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As an introduction to the Production Workshop module, the focus of the class was to further our understanding of short films. Before this, we were talked through the requirements of the module and the criteria of each assessment. Afterwards, we began our introduction to short films and analysed the meaning of them. In order to help our understanding, we viewed many different clips of different short films and discussed the message behind each one. In preparation for our next class, my allocated film group created a group chat and began brainstorming our ideas to create a storyline for our short film.

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During our second class of the first week, we were instructed to present our ideas to the class. Prior to this, my group suggested the idea of a murder mystery - to which I suggested a shocking plot twist at the end. As an avid psychological thriller enthusiast, I aimed to create a plot twist that would leave the audience feeling stunned and curious. I believe the best films are the ones that leave you asking questions, as it forms a lasting impact on you. While brainstorming in my free time, I came up with a brief idea of a murder investigation with four different suspects. However, it is later revealed in a shocking revelation that each suspect is a personality belonging to one person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D). My group approved of this storyline, therefore we each decided to develop it further with character development and details.

During class, each group member chose a specific topic to speak about in regards to our short film. I spoke about representing mental health disorders within a film and how to make it as appropriate and realistic as possible. To support this, I committed to research on how to represent such a serious topic respectfully - specifically D.I.D. After reading articles and social media posts on the movie 'Split', I understood that any misrepresentation of this condition can be harmful to society - specifically those who suffer from the disorder. To ensure that my short film is respectful, I educated myself on the common symptoms and common misconceptions on D.I.D, as well understanding which films represent the disorder accurately and inaccurately.

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Research on Dissociative Identity Disorder

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Research on Dissociative Identity Disorder

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Understanding DID:

DID is characterised by the presence of two or more distinct identity states, often referred to as “alters.” These alters may have different personalities, memories, and even physical characteristics (such as allergies or handedness). DID is typically caused by severe, repeated childhood trauma, leading to dissociation as a coping mechanism.

Common Symptoms:

• Memory gaps (amnesia between alters)

• Different speech patterns, behaviors, and skill sets

• Alters that serve specific roles (protector, child, persecutor, etc.)

• Periods of lost time or confusion

• PTSD-related symptoms like flashbacks, anxiety, and depression

Common Misconceptions in Media:

1. DID Is Not the Same as Schizophrenia – Schizophrenia involves hallucinations and delusions, while DID involves dissociation and identity fragmentation.

2. Alters Are Not Automatically Violent – Most people with DID are not dangerous and are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.

3. “Evil” Alters Are a Harmful Trope – While some alters may act out due to trauma, the idea of a sinister, homicidal alter is highly exaggerated in the media.

Examples of Good and Bad Portrayals:

• Good: Moon Knight (2022), United States of Tara (2009), Sybil (1976) (though somewhat dramatized).

•Bad: Split (2016) – While entertaining, it exaggerated violent stereotypes and was criticised by mental health professionals.

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Week 2.1 - Writing a Synopsis and Assigning Roles

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Week 2.1 - Writing a Synopsis and Assigning Roles

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Outside of class, I created a synopsis for my group's short film to present to the class. We received good feedback from the class, however we were made aware of a concern. It was brought to our attention that our storyline was quite long with multiple characters and it could become an issue, as the short film must be five minutes long. We took this into consideration and agreed that each character would have a short amount of dialogue. As well as this, we decided to think more in detail about our characters by writing a short description of each character.

After this, my group assigned roles for each other and I gave a small pitch as to why I would fit the role for director. However, another group member also voiced her interest in the same role. After seeking advice from our teacher, we were told that we could share the role but we were informed that it could possibly produce some difficulties.

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When wealthy socialite Doctor Victor Harding is found dead in his mansion, the police are presented with four vastly different suspects: Pearl, his self absorbed and alcohol-dependent mistress; Bruce, his gruff and short tempered chef; Boris, an unsettling clown who allegedly entertained at Victor's last party; and Clara, an obsessive-compulsive maid who talks so quickly you can barely keep up with her alibi.

During interrogation, each suspect reveals their conflicting stories along with Victor's dark secrets. Pearl admits she was extremely drunk and passed out, Bruce insists he was in the kitchen, Boris teases with riddles and jokes instead of answers and Clara rambles about cleaning up after everyone's mess. However, not one suspect can explain how they all ended up at the mansion at the time of the murder.

The plot takes a twist when a shocking revelation is discovered: Pearl, Bruce, Boris and Clara are several personalities of a single individual with dissociative identity disorder known as 'Patient X'. Dr Harding had been exploiting Patient X's condition for his own gain, with his unethical experiments causing the personalities to rebel.

In a chilling climax, Patient X cycles through an outburst of his different identities - each denying or confessing to the crime in their own way. This leaves the audience with the question of who the real victim truly was.

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Week 2.2 - Writing The Script and Group Disagreements

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Week 2.2 - Writing The Script and Group Disagreements

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In my own time, I started writing the script to our short film. I really enjoyed the start of this process, as I was able to explore the characters in depth and be as creative as I desired. My co-director and I agreed that we would both write one half of the script each, in order for it to be fair. However, this did become a slight issue when my co-director was not meeting the deadlines we agreed on. Due to the lack of communication, I informed the group that I would finish the script myself to prevent us from being behind. This caused another issue, as my co-director later drafted a short part of the script and insisted that it was included to the finished version of the script. I found this quite complicated to deal with, as the dialogue I was given was incomplete and not polished. While we both found it difficult to compromise, after seeking advice from my teacher I incorporated her dialogue into the script to prevent further conflict. This is when I started to notice that having two directors was going to be a challenge, as we are both two strong-minded people with different creative visions and work styles.

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After creating a mood board and writing the script, my co-director and I agreed that she would provide a statement of intent (which was shared with the class at the beginning of the lesson).

After this, the class started to discuss what types of sound we would include in our short films. Since our storyline is quite complex, we decided that we wanted sound to be more subtle and mysterious than loud and dramatic. This way, it would form a contrast that compliments each of the elements (sound, lighting, narrative etc). For my personal edit, I decided that slow yet menacing piano music would delicately play in the background to connote suspense. I also came up with the idea of using a horror-like shrill sound during the visual montage of different personalities, followed by an ear-ringing sound. This immediately sets the tone and introduces the viewer to the genre, leaving them eager on what is yet to come.

After completing various exercises on editing styles and techniques, we were instructed to make a short pitch of our specific skills while discussing what we aimed to achieve with our role. This was designates to us as work to complete in our own time, in preparation for next week.

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Week 4 - Developing My Role and Pre-Production Tasks

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Week 4 - Developing My Role and Pre-Production Tasks

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Following from last week, my group took it in turns to perform a short pitch on our skills and what we will bring to our role. As director, I spoke about my passion and understanding of the role and how I will go to great lengths to watch my creative visions come to life. I also discussed my previous experience as a musical theatre teacher, to which I had the pleasure of directing many performances for young children and teenagers. This experience allowed me to understand that communication is key as a director, as it's highly significant to communicate clearly and professionally with your crew and actors to receive the vision you desire. Since I am also working with another director within my group, I aim to develop my communication skills even further, as it's important for us to work together opposed to working as individuals.

Afterwards, we moved onto our pre-production tasks and discussed as a group how we will complete them. Since I had already created the mood boards and my co-director was in the process of completing a statement of intent, we both agreed to mark up one half of the script each. This way, we both get to incorporate our original ideas evenly.

As well as this, since two of my group members commute to university, we agreed that any necessary meetings can be virtual if applicable.

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Week 3.1 - Discussing Location, Costumes and Auditions

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Week 3.1 - Discussing Location, Costumes and Auditions

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This week, our class started with a discussion regarding location, costumes and actors for the short film - to which we later fed back to the class. As director, I created moodboards to provide some creative inspiration.

We collectively decided that the film would take place in one location only - an interrogation room. This decision was made due to the number of characters we intended to use, as using multiple locations could cause complications in terms of time and asking for permission to use them. I came up with the idea of using one of the rehearsal rooms on the seventh floor of the New Adelphi building, simply due to the black-out curtains preventing any outside light (which is exactly what we wanted).

In terms of costume, I created mood boards for each character in order to understand them better. For Pearl, I envisioned expensive-looking clothing: a fur coat, red lipstick and a dress. For Bruce: chef's clothing or a football shirt with messy hair. For Clara: black clothing with her hair tied back and minimal makeup. For Boris: Bright, colourful clothing with messy hair.

As for actors, our producer created a casting call for us to advertise on social media. If any interest was registered, we would ask the actor to record an audition tape while performing two or three lines. By completing this virtually, it made the audition and casting process a lot more simple and stress-free - allowing the actor to record multiple takes.

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Statement Of Intent - Written by Lucie Cooper (Co-Director)

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Statement Of Intent - Written by Lucie Cooper (Co-Director)

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Statement Of Intent

The short film that we are making is about a person with split personality disorder who had trials taken on him by a doctor, however, the patient finally had enough and took revenge. The purpose of this is to show what split personality is and how confusing it actually can be for the person struggling.

We want the audience to always be on the edge of their seats and we don't want them to expect what's going to happen next. We want the film to be very suspenseful so the audience will want to keep on watching, We want to end the film with the audience having lots of questions and them thinking whether to feel guilty for the doctor or the patient. Are intended Audience for a film is mainly teens 16+ or older, This is because it can be a very confusing and sensitive topic to talk about, So we want to give it to the right audience. We also want the audience to understand the topic being shown So they can focus on the film rather than asking what the topic is. The genre of our film is a psychological thriller, we chose this because we all agreed that this genre is the most interesting to us and believe that everyone would find it interesting as well.

We've got a lot of our inspiration for our film from the Netflix film 'Split. This is quite similar to ours But with different scenarios.

We believe that we could also take our ideas from the film split, But make it our own and we did a very good job of this. In the film, we covered the themes of split personality disorder, Which is an illness where people have more than one personality, And in their minds when they Change personality it's actually a different person completely. We want to show that if someone suffers from their illness, they generally can't help it.

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This week, we presented our work so far to our tutor and discussed our plans for the film. After this, my group spent the rest of the class organising meetings and a shoot schedule. Since my co-director has a part-time job outside of university, we suggested that I direct on her work-days, while she directs on days where she is more flexible with time. My tutor suggested the idea of taking it in turns to direct, which I believe is a fair and balanced way of making sure we both get the opportunity to be a director for the day.

We also started advertising our casting call for our short film and spreading the word to any aspiring actors. We did this through attending networking events, sharing posts on social media and approaching any actors we had in mind.

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While it would have been a great opportunity to film, unfortunately this week was not compatible with some of my group member's schedules.

Instead, we focussed on casting our actors and writing a marked-up script. To ensure everyone's voice was heard, I held a group meeting via teams to discuss everyone's ideas. I took notes of everyone's thoughts and reassured them that their ideas will be included.

Towards the end of the week, we only had one video audition to review. Because of this, my group and I began to contact any actors who we thought would fit the roles well. This was proven to be successful at the time, as every actor we asked agreed to participate. Therefore, we exchanged the filming schedule with our actors and provided a script for them to learn their lines in time.

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Week 8 - Giving directions to the actor and sound technician.

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This week, it was my co-director's turn to be the director. Therefore, I made sure the group knew I would be available if they needed an extra pair of hands and I stayed in touch with my co-director, ensuring that everything was running smoothly. In the meantime, I kept up to date with documenting each week's progress on Padlet.

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A photograph of the camera operator, sound technician and I working behind the scenes with the actor who plays 'Pearl'.

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This week, it was my turn to direct the short film. I had the opportunity to work with two actors on set, which was a really great experience.

Unfortunately, on the morning of filming both of our intended actors who were planned to play 'Pearl' and 'Bruce' informed us they could no longer take part due to illnesses and personal circumstances. This was a stressful change to our plan, however I knew it was important to remain calm and positive in order to not create a tense atmosphere for the group. Immediately, I began asking classmates who would be available and willing to take their place. Fortunately, a classmate of mine and a friend of a group member stepped up and offered to assist us.

Since our previous actor's had planned to bring in their own costumes, we had to work with the clothes our actor's were already wearing. However, I still provided the props required for the scenes.

While we were now short on time, I found that filming went smoothly and the actor's were responding to directions really well - considering they did not have a lot of time to learn their lines. I spoke each actor through their character's personalities and gave them examples of given circumstances where they would feel or act the same way as their character. I really enjoyed this process, as it brought me back to my days of directing as a musical theatre teacher.

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After watching our footage, we made the group decision to reshoot three scenes (one full scene and two short cuts for the montage section of the film), which included the characters Bruce, Boris and Patient X. We made this decision due to the fact that some of the footage was out of focus or the sound was faulty.

We planned to reshoot these scenes at 9AM on the 6th of March, with a strict time slot of two hours due to the rehearsal rooms being in high demand. However, this did not go according to plan when the sound technician and co-director arrived over an hour and a half late due to not waking up on time and missing the bus.

This felt frustrating for the rest of the group, as we could no longer film due to the time limit and felt we had wasted our actors' time. However, we asked our tutor for guidance and thankfully we were granted an extra week of filming.

As a director who likes to remain organised and punctual at all times, I found this situation to be quite a challenge for me. However, it was important that I remained professional and acted as I would be expected to act in the industry - optimistic and positive.

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This week, we finally managed to finish filming our scenes. While we could not reshoot the scene with Patient X due to the actor's busy schedule, we were able to reshoot Bruce's scene and a short cut of Boris for the montage scene.

My co-director and I directed the actor's together this time, which seemed to work really well. We did not have a strict time schedule in terms of our booking for the rehearsal room, which meant we could take as much time as we needed (until the actor's had to leave). The process ran very smoothly and I thoroughly enjoyed working with my team as well as the actors. We seemed to communicate a lot more fluently than previous weeks, which made the experience a lot less stressful than it had been before.

While working on Bruce's scene, I encouraged the actor to let loose as he seemed quite hesitant to show any anger. I suggested that he envisioned the detective as someone who has done him wrong previously in his life, which seemed to work really well. Watching his confidence grow throughout the process felt very rewarding and we managed to film a fantastic scene!

After this, we worked with our second actor on Boris' cut during the montage where he is laughing manically. I made the suggestion of watching a video of the Joker laughing, as he portrays the deranged and crazed character we envision with Boris. Gradually, our actor became more comfortable with laughing infant of the camera and he provided us with an excellent performance.

Overall, this was a very successful final day of filming.

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I dedicated this week and my previous weekend to editing all of the footage on Adobe Premier Pro. Personally, I do not feel very confident as an editor therefore doing a lot of research on using this editing software was vital. I watched some tutorials of basic walkthroughs of editing a film to refresh my memory, as I had not used Premier Pro in three/four months. If I had specific questions, I would read through public forums dedicated to using the software app and followed any advice from frequent editors.

Unfortunately, the sound during Bruce's scene was faulty and we did not have time to reshoot. Because of this, I made the decision to cut his scene from my film completely. Thankfully, this did not disrupt the storyline and it shortened my edit to the required duration of five minutes.

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Overall, this experience has definitely been a journey. While my group and I did face some obstacles and things may not have always gone according to plan, it taught me a lot.

I feel that I was tested on my levels of patience and professionalism, as I realised that you must always remain positive and collected in order to create a supportive environment for everyone on set. Despite encountering stressful moments, I managed to remain optimistic and encouraging to the rest of my group.

This assessment was a learning curve for my group - it gave us a glimpse of what to expect in the film industry and how to communicate with your team. A chaotic and stressful film set will lead to a poorly-made film, whereas a filmset with a positive and clear form of communication will ensure a smooth workflow.