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On this document, see attached:

Signed Actor Agreements

Script Breakdown and a page of annotated script

Risk Assessments

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During this session, I was confident with the overview of this module, and I'm very excited to get stuck into the assessment tasks!

As a crew, I strongly believe that Gemma, Charlie, Alex and I will work exceptionally well together. We were able to easily distribute job roles based on our expertise and preferences from the previous Production Skills module, See this below:

Kaitlyn- Producer

Charlie- Director

Alex- Camera/Lighting

Gemma- Sound

I'm excited to have the opportunity to write and produce a short film that is completely of our own devising, allowing us to explore different genres and creatively develop an idea that we are passionate about.

As producer, I cannot wait to learn a new job role, I feel that I will be a confident producer due to my strong creative and organisational skills. I'm passionate that I can take confident responsibility for the organisational/logistical aspects of the shoot, including taking on responsibilities such as scheduling, budgeting and resourcing. As well as this, I know that I will approach this production with effective communication and professionalism.

Something I will have to develop during this process is becoming more confident in my knowledge and understanding of screen grammar and storytelling concepts, ensuring that I am thinking critically and creatively through pre-production, production and post-production.

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Analysing Short Film Form- 'The Short Bible' - Marilyn Beker (2017)

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We began to explore the key elements of short films (see above) looking at what Marilyn Beker describes as 'the golden rules' in her book 'The Short Bible' (2017)

This book will help us to understand how we can write and produce a high-quality film, and I plan to use it as guidance throughout all stages of production.

Key Analytic Approaches

The issue the film deals with (Shorts often focus on a concept rathe rather than a story)

How the film 'positions' the audience (Who to show sympathy for)

Narrative Structure

The films Message

A Key Tip: Always try to find a 'proverbial phrase' that can sum up the Short Film.

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Story Development

Taking an idea and turning it into a fully formed screenplay/pitch.

Consider

Characters

Structure

Logistics

Story Type

Underlying Themes

Genre

Story Types- 7 Basic Plots

1. Overcoming the Monster

2. Rags to Riches

3. The Quest

4. Voyage and Return

5. Comedy

6. Tragedy

7. Rebirth

Conflict

Human vs Self

Human vs Human

Human vs Nature

Human vs Environment

Human vs Technology

Human vs Supernatural

Human vs God

3-Act Structure (see image above)

Act 1- Beginning

Act 2- Middle

Act 3- End

Beats

A beat is a moment that propels the story forward and compels the viewer to take stock of what could happen next

4 Types of Beats:

1. Events

2. Realisations

3. Resolutions

4. Interactions

A Beat Sheet is a precursor to a screenplay, it identifies key emotional moments, this could include:

Opening image

Introduction

Catalyst

Low point

Climax

Finale

After this session, I have learned so much more about the 'formula' to developing an effective story. I was interested to learn about the 7 Basic plots and have since found myself trying to identify these plots in films I watch during my own time. This session also gave me a better understanding of the structure of a film. I learned the concept of 'Beats' and my goal for the coming week is to establish with my group the beats in our film.

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A treatment package is a document that presents the story idea before a screenplay. It is used to pitch ideas to studios and highlights the most important information.

A Treatment Package includes:

Film Title

Logline

Synopsis

Character Descriptions

Statement of Intent

Over the next few weeks, we will be creating our own treatment package for our short film. I am interested in seeing this come together as we start to establish and contextualise our creative vision.

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A Logline can be created using different formula, ours (see above) was created using the following:

Protagonist-->Action-->

Antagonist-->Goal-->Stake

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The Role of the Producer

Producer- Responsible for the organisation of the project.

This could include:

Organising workflow

Resourcing

Budgeting

Scheduling

I have noted all of the key responsibilities that I will have during the process of production, I realised that the majority of my responsibilities are during the pre-production phase:

Resourcing/securing equipment

Scouting/securing location

Filming Permits

Risk Assessment (Including obtaining Public Liability form)

Budgeting

Release/Consent Forms for Actors and Locations

Shooting Schedule- Per day of Filming

Script Breakdown (Colour coded for each element (cast, props, sfx etc.)

After this session, I am fully confident that 'Producer' is the best role for me in this film. I was encouraged by how my organisational and time keeping skills will help me succeed, along with my ability to multitask and work effectively with the crew. As well as this, I still feel like I can contribute to the creative vision of the film thanks to the collaborative nature of our crew.

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Fade In Software- For Screenwriting

In this session, we learned how to use Fade In to write the scripts for our short films.

Short Film Scripts:

Have a simple premise- Be clear and concise!

Are economical with characters and backstory- Only necessary information

Keep locations to a minimum

Every scene should count- 1 page= 1 minute

Show don't tell

Keep dialogue to a minimum

I would argue that script writing is something that I lack experience in, I'm looking forward to being involved in the scriptwriting process and learning this new skill.

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Visual Style

Creating aesthetic strategy (look/feel) of the film and providing visual information. REMEMBER- FILM IS A VISUAL MEDIUM.

Static Composition- Majority of lines are vertical/horizontal (soothing)

Dynamic Composition- Lines are diagonal (off putting)

Lead Room/Space- The space in front/in direction of moving or stationary subjects

Rule of Thirds- The intersections of lines are "points of interest"

We spent time as a group working out the next steps in the pre-production phase of development for our short film 'The Thrill of Love'.

Complete our Treatment Package

Finalize Script

Create Storyboard

Create a Mood Board

The advice that we received was to focus first on completing the script. The reason for this was as Lara explained, everything else stems from the script, including items such as the storyboard and shot list. Because of this, we will be meeting as a crew to finish the script before the next session. I feel as though we will be able to achieve this target, especially as our film has very little dialogue.

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Cindy is hopelessly in love. Michael… not so much.

On the benches outside her University Student’s Union, Cindy eagerly texts Michael, pouring her heart out, while he responds with indifference—polite but distant.

When texts aren’t enough, she takes matters into her own hands, standing outside his flat, peering through the window, imagining a love story he never agreed to. Inside, Michael goes about his life, unaware that Cindy is closer than he thinks.

A split screen reveals their vastly different realities—Cindy, filled with romantic hope, and Michael, increasingly unsettled. Then, an opportunity presents itself: Cindy sneaks into his building, slipping through the door behind another tenant.

Michael remains oblivious as Cindy watches him from the shadows. And then, all of a sudden, they lock eyes.

In a flash, Cindy’s mind spirals into a dreamlike montage: a cheesy romcom fantasy of their perfect life together, set to Happy Together (The Turtles). But when reality snaps back, Michael is trapped, cornered by her delusion.

The film ends on his terrified face—because love, when one-sided, can be the scariest thing of all.

The film explores the thin line between love and obsession and questions the consequences of unchecked emotions and the complexity of human connection.

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Completed Script and Treatment Package

This afternoon, we met as a group to finalise our script and treatment package, which contains the title, log line, character descriptions, and statement of intent for our film.

Here we showed excellent collaboration and organisational skills. I personally enjoyed this process as we shared our ideas for the film and put that into words.

The next steps for us will be to create our storyboard and shot list. Once that is complete, I can start a lot of the logistical work such as gaining permission for locations, creating the shooting schedule, script breakdown and most importantly, writing the risk assessment.

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Sound Design

In this session, we talked about the practicalities of sound design. Mainly looking at problems to consider when shooting, such as conditions like the weather and external or internal noise.

My biggest takeaway from this session was insuring that we recorded room tone/ambient track for every single location/scene. This will be very important for continuity when we come to edit. As producer, I am making it my responsibility to ensure this is captured, I will do this by committing time in the shooting schedule for room tone recording and noting it on the plan for each shoot.

Key tasks before next session

At the end of this session, we met as a crew to receive feedback on our script and plan for the next session.

The feedback was positive with just a few notes on the formatting of the script!

Our goal is to now cast the film and get started on all relevant paperwork such as risk assessments and shot lists etc.

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Pre-Production

Pre production is so important as it helps us prepare everything for filming. The more work we do now, the easier shooting will be.

In this session, we shared out the pre-production tasks, ensuring we were all on the same page when organising the shoot.

My tasks are as follows:

Script Breakdown

Find/Secure Locations

Risk Assessment(s)

Shooting Schedule

After we organised who was responsible for what in the pre-production stage, we met with our tutor who gave us some advice to consider before we shoot. Firstly, she complemented us on our work as a group, saying that we are all on the same page and work incredibly well together.

We have arranged a meeting for Friday, instead of our timetabled class session, our goals for this session are to decide on firm shoot dates, cast the film and review all of the footage that Alex and Gemma had shot during their test shoots. After this session, I will be fully prepared to start all of my tasks

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Pre Production Meeting

Today we met as planned in our session on Monday, here we were able to secure our shoot dates, locations and casting.

Shoot Dates:

Tuesday 25th Feb- 19:00-23:00

Friday 28th Feb- 9:00-21:00

Locations:

University House Exterior

Peel Park

Alex's Flat (Peel Park Quarter)

As well as this, I started the script breakdown and Alex began creating the shot list. As soon as these two documents are done, I will be able to schedule the shoot. Doing this will help us be a lot more organised during the shoot.

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Preparing to Shoot

This session was quite independently led, in the sense that we used the time to complete whatever we needed to prepare for the shoot. For me, I was able to complete the script breakdown (see attached).

The script breakdown correlates with my script, which is colour coded to match.

Now that this is done, I will be printing it to have during the shoot as a collation of every technical element needed for each scene. I will also be using it to aid in the creation of the shooting schedule.

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Script Breakdown Sheet- The Thrill of Love  

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Preparing to Shoot

I took the time out of class to prepare my independent documents for filming. This included:

Location Release forms

Actor Consent forms

Risk Assessments

Script breakdown

My goal is to have all of these documents completed over assessment prep week (week 6), in order to be ready to shoot week 7. I feel confident that I will have these ready for filming.

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Preparing to Shoot

This week, I completed all of the necessary paperwork for shooting. As well as this, I made a shooting schedule that took into account location and weather restrictions to best facilitate our allocated shooting time.

Tuesday 25/02/25- 19:00-23:00

All INT Shots

Location- Alex's Flat

Micheal's Bedroom/Evening Routine

Micheal's Kitchen

Cindy in Micheal's Flat

Cindy attacking Micheal

Friday 28/02/25- 9:00-21:00

All EXT Shots

Locations- Outside SU, Peel Park, Alex's Flat

Establishing Shot (SU)

Montage (Peel Park)

Footage Review

Cindy Breaking in

Window EXT and INT Shots

Any reshoots as needed

I am hopeful that we will be able to stick to this schedule as closely as possible, but, we have allocated more filming time than needed to accommodate last minuet changes.

Before filming next week, it is my responsibility to ensure that all risk assessments have been approved, all paperwork is signed and the shoots are organised.

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Shooting Day 1

On Tuesday, we aimed to shoot the majority of the internal shots in Alex's Flat.

I would confidently say that this shoot was successful, we were able to get a large number of shots done in a shot amount of time, while having affective communication and teamwork. Each of us were mindful of each other's roles but happily assisted with sound, lighting and camera, when needed. We were very happy with the work we produced in this session.

However, we noticed a few flaws, especially in our time management and organisation/preparation as a group. When completing our individual tasks, Alex created a shot list that I used to help make the shooting schedule, however, a lack in communication resulted in the storyboard, shot list and schedule all being out of sync in terms of shot/scene numbers and mislabeled. Because of this, when we came to shooting, we had trouble identifying the right scenes. My fear was that this could lead to continuity issues later down the line. We solved this by stopping mid-shoot and creating a new schedule for the remainder of this shoot and for Friday. When doing this, we took into account our energy as a group, what we felt we could get done the remainder of the time on Tuesday and what we could move to Friday. I am now glad that I allocated so much additional time into the shoot, as we could plan for unforeseen issues like this one.

I am so proud of our ability to adapt at this time and while the issue could have been avoided by taking more care during the pre-production stage, I believe that we confidently brought the shoot back on track and are prepared for a better session on Friday.

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Shooting Day 2

This shoot day was so much better than the first. Despite the setbacks from Tuesday, we adapted our plan and had a well organised shoot.

We started with all the EXT/DAY shots, outside the SU then in the Park. The key with these was to follow the 'golden rule' for shooting in a public place, meaning no lights, tripods or boom poles to cause disruptions. I think that we managed these location requirements extremely well, working as a team to be organised with our equipment and being respectful to the public.

We then finished shooting the remaining internal shots after it started to get dark, these also went really well and were completed quickly.

This whole shooting process showed me how well we work together as a crew, we can adapt well to change and share similar creative visions and ideas. In the future, I would like to make sure we have better communication throughout pre-production, so that our shoot can run even more smoothly.

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Footage Review

In these sessions, we reviewed and labeled the audio and video footage from the shoot.

During this time we had to take note of any potential issues to be taken into account for the edit, for example, if any shots needed reshooting or sound re-recording. We decide there wasn't a need to reshoot and no major red flags in the footage.

When labelling the files, I organised them by shot and take number. There was some footage that we didn't slate properly before shooting, for these files I labelled them as descriptively as I could, for example, 'Michael Walking'.

In the future, especially as producer, I need to make it my responsibility to ensure that all takes are slated appropriately as this will make it easer when it comes to this stage of review.

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Editing: Creating a Rough Cut

Today we were reminded of the key aspects of Premier Pro, how to create a new project and import media etc.

My goal for this session was to create the first 'rough cut' of my film, before I add effects, transitions, music and colour correcting.

The film follows the point of view of two characters, and as an editor, I must decided how to best create cuts between the different points of view in order to build tension and create effective pacing.

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Editing: Finishing Rough Cut

I finished my rough cut in this session, and developed the edit by starting to add effects.

I learned about J and L cuts, and how, when used well, they can create a much more dynamic edit, however, due to the lack of dialogue in the film, this technique won't be of much use to my film.

I also discovered the use for different workspaces in premier pro and explored different effects. I have learned the benefit of a 'trial and error' approach, playing around with effects until I find the best fit.

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Editing: Audio and Video Transitions

I received feedback on the current draft of my edit today:

Turn up brightness to see if we can see the phone more in opening shot

Audio clipping- fix by adding transitions.

Bring bathroom audio down

Cut shots down- Keep trimming!

Michael leaving audio one side

Add music through the whole thing for consistent aesthetic

Most of these were quick fixes that make a world of difference for the film. My main focus as I was editing today was to add video and audio transitions. Doing this helps the flow of the film and prevents issues such as audio clipping.

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Editing: Colour Correction

I colour corrected my film in this session, using the 'colour' workspace.

The difference that this made to the film was incredible, especially in the montage shots. I gave the shots a pink hue and it helped add to the fantasy style of that particular section.

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Editing: Music, Sound FX and Title

In this final editing session, all I had left to complete was adding music, sound effects and my title.

In response to my feedback, I found music that built suspense, but also felt combined the horror and romance/fantasy themes of the film. I then had to play with fading the music in and out, as well as using sound effects to merge the opening music with the song used for the montage sequence. Sound effects such as the speaker distortion and flatline helps signal to the audience a shift in tone and works with the music and visuals to provide context and make the scene more dynamic.

I also learned how to incorporate my title that i designed during the Pre-Production stage, this helped with the sequencing of the film, by placing it at the end of the first establishing shot, the audience are drawn in and the film feels like it has an effective structure and flow.

I received some final feedback during this session, and immediately took it all on board.

Use a dip to black as the film starts- I did this and found that it gave the film a more cinematic/professional quality

Bring the music down at the start- This made the film easer to watch and distracted less from the visuals

Experiment with more effects in montage, this will help distinguish it from a 'past memory' to a fantasy/dream sequence.- After experimenting with a ton of options, I chose to use the 'VR Glow' effect, this gave the exact aesthetic I was hoping for and helped to visually communicate Cindy's fantasy in the montage

The editing process was something that i was initially nervous for, I was worried thatI wouldn't have the skills to create an effective edit and I would fall short. However, over the past few weeks, I gained so many new skills and learned different techniques for editing that make me so much more confident. I can't wait to find more opportunities to hone these skills even more!

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As our director, Charlie wrote our statement of intent.