Pre-production Unit - DEPICT

LINK TO - Pre-production Unit - DEPICT 

LINK TO - Final Video

Our task was to brainstorm, visualize, plan, and create a 90 second video in a small group of three. We all had to work together in pre-production, collaborating to create all necessary documents such as budgeting, location scout and recce, minutes, police email, risk assessments, production schedule, script, shot list, storyboard/timeline, and talent releases. We also had to work together and have evenly split roles throughout production that could be interchanged to give everyone in the group a fair chance at working on everything, such as directing and camera operating. The task was also for the group to use and improve their post-production skills to help create a final product of a 90 second film.

Our final idea was to film a light-hearted comedic interpretation of body shape issues alongside bullying, exploring alternate perspectives through the imagination of a child who experiences the associated trauma while trying to acknowledge them through their created reality of playing with apples and pears. However, at first we had several ideas, we started planning by creating a mind map and plotting down our favorite genres of film, any daily issues we face, favorite films and our favorite foods. We then combined these, as the group agreed that we wanted to film something s slightly comedic while having an underlying serious and somber tone, we landed on the idea of filming with food; using fruits to portray a humans self-deprecating thoughts and feelings about the bullying they face because of their body shape and not fitting in.

 

During pre-production, we used several planning documents to help plan every side of the production. We worked together and individually split tasks to complete all documents that where needed before we started the actual production of filming.

Our first planning document that we worked on together as a group was the storyboard and timeline. We sat and chatted about what scenes we wanted to film and how we wanted them to look, what music and dialogue there would be and I wrote it all down. After all the writing was done, Ruben took the sheet away and did the drawings as a visual aid to our words.
Ruben, Joseph and I all worked together on the budgeting spreadsheet, creating a budget and agreeing on how much we would spend on each item as well as planning things such as cost of busses if they where needed, buying props and food for the production team and actors to eat when filming.
I personally worked on the location recce and got permission from the landowners to film there where permission was needed, as a group we did discuss what locations would be needed, what we wanted the location scenes to look like and where would best fit the brief.
As a group, we all worked together on the minutes to keep track of everything that was said and anything that was needed to do for what date, we took taking the minutes in turns to ensure the work was being evenly spread and not being left to one person. We also had to complete a police email to let the police know when and where we would be filming so that the public would not be alarmed if they saw us acting suspiciously with a camera – Joseph completed this document and emailed this to the police.
I primarily worked on the production schedule, however on certain parts we worked in our group to agree on what days we would film outside of college and what we would be filming on those days.
I also completed the process of making a risk assessment, ensuring that if any accidents did happen the group knew what to do. The rest of the group did not input during the creation of this document.
The planning documentation of the script was also created by me, although the task of creating this document was originally designated to Joseph, he did not complete it by the agreed upon time, so the task had to be redelegated.
We also had to complete a shot list before starting to film; Ruben created the shot list with little input from the rest of the group, as we had worked on the storyboard together, his job was to finalize and add in details.
The talent release was created by Joseph, with little input from the group, as all talked upon what kind of person we were looking for and what they looked like to fit the characters we needed, however Joseph completed and asked the actors to sign the forms.

As I either personally completed or help contribute on 7 out of the 10 documents, I can fairly say that I pulled my weight during pre-production and creation of planning documents.

I believe that our final product successfully reflects on the hard work as a group that we put into the planning stage.
Our final 90 second film shows all areas of being maliciously and thoroughly planned, from what time the actors needed to arrive to what we would be filming each day and if that filming was completed to a degree we all agreed upon. As our final film has little to no continuity errors, it shows our throughout planning in our shot list, production schedule and script. Our actors also successfully reflect on out successfulness of the final product; with the actors mirroring the attitude, voice, and style of their character.

We made several necessary changes from out planning. For example, when we had finished filming all our scenes, we realized there was a scene with a pear that didn’t make sense unless there was a voice over. Although it is not in the script, we felt it necessary to add to give the viewer a better understanding of what the pear was thinking. We also originally were going to film in a different location for the scenes in the child’s bedroom, however, we ultimately decided on elsewhere as it was closer to where we all where and fit what we where all imaging during the planning better. We also made a slight change to the production schedule, as some of our filming times during lesson where either cut short due to going to talks or fire alarms going off, this did not majorly affect our production though and we quickly worked around it as a group. A final change we made from out planning was our shot list, when filming we realized it would not last 90 seconds and had to add smaller 2 second scenes as well as deciding due to resources and lighting that a different shot type would work better with what we had.

There were many successful aspects of our project, such as working together. Our team all pulled together and got everything done, agreed upon everything, and worked smoothly together to help achieve an end result that we where all proud of. However, certain aspects where extremely successful, such as our postproduction skills, as a team we used our knowledge and learnt knew things such as how to animate and track characters for facial expressions on the fruit as well as adding special effects and transitions onto the videos. Ruben and I worked together to learn how to create the stereotypical hazy black and white dream effect that’s used in many films.

Another successful part of our project was our animation of the apples and pears. We successfully managed to get the animation tracking the voice actors’ mouth so that the mouth moves and syncs up with what the voice actor is saying. I believe this aspect of the film was highly successful as it took a lot of work to find a correct model and get it working so that it was visually pleasing as well as the fact that it was rewarding to get completed and looking neat.

Another thing I think I think was a successful aspect of the project was how we worked together; we all had a high standard to how we wanted everything completed so we all worked together to create our pre-production planning files as well as the filming them to a detailed and heavily planned schedule that created our final product.

 

A final thing I think we successfully achieved during production as a group was the range of different shots we used; despite 90% of the film being about an apple, we used a wide range of angle and shot types when filming. For example, a low shot is used at the end of the film when the bullies take away Bernie’s fruit, this is to make them seem more intimidating.

Another example is seeing camera pan out into a wide shot as the pears walk away leaving the apple bruised on the floor, this is to make the apple look as small as he feels.

If I where to undertake the task again, I would do very little different. I am very proud of our final product and how it looks, but if I where to do anything differently I would make sure that everyone does the tasks that they have been assigned to do, so that the tasks do not have to be redelegated. For example, the task of creating the script and taking photos of one of our locations for the location recce was originally given to Joseph, however it was not completed and had to be delegated to me.

(document from first lesson)

Another thing I would do differently would be to personally draw a model for the animations, instead of using pre-installed ones; I would so this as it adds more originality and flexibility to the project. Another change I’d make it filming all the scenes with the fruits in on the same day, to ensure they all look the same and did not brown over time – although this is not noticeable in the video at all it is something to think about if I where to refilm or make any changes if I was given this task again.

I enjoyed the entirety of this project; however, I particularly enjoyed the postproduction parts. Learning new software and how to use it was difficult however it was enjoyable as I knew it was helpful and could be used in the future. Using Premiere Pro was extremely enjoyable and my favorite part of the project as I had fun learning and playing with the settings and effects, trying to get the scenes to look how I had imagined them in my head. I also enjoyed the production, as I had done photography for GCSE, I have missed using a camera to capture feeling; and by filming during production, it reminded me of how much I loved it. I also enjoyed the production as it gave me a chance to direct the actors on where they would be, how they should say their line and how their expressions should reflect what they’re saying.

 

Budgeting

The budgeting sheet was used to help us as a group decide set limits on how much we would spend, how it would be split and how much we would spend on each item. The document was extremely useful when in production as we used it when buying things such as props and food to ensure that we did not go over budget or spend money on unnecessary things. However, we could have made it more useful if we complied all out budget sheets together as we created separate budgeting sheets for each person. Another way we could have made it more useful is by taking photos of our receipts and attaching them together - although we bought all our props and food on a debit card and can check how much we spent, it would have been helpful for future reference to attach the receipts to the budgeting sheet.

Location

The location sheet was used to give a solid plan of where we would film and at what time. By making this document it made us think about what we would be filming, what we'd need and what locations where suitable and fitted our ideas. We used this document during filming to make sure we were only filming at the agreed upon place and that we had been given permission by the owners of the land to film there. This document was extremely helpful when filming, as it gave us a time period of where we could film at what time which helped keep us to schedule. However, the Location recce and release could have been made more useful if we visited more locations and picked which location if our theme best after visiting them all.

Minutes

We used the Minute document throughout the production to help keep note of everything we did. This was extremely useful during production as it meant we could also write what we would buy, bring in, do next lesson, and keep notes of everything that was said to check back on at a later date if anything was forgotten, we checked and updated the minutes every lesson to ensure we were on track and to keep up to date on what we had done. To make the minutes more useful, we should have added if the tasks we had assigned at the end of each lesson where complete or not and what action needed to be taken.

Police Email

The Police Email was partly useful when producing the film, we used it to show the police that what we were doing was recording for a school project, so if any worried members of the public called in they would know not to worry. However, as we were only filming scenes with an apple and nothing suspicious, no known calls were made on us. That being said, the document was partly useful as it ensured our safety and that if any calls where made the police could reassure the public. To make it more useful, we could have followed up with the police and made sure everything was okay and no calls had been made on us when we had finished filming and taken any action of apologizing and reassuring if necessary.

Production Schedule

The production schedule was used to help create solid set dates on when we would film and what we would film. We used the production schedule during our production to help us stay on track with what we where filming and ensuring we filmed all the scenes for the given date.  The document was extremely useful as it meant that we knew exactly how much time we had each week and what we had to film in that time, it ensures that we stayed on track and that everything got filmed with no continuity errors. To make it more useful when making our production, we could have made an edited version where we wrote any changes so that in future so that on reflection we could have seen anything that we may have done better, such as filming certain scenes first.

Risk Assessment

The risk assessment was created to ensure that all possible risks had been considered and ways to minimize these risks had been implemented. The document was used all through pre, post and throughout production and it was extremely helpful and put actors and the team at ease as it ensured that we knew what to do in the risk of an accident occurring - thankfully, nobody was hurt, and the risk assessment was not used. We could have made the risk assessment more useful during production by making sure the whole team and cast had thoroughly read through and knew exactly what to do if anything occurred.

Script

The script was created to visually describe the video and any dialogue or stage directions that would be taking place, the script also served as a simple planning device for the video. We used the script in production to make sure that everyone knew what to say and do in their scenes, help give a written structure to how we wanted the film to turn out and how scenes would progress. The script was extremely useful during production as it gave good detail about the environment in which the character was working within, which made it easier for the cast members to portray their character accurately and gave production team an accurate idea of how the end product would look. To make the script more useful, props and lighting colours/arrangements could have been added so that was agreed upon, and production could go ahead smoothly without any changes needing to be made.

Shot List

The shot list was created and used during production as a visual aid; complimenting the storyboard as a more detailed as to how the scenes would be filmed, what angles would be used and shot types. It was also used during production as a sort of checklist to make sure that all scenes had been filmed as planned and that no scenes where left unfilmed. The document was somewhat helpful during making the production as it meant that the production team knew exactly what they where filming as it had all been agreed upon beforehand. It was also helpful as we all had a vision of how the scenes would look and it became easier to create them compared to how it would be if we did not have the shot list. On reflection, the shot list could have been made more useful in production if we had written down if we made any changes and why those changes where made. It could have also been made more useful if we had drawn out in more detail how the scenes would look with the shot list, although scenes were drawn for the storyboard, a more detailed version for the shot list would have been a great visual aid.

Storyboard and Timeline

The storyboard and timeline were created and used in production as a planning document and was developed to illustrate the story and show changes of scene. We used the storyboard during production when filming to make sure that all scenes were filmed as planned and nothing was forgotten as well as using the drawings as a draft to how we wanted the end product to look. The storyboard and timeline where extremely useful, as it gave us a basic idea of how we wanted the scenes to be filmed and how we wanted the end product to look. Creating the storyboard was extremely useful as it was a good starting basis to get our ideas of how scenes would look down with drawings as well as how long scenes would last, what music and lighting would be included as well as any dialogue. To make the storyboard more useful, we should have added more detail onto any lighting and music features we wanted to use as well as adding more drawings so we all where on the same page as to how we wanted the scene to look.

Talent Releases

The Talent Release document was used during production to recruit actors, making sure that they fit the criteria of the character due to their image/appearance, voice and profile wise and of the character that we were looking for. We created the document to also get any needed information from the actors, such as their name, age, contact and emergency contact and any dietary requirements that could affect their acting, by creating this document it meant that we would contact the actors anytime and got their permission to film them and keep any images/videos of them indefinitely. To make the document more useful we could have gotten information such as their emergency contact details and medical issues and what to do if anything arises. After all filming is done it would be safe to shred or blur any personal information to ensure that no information is unwillingly being released if there happens to be a data leak.