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During this week, we have been assigned into our filming groups and have got to know each other. This is so we understand each others interests which will help when creating our project.

I am looking forward to be hopefully obtaining a new role, and creating a story that can be produced on screen, and interpreting each others ideas to make an exciting short film.

I think it will be challenging to pick up new techniques that I haven't done before, and still getting used to new equipment that I have previously been introduced too; such as cameras, lights and mic's.

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Discussing with our group. we assigned roles for each member.

Isabel - producer

Melissa - Camera

Evie - Lighting

Aoife - Sound

Toni-Lea - Director

Further on in the lesson:

We discussed multiple ideas for genres, themes and narratives for our short film. Genre's we were interested in were Comedy, Crime, horror/thriller and romance. Narrowing down to these Genres, we discussed quick ideas that sparked our minds; such as including the reverse gender roles, and stereotypical genders and what's expected.

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We spent time as a class looking through short films, and Defining the features of short films; such as pacing, 3-act structures, visuals and atmospheres. We also looked at how to develop short films and stories, such as brainstorming ideas, characters, structure and logistics, and presenting themes throughout the film.

Knowing what story type, themes and where the story falls commercially, helps develop and determine structure for your film.

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The short bible:

I learnt that its significant to focus on the simplicity of the narrative for a short film. Having clear and straight-forward concepts and ideas can help create more emotional impact for characters and more room for the story to develop in different ways.

Ensuring there is an established beginning, middle and end to ensure the audience can see the clear message and follow along with the storyline.

I learnt that a short film should have minimal characters to allow more depth for the protagonists journey to develop and unfold.

In addition to this, I learnt that visuals are extremely important because a short film features less dialogue, and more showing the scenario through visuals and picture.

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In my spare time, I developed some rough ideas for each genre we were interested in, to feedback with to the group, and some films that could inspire other ideas.

Comedy: Friends, The office, Friday night dinner.

Crime: Fool me once. Prisoners.

Romance: To all the boys i've loved before.

Voyage: Freaky Friday

Horror/Thriller: Fractured, Joker, Paranormal activity.

I used this to develop some ideas such as...

A detective body swapping into the killers body. (Crime/ thriller) Have a crime scene on set, and the audience can unravel the key events of the crime through the detective being in the criminals body.

Another idea was to make a thriller where the audience sympathise for the protagonist, only to realise they are the villain and slowly unpack features of the character that display villain traits. This would most likely fall under the category of psychological thrillers.

I then focussed a bit on the idea of body swapping, and during the class we had discussed the gender stereotypes of a man waking up in a woman body, and having to live through the hardships of being a woman, such as his wife. This idea seemed interesting as it could be developed in multiple ways and really help spread themes throughout the film too.

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We arranged to have a phone call meeting as a group to discuss our ideas and come to a final conclusion on what type of short film we wanted to create.

SYNOPSIS:

David, a stern businessman, wakes up one morning and finds himself in an alternate universe where stereotypical gender roles have been swapped. After a condescending goodbye, his wife leaves for work wearing a grey suit like the ones David would usually wear. She has left him alone with three feral children to get ready for school, a household to run, and a part time job. Throughout the day, he is constantly distracted by phone calls from his wife and his children’s school while experiencing funny stomach cramps. Once he finishes work, he sets about doing various household chores. He stops to make dinner before picking the children up from school but there is no food in the cupboards. He leaves to go to the shops. Later, he’s making dinner when his wife comes home from work. They realise that he has forgotten to pick the children up from school. She patronisingly offers to pick them up for him. Later, he is putting his children’s drawings away and accidentally gets glitter on his face. He goes to bed, exhausted. The next morning, his wife, wearing a robe, greets him with his morning coffee. Thinking he is back in the real world, he offers to get the children ready for school. David notices that he is still experiencing cramps. He goes to the bathroom and notices that he has a period. He looks up and notices that he still has glitter on his face from the previous day. He gets up and screams, realising that he is stuck in this new reality.

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In todays lesson, we focussed on character development and character descriptions; which would help us create our own characters for our short film.

Character descriptions need to be short and precise so that the audience and cast/crew can picture them perfectly. Questions to ask yourself to help develop a character are...

What are they wearing?

Where are they going?

How do they carry themselves?

What do they want?

What is their struggle?

What makes them interesting?

What's happening within scene?

Once a character is introduced to the screenplay, there is an approximate 50 word description or less to evaluate the character. It's better to show not tell.

With saying this, regarding to our synopsis, we decided to name our male lead, DAVID and our supporting lead, DEBRA. As to us, stereotypically, these names fitted the created characteristics of our people.

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DEBRA

Middle ages, approximately in her late 20's. Comfy, creative clothing and is a Primary School Substitute teacher. Blonde hair with glasses, and often wears healed boots. She is extremely friendly and bubbly. The mother of the house, does a lot of work to keep the family going. Isn't as job successful, but is successful as a mother.

(Link to image and creator - https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2Fblonde-female-teacher-with-a-book-and-eye-glasses-cartoon-illustration-education-clipart-teacher-s-female-teacher-education-png-transparent-image-and-clipart-in-2024--948148527797613293%2F&psig=AOvVaw23p5aKnOuHZWU5Uyxu7W8v&ust=1738063357635000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBcQjhxqFwoTCIjKp93klYsDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)

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DAVID

Middle-aged, approximately in his 30's. Grey business suit. He has slicked back tidy hair, with smart facial hair. David holds his posture up high, and is a strong-minded character. His desire is to be promoted to a higher status in his stocks. He cares for his family by succeeding in workplace.

These are some pictures that helped inspire the character analysis if DAVID.

(Image link and creator - https://pin.it/5AtlR3G45 )

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Shop Men’s Gray & Light Gray Suits _ Wedding, Formal & Affordable Options

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1. Budgeting. As producer I will have to ensure budgeting runs smoothly and create the financial budget for the film.

2. I will have to ensure all equipment is secured and all filming permits are equipped and set out in the locations needed for the film.

3. The producer is in charge of most paper work including risk assessment to ensure locations are safe and all cats and crew have health and safety precautions on set.

4. pre-production liability is important for the producer to ensure. This means they have too make sure we have a copy of the universities public liability form, then secure permits. Its also important that in public areas, potentially posters to announce filming should be around the area, to ensure any members of public who don't want to be filmed can avoid the area in those filming dates.

5. Consent forms are important for both actors and locations, to ensure that there is informed consent of the actors and areas being filmed on camera, otherwise filming may become unethical.

6. Important to ensure all cast and crew know filming dates, and possibly create a spreadsheet of dates and times and locations of filming for cast and crew to follow.

7. Breaking down the script. props, costume, location, ectetc.

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Throughout these lessons, as a group we discussed where we would shoot our project, who would be the perfect cast and how we'd source our costumes.

1. We decided to use the student accommodation flat, as we felt it reflected a studio apartment well , which would suit the character of David. As well as this, it was easily accessible to us, meaning we could spend more time focussing on costumes and other significant parts of pre-production.

2. For our actors, we had in mind people from the university who would fit perfectly for the roles of DEBRA and DAVID, and therefore sent them a brief of the production and characters asking if they wanted to be apart of their project, and we thankfully got lucky. Due to our character anaylsis's, it was much easier to help imagine and visualise our actors who would be perfect for the roles.

3. Costume. Regarding costumes, we knew DAVID would be wearing everyday clothes, therefore the actor was able to source them, as any relaxed clothing would be suitable for the scenes. However we needed to source the apron, which thankfully Eve knew someone who owned an apron, and had offered for us to use to after hearing about our project. As for DEBRA's costume, we showed a picture to the actor of how we envisioned DEBRA in this scene, and usefully, the actor knew

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Myself and the group arranged to meet up and discuss parts of the script that I had wrote. We read through the script and highlighted parts together which we thought were either unrealistic, difficult to achieve or could be generally better.

For example, we had planned on using Toni-lea and Eve's voice to voiceover the kids voices, and I had made one of the children male, so it would create a slight inconvenience, therefore we changed that over.

After going through the script, most of it was perfect, we just needed to figure out how to scrip the ending, which we then discussed together.

We knew we wanted David to wake up presuming everything was normal, but then soon realise he's trapped in this alternate universe. Whether that was to be shown through the lighting difference, or through certain features we weren't sure.

After lots of discussion, we came to the idea it'd be shown through him still having glitter on his face from the night before, and receiving a text message from Debra.

After discussing together, Melissa decided she would continue working on the script from me and finished writing the ending with all our contributions towards it.

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During this week, as a group we discussed what was necessary for us to complete during this phase of our short film.

Myself and the director arranged a phone call where we would breakdown and discuss what locations were needed and what props, set and costumes were needed.

After consensually checking with Eve, we had located our main set which would be her flat, bedroom and corridor. The potential filming date was originally, Friday the 14th, however this changed due to myself figuring out that it wasn't an ideal date for everyone. After checking through with all cast and crew we came to the decision, to shoot our film on 24th and 26th of February.

Regarding the props for the piece. Here is a list of props I came up with, that would make the set seem more homely for a family apartment.

Plant pots, pillows, blankets for the sofa, candles, shoes by the door, potentially a rug, drawings, crayons, fridge magnets and lots of toys and teddies.

These were a list of props that were needed for each scene within the film.

Toaster, Bread, Toast, Postick notes, Pen, Shopping lists, Computer, Painkillers, Pictures and picture frames, clothes, glitter, shopping bags, Box of pads, Iron and ironing board, wine, plates and dishes, toilet roll, phone, handbag, keys and glass of water.

While marking up the script, we had planned to have a scene in the car, and considering I was the producer, we looked into getting a permit for the Lowry flat carparks at peel park, however due to the scene having no dialogue, and just small movement, we decided the golden rule (rule of thirds) would have worked in our favour.

After working this out, I had a look into our budgeting for the film, we didn't want to high of a budget and wanted to keep it as low as possible. Most of the props we had listed we could easily source ourself, form homes and rooms, and the flat set already came with quite alot of props which was extremely useful. Therefore we only needed to source a few small props such as crayons, bread.

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During the start of week 3, I began to make a first draft of our script for the group. I began by evaluating my character anaylsis's and synopsis of the story, then imagined how the scenes would go in my head.

To help me create ideas, I found it useful to brainstorm ideas and envision what surrounds the protagonist in the scenes, to therefore create meaningful and relevant dialogue and actions during the scenes. In addition to this, ways in which the scene and storyline can progress.

Once i'd written about 60% of the script, me and the group arranged to meet up together, to review the script and add any appropriate changes to it.

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Working out scheduling, based off the script worked out well. I figured that if we kept on schedule to the shot-list, we could get both days done in up to 6 hours with multiple breaks.

The only part which could potentially make us struggle for timings is moving from the flat location of set, to the carpark, as moving equipment could cause some difficulties. Keeping all potential faults in mind, the timings Monday from 11am to 4pm and then on the Wednesday from 3pm to around 7pm.

I found it quite difficult to create a scheduling list, as I hadn't received an in detail shot list, so I used what I had to make a draft of a shooting schedule, however there were quite a few missing shots, or shots that hadn't been thought of which would create unnecessary jump-shots, therefore I based the timings off what I could.

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I completed a draft of my risk assessments, labelling everything that was a potential risk and the hazard that the risk could cause. I then evaluated how we could prevent risks from our set, to ensure all cast and crew are safe.

Before sending off my location risk assessments to be signed, I spoke to the owner of the flat in our group (Eve) and then spoke with the rest of the group to see if there were any more risks I could have missed, just to ensure it was proof-checked.

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Complete Location Filming Risk Assessment Form - Version 2 - Carpark. 

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Complete - Location Filming Risk Assessment Form - Eve's flat -  Version 1 - Isabel Cox 

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I ensured all my group had booked out the necessary equipment for them to be able to rehearse, and had scheduled time in their week to rehearse with the equipment.

Whilst my group rehearsed, I met up with the director and we went over the shots whilst marking up the script, to clarify that it was all possible, with the floor plans of the flat, and the locations we had.

For the location of the carpark, we had to find a car, which would ensure our film stayed low budget, therefore we asked around and Melissa (Camera worker) had a friend who offered to allow us to use the car. Which was perfect for our scene.

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We reviewed all of our practise together, and discussed as a group and made certain both actors could definitely attend and ensured that we still had access to both locations by contacting Melissa's friend and speaking to Eve in lesson.

We shared our practical research with our tutor as well.

I then, checked the checklist and ensured everybody had their equipment booked for the times and date we needed.

I asked the crew to arrive to set half an hour before the cast, to ensure we could set up thoroughly.

The timings we had stated were, Monday 24th - 10:30am-4:00pm and then Wednesday 26th 2pm-7pm.

Christopher LLoyd would be filming as DAVID for both days and Gemma Millard would be filming as DEBRA for the Monday.

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We arrived on set for setting up equipment, however on the day certain people did arrive late, which made it difficult to stay on top of schedule; regardless of the fact we had arranged SET times. I had also checked in with everyone to ensure they could make it on time too.

After helping set up the equipment, I reviewed the setlist, however it was quite difficult, as the setlist wasn't as detailed as it should've been, therefore there were missing shots which made it hard to plan out what would be best starting with, and especially harder to keep on schedule.

On the first day of filming, I spent a lot of the time, helping set up with equipment, however I spent quite a bit of time helping direct the missing shots and create them, which made is difficult for me to multi-task with keeping track of time, so it did become slightly stressful; however it was still enjoyable.

We had a total of 3 breaks during filming, two short breaks and one longer break for us to get some food.

We also added signs on the doors, to show we were filming for the rest of her flatmates to be aware.

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I layed out most of the props for what i’d envisioned the set to look like, to make sure the set stayed the same throughout filming on both says, i took pictures of every prop and piece of furniture or clothing on set, in case anything moved or was moved. This helped us ensure that each scene stayed consistently the same.

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As producer of timekeeping, I made sure we had a efficiant break, to fuel ourselves for the next load of filming :)

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After making sure the actor wasn’t allergic to the glitter through the risk assessment, we applied the glitter onto Chris’s face with a towel underneath so it didn’t damage the set.

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During day 2, the timings for this day were, 2pm till 7pm. People arrived slightly late to set again, but not as late. Today we planned on filming the car scene first, as that appeared as the most time-consuming, as we had to move locations. However a slight difficulty came up, the owner of the car appeared to be ill the day of filming and was unable to lend us the keys for the car without her being there.

This caused some difficulty and was a problem, myself and the director had to quickly resolve. We had multiple ideas, as the car was only to show DAVID dropping the children off the school. The location of the flat, had an astro-turf pitch by the side of it, which had green gates that could resemble a school gate. However, the weather wasn't very dependant on the day for that idea, as the heavy rain was on and off.

To resolve this, we came to the conclusion that we would see DAVID, leave the flat to go drop his children off, and make it obvious that, thats the case for the audience; therefore it didn't have to be shown on screen as it could be easily interpreted.

I personally felt that on this day of shooting, I did quite a bit of directing as the past shot-list was quite out of order due to the missing shots, so myself and the director had to amend it on set. I felt like today was much more of an organised shoot for us, and things flowed nicer; however, sometimes there would be times where crew members would but sat around, and to keep on top of schedule, we needed to make the most of the time we had together, so I would occasionally have to remind them, that we need to move the equipment for the next shot and speed up setting up slightly.

We slightly fell off schedule, as many of the kitchen scenes, took a while to get right, and ensure we hadn't missed any shots; therefore our production ran over by approximately 40 minutes.

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After we had wrapped our shoot, I was prepared to take peoples SD cards and arrange/sort the clips, however due to Eve already having most the equipment at her flat, she kindly offered to arrange and sort the clips for me, which was very helpful of her. Therefore both SOUND and CAMERA left their SD cards with Eve as she sorted the footage out.

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In addition to our shooting schedule, after every shot we had made and taken on set, i wrote down and wrote which take it was we wanted to finalise, this way, we would be able to organise our clips knowing which takes were final takes to be used for editing. As well as this, it helped me keep track of timings and which scenes and shots we still had to film with the remaining time we had left.

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One thing I enjoyed whilst filming our project, is seeing all of our ideas and the script i'd contributed to, come to life. It felt like a good achievement and made the filming enjoyable.

One thing that I think could've been better was the organisation of timing, and shots. I wish, that we had a more in detail shotlist, as then the timings would have been more realistic and it would've made it easier for the rest of the crew to see the director and camera persons ideas on paper.

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As a group in class, we reviewed every single shot, and sound for each shot, to see if there were any issues that needed reshooting.

We found that some shots were either a little too shaky, therefore we would need to revert back to using a tripod instead of handheld; in addition to this, some of the shots went out of focus at times, so these needed to be listed in the reshoots.

Another problem with one of our shots was, on part of the set, there was a mark, and although it seemed small, it didn't really fit the set, therefore we listed that for a reshoot too.

Then finally, there was one part where the lighting was great, however there was a reflection on what we think was the paint on the wall. It didn't necessarily hinder the shot, however we thought to add it to the reshoots, in case of the possibility that we'd managed to remove the shine.

For the reshoots, as producer I began making sure there were no added risks to mention during the risk assessment. The I made a list of days where everybody was available for reshoots. Sadly, we couldn't find a date where everyone was free together or a time that would be enough, and our sound manager wasn't free. However, due to most the reshoots not having much dialogue, this wasn't too much of a problem, as I was able to take role in doing sound for the reshoots, as there wasn't too many shots to keep track in timekeeping either.

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With majority of cast and crew attending, i briefly reminded myself of the basics of using sound, and we cracked on getting our reshoots done. Focussing on the mistakes we had made and correcting them, to ensure we were all satisfied with the shots being taken.

The reshoots took us a total of 2 and a half hours. In my opinion I believe we could've had it done quicker, however the sound batteries ran out halfway through, so we had to source some new batteries in the meantime. We used this time efficiently, and decided to take our break whilst waiting for the new batteries.

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After importing all my footage from Eve's computer, I began to put my clips together and sync the audio, whilst editing shots to create a rough cut. This took some time, as for me I find editing slightly difficult, however I also watched some youtube tutorials, to help me understand some of the software.

After assembling my rough cut, and editing it, I then began to work on some of the audio, from shot to shot, to make sure the sound flows smoothly. To do this, I was taught to use a J cut, as it helps make the sound flow better.

Once assembling and fixing the audio, I then began colour grading some of the shots; as the first few shots seemed slightly too orange, and warm comparing to the other shots; we had a warm envision in mind, however the contrast was far too strong once seeing the shots alongside each other. Therefore I adjusted the warmth and saturation in the shots.

After colour grading, I began adding title, sound effects and finishing last touches such as music and credit scenes to complete my edit.

The editing process for me, took some time, due to learning new techniques that can help make my edit more advance.