Writing Strong Characters

What's the difference between the wants and needs of your characters?  Why is it important to know these for your characters?  What happens when you don't have these?

    The difference between a character's wants and their needs are that wants are external and needs are internal. The want is what drives the plot forwards; the goal of the character, whereas the need is what the character needs to learn about themselves in order to achieve their want and often drives the message and theme. This also applies to the obstacles as the things that prevent a character from getting what they want is external conflict while the things that prevents them from their need is internal, typically some trait or characteristic which holds them back. The video also highlights how wants are unique to every individual whilst needs are universal. This is because the wants are specific to that story, setting, and plot, but needs can be shared between completely different characters in wildly different contexts.

    It is important to know these for your character because it creates depth, interest, and connection. These are vital aspects that are needed in order to create an interesting and meaningful story. A story without wants feels aimless and can be confusing and a story without needs feels shallow and emotionally unstimulating. That is why it is important to understand this concept and have a combination of both within your story.

Hot Seat Technique

What is the hot seat technique?  How can you apply this to the next script that you write to create interesting characters?

    The hot seat technique is one that theater directors often use where they place a single chair, or the "hot seat," center stage and every actor, regardless of the size of their role, take turns sitting in the chair and answering questions as their character. When it comes to filmmaking and writing characters, you can simply just ask yourself questions about the character in the mindset of them in order to better flesh them out. I can apply this to the next script that I write by coming up with the idea of the character then asking myself a large variety of questions which will build off each other to create the full picture of the character and who they are, giving them so much depth and interest. This can also help drive the plot as I could base major events and plot points off of traits the character has and how they may react.

Character Empathy

What is the key to creating empathy with the audience and our characters?  How does success play into this?

    The key to creating empathy with the audience and our characters is desire, motive, and action. We are able to understand characters who want something and who acts on it as those are human characteristics that everyone can relate to. Having characters be relatable is the primary trait that makes the audience empathize with them. Additionally, people empathize with characters that have traits which they aspire to have. Success plays into creating empathy as people aspire to be successful and can relate when a character fails. By showing both failure and success, it meets both criteria, which greatly increase the empathy that the audience feels towards the character.

Creating a Character and Story in 10 Minutes

Reflect on this video and the character exercise yesterday.  How can these exercises help you develop and improve the characters you create for your next film?

    Reflecting on the video and the character exercise yesterday, these can help me develop and improve the characters that I create for my next film as it's a good way to come up with an interesting character that also has an arc, which is often one of the most driving and appealing aspects of a film. The exercise shown in the video can be an effective way to come up with a character and their traits, which can heavily influence the kind of story and plot which your film would have. For example, his character was addicted to lying, which led him to create a plot and conflict which revolved around her ability of and affinity for lying. The Story Spine exercise in incredibly effective for creating a character arc that heavily drives the plot. It helps build an understanding of the character's motives and how they will change throughout the story, which is incredibly important for making an engaging film. In my exercise, I created a character who's profession (art-historian) had been very impactful to what major plot points happened, the reason behind them, and the way that her character evolved. Based on the profession she was given, it influenced other traits such as her passion for history, learning, investigation, and sharing her findings. All in all, these exercises help make deeper characters that can drive the plot of your film, making for a much more engaging, relatable, and entertaining experience.

Copyright and Fair Use

How does copyright and fair use apply to YouTube?  Write a reflection on three instances where you might have violated copyright on YouTube.  Now that you've learned more about copyright, how might you have solved each of these three situations using the fair use clause?  Take time to craft a 3-paragraph response to what you've learned about the future of work in this video.

    Copyright and fair use apply to YouTube as all of your videos need to adhere to the rules of copyright, and the by following fair use you can utilize different copyrighted materials in your own work. The only instance where you are able to use copyrighted music is through licensing and fair use. However, fair use has specific but also somewhat vague rules for it to apply. When in regards to commentary, criticism, reporting, and education, these are all part of the fair use clause and are able to use copyrighted materials. In other instances, the factors which are considered are (1) the purpose of use and whether its commercial or nonprofit, (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the amount of the copyrighted material compared to the whole video, and (4) the affects that using it might have to the copyrighted material.

    Three instances where I might have violated copyright on YouTube are my vlog from last year, my music video parody, and the BTS for the 72 hour film challenge. All of these are in regards to the music that I have in the videos. With the vlog, I had found a video which said it was copyright-free music without having knowledge on licenses and usage. As for the music video, I use the entire original song in the video. And the use of copyrighted material in the BTS doc was the Run Lola Run section and music.

    Now that I've learned more about copyright, I might have solved these issues using the fair use clause by ensuring that the music has the license for use, the music video being a parody, and that the portion of Run Lola Run included was only a fraction of the total run time of the video. With the music, I always make sure to credit it in the description, which helps my case for it being fair use. In the music video, it is a parody, which places me in a gray area for whether it's copyright infringement or not. And as for the BTS, the potion which is copyrighted is short and only a small portion of the video.

21st Century Skills

What are the four 21st-century skills?  As an advanced student, how do these 21st-century skills apply to the work that you are doing in the advance class?  How do you think you can apply each of these to your work in this class going forward into the year? Be specific and give an example of how each of the four key 21st-century skills apply of your filmmaking career going forward.

    21st-century skills are ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for working, and skills for living in the world. As an advanced student, these 21-century skills apply to the work that I am and will be doing in the advanced class as a lot of them are very important for leadership and independence. In the advanced class, we have a lot of unstructured time that we need to be responsible with. We are also placed in leadership positions for the beginning students and this need to be effective communicators, problem-solvers, collaborators, and be good role models. 

    I can apply ways of thinking all throughout every production as being able to solve problems, being creative, and making decisions are all vital to every project we do. For example, problems will always arise during a production and you need to be creative in order to effectively circumvent all the issues that can occur. Understanding the ways of working is incredibly important as every project is a group effort and having the skills to collaborate and communicate are required to effectively complete every assignment. For instance, when working for clients, having clear communication with them is absolutely necessary for your work. Being equipped with the tool for working is extremely helpful as it can improve the quality of your work as you would have a better grasp and understanding of what you're making and how to get your message across. This could be seen in the story writing process or maybe even for something simple like an ad. Having the skills for living in the world is important for interpersonal relationships and being a good team member as people will want to work with you more if you display these skills.

AI in the Film Industry

How is Artificial Intelligence affecting the film industry?  What are its benefits vs. drawbacks?  What are your opinions on it?

    Artificial Intelligence is affecting the film industry as it is being used to supplement human input and labor. For example, A.I. can be used during the preproduction process to aid with the creative process by helping create ideas, create the plot, make storyboard illustrations, etc. During production, A.I. is capable of doing things like creating design elements such as posters or even creating its own footage. Where it's most used is in the post production stage; it can be used to create a variety of different visual effects such as de-aging actors, motion capture, generative fill, etc.

    The primary benefits and reasons for using A.I. in the production process is that it can save a lot of time and a lot of money. It is capable of performing a lot of menial and time consuming tasks in a considerably shorter amount of time with little to no human labor. It is also able to make difficult tasks much easier to accomplish. However, there are also a lot of drawbacks to the increasing use of A.I. in filmmaking. Many people fear that if A.I. is able to supplement human labor to such a high degree, it could potentially replace many jobs entirely, risking the livelihoods of many people. This is because of how cost-effective it can be. Additionally, another major point of contention is the morality of using A.I. for art. Artificial intelligence, namely generative A.I., cannot truly create something out of nothing; the way that it works is that it analyzes already existing mediums before compiling pieces and patterns into a product that fits the parameters of what is asked of it.

    As for my opinions of it, I believe that A.I. can have its uses and has a place as a tool; however, there's a point where I simply don't agree with the use of it. For example, especially in post-production, it is an incredibly useful tool that makes many things accessible for people. On the other hand, I don't agree with the use of it to supplement creativity and art nor do I agree with the way that money hungry business are already using it as an excuse to get rid of real human work on the basis that A.I. is cheaper. I am of the belief that you cannot completely replace human creativity nor input and that doing so will create a poor product. Additionally, there are massive environmental effects of the use of A.I., especially generative A.I., which adds another reason to not like it nor want to use it.