TV and Film - Week 3

 We decided that we will recreate the episode of Cuckoo talked about previously 

After deciding on Cuckoo, we chose our characters:

Cuckoo: Hugo
Rachel: Emma
Lorna: Amelie
Ken: James
Dylan: Louis
Connie: Silvana
Steve: Tristan

Our extras are:

Zoe: Olivia
Charlie: Alessandro
Kelly: Maddy
Kelly's Husband: James
Toby: Alan
Toby's Girlfriend: Ella

Ken - 

After being cast as Ken I looked through the episode in order to find some key points around characterisation 

Throughout the episode you can clearly tell Ken is the stereotypical English dad, he misses and wishes for a sense of nostalgia. He cares about his daughter but is worried about her decision to marry Cuckoo and he considers it brash however he will support her none the less, even if it's not what he had planned. 

Some smaller points to consider characterisation wise is 

- 'my way or the high way' mindset 

- well educated/ spoken

- slightly socially awkward

Quotes to emphasise these points 

- I always imagined Rachel would marry someone educated, someone with ambition.  I’d respect his opinions  

- No.  Well, in a way.  It’s just a meeting because, well, you know, the family has a new member, which I’m delighted about, and we need to introduce him to the way we do things in this house, that’s all.  No agenda. 

- Look, family meetings are to make the rules up for you not for me.

- No!  No vote.  I suggest we all do what Dad says.

- I don’t like your food. 

- I love you, too.  I just miss the way we were a little bit.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but I just… 

- What?  Zoe, that… that is a scandalous accusation and one that I really hope you keep to yourself. 

 

ZOE 

So what, you’re just being weird? 

 

KEN 

Well… If wanting to prepare a friend’s child for a potentially life-defining internship is weird, then yes, I’m weird.  You could say that I’m weird. I’m weird. 

Film and TV acting - Week 2 reflection

 Piece decision - 

Previously we had looked into filming a remake of the office tv show (US version) however due to several struggles especially around trying to accommodate for a small cast it became apparent that this wouldn't work as well as we had thought. 

instead we've decided to look at remaking episode 2, season 1 of the Netflix original 'Cuckoo' 

This felt better to us as a group as it worked better for the cast we have, has a similar style to the previous years film and tv piece (they remade Brooklyn 99) so we could follow some of their steps to make it more comfortable for us especially in terms of the pre/ post production stages and we all enjoyed watching the original. 

However the difficulties we immediately noted were the locations, and dynamics between characters due to covid-19 guidelines. 

Film and TV acting unit - Week 1 reflection

 Preparation - 

We were tasked with making a small video for an advertisement to show the a brief take of what this unit will entail, split into groups we each devised our idea and put in together (our group was myself, Louis and Hugo). 

Our concept

Hugo narrates the advert (film him over a green screen)

James the admirable character

Louis plays the character that is miserable, wants to be more like James

Louis is woken up by music playing upstairs (annoying neighbours) but has nothing to quiet them down with (throws toilet paper roll at the ceiling, nothing happens)

This then transitions into Hugo speaking (with background music), and discussing the 'long stick'

Then a series of 'flashback' sequences playout:

• James silences his neighbours
• Goes fishing in his bathtub
• Cooks with it
• Uses it as an umbrella in the shower
• Walking
• Keeps social distance between him and stranger
• Plays it as a didgeridoo
• Blue advert screen

Here is our final advert:

- Credit to Louis for summary of our concept 

This highlighted the tasks during the pre production phase, the filming phase and finally the post production. For this unit our main focus is the filming phase as far as the acting as well as the efficiency, however we still look to make the pre production as easy as possible to it makes the filming less chaotic