PRE-PRODUCTION: CALL SHEETS

Now that I have created the preliminary schedules for our filming days for Unspoken, I thought it would be time to create a template for the call sheets. I will create a basis for a template, so that I can fill the details in easily, when I have all of the confirmed dates, names etc and anything else that will needed to be included. In looking online, I have found the following items that need to be included:

Exemplar Call Sheet

1) Date - at the top of the every call sheet, in a clear and coherent way should be the date that the filming will be taking place.
2) Transport Information - Whether it is for cast or crew, it needs to detail how they will be arriving to the location, whether that is making their own way, or being collected by a runner.
3) Title - Title of the production, clear and coherent with the date, cast could have multiple shoots going on at similar times so it is important to display the title of the production clearly
4) Weather - Include the predicted weather, this helps with everyone knowing what to bring in terms of sensible footwear and clothing, as well as the crew being prepared with the equipment if it is raining on an outside shoot, for example.
5) Nearest Amenities - It is helpful to include the nearest supermarkets, hospitals, taxis/train stations and police stations. The cast and crew will be coming from all over the country so this is vital information for them.
6) Scenes to be shot - Detail what you plan to film on the day so that the cast and crew are fully prepared and ready to go.
7) Names - List who it is for, give them specific details for their script, what time they are arriving and wrapping.
8) Call Time - Arguably one of the most important pieces of a call sheet, should be front and centre detailing the time off arrival

A lot of call sheets that I have looked at, include the schedule within that. With mine I have decided to do that separately, in a bid to attach it to the back of the call sheet. This means before the time of filming, I will send each cast/crew member a filming pack with the call sheet and schedule all in one. I will be designing a table, that explains for cast when each cast member will be arriving, breaking and wrapping. Similar to my research on the scheduling, I drew out a design before creating it as a word document. I have decided to make a template, so that next week when I have all cast, locations and other information confirmed, I can easily fill them in.

PRE-PRODUCTION; SHOOTING SCHEDULE

As we are reaching near the end of the pre-production unit, it is time for me, as the producer, to start the shooting schedule. Firstly however, I need to research the topic and look at what a shooting schedule should look like. Things that a shooting script need to include:
- Dates of filming
- Start and Wrap times
- Actors needed
- Addresses
- Scenes to be filmed

Research Tips
- Plan to film in chronological order as much as possible, this helps the actors really connect with the arcs of their characters, subsequently the performance you get from them will be better
- Try and start off with an easy scene first, it will help build confidence in the cast and crew that will help to carry them through for the rest of the shoot days
- Put milestone/exciting scenes in regularly in order to keep excitement up
- Maximise locations and their availabilities

In terms of creating my schedule, I have decided to create my own. I looked into certain apps that create schedules for you but I think that because this a student film is quite unique, I think the formatting will work better if I design it myself. First of all, I drew out the schedule on a piece of people, I labelled the different boxes in order for me to visualise what it will look like on the paper. I wanted to make it as a template so that I could use it for each different shoot day. I added the cast and crew at the top of the page, in order to make that an important statement so that everyone on the production knows exactly what days they are needed. I then created a small key for the addresses/locations used, as some of the days we will be using multiple locations I have labelled them location A and B.

On the table detailing the actual schedule, I have timetabled it for every different goal we need to reach for the day. Using the different scene descriptions as what we will be filming I have timetables each one for each location. I have also scheduled in regular breaks to make sure the cast and crew are are well rested to keep up momentum throughout the day. I decided to use the time, description, who and where as the headings of the table as these are the main things everyone will need to know. After i hand drew the table, I then created it on a word document, and filled it in according to day one of filming. There are some gaps in some of the schedules, which is where I will be confirming addresses etc, and when the director has completed all of the story boards and shot lists, I will add these in, this will help us to be more specific and clear about what we want to film and when. I have completed one for each shooting day, four in total, and will be updating these throughout the next two weeks as we finalise everything for the rest of the project.

PRE-PRODUCTION; MAJOR SCRIPT CHANGES AND DRAFT 4

After sending out our draft 3 script to Simon, we had a meeting about the story and where it was going. The following is a list of feedback from Simon based on draft 3:

Small Problems 

-have a look at some scripts
⁃not formatting it correctly (scene headings)
⁃new room = new scene
⁃too much detail that’s not important e.g. we need to see that Marlo is in his last year of school somehow
⁃is the outfit description important?
⁃quite long and list like
⁃Marlo, a 17 year old school boy lounges in his den. his teenage life surrounds him. somehow he manages to pick out a university prospectus from the mess and it sparks his memory
⁃his room is a mess but the house is tidy
⁃mom does well in her job and everything is in place/tidy except his life
⁃look at how characters talk to each other/round things
⁃contemporary story needs contemporary features
⁃pocket watch present, make it something that works in present day format e.g. heirloom
⁃empty school, put either a caretaker and kids in to make it believable
⁃populate with people to make the school active so the audience doesn’t question the scenario
⁃scene 3 is a way of showing emotion <- MORE OF THIS
⁃scene 5 is 2 scenes not one

BIGGER PROBLEMS

⁃scene 6 ‘everyone’s asking me what i’m going to do’ placed incorrectly to bide with story
⁃think about Marlo as a character, what he was like before
⁃essentially, our story is: Boy walks to school, talks to a girl. Boy walks back from school, talks to a girl x2 and then boy walks home, talks to a doctor and then is okay.
⁃good scenario but we need to see the effect on him and think about how we can dramatise stuff, what he learns etc
⁃if he did well at school, show that he’s not doing as well now
⁃lashing out, getting into trouble etc
⁃look at character of nova “perfect person” but is she a negative force on him now?
⁃is she the one that doesn’t want to let go? “i won’t be able to see you anymore”
⁃going to uni was an important thing
⁃commit to scenes and characters in your story
⁃how does the acceptance manifest himself, how can we show this
⁃need to see the stages of the effect
⁃use mr shipman as an important character? submits his application at the last second
⁃play out drama through doing stuff
⁃less dialogue and more pictures
⁃ritual to show time passing

After this, myself, Laura and Katie went to brainstorm ideas. I had the idea that I wanted to change it from an open day at a university being what Marlo was trying to avoid. I thought it would be better if an interview letter came through the post in the morning, firstly because it creates more jeopardy and more of a timeline to the story and secondly because it feels a lot more visual, both when writing and filming for the director. The second idea was to elevate Julia's role, she is the mother of Marlo and to involve her in the script more is something positive. After speaking with mental health charity, it is often that a family member tries to help a loved one who may be suffering and this helps us to push that message through within the script. We decided to get rid of the flashbacks and dream sequences completely because we can suggest the ideas that they were suggesting in other ways. For example I brought in the idea of the engraved pocket watch from his father who died when he was young, as an idea of symbolism that would be a recurring idea throughout. 

Also, I came up with the idea of bringing in an 'Unknown Figure' to the script to talk to Marlo when he visits Nova's place of death. When I watch film and TV, i really enjoy narratives that are left slightly unanswered and allow for the audience to create their own meaning in their head. After speaking with Laura, this 'unknown figure' will be shot in a particular way which will not show their face, I want it to be an enigma to the audience so that they can decide for themselves if this figure is a real person in the street speaking to Marlo, or a figment of Marlo's imagination. The final major change of the script, is the reversal of Nova's character. I have turned her into more of a negative/unknown character, she dies after arguing with Marlo, telling him she doesn't want him to move away for university. This creates more of a catch 22 situation because though the audience will be sad because Marlo is grieving, they will also slightly dislike her character because of the way she treats Marlo. 

As per previous post, I researched other scripts to make sure that my format was correct. I found that my scene headings were wrong as well as the day/night aspect. It also helped me to read other scripts because I got to see how these scripts are written and I gained inspiration, mainly in terms of how to describe locations and characters. I am really happy with draft 4 of the script, I think I have done well to completely turn the entire 16 page script around, by changing main aspects of the narrative with my group and also rewriting it in its entirety myself. Now I hope it is at the stage where just certain aspects need refining, rather than anymore dramatic rewrites or story changes because my group and I are really happy with what we have now. I am still considering adding in one final scene involving Nova and Marlo, to give the audience a sense of closure on the two characters relationship, but I will see what feedback comes my way first.

PRE-PRODUCTION: SCRIPT RESEARCH

After having some feedback from Simon regarding the script and its formatting, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at a few scripts and see how they format themselves and compare it to mine. I decided to look at 'The Truman Show', looking at how it is formatted and how it is written. These are the key points I dug out to help me:
-include location descriptions at the start of each scene, it helps to set the scene to the audience and also makes it a lot clearer and visual for the reader, and when talking about the characters actions it makes it a lot more easier to explain.
- Use of (O.S)-On Screen to denote that a character is speaking but only their voice is heard you cannot see them
- Use of full stops in the scene headings, after the scene number, int/ext and after day or night
- Don't be afraid of small scenes, when writing I tried to avoid any scenes that were small because I thought that they were wouldn't help the story, but in reality they help move the plot along in ways that dialogue can
-Use of paragraphs to separate the action that is happening on screen.
- Capitalisation of characters names
- Use of parentheses above the dialogue, I was previously using it below the words.

This research helped me in other ways too, reading through the script made me see the type of language that they use, which i can adapt to use in my own ways. I was always unsure on how to write some actions because I am used to writing essay style but this is quite different, phrases like 'We see' are something I use a lot in my drafts because it helps the audience to visualise what they are seeing on screen. I have also looked at the script for The Conjuring, though it is quite a different genre from both 'The Truman Show' and Unspoken, I thought it would be good to have a read through and see if I notice anything different about the scripts.

-Use of 'Continued' on the bottom and top of each page, unless the start of a new screen
-Use of scene headings on to signify time period and place (very specific to genre)
-Use of (V.O) (voiceover), similar to the use of (O.S) but for a character that isn't involved on the scene
- Use of '--' when a character interrupts another character
- Use of much shorter sentences and descriptive statements eg 'Keeps Staring'

The most interesting feature of this script is the use of shorter more descriptive sentences, they are a lot more to the point and not filled with words. The script is quite dialogue heavy but it really works for this type of genre. This research will help me a lot in writing draft number 4 of Unspoken, I need to adapt my writing into a more script style, be descriptive but not overly descriptive. I also need to come up with a stronger narrative arc, as Simon said, the story is there and it's good, but so far what we are doing with it isn't cutting it.

PRE-PRODUCTION; LOCATIONS UPDATE

As the producer, I am in charge of making sure the correct locations are all booked out for what and when we need. These locations and their updates thus far are as follows;

1) A School - originally I had a school in mind, a local primary school that I already have permission to film in. However after discussions with the director we decided that this wouldn't really fit our shoot as the room probably wouldn't be dressed suitable enough for the age range of our characters, with it being a primary school. After this decision, Katie, Laura and I all emailed our old schools that are all local, however after a few weeks we are still yet to hear back. I have now found quite a few schools that are on the Kent Film Office, this is normally a much more concrete and definitive way of getting a location so after sending these applications off I am much more hopeful about this.

2) A House - For some of our scenes we also need a house, this is probably our easiest locations because we all have houses available to us to use and dress how we please. With this we have decided to use a relative of Laura's house so that we are using a different house to ones we have used before. This specific house fits the structure that we need a lot better as well, including the placement of all of the rooms.

3) Dream Sequence - The dream sequence is going to be a basement in Katies house, for the location we just needed a dark room that we can use lighting to create certain atmospheres so after we all went to view this we knew it would work perfectly.

4) A Park - This is our main location where all of our important and most dramatic scenes take place. After some searching on the Kent Film Office, I decided it would be a perfect location because it features a long path all around with benches dotted along the way. I applied for this through the Kent Film Office and was replied with some insurance and risk assessment forms to fill out, further to this we also have to pay £33 for the councils own risk assessment to be done. Myself and Laura went for a recce also, we both took photos of the best parts so we know exactly where we want to film. As the director Laura was really happy with the location, there is lots of space as well as a lot of benches that are quite secluded with scenery so I'm really happy with this location.

PRE-PRODUCTION; TUTORIAL WITH BETH TURRELL

Today we had a tutorial with freehand producer Beth Turrell. We went in to pitch our idea to her and explain where we were at in terms of the progress of our pre-production package. I was really happy with the feedback that we got from Beth, I feel as though it made us as a group realise how prepared we are with our project, so far. Obviously we will continue to work at our current rate but it was good to hear that we are being organised and on top of everything. We explained to Beth our story as well as other production elements such as the budget, schedule, casting, and locations. Laura also went through the different cameras we are considering using as well as the test shoots, and Katie spoke about where we are at with the marketing/branding. The main feedback we got from Beth, was to nail a strong pitch to explain the narrative of Unspoken. As I explain the narrative I have always felt as though it is difficult and complex to talk about due to the different narrative strands, Beth suggested that I try to simplify this by creating a small pitch that would explain the narrative in a small and simple way.

Simple Pitch; A psychological drama following a grief stricken teen and his journey after a traumatic event, leaving him stuck between his future and his desires.

Simple Synopsis; Marlo is a 17 year old boy in his final year of sixth form. As he goes through his day to day life he deals with issues such as paranoia, anxiety and panic attacks, whilst he feels unable to speak about the issues he is facing with most people, his girlfriend Nova is his beacon of light as she comforts him throughout. Marlo's mother Julie and teacher Mr Shipman are they to help him even though they often get dismissed, they worry about his future as the deadline for university applications looms closer and closer. Will he come be able to open up, or will his issues get the better of him?

Katie has also been working on all of the branding and graphics for Unspoken. She has created both a poster and a title sequence using a theme of smoke to create a ghost-like feel. I really like the branding of it all so far because I think it helps to create and reinforce a theme throughout that we are all happy with.

PRE-PRODUCTION; DRAFTING SCRIPT 4

After Draft Three, Laura had a few more suggestions after storyboarding. These changes are more visual than dialogue based because as her and Katie were storyboarding they realised that there was a lot of scenes that could be changed to fit the camera better. The following are the changes that she has asked me to change on the script;

Flashback Change: Marlo puts the prospectus in Julie's lap. She’s confused at first and Marlo opens it for her √

Detail Change: Marlo leaves his bedroom after seeing the prospectus √

Detail Change: Marlo grabs the pocket watch from the side, instead of his coat when leaving the house √

Change the last part of Scene 2 to say how they smile when they see each other and then “embrace as they greet each other” to make it more logistical than embracing and then looking into each other's eyes. √ 

“He starts tapping his finger against the side of his leg” to "opening and closing the pocket watch" whilst they are walking instead 

Change “We see MARLO in the bathroom coming out of a cubicle, he looks side to side checking if anyone is in there with him.” to "We see MARLO burst into the bathroom and stands in front of the mirror shaking. He puts his hands on the basin and looks up into the mirror" √

I think I am now really happy with the script, after doing my research on the formatting of script I know that it is almost there in terms of the format. As I've said previously I am now really happy with the ending and the overall narrative structure. I think I have followed Simon's advice correctly by using the characters and their actions to create mood and tone but also move the story along without so much dialogue. 

PRE-PRODUCTION; AUDIENCE AND PLATFORM

After our next tutorial with Simon, we were given some more concrete ideas and things to think about for our project. Particularly with my role being quite prominent in the pre-production stage, Simon suggested I think about the following -

-Why? in the script, look at the script and make sure there is background and reasoning to every part EG why is this character there? why did this happen to this character? etc

-Begin organising both the cast and crew and gathering those together

-Look at and decide the audience and platform

First of all I would like to look at the audience and platform. Audience is something that I think even as a group we have known from the start. Unspoken is very issue based, we are tackling something that is a big talking point within society at the moment so for us, we know we want this to target the people that this issue is affecting most of all. Our story is about young people, in our instance young men, being reluctant to talk about their mental health and using the help that is on offer in our society.  This is why I would like us to target young people 16-30 years old. The research and statistics that I have looked at previously all point to how this issue affects this age most of all, so I believe it only right that this is targeted towards them. In terms of audience classifications we would be looking at more achievers and aspirers, people more geared towards society issues who would be inspired or effected by our drama in any way.

I have also looked at the viewing habits of the people we are trying to aim at, as this would help us to understand the kind of platform it would need to go in in order to reach this target audience. An Ofcom study discovered that a teenagers and young adults are watching a third less broadcast TV on traditional sets than they were in 2010. This demonstrates a shift to many online platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. This happens across even young adults as a recent episode of Blue Peter was announced to have had a 'zero' audience rating.
- 16-24 year olds watching broadcast TV fell 33% between 2010 and 2016
- The average viewer watches 212 minutes of broadcast TV a day compared the 114 minutes a day that 16-24 year olds are now watching (according to Ofcom)

Ofcom's report announced how viewings on different devices and platforms such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, are becoming increasingly popular, whilst no age is determined it suggests how people who are at a 'pre family stage' in life are specking on average 2.5 hours a day watching demand TV. Another platform that is becoming popular is YouTube, channels boasting millions of subscribers are achieving views comparable to mainstream TV channels.

Other useful statistics -
- Young people ages 16-24 spend 27 hours a week on the internet
- Twice as much as 10 years ago
- Spends 2.5 hours a week 'online while on the move'
- Compared to the increase from 30 minutes in 2005

I'm certain with this project that going for this audience, we need to go for an online platform like YouTube. It is where a lot of this target audience watch TV, it is accessible on multiple devices such as phones if they are on the move, or even TV if they are more traditional with their viewing habits.

In terms of a more wider platform, I wanted to look at some different short film festivals that we could submit the film to. First of all I wanted to research a few different short film festivals, look at what they look for in applications and previous work to see what would be the best fit for Unspoken.

 Encounters Film Festival

Encounters film festival is the UK's leading short film, animation and virtual reality festival. It aims to discover, support and develop new talent in filmmaking by providing a platform for emerging and established filmmakers from around the world. It continuers to be a unique meeting place for industry professionals and budding filmmakers. As well as being a short film festival it presents a diverse selection of special guest Q&As as well as high level masterclasses and workshops. The festival celebrates the creativity, diversity and impact of short film.
2018 Winner - the short film that won the 2018 awards was a 16 minute film that was about two boys in a surface mine who 'sink into a seemingly innocent power games with Mother Nature as the sole observer'. The jury commented that it has an agonisingly tense narrative and arresting visual style.
I think this could be an interesting film festival to look at entering, the way that it's aim is to incorporate work from both new and professional filmmakers is really appealing to me because it would help us a lot both in terms of networking and also as budding filmmakers. Currently awaiting the launch of the 2019 awards website to look at the details of applying.

UK Film Festival
The UK Film Festival aims to champion great films but in particular is seeking work from those filmmakers who might not yet have had the chance for a prestigious public screening of their work. Screening in London, it celebrates the cultural diversity of films made in the UK and welcome films from all over the world. Some of the films that have submitted have even gone on to become Oscar nominees and winners, as well as connecting new filmmakers to industry including television exposure by leading British broadcaster Channel 4. I like the sound of this festival because to has a dedicated student film category, a lot of the films I have looked at that have been submitted are quite issue based so I think Unspoken would be a good fit for this. Student Short films are a £25 charge.

London Short Film Festival
London Short Film Festival has been recognised as the premiere UK showcase for cutting edge homegrown and international short film. It strives to provide a platform emerging talent alongside the established with a 16 year old soft spot for independent films. Over 500 films are screened every year,  curated from a 2500 submission list. This festival also runs many competitions, for example they created a competition 'Try To Make A Home Out Of You' which touched on characters happy places and was described as a 'powerful selection of short films'. Submissions for the next one is again closed at the current time so this is something I would have to revisit.


I feel as thought these types of festivals are the type we need to be looking at for Unspoken. They all aim to create a harmony between new talent and established professionals which I think is a really good idea. It allows us as filmmakers to learn our craft and also see how our own film would be received. The UK Film Festival is one we know we can definitely apply for as soon as Unspoken is shot and edited, and the others I can look at further when their next festivals are announced.

PRE-PRODUCTION; CHOOSING A DEMOGRAPHIC

Part of my role as a Producer on Unspoken, I need to make sure we know exactly what platform we are looking at for the film as well as our exact target audience. Firstly, I thought I would do some more research to look into audience categorisations so I know exactly who we should be aiming for.
-Defining a target audience is about the returns you want to get from a piece of work
-Focus on establishing a clear empathy with the audience that you want to serve, this way you know what the audience are feeling and the work that you do within a project is trying to evoke these feelings.
-Have a theme and try to express this through your audience, it must be a theme that appeals to them.

Those are the main points I think link well with my choosing of the audience for Unspoken, found from the Independent Film Office articles. Unspoken is a film that touches upon two main themes, mens mental health and trauma. We would want to focus on young people aged 16-30 as our primary audience, the males watching our film will relate with the character of Marlo and the issues he is facing and well as resonating with his fear of speaking to people about his issues. As I have previously discussed in my research, men are using mental health services far less than women, and male suicide is at an all time high because of mental health issues. The females within this age bracket will be targeted through the narrative of future plans and educational decisions, a time in a young persons life can be stressful when they have to decide their future plans. Marlo is not only struggling with his grieving and mental health, he is being pressured into making decisions about his university choices when he doesn't want too and everything his getting on top of him, the females within our audience will be able to resonate with this as well.  A secondary audience will be parents, Julie is a character that is crying out to help her son. Every scene Julie spends being worried about Marlo and she tries her best to get him to speak to her. This is something all parents will be able to relate too, the idea of needing and wanting to help their child, and so I believe that parents will also be a good secondary audience for us.

PRE-PRODUCTION; SCHEDULE UPDATES

From the original schedule I created a few weeks back, I have edited to better schedule out the cast, I think the original one rushed the process of casting and didn't leave us enough time. I therefore have changed this and this is reflected in the following schedule. I have also colour coded it so we know who is in charge of completing what and by when, as well as when a task is complete and has met the deadline.

Task:	Date Completed By:
Set up Casting Calls for Main Cast	Tuesday 16/10/18
Begin Location Scouting	Wednesday 17/10/18
Script 1st Draft Complete	Friday 19/10/18
Test Shoots	Tuesday/Wednesday 23-24/10/18
Test Shoot Edit Complete	Tuesday 30/10/18
Script 2nd Draft Complete	Thursday 01/11/18
Begin Storyboarding	Wednesday 07/11/18
All Cast Self-Tapes Sent	Monday 12/11/18
Script 3rd Draft Complete	Friday 16/11/18
Character Profiles Complete	Friday 16/11/18
Potential Cast Auditions	Friday 16/11/18
Crew Confirmed	Tuesday 27/11/18
All Locations Confirmed	Thursday 29/11/18
Cast Confirmed	Monday 3/12/18
Costume Design Confirmed	Monday 3/12/18
Final Script Complete	Tuesday 4/12/18
Call Sheet/Risk Assessments Complete	Thursday 6/12/18
Storyboards Complete	Thursday 6/12/18
Budget Run-through and Confirm	Friday 7/12/18
Trailer/Title Sequence Complete	Friday 7/12/18
Marketing/Branding Complete	Monday 10/12/18
Final Pre-Production Deadline	Tuesday 11/12/18

-      Everyone

-      Conor/Producer/Writer

-      Laura/Director

-      Katie/Editor

-      Completed Work

PRE-PRODUCTION; CAST AND CREW UPDATE

In terms of our castings, we have been advertising on Mandy.com. We put all 4 characters, Marlo, Nova, Julie and Mr Shipman. We were surprised to have quite a few responses fairly quickly as we were worried that it would take a while to find some people, so that was great! After the initial applications, I sat down with director Laura and Katie and we went through the applications together. I wanted to do this so that i could make notes on the actors and who we needed to contact, and so that everyone else could have an input in looking at the potential casts. There were quite a few applications that we felt were not suitable for the role because they didn't fit the character profiles, so as we went through I was noting everybody's names and locations with a comment describing if we felt they didn't fit our character profiles, or if we would like a self-tape for them. Some of our applicants didn't have a showreel, so we've asked everyone for a self-tape, using draft 2/3 of our script so that we can decide fairly from there. We will most likely be completing auditions after this stage, so we can make sure our actors work well together. The only instance where we may not need to complete auditions, is with Marlo, an actor we have all previously worked with on our 'Riverdale' project. We were really happy with this actor previously so when we receive the self-tape we will fully decide.

Potential Cast List

In terms of crew, we always knew we wanted to work with our previous year groups in roles such as sound and director of photography. I thought it was important that as the director, Laura was instrumental in choosing who she wanted to be the DoP. What we have done, is as a group sat down and looked at the 2nd years previous work on their 'Directions' Unit. This allowed us to look at pretty much everyone in action as a DoP/Camera Op, we have a few in mind who we would love to work with so now I just need to contact these people to get these confirmed. In terms of sound, there isn't a lot of previous work we can go off, so I think what would be best is to speak to and ask some of the other year groups who has a firm interest in sound and would like to gain more experience through our shoot. I think this will mean we should get someone who is reliable because they will have a genuine interest in the role.