Super Curricular

 'A Screenwriters guide to reading (and writing) the media' by Ian Pike summary:

    Ian Pike, a TV screenwriter - with credits such as Hollyoaks - gives his take on how to write screenplays. Pike states that in a story, there is always a deeper meaning hidden behind it. He also stresses the importance of having good exposition. Included in the article is a quote from Jimmy McGovern - a screenwriter with works such as The Street (2006), Cracker (1993), and Moving On (2009) - "I would rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for five seconds". Another important point Pike mentions is pacing; try to keep a varying rhythm from scene to scene. If every scene has the same pacing it can begin to feel very boring. Finally, dialogue is something that people often struggle to get right; Pike includes some advice given by Tony Jordan - ex-lead writer for EastEnders - to take the sentence the character is saying, and try taking words away from the beginning and end to make it feel more natural.

Shelter short film:

https://youtube.com/shorts/WXNMlwa_lIE?si=4WsamesT_EMcx2DW 

    This video shows a woman speaking about how her husbands health has deteriorated since moving into their flat. She recalls specific examples of how their flat has been unsafe - such as mould or water running through the electrical system - and she says who has been hurt because of them, and how no one whatsoever has helped them. I have chosen the video as the fact its a real story told by real people with real emotion; this can help the audience empathise with the cause as they can actually see the effects and who's affected. It makes the issue feel much more tangible. The statistics and the end of the video provide more evidence of the issue in undeniable facts.

Upside-down triangle essay method infographic:

The Big Issue Infographic:

Media magazine conference write up:

    We went to the media magazine conference on Friday 24th January 2025, which was held at the BFI Southbank in London. 

The first speaker was Chris Hogg who gave a talk on AI and creativity. He posed the question ‘does technology kill creativity?’. He demonstrated how it works by having someone read a poem aloud and have an AI listen and create images based off of what it hears. The 30 second delay showed it isn’t in the same reality of us and never will be. The difference between artists and AI, is that Dali wanted to paint, and Dali-e is a slave. He explained to us that Ludic limits were the boundaries or constraints within which play or games operate. A famous professor of psychology, Dr Takeo Higuchi, had recorded a video for Hogg to play for us in which he gave some advice: you need to control AI like you would control sheep, and you need to brighten your creativity every day.

The next talk was a QnA between Alison Phillips and April McCarthy. Alison Phillips was the former editor for the Daily Mirror. Phillips, when asked about her thought process whilst curating a front cover for the paper, states that she hadn’t put much conscious thought into the cover and most of the details were subconscious. McCarthy asked her about funding for newspapers and Phillips said that 90% of all digital advertising revenues goes to large conglomerates like google and Facebook instead of newspapers. Instead, due to the recent shift to online news, many newspapers are funded by online subscriptions and paywalls. An audience member asked if she had any advice for young journalists and to this, she said to be curious. It is healthy to be sceptical, but not healthy to be cynical.

Hannah Ewens, a freelance editor and writer - and author of ‘fangirls’ - was the third speaker. She gave a talk based on her book about fangirls and fandoms. She starts by saying that many fans spent bags of money on concert tickets and merchandise in order to prove how much of a fan they are. However, this means that those fans that don’t have as much money need to work harder to prove they are the best fan. She included a quote describing what a fan is, as ‘to be a fan is to scream alone together’. Ewens mentioned three reasons why someone might be a fan of an artist. Firstly, is idol worship; sometimes just being in the presence of your favourite artist is like a religious experience. Secondly is sexuality; many people’s first crushes are celebrities. Thirdly is mental health; being a part of a fandom can be a very moving experience and can help you to feel a sense of belonging. 

Harv Frost is a filmmaker and director, and she had a QnA mostly talking about one of her recent music videos for the band The Last Dinner Party. She spoke about how she started off making music videos for her friend’s bands, and as she got older, she grew in notoriety, still making these homemade music videos. After a while she started getting noticed and finally got her first paid gig. A recent short film by Frost was called Prelude to Ecstasy - the music videos for three songs by The Last Dinner Party - and was played for the audience. Frost was asked by an audience member about how much of the music video was her ideas and how much of it was the band’s, to which she responded by talking about how when making videos such as these, collaboration is key, and you need to be open to everyone’s ideas and work together.

David Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. He was in conversation with his coworker Anamik Saha. They were in conversation about current media products and Hesmondhalgh’s theory of cultural industries. The theory essentially says that most products are consumed when used and have to be bought again, but media products are bought once and continually used, meaning they never wear out. So, companies have to make a lot of money out of their products initially, because they don’t often have the luxury of being able to resell the same product repeatedly. He spoke about how this constant drive for profit that many media companies have can potentially lead to problematic companies – the Daily Mail for example. They mentioned the cultural significance that Barbenheimer had, more specifically the Barbie film itself. This film took some existing intellectual property and turned it into something new and fresh, essentially to bring in more profit.

The final speaker was writer Nida Manzoor, and she spoke with Christian Cottingham about two of her recent works, the TV show ‘We are Lady Parts’ and the film ‘Polite Society’. We are Lady Parts is a comedy which centres around a Muslim, female punk band. Polite society is a pointed satire of the marriage market, in which younger sister Ria Kahn desperately tries to sabotage her sister, Lena’s, marriage in the name of independence and sisterhood. Manzoor spoke about how in making these shows, she wanted to give screen time to historically unheard voices. When asked by the audience if she had any advice for aspiring writers, Manzoor said that ‘you should have a reason to write something, don’t just add to the noise’. 

Music video research:

Lil Nas X:

Lil Nas X, real name Montero Lamar Hill, first chose his name in 2018 based off the rapper Nas, and X (being 10) meaning the number of years he thought it would take for him to become famous. The name is also a tribute to his old Nicki Minaj fan account with the handle ‘@NasMaraj’. In 2018 the singer rose to fame when he released his song ‘Old town road’ and was signed with Columbia records following the success. In 2019 Hill came out as gay via a tweet, making him the first artist to do so whilst having a number one record. The music video for ‘SUN GOES DOWN’ was mostly directed by Lil Nas X himself, but was codirected by a company called Psycho films, who have also directed music videos in the past for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Kendrick Lamar, Doja cat, and SZA.

Radiohead:

This music video is unmistakably based off the classic 1960s children’s television program Trumpton and its related series. Radiohead released the song with its music video on 3^rd May 2016. When first released, William Mollett, the son-in-law of Gordon Murray – the creator of the series – stated that he wishes Radiohead would have ‘sought [their] consent’ as they consider the music video a ‘tarnishing of the brand’. ‘It is not something [they] would have authorised’ Mollett said, adding that they believe there has been a ‘breach of copyright’. In these early days, the family said that they were still ‘deciding what to do next’. Murray’s family had not shown him the music video as Mollett thought he would be ‘appalled’ if he saw it. Unfortunately, not even two months after the song was released, Murray passed away aged 95. The family never decided to pursue legal action. Could this be because of the loss of their series creator, or did they simply realise legal action was not needed as it fell in the UK definition of a ‘parody’ and therefore did not breach copyright.