Pre production (30th March-20th April)
For the Drama project I have undertaken the role of
producer, Therefore a large proportion of my work has been during
preproduction. As a group we began panning this project very early, having a
production meeting as soon as we were set the brief. This was incredibly
productive as by the time we were finished we had a fully formed idea, which
was them taken by James and crafted into a script over the Easter holidays. It
was definitely to start planning early as if we hadn’t we could have ended up
in the horrible situation, that during the Easter holidays we’d be trying to
plan and with people being all over the country and working etc, being left
with one week for preproduction. To my mind this would have been a nightmare.
As we had started early it meant that I could start planning actors and
locations over the Easter holidays, giving me more time to sort things out. When
I got the script, I felt that it was number one a great piece of work, nut
secondly achievable in the timeframe we had. Reading it as a producer, I saw
nothing that would cause any massive difficulties> from my point of view it
was important that due to various constraints including time and budget the
script was doable and would still be a great piece of work. However at the same
time it was snappy, interesting and entertaining.
Now we had a script we had to plan to make it reality. The
first hurdle was locations. The living room was the biggest problem from my
point of view of trying to find one. There was no way we would use any of our
living rooms, using the sterile environment of a student kitchen/living area
would have ruined the aesthetics of the film. And as far as we were concerted
you there is not really a completely effective way of set dressing that
disguises it. There is also the unwritten rule of never shooting in student
halls. One option we had was to shoot at my godparents’ house in Chesterfield.
It is close enough to Sheffield to be a feasible location, and it also had the
right ‘look’. The kind of homely feel that we wanted to create with in the
film. Unfortunately, we were unable to match up schedules, even though they
were more than happy for us to film at their home it would have been too late
by the time they were available. Luckily the bar where Katie (editor) works, is
allowing us to film there. So with a few minor changes to the script we have
managed to overcome this problem. The park scenes have presented no problems
thus far. After a location scout we have decided to use Weston Park. It is an
incredibly beautiful location, lending itself to the ‘look’ that we are
envisioning for the film. Lucy (director), Ben (Cinematographer) and I did a
location scout that we could work out where we wanted to film in the park. Also
they were planning in terms of setups, shots, blocking etc. This means that on
the day we’ll be able to be efficient in our filming. Ben will be able to plan
a more effective shortlist and I will therefore be able to create a realistic
and more detailed schedule. In my opinion
planning is everything. The bedroom scenes will be shot at Ben’s house, the
attic room is plenty big enough, and with set dressing will look convincingly
like a teenage boy’s bedroom. So there we have it 3 locations sorted and ready
for filming.
I began the process of recruiting actors as soon as I had
the script and knew what we were looking for. The first port of call was the casting
info on blackboard. I began by emailing all the performing arts students who
had registered their interest in being in student films. I received two replies
from this. After discussion with the group, and looking at the previous films
they had been in we decided to get one of them in for audition. As well as this
there are some friends of Katie’s that had shown an interest so we got them in
for an audition also. After auditions it was decided to cast Mike and Mark in
the roles of Jack and George respectively, as they seemed to fit the roles
best. Casting the role of the father was much more of a challenge. After
contacting as many am drams, acting society’s theatre groups as I could find in
the local area, I had no luck either there was no reply of it was a no. After
asking around I was given the information of some online casting agencies.
After putting a few ‘adverts’ I received a few replies. At this point we were
running out of time, and were auditioning Tom. The actors that had got back to
me were unable to fit with our schedule and after the audition Tom was pretty
much perfect for the role. After the casting we went into rehearsals, wanting
to see how the actors would work together and to let them get used to each
other, the script and working with us. It also meant that shooting would go
much smoother as people knew what they were doing, and with a limited time for production,
this was very important in my view.
Now we have actors and locations
we have to sort out the finer points of planning and scheduling the shoot.
Firstly I put together a week by week schedule going by who was available when
and when we could use locations, by making different checklists, matching up
availabilities, I was easily able to draw up a schedule to email everyone to make
sure it fitted in with everyone. To my mind it is paramount to be well planned
and organised in advance. The idea of being left in a complete panic an hour
before a shoot is supposed to start is not ideal. In fact it is to be avoided
to at all costs. Next it was important that I had the shot lists so that I
could plan out the day’s shooting. The only slight difficulty with this is
until we actually get onto set I’m not entirely sure how long setups will take
with lighting and so on. However after the first shoot in Maggie Mays on Monday
23rd April, I’ll have a better idea of how long it’ll take meaning
that further shoots will have a schedule closed to actual set ups times. For
now I have taken considered decision as to hoe long things will take from previous
shoots and the rehearsals. Effective scheduling is definitely an important
factor when working in a film shoot as you have to get everything done. Especially
when you have extra constraints of limited actor and location availability.
As a producer I was incredibly Happy with how organised we
were as a group and I feel that as we go into production this will pay off.
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