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.