Research & Analysis

Link to Iris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xJWLp5lJ14&feature=youtu.be





To start off our fiction piece, we had a meeting to discuss roles within the group and what our story would be. I decided to take on the role of producer as I have not tried this role before and wanted to give it a go. As part of our first meeting, after finalising roles, we developed a narrative for our script which mainly our scriptwriter and director created. After this, our scriptwriter wrote a draft script so we could review it in the next meeting. We decided to do a post-apocalyptic drama where two strangers come together to try to cure the infected population. I personally liked this idea as I am inspired by TV shows such as 'The Walking Dead' and the film '28 Days Later', which is what we used as research for our short film. Our production designer focuses on the make-up, costume and mise-en-scene in them so we can create an authentic and realistic look. As does our director and editor/sound operator research into the shots and sounds used.


Strong Female Leads

Figure 1 ("Maggie (Season 2) From The Walking Dead Then & Now: See How Much The Zombie Apocalypse Changed The Cast")

We developed a story that contains flashbacks and a cliff-hanger ending to keep the audience guessing. This was influenced by 'The Walking Dead' as most of their episodes and season finales have cliff-hangers and flashbacks. The idea of the flashbacks for our film was for character building purposes. They contain Mattie's, our main character, journey to Ellen's house. To add originality to our short film, we decided to have two female leads. We wanted strong female characters as lead male characters still dominate film. As Tasha Robinson states "it’s still rare to see films in the mainstream action/horror/science-fiction/fantasy realm introduce women with any kind of meaningful strength" (Robinson, 2014). Our scriptwriter chose the name Mattie for our lead character as it means strength in battle, further emphasising our strong female lead. We took inspiration from characters such as 'Maggie' and 'Carol' for our character Ellen and 'Enid' and 'Beth' for our lead Mattie, all from 'The Walking Dead'. The director took elements from them and saw our characters infused with their qualities and characteristics. Our production designer also took inspiration from their style as we were trying to achieve a practical look for our characters.

Figure 2 ("Enid")

Cinematographic Influences

Figure 3

("Walkers – The Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC")

We liked the idea of 'The Walking Dead' being shot mainly in daylight creating a sense that no-one is safe at any time of the day. Because of this we shot our short film during the day, this also helped our crew a bit more by being able to set up in the day.

Figure 4 ("14 Movies That Should Have Stopped Minutes Earlier")

We decided to use a variety of shots in our film as each shot creates the sense of tension we wanted our audience to feel. We noticed from watching clips from our influences that they use close-ups and medium close-ups to show the emotion and body language of the characters to help the audience recognise the tone and emphasize with them. We especially wanted an establishing shot at the beginning of our film and long shots throughout the film to show our characters surroundings. The film '28 Days Later' uses these to emphasize the scale of the apocalypse, such as in figure 2.


Location

As producer in our group, I helped in finding a location for our film and looking into permission for these. We wanted an abandoned building to fit with our post-apocalyptic story. I tried many different websites for derelict buildings we could potentially film at. I found that a lot of buildings I researched into further were owned and required a fee for a day of filming. I explained this whilst talking and/or emailing to the owners of places we were interested in and unfortunately had no luck. Because of this, we decided to use one of our group members house to film at. Even though it did not have the neglected look we wanted, the perfect looking house made it creepier and more out of place. The greenery and bright garden outside the house created a new look for our film that we decided we actually liked better than an abandoned setting. Much like in figure 2 above, the surroundings are still very much there which inspired us to write this into our script.

  

Professional Practice

Preparing for my role

I decided to take on the role as producer as this is a role that I was yet to try. I feel I am quite an organised person and wanted to put this into practice. Initially, I was quite nervous to take on the role of producer as I didn't know exactly what I needed to do. I had a brief understanding from lectures and seminars from our course but when it came down to actually starting the role, I felt a bit out-of-depth.  So in order to prepare for my role as producer, I researched into my responsibilities. When taking on the role, I knew that I would be responsible for looking after my team and organising anything we needed for our film, such as permission for location, risk assessments, etc... After researching further into my role, I became more confident and determined to make sure our film ran smoothly and was a success. As Creative Skillset states the producer "steer the film from beginning to completion," so instead of feeling insecure with this role I knew that researching and asking former producers would help me feel more positive. To make sure I knew all the information I could before starting the role, I also spoke to the producer of my former documentary group last term for some advice, in which she helped me by stating the paperwork that needed to be completed on the producers behalf. This particularly helped me to write the proposal for our film. Before I asked, I wasn't confident in writing one as I have never done this before. At first I found it hard as I was unsure what to include apart from the plot of our film, but after my former producers help and looking back at lectures/seminars from our Portfolio Production (CINE1079, 2017) and Introduction to TV Studio (CINE1049, 2017) course I was able to complete this with more confidence.




Production Paperwork 

To make sure everything was accessible for the whole group, such as my production paperwork and other group members work, I made a google drive so all work could be viewed by the group. This was the best way for our group to see when meetings were, the sound ideas, the shot list and various other important documents.

As producer of the group, it was my job to prepare most of the paperwork. One of the first things I did was write up our one page proposal. This included writing a description of our narrative, style and target audience. The purpose of writing a proposal is for potential investors of the film to see what we intend to make and to attract them to fund the project. It also ties all the creative elements together so it creates a visual representation of the film. Explaining our approach to editing and cinematographic style outlines our visual aim and look.

I made a schedule for the dates and topics of our weekly meetings so the whole group was aware and so they could let me know in advance if they couldn't make it. After we had a meeting, I added on notes about what we talked about and tasks set for the team to complete by the next meeting. On the schedule were the dates we filmed and editing, also when the project was due in. This schedule was subject to change at times, especially for the filming and editing days as we needed to see when our cast and crew would be available at the same time. I made sure to keep this schedule up to date and once we finalised the filming and editing days, added this to the schedule.



I also made a schedule for the filming day. This was to help the team out with timing of the day. It mapped out what should be happening when. It is important to have a schedule for the filming day as the schedule made allows for the allowance of the budget. Even though we have no funding for this project, as producer I have understood that if our film did have investors, we would have to stick tightly to the schedule as there would be no budget for running over. On the day of our shoot, I made sure we were on track with the schedule I had made to practice this.

I also made a list of delegated responsibilities and a crew contact list. This helped identify the role of each member and what their individual responsibilities were, and how to get in contact with each other.

Before filming at the location, I prepared a Health and Safety Risk Assessment. As producer, it was my job to assess the risks we could come across whilst filming. This helps the cast and crew to remember to be safe on set. I've learned from this course that having a risk assessment is very useful and important. It helps you become more aware of your surroundings as well as look out for others, especially as producer. I feel this is something I have carried with me whilst working on other projects.

On the day of filming, a call sheet, location agreement form and consent forms were signed. We already had verbal permission to film at our chosen location but I needed to get a location agreement signed for the production paperwork. We needed this written confirmation to prove they agreed to us filming there. The consent forms were signed by all of the cast to prove they gave permission to be filmed.

Casting & Ethics

Casting

Casting played a big part of our film, of course this is because without actors we didn't have a film to shoot. We found that this would be more challenging this term compared to last term as we needed actors. Realising that we didn't have enough time to hold auditions for people, we made a list of people we knew and contacted to ask if they were interested. My plan was to have back-ups in case people dropped out last minute so we got in touch with many people so we could put this in place. As we had experienced casting very recently for our Introduction to TV Studio course (CINE1049, 2017), we prepared for worst case scenarios.

The first draft of our script described our two lead characters with contrasting ages. Mattie was meant to be between the ages of 11 - 16 and Ellen was going to be older, between 25 - 35. In terms of casting, we found this very difficult. As producer as well, casting a child in our film would be a bit more difficult ethically speaking. Because of this, we initially cast Alex's sister as Mattie who is 15. This would have been easier for us as she is a family member of one of our team and Alex was able to ask her parents who permitted this. If she had been in our film, I would have asked her parents to fill out a consent form as she is under the age of 16. Unfortunately, she was not available on the day of filming so we decided as a team that we would cast someone else. In terms of casting Ellen, the age of the character made it harder for us to find an actor. Our group did not really know anyone who would be of this age and act. Because of the difficulties we came across casting Mattie and Ellen as these ages, we made a group decision to change their ages in the script as we knew people our age who were interested in the film. This made it easier for us to cast our characters and, in the end, helped us finalise a great cast. In terms of casting extras to be 'the infected' in our film, many of the people on our course were interested in helping us. They loved the idea of being made into a 'zombie' which worked to our favour.















I took it upon myself to contact all cast via email. I gathered all the emails of the cast from my group members and emailed them with all the details of the film. I included what was required of them on the day of the shoot, such as what to wear, what would be happening, and anything they needed to bring along. I made sure to ask any questions they had to make they feel more comfortable and so they were prepared for the filming day.

On the day of the shoot, one of our lead actors pulled out last minute. This was something that we hadn't prepared for. It happened on the morning of the shoot so we were stuck with only one lead when our script required two. Fortunately, the camera operator of our group was asked by the director to take her place and agreed. Although this was still an inconvenience, it was the best possible solution to our problem. Our director filmed the footage instead. Luckily we were able to resolve this quite quickly, but in the future I would make sure a plan is in place so we had a reserve actor on stand-by in case this happened again. I have learned from this that there must be plans in place for any and every worst case scenario.



Legal & Ethics Guideline

As mentioned earlier, we were going to cast pre-teen/teenager into our film. This would have to be covered ethically and legally by the parents signing consent forms. Also we would've had to guarantee that they did not miss school for this project. Because of this, we agreed that we would film on a weekend which worked for our other cast and crew as well. However, it turned out who we cast could not make it on the day we decided to film because of other commitments. Which ultimately lead to our decision to change the ages of the lead characters.
Also, GOV.UK mentions that supervision would be needed for the child on set, which for us wouldn't have been too much of a problem as we filmed at the parents house. But it was worth thinking about as we were filming in some woods as well, which would require supervision there.

At one point in our film, one of our actors is holding what appears to be a sharp object as protection from the infected person in her property. To make sure this was safe, we used a plastic prop so no one could get injured by this.
A risk assessment was filled out before filming so all potential injuries were assessed and evaluated.

Conclusion

Conclusion 

I am glad I took on the role as producer for this project. Although at first I was hesitant about it, once researching and receiving some guidance from peers and tutors, I felt more comfortable tackling the role and would definitely do it again.

Looking back on our short film, I am pleased with how we worked as a team. As producer of the team, I was in contact with every member of the group as I was setting tasks and deadlines for them. I made sure to update the schedule on the drive and communicated this through the group chat. I made sure everyone was aware of when and where group meetings were by contacting them the day before and putting the room number of where it was. I also did this for the editing days. All paperwork needed for the day of the shoot was on the drive weeks before so my group members could review these and ask any questions they had. Our group chat allowed us to communicate effectively and promptly which all members took advantage of and used productively. By working in groups for this term and last, I have learnt the importance of being professional whilst working with others. It is important to not let personality clashes affect the way you present yourself and your work. It also highlights what type of people help excel your talents and motivate you to be the best you can.


After watching other groups work in the screening, one of the things we think could've been improved in our film is the credits. Even though our director wanted them to be simplistic, after watching the other groups films I feel we could've put more effort into creating more original and eye-catching titles. I will definitely keep this in mind whilst working on future projects.




Through being producer, I have learned many new things about making films. There are many other elements to think about other than just the practical side, such as production documents needed for the day of the shoot and preparing meetings to discuss the project. Whenever I start new projects, I will definitely put into practice what I have learnt from this course to take into the future with me.

Bibliography

Bibliography

1)     Figure 1: "Maggie (Season 2) From The Walking Dead Then & Now: See How Much The Zombie              Apocalypse Changed The Cast". E! Online. N.p., 2017. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

2)      Figure 2: "Enid". The Walking Dead. N.p., 2017. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

3)     Figure 3: "Walkers – The Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC". The Walking Dead. N.p., 2017. Web. 3 Apr. 2017.

4)     Figure 4: "14 Movies That Should Have Stopped Minutes Earlier". Den of Geek. N.p., 2015. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.

5)     Robinson, Tasha. "We’re Losing All Our Strong Female Characters To Trinity Syndrome". The Dissolve. N.p., 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2017.

6)     "The Walking Dead". Fox, 2010. TV programme.

7)      “28 Days Later”. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2002. Film.

8)     Skillset, Creative. "Producer". Creativeskillset.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.

9)     "Child Employment - GOV.UK". Gov.uk. N.p., 2017. Web. 6 Apr. 2017.