Good Mourning Sunshine- PRODUCER by Alana M Smith

Idea discussions

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 16:04:08 UTC

Upon forming as a group of producer, director and writer, we met up to discuss the plot and logistics of our film. Our writer, Lily, had already established the main plot of having a girl with carbon monoxide poisoning and her hallucinating. Me and our director, Sophie, had already mentioned that we liked the idea of creating a slow burning, phychological thriller, and wanted to work this concept into the script a bit more. We met up and gave Lily some suggestions on editing the genre of the script. This led to the suggestion of our 'hallucinations' actually being characters from a TV sitcom, allowing us to also explore the dark comedy genre. During this meeting we also began drafting our pitch, and I made some notes based on the logistics of the script as well as listing some potential locations, risks and a basic budget breakdown.

Pitching!

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 16:15:51 UTC

Ahead of our pitch, we created a group chat and ensured that we were all on the same page with our concept of the film. We created the powerpoint for our pitch and each individually added our own sections, but we also checked over each other sections to ensure that we were not contradicting each other. For the pitch, I worked with Sophie to get a rough filming breakdown. I decided to give one week to pre-production, then six days, and a preliminary pick-up day, to shooting. I decided to split our seven day shoot over two weeks as this ensured that we would have flexibility to work around our groups availability requests. I then allocated the final two weeks of the project to editing- as we would require a lot of colour grading and sound effects and did not want this rushed. I also used my short-list of locations to suggest our most realistic locations. This would be useful going into pre-production and I could simply pass the location list to our location manager, saving a lot of time scouting.

Interviews/Auditions preparation

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 16:32:22 UTC

Upon receiving our group list, a group chat was created where we shared the script and rough vision for the film. Once this had been established, I shared that we were holding interviews on the Friday and asked anyone that was auditioning for an acting role to choose a scene or short section of the script. I also managed to book a room on the seventh floor from 10:30-4:30, so I could work out the timings for interviews. I emailed out the above document which allowed everyone in our group to choose a time slot for there interview. There were a few people that either were unavailable or lived far away, so we gave them the option of a teams call or self-tape too. Once the slots were filled, I created an interview notes template that listed everyones four options and had them in order of their slots so that on the day me and Sophie had all our information on one page.

Interview day!

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 16:58:33 UTC

Above is my copy of notes from the interview day. I also added a note about availability so that from day one I had any key dates that people were unavailable. Me and Sophie arrived early to discuss our plan of action- we decided that we would ask everyone what their vision was for the roles they had chosen, giving them the opportunity to show us any mood-boards, planning, storyboards etc. We then also asked about experience in their roles, as we wanted to ensure that the more technical departments already knew how to use their equipment. I also offered to read in for the acting auditions, as it was more important that Sophie could focus on the acting for her directorial vision.

As I had assigned 20 minute slots, this allowed us a few minutes in between to discuss the prior interview. This was handy as we began slotting people into roles throughout the day so that once the final interview was complete we didn't have to start our cast and crew list from scratch. At the end of the day, we went through our notes and were able to cast the actors there and then. We also phoned in our writer at this point to see if our choices fit Lily's intial vision. We also then decided to run our crew in departments of sorts- ensuring that every crew member was either liable to their head of department, or directly to me and Sophie. When assigning roles, we were able to give everyone at least one of there top two roles, and no one was given a role not in their top 4. I then announced the roles and cast a few days later once we had received the self-tapes, ensuring it was set out in a clear way.

Day 1 powerpoint

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 17:05:58 UTC

Day 1!

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 22:51:22 UTC

To prepare for pre-production, I made a powerpoint (see above) detailing the pre-established elements of production, but also to discuss the visions, responsibilities and logistics. This was handy to answer questions that people had and ensure that we were all starting pre-production with the same information. I also had already sent out a rough pre-production schedule so that people knew the plan for the week ahead. On day one we conducted two table reads- one at the start and another at the end of the day. The first table read was just for the whole crew to begin figuring out the script and what their department would require. Once this was complete, we then set out each departments jobs for the afternoon. I worked with camera/lighting/sound to develop an equipment list that they could lease with the equipment store. I also wrote and filled in all three location risk assessments with location specific risks; I then took these round each department and helped them add their own department specific risks. Having these RA's completed on day one ensured that we could work on permits and location release forms throughout the rest of the week. In our second table read of the day, I suggested we do a more broken up version and have each department discuss their plans/vision for each scene. This worked well as we could see where each department was up to by the end of day one.

Day 2

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 22:56:51 UTC

The Tuesday of pre-production week I had assigned as an off-day as we all had independent work to be completing, but there was little need for us all to be together. On this day, I worked on finalising and proof reading the RA's as well as tasking my production coordinator with creating an availability form and drafting the actor consent forms. I also worked with our locations manager on getting our locations booked in.

Day 3

alanamarnie — 2024-12-12 23:11:31 UTC

Our Wednesday began with me and Sophie leading a group debrief on where everyone was up to. In the morning I primarily worked with costume/set in developing lists of items that we would need to buy from the budget. I explained how much they had to spend and asked them for a list with links ASAP. I then spent the afternoon working on the script breakdowns with Lily and also getting the specific lighting and costume/set notes from the relevant people. We did not quite finish these this day but made a strong start.

Day 4

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:14:41 UTC

Thursday was possibly my busiest day as I worked with lily to produce our shooting schedule. Some locations were already set due to availability so this gave us an outline to work the other days around. I worked to ensure that for the house shoots we were only shooting in one room per day as to help continuity and conferred with the camera team on the number of shots in each scene. I also began drafting in who would be needed on each day as to help me with call sheets later down the line. I consulted the availability form to ensure everyone we needed would be free and also made sure that the days were evenly split by people that were doubled up in roles. This was definitely an early draft that would need fine-tuning tomorrow.

Day 5

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:20:19 UTC

By Friday, I had ordered all the props, all the risk assessments were signed off, and the shooting schedule was finalised. This meant I simply had to chase up on us applying for a filming permit for the podiatry clinic and park. I worked with our location manager to ensure we had everything we needed and assisted in filling out the applications. The one thing we were missing was a method statement so I spent most of the afternoon completing this.

As we were also collecting equipment this day, I created an equipment tracker so that we could keep track of who had what equipment throughout filming.

Shooting schedule

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:22:45 UTC

Park risk assessment

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:24:21 UTC

House risk assessment

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:24:36 UTC

Podiatry risk assessment

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:25:09 UTC

TV studio risk assessment

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:26:44 UTC

Monday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:41:50 UTC

Today we were filming in the downstairs of the house and as it was our first day we had nearly the entire crew on set. I had sent the call sheet out the day before and made sure that the set dress team were in early enough to dress the house. Me and Lily split the duties of script supervising throughout the day and I also had to try ensure we stayed on schedule throughout the day. The biggest challenge was when we were filming outside the house- ensuring that we stayed on the property as our risk assessments did not cover filming outside of this. Also as we did not have a data wrangler, I took on this responsibility of this too, ensuring all the footage was offloaded and labelled ahead of day 2.

Tuesday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:47:52 UTC

Today we were filming in the bedroom and kitchen which involved me working closely with the set team to help set up my bedroom and clear out any unnecessary furniture. As we were filming in my bedroom and it was a smaller space, I ensured no none-essential crew were in the room, and also opened the window in between takes to keep the space well-ventilated. When filming in the kitchen, this was the scene involving the breaking of the eggs so had to ensure we had proper cleaning materials to hand and that no breakages could cause harm to crew or cast.

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:48:45 UTC

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alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:51:36 UTC

Thursday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:56:23 UTC

Following a day off, we had a big shoot day with us filming in the house in the morning in order to complete some pick-ups fro the day before, but also were filming in peel park that afternoon. The house shoot ran smoothly with us paying close attention to continuity throughout. For the park scene, we ensured we brought minimal equipment and crew with us. I also printed and brought 'filming in progress' signs to place around the area we were filming. The weather was also a huge factor as it was a snowy day, so as a precaution I also brought two blankets with me.

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 00:57:12 UTC

Monday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:28:51 UTC

Monday was not initially a planned shoot day, however we had had some camera issues last week that meant we were slightly behind and needed to reshoot a couple of shots. Luckily, we had pencilled this day in as a pick-up day so the majority of our crew were available. Over the weekend I had data-wrangled last weeks footage so was able to return the cleared SSD. We were shooting in the living room/kitchen once again but luckily I had left all of the tape marks from last week so resetting went very smoothly. As lily was off ill this day, I completed the shot log and script supervisor roles this day.

Tuesday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:33:51 UTC

Today was our shoot in the podiatry clinic which involved a large amount of preparation on my part. As the equipment was being stored at my house, we had to coordinate moving it from mine to the clinic. Luckily as me and Ben both drive we were able to load the equipment into both our cars ahead of the shoot. Upon arrival it took a few trips to carry all the equipment in and we also had to adapt to the new space. The biggest challenge this day was working without a director as Sophie had to leave due to a family emergency. Luckily me and Ellie were able to keep things on track and just consulted the shot list as much as possible. I also did have to enforce that there was no food and drink in the room which at times was a struggle with people having juice/cans, but for the most part this ran smoothly especially after we took a brief break.

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:34:56 UTC

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:36:13 UTC

Thursday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:40:25 UTC

Thursday was our last day filming in the house! We only had a few quick shots left which meant it was a short shoot day. Once again we were filming in the bedroom so I went back to ensuring the windows were open when possible. I also was on the shot log and script supervising too. Continuity was a challenge as it had been over a week since the last shoot in the room and obviously things had moved around. However, as it was a short shoot day, morale was very high and we managed to speed through!

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:41:46 UTC

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 01:42:04 UTC

Monday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 02:13:11 UTC

Monday was quite an easy day as we only had about 6/7 lines to record in ADR. I had the opportunity to do one of the advert voiceovers so my main focus for the day was actually acting. It took me a few attempts to get the cheesy advert voice but in the end it worked out well as was a lot of fun!

Tuesday

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 02:16:47 UTC

The last day! Today we only had one shot to complete in the TV studio so this happened fairly quickly. The bigger focus for the day was returning all of the equipment at the end. We all pitched in and helped get the equipment there and once we were there I read out the equipment list to ensure that we had not forgotten or lost anything. The return went smoothly with no issues at all. Also as I had been data wrangling the footage it was at this point that I could pass this onto the editing team.

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 02:17:40 UTC

Post-production

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 02:22:06 UTC

In post-production I wasn't directly involved. However, I remained on hand to answer any questions where needed and was able to watch and give feedback on the drafts of the final film.

My bigger role in post-production was sorting out the budget claims as I had been tracking the expenditure throughout and had to collate all the receipts and props in order to claim the money back. As I had bought all the props this was quite a smooth process for me to find the receipts. Also as most of the props had been used at the house, I had most of them still here so only had a few to hunt down

Example breakdown sheet

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:32:12 UTC

Shot log example from day 4

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:33:05 UTC

Equipment tracker

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:34:34 UTC

Budget tracker

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:42:59 UTC

example actor consent form

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:45:44 UTC

Location release for house

alanamarnie — 2024-12-13 13:46:22 UTC

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