Unit 8: Developing a creative media production project - Final Film (Pre - Production)

Monday 2^nd March 2020

On the second of March we figured out how to come up with an idea for a story. One way of coming up with a short story is a 6 word story. We first looked at the 6 word story, Baby shoes for sale, never worn. This can be interpreted in lots of different ways as it is from other people perspective and we went round the room and we all discussed what we thing this story is about. Furthermore, we went round the room and we all wrote 3 sentences and passed it around the room and carried on the story. After it’s gone around six times the story should be fully complete. After this we discussed characters and what each character name means. We discussed pour favourite TV characters and film characters and why they are great characters. A lot of people liked the anti-hero character as you can support them even if they are doing something wrong. After learning about characters and what they represent, I then did a character breakdown of one of my characters in my short film. I did a character breakdown for Winston as he would be the most different character. I chose the name Winston because it is a nerdy name and which fits the character well.

Tuesday 3^rd March 2020

I outlined briefly my idea and the story line of this idea, to get some more inspiration I created a mood board and a mind map to get different ideas and make the story come together a lot better. This gave me some good inspiration for my idea and I came up with a full story line. I then did my proposal on this idea and I began making my pitch. I put all the research I undertook then I talked about the main idea of my story.

Wednesday 4^th March 2020

I finished the pitch and was confident to present it for the 5^th March. I did a log line for my pitch and outlined each character and what they represented to the story. After this I discussed a locations, the main location where my story was going to be set was a pub. I had to look a good place to film as I couldn’t do it in college as it would lose the atmosphere to the story. After looking around I realised I know someone who owns a pub in Stockton. This pub is called The Sherry, after getting in contact with him he said that he is very happy for me to use his pub. I then looked at other locations that I could use including Yarm High Street and other locations including my house. Furthermore I discussed contingency plans including weather and crew and cast unavailability. After doing some extra research I began writing a contingency plan because school and colleges might shut because of the coronavirus. After this I began planning what I would do if colleges did shut. The main contingency plan for this is to plan all the pre-production work during the time that I will be off meaning that as soon as everything re-opens we will be able to go straight into filming. Furthermore, I had actors in mind to play these roles, so in my pitch I put in a head shot of the four main characters as it would give everyone a better understanding of the short film and will help them visualise.

Thursday 5^th March 2020

I presented my pitch on the 5^th March and I presented my idea and did it with confidence to show I believed in my idea.  Furthermore, I had to show I was passionate and presented my idea so I would stick in the teachers head as a short film they wanted to create.
My Pitch:

After I presented I got feedback of what I could improve about my short film. The feedback I was given was the actors look to young to be 20 years old and that because of the whole Beatles concept that it should be set in the 70's. I really liked this idea as it would be an interesting challenge with costume and locations for it to be set in the 70's

6^th March – 8^th March 2020

Over the weekend I planned out how I would make the short film about teenagers with problems which is set in the 70's. I still wanted the concept to relate to the Beatles as this was the clever selling point about my short film. Winston being a thing with Linda, I kept the same as this links to Linda McCartney. Trevor’s character after brainstorming ideas I came up with his dad being an army soldier and being killed in battle. This will link to Paul McCartney losing his mum at a young age.

Furthermore, I decided that Gary would live in a care home, which would emphasise how his friends are like family to him. Then Jude’s parents will be getting a divorce, which inks to why Paul McCartney wrote ‘Hey Jude’ because of John Lennon’s son was witnessing his parent’s getting a divorce. Finally I wanted Jude to die at the end as this was a big ending which links to John Lennon’s assassination, I decided that earlier in the story they get in a fight with some people at the bar and when he goes home his parents are arguing so he leaves o get away and bumps into the people and gets beaten up and killed in an alleyway.

After finishing the main idea for my story I began writing my script, and looking at the 70's and what could work with my script. I finished my first draft of the 70's Version of my idea.

Monday 9^th March 2020

After this I showed Kelly my first draft of my script on this date. I did this so I could get some professional advice on my script. She liked the idea about friendship but after looking at some stuff the argument needed more development as it is very rushed. I then discussed about how to make the argument have more grit to the story. I also wanted to add more lines in more Linda as she is an important character to Winston and is a big turning point for Winston as a character.

Furthermore, after doing some primary and secondary research I found out that in the 70's it was easy to get served in a pub. So I had to change this to make it link to the 70's more. Finally, I did some research on the internet and the average age for someone to lose their virginity wad 18-19 meaning that this wouldn’t have been a problem for Winston.

After this I presented my idea to the actors and to see what actors would have been interested in my idea. Some of the female actors where interested in the role of Linda as she is a big female character in the story.

Wednesday 11^th March 2020

On Wednesday I finished writing my second draft of my script. I added in all the improvements and feedback I was given. We then learnt how to write a film and television CV as this would help us in the future when we want to get into the industry. We began writing our CV on things we have done in college. We looked at industry examples of CV's and looked at how to set them out and how we would talk about the projects we have worked on. 

Tuesday 17th March 2020

Due to the coronavirus there is a very high possibility that colleges will close. This means we will struggle to get our short films made due to time. After doing research, the government say that colleges might only close for two weeks. Due to this we will have limited time to make our short films. With my contingency plan I have moved all the pre-production wok onto my hard drive. This will allow me to work from home and when colleges do re-open I can just go straight into filming.

After moving all pre-production work as a class we began trying to schedule. We went through the basics of scheduling and before you start making scheduling cards you have to do a scene breakdown and design breakdown. The reason for the scene breakdown is to understand the location of the scene and what actors you will need, props, makeup, costume effects and more.
Scene Breakdown
 I finished both design breakdown and scene breakdown by looking at my script and changing each scene when it changes location. This will make it easier for all the scheduling as it will make it clear that each scene is a change of location.
Design Breakdown - Link

Wednesday 18th March 2020

After I finished the scene and design breakdown, I began doing scheduling cards. This is so important because scheduling cards will allow us to plan around the other short films and around the actors. One thing I learnt about scheduling cards is that you must split each page of your script into 8/8. You must see how many 8 is each scene. The reason the industry does this is so they have a rough idea of how long each scene will take to film.

Scheduling Cards - Link

Wednesday 25^th March 2020

I already had the 3 actors in mind, to play the three of the four main characters, Jude, Trevor, Winston and Gary. However, I was going to audition them and see if they did fit the role that I wanted them to play. Due to COVID-19 I was unable to get them all in a room and act out a scene. This was difficult as I needed my actors ready for us to go straight into filming after we go back to college. To overcome this issue, I facetimed the actors, so we were all in the chat and I emailed them the latest draft of my script. I gave them some time to go over lines and think about what each character means to them. We did a readthrough of one of the scenes and I read in for Trevor as this actor isn’t chosen yet. After doing a read through of the scene I realised that these actors where perfect for the role, because of the chemistry with each other. Each actor fitted the role perfectly which I chose them for.

Tuesday 31^st March 2020

 I went through the character breakdown and finished this pre-production sheet. Character breakdowns are used for the actors, agents, costume, makeup and more in the film and TV industry. This will help the actors understand more about each character as it explains how they feel and what their opinion is. The actors will be able to present this through facial expression, vocal expression and body language. Character breakdown sheets are used in preparation for auditions. They are very important when trying to cast the actors as it gives each character more understanding and a backstory. I did character breakdown for every role as it helps further my story. Character breakdown also helps the costume and makeup department understand what they will need for each character.

Wednesday 1st April 2020

As I need casting, I began creating a casting breakdown for the actors. This will allow all the actors to understand more about the character that they are auditioning for. I put every character on the casting breakdown, even the characters that have been casted. I have done this to help the actors understand more about each character and I haven’t officially chosen all the actors. So, if an actor outshines the actor, I had in mind I will have to decide which actor will be best for my short film. As I have never done a casting breakdown before, our teacher sent us some things that would be seen in the industry for character breakdown. In the industry casting breakdowns typically involve a logline and synopsis along with a list of facts, including the title of the film, the writer, director, the producers, if the project is feature or short, production company or studio, shooting dates and locations. Due to COVID-19 I am unable to predict when we are filming as this outbreak is unpredictable how long we will be at home for. However, everything else other than production company we can complete on the casting breakdown. Then you discuss about each character, about their personality, age, gender, if they are a leading, major supporting role or minor supporting role. Then you will discuss their involvement in the story. This is like a short blurb for each character.

Casting Breakdown - Finished

As we can’t do auditions, a contingency plan was to do self-tapes. This is were the actors record themselves saying a monologue that I wrote for the character and see if they fit the role. As my story is very character driven, there are not many moments when it is just a character doing a monologue. This means that I would have to write a monologue for each character that I want auditioned. This also allowed me to understand the character’s more and their backstory, I also want to see the actor’s interpretation of the character’s. This is a part of the character breakdown what I completed yesterday.

Character Breakdown - Finished

Before I handed in the character and casting breakdown, I first sent it too my teacher to get some feedback and professional advice on the breakdown sheets. As this is a very important document to get right as it needs to have enough detail, so the actors understand the characters you want to be portrayed. My teacher said that the character breakdown sheet is correct and has enough detail. With casting breakdown, I should have set it out, I have all the information, I just needed to address the actors who are interested in my project. Furthermore, I needed to add in a synopsis, so the actors know a basic idea of my story.