Evaluation Of My Work- Pre-Production
Firstly, we were assigned to create a short film and show evidence for the production of the product, this required having scripts, equipment, locations and other essential components to plan and complete our task to the best of our ability.
Script & Personnel: I started the assignment by thinking about what the film was going to be about, what genre it will feature and what characters will be present. I thought about what the film will be about over a weekend and came back into college with the idea of a troubled college student who has problems with repeating the same dream every night of an attack, eventually, the attacker becomes a part of his reality. The teen then retaliates. The original idea was very similar to the end product. It was to feature a chase scene that took up the whole film, with the same masked figure and the same concept as the dream sequence. However, i believed that this idea could be fleshed out somehow and was too boring, I needed script, I needed development of the main character, for the audience to root for him. Besides i wanted to get caught in the scene, to give the audience a scare. I wanted to call the film Somnolence after looking through a thesaurus of words associated with tiredness, i believed the name sounded so original and looked like it would stand out and people would remember it. So i wrote the script, i didn't really think about what would feature in the film so it all came to me as i went through it, i decided the film would start with a therapist scene, where the main character would tell the audience through dialogue with the Dr without physically breaking the 4th barrier and telling them through a narration. I believed this idea was very well thought out and would work out if the characters were right and the props were appropriate, if all went well I would be extremely happy. I then wanted to flesh out the character of Elliot who i played to make the audience more emotionally attached to him when it comes to the final sequence, also, i named the main character Elliot due to my name and the characters name both beginning with a 'E', so it would roll off the tongue of the actors taking part, I thought this idea was a clever to make filming a lot easier and seem a lot natural for those taking part to act. With my ideas of the chase scenes from before i thought of the story of the final piece, I wanted a heavy impact in the film, i wanted some excitement for the viewers, jump scares, running, intense music, i wanted the word thriller ironed onto the film. So with that, i needed something threatening to the character and to the viewer, i decided on a hooded stranger with a white mask, that would remain silent and mysterious, raising the bar on intensity. By the end of this, i was finished with the characters and with writing the script. My initial reaction was one of pure excitement, I wrote a solid script, had some solid scenes that would give my film the upper hand, the only thing i had left was to cast the characters. I had me in plan to be the main character as this would be easier would be for me to film and to act how Iwanted the main character to act. I casted my 3 close college friends to help act and to film the movies due to how convenient it was for me to get into contact and to organize dates to film the movie, the main concern for casting was to cast the Therapist, I originally had planned to cast the therapist as one of my friends, due to his southern accent and well spoken voice, i believed he sounded the most professional. However a problem occurred when he left the course and i had to replace his role somehow, I again looked for the most professional looking student, i ended up casting another student who then agreed to play the part, i wanted to pick him because he looked the oldest in the class so he would pass easiest to play the part, also he had experience acting so i had to ask. After this, i gave them all scripts and consent forms to fill out with their signatures, basically stating that they were more than happy to take part in filming my product I was extremely pleased with what i had accomplished and was eager to begin the filming progress, due to my cast and to my script i had put together. With that i was finished with this part of pre- production, however i still had a lot to do. 
Equipment & Budget: With the script complete, i needed to gather essentials to film the short movie. However, somethings may come at a cost and if the film has a budget, it is important to be wise with how you spend it, expecially if you are planning on gaining from the production. I wanted to spend as little money as possible so i had to take every helping hand i could get when i came to gathering equipment. The college were supplying students with cameras and tripods but asked that students took their own SD cards to film and gather videos for the final piece. This put me back around £17.99, however i already had one to save my work on, I only had to buy a mask for the bad guy to wear and a book for the therapist to write in, i already had a book but i visited an arts and crafts shop and bought the mask for the main character to wear for less than £3, the mask looked very creepy for it being a paint mask but i believed it was perfect for the movie. With that i had everything together, ready to film the movie. There wasn't any problems that gone in the way of gathering together all the equipment, so it was pretty smooth
Locations: Next to my house is a woods, it took less than 5 minutes to get there from my house and was very secluded, i thought it would be best to film the dream sequences there due to how convenient and how good the lighting will look on the film. I then chose to film the house scenes in my own home just so i could film there any time i wanted and didn't disturb anybody, all bedroom scenes were to be filmed by me due how easy it was to film. I wanted to film the corridor scene, bag scene, and other walking scenes in college as it was easy enough for everybody to get to as we were going 3 days a week and this was a perfect time to get everybody together and help me out. As I confirmed the locations, i needed to fill out forms of consent from the college, my house and from a public area of the woods which didn't need a signature as it was free for the public to film in. I asked my college lecturer to sign the college consent form as he was the easiest of staff to get a hold of and he knew my plans for filming. I then signed my own consent form for filming in my house as it belonged to my and i had rights over it. This task was pretty straight forward as it only required me printing two sheets out and getting one signed out, this was probably the most easy of tasks i had to complete
Storyboard: As almost everything was in place, i needed to put together how i wanted the idea to play out in my head onto paper, i wrote on the computer document how i wanted each scene to feature and what shots would be taken in each scene and after i had printed it out i then drawn a picture of each scene and how it'll plan out, i done this to show other people who will be taking part how i want each scene to be filmed like by showing them an example, this worked as the people behind the camera moved the tripod around in different angles like i said and it paid off in the final hurdle which i was extremely pleased about.
Health & Safety: The last important thing to add, is to include the health and safety precautions that is necessary in filming. We were going to be featuring scenes from the dream sequence where we will be running and it will be important to note the possibility of trips and falls that could happen. It was only going to be me that these rules really apply to as i was the one running and the masked figure was to be walking. However, it is important to prepare for such possibilities, if we did get hurt it would've been useful to know what to do if that did end up happening and i was much happier to have that in mind.
Whilst i was doing the pre production, i had to note that i didn't have long to complete the task, the assignment was set to be sent in on the 18th of February, and i managed to hand in the task the day it was due to be sent. I also kept my mind fresh of work with a piece of paper that said all of the things that i needed to complete the task and i ticked them off as i completed them to make the assignment so much easier.
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Link to the pre Production Work
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