Producing on the Bleeding Edgeby Dr. Lance Dann
A production journey involves:
- Idea development
- Bid writing
- Team building
- Scripting
- Production Planning
- Production
- Casting
- Directing
- Post-production, marketing and beyond
The Bleeding Edge
- Podcast Audio drama series
- A futuristic thriller in 10 parts concerning themes of modern work, bio-ethics, identity and blood
- Transmedia (or post Transmedia experience) experience
- Funded by the Welcome Trust
- Supported by the Universities Brighton, University of Sussex and Imperial
- Produced by Resonance 104.4FM
- Due for release online and by broadcast in Spring 2017
- Currently the highest funded independent drama podcast in the world
- Approach both as an academic and as a practitioner
Bid-Writing
- Respond to the brief
- Look at what else has been commissioned
- Sell what the client wants to buy
- Be pragmatic, you can't always do just what you want to do
- Write in a manner that is positive, engaging and feels realistic
- Write, re-draft, re-write and re-draft, until it is perfect (every single word counts)
- Don't get burdened down with the specifics
- Hollywood term: "Sell the sizzle, not the steak" Don't get lost in the specific details of your project, sell the feeling of the piece.
Team Building
- Be really careful who you work with from the off
- This is a long term relationship you are going into: check their credentials, check their CV, go with you doubts
- Mix up the team - people you know and trust, and then new people to keep you on your toes
"Latent network" Starkay (2004) these are combinations of people you bring back as you trust them and know they produce quality work
- Diversify as much as possible, different kinds of people offer different solutions and approaches
- When you find the right person to work with, someone you click with, work with them! Keep them! Shower them with love!!
Script Writing - 3 Stages
OPEN CREATIVITY
Anything is possible
Throw ideas around
Messy, chaotic, and surprising
Make each other laugh and have fun
Never say "No" - always "Yes and..."
Work in 50-minute sessions
Use rules and structures as guides but throw them away when you need them.
CLOSED PROCESS
Personal. Focus and controlled
Shut out doubt and the outside world
Commit the words to the page
Take yourself emotionally to the place of the scene
Work in 25-minute blocks
Take proper breaks after 90 minutes, do something different
Do not look at your bloody phones, that is not a break! Use an App Self Control to cut down your internet consumption in a controlled structure
EDITORIAL PROCESS
Take the draft that you have created and cut it
Shift, change and bring in new material
Read it from an objective point of view
This is where your critical training kicks in
If something feels wrong, it most likely is wrong
If you are collaborating be brutal, be honest and also be understanding
Don't be beholden to you seat collateral
First Impressions Count
Your pilot episode is everything
- The whole spirit of the work has to be summed up in that programme
- There has to be some resolution along with sufficient leads and storylines for the audience to have to engage with the next episode
- All the characters have to be in there and the audience has to understand their characters
Your first scene is everything
- This is when people will decide whether the are going to stick with you
"There is blood on the walls of my office"
Production Planning
- keep a rolling version of your budget open and running
- Predicate for the worst, assume thing will go wrong at all stages
- Taxis, trains, teas and AirBnBs will always add up to far more than you imagine
- Get everyone's schedules as early as you can
- Draw up contracts and have you cast sign them and respect them
- Plan for working 8-hour days with break
- You can push it longer and later on certain shoots but use that time rarely and carefully
- Withdraw a huge wad of cash to bankroll the project, if you pay expenses in cash, everyone will love you!
- Build as much information as you can for your requirements
3 Rules of Audio Production
1. Do not use pro tools
2. No really, DO NOT use it
3. See rule one
More Production Tips
Plan out your scenes
- Where are they going to happen?
- What movement is there going to be?
- How will you post produce the project?
Project Forward
- Imagine what you will be doing with the material in post
- Label your equipment carefully and logically
- Set up extra mics and gather extra shots if the capacity is there
Casting
Spend money and take your time - it is worth it!
There is a lot of talent out there.
Look at showreels.
Contact agents.
Sell your project for them.
Create a professional appearing casting call sheet including project details, output summaries, a synopsis and then a range of character profiles.
Audition - prep scripts and think of exercises.
You'll know when they are in the room and they are right.
Go for personality and attitude as much as ability.
Be friendly, engaged and professional with everyone.
Directing
- Your role is to create the context for the actors to perform
- They are not your puppets
- Tell them who they are, what they are about to do, why they are doing it and where
- Don't tell them what to do, let them surprise you
- If you have cast correctly, they will bring more to the piece you alone could give them
- Every character has an internal life - we are all stars of our own life stories. Even passing a character has motivation. Never forget that
Create a safe space/working environment
- Be positive and upbeat at all times
- You are at the centre of a crazy, messed up family that will exist only for a few days/weeks.
- Never let the actors see the stress you are feeling
- Always respond with "that was great...now why don't we try it like this..."
- Everyone is there because of you, but you are not the boss
- Respect and value everyone equally
- Channel communications through you but allow people space to contribute
- Crack the whip only when you need to, allow people time to grow.
- Be the first to arrive and the last to leave
- Muck in, empty the bins, buy the coffees
- If you snap at someone, clear up the matter then and there
- If people see that this is the way a production is running... then they will give you so much more
What to do if you are working on a production team as an intern:bkm
- Listen in and be ready to step in and help out before you are asked
- Judge a situation. Know when to step and help out, and know when to step and let something run its course.
- Ensure you are treated with respect at all times. You are GIVING them your time as a runner or intern - they owe YOU!
- Never put up with any harassment. Call people out on their behaviour and shit. No one is too powerful. No one should be allowed to get away with anything.
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