is made. A series for 7-10 year olds is harder to finance, but may still be of interest if the right idea was presented. This would require a relatable central character, a strong visual style and a funny, off the wall tone (able to stand up against established brands as seen on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney).

Ruff-Ruff Tweet and Dave

We have a strong history of successful co-productions from around the world with Singapore, China, Korea, Canada and America. Having a series which has an international appeal, particularly with an American broadcaster in mind, would be a key element of what we’re looking for; as in order to get a series commissioned we require multiple financiers and broadcasters from around the world.

Projects which have scope to go further than the small screen, with online or with merchandising potential, are also something to be considered when shaping an idea.

Pre-school broadcasters require an element of educational content, either soft or curriculum based, which would need to be a part of any series idea for this age-group. We’re looking for shows where an educational thread is incorporated into every episode, whilst keep the characters and storylines fun and engaging.

Whatever the project, we are looking for strong characters the audience will fall in love with, and want to go on new adventures with each week – and a big part of that is to make them laugh! Series need to reflect the lives of the audience in some way, and feel relevant to modern children in order, to stand out and capture their imagination, amongst the many demands for their attention. There would need to be a big enough scope within the world for potential to make as many as 52 episodes in a series, and beyond.

But whatever your idea, there are always exceptions to the rules for the right project, so surprise us!

Posted in BCre8ive Lab, Children's Media, Television, Uncategorized | Comments Off

‘Green Shoots for Family Films’

Posted on 14/07/2016 by Phil

At the Children’s Media Conference (CMC) on Thursday 7th July I chaired a session on the prospects and future of family films being produced in the UK. On the panel with me were Pauline Burt(CEO Film Cymru/Wales); Ansgar Ahlers (director of ‘Bach In Brazil’); and Nicole Carmen-Davies (producer of ‘Litterbugs’).

Pauline kicked off the discussion with an outline of Film Cymru/Wales new strategy for developing/encouraging family films A combination of seed development and audience development.

The former, in essence, is a potential slate development deal with Chicken House, – https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/ a major UK children’s book publisher. Film Cymru is providing a small amount of funds to encourage the optioning of up to ten books. The idea being that this will promote existing UK published books and potentially provide the basis for new cinema audiences.

This use of public funded seed monies is becoming a major part of independent development in the UK, and Europe as a whole. This was reflected in the experience of new Northern Ireland production company ‘Dog Ears, in an earlier session at CMC.. They acquired £10,000 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to develop an App based upon characters they had created for a new TV series. This led to a self-published book proposal, which in turn led to Penguin publishers taking up the book, and ultimately becoming partners in the TV series.

The second part of Pauline’s approach was to build audiences via screening of family etc. at libraries, schools and other community venues throughout Wales/Cymru. This work is part of an overall audience building exercise being supported in part by the BFI. In Cymru/Wales this initiative is led by the Film Hub based at the Chapter in Cardiff

Ansgar Ahlers then took the audience through the ten year journey to make and distribute ‘Bach In Brazil’, an Indie family film, which has now been in the cinemas for 16 weeks, defying all expectations in Germany. This first-time feature, was made using a combination of a Co-production deal, pre-sale, TV sale and public funds.

Bach in Brazil

The two key problems he identified in this lengthy and sometimes very frustrating, if ultimately rewarding, process were identifying the audience for the various funders involved and building a marketing campaign for the film on release..

The story revolves around an elderly music teacher, who ends up teaching Bach’s music to children in a detention centre in Brazil. In addition, it was shot in Germany and Brazil with the German and Portuguese languages used. So for the funders was it a Brazilian or a German film, and who was it aimed at children, or elderly people? This debate nearly stopped the funding, but with Disney International in for one third of the budget, the film had good support from early on and finally a deal was closed.

Once the film was finished the distributors faced the same questions and were uncertain how to promote the film. In the end Ansgar took it to a very family friendly German festival and won the audience award. This led to other festival successes and good reviews when it was shown at the Rio Film Festival. Ultimately it led to the realisation this was an audience film i.e. not genre film at all, but in essence a family film, loved by wide audiences.

‘Litterbugs’

Nicole Carmen-Davis, a UK indie producer, then outlined her own path towards an indie family film in the UK. A path familiar to many UK producers. Having worked up a feature idea, The Witches Institute, with director Peter Stanley Ward, she realised they did not have the tack record to make it. Therefore, they set out make “Litterbugs’ http://www.treehousedigital.com/litterbugs-short-film/ a short film with all the VFX needed for the feature film. This was only possible owing to the help of several people in the industry, which supplemented a small amount of money given by Creative England. This kind of ‘free’ support combined with public ‘seed’ monies has been the hallmark of several short and low budget films in the UK.

In conclusion, with questions from the audience it was recognised that the dearth of UK produced family and children’s films reflects the problems faced by ‘Bach in Brazil’. In addition, the use of small amounts of public ‘seed’ monies for early development are critical for new talent to stand any chance of making a feature film. Beyond these production issues there is also a need to build new audiences, and an awareness of the need for local UK-produced, and focused, family and children’s films.

With the BBC and others e.g.Creative Scotland looking to make new family orientated features let us see what next year’s CMC session will reveal has happened in the coming twelve months.

Posted in Children's Media, Creative Collaboration, Feature films, Uncategorized | Comments Off

‘Can you Learn to Write?’

Posted on 04/07/2016 by Phil

This blog is an extract from Chris Trengove’s blog on ‘Can you Learn to write?’ Chris is a BCre8ive Creative Champion, one of our team of experienced advisors who support our work on developing new ideas, mentoring talent, and creative collaborations. Read here what he thinks is the benefit of mentoring, and how it might help you write “a little bit better”.

So if you can’t learn to write, what can you learn? I have to go back a few years, to 2004, when I was first asked to mentor at a scriptwriting workshop. I was a little sceptical, as my writing career had been firmly based around the principle of ‘write; then write some more; then write some more.’ Honing my craft, I’d worked as a journalist and an advertising copywriter. I wrote a lot, and over the course of the years worked out what was bad and what as good, and bit by bit impressed enough people that I was able to make a living at it. Workshop? A word that I’d hitherto only associated with piles of old tyres and an ailing Ford Mondeo on a ramp. However, I said yes, as I was curious, I was going to get paid, and I make it a professional rule to say yes to everything.

Truthfully I had no idea what to expect, or even what I was supposed to do, but over the course of the first week, at a big old house in the Kent countryside, it slowly became apparent that I wasn’t expected to be a teacher of writing – the participants all had at least some professional experience – but a kind of roving counsellor-cum-sounding-board-cum-sympathetic ear. I was able to help not by commenting on paragraph structure or the minutiae of dialogue, but by talking, guiding, suggesting, throwing ideas at the participants that they might not have thought of themselves.

What I was offering them was the practical expertise that I’d built up over the course of a couple of decades, helping them out of holes that y might have written themselves into, working with them to make their projects as good as they possibly could be. Often, it was simply a case of pointing out a way forward that hadn’t occurred to them: “why don’t you try this?”, “why don’t you try that?” In the end you have to teach yourself, and a good educator is someone who gives you the tools and inspiration to do just that.

I also quickly realised that what I was doing was what a good editor does: clearing a way for the writer to best realize their ‘vision’, without compromising their creative signature. Like most writers, over the years I’ve edited and I’ve been edited, and I’ve come to realise that the greatest gift the good editor can bring to a project is simply a second pair of (informed, interested, expert) eyes. When you’re working on a project, there’s always a point at which you can’t see the wood for the trees. To mix metaphors, you’re so involved in nurturing your baby that you don’t notice that it has an extra couple of toes. It takes someone else to do that, to gently point the fact out, and to suggest solutions. Many psychiatrists see psychiatrists: to quote a fictional example, in The Sopranos, Tony’s psychiatrist Dr. Melfi regularly sees a psychiatrist herself, colleague Dr. Kupferberg, to maintain and tune her own mental balance.

What else? Well, interest is all. I’m a lifelong jazz fan and occasional musician, and if I can’t play something, at least I know how it should be played, because I love the music and have spent countless hours listening to top players. But from talking to music teachers, I know that many come to jazz playing without any real history of listening – they’ve heard Norah Jones in a wine bar and think they like jazz, whereas what they like is something that sounds a bit like jazz. If you’re not into it, why would you want to play it? Same with writing – if you’re not a reader, you’ll probably never be a writer, and why would you want to be? Again I, and others in my field, report that many would-be writers seem to have read little. Or, if they’re scriptwriters, they don’t have a working knowledge of the classic movies or TV shows, even in the field they’re working in.

So, to go back to my original thesis – can you learn to write? No – but if you’ve got the spark, the basic skills, the right help can make a difference. Help you speed the process up. Perhaps help you bypass some of the heavy lifting that writers had to do before the advent of creative writing courses and the like. My experience of workshops over the years has shown me that overall, they provide a positive and inspiring experience for both mentors and participants. The people who take them already pretty much know to write; but by listening, trying this, trying that, experimenting within a nurturing environment, they can learn how to write just a little bit better.

You can read the whole of ‘Can you learn to write?” HERE

For a list of all our Creative Champions go HERE

Posted in Art of development, Creative Tools, Feature films, Short Film, Television | Comments Off

We Remain .eu

Posted on 27/06/2016 by Phil

At a time of great uncertainty this blog is about our web name BCre8ive.eu.

Initially chosen because someone had parked on bcre8ive.com on the very day we were searching for domain names and was demanding money for us to use it. Commercial blackmail is acceptable in certain circles but it is not something we countenance or give in to. So we went in search of another domain, and .eu was available.

As freelancers, the founders of BCre8ive have worked, and still work, with individuals companies and organisations across the world, but predominantly in Europe. In this context .eu meant something about the reality of our working world, and the wider context in which we thought BCre8ive would, and does, operate.

©Elbegzaya Khaltar

Projects submitted to our first Labs included the true story of a Mongolian woman, living in Scotland, who forced the UN to remove the term of reference ‘Mongol’ from the list of words deemed acceptable when describing people with Downs Syndrome. Other projects came from all over the UK, with partners in France, USA, and Belgium.

In July, Phil, co-founder of BCre8ive, will chair a session a the Children’s Media Conference, on the ‘Green Shoots’ for UK children’s film. Part of the panel in this discussion will be Ansgar Ahlers, a young German film maker, talking about his first feature film ‘Bach in Brazil’. This story about a failed elderly music teacher, who is fated to end up teaching in a children’s prison in Brazil and bring these children to perform successfully in Germany, started out as a conversation in a coffee bar in Berlin. It took Ansgar and Phil eight years to reach completion and see the finished film still running in German cinemas after 16 weeks, out performing other major independent films.

Bach in Brazil

We live and work as creatives in an international and collaborative world, where this type of project is possible, and essential to global understanding.

On Thursday 23rd June 2016, Phil attended the European Creative Industries Summit in Brussels. At this session Martine Reicherts, Director General for Education and Culture at the European Commission (EC) committed the organisation to breaking down the ‘silo’ mentality of the old arts, media, and games worlds. At the same session Christian Ehler, leader of the Creative Industries group within the European Parliament announced that a cross sector policy, by which creatives industries will become part of all relevant EC funding and policy decisions for the future of Europe, had been adopted.

The UK referendum vote potentially removes us from this ongoing development of the Creative Industries in Europe.

A vote which the UK Creative Industries as a whole rejected in a pre-referendum survey by the Creative Industries Federation.

96% support for Remain amongst Federation members, with barely 4% in favour of Leave.
84% of members said EU membership was important to the future of their organisation, with just 1.5% saying it was irrelevant

We are an online community. The only borders we have to creativity are ones people have imposed on them. Our partnerships are global. Our audiences are global.

However, we are a collection of small and micro businesses, vulnerable to uncertainty, in need of structural, training, research, and financial support to flourish and grow in the face of major global multinationals not based in the UK, or Europe.

The EC is a focus for this support, and critical to the international legal framework which can protect freelancers and small businesses from the forces of monopolies and cartels which distort our market, and aim to diminish the income of talent, and the growth of new creative enterprises.

For all these reasons we remain .eu.

Posted in Creative Champions, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Creating Great Children’s Content – Episodic Structure 1

Posted on 16/06/2016 by Phil

This blog series follows on from the last of a series of development frameworks for narrative screenworks from mobile and short films to long running TV series. The aim of this blog is to look at the structure for children’s television both live action and animation. It is relevant for work intended for everything from traditional broadcast to self-made web series.. Structure is often discussed wit respect to feature films but few books or courses address the structure of an episodic series – let alone a children’s for family series. Note: Series are based on contained story episodes. Serials, where the main stories run over a number of episodes will be dealt with in another blog.

Two Stories

The vast majority of episodic series work on the basis of two stories/storylines, the exception to this rule are very short episodes e.g. under 2 minutes. An example of this is ‘Morph‘. These episodes work on the ‘Jack in the Box’ principle outlined in the blog on short films and so I will not dwell on them here.

The need for two stories/storylines can be seen from everything from the five minute episodes of series like ‘Pepa the Pig‘ through to the 30 minute episodes of ‘The Dumping Ground‘. However, before looking into how the two story approach works in children’s episodic series there are a couple of other points about the structure of these series which mark them out from contemporary screenwriting theory.

‘The Gang’

The first of these is the dominance of a ‘gang’ as the central dramatic characters, rather than a single protagonists. This varies from families as in ‘Outnumbered’ to groups in ‘Tracy Beaker‘ to friends in ‘Roy‘ . This means that in developing a series one of the first elements is to work out a group of characters rather than a singe central protagonist – more on this in a later blog. However, from a structure point of view it also means that often the central character/s react to what other characters pose as a problem, rather than instigating action themselves.

Episode Breakdown

This can be clearly seen in the episode of ‘Pepa and George’s Garden‘.

The episode opens with Pepa’s father relaxing in the sun with his paper . He goes inside the house for a cup of tea. This is the the set up for storyline one.

Storyline two starts with the arrival of Grandpa Pig and his suggestion to Pepe and George that they create a flower garden. Neither Pepa or George expressed a desire for the garden, it is produced by the Grandpa. This use of a character other than the main character to motivate a storyline is common in episodic series.

The two storylines collide when father returns with his cup of tea, which is drunk by Grandpa Pig, and he discovers the flower garden is where he normally sits to read his newspaper. However, he concedes to Pepa and George having the flower garden and even protects it from seed hungry birds.

When the flowers finally bloom, everyone is really pleased. However, then Grandpa Pig suggests they start a vegetable garden, right where Pepa’s father has now moved to read his paper etc..This repetition of the conflict is a useful device when working with pre-school children, as they appreciate the return to an idea/action.

Eventually, Pepa’s father concedes again when he realises he also loves potatoes, which makes them all laugh – the end. This reflects the point made in the earlier blog about the establishment/restoration of ‘order’ being a major theme for younger children’s work.

These two storylines, the father’s desire to have a nice place to read his paper, and the Grandpa’s desire to create gardens with Pepa and George, provide a solid basis for creating a dramatic plotline.

Whose Story Leads the Way

The creation of two stories/storylines is essential development work in series episodes. Realising that they do not have to be motivated by the central characters is one of the key freedoms this type of construction provides. However, these storylines are often generated by characters ,who are ongoing within the series. The exception to this general approach is the action adventure based series e.g. Thunderbirds.

In this latter type of series the major storyline is generated by an incident or major antagonist, which is then dealt with within the episode. The antagonist often returns for future episodes, but not necessarily so.

It is also worth noting that within pilots, or first episodes, it is wise to motivate one of the two stories/storylines from a central character, in order for the audience to focus on them. This is because the audience has not yet had time to engage with them in the role and therefore may not identify with them if they are a secondary character in this episode.

The structure of serial episodes will be explored in the next blog., while the development of a ‘gang’ of characters will be explored in a future blog.

Posted in Art of development, Children's Media, Television, Web | Comments Off

Creating Great Children’s Content – initial questions

Posted on 03/06/2016 by Phil

This blog series follows on from the last of a series of development frameworks for narrative screenworks from mobile and short films to long running TV series. The aim of this blog is to look at the very first stage of development for children’s television both live action and animation. It is relevant for work intended for everything from traditional broadcast to self-made web series.. This is the stage of development where many options are possible but it is crucial to avoid many simple mistakes.

As with the development frameworks these notes will cover the three main screen formats for TV and the Web – the series, the serial and the TV film. However, before we delve into the specifics of each format it is worth considering a few general points about children’s audiences and what in general makes a successful children’s work.

Audiences

The key points here are to remember that children are not one audience, and that as they grow up, they carry with them their past screen favourites. Generally, children are broken down into the following audience groups – pre-school; 4-6 year olds; 6-12 year olds; young teens, and young adults. Though some works obviously cover more than one age range it is always useful to think about a specific age group when working up an idea. This is not only because many broadcasters and funders relate to specific age groups, but also because they each have specific fascinations and approaches to the world.

With regard to the former it is worth noting that most broadcasters, sponsors, and funders want to tie their work into the educational system in some way, as this often not only provides funds, but crucially direct links to schools etc. With respect of the latter knowing what your audience is watching now, what they have watched in the past, and what fascinates each age group is critical to creating a great children’s work. Recreating the ‘Dumping Ground’ or ‘Skins’ is not likely to bring in a big audience.

A simple rule of thumb is that most people, children included, like watching material that includes people of their age range, or a group they aspire to be like. So think about the age of your key characters and whether or not they are aspirational for a particular group of children. ‘Harry Potter’ was not just a success because it was about children but also because it was saying children could aspire to do/be magic – there are not many children who would not like to be able to do this!.

Then there are the adults, including parents. Though many children now watch on thier own, not only do parents tend to control pre-teens watching habits, but in the pre-school group will generally be part of the audience. So in creating a great work you need to think not only sometimes about how will parents respond to your idea, but how will they actually participate. The reverse is often true of teen and young adult works, of course.

Finally, one of the most interesting aspects of audiences is how they sometimes select something which is not aimed at them at all initially. So for many soap operas there is a big audience of 6-12 year olds, while many children’s animation works attract cult adult audiences, especially amongst students.

Live Action v. Animation

It will not have escaped your attention that animation dominates much of children’s viewing. For children under 12 it is now the dominant form. One of the obvious reasons for this is animation allows the creation of a fantastical world easily, and creates less barriers of identification than live action characters. For pre-school, animation also allows for very simple characters, and less complex settings etc. which in turn tends to allow for easier engagement.

However, for young teens and young adults live action is the preferred form. This is in part owing to the need to identify strongly with characters in these age ranges, and the desire to move away from the animated world of their younger selves.

One thing to remember though no matter what the form, the screenplay still has to work!

The Big Themes

As with all screen narratives children’s work relates to big emotional themes which also underpin adult works. However, some key themes tend to dominate children’s works. The major one of these, across all age ranges, is the desire for justice or to put it another way to be treated fairly. This is not surprising given that the vast majority of a child’s life is governed by adults and other children, where they often feel they have not been treated fairly.

For very young children the desire for order is very strong, reflected in narratives which return everything to where they were are the start of the narrative – as is found in all successful sitcoms and long running series. For teens as a whole it tends to be the question of identity and validation as they seeks to work out their position in the world. While for young adults it the desire for love, as they seek to establish bonds outside the family, and amongst their peers.

Posted in Art of development, Children's Media, Genre, Television, Web | 2 Comments

Creative Story Development 4 : Series

Posted on 10/05/2016 by Phil

This blog is part of a series of development frameworks for narrative screenworks from mobile and short films to long running TV series. The aim of the series is to look at the very first stage of development, when an idea has not been developed into a narrative or full blown concept yet. This is the stage where many options are possible and by using these frameworks many simple mistakes can be avoided very early on in the development of work.

This blog reviews the essential starting points of the TV series narratives in television, the most popular, and longest running format for screen narratives.

Series Definitions

The basic definition of a series s a number of episodes which contain the same elements normally key characters and a specific location. The number of key characters can range from one to twenty plus, as in a long running soap opera. The key point being that these characters are in every episode, and the stories focus on their activities or alternatively a location is used to bind a series of different characters and storylines together. The following frameworks lay out the essential elements of the three main types of series in television – soaps, sitcom and episodic drama.

SOAP

1. Multiple open-ended episodic structure – traditionally 22-50 minutes in length – a major break from the short, and feature film..

2. Multiple story stranded structure the same as the serial but without the aim of a ending within a few episodes.

3. Multi character focus – several stories in each episode, most left to be continued. Therefore,. extremely long character arcs sometimes taking years to play out.

4. The subject of soaps is personal relationships normally in the form of family sagas.

5. The underlying theme is one of ‘The Need for Order’ i.e. what threatens the continuance of the family, but given the sheer scale of narrative time available ‘The Desire for Love’ is regularly the second theme used, as is ‘The Desire for Validation’

6. A three act linear structure applies within each episode, normally shaped around one spinal storyline within each episode.

7. Stylistically it is television naturalism i.e. locations, sets etc shot as if they were real places.

8. Tonally dramatic with most characters winning and losing at each stage of their story’s development.

SITCOM

1. Single main story and a secondary story in each episode, normally less than 28 minutes.

2. Circular plot structure – the idea is to have the characters back where they started by the end of each episode. The three act structure is applied via the main storyline.

3. Limited cast, often two to four, with one guest, however it can be as many as six or seven.

4. Like soaps the subject is personal relationships and is often set within a family. However, equally common is a work setting.

5. Like soaps the major theme is’ the Desire for Order’, with romance also being used. However, unlike soaps only one theme is used for a show as each episode is potentially a stand alone narrative, with no carry over storylines.

6. Style is naturalistic as in soaps.

7. The tone is comic, but can range from slapstick, and surreal, to verbal wit in its form.

EPISODIC DRAMA

1. Multiple episodes, with a main story per episode – normally 50-85 minutes in length, but 110 minute length has been used.

2. Two story linear structure or multi-stranded, and it may or may not have a serial element which runs for one season. The three act structure being tied to the main storyline.

3. The cast runs from one central character to an ensemble. The norm is two central characters with a few regular supporting characters. The use of guest characters is normal, and these may range up to seven in number.

4. The subject tends to be work orientated – often referred to as Cops and Docs, meaning police or doctor dramas.

5. The underlying theme if a police series will be ‘The Desire for Justice’ and if a Doctors series ‘The Desire for Order’. In a series where the location is the central element not the characters ‘The Desire for Romance’ has been used.

6. Style is dominated by television naturalism but expressionism can be used in some work.

7. The tone is dramatic with events leading to some guest characters winning and losing at the same time, while the central characters win in terms of the main story line but lose in some secondary story.

Posted in Art of development, Genre, Television | Comments Off

Creative Story Development 3 : The Television Serial/TV Movie

Posted on 27/04/2016 by Phil

This blog reviews the essential starting points of the TV movie and the serial, the one-off narratives in television which have the closest affinity to feature films.

The TV Movie

Many of the essential question which can be posed for a feature film apply to the TV movie. These include the nature of the central character/s problem/s; the need for two strong storylines to hold the plot together, the question of which genre is it working in and what is the overall dramtic structure? All these have been explored in the previous ‘Short and Feature Film’ blog.so in this blog I will concentrate on the differences.

The Differences

The most obvious is the question of scale. A TV movie lacks the finance and scale of screen to fully exploit the action and spectacle of major feature films e.g. Harry Potter series, Iron Man etc,. Though these are often now watched on small screens their overall impact is not the same, and TV budgets do not allow for this level of production.

Length is also a major difference, as a TV Movie have to fit schedules which are tighter than cinema screenings, with most TV movies being between 65-90 minutes long. This tends to limit the number of central characters. While in cinema there are several films with up to seven major characters, which last two or more hours, the restricted length of TV means these one-off narratives tend to be limited to two to three central characters e.g Five Minutes of Heaven. However, the growth in cable/satellite production has seen some larger cast success e.g. High School Musical

Contemporary Stories

The other major focus is the contemporary nature of most TV movies, which arises from the ability to respond quickly to society issues, major news stories, and contemporary events. This is one major advantage of TV Movie with their lower budgets and scale they are able to focus on a more domestic rather than international audience. Thus if looking to develop a contemporary story with a small cast then TV is a natural home.

The major limitation on this approach is of course the various levels of censorship which are applied to broadcasting at certain times of the day, and to certain audiences. However, with streaming, mobile devices, and internet access making control of this screen space more difficult it is likely to be less of a restriction in the future.

So if you have a contemporary narrative, which can focus on limited locations, with a small cast and addresses key public concerns then the TV movie is still a major space in which to develop an idea.

The TV Serial

This is the most expansive version of the one-off narrative. Even though theatrical films are tending to become serials e.g Harry Potter, Batman, and The Hunger Games television still has the ability to provide the longest and most expansive screen space for long one-off narratives.

These are the big epic narratives, e.g. Hiemat, (w E Reitz & P Steinbach) which stretch over several hours of television and works with much the same scope a some epic feature films. For this reasons the framework is essentially the same as the feature film but with some crucial differences.

If your idea requires the development of several characters rather than one over an extended period of time it will almost certainly need the scope of the television serial as opposed to the one-off feature film.

Episodes?

This option then raises some different structural issues, can the plotlines be broken down into clear episodes, and what length will they ideally be? Are each of the characters’ stories sufficiently developed to sustain the length of narrative? There have been many film ideas, which have been stretched to serial length, and failed because the characters and their plotlines were not developed enough to fill the new expanded narrative time frame. Equally important – What are the dramatic developments that will sustain climaxes at the end of each episode? In this context, do we need more characters to sustain the length of each episode?

Another major issue for serials is the question of the second theme. In feature films only one theme underlines any one narrative but in television serials, the use of s second theme is essential once the narrative has moved above three hours in order to sustain emotional engagement, and character developments.

Given the cost of production involved and the lack of spaces for this scale of television production there is a pressing need at this early stage of development to see what broadcast opportunities exist to see the idea realised. This points to the obvious current outcome, the dominance of adaptations, and in particular historical/period dramas, as the main focus for serial productions e.g. War and Peace.

Developing an original serial for contemporary television is very difficult owing to the lack of perceived audience, which books, etc. bring; or historical events, which provide a hook, and the cost involved. Therefore, if thinking of developing a contemporary serial it is important to address the distribution, and production issues very early on in development.

However, one question which may move you from the serial into series options is – do the main characters undergo any major changes, or their circumstances radically alter from the beginning of the narrative to the end? If they do not then it is possible your idea is closer to a series idea than a serial idea.

More on this in the next Creative Story development blog

Posted in Art of development, Television | Comments Off

Creative Story Development 2 : Short and Feature films

Posted on 19/04/2016 by Phil

This blog is part of a series of development frameworks for narrative screenworks from mobile and short films to long running TV series. The aim of the series is to look at the very first stage of development, when an idea has not been developed into a narrative or full blown concept yet. This is the stage where many options are possible and by using these frame works many simple mistakes can be avoided very early on in the development of work.

The Short Film Framework

This framework applies to all fiction works above a couple of minutes – for shorter versions see the mobile framework in previous blog – and up to the normally accepted limit for short films I.e.. 30 minutes. Some festival do accept longer works but the norm is around 30 minutes.

Firstly, discover the characters and their stories? Who are they, what problem do they have to solve, and why are they in dramatic conflict?

Having identified the various stories, what theme, if any, is there present in this initial collection of stories? Do they compliment each other or do you have too many stories focussing on too many different themes for them to work in a simple short narrative?

Then comes the crunch question – are the character’ stories realisable in the length of short being envisaged?

This is the most difficult question to answer, but also the critical one as to whether or not the idea really will work as a short film. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in this blog to adequately provide a definitive framework to answer this question. However, the three fundamental length distinctions in shorts, which have an impact on narrative content, are: –

The short short – under five minutes in length.

In essence, a joke structure, a narrative that focuses on delivering a big payoff. Characters and characterisation, as in the mobile framework, are dependent on strong types, often stereotypes, owing to the extremely short amount of narrative time available. However once over the two-minute mark the need to provide two stories/plotlines is a major difference from the mobile framework.

The commercial short – approximately five to twelve minutes in length.

This length has attracted most public funding, and has had the widest distribution in cinemas and festivals etc.; it needs two stories/plotlines, or a series of episodic moments, and requires dramatic development, to sustain interest.

Characters need to be seen to make a journey, the complexity of which is dependent on the tone. Comic characters tend not to develop during the narrative, while dramatic characters have to. Characterisation is very simple owing to the limited screen time, but it can be idiosyncratic. This is because there is time to establish and develop them, but not enough time to question their credibility.

The Academy short – from twelve to thirty minutes in length.

At this length the two main stories need substantial dramatic development, and the existence of a third story or plotline is common. However, the total number of stories is not no more than five, and then one or more of these will be extremely simple.

Characterisation and character development need to be more complex to sustain interest. If the plot is simple, then comedic and style elements will have to compensate in terms of engagement for the audience.

The final questions worth asking at this stage are – what genre of narrative is it? and what is originality and familiar about the film?

Answering this latter question is again clearly a question of knowing what else has been created. Fortunately the explosion in short film making over the last ten years has led to numerous short film festivals – a list of these can be found at

http://film.britishcouncil.org/festivals-directory/about-the-directory or you can view numerous short films online at http://www.thefilmnetwork.co.uk/films

The Feature Film Framework

This initial framework illustrates the first part of the knowledge that can be brought to a feature film idea and allows the writer, and the development team, to have some confidence they are on the right track in the early stages of development.

Starting from the initial premise feature film development rapidly moves to focus on the characters’ stories. Crucially, the protagonist and antagonists stories have to be identified, and the sources of conflict/dramatic development between them made clear. This can be easily achieved by asking – Who are they, what problem/s do they have to solve, and why are they in dramatic conflict? The basis of the premise.

A common mistake is to think that films are essentially one story, when inevitably they are at least two. Therefore, finding the second story is an essential aspect of assessing an idea. In developing the screenplay there will be at least three significant stories, and up to twelve or fifteen secondary stories, depending on the length, and dramatic form being used. If at this early stage there is no clear strong second story/plotline, then it will prove difficult not only to create a strong second act, but also to work out the real theme of the piece and its genre.

If the initial two main stories and thus the potential plotlines have been identified it will be possible to identify which of the major themes, which underpin feature film narratives are present. Often there will be more than one, which leads to a discussion about what is the real focus of the writer in developing the project, and which theme is more important. Sometimes this is best seen in the light of the genre that the writer or the development team are seeking to work within.

There are only four genre groups within feature film development – personal dramas; thrillers; horror and romances – each one uses one of two of the eight major themes to underpin all of their narratives. Therefore, when developing a project, even at this early stage, it is often possible to choose which genre to concentrate on depending on which theme is being addressed in the various main story/plotlines. Unfortunately, this blog does not allow space so plesea refer to other blogs in this series in ‘Art of Development’

The next major issue that presents itself is – What form of narrative is it? Does the plot suggest the traditional linear form, as in ‘ Eastern Promises’ (w. S Knight) or does the time frame of the narrative, with several large time jumps, suggest a more episodic structure as in ‘Control’ (w. M Greenhalgh) If the narrative contains several main characters is there a need to impose a time frame, or a specific incident on the various stories to ensure a coherent narrative e.g. Crash’ (w. P Haggis)?

However, the really critical question is – what is the film seeking to deliver in the climax? Without a clear ending many good ideas, which are often only the beginning of the narrative, fail, as the ending which fulfils the needs of the characters and the narrative as a whole, is never really found.

At this early stage this may be no more than the central character/s ultimately addresses their central problem in a particular location etc but if it is not clear how they will arrive at this point, or the writer/development team have no idea what this central problem is – then developing the feature film further will be difficult.

Inevitably, the question then arises – What is original and what is familiar about the idea? The genre, themes, and to some extent the characters’ stories provide the answer to the latter part of this question. The original elements arise from a unique setting, surprises in the plot, and character development, characterisation and the overall approach to the tone, and visual look of the film.

Finally, what are its commercial limitations/potential? Recognising the potential of an idea, and who the audience might be can save a great number of projects in development. Too many projects are started with no idea of whom they will be for, and crucially how an audience will be drawn to the project. If there are particular problems with the project, and it will need A-list cast to attract an audience, then the development of the project needs to take this into consideration, equally if it is aiming to be a small budget film then the development needs to reflect this.

These basic questions, and some answers can be addressed at this early stage, and thus avoid much of what can turn into development hell.

Posted in Art of development, Feature films, Short Film | 2 Comments

Creative Story Development 1 – Mobile/Web shorts

Posted on 15/04/2016 by Phil

Development is a process of discovery especially in the early stages, what seemed like a great idea an hour ago when put to the test of a few simple questions may have some obvious limitations. The point is not that these limitations have been identified but that through the answers some new ideas, and approaches, to the material will have arisen, and these may well lead to a brand new idea which does work.

“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.” Ed Catmull

Obviously, a creator can, and in most cases should, undertake this early stage of development before they submit ideas to anyone else. However, in large agencies, and production companies, many discussions start with just an idea, and handling the development process so at not to lose any good ideas is critical to the success of the group, and any commitment to development spend.

Given that I have assumed that we are starting with an original idea i.e. not one adapted from another source e.g. true life, a stage play, etc., the frameworks discussed in these blogs set out to assess the full range of options open at this early stage of development. It is worth bearing in mind that at this stage taking an idea in more than one direction is often not only possible but often desirable, in order to arrive at a point where a genuine, well informed, decision can be made as to how best to take the project forward.

Six Frameworks

In this context the six frameworks outlined in this and following blogs are to help shape not only the idea but also the discussion of the idea, with your self, or with other people involved in the development process. These range from mobile phone flashes through feature film to large television series and serials.

Development Frameworks for Ideas

These development frameworks will provide you with a means of assessing your idea, and also point you in the direction of what you need to develop, change, or abandon at this stage. They focus on fiction projects, as the development of non-fiction is beyond the scope of these articles, but the principles outlined in the creative development process remain essentially the same for non-fiction as for fiction, at this point on the process.

Each framework addresses a series of basic questions, and is aimed to help you assess the potential of the idea with reference to particular screenworks. It is important to remember that an idea may not match up with all the criteria listed, or fail in its current form to meet them. This does not mean the idea should necessarily be abandoned. However, it does probably mean you should look to see what changes will be necessary, for it to work in the narrative format you have chosen for it.

Remember one of the most common mistakes is to attempt to force an idea into the wrong length, or genre, of narrative. It is at this ideas stage that this sort of problem can easily be identified, and resolved, before major work has been undertaken.

The First Development Framework

Mobile is now one of the major areas of creative activity and the following framework the first of five, sets out the essential questions needed when approaching mobile ideas.

The Mobile Framework

Prior to mobile phones and Youtube, this was the very short film format – under two minutes – used by experimental filmmakers, animators and advertising executives to make an impact with a simple visual idea. This remains the essence of this type of project.

Flash is a name given to a certain type of computer-generated animation, but it equally applies as a description to the type of idea that this format requires. If the idea you have can be illustrated in one or two simple flashes of actions, or images, then it will work within this short screen format. The advent of very fast cutting also means that a great deal of action can be packed into this time frame, if the central character and the situation are easily grasped by the audience. For this reason most of the successful mobile and very short films or videos rely on stereo typical characters and situations, which then deliver a comic outcome or a huge surprise e.g. Angry Kid

The key questions for this type of narrative are – is the situation i.e. the setting for the action easily shown on a small screen; is/are the character/s quickly understood i.e. is their motivation for action easily grasped; is the final moment surprising or funny enough and finally is it original enough!

Is it original enough?

The latter point is extremely difficult to answer in this format owing to the volume of material that is now available via the web. The easiest way to check an idea in this environment is to view the top fifty similar length shorts on the main sites and see if your idea has already been done or something similar already exists. If it is not in the top fifty then it does not really matter if someone has done it before, as the potential audience will probably not have seen the earlier version anyway.

This point is one of the first critical aspects of creative development. Knowing what has already been created, and reached your potential audience, is essential to any successful development process. This work is often assumed by creatives to be undertaken by the producer or development executive. However, a creator needs to know this in order to avoid not only the obvious rejection by producers, who have seen or know of something similar or even the same, already having reached the planned audience, but also to avoid undertaking a substantial amount of work only for it to be rejected, apparently out of hand.

Clearly no one creator or development team can be aware of all the work which is in development, or has actually been uploaded etc., but once an idea has been formed it is wise to review the recent screen output which is similar to see what is working and what is not for your audience/s. The beauty of this early research is that it may also inspire new and better ideas.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Tools, Short Film | Comments Off

BCre8ive – Blog