Television Production

Reflection. This project has been one of the most difficult but has also been the one that I have learnt the most from. We've faced a lot of obstacles as a team as well as individuals but we've worked really hard to get the project to this stage and we now know that if we decide to take it further into production once lockdown is lifted, we have the resources for that and have done all of the testing that we can possibly do. What went well? This project had a lot of obstacles but there are elements that went well for us and we were able to work with. As a team: Test shoots The test shoots were really productive for us, especially the fight scene as this was able to show us how to safely carry out this shoot. It was also a good opportunity for Ebony to learn how to use some of the equipment and how Esme could block the scene. It was ultimately all we had to work with visually and it was good to have these to refer back to when thinking about what we can improve whe...

Test shoots. Due to the situation with COVID-19, test shoots have grown in importance for the project as this is all we have to work with in practice until we're able to rearrange production. Before lockdown started, we were able to carry out some location recces and test shoots that I arranged. Some of these were filmed during pre production, however, as it's the only visuals that we have to work with, it's useful for me to show how I produced these scenes and reflect on them in terms of my role. Car Scenes I've written about these scenes here already during the pre production unit but I figured that it would be useful to reflect on them especially as these were the key scenes for concern surrounding health and safety. These scenes were going to be filmed on a private track that belonged to a local of Herne Bay. I sourced this location by posting on the local Facebook group for Herne Bay. I made a risk assessment for this location and what we would be do...

The Budget. I've made the budget as easy to navigate as I can whilst including as much detail as needed to keep on top of expenses. I have managed the budget from the start of the project and we all donated an equal amount to one bank account (that I had access to) so that I could track incoming and outgoing funds. I did write a small amount about the budget here during the last project but I wanted to expand on this and look into post-production costs. We decided to use my Monzo account because Monzo has very good budgeting features. It shows your spending over the period of a month, and also predicts if your spending will last you to the end of the month or not. Opening a current account and savings account is all free, it's entirely run off of the app, and you get the card sent to you within 3 days of downloading the app and inputting your information. It's secure and verified with ID, and has been rated from 4.5-5 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot, finder.com and mon...

Broadchurch. Broadchurch is a UK crime drama series following the murder investigation of a child, Danny Latimer, in a small fictional seaside town. I wanted to research this show because of the writing and also the producing. Writing The show reflects a realism in the writing whilst also maintaining the drama of the story. It also is representing a subject that could be triggering to some viewers and so to understand the way that the programme addressed the subject is also useful. It will link to what we should be asking of the actors and the scenes when we shoot them to make sure that we don't cross any moral boundaries. The show also tries hard to skew the viewer's opinion of who was the murderer and this is an interesting method of telling the story. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find a copy of the script for the show, only transcripts which are taken after the show has been filmed. I wanted to look at the script to assess any changes from script to s...

The Script. As this is the main source for our film content and where we will be working from for this project, I figured that I should perfect the script as best as I can through analyses, research and adjustments as well as enquiries with my director. I decided that since we aren't making the film, I ought to make sure the script is completely perfect before it is submitted as the final script for the project.  Original Here is the script in its initial form, as it was submitted for the Pre Production unit. I did some of my work on Google Docs but that application doesn't work with tabbed in lines (putting it in the correct format) so I had to write the script on Microsoft Word, which worked better anyway. Speech Using Word's 'Markup' feature, I read through the script and made a few changes to the speech in the script, making sure that all of the speech developed either the character or the story. Everything needed to be necessary and doing som...

Planning.  Prior to the shoot, we must spend time planning everything in detail so that we can better anticipate any obstacles. This process mostly begins in the pre-production stage, however, there are more specific planning processes that we go through right at the beginning of the production stage to ensure everything is prepared for filming. Shooting schedule The production schedule is what will aid me in the shooting process, keeping track of time and scenes. I've made a new production schedule (above) from the one I made during pre-production (below), as that one was far too much detail. It would have been somewhat useful, but having each individual shot mapped out was more the job of Ebony (camera) which she did when we started production. I separated the shot list out into each scene and based it off of the original production schedule and similar to the original timings. I also made use of weather symbols for each day to make it quick to see and plan ahea...

Production. This project is our final of the course and thus, seen by me at least as the most important. To me, this project will wrap up and represent everything I have been working towards, as well as what we have been working towards as a crew the past 3 years. Myself, Esme, Ebony, and Harvey have been working together since the first project, and so this project means a lot to us as a group. Due to the corona-virus outbreak, this project is going to go in a direction that we weren't initially prepared for. Obviously, because of social distancing, we won't be able to make the film we have been planning. However, I still need to be able to present work that has gone into this project from the perspective of the producer role, as well as how I've communicated that to my crew. Goals For this project, I want to have some clear goals to work towards, since the film can't be the main one. I've broken it down into sections as follows. Extensive research i...

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Reflection. I'm going to look back on how this project went, in hopes of improving the work for the next project. Stages Ideas In the beginning of the project, I went through the process of trying to plan ideas and settle on something that was viable as well as interesting. When I have an idea, I know it's the one, but for this project I struggled with it coming to me. I had some trouble in the beginning of the project which disrupted the flow of development but some of the ideas were good, just didn't have the viability. Development When I settled on the idea I began to develop it further by attempting to start the script and planning the characters. I used Powerpoint because it allows for an easier presentation of the individual character profiles and also allows for ample image use, such as moodboards. We began the casting call to get people interested as early as possible. We also started researching locations to get an idea of setting to help the dev...

Research.  Different aspects of this project require a lot of research to ensure that we are portraying events accurately, even if they are fictional.  Content We carried out research into the content, particularly revolving around Martin's arrest to ensure that we got our facts straight about that process. We were able to use these documents that detail the law about drink driving: This document from the sentencing council details the kind of sentence that an offender can expect. For Martin's crime of causing death by driving under the influence of drink, the maximum sentence is 14 years. For Martin, we decided that his sentence would be 5 years with the same in rehabilitation, a ban from driving, and community sentence (this can include things such as cleaning graffiti and cleaning streets, among other services). We decided on this because it was in line with this document, but also made sense with the age of Rob. We wanted him to be around the age of 16 and the...

Tests. It's important to test out our ideas before going into production, because if we've had practice it will make for a smoother flow of difficult scenes.  Casting During casting, we tested the actors on their ability to improvise. Although this isn't a test in terms of production, it helped us a lot to know who is going to have enough confidence to improvise without too much prompt to do so. If we prompt them to improvise, it will seem forced, but if we brief them on moments that could include improvisation, they might add something that we hadn't thought of. In the past, moments of improvisation have drastically improved scenes with just the smallest action, such as Mac swigging from the vodka bottle in DEADline .  During the casting, we first asked them to read part of scene 15, where Rob tries to convince Martin to continue with his AA meetings. We chose this because it's a particularly personal scene which really shows the pair's relationship....

Development. In order to show development within the project, I'm going to break down my initial ideas, where they originated and how they led to what the script is today.  My notes I used a Onenote notebook to collate all of my original ideas into one place. This was a useful tool to digitise my ideas, make them easily accessible and easily customisable. Breaking down my ideas Idea 1: Friendship My very first idea was about a pair of friends at university, trying to do as much as they could together before they moved away from each other at the end of their academic year. This was obviously based off of my own experience, because it's something I'm particularly worried about when it comes to the end of this year. I'll have to move away from some really close friends, and keeping in touch is really important to me. This was inspired by Somerstown and the friendship addressed in that film, but also the scene towards the end of The Perks of Being a Wal...

Shonda Rhimes. Shonda Rhimes is a well-known showrunner, with many very well-known productions across multiple platforms. To name a few, Grey's Anatomy; Private Practice; How to get Away with Murder, and Scandal.  Grey's Anatomy Shonda created popular TV series Grey's Anatomy in 2005 and it's still going today. If that's not enough credit to her, she was the series' most prolific writer, and one of the main executive producers. She created the show as a statement against racism and sexism in TV, by doing colourblind casting and writing female characters with more dimension, not just the loving wife or nice friend. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, she states "[Women] never got to be nasty or competitive or hungry or angry... But who gets to be the bitch? Who gets to be the three-dimensional woman?".  Grey's Anatomy has also proven itself to be an encouraging work space for the actors, some of which have gone on to be directors, as wel...

Pre Production. It was important in this project for the pre production paperwork to be at our highest standard. We also worked hard to secure relevant locations for filming, rather than settling for easier locations like we have in the past.  In this post I'll be including copies of our paperwork, my emails to location managers, the council and other authorities, as well as breaking down the process, a bit about the website, and what was important for me. Paperwork Project Development This is a copy of the Onenote notebook I used in the very early stages of production to consolidate all of my ideas. It is in somewhat of a disarray but contains all of the initial thought processes that lead to this project. The other drafts of the script are available on the website here . I just didn't want to post them all to here and overload this page! Location Maps I arranged for our Airbnb host to send me a copy of the floorplan of the house we will be filming in so ...