Assessment 2: Proof of Concept + Supporting Document by Jake France

Test shots

jfrance2_ — 2023-10-26 10:51:02 UTC

With the idea from the seminar of what a test shot is, I wanted to view certain scenes out of a film to see how they the directors use certain shots to convey better storytelling, a few examples that I saw was, Lost in Translation (2003) as Sofia Coppola conveys that feeling of loneliness with the use of silence and blue early morning hues, another film is Suspiria (1977) which Dario Argento uses colour to convey certain indications of danger, safety and hope. So, when considering doing test shots for my project, I know that I would be able to convey the emotion that my plot is driven by.

Trailer

jfrance2_ — 2023-10-26 10:51:24 UTC

I did some research to see if I wanted to do a trailer, what I did was to watch some trailers, through this week I watched the trailers of movies I watched in the week such as The Virgin Suicides and The Beautiful boy, these two movies had achievable styles of trailers that I could easily implement with my story idea.

Scene

jfrance2_ — 2023-10-26 10:51:35 UTC

What I did with this for research was focusing on certain scenes through movies that I’ve watched in the past that stood out to me, the Goodfellas - introduction the gang scene, it felt like it set a lot of storytelling up to support the rest of the movie. Considering this for my story I could do the opening scene to set up the character emotional feeling for the journey.

The first steps

jfrance2_ — 2023-10-26 11:18:42 UTC

Now that I had an idea in place I needed to expand on it to get an actual understanding and structure to the story. So in doing so I took knowledge from my scriptwriting module and made an treatment package for the story. The Bucket List.

The bucket list treatment

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-09 14:36:18 UTC

The Breakdown of the story for the trailer, with gathering the types of locations from scouting, building characters to give them background and having a three act structure.

The week of the 16th October

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-15 15:25:55 UTC

During this time I wanted to look at the possible areas that I could be potentially filming at, a group of us from class decided to adventutre around scouting for locations, we looked at campuses areas and public spaces. This was helpful as it helped me establish where I could have my setting for an idea I was developing.

The Week of the 23rd October

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-15 15:26:21 UTC

Coming up with an idea and developing it

The week of the 13th Novemeber

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-15 15:27:34 UTC

During this time I was met with a lot complications, booking the theatre would involve pushing production back another week which is something I didn't want to so, my back up was to make a set itself, this involved contacting departments and gaining access to booking props. Booking a rehersal room big enough for to build a set.

Booking for Peel Park

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-15 19:05:11 UTC

The week of 27th November

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:36:21 UTC

Filming took place on the 27th and the 29th of November

Rehearsal Room 1 - Day one

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:38:22 UTC

Day one of filming, I got there with time to spare, I awaited for the room to be available, once it was I put my belongings inside and went to collect my equipment to set up for filming, my props wasn't availble to collect until an hour after so I thought I had enough time to set up equipment.

Peel Park Filming Day two

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:38:29 UTC

No complications happened, the shots turned out great for my vision, it was quite cold, so I rushed production slightly towards the end however the time keeping was really good as I managed to get my shots filmed in 1 hour and 30 mins.

Editing

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:39:53 UTC

Filming took place on the 27th and the 29th of November

Element of editing included:

Filming voice over in Adobe Audition

Learning DaVinci Resolve

Colour correcting the shots in DaVinci Resolve

Final additions in premiere pro

The film look

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:40:17 UTC

The final touches, was creating the film look, I added an adjustment layer and cropped the film to the aspect ratio I filmed in, I then added positive noise to the shot so it would blend in the background adding a grain effect to the shot, I added a slight lut to revive the colours that was lost in doing the film look.

Casting Call

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:49:56 UTC

The date was changed as I needed more time to cast people and for booking areas

Booking for Rehearsal Room 1

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:53:50 UTC

Booking Props

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 10:55:24 UTC

Planning Props

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 11:03:07 UTC

Rehearsal Room 1 Risk Assessment

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 11:26:42 UTC

Peel Park Risk Assessment

jfrance2_ — 2023-11-23 11:27:58 UTC

The Living room Floor Plan

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 21:33:35 UTC

Peel Park Gardens Floorplan

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 21:33:51 UTC

Playground Floorplan

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 21:34:06 UTC

Riverbank Floorplan

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 21:35:57 UTC

StoryBoard Bench

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:36:12 UTC

Overlooking the gardens SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:36:55 UTC

List SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:37:16 UTC

Swing SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:37:59 UTC

Modern Messy Living Room SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:44:55 UTC

DnD Gothic Living Room SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:45:26 UTC

Riverbank SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:46:10 UTC

Bridge SB

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 22:46:26 UTC

Shot List Day One

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 23:06:56 UTC

Shot List Day Two

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 23:27:16 UTC

Call Sheet

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-09 23:46:43 UTC

Budget

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:04:42 UTC

Actor agreement form pt1

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:10:06 UTC

Actor Agreement form pt2

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:10:29 UTC

TV STUDIO DIRECTING

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:15:46 UTC

When looking at choosing a scene for directing, I couldn't find one that resonated with me, so I made a non-dialogue scene which allowed me to direct the actor into doing actions to display feelings. It helped me decide what to do when directing and to be experimental as certain elements don't work in practise.

The Content of the Idea

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:44:03 UTC

The content of the story idea. The plot of the idea is a girl called Louise who lost her mother 10 years ago, her mother left her gifts every year, but this year was the last one, she opens it and finds a bucket list that they both made when Louise was younger, Louise makes it her quest to check off the list with the help of her friend Freddie to experience getting past the stage of grief that Louise is in and make some happy memories.

Learning Davinci

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-10 00:53:23 UTC

First of I tried to colour correct in Premirere pro, however I wasn't a fan of the final product that I was left with, so I looked how other people colour corrected shots for film and came across a person on youtube explaining how to colour a shot

Forming an idea

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-14 23:12:48 UTC

I wanted to create something meaningful, I went through a couple of ways to brainstorm an idea, my common way to come up with an idea is to find an intriguing word or phrase that I could build a story around. The word was a bucket List. The word bucket list is used for many things as a check list for life, so my first idea would be surrounding that idea of things to do.

The first idea

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-14 23:34:09 UTC

The first idea was to create a story with the idea of feeling longing for more time with someone, I wanted to have an emotional leading story, with the plot of someone listing things they wish they did with a person they spent a lot of time with however the person is no longer in their life. The person could have been a past lover or a family member. The title of the production would have been Yesterday could have been us. However, in the end I chose not to go with this idea because I wanted to create a story with more than one emotion leading to a plot to create conflict within.

The Idea I went with

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-14 23:34:31 UTC

The Idea I went with took elements from my first idea as in, the bucket list part, I wanted to create a similar vision of the need for longing an experience with someone who is not around, but to include elements of feeling content with life and moving forward. The bucket was a projection of what the character needed to do to experience life again without that person being around.

Research on what I want to do

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:04:23 UTC

Going through my research on the three choices, the best choice for me to portray the plot of the story would be a Trailer, as it would allow me to show glimpses of all the acts to form a story, however test shots will be my backup decision as it will allow me to convey the feeling that I want to express in my storytelling of the idea.

The week of the 6th Novemeber

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:18:28 UTC

Location Scouting for my Idea. During this time, I adventured over the areas that I've previously scouted, and decided they wouldn't work as great, with the acting studio being fully booked I needed a location I could set my indoor scene in and have an outdoor scene. Peel Park was a location I wanted to film and something I could get filming permissions for, so I scouted for scenes where I could shoot my trailer and with the indoor areas, I looked at the theatre and a rehearsal room.

During the 13th and 20th of November

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:31:26 UTC

I had actor complications, I filled the role for one of my characters for Monday and Wednesday and filling the role of the other I only heard back of one and I realised on them pulling through after send multiple emails I didn't hear back from them and leaving it to the weekend before filming, I made a post on Mandy and heard back from many actors wanting the role which was great and I'll use it in the future but another complication arrived as my actor that I had sorted booked a doctors appointment for the Monday I was filming and could on do Wednesday.

The solution

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:32:56 UTC

My Solution to the complications in the end was to use the backup plan which was to change the sort of filmmaking I was going to instead of a trailer I apdated doing test shots instead knowing this I wouldn't need my script anymore and focus on telling the story through my shots instead and using the actor for Wednesday. This was simple as I had the types of shots I wanted to do in those scenes anyway with my planning.

Little complications due to relying on a perhaps

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:37:07 UTC

First thing was re writing to script to adapt it to being one character, cancelling booking for costuming, hearing back from the actor on the Monday and emailing them that they are no longer required.

Script

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:41:25 UTC

I expanded off the treatment to create a narrative and structured the script by day and film order.

The week of the 30th October

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:42:47 UTC

The 3 weeks of November

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:44:11 UTC

6th Novemeber - Finishing the script, casting call and Location Scouting

13th Novemeber - Gathering Documentation and filling it acordingly and emailing for access to certain areas such as costuming, props and locations permisions

20th Novemeber - Booking Equipment, props and emailing people, new casting calls and testing equipment for shot ideas

The complication on day one

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 00:54:41 UTC

When I got back to the room with my equipment, the room was full of people, I thought what will I possibly do, I asked them why they was in the room, and I found out that they were supposibly having an assessment in the room, the lecture wasn't there at the time so I waited for them to find out what's happening, and a short explanation is that their assessment was pushed back one week and they didn't have the room actually book so they needed to find another space. This took until 10am and my props were available as soon as they all left, so I put the equipment inside the room and went to collect the props.

Filming day one

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 01:00:51 UTC

Everything went well, I booked more props to give life the modern living room scene and booked more candles to give the traditional room more of a cozy atmosphere.

The vision for filming

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 01:03:53 UTC

I made sure that when filming, I wanted all my shots to be filmed in the style of 4:3 film ratio to give a more a creative touch to the shots and to have a old time aesthetic.

Davinci

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 01:19:07 UTC

Now knowing how to colour correct a shot, I wanted enhance the colours I used for storytelling, with my previous research into how to create a message in shots with mise en scene and symbolism, I wanted the colours I used to be more pronounced to support my storytelling, which meant to change the levels of certain colours to get it across.

Recording Audio

jfrance2_ — 2023-12-15 01:28:10 UTC

I didn't want to record my audio when making the shots as I didn't know what the finished project would turn out to be, I made sure that any dead space when I was talking was cut so it gave enough time to talk about all the shots that I filmed and edited.