Pre-Production

This page shows all the planning I have undertaken in order for me to get an idea of what I want to do for my final film. This includes doing some research and watching films related to the area that I want to explore. I originally had an idea to do a realist film, although since my role in the final film is going to be the editor, this limited my chances of trying to be creative and expressive, as there is usually very little visible editing (such as Russian Formalistic editing, montage editing and crosscutting) that I can perform. At best, I would have probably only been able to do well through invisible editing. This is why I later on felt it would be better to do a film in another genre or film movement. This is when I had the idea to do a Film Noir film, as I felt it would enable me to be more creative and ambitious, as I wanted to copy a style similar to that of Sin City.

Click the button below to view the research I have undertaken:

Research

Production Schedule

This marks the start of my pre-production, which shows all the planning I have done in order to make my film a success. I had to make sure that whatever I did, I kept track of it, in order to get credit for any good ideas I had. That is why I have included drafts of anything I have made. To make sure I kept on track with whatever I was doing, the first thing I did as part of my pre-production was to create a production schedule in order to plan what I was going to do on what day, and then I had to make sure I stuck to that production schedule as it would allow me to have good time management and be able to balance whatever other priorities I had, whether that be inside or outside of school. With this production schedule I was also able to edit it so that if I couldn't complete a task, I could move it to another date in order to make sure I could eventually finished it. It was very important for me to stick to this schedule because if I didn't, I would fall behind and just make more work for myself, which I couldn't afford to do which such a stressful course such as the IB.

Treatment

Once all my time was organised and I knew exactly what I was doing on what day, I started working on the treatment for the final film. I had already formed a group with my partner before pre-production so I knew who I was working with for this final project. We have always worked very well together as both of us are very commited, organised and determined, making for a very successful partnership between us. As soon as pre-production started each of us brainstormed separate ideas for what we wanted to do, agreeing to present our ideas to each other on the 5th of February. Once we discussed and exchanged ideas, accepting, rejecting and expanding on various ones, we finally agreed on one of my ideas, that being a boy that suffers from PTSD, anxiety and depression after his sister is killed, and what he does to overcome it.

After a few changes were made to the original shown in the Word document above, my partner and I presented our final pitch to the rest of the class. Here is the presentation below:

Note: I edited this presentation after I created the script, as my teacher uncovered some issues with the script using the original pitch. In other words, this presentation followed the structure of the idea in the Word doc, however after showing my teacher the first draft of the script, he said to change a few things.

Script

Once we finalised the pitch for our final film, we started the more practical side of pre-production, i.e. the storyboard and script. Since my partner was the cinematographer for this project he was the one that was in charge of creating the storyboard, while I was in charge of writing up the script, since I didn't have a lot to do as an editor during pre-production. I also chose to write up the script as it removed more of a burden on my fellow group member, as he wouldn't have so much work to do and he could focus his time purely on making the storyboard exceptional.

In order to make the scripting process much easier for myself, I blocked out the scenes so that the storyline was structured. This enabled me not only to finish the script quicker, but to also see whether the formation of the story would make sense. In addition to this, while writing the script, I aimed to write at least a page for each scene. The blocked out scenes for my script were as follows:

1. Dyson's Nightmare

2. Jessalyn's Murder

3. Dyson Meets The Killer

4. Dyson Kills The Wrong Person

5. Dyson Meets Freeman In The Alleyway

6. Dyson Starts To Have Nightmares About The Killings He Committed

As a result this was the first draft of my script:

After I finished writing the first draft of my script I showed it to my teacher in order to get some feedback from him. His suggested improvements are listed below in order to make my next script much better:

- Too many convenient coincidences

- "Freeman" wouldn't just offer himself up

- A few random and unexplained events

- What context are we in? Psycho horror? Thriller? What's it meant to be?

- CHANGE THE NAMES!

Using the feedback given to me, I started on the final script (I didn't have enough time to do a second draft as I spent too long trying to perfect the first draft of the script). I took everything that was said to me into consideration when I started to create the final script and followed the exact same process that I did with the first draft, only changing a few scenes.

1. Oliver's Nightmare

2. Amelia's Murder

3. Oliver Reads About His Sister's Killer

4. Oliver Meets A Homeless Man

5. Oliver Meets The Homeless Man In The Alleyway His Sister Was Killed In

6. Oliver Has A Nightmare About Killing The Homeless Man

As a result this was my final script:

Annotated Script

Once I finished writing the script and I printed it out, I decided to annotate it so that I as the editor knew what I had to do in each scene. To make my job easier I split each page of my script into eighths. This made the script look more professional as well as made the annotations easier to read and more tidy. The annotations on the script enabled me to construct the story as the editor and gave me a small idea of what the final product would look like. Breaking down the script also showed how well I understood the narrative and highlighted any issues or elements that needed to be taken care of before production. Below is the key that I have used in order to break down my script and make it look a bit more aesthetically pleasing to the eye and easier to understand:

Pink

=

Cast

Blue

=

Action

Yellow

=

Editing

Green

=

Camera Movement

Purple

=

Camera Shot

This is my final annotated script:

Storyboard

My partner was the one that was in charge of creating the storyboard as we felt since he was the cinematographer, it would be easier for him to be in charge of that, as he would know how to compose each shot. Once the storyboard was completed, I asked my partner to send it to me so that I could annotate it accordingly, as I felt it was important for me as the editor to know what transitions would be ideal between shots. Furthermore, using the visual aid of the storyboard, I had a better idea of any effects I would have to add during or after production in order to get the final result that we wanted. The annotations that I made to this storyboard were similar to the ones that I made on the script in terms of the editing, however on the storyboard I put them in a little more detail as I now had a visual to work with, whereas the annotations on the script were a bit underdeveloped as they gave limited information about what I was going to do. Below is the annotated storyboard:

Character Outline

The characterisation in our film was possibly one of the main things we had to think about when creating the pitch for our final film. In our film we have three main characters: Oliver (the protagonist), Amelia (Oliver's sister) and The Homeless Man (the antagonist). My partner and I decided that we did not want to have too many main characters as then it would be very difficult to film on specific days when everyone was available. We also decided to only have one major scene with Amelia in it as this would make it easier to film, as then we wouldn't need to worry about her being there for the rest of production, as we would possibly only need the actress portraying Amelia for one day. This is a similar story for the actor portraying The Homeless Man except we would need him for a couple of days since he makes appearances in about 80% of the film. All three characters within the film are all portrayed in different ways, with the main themes of the film being revenge and greed. Oliver is a young muscular man who is very caring at the start of the film but becomes unpredictable, aggressive and short-tempered. His suffers from PTSD after the murder of his sister in an alleyway. He is illustrated within the film as very tough due to him having a few bandages on his arms. Amelia is more upbeat and loving, and is shown to care immensely about her brother. The Homeless Man is portrayed as very deceptive, and is shown to only care about himself, greed and selfishness being his main motivations.

Equipment List

In order to film our final project the way we wanted to, we had to borrow equipment from the school. We therefore had to create an equipment list in order to book the equipment we needed and to see whether it was available. Listed below is the equipment list that we had put together:

- Tripod

- DSLR Camera

- Wide Angle Lens

- Lights (With Extensions) x3

- Shoulder Mount

- Dolly

- Sound Recorder

- DSLR Charger

- SD Card

- Extension Wire

Actors

During the process of getting actors for our film we had to take many different factors into consideration. For example, for the main actors we had in mind that we felt would be perfect for the parts, we had to speak to them in advance to see whether they would be able to act in our film or not. Once they said they were available (if they were), we then had to see how busy their schedules were and if they had any major events or deadlines coming up. By doing this, we were able to create a filming schedule with them, which was done by finding similar and convenient days for everyone to film. In addition to this, once this was completed, we also informed them what they needed to wear and that they would be sent the script so that they could go over it. This ensured that our film would be produced to a very high quality and so filming could be completed much quicker (which allowed us to see what needed to be reshot and what did/did not work).

Location Scouting

In preparation for the film, my partner and I needed to scout out locations so that we knew whether it was possible to film there or not. Furthermore, scouting locations enabled us to see the surrounding area and how we could use it to our advantage when filming, as we could find new ways of making our film more interesting to watch as we progressed. We needed two main locations, one interior location, preferably a house and one exterior location, preferably an alleyway in order to follow the idea of our story. The house was relatively easy to make a decision on, as we decided it would be more convienient to use my house, however the alleyway was a bit more difficult as we had a variety of different locations that we could use. We decided that we would leave that decision until a few days before we started filming as we would like to look at a few more locations before then, as we felt we would stumble upon a location that would be better suited towards our film. In the gallery below our the photos we took during our time location scouting:

We felt as if this would be a good place to film due to it being quite narrow and surrounded by buildings on either side, making a person walk through it feel uncomfortable and trapped, a way in which we wanted to portray Oliver.	This was one of the shots we took in my house and showcased the bed we were most probably going to use for Oliver's scenes during the film. We could easily create the Venetian blind effect as there was plenty of space behind the camera however our only major concern was that the actual bed itself may be too small.
This is another alleyway we felt we could use as again it is very narrow and surrounded by buildings, which creates that atmosphere of discomfort. However our only issue with this was that the alleyway was too close to neighbouring housing estates, and things such as plants and clothing drying could create inconsistency within shots and be very distracting.	This was a photo we took to show what the area around the alleyway locations were like. This enabled us to see what we could do in order to make our film more interesting, i.e. where we could place the camera to get a unique shot.
This photo of another option for Oliver's bed makes sense since it is much bigger and wider. However, there are a few problems with it. The bed is pushed up right against the wall, making moving it virtually impossible, as there is very limited space within the room. Another problem is that the lighting within the room is not very good, which may be a problem for us, as some of our film will have patches of colour in it.	We took this picture just to get an idea of the surrounding area and how we felt we could take advantage of it should we actually come to use a location around this area.
This was another image that showed how we were taking the surrounding area into consideration when location scouting. We did this as we felt it would enable us to generate more ideas and also help us create the atmosphere that we wanted to, that being very gloomy, eerie and confined.	This was another alleyway we thought we could use however I felt it was too wide, which was a problem since we wanted to make Oliver's character feel unsafe and insecure while walking through the alleyway. If we used this, I just felt it would not be believable.