It's All Over!

So today was our last day at uni. We handed in our final projects we have been working so hard on for the past 4 and I have to say I am really proud of them all. Even though I have a few issues with the final films I know how much hard work went into them and what a challenge these projects have been.

I know that working on 3 projects was a bit to much for me but I know that I worked as hard as I could and did everything I could for Maddie, Dan and Dean and their projects. However if I had of only concentrated on 1 or 2 I would have had more time to work hard for me by getting my report done earlier and updating my blog more frequently and job hunted before leaving uni but I simple haven't had the time.

I have had an amazing time at uni even though this year has been such a struggle for me. I know that I have worked so so hard this year and I have done the best I can and I just hope that Simon can see that.

I'm scared about what the future holds for me but I am excited to get stuck into the industry and start climbing that ladder to becoming a producer.

Surveys

To help with our report I thought it would be a good idea to get feedback from  the cast and crew members who worked on all 3 projects to find out how professional they thought the shoots were and what they thought about me, Maddie, Dan and Dean in he roles we had chosen to take on.

I created these surveys and sent it to all of our cast and crew on each project. As it was an anonymous questionnaire I asked everyone to be as honest as possible.

Click here for the Totally Maisy survey

Click here for the Love Always survey

Click here for the If I Was King survey

We got some lovely feedback from people and they let us know what we did well and what we could improve upon.

I found this a very beneficial tool as it was great to get feedback from people to help improve in the future and to build my confidence as a producer.

How To Make Independent Films

I have just found this website and it has really given me good advice on what kind of people I need to hire for my project and also helped me define my role a bit more. It explains everything to think about when making an independent film and it has helped me to decide what credits everyone involved should get.

http://www.independentfilmadvice.com/IndependentFilmAdvice.com/Filmmakers_Home.html

As I was reading through the website and they were giving me advice on certain parts of the production I realised that these were actually the steps I took when making Love Always and they are also things I need to remember when making Totally Maisy and If I Was King.

Love Always - Shoot Day 4

Today was our last day of filming at Kent Life and Love Always.

The day started off quite slowly as we did not have a room to set up in and so had to be outside on 2 picnic benches as all the function rooms were being used for school trips.

This is the hair and make up station.

Also there was quite alot of traffic which also slowed us down but once everyone was there and hair and make up was done we were ready to go. We knew today was going to be quite a simple but intense day as we still had 13 scenes to film but 9 of them had no dialogue and were quiet short which made things easier. But we also had to get voiceovers and establishing shots which we tried to do during costume changes.

We scheduled the scenes with just Mary on her own last so that we could wrap the other actors as soon as possible.

Some of the scenes performed today were very intense as Tara gave an amazing performance as Mary and I hope that the emotion that we all felt on set translates well into the final piece.

We had a few more issues with Kent life about what time we had to be finished by but we managed to get everything we wanted done so thats alright. 

We then had to head off to Aylseford and Boxley for 2 quick scenes which we managed to get before the sun went down.

Love Always - Its A Wrap

We've finished all the filming for Love Always and I am really happy with how everything went. It has made me realise that I want to be a producer even more.

I did learn a few things like how important it is to get a location agreement so that you have in writing what times you are allowed to be on site.

I also learnt the importance of a good crew. We had quite a large crew for a student production on the shoot days alone and they were all phenomenal no one let the team down, we all worked really well together and everyone was lovely to be around.

Now the filming has wrapped it does not mean my job is over. I need to supervise the edit to make sure Tim is creating the story in the way we discussed and I also need to find certain people to make different sound layers.

I have put a casting call on Music Network Pro for a composer to score the film. I have contacted someone about producing some Foley for the film and I need to find a sound designer to make sure all of the dialogue is clear.

I am really excited about seeing all our hard work come together and see how well we have achieved a period piece on a student budget.

Love Always - Shoot Day 3

Today we had a different hair stylist and we had 2 extra cast members. We had Ollie playing Arthur and Louie playing Johnny.

Today Dan and I decided to use 2 cameras so that we could speed up the filming of each scene.

We had never worked with children on a shoot before and I have to say it was quite and experience and we all learnt a lot. At the beginning of the day he was willing to do a lot but by the end he didn't want to act anymore. I changed the schedule round a bit so that Louie would get lots of breaks. These breaks ended up being quite long and so I think he tired himself out. In hindsight we should have made his breaks shorter so that he was willing to do more acting but still getting time to rest. In the afternoon when he said he didn't want to do it anymore we still had 5 scenes left to film with him. 2 we tricked him into doing by creating a game out of it and we managed to get a good shot as we had a 3 camera coverage. The other 3 we decided they could work without him and so we had to quickly write him out and plan to film those scenes on another day.

On some of the scenes I had to put in my creative input as I did not like the lighting in the shot and so I was suggesting how we could create a better look by using different lights and positioning them in certain places.

Today there were a few more members of the public and so we had to make sure we told them what we were doing.

We had more issues with Kent Life today to do with times and areas we could use. Today they said we could stay till 5:30 but they also said that we could not use our base room tomorrow as they had schools coming in and so we had to move all of our stuff. So we had to make sure we had as many scenes as we could filmed by 5 so that then we had half an hour to pack up and get out.

I went home and amended the schedule so that we could make sure we got any scenes we hadn't filmed  on the other 3 days filmed on the last day as filming.

Love Always - Shoot Day 2

Today was our first day at Kent life. The location is absolutely perfect.

Once everyone had arrived and settled down I gave a speech about health and safety and what was going to happen that day.

I over looked every scene making sure everything was done like we planned and was looking the way we wanted it to. I was also making sure everyone was happy and getting sufficient breaks.

Everyone worked well together. Costume changes and certain scenes were taking longer than expected which meant that we ended up running behind schedule. When we got to the end of the day there were a couple of scenes we had not managed to film. Either because we ran out of time or they included our actor who was playing Arthur who was ill and so was not able to make it today. Also Kent Life came and told us that we were supposed to be out by 5 when originally we had been told we could stay until 6 and so this also cut our schedule short as we had to make sure that we were out earlier than planned.

As soon as I got home from the shoot I amended the schedule so that we were filming the scenes we missed out on today on another day. I realised that we needed to speed things up if we wanted to get everything filmed.

Love Always - First Shoot

Today the main section of the film we wanted to get shot was the falling in love montage between Frank and Mary. We had to get these shots today as we were planning to film at the salute to the 40's event at Chatham Dockyard.

Before we went to this event we had planned to film 2 scenes. One was where Frank takes the first letter from Mary and the other was when Mary posts her final letter to Arthur. We only had time to film one of these scenes in the end as there was so much traffic and we were trying to film around the passing cars so that the film was more authentic.


I told Dan that we had to drop the scene with Mary on her own as we did not have time to shoot it as it was already 2:30 and we needed to get to Chatham to film before the event ended at 5.

When we got to the location I was blown away by how perfect the location was. As it was a salute to the 40's event nearly everyone who attended was in costume and so we had extras that we didn't even have to dress, we had genuine 1940's transport moving in and out of our shots and we had loads of WW2 props available to us. I knew that this was the perfect place to film Frank and Mary's montage but unfortunately for this shoot day I ended up looking after the bags as everyone else needed to be with the action. This put a bit of doubt in my mind about my role but I soon realised that this was a lesson for me. I learnt that on the other shoot days I would need to make sure that there was a production assistant to take care of the smaller jobs so that I could concentrate on producing.

Keeping Costs Down

As of course we are all students we want to cut costs where we can especially when it comes to running a production.

From working on a few professional productions I have realised that they get alot of there snacks and drinks for cast and crew from companies for free. I thought this might work for my productions and so I emailed loads of drinks and snacks companies to see if there was any way they could help me out by giving me a free sample to feed and hydrate my crews.

These are the companies who kindly sent me products to help me feed my crew.

 

Love Always Update On Crew

We have most of our crew together now.

• Writers - Maddie Ireland and Dean Ross
• Director - Dan Baugh
• Producer - Hennie Clough
• Wardrobe - Emily - Jane Curtin from Ravensbourne College
• Camera - Sam Creamer
• Lighting - Michael Bonnar from Film and TV Pro
• Editor - Timothy Last from Ravensbourne College

All I need to find is a sound person who can record on the day and create atmosphere in post and then nearer the shoot we need to decide who our production assistant and director assistant will be.

Love Always - Panic Over

It has only taken me a day and everything is re-arranged. I have spoken to the wardrobe girl, the crew, the cast and the location and everyone is fine with changing the dates.

Here is the knew schedule:

• Friday 20th September - Script read through with all of the cast and the crew and wardrobe girl will also attend to meet everyone for the first time.
• Saturday 21st September - Filming relationship montage sequence as we will be attending the Salute to the 40's event at Chatham Dock Yard.
• Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th - We will be filming the rest of the project at Museum of Kent Life in Maidstone.

By pushing the dates back means that we can be filming from the best script we can possibly get and it also gives the wardrobe girl more time to get the costumes together.

Update On My Role

After speaking to Simon I understand my role a lot more and I know I need to use this blog to show everything I am doing.

As a producer I have been location scouting, casting and holding auditions, finding appropriate crew and liaising with everyone involved in the project. I have been researching different information for each project to help me make both fit their platform and reflect the time period they are set in. I have been reading through all of the scripts and giving my creative feedback on the parts that I like and those I think need to be changed. I have also been giving creative input in to how I think each project should look including shots, graphics, editing and style.

On Monday, we had our first day back at uni and we had our first meeting with our tutor Simon in which he explained that he did not think the script was ready yet. This panicked us all as we were supposed to be filming in 10 days. Dan was fighting his case on why he thought we should stick to the original dates and Simon was saying why he shouldn't. I listened to both sides and and as a producer I put my point across and persuaded Dan to move the dates. I thought that there was no reason to waste peoples time filming a script which was not quite ready and so it would be better to push the dates back. I could see how  disappointed Dan was but I am sure that he sees it is the best decision in the long run. I could see that he started to panic about the project as we had everything organised for those dates but I reassured him that I would sort it and everything would be ok.

Love - Always Package

This is all of the things we want to include in the package for Love Always to show all of the work we have done and to show that we have thought about everything. 

We have a graphics designer on board to help make the documents look professional and fit the tone and style of the film which is amazing. We have also already sourced a vintage suitcase to put everything in so that it is all kept together and also relates to the film.

Love Always - Choosing The Cast

Today me, Maddie and Dan had a production meeting to discuss the script and to finalise a cast.

Me and Dan had individually looked through all of the video auditions and looked back through the tapes of the Maidstone auditions and picked our favorites for each role.

Luckily for us we had actually chosen the same people and so there was no arguing on who our cast would be which was great. As Maddie was there she had a chance to look at the cast and confirmed that we had made the right decision.

Here is our cast. (From Left to Right) Tara Dowd playing Mary, Ollie Matjasz playing Arthur, Eliza Jade playing Alice and Benedict Smith playing Frank.

Production Schedule

As I am working on Dan's, Maddie's and Dean's projects, I decided that I needed to get organised and so I made this schedule. I did one for each project and then combined them.

Love Always - Auditions

Today we had the auditions for Dan's project. We held the auditions at Stepping Stones studios in Maidstone which was a great space for auditions.

On Casting Call Pro we had 50 people apply and I had been speaking to over half of them and told them all when the auditions where but the day before we only had 10 definitely turning up and as the auditions got closer it dropped to 7 for different reasons. We only had girls audition which was a bit disappointing as we need to find a Frank.

Before auditioning we had each performer fill out a form which would benefit us when looking for costumes and making our choices. We also gathered together head shot and full length pictures for the wardrobe girl so she could get a better understanding of what the characters would look like in their costumes.

The girls we saw were good and we have a few people sending video auditions. I'm going to pick my favorites and then me and Dan can discuss on Sunday who we think should become our cast.

Love Always - Locations

On Saturday 21st September there is a 1940's event on at Chatham Dock Yard called Salute To The 40's.

We have decided that this will be a brilliant place to record the relationship montage between Frank and Mary as the setting will be 1940's many of the guests will be dressed in 1940's and there will also be 1940's music and activities going on.

Love Always - Locations

Today me and Dan went and had a look around the Museum of Kent Life as we found out that they have a WW2 vintage village which we thought we maybe able to use for some of the locations in the film.

http://www.kentlife.org.uk/discover-kent-life/vintage-village.aspx

The locations were absolutely perfect. There were 2 vintage houses which both had the rooms we needed to use and they were all fully dressed which is perfect as it means we don't need to source as many props.

Seeing these amazing locations today as made me feel really excited about this project and it feels like its starting to come together.

Love Always - Costumes

For this project I have found an amazing girl called Emily-Jane Curtin who has been so helpful and hard working. She is creating the looks for each character and sourcing all of the costumes. She is a graduate from Ravensbourne college. She studied Film Production and as worked on many different projects.

She has also managed to find a hair stylist and a make up artist to help on the project. She produced this mood board to show the make up artist and hair stylist the look she was looking for for each character.

I have been liaising with her about the style of each character throughout the whole project and we are definitely on the same page. She will also be making up some mood boards for each of the characters wardrobe which will be good to see and visualize more what the characters will look like on the day. 

Love Always Music

Very early on I realised that making this project authentic was going to be a real challenge and if we could pull it off then it would be amazing. One of the first things I thought about is that if we want to use atmospheric music or have something playing on the radio it needed to fit in with the time period. I knew that we would not be able to get copy right to use big well know recordings of war time songs and so I began to contact 1940's style bands and singers. 

I first went through agencies and didn't really get anywhere. When I found out about the Salute to the 40's event I saw that they had bands and artists performing and so I contacted them directly.

There are 2 female singers who have offered to help us for free by giving us copies of their recordings and in return have asked for us to make them a promotional video.

The 2 ladies are:

Madeline Brown - http://www.madelinebrown.co.uk/

 

Fiona Harrison - http://www.fionaharrison.biz/index.htm#.UjCP7Makr9s