PRE-PRODUCTION; LOCATIONS UPDATE

Currently, with the script changes that I have been doing, there are 4 locations that we will be using. Some of them I have had to get into contact with the Kent Film Offices and others I have had to get into contact directly with an organisation. Our 5 locations and their updates are as follows:

Email I sent to Schools 

1) School - The school seemed to be our hardest location to find. From the start, myself and Laura decided we would UCA Rochester as a backup, so we always knew we would have a location. However, the reason we didn't want to have to use UCA is because we would have to do a lot of scene dressing to make it look like an actual school classroom, we would like to look as authentic as possible. I began but getting myself and my team to email our old schools, we are all local to the area so hoped one of our 3 secondary schools would be able to help up, however we were yet to hear anything back. I then expanded the search to most secondary schools in Medway, I emailed about 7 school offices, explaining what we were doing and what we needed. Luckily, I had two schools email me back, explaining they may be able to help us but they need to get confirmation from their head teacher. As it turns out, being from the area, I actually knew the two people who had replied to me through neighbours. I have been told that I should receive an email on Monday 3rd December confirming the location.

2) House - As the writer, I was visualising exactly the type of house that we needed. We needed a room that had minimal furniture, and room to make it messy. At the start of the script, the room is messy and covered in rubbish, but by the end it is completely clean, tidy and spotless. I wanted a room that had minimal furniture and lots of floor space, so that we could really accentuate this change of cleanliness throughout. Again, as we were from the area, we took advantage of this and asked people we were close too if we could recce their houses, we went and took pictures (as shown) to decide what house would be the best fit. I also looked on Air BnB, thinking we could find a place to film at that would also accommodate our actors, however on asking the hosts they explained they couldn't allow filming in their houses, so we had to abandon this idea. The house that we have gone with, has come to us free of charge, it has the perfect bedroom allowing the director to really mess it up for the filming, and it has the perfect downstairs area because of the placement of the kitchen in respect to the door (within the script, a lot happens in the kitchen which we need to be out of sight from the front door where something else takes place).

3) Park - As the producer I began my search for the park using the Kent Film Office. Previously, I have used Haysden Country Park in Tonbridge, this location is an open space field, myself and my group went to Haysden again to recce and see if this would be suitable as I knew we would be able to get permission to film here, however we needed to confirm that it was suitable for our major project. After the recce and discussions, Laura (director) and I decided that Haysden would not be suitable for our film, we needed a field with a long path on it, the path is one of the two most important features of this location that we need and so we decided against this location.  I found Mote Park on the Kent Film Office website, After doing a recce with Laura, we knew that Mote Park was the place we wanted to film. It is a large area with huge space and scope for us to film in, it has benches dotted along a river which are perfect for us. I applied for this location through the Kent Film Office, giving them the dates we would like to film and filling in the insurance forms. Currently, I have received the filming permit for this, and am awaiting an invoice to pay the cost of £33 for a risk assessment.

Filming Permit

Mote Road, Maidstone

4) Street - As i have added in a lot of new scenes featuring on a road, there was now a new location I needed to find, which was a road. This will be the place where Nova dies and where her memorial will be held. In terms of the type of road we need there is two things that I need to consider, firstly it needs to be safe in terms of health and safety as we will be filming very near the road. Also, it needs to be wide enough to accommodate the type of memorial we need to dress. Myself and Director Laura drove around Maidstone in a bid to find the perfect road, luckily we found Mote Road, which is very close to Mote Park, one of our other locations. Mote Road has extremely wide paths, with wide areas of grass separating the path and the road. Filming here means the least disruption as possible to residents, because there houses are a fair distance away from the paths, but it also means we have quite a main road, with a good amount of traffic to accommodate to the background in the script. I have applied for a permit for this through the Kent Film Office and I should be receiving permissions within the next few days.

PRE-PRODUCTION: FINALISING THE BUDGET

I have now completely finalised the budget for Unspoken. Recently, I suggested to Laura that we set up a GoFundMe page, in order to gain some fundraising money to help us with our budget. At the start of the project, as a group we decided we could all put in £200 to fund the project. At the moment, we have £110 as donations from out GoFundMe page, whilst this is till open and could increase, I decided to work with a £710 budget as the total. I am going to go through each aspect and talk about how these decisions came about and how I have evidenced them. The documents I am going to submit for the unit and put on the pre-production package, is an excel spreadsheet with a table of the budget and citations explaining certain aspects, as well as a word document that contains a number of figures (labelled in the spreadsheet) that are photos of my evidence.

1) Costume - Costume is a big part of our budget, we need our main characters to be wearing very specific clothings to make the script work. In January, I plan to speak to my confirmed cast and confirm if they already own any items of clothing that we need, however in terms of this pre-production package, I have outlined and costed every piece of clothing, this way if the cast do not own any of the pieces of clothing that we need, we have already costed it so it will not effect our production in anyway. Marlo and Nova both attend school, so it was very important that they wear smart clothes that fit a sixth form uniform. We also need another outfit for Marlo that is more casual and comfortable for when he is at home. Mr Shipman is the only outfit we haven't costed, as all he needs to wear is a suit (as he is a teacher), the actor we have for this we know has this already. Julie also we need to wear a more casual outfit, so we have costed jeans, jumper and boots. Our total costume costs come to exactly £170.

2) Travel - Our travel is another big part of our budget. 3/4 of our cast members are going to be coming from London and this is a heavy expense. The price of a return ticket to Maidstone from all central London train stations is roughly the same price. The only difference in prices is if the ticket is purchased and used before or after 9:30, because it is a busier period the tickets are more expensive before 9:30. The schedules that I have created allow me to see which cast members are needed at what time, so that some of the days we can get the cheaper ticket used after 9:30. i have included on the budget how many tickets need to be purchased (For example Marlo we need for all four days, 3 of which before 9:30 so I have costed it as £28.25, and one day later which is costed at £13). I have evidenced this through pictures of the national rail site showing how much each ticket costs. The actor that we have playing Mr Shipman is our one character who lives in Kent, we are only using this character once and he will be driving down, so we have agreed on a £10 contribution to the petrol he will be using. I have also included an extra allowance for each person, I have used an average of £5 per person per day extra, to allow for any overcharged as well as London tube journeys that they may be using to get to the London train stations. Our total travel costs come to £286.50.

3) Props - As I am the writer as well as producer, I knew exactly what props we would need. A lot of our props will be housing decor that we already own, there are 5 main props that are integral to our story that I have costed/found for free to make sure we have them. Firstly, we need an engraved pocket watch, I researched online and found an Etsy seller who we can buy one for at a cost of £20. Moreover, we need a dummy phone as in one of the scenes Marlo slams his phone down and smashes it in frustration, I did some research online on this also and found a website that does this for us, for the cost of £3.36 we can get a dummy iPhone XS. 3 more important props include a bottle of vodka, textbook and letter, there are props we already own or can hand make to save the budget. I have included this on the budget to demonstrate that I have thought about them, because they are integral parts of the plot, but I have put a £0 cost next to them. Our total prop cost £23.36.

4) Food - Food is included in our budget because we have quite long days of filming, we need to make sure that we feed the actors and crew as much as possible. For the cast, I have identified an average meal cost of £6 per person. For me this is quite an overestimate, we are going to have help in creating homemade meals, both sandwiches and hot meals, to bring to locations for the cast and crew. Homemade means we will most likely come in under budget on the food aspect. I have included an extra £60 allowance for food which means we have a total cost of £126 to provide food for all cast and crew over the 4 days. We will go to a supermarket and use the money to buy food to create the meals for a cheaper cost overall.

5) Locations is one of our lowest cost sections of the budget. Mote Park we have to pay £33 for a risk assessment to be done by the council, but all of other costs are coming to us free of charge. This has really benefited us so that we can apply more money to other sections. Mote Road, where will be doing street filming is a public residential street therefore with the permissions from the council it is free. The house we will be using is through family, therefore again this is free. The school, that we are still waiting to be confirmed, is also going to be free as we know someone who works there. In the case that we cannot confirm the school, we will be using UCA Rochester Campus which is again a free location.

6) The last area of the budget we needed to consider was the post production. We have a music composer who will be composing our music for free and copyright free, however I am skeptical to put 0 pounds as a value against our post production costs, I would like be prepared for the need to pay for something, so I am going to be putting £40 as a safe guard for if we need to pay for any music, sound effects etc in post production.

The total left in our budget is £31.14. I am hopeful that in January, we will find that the cast own somme of the clothes that we have budgeted so that this will save us money. I am still aware that in January, we may have the following changes with
-Travel
-Equipment; Laura has noted that some of the scenes may be filmed with an iPhone XS Max instead of a Panasonic camera, which means we have to buy certain rigs etc

PRE-PRODUCTION: RISK ASSESSMENTS

Risk Assessments are an integral part of our production. Whilst on previous projects I have completed these many times, I thought I would do some research on them fist. The BBC page had an interesting article on risk assessments, outlining their uses and reasonings:
'A Risk Assessment is a structured way of thinking about how an activity or situation that is going to happen at some point in the future might cause harm to people, to periphery or to the environment and thereby helping you to identify measures to prevent or minimise the risk of this happening. Think of it as a safety planning too'

Risk Assessment Examples

-The law requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk sot health and safety arising out of our work activities in order to indent the measures needed to comply with relevant safety regulations
-Should be done in order to present any significant risks in the foreseeable future
-The earlier it is completed the better as it gives you time to communicate the findings to the cast and crew and prepare
-If you are on a shoot and there is a significant change/high new risk introduced, you should revisit the risk assessment process to evaluate whether it is safe to continue the filming or not
- You must take the tie to systematically look at your activities, decided what hazards they present and asses the risk of people being exposed to these hazards
- The final step is to find waits to eliminate or control the risks

For the Pre-Production package I am going to complete 4 risk assessments for each location, I will complete all aspects of the forms so that when it comes to the production stage next year, I will just need to get them printed and signed. The following are the completed risk assessments (minus the signatures and full equipment list as this will be added both for the deadline and the production.

Day One:

Day Two:


Day Three:

Day Four:

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.