Pre Production Unit - Evaluation

Throughout this unit I have accomplished a lot in terms of pre-production. Going along the way I have used prior knowledge to what I have learnt from previous projects as well as taking on new research to build upon my stronger skills or develop the not so strong ones. Over this evaluation I will be explaining my process highlighting what went well and what did not go so well and what I have learnt from the unit as a whole.

From the unit briefing back in september, myself and Drey had always said we wanted to take on a project that would just be ourselfs. We have more or less worked on every single unit together and wanted this to be our final one. We both feel we work really well in a team and our different skills compliment eachother to produce some great pieces of work. We sat down and worked out what roles we felt we would like to do. I decided I wanted to do Directing and Andreya wanted to be Director Of Phototography as over the past couple of years, these are the ones we throughly enjoy and feel we would like to persue. There are several other roles that will be needed for our production and we sat and worked out how this would work. I then decided that I had done a bit of producing in the past and Drey really enjoys editing so we both said we will take on multi skilled roles and both do two each. I felt I was strong enough to do both and could throw myself into the task. I spoke to Simon and he agreed that we could both carry out these roles moving forward with the pre production unit. He also said we will need a writer in order to have a formed narrative. At first myself and Drey said we would write it together but as time went on, I naturally fell more into this role and we both decided that I would take on the writer role as well. I felt I coped well being all 3 roles but there were many challenges I faced along the way. I didnt realise how much I was taking on. 3 roles is a lot of hard work trying to get them all at the same level and although I felt I juggled them well and seamlessly worked in and out of all 3 of them, I was enjoying the directing and producing side of it more than the writing. Although I managed to keep up with the writing and produce something in the end that I am really happy with, It was much more of an up hill struggle as its not my strongest point and doesnt come naturally but I really put 110% into it and I felt that I gave my best effort.

At first we both started thinking of different ideas and inspirations. Our first idea was for a film we named Ravel. It was about a man named Sam who suffered with complex emotional issues as we follow him on his journey trying to get into a presitgious dance academy. Although we both really liked the idea at first, when it got further down the development line, I was begining to struggle. I found that I was having difficulty trying to write an ending for the drama and we both were losing focus and real pasion for the idea. It was becoming a real battle and we both felt it was a little bit cheesy and was not our full potential. I decided after a long discussion to completly scrap the idea. This was really scary as we were quite far down the time line for this project and had lost a lot of time but we both felt that it was more important to produce something that we are both happy and passionate about. We wanted to produce a pre production package for a film that we both actually wanted to make and were excited about and this just did not feel like that anymore. Although we had lost a lot of time I was sure that we would be able to make up for it as long as we found something that we both really felt was more ourselfs. Changing the idea to Sophie I feel was the best thing we could have done, I felt the idea was fresh, it was different and unique but also it felt like something that identified with the films we like to make. We were both excited about the idea and continued to keep our passion and interest throughout the whole of the pre production unit allowing us to work really hard and make up for lost time.

Once we had the idea, I then moved onto writing the poem. This I felt was a risk as I have never writen a poem before but with research and an understanding, I wrote what I felt in the end was a good piece of poetry. Through looking at stats and figures about what people aspired to understanding that wealth was really important to a lot of people and having a clear message of what I wanted to talk about, this helped my writing process as well as researching how different poems are written. Im really proud of the poem I have wrote and used it as further inspiration to the project that would later influence the whole thing. I then began to deconstruct the poem entirely breaking it down and trying apply visuals to it. This flowed really naturally as this is something I am able to do. I seem to be able to see what I have writen and picture this world in my head of how everything looks. Deconstructing the poem I feel was a great idea that really drew all of this out of me and helped me to understand the picture as a whole. Once I had adapted it all into a table like structure, I was then able to really see the film completly and could begin writing. At first I decided to put the poem as a voice over layed over the top of the visuals, they would all match and it would flow side by side. When I handed in my script to Simon, he looked over it and gave me feedback for it. What he told me I learnt a lot from. It all made sense that the voice over almost became redundant as it was just describing what we were seeing and didnt really add any value to the film. He talked about an unreliable narrator and that an audience always trusts what they are being told. I sat down and had another look at the script and re questioned how I can make the story more interesting and valueble. I realsied I needed to either change the visuals or the voice over. I really love the visuals as I feel they will really make a statement to something that I want to create as a final film and as a director so I felt changing the voice over was something I would try first. I decided that to make it interesting, the character has a completly different background. She comes from a poorer background and works as a cleaner. The voice over would speak about how hard life is for her and that she finds it difficult to get by but the visuals are elaborate and over the top leaving the audience questioning whats happening and creating mystery. Suddenly this script had a new sense of life that I didnt even realise and really created a new path that I felt was much better. It even had a new twist ending where she actually is the cleaner for the house and the owner has been on holiday so she was trying on all of her clothes and dreaming of the life she wishes she could have whist fantasing about killing the owner and her former self. I have learnt that just because you have fallen in love with your first story, it doesnt mean that it cant be improved and evolve into something even better than you first thought. Feedback is so important as it gets you thinking in a completlely different direction and can help develop things further. There were a few struggles with the script. Although I had researched a script and really broke everything down, I still found it really difficult to write one. I feel as if the visions in my head are not translating the way I want them to when putting them onto paper. I can see the film in my head and it feels great but when I put it into a script it almost seems half as good. After a lot of rejigging and hours of re editing I was finally happy with a draft that I could submit for feedback and then after the feedback I was able to improve the story further. Overall Im really happy with what I have learnt and the final product I have ended up with. One thing that couldnt be helped was the script in the book. Myself and Andreya produced a book and in order to get things printed in time, we had to send it off 2 and a half weeks before the deadline. Since scripts take me so long to write and we changed our idea later on in the process it lead to a delay of sending the script off and getting feedback. This meant that the first script would have to go in the book and I would work on the changes after it had been sent off for publishing. I emailed Simon and he stressed that this would not be a problem as I could attach a revised script as part of the package. I worked on the script changes and then printed it with a cover page emulating the book cover to make sure it all tied up nicely together. I then went to get it professionally binded together to make it look more presentable. I am happy that managed to do this and I feel it is not an issue being seperate as it compliments the book well.

In terms of storyboarding, myself and Drey hired external help to produce them as we wanted them to look as good as they can be and neither of us can draw very well. Drey looked into people online but they ended up being really expensive. We finally settled on Megan who had a history of art and showed us her portfolio which was really good. Drey took Megan through the story boards and I oversaw the whole process as Megan would show Drey and then they would check with me to make sure it was reflecting my vision of what I wanted. I felt it was great I was involved as I was making sure it was showing the story how it was meant to look. The issues with the story boards were that they were very time consuming. I was currently working on 2 other things whilst overseeing this so I did feel a bit stretched in different ways but I felt it was important to be part of the process. I was wanting great detail from Megan so this obviously took a while but she worked really hard on them and Drey was happy from a director of photography point of view so I was really pleased with them in the end.


When looking at the producing of the project, this was something else that took a lot of research, time and effort as I wanted it to be as professional as I could possibly make it. I feel with the producer side of things there was a lot of paper work involved. This was again very time consuming as I was researching schedules, call sheets, the budget etc as well as making them to a professional standard and making sure my other roles kept on track also. I struggled at certain points as I found myself trying to do too much in one go but creating a personal schedule of the whole production really helped in order to manage my time well and get things done. I have learnt from this that doing a multiskilled role is possible but I must stick to my schedule rather than overloading and trying to do everything at once. Everything worked out well in the end and I pleased with the amount of effort I put in with the producing. I feel what could have gone better was more in depth schedules as although the all the ones I produced were good and I had day schedules on each of my call sheets, I still feel I could have maybe done one more in a coloured bar type schedule like the shoot week one but I still feel I have done a sufficent amount of work with these having 3 differernt types that are all really useful. With the budget, I felt I produced this really well as I researched how to spend the money well in the production to maximise the value of the film and created something that is easy to read and does what its meant to do. It looks proffesional and has all the elements that are needed to keep track of. With the casting side of things, I feel I was able to cast well as I put adverts out and looked through show reels. I ended up using Claudia from a shoot before as she was the best suited but I'm glad I checked out other options which reinforced my decision. I held meetings with her and kept her in the loop with what the production was and where it was going. The same can be said for costume. I researched what I wanted them to look like, sourced them online to make sure I could get hold of the looks at a reasonable price and after buying a piece I held a costume fitting with Claudia to make sure that it looked right and it would reflect what I was picturing. With locations I was able to plan with andreya really well. I struggled finding the house for a price that would suit our budget at first but then going through the kent film office and liasing with them helped us to find a place that we wanted and it emulates the story and tones really well. With the London locations I was able to secure these effectively also by liasing with the different boroughs that we wanted to film at and send them emails making sure we can secure permits to film there. Overall as a producer, I feel I have done a good job. I managed to plan my time effectively and get a lot of things sorted to go into production. I would have liked to have secured the house completly but we are really close with this we just need a little bit more time. I felt abit overwhelmed at first and feel if I was purely just a producer I may have made more progress and maybe produced another schedule that was a little bit more professional but overall I feel I have done a lot of work and really understand what a producer does. I feel its all there just a few little tweaks may have been needed with more time but these can be adjusted and sorted within a couple of weeks.

Being a director is something I love to do. Its the role that I have really taken in my stride on nearly every project and I really feel I know what a director does. Taking all of these skills with me into this project, I was able to carry out all of my knowledge by being creative and making sure I was overseeing the whole production along with my producer side as well. I feel both roles complimented eachother most of the time although It was difficult when my director head said I wanted everything big and bold, which they are, but some of the things meant the budget would have to be big and bold and thats something we just couldnt do so I had to battle both sides at points. Since I know a fair bit about directing I still wanted to improve. I looked at research into genres, film scenes and differernt directors to make sure I was thinking about different shots and the way things are done. I also researched a shotlist from a christopher nolan film production and this really brought my own shot list up to a professional standard that I am really happy with. Drawing from many inspirations that I have looked at over this unit I really feel I've developed even more as a director and I feel confident going into production.

Looking at the book, Andreya was in charge of book design. Although she was the person who was making sure all the text fitted ok and the titles were the right size and length, I'm pleased I was able to sit down with her and go through it. I would tell her to change different colours and re arrange lay outs to look a bit more effective but she really learnt the software well so anything I asked her to change she would be able to do with ease. We planned the book well getting all of the content in, making sure the theme was consistant and sending it off in plenty of time to be delivered before the deadline. Although this may have restricted us with updating some things as we had to send it off early to be published, I'm so happy with the book, it looks really professional and has the style and tone that I really wanted it to be.

Overall I am really happy with the way I have taken on my 3 differernt roles in this unit. I have worked hard to research and then produce everything along with writing a poem that I developed into a fully formatted drama script, plan my time effectivly to ensure my role as a producer was being achieved and enchancing and gaining knowledge on my directing skills. If I could have done anything differently I would have liked to have had a little bit more time on the producer side of things allowing some of the schedules to look a bit more proffesional and I would have liked to have a bit more confidence in myself in terms of writing a script but I feel I got there in the end and I'm really happy with the final result.

Pre Production Unit - Director/ Producer/ Writer Statements

Over the course of pre-production, I have had to make many different decisions throughout the process as part of the roles I am undertaking. All of these decisions have been carefully planned and thought out to contribute towards the final outcome of the project that will eventually go into production in February 2019. I have throughly enjoyed being a writer, producer and director in the pre production stages of this project along with the many challenges I have faced throughout and learning how to resolve them. I have researched the roles throughly and learnt many skills along the way to make sure I was allowing myself to be the best I can within each field. 

Writers Statement

My first role I concentrated on was being a writer which who starts an idea that evolves and develops into a correctly formatted script, delivering the story that they wish to tell. I sat down with Andreya who is also working on the project so we could bounce ideas off each other. We first came up with the initial idea titled Ravel. This would tell the story of a boy named Sam who dances at a contemporary arts school. When a prestigious academy approaches the school offering scholarships for the talented, we see Sam’s journey of love and heartbreak as he decides to act on the offer training for an audition seeing his life unravel as the story progresses. With this story I talked about adding the addition of dance as a focus that would be injected through various points of the narrative to express the emotions that Sam is feeling in a visual way. 

Although I liked the idea and was able to develop sam and other characters around him, there were a few issues that I began to struggle with. Coming up with how the story ends was proving very difficult. Although I eventually settled on one, I wasn’t 100% happy with it and I felt the story  wasn’t living up to its full potential. I also found the writing of it lacked a narrative arc and felt flat when reading it. After struggles with locations, casting the right characters who were dancers/ actors and pulling all the other strings together, it became clear to me that this idea was not going to deliver my full potential and did not feel right to move forward with it. I decided to go back to the drawing board and think up how I could improve the narrative and flow. Proving more and more difficult I was reaching a dead end with this idea. I was feeling less interested about the narrative, characters and the impact they were having. If I was going to produce something to my best creative potential, I would have to think up something that would inspire passion and drive. I had a look at some of my previous projects that I worked on for inspiration and the fiction adaptation module where I created ‘Trespass’ was something that really stood out for me. It was my highest graded piece of work and was something I was really proud of. It was unique and interesting as well as visually creative. I thought, what if I could do something along the same lines but in more depth and explore deeper into the genre, and thats where the idea of Sophie first began. 

Trespass was an adaptation from a poem written by John Clare. Although it worked well being able to adapt another poets piece of work, I felt for this project I really wanted to challenge myself and advance my level and understanding, I wanted to do something more original that would stem from a subject that I wanted to talk about. This led to the decision that I would attempt to write my own poem that I could adapt to a visual on screen representation. I explored many subjects from research that I could write about from mental health to women’s rights or sexual orientation. There were some great points that could relate to bullying, equality and misconception of these issues but I wanted something thats going to stem from something more relatable with a wider audience and to make more people question their own thoughts. I then began thinking about peoples aspirations and goals that they many have. After researching I came across an interesting quote by Benjamin Franklin where he says “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants”. This resonated with me in a way of how our world is reflected and what people think makes it turn. Many people translate success as being wealthy due to a high income, owning large properties and having freedom. After looking at a website called ‘World Economic Forum’, it defined after surveying 2000 Americans what they thought success was. The highest percentage people thought about this was wealth at 42% followed by freedom at 37% and out of the 2000, men were more likely to choose freedom and women wealth. This I felt was an interesting statistic that I could tap into. I decided that money was something that a lot of people aspire to and feel it can make their life easier along with giving them happiness so I thought it would be interesting to explore how money can create an ulterior purpose when a person has it. After this I then began to think what happens when money is no object and becomes a void? What does someone strive for when they are at the top of the financial tree? I discovered that another aspiration that could be considered more dangerous is the possession of power and how when in the wrong hands, this could be something driven more sinisterly. I decided that both money and power together was a message that I wanted to talk about and I sat down and began to write a poem from a persons perspective. 

Since I was writing a poem I wanted it to read like one. I done research on how poems were written and I defined its rules and boundaries. From this I was able to help write my poem as naturally as I could. I first decided that I didn’t want it to rhyme like some poems did. With my findings I found people associated rhyming poems with children and nursery rhymes. Since I wanted to create a more adult story I felt that a poem that didn’t rhyme was a better approach. Also I was reading a website from a director named Kenney Myers who explains “its not always easy to convey truly passionate emotion when your working with rigid construct, so poets with a fondness for high drama or a tendency towards more belletristic sentiments may find that free verse better suits their needs”. I sat down with all my knowledge and a clear understanding of a topic I wanted to talk about and I began to write. It’s titled ‘An Evil Of Money’ and is written from a first person perspective as they talk about their journey with endless fortune. I wanted to start by explaining the rush that the person feels when they have enough money to buy what they like. The fix of adrenaline that money can hold over a person and the enjoyment that people perceive it to be like. From their the poem slowly turns darker questioning what money is really like to have. What happens when that rush disappears and the purpose of working hard for materialistic things is not important? What happens when money cant fix everything for you in terms of happiness, relationships, love and friends? What does a person turn into when there becomes a void that can no longer be filled with coins and notes? From here I wanted to go down the route of power and its dangers. How money can make you feel powerful and strong enough to do anything that you want to. This is where I wanted to show the persons slightly deluded side and something that would strike as abnormal due to the affect money and power was having on them. It describes a woman walking through London in the middle of the day in a big, glamorous ballgown amongst the public who would be wearing casual jeans and tops. They explain that other people are below them and they have no reason to care what everyone else thinks. When I translate this into the script I can see this being a very iconic scene due to its visuals and strong contrasts. 

As I continued with the poem, I felt it would be important for the person to have a reason, a drive and motive to why they would react in this way and the reasons for the infatuation of moneys value. This is where the poem gives an insight to the past of being looked down upon and how this person felt when they had no money. They have been in a situation where money was far from what they had and then all of a sudden possessing it becomes of highest importance. The poem then carries on talking about money, hierarchy and status explaining how someone feels like they exist more in a money world. Right towards the end the poem takes a turn allowing it to come full circle. It explains that “nothing prevails forever, life rotates its circle, and plays its cruel card. I had it all, the life of limitless fun, a constant chase of high, an evil of money”. This for me is really important. I wanted to say how although you feel like you may have it all, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will always have it. You can lose something just as quick as you gain it. Although I had never written a poem before, I found that once I understood how to write one, the message I wanted to convey was so clear in my head that It naturally flowed onto paper. There were a few sentence’s that didn’t make sense at first but after proof reading it several times I was able to have a poem that I felt I could work off. I feel the poem delivers a really important message with deep meanings that are driven into the heart of it. 

My next task was to develop this in to a properly formatted and fully developed script with visuals to match. Script writing is something I have always struggled with. I find it difficult to express the strong, exciting visuals in my head onto paper. I decided that it would be useful to break it down first to get an idea of the visuals I was thinking up next to the poem itself. I created a table which had the visuals on one side and the poem/ audio on the other. This way I could break the poem down and allow the visuals to flow next to the words showing me where everything was going to be shown and at what points. Since this is going to be an experimental film, which I will talk more about in my choices as a director, I was really able to let myself go and create visuals that wouldn’t particularly match a clear narrative structure. Although it reads as a poem about money and power, I wanted to heighten the visuals in the script to create a more exciting and compelling story that would be able so sustain an audience for the length that I’m intending it to be. First of all I decided to envision the character that would fit and hold the views of the poems theme. I decided to carry out mind maps to develop the characters traits and explore in depth what type of person they are. I settled on the character being a woman. Although it could have worked just as well for a man, I felt it was more powerful to show a woman who rolls though the emotions of the story. This is partly on reflection of films that have inspired me with strong female roles like David Fincher’s thriller ‘Gone Girl’, a widely popular cinematic release based on a book by Gillian Flynn. The film focuses on a successful, independent career woman who slowly increases into a sense of madness leading to a jealous rampage. When developing the character I felt she had similar traits to what Amy has in the film. After exploring this, I was able to envision the character and gave her the name Sophie. When I pictured her, I felt instantly connected with the name. It has a classic feel to it as well as a name that you would hear today. To me it feels strong and sophisticated and really suits how I imagine her. Once I had my character I was able to apply her to the poem. I Imagined her saying the words and could picture what she was doing. I didn’t want the adaptation to particularly follow a story, but more to give a heightened representation of the poems emotions, tones and messages. I was able to write the words of the poem on the right hand side and the visuals on the left as I went along. When I first did this it was literally a mash up of scenes put together. Although that was how it was originally intended, I was concerned that it would not hold an audiences attention span for the length it was going to be. I decided there needed to be a slight underlying narrative that would weave through the film and would have to include a peek with a conclusion. This is where I decided to add the psychotic trait to Sophie where she would not stop at anything to feel powerful. She kills a business man that she sees in a night club back at her home. I wanted this part of the story to have a shock factor to it and a sudden change. After she kills someone we see later on that she has killed multiple people and really see the extent of her insane actions. Although its far fetched, this is what I want it to feel like. I want it to have this exaggerated, thriller type tone to it that will create excitement and interest. After adding these scenes and understanding the story as a whole, I was then able to write and format this into a drama style script. I researched film scripts and in particular looked at ‘No country for old men’ which has a long opening sequence with no dialogue so I could understand how to write something more visually. I was also able to understand how a script was laid out and arranged professionally. Once I had read through this, I started to write Sophie. This was difficult for me as I was trying to get across what was happening in the best way I could. As well as this not being a conventional cinematic piece, I found this hard to put on paper without it becoming confusing struggling to simplify it the way I was imagining it. After several looks at it, I was able to finally make sense of it and finish it in the best way I could. 

Overall I felt the writing process was a challenge for me. I have wrote a script in the past but I was always told my stories had trouble taking flight. Since this was a poem and is going to be experimental I did feel I had more leeway with how the story develops but it still had to work and hold the audiences attention. I still feel this has been achieved in the end and I am happy with how the story has turned out in the compelling and unique nature that it has. With a lot of research and inspirations I was able to complete the script into something that I want to produce. Since I am also the producer and the director for this piece, I did find it a struggle when writing as I kept arguing with myself. From a director/ writer point of view, I wanted this to be big and bold and really expensive. I kept imagine Ferrari’s and large estates but I had to tell myself as the producer to reign it in through budget and practicality which was hard but I was able to compromise with situation. I’m very pleased with how the script has turned out and I will be using it as a strong guide through filming. 

Producers Statement

As a producer for the project, I wanted to ensure I could be as effective as I could be in this role. I needed to know the in’s and out’s of what a producer does and how to plan efficiently to ensure the project will be a success. I started off by doing some research of what a producer is responsible for and broke it down into sections. I found there were multiple things but the main ones were financing, which is finding out how to fund the project and gather the money together either domestically or via investors, planning and scheduling, which involves creating deadlines and schedules as well as holding regular meetings to check everything is on track, sorting permits, which is more involved with locations making sure that the crew can film where they would like, health and safety, which involves risk assessments and ensuring the cast and crew are covered, cast and crew, which is making sure that the casting is right and the crew are suitable for the job and budgeting, which is making sure you are sticking to a budget that will maximise the films output within the funds that are available. 

Since this is a low budget independent production, myself and Andreya both sat down and discussed how much money we both had to put into the film. In realistic terms, we worked out our financing and felt that £1500 in total would be a good amount as a starting point. I further researched low budget indie films and useful tips on how maximise a production on the budget with the money you have. I found an article on a website called ‘Webfilmschool’ That broke down how to reduce costs when producing a film on a £2000 pound budget. It explains that writing a script costs hardly anything as paper is cheap and there is free software like celtx online which help to give the correct layouts and formats. From this I made sure I used celtx online to minimise costs but still deliver professionalism. With casting, writing in a small cast will cut costs and when it comes to shoot days, only pay whats necessary like expenses for travel and food. Although it costs to hire actors, its said the biggest no is involving friends for important parts. This will make the film look really cheap if their acting abilities aren’t professional. I have bared this in mind when writing the script. I made the story all about one particular character but keeping the story interesting and exciting. I also have worked with her before and have a great working relationship with her which helps and I made it clear that I will be paying her expenses only. Equipment was the next thing the article talked about. It said if you haven’t got the camera or sound equipment you need to make the film, renting rather than purchasing your own is the best way forward for this. Also creating longer shoot days to minimise rental costs by having the equipment for less days. I looked into this when creating the budget. After Andreya decided which camera she thought would be the best look for the film as her role was director of photography, finding that camera for the best rental price was key. The website called ‘Fat llama’ gave the best quote for what we was looking for pricing at £34 per day for the camera and £30 a day for the stabiliser. I also worked out the location of where the equipment was making sure we wouldn’t be paying too much petrol to receive the equipment. For other equipment we will be using the university store with lighting, tripods, gels and sound to cut costs down. When looking into locations, there were plenty of different articles and books that gave advice on this. Locations are one of the most important things to get right. They have to reflect the story and do it justice. An article on line called ‘Filmmakerfreedom’ suggested to ask people that you know first. If there is no one you know that matches the locations needed, some of the money will have to be put aside to make sure your getting the right look. ‘Webfilmschool’ explains “$0 for a location even if friends or relatives say its free, never works”. Its always expected to pay for locations in some way. In regards to my own project, I have made sure that I have put aside a reasonable amount towards locations to ensure we will be able to afford what will work for the story. Once we knew the story clearly, myself and Andreya both looked at locations to ensure we were both on the right page in terms of cinematography and that it works well with the story. In particular with a large house, we came across several online that were available to film in but they were extortionately priced. I decided to give the Kent film office a call and they were able to help contact the different locations to drive the cost down due to our circumstances. As we are filming in London, I wanted to make sure that what I was picturing would translate well. We carried out a recce in all the places I had in mind to ensure it would work well with the story and script. Once this had been down I could then contact the boroughs of each location and work out permits and costs.  Costume is another important factor. The article explains that trying to use clothes of your own or borrowing items are important to ensure that costs are kept down… but, make sure you have some money to make things look authentic. I was able to apply this to the film as I have ensured I can borrow some things and I brought items in clothing sales to keep the cost down but also chose items that look expensive and that were authentic and right for the character. I also organised with our actress claudia to meet up for a fitting with some of the items brought so I could make sure they looked right and fitted well. All of these things gave me a useful insight and let me know we were able to produce our film on this money, we just had to be smart about the way we did it. The money will allow us to spread out costs into various different sectors as long as we put the money in the right areas. I am aware the £1500 seems very low but investing this well will help produce the film to the best it can be. Finally, music was the last thing to be discussed. A good score is vital for elevating the final product making sure it communicates the right emotions and tones. I decided I wanted the score to be as professional as possible. An article on ‘Nofilmschool’ explained that you had to make sure you have cleared rights with a record label before you even think about using a song. This can be tricky as it can cost thousands of pounds but if you keep looking and keep asking different record labels, you will find a song for the right price. It also explains that if you explain the situation of low budget but still say you want to pay them, they are usually pretty fair. I found a song after hours of listening to different tracks and decided to give it a go myself. After various emails with the record label they were able to let me use the song with a minimal charge which I’m very happy with. In addition to music, sound effects are also key to making productions work. I found lots of royalty free sound effects online due to my prior knowledge and I will be using them to heighten certain elements of the production. Overall my research has allowed me to explore how to create a budget that would work for our film and maximise its potential. It gave me useful tips in what I should be looking for and what I should spend money on. 

Another important stage of being a producer is the ability to plan and be very organised. In the book named ‘Producer to producer : a step-by-step guide to low- budget independent film producing’, it explains a lot to do with this. As an overview it stated that one of the most important things about being a producer is being well organised and keeping to deadlines. It taught me that I have to produce schedules and hold regular meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page and everything will be delivered on time. From this, the first thing I realised I needed to do was to create a timetable to make sure that everything was going to be done efficiently and on time. I wrote all the days out and then put 3 rows underneath them. One for morning work, one for afternoon work and one for deadlines. By laying it out this way I was able to clearly see what was being done on each day and then when a deadline was going due. This really helped me to achieve pieces of work on time and to plan well. I was able to use this all the way through the pre production stage as a guided schedule. Once this was done I needed to start planing for production. I made multiple schedules after researching how real film productions did them. With call sheets, this incorporated who was involved, the location of the shoot, the times the shoot would run from and a break down of what was happening on the day. I took this information and made my own call sheets. I created one for each day of the shoot with all the crews information, what time the shoot would start and finish, where we was shooting, what scenes we were shooting and a schedule of what was happening on the day. Once these were complete I could then see how the week would look and create an overview schedule of the shoot week. Finalising schedules I was able to create one for post production seeing how long we would have to edit and finish the film. All of these were great and really gave me a sense of how the whole process will be managed. In terms of contacting and liaising, I was able to keep regular meetings with Claudia our main actress to make sure she was still on board and was on the same page with everything that she would be involved with. Locations were by far the most tricky part of the process. I needed to make sure something would work for the film in terms of looking high class and expensive. After doing some research I quickly realised how expensive houses were to rent for a days shoot. I contacted the Kent Film Office trying to get the best price possible after looking at different houses we could use that would be suitable but we was not having a lot of luck as they were all coming back with figures no less than £1000 a day. I kept in contact with them trying different houses that were still suitable for production and we have settled on the location Cherry Tree Cottage. This is a nice modern house that will work well and contacting with Kent Film Office helped me to understand the whole process clearer. In regards to our other locations, mainly in London, these were a lot easier. I got in contact with all of the different boroughs we will be shooting at and secured permits and permissions to film there specifying what day, the times we are planning to shoot and a the scenes we were planning to do. All of them came back allowing us to film and gave us all the paperwork I needed to be able to move forward. 

Directors Statement

Directing is something I throughly enjoy. Since starting my university course, it has always been the role I have loved doing the most and seem to naturally grasp. Thorough out the whole of the pre production process I have pushed myself to a high level ensuring that I can be the best director I can be for this major project. After researching further and making sure my vision for this piece is what I would like it to be, I am truly happy with my choices and moving on from pre production into production. 

The first thing I did was linking both my roles of writer and director together in order to complete the writing of the script. From the idea and the written poem, I had to envision all the scenes from a directors point of view and then incorporate that when writing the script. This was difficult at times as I was not only thinking about how to write it, but also battling with myself about what it was going to look like as the script was coming to life. I decided to research into experimental film  as this was the closest thing I could think of to match how I was envisioning it. After understanding what it truly meant I knew I was on the right path with taking our major project down this route. I built upon this by looking at some of Steven Klein’s work who is a very famous director for short experimental films, mainly focusing on fashion or working with really big stars like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Lara Stone, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to produce short films. It was from here that I was really inspired to create something along the same lines. One video in particular really stood out for me which was a Dior campaign featuring Rihanna at The Palace Of Versailles. Although I knew we wouldn’t be able to film at a location as extravagant as that, it gave me the inspiration of how I wanted the film to look in terms of lighting and shots. I translated this to Andreya so she could understand what I was after in terms of visual style. I also researched Stan Brakhage who is very famous for creating experimental films. Although I like what Stan has done and it taught me how bold you can be with experimental film, I still feel that ‘Sophie’ is more along the lines of Steven Kleins work.  Although in some places it was difficult in some places to write as well as having a vision of shooting it at the same time, I managed to get to grips with it as the story went on and I could clearly see how scenes were going to be done so this was a great advantage for me. I did it in this way as whist researching a few articles had explained the many advantages of being a writer/ director as it becomes your sole piece and creation from start to finish.    

Once the script was finished I could then plan out how I was going to shoot this. I felt that storyboarding would be really important as this is not a straightforward concept. I want to make sure that I can see each scene clearly and have was much clarity as possible. Myself and Andreya can not draw very well but I still wanted the artwork to be at a professional standard. We hired a storyboard artist that had done a lot of previous art work and after seeing her portfolio we both agreed that she would be the perfect person to do them. Although Andreya was very heavily involved in this to get the tones right, I was still present with the artist to make sure she was getting the scenes right and how I envisioned the story. I am very happy with how they have ended up and they have really brought the film to life before its even been made. I then moved onto shotlists. From the script, I wanted to work out what sort of camera angles I would be using to make the film look professional and to help me on the day when it comes to making sure I have the right shots. I looked at examples as well as researching what goes into a shot list in order to have the best benefit for shooting. It explained you need the shot number, location if its exterior or interior, the shot type, camera angle, camera movement and the shot description. From these examples I have created a shot list to a high standard that I feel will be really useful.

When all of the paperwork side of things were done, I then moved onto the more visual side of things. I wanted to make sure that I thought in depth about how everything was going to look and to make sure everything was translated in the right way. I have mentioned locations a few times but not about their relevance to the story and why I felt they would work from a directors point of view. For the house, the character herself has inherited a lot of money and I wanted to show this by where she lives, I envisioned a very grand house or palace. This became a challenge from being a director and a producer as I had to make sure that everything fitted into the budget and finding something that was as grand as I was imagining would have cost thousands. I had to make sure it was still a really nice house but still conveyed expensive and luxury. After plenty of research I managed to find the type of houses that would suit the shoot and would come into   budget. They weren’t huge estates but they were very modern and beautiful that could be considered a highly priced house. I chose London to be the places where Sophie is seen designer shopping and walking in a over the top ball gown. I felt London was the perfect place to shoot these scenes. They are very recognisable with the audience as landmarks like the screens at piccadilly circus and tall buildings from the financial district will be very distinct. Certain areas of London can represent expense and upper class so I chose all of my areas very carefully to convey this message. 

The financial district is home to all of the bankers where trading takes place, Chelsea is a very expensive area renowned for hugely expensive property and designer shops and piccadilly has  the large screens with all the adverts as well as the beautiful large fountain in the middle of it. I felt all of these areas are exactly what the story needed and so this is why I chose to film at these areas. We also carried out a recce which I mentioned earlier to make sure It would look as good as I was imagining. As with the fire scene, this proved tricky as we were not able to do this at the property in the garden. I have decided that it is a key element to the story so I have decided to do this scene in a private field that we have permission from the owner for using. Since the shots are fairly tight in this scene, it will pull of well blending in with the character being on her own private gardens back at the house. With the character, I felt costume was another thing that was extremely important to me. She could not just be wearing a pair of jeans and a t shirt, I wanted to really reflect her wealth and elegance as well as show a fashionable and glamorous side to her. I looked over the script and the different scenes and came to incorporate 8 different looks. Showing different shots of her in a different array of beautiful outfits would show the fast collection of clothes she owns. Arguing with my producer self again, I had to make sure that the outfits I had planned would come in line with the budget. Once I had all my looks put together, I decided to research different costumes and prices and was able to discover great websites that enabled me to get the things I would like for a good price. I also went shopping and brought a jumpsuit which was one of the looks I was thinking about for half price in the sale and organised a fitting with Claudia to make sure the size was right and that it suited the look I was going for. Overall It was very successful with the outfit fitting really well and gave the exact look I was hoping for. I felt as if the character had come to life for a split second and that was the best reaction I could have hoped for. 

When It came to casting Claudia for the role this was not as straight forward as it may seem due to working on a previous project with her. From coming up with the idea to developing it into a full script, I always saw Claudia playing this role really well and she was the person I was picturing. Although this was the case, I still wanted to be certain that there wasn’t someone who may have a slight edge that I hadn’t come across. I still put out an advert on casting websites to ensure that we would be looking at other options. After all the applications had been in, there was still no one that I could see playing the role as well as Claudia would be able to. She was fantastic in our last shoot, gave 110% at everything I asked her to do and took direction really well. I think she is a brilliant actress who has the right look and so I felt this is why I decided to go for Claudia. After having several meeting with her about the project she was really excited about it and loved the character. She showed real interest in the whole thing and that was another selling point for me. For crew, myself and Andreya have our roles throughout the production. I will mainly be working as the director on the shoot and Andreya will be working as the camera operator ensuring that the right look is being achieved as she shoots. This allows her to continue her role as Director Of Photography but also shoot the film at the same time. Andreya has been camera operator on all the previous shoots and has done a fantastic job in ensuring the look is perfect so this is why I decided she should take on this position. We are going to need a hair and make up artist as we want the character to achieve the best look she possibly can and we feel its very necessary to take the professionalism one step further in hiring someone to help with this. We have chosen to hire Rebecca Taylor for the job. After putting an advert out on ‘Star Now’, a website that deals with hiring professional cast and crew for films, we had a series of applicants that seemed very interested. After narrowing it down and contacting various applicants, we both felt that Rebecca had a really strong portfolio of previous work she had done and achieved great qualifications in hair and make up that would benefit us for the shoot. We also need someone for sound, We had a look through some of the third years shoots from last year and a piece that had great sound was a documentary by Sammi Denard. I feel she would be great for getting the sound in a professional way. I contacted her and she replied immediately saying she would love to work on the project and would make herself available to commit. I wanted to film behind the scenes at this shoot as I feel its important to reflect and document the shoot itself and the process. For this I chose Rebecca Bennett as I feel she would be great at this. We have previously worked with her on a project last year and seen her overall work ethic that she produces. She graduated with a 1st class degree in television production and after looking at all of her previous work we feel see would be a great asset to the team. Overall I feel I have picked a great team and have all the crew I need for this shoot to flow and be a success. 

In terms of the output for this film, I had to do a lot of research to gain clarity of where the films platform is and where it would be shown. I needed to make sure it would go to the right place and would fit well with where it would be screened. I decided that the best output for the film would be the BFI London Film Festival. running from the 10 - 21st of october, the festival screens a wide selection from feature length cinema, documentaries and short films. When I looked further into the short film category, there is a section called Experimenta which focuses on films that explore the use of moving image in a non conventional way as apposed to a tradition film structure. In their rules and regulations for this category, it has to be a short film of 40minutes or less in any form that it may take genre wise and to be submitted by the 15th of June. This works perfectly for our short film as its a maximum of 20minutes and works well with the production schedule. Having viewed some of this years submissions to the festival I feel our film really has the potential to fit in well here due to the diversity of the films and its tone. 

Music and sound design are really important to the film. When researching experimental film I noticed the films rely on sound to create the atmosphere and the tones that the film is trying to set. In the short experimental film ‘INK’ by Jake Mcneil. He uses a variety of different visual effects throughout and in terms of sound, the use off sound effects and a haunting score really deliver the mood and atmosphere that elevates the piece. Also in Steven Klein’s short film for an Alexander McQueen Campaign starting Kate Moss, You see a have use of sound effects mixing with the score to compliment one another. I want to make sure the film we are doing gives off the right tones and emotions that are needed to be created. I have looked at royalty free sound effects on an audio library website that contained lots to work with for our film. This includes rumbling noises, build up effects, breath noises and various others that could all help to empower the film further. I also was really interesting in a track that I have discovered when listening to various artists. After contacting the record label we discussed using the track in the film and how much it would cost to use. I feel the track would really add to the atmosphere and deliver the right emotions we want the audience to feel. I have also looked at other audio tracks that I feel would be perfect for the piece that are royalty free but still sound professional as long as we credit the artist. Im going for dark and moody tracks as this I feel will be the best match to the film. After looking at the final script and story boards, the tracks I have listened to I feel will work really well with the piece when it is finished. 

Conclusion

Over all I am so proud of what I have manage to achieve in terms of pre production for the project. Although I feel we are now ready and at a good stage to go into production, it wasn’t as smooth as I first imagined it to be getting there. First of all, being a writer, producer and a directer came with a lot of struggles at various points. Being all three meant I had a lot of work on my shoulders and had to keep on top of it. On some days I felt I was pulling myself in 3 different directions just to keep up with the pace of it. I had to ensure that I was getting all the crew and cast together, sort locations and costume, contact record labels and sort schedules as well as writing the script and developing it, helping with the development of storyboards and producing shot lists, all matching with my directors vision and making sure it worked. This was difficult and was really hard on somedays but keeping organised, managing my time well, researching in depth and working hard really paid off in the end making sure everything was at a good level in all 3 areas. It also didn’t help having changed our idea so long into the process which meant we had to reset and start again but with perseverance, I feel I caught up and got all the work done with clear vision and passion to drive the project as far forward as I could. I am really happy with my progress and cannot wait to start the production side of the film.  

Pre Production Unit - Revised Script

Since I finished the script, I decided to get some feedback from Simon as I want it to be the best it can be. After he read it, I went in to have a meeting with him and discuss what I could do to improve it. He said the formatting was fine and no adjustments needed to be made there but he explained more could be done with the story. He explained that to him the story was a bit thin and it almost felt like a montage of images. He also said that the Voiceover of the poem was a bit redundant as all it did was explain what we were seeing on the screen. I completely agree with these comments and only realised this until Simon had said. He suggested that if you are going to have a voice over it needs to have meaning and do something that will add to the narrative. He talked about something called an unreliable narrator where an audience naturally believes what the voice over is saying even tho he or she could be lying. I took this advice and had another look at the script thinking how I could make it more interesting. I thought the visuals were great and I didn't want to change them too much but I did decide to cut the nightclub scene and the homeless scene as I didn't think they added much to the story.

I sat and thought, how can I make this story really exciting and twist it differently to what I already have. That's when I came up with a new idea for the ending that would change everything. I thought, what if Sophie is actually the cleaner of this big house and the owner is a woman who is away on holiday or business? What if this is Sophie's dream to try on all these outfits and pretend that she the owner for a week or more interestingly that shes killed the owner and is now taken her life quite literally living in her house and wearing her expensive things. I love this idea as I feel it gives the story more life and purpose. I then decided to change the voice over and narrate it from her point of view being a cleaner with no money. This really contrasts to the visuals and creates a question to the audience as what they are hearing is not what they are seeing at all. When someone rewatches the piece it will all fall into place and really make sense the second time around which I love. You can read the revised script below:

Although this will not match up with everything in the book as this has all been completed before revising the script it is still very true to most things that are in there. Im really pleased that I have made development on this and I will submit this copy along with the book itself so that you can see I have made improvements.