MAJOR PRODUCTION: PROPS

As the writer and the producer of Unspoken, I wanted to make sure I knew what props were needed and when for each scene. I thought that it would help my scheduling and organisation by knowing what was needed where.

Myself and Laura went shopping to get the props that we needed for the filming. The most important that I knew we needed to get, was items for memorial. The flowers etc we needed to get in plenty of time, this meant we could leave them outside to wilt for a while, as in the film they would have been sitting there for a while so should be starting to wilt and die. Whilst we were deciding what props to buy, I was keeping a written log of the cost of everything, making sure we were keeping in line with allowances and allowing me to update the budget spreadsheet when everything was purchased.

For the flowers, I had the idea of asking a flower shop if they had any flowers that were dying, perhaps these would be discounted and they would work a lot better. Unfortunately, 2 flowers shops had said they didn't have any that were dying as normally they are purchased before they get to this point. Me and Laura instead bought a range of different flowers from the local supermarket. Also for the memorial, we needed to get some teddy bears, which I suggested we went to charity shop for as I thought this is where they would be cheapest. Luckily, a charity shop had a teddy bear for £2 and 50p, which was perfect. Books including the university prospectus and books for Mr Shipman to hold, I already owned so we didn't need to buy these. And finally items such as the letters we could create ourselves rather than paying for, this was something Laura really wanted to do which was great. 

I am really happy that we managed to get the props early as possible, this is a weight lifted and something I can tick off of my list. It means that Laura can continue to focus on the shots and cinematography and I can carry on with organising all of the shoot days.