Production log week 3

During this week i began filming however with a slight change of plan, the person who agreed to be in my film had a lot of catch-up work that he needed to do therefore he decided to opt out, so this went hand in hand as it opened a opportunity for me which lead to me finding both potential actors, Daniel O. and Rauf. They both agreed to partake in my project after i showed them my script, without further ado i added them both to the group chat and following the production schedule we started filming the first few scenes.
Working on this project as an individual allowed me to distinctly address how each shot i wanted which gave me a great understanding of being a director. We managed to film majority of the project from start 3/4's, the actors were easy to work with since they were both close friends and Rauf had expertise in the acting field.
After the shooting i uploaded the footage onto final cut pro and started editing a small segment of the first interactions.

In conclusion this week the constraints we faced were mainly to do with time management, a member of the cast was unable to film therefore further actions were to be taken, this would mean that new cast members were needed to be recruited while simultaneously also all have a mutual slot in their timetable to be able to film.

Pitch presentation

weekly production log 2

This week i finished my proposal pitch to the class. I think i got my idea across quite well, i explained the general idea of what i wanted to create, discussed the potential outcome of performing such project and got the class involved by acting out the short script, it was overall compelling.
.In duration the teaser/short film should be between a minute to 2 minutes.

After the pitch, i worked on the feedback and began looking at possible additional locations i could shoot at, shooting at south-bank seems a little generic but considering the crowds i think it would be a suitable place to film at, it should have a decent.

The pre-production work is also being finished alongside continuous research. During this week i also began scouting for potential cast members who fit the role i am looking for, i found a person willing to do it and had a strong connection with the script and he also is interested in the 'Mandela effect', nonetheless Marco was passionate for this role, i'm yet to secure another person.

Audience research and secondary research

For the production i am making i researched into specific audiences, the genre of the overall production is mystery. Mystery can be seen as a typical Sherlock movie this would appeal to slightly older audiences but mystery could also imply, using a TV show as a example, 'the stranger things', for this example the audience is more varied, it is entertaining as it generalises on the unknown, i.e the supernatural therefore it can be seen as a completely different genre than the first example being Sherlock.

Age: 17-26

The starting point is at 17, this is because at 17 you are more likely to start thinking about world issues and such but the actors are also young which allows me to lean towards a more diverse audience creating a general message.I decided set cap on 26 since this is a minor production and the dialogue uses a lot of informal dialogue.

Gender: Male/female as it appeals to both genres through wanting to know the secrets behind it all.

Socio economic grouping: C-E's.

I've also looked into many sources as secondary research which i'll be assessing and determining if it will make a great impact on my project in general.

I had a look at mystery as a genre using the source, IMDb website, the biggest film database the genre still sits stably on the first page, it has declined over the past years until the Film 'Get Out' came out which serves as catalyst for the revival of the mystery genre, using this to my advantage i'm confident that creating a mystery type production will gain an audience.




To stabilise on the idea I've decided on, I've researched into the Mandela effect, this is because my project is a similar projection and has the same connotation with the conspiracy, I've used google trends to give me an idea of how popular the Mandela effect currently is, google is currently one of the largest search engines on the web and also a reliable and efficient way to find answers,  google trends allows insight on what people i.e public, in media terms the audience search for and at what given day and time, the results I've got showed me that there is a insane peak of interest over the last year. At this point the overall conspiracy is still clouded and controversial therefore it is the current talk of the town, therefore in conclusion this would be a great time to promote my project in relation to it.

production schedule

Cast list

Weekly production log 1

From this week on we are to plan to produce an individual original media product, this can be another advert, music video, documentary, game shows etc. During this week i decided to focus my research on adverts, this is because it doesn't limit the possible ideas available out there, however i didn't want to advertise a product therefore which lead me to making a Short movie teaser which could be also shown on TV as a advert.

I looked into different trailers out there and gained some inspiration on what type of teaser i wanted to do, some teasers do not have dialogue, this is because it usually has dramatic music over it to create suspense moreover they are all segments of the whole film being put together in one piece, however for my project i plan to engage the audience through a introduction dialogue.

Having a clear idea of what i wanted to do i began working on the mood board, this consisted of images that would first come to mind when creating this project, this included a disappearing person, friends arguing, a urban London estate park and i got inspiration from Michael Jackson's thriller ending which i wanted to implement something similar in regards to the evil laugh at the end.

Constraints

Time

To break things down in segments starting with time constraints this may be our biggest trivial since our cast and i all have separate time tables and classes, this will mean that during our production everything needs to be planned out to not waste any unnecessary time. During the filming sequence we need to ensure that each and everyone of us knows exactly what we are doing, by any chance if we've gone over the production schedule dates it would be slightly difficult for the other cast members to a lot additional time to the project since it is such a crucial time and everyone is busy with work. In addition to this communication is key to ensure that we get our project does not get postponed due to continuity issues, if we were to film additional scenes we need to make sure that the weather is relatively the same compared to the previous shootings this may hinder our availability in contrast upon it. Measures from my end are also taken to ensure that the actors are aware to wear the same clothes if we are to re-shoot some scenes by messaging them as a reminder a day before filming.

Costs and personnel:

For this project, cost shouldn't be an issue for us since we do not need to use any props nor costumes. The cast are all mutual friends therefore we do not need to pay for any actors, however this does not mean that it will hinder the overall quality of the production due to inexperienced actors, one of our actors Rauf is a aspiring actor who has great acting skills hence doing drama as a subject. The other actor Daniel is close friends with Rauf therefore it will inevitably create a natural flow during their interaction making it look realistic as genuine friends.

The cast and crew consists of only us three, however due to Daniel O. and Rauf not , it would take quite some time during the first few days to get them within shot and understand the general idea in terms of camera language and how i want the shots to be perfected/portrayed. Other than that in relation to time management we will just need to communicate efficiently in group chat if one of us doesn't make it according to the production schedule beforehand

Location:

Location wouldn't be an issue for us since we are due to film a government property i.e a park, the park we've selected should allows us to film whenever we want as there isn't any closing times.

Safety constraints:

If we were to film during the park, there may be children present therefore we should keep this already have this in mind to ensure that the children are kept within safe distance from the cast crew and equipment. 

Questionaire

For primary research i produced a questionnaire to get a general idea on how the public views the genre mystery in a movie.

Here are the responses i've got

Moodboard

Location reece

I had multiple changes of location throughout pre-production, this was because i had many ideas i wanted to implement and the location can severely change the 'mood' of the overall production.
At first i ideally wanted to use basement to provide an eerie feeling but there wasn't any in place or available for us. The main idea behind it was having two friends in a spooky spider web-filled basement watching movies while chilling, a controversial conversation takes place and then one friend suddenly disappears. This would serve as a perfect location since the basement will have natural and dim lighting.

Because the first idea of an location was unavailable i was split between two choices, south bank bridge and a London estate, i chose south bank bridge because it would be normal to see two friends hanging out and i could show a bit of the landscape and environment as fillers for intros or end credits. The other choice i had was an London estate, this location makes it seem like a generic location for teenagers from south London, similar style to the movie 'Fish Tank'. In the end i decided to go with the estate since south bank bridge would be likely to be busy and filming in the park estate will allocate more time into perfecting each shot.

London estate:

Prop list

- My iphone which has a custom 'siri' voiceover enabled.

Secondary research

I've looked into different teasers online, mystery teasers in particular do not use much dialogue to build suspense.

witness change:

At the nearly end of the clip i got inspiration from Michael jackson's triller how he breaks the forth wall and stares directly at the camera, i plan to use this to create a creepy effect right at the end of the teaser.

The genre mystery does sell well as the film 'Get Out' made over 100million at the box office. I had a look at mystery as a genre using the source, IMDb website, the biggest film database the genre still sits stably on the first page, it has declined over the past years until the Film 'Get Out' came out which serves as catalyst for the revival of the mystery genre, using this to my advantage i'm confident that creating a mystery type production will gain an audience.

In relation to current word events, I've researched into something called the Mandela theory which has been something that has been widely debated and talked about, the Mandela theory is that we live in an alternate universe, and some of us have false memories, there are many opinions on this and because of the unsurety it is a good chance to release a film with similar contextually.

Job roles

Script for short film

Script

Between 2 characters: 1 and 2

What if something you saw today, never existed tomorrow.

What if your memories are lying to you, but as soon as you found out you got replaced.

1Idea dialogue, “ Haha did you see what donald trump say yesterday in the conference”

2“Who’s donald trump?”

1“You for real,  you living in the last century, he's the president of the united states”

2“No its not, its bin laden”

1“Your not serious man”

2“Google it or something”

1(make siri say the president of united states is osama bin laden)

Daniel fades away>

2“Daniel?”

Another daniel comes back,

1“I’m here”

2“So who's the president then?”

1“Its osama bin laden”

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In cinemas now