You Must be Joking!

Week 1

Task 1

Your first task is to write a screenplay which is to be an adaptation from a joke. This task will be due Week 3, so there's no time to waste.
This task will be done in pairs, so you will have the opportunity to give each other constructive feedback. It is very important that you remain respectful towards your writing partner.

Important Note: In the context of the College, a lot of jokes will not be appropriate. Stay within the confines of what is acceptable, and things will go swimmingly. If you're stuck, check out this website for a bunch of good clean jokes - many of them could be adapted for the screen.

Your Screenplay

As a rule of thumb, one page of screenplay equals about one minute of screen time. So, a five minute screenplay will be about a five minute film. When you write your screenplay, keep in mind the following:

Write in current tense - never past tense. For example, we would not write, It was a stinking hot day. John walked down the road and stubbed his toe on a slightly raised brick paver. But we might write, It's stinking hot. As he walks down the road he stubs his toe on a slightly raised brick paver.

Write short paragraphs of action. Each action paragraph should only contain one action. These paragraphs should be up to three lines, or four lines maximum.

Write visually. That is, show - don't tell. When you write for the screen, it is important to show things through actions, expressions, clothes people wear etc. For example, if your character is sad, you wouldn't write, John is sad, but might write, John appears sad. Better still, John slumped and put his head in his hands.

Write sequentially. The reader should be able to visualise the story in sequence, so, to use the example above, we would not write, John stubs his toe as he walks down the road on a stinking hot day. Although this would make sense from a grammatical perspective, it doesn't make visual sequential sense to the reader of a screenplay. This is because we would let our reader know the setting first - it's stinking hot. Then we need to visualise John walking. Then he stubs his toe.

Consider foreshadowing. In the example script. The dog is introduced early on so we are familiar with its presence when the father says, Rover, get out of there. By introducing the dog earlier (foreshadowing) it helps make your film more believable. When you write actions or events later in your screenplay, have a think about whether or not it would be a good idea to foreshadow these things.

Set up and pay off. This is connected to the idea of foreshadowing. A good joke spends time setting things up for a surprise punch line. Make sure your set up is convincing, and really primes your audience for a big surprise at the end.

Remember, when writing a screenplay, white space is your friend, since is lets the reader get through a page in one minute - about the time is should take to watch the film. You will have plenty of white space if you follow the tips above.

Recommended Videos

Watch the video below to get you started. Subscribe to some good channels and get learning!

Week 2

Welcome back Screenwriters!

By now we should all be well underway with our joke screenplay adaptations. IF you're still stuck, here's a few you could probably adapt.

JOKE 1. James is walking on a downtown street one day, and he happens to see his old high school friend, Harry, a little ways up ahead. "Harry, Harry, how are you?" he greets his old buddy after getting his attention.

"Not so good," says Harry.

"Why, what happened?" James queries.

"Well," Harry says, "I just went bankrupt and I've still got to feed my family. I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Could have been worse," James replies calmly. "Could have been worse."

A month or so later, James again encounters Harry, in a restaurant. "And how are things now?" he asks.

"Terrible!" says Harry. "Our house burned down last night."

"Could have been worse," says James, again with total aplomb, and goes about his business.

A month later, James runs into Harry a third time. "Well, how goes it?" he inquires.

"Oh!" says Harry. "Things just get worse and worse. It's one tragedy after another! Now my wife has left me!"

Harry nods his head and gives his usual optimistic-seeming little smile, accompanied by his usual words: "Could've been worse."

This time, Harry grabs James by the shoulders. "Wait a minute!" he says. "I'm not gonna let you off so easy this time. Three times in the past few months we've run into one another, and every time I've told you the latest disaster in my life. Every time you say the same thing: 'Could have been worse.' This time, for God's sake, Harry, I want you to tell me: how in Heaven's name could it have been any worse?"

James looks at Harry with the same little wisp of a smile. "Could have been worse," he says. "Could have happened to me."

JOKE 2. The world's leading expert on European wasps walks into a record shop.

He asks the assistant “Do you have ‘European Vespidae Acoustics Volume 2? I believe it was released this week.”

“Certainly,” replies the assistant. “Would you like to listen before you buy it?”

"That would be wonderful," says the expert, and puts on a pair of headphones.

He listens for a few moments and says to the assistant, “I'm terribly sorry, but I am the world's leading expert on European wasps and this is not accurate at all. I don't recognize any of those sounds. Are you sure this is the correct recording?”

The assistant checks the turntable, and replies that it is indeed European Vespidae Acoustics Volume 2. The assistant apologizes and lifts the needle onto the next track.

Again the expert listens for a few moments and then says to the assistant, "No, this just can't be right! I've been an expert in this field for 43 years and I still don't recognize any of these sounds."

The assistant apologizes again and lifts the needle to the next track.

The expert throws off the headphones as soon as it starts playing and is fuming with rage.

"This is outrageous false advertising! I am the world's leading expert on European wasps and no European wasp has ever made a sound like the ones on this record!"

The manager of the shop overhears the commotion and walks over.

"What seems to be the problem, sir?"

"This is an outrage! I am the world's leading expert on European wasps. Nobody knows more about them than I do. There is no way in hell that the sounds on that record were made by European wasps!"

The manager glances down and notices the problem instantly.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir. It appears we've been playing you the bee side."

JOKE 3. Three friends stranded on a deserted island find a magic lamp. Inside it is a genie who agrees to grant each friend one wish.

“I want to go home,” says the first friend. The genie grants her wish.

“I want to go home, too,” says the second friend. And the genie sends her back home.

“I’m lonely,” says the third friend. “I sure wish my friends were back here.”

Week 3

Finish Screenplays and Start Look-Books

Task 1 is due this week. IF you are working in pairs, you should both have a copy of the project in your Task 1 folder and you must ensure both of your names are on the title page.

On Thursday of this week, we will begin working on our Look-Books. Look-Books are due Thursday of next week.

Task 2 - Create a Look-Book for your comedy screenplay.

We will begin work on our look-book this week. It is due at the end of Week 4 (next week).

For this task, you will be required to create a 4-page look-book for your film. A look-book contains some written information about your proposed film but is presented as a visual document. You will include a title page with a tagline, a two line plot outline, a page that explains the suitability of your film in the College context and a page that explains how it can be made with limited available resources. You will use In Design and Photoshop to create your look-book.

Title Page - Includes the title, the tagline and written by. In case you're wondering, a tagline is a short text which serves to clarify - often for dramatic effect. In the Mister Wick look-book below, the title is Mister Wick, and the tagline is finding himself lost in Bangkok.

Two Line Plot Outline - This is a very brief description of the plot. If you can capture your plot in a single line, that is OK, but don't use three lines. Don't use names of characters here, use descriptions. The two line plot outline for Mister Wick is, "When an Aussie ex-rocker’s wife passes away, he risks losing his only daughter forever when he travels to Bangkok to revisit a dream he gave up on 30 years ago".

Page Three - It is important when you plan a film that you are aware of the Controls and Constraints that you will be working under. Your page on the College context should demonstrate an understanding of College rules and expectations, as well as audience expectations, and how your film works within these limitations.

Page Four - It is also important when you plan a film that you are aware of the technical constraints, time constraints, limited access to actors, props, etc. You should document on your final page, how you will be able to make the film you are planning to make.

Design Matters

You should use your own photographs, clear and easily read fonts.

You can see the Mister Wick Look-Book to help get you started.

Software

To make your look-book, you will need to write up a draft of your text elements in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, and use Adobe Photoshop and/or In-Design to get it looking good. You should be able to install Adobe softwares on your computer at home and log in using your school account.

Week 4

This week you will be working on your Look-Book and submitting it by the end of the week.

Week 5

Shooting Our Funny Shorts

This week we will discuss shots and camera techniques.

It is tempting when we're at school, to shoot our mates being silly in front of the camera, from the camera operator's eye-level, hand-held and wobbly. This is NOT filmmaking, and the only audience that will enjoy it for a laugh consists of the immediate friends of those involved.

In this course, we are learning to make films, and it is expected that all students will aspire to create something bigger and better than they've ever done before, with each and every project. This requires careful consideration of each shot - framing and composition, lighting, location, use of colour, mise en scène.

Task 3 consists of the shooting of your script. It will need to be completed by the end of Week 6, on Thursday the 5th of March.

You will NOT have long to shoot this film, so will need to be very attentive to camera techniques, and will need to be very time-efficient.

Check out the videos below to get you started, and visit this page for a lot of great cinematography tutorials!

Blocking

When you go to shoot your film, you will want to make sure you've covered your action from multiple positions. Each of those camera positions should produce a great shot, and each shot should be significantly different framing to the others so your film can be edited easily.

Remember:

Establishing shots are usually wide.

As emotional intensity increases, shots usually get tighter - really intense emotional scenes will often have close-ups in them.

When emotional intensity decreases, shots usually get wider.

Don't shoot everything at eye level.

Check for things that don't need to be in your shot so might be distracting, and remove them or reframe.

Use a tripod, unless you have a very steady hand.

Use a little lighting to make your shots more interesting.

Make sure you follow the 180 degree rule.

Week 6

All filming should be complete by the end of this week.

Week 7

Filming Complete, Post-Production Begins

Task 4

Our filming should now be complete and we will spend until Tuesday of Week 10,31st of March, in post-production.

Task 4 is the entire post-production process, from importing your footage into a computer to exporting the final film.

We will edit, colour grade and mix audio using software called DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci Resolve is industry standard software and is available free for your use. About 70% of Hollywood films are colour graded using DVR, and it is now a complete post-production suite that you can use to edit, colour grade, mix audio, composite and to create titles.

Several DaVinci Resolve tutorials can be found here.

It is essential that you use only one computer for all your post-production to avoid confusion and complications in the lab.

Week 8

Editing continues. See some video editing tutorials here.