Post 13: Pre-production Documentation

In this post I am going to show all of the pre-production work which we have done as a group and each piece will help us with the production of our short film. We have each individually been given tasks to do throughout the pre-production stages. I have done the location reccee's, the costume and prop list for each character, we have all taken part in doing the technical reccee's, and we have all contributed to doing the script.

This is the costume and prop list for each character. I have done this to show what the characters will be wearing and explained why each person will be wearing it. The reason behind doing this is to try and show the audience as a first impression of what kind of person they are.

This is the equipment list. This shows images of all of the pieces of equipment that we are going to use throughout filming.









The next piece of pre-production which I have done is the location recces. We have taken pictures of all of our locations and I have put them together and added information about each location. Some locations we are using more than once. The reason why we do this is to show the whole location and the surroundings around it.

The locations that are being shown are in the order of filming. This location is being used more than once. This location is used in scene 1, 8 and 16.

This is the second location. It is the walk way which we are filming him walking up. This location is used for scene 3 and 4.

This location is in scene 6. It is the classroom that Billy walks into and he then walks to his desk.

This is the location of outside the canteen area and this is in scene 7,12 and 13. This is where Billy walks through the crowd of people.

This location is the quad and this is in scene 9 and 12. This is when Billy is talking to the teacher.

This location  is for the last scene when Billy runs across the field and reaches the hedge and has no-where else to run.

This location is when Billy runs down the stairs.

This is another location where Billy is running through the school.

This location is when Billy runs through the science block.











The next part of the pre-production is the shot list. The shot list is set out in a table and it shows which scenes and what shots there are within that scene. There are two pages of the shot list. The shot list will help us filming as we can see what shots and shot sizes are needed for each scene.

The next part of pre-production was the treatment. The treatment will help up when filming and the editing stages as we are able to see what visual needs what audio.

We as a group have created a script for our short film and we have all worked together to expand our ideas. Our script is also very important for when we film so all of our actors know exactly what they have to say. This is our script...

The technical recees will help us when filming as we will use them to see what shots we will do within each scene. We have drawn these out from an areal view and these are very helpful when we are filming.

This is technical recee 1, 5 and 8. This is the scene of Billy sitting under the stairs alone.

This is technical recee 3 as the second scene is a black screen so we did not need one for the second scene. This one is when Billy walks out of his house and walks up to school and is on the phone to his mum.

This is technical recee 4. This is when Billy is walking up to school.

This is technical recee 6. This is when Billy walks into the classroom late and the teacher tells him off.

This is technical recee 7 and 13. This is when Billy is pushing his way through the crowd outside the canteen. Also in scene 13 when Billy runs away from the teacher.

This is technical recee 9 and 12. This is when Billy is talking to the teacher in the quad and when Billy runs away.

This is technical recee 10. This is the scene of when Billy's mum is on the phone to the teacher.

This is technical recee 11. This is the scene in the staff room when Billy is talking to the teacher.

This is technical recee 14. This is when Billy runs up the stairs.

This is technical recee 15. This is when Billy runs through the doors and runs down the corridor.

This is technical recee 16. This is when Billy runs down the stairs and runs out the door onto the field.

This is technical reccee 17 and this is the final scene of Billy running onto the field and showing he has no where else to run to.

We made story boards for each scene and we did this to help us when filming with the different shot sizes and make it more clear of the shot size that we want. The story board will help us to get the right shot sizes and also showing the way we want it to look such as the angles etc.

This is our first page of the story board.

This is the second page of the story board.

This is the third page of the story board.

This is the final page of the story board.

We had to make a risk assessment and create a table showing the risks that could be involved with every scene and we had to think of a way in which we could solve this problem and no longer make it a risk.

Post 12: Draft Scripts and Feedback

This is the first draft of our script. I have highlighted the points of the script that we are going to change. We have decided to change these points due to feedback given to us which was very useful in developing our ideas.

We have got feedback on our first draft of the script and this has helped us because we have been able to pick out the good and also the bad points. We have been able to take advice from our target audience and we have been able to develop it further and make it better. We have done this for each part of developing our idea and this has helped our group grow further with the story line of the short film. 

Feedback 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vzS--OAwd1c

Feedback 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IdwYa2pzWew

When we listened to what Becky had to say we found out that in the production industry the script is down to one person as it is one person's story. As a group this may be more difficult because everyone has different ideas to how they want the short film to be like and as a group it may be more difficult to come up with one final idea. In the industry the storyline is down to one person and the ideas that come from that person will fit together better than lots of peoples ideas because they have the most understanding about what the film is going to be. We realised as a group that it would be difficult to make one final decision quickly so we spent some time to develop the ideas and listen to everyone in the group. After working on the ideas and agreed on a final idea we put the ideas into a script and taking on the advice we have been given we did the script.

This is our final script and we have been able to create this from all of the feedback which we have got and also by learning how to write a real script. Due to this we have been able to as a group to develop the story line further and and this is the final script with my annotations to show what parts we have changed and developed from the original script.

This is the final script that we worked on. We listened to all of the advice given to us and we developed more on the idea of the short film. We focused on showing the characters feelings and emotions more and trying to show more of a background to their lives and we feel that we have achieved this and that we have made it clearer. We have worked on the storyline and have made it longer and by doing this we are enabling ourselves to show what we want to get across in a better way so that the audience will understand what the short film is about instead of rushing it and the audience not understanding it. We have developed in the dialogue and we feel that this will be a better way for showing what the characters are like. We have been influenced by watching other short films such as 'The 400 Blows' which is a French New Wave film and we have been influenced by the running scene at the end of the film as we think that this is a really clever way of showing what the character is going through and we thought that the character in that film is going through the same emotions as the character in our short film.

With the feedback which we got from our target audience we found out that their main thoughts were that it was too short and that we needed to develop on our idea. They also said that we haven't given much away about the character Billy such as how old he is or the background that he comes from. They understood the relationship between Billy and his mum and what we was trying to show but they said that it did not have that much detail to really understand what was going to happen in the short film.
Overall, with this feedback we realised that we needed to expand on the idea and the character Billy and work on what his background is going to be because this will show more and have more understanding about the character Billy. We also need to work on the relationship with Billy and his mum and find a way of showing how this relationship is not like a mother son relationship should be like.

Feedback from Becky Knapp a script writer.

We also had someone who worked for a production company and is a script writer. Becky Knapp sat down with us as a group and looked through our script with us. She helped us and showed us how to improve our script and how a real script should be layed out and what it should look like. She also gave us advice about the idea of our short film. She told us that we should develop the character Billy and also the character of the mum. The advice she gave us was very helpful as we was more clear about what we had to do and we was going to work on the format of the script and also develop the idea of the characters and make it clearer the emotions that they are going through because then this will get our ideas across better and more clearly.

Post 11: Script Influences

As a class we have studied a number of different short films and these were in the style of French New Wave. As a group we decided to look into more detail at a film by Truffaut '400 Blows' . We decided to look in more detail with this film because in the last scene it shows a boy running away. The idea in this scene was that the boy is running away from people that he doesn't want to be around and he runs for miles. He eventually reaches a beach and when he runs to the sea he stops because he realises that he has no where else to run. This was very effective as the boy cannot run any further he turns to the camera and walks towards it and it finishes on a freeze frame. This is very effective as this shows the emotions that the boy is going through and he doesn't know what else to do except run away from everyone. As a group we was trying to think of different ways that we could do the same sort of ideas as we wanted to show this type of emotion of where the boy is so desperate to get away from everything that is going on that he runs so far that he then has no where else to go.

Also watching these particular short films has made us understand how the use of lighting can effect the way the audience understands the film. We discussed that the use of natural lighting is very effective as we want to create the mood of it being dull and by using natural lighting will help us to achieve this. If we use artificial lighting then this could change the way we want the audience to understand the film because if we want to show the boy being alone then the lighting needs to reflect this and the use of natural lighting will be very effective. Although some short films may not show that they have used lighting they have considered the lighting of the locations that they have chosen. Lighting is always a key aspect when filming because you need the shot to look good and by not using any lighting you are still considering the lighting of the location and also the time of day in which you are filming. I feel that by not using artificial lighting will be more effective because I think that by considering the time of day in which you film and the lighting at the location this will still create the effect of natural lighting but yet give the short film some light to create a certain mood and this is what we want to achieve.

When considering shot sizes as a group we have decided that to show our character's emotion it is very important. In our short film we are trying to show the audience the emotion and feelings that the young boy has. We have discussed that by using shot sizes such as close ups and medium close ups will be very effective. This will be very effective as throughout our short film we are trying to show the audience how the character is lonely.




When editing our short film we need to consider the continuity of our short film and make sure that we have made sure that everything fits together the way we want it. Also we need to add sound in when we edit and we will use a soft tone when we are showing that Billy is upset and lonely. We feel that by doing this will make the audience feel more emotion towards our character and this is what we are trying to achieve.

The positioning of the camera is very important as we need to makes sure that there is no unwanted lighting coming through from things such as windows or door windows. We need to make sure that the camera is not facing a window because the light will take over and you will not be able to see the actor very clearly.

This picture to the left is showing someone standing in front of a window and it shows the effects that the light can do to the camera. We are going to try and avoid this from happening when we film.




As a group we have discussed many different elements to our short film to ensure that it works as we want it to. As a group we have overcome many issues and when filming we will consider all of these things and try to achieve everything that we want to achieve. We have also discussed things to avoid to ensure that everything looks as we want it to.

In the production industry these are all of the elements which would be considered because they all contribute in the final result. They are each individually important because they are effecting the way that it looks and if they do not look good then it will not be successful. The matter of lighting is very important as it needs to create the mood such as in a thriller the lighting must be dull to create the mood and this will draw the audience in to more about what is happening. All of these points are very important as they effect the end result.