Recce

Today Myself, Clarice and Robin went to Stradbroke to see if the location would be a good place to short our short film "morning glory". I feel the location is excellent and should work well for the film as it is suburban and quiet without being desolate. The location also has an excellent park we can use that is wide, modern and with excellent scenery in the distance. below are pictures taken by Robin of the location.

Group Meeting

Today we had a large group meeting with many details finally ironed out.

Clarice showed us her script breakdown sheets which we went through and added a few extra points (e.g. missed props)

We discussed the child actors and which one would be more suitable, ultimately we decided Courtney would be the best choice and contacted the Tykes 2000 manager Gaynor where she said she would let Courtney now about the filming.

We talked about which actress we want. We couldn't decide between Jess and Dianne. Unfortunately when contacting Dianne she was unavailable for the dates we needed to film. Jess however was available and had been very enthusiastic so we chose her

We are going to film on November 8th to 9th as it would be when Courtney is best available with more time for us to film if necessary

We have since decided against filming in Crosspool as it would be too busy. instead the group will have a recce report at Stradbroke to see if that place would be suitable for filming.

Equipment- such as a Canon 650D for robin the Cinematographer and a Mirantz 661 for Dan the sound recordist.

Tykes 2000 Child actor auditions

Today I drove myself, Dan Walsh and Alice Hathaway to Barnsley to go to a Tykes 2000 child acting agency to sit in on a session of 7.15pm – 8-15pm. Tykes 2000 were extremely helpful and cooperative and even set up exercises related to the film (starting a new job and asking a girl out.)

Dan, Alice and I all agreed there were 2 kids were would be excellent for the role, Courtney and Alan.
Courtney was the better actor but may be too small, though that could work to our advantage due to how small the character is, if we were to use courtney he would only be available Friday and the weekend. 


Alan is taller but I feel not as strong of an actor. he would be available all week but he does not yet have his licence and would need to get it but courtney does have his.    

Below are pictures of our 2 potential child actors:

 Courtney Rezvani

Alan Jedrzejczkyz

Auditions

I have been working with Clarice to set up auditions for the character of Georgia, while unfortunately we had no luck finding any actress's for the part on any sites like Star Now or Casting Call pro, but we have had responses from the SHU drama society. Yesterday they were auditioned by giving them a scene from the script for which they read the lines. Below is a video of the auditions, I am playing the role of Nathan so the actress's playing Georgia.

Shot list

I have worked with my cinematographer to create a shot list. We have tried to use shots that emphasise how alone and small Nathan is as well as include shots with movement to add energy when needed and close ups that may emphasise Georgia's beauty

https://excel.office.live.com/x/ExcelView.aspx?FBsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdownload%2Ffile_preview.php%3Fid%3D660262244006070%26time%3D1387210432%26metadata&access_token=648911596%3AAVKgIDnw6LriQOz88ZGtCq9H5OCRyURr-NZRrsk4V66kqA&title=Morning+Glory+Shot+List.xls

Morning Glory Draft 2

The script is largely similar but one scene has been added that was suggested by Dan Walsh and written by me.

Morning Glory Draft

This is the first draft of my new script "Morning Glory" as per Annie's suggestion I tried to make Georgia more unobtainable by having Nathan embarrass himself in front of her before he gets to her house, I also used the added a empty park scene and made Nathan's first route much more lonesome though there is a dog walker and jogger like you may see early in the morning.

I have sent this script to Annie as well as my group and await feedback for any changes, but we will also start the pre production so we are able to stay on schedule. 

Response From Annie

I have received a response via e-mail from Annie. she has sent the following in response to my script.

Hi Alex

This is very speedy and a very good script – impressive!

In general, it works well as a film script, but I'd like you to focus more on the landscape – think more about how the streets look that he walks down – could he go through a park? What's the sound? What else does he see? Think about creating an atmosphere, rather than showing the delivery of the papers. At this stage (for this film) I am less interested in the other people that he delivers to. This film should be only about the atmosphere and the woman. There's a very funny line about dirty magazines – it's nicely timed, but I think you should use him and his internal voice as a narrative force rather than the aspect of 'the other boy's round', as this is explored in the major project.

Sorry, I'm typing this quickly as I have a meeting, but what I'm trying to communicate is that you should put visual/aural atmosphere and emotional response to the woman first, rather than details of the paper round.

I hope this helps. Let me read another draft when you have one.

Annie

I have started writing a new script that fits Annie's suggestions and hope to have a finished draft that my group can work on very soon.  

Script 1st Draft

I have completed a first draft of the script which is titled "First Edition". The script has been shown to the rest of the group and feedback has been positive. I have also sent this script to my tutor on this project Annie Watson who will hopefully give useful feedback. 

1st Semester Brief

Today we were given our Briefs for the film we must make this semester, our brief is the following:

"Create an interesting, engaging and atmospheric early morning scenario between a 13 year old boy and his unattainable person of desire."

I feel this is an excellent brief as it addresses the challenges I will be facing in my main project. In order to address this brief I will immediately working with my group to find actors and locations as well as start working on a script based on the brief. This script will take into account the relationship between the two character as well as have great description of the environment to aid in making it an atmospheric piece. I will also try to use this script to begin casting for my main project and to use similar areas as the "Paper Chase" script has.

Post confirmation group meeting

Today we had a group meeting on planning for the project, during this meeting we reminded ourselves of the narrative, themes, mood and inspiration. for example I discussed how the mood should be relatively positive, which should affect our choice in actors.

we also talked about location, after visiting the area at the weekend, I concluded that crosspool is too populated and too close to a main road, Clarice then suggested Stradbroke near sheffield as she knew the area and had contacts such as shop we may be able to use in filming.

During the meeting I helped Dan Walsh write an email to his former Acting Agency head, the e-mail while friendly was formal and made clear the professional intention of the project. I also worked with Clarice on a public notice to place on several local acting Facebook groups such as the "SHU Drama Society" page and "Stand By Method Acting School."

I also announced that I had begun writing the script for the 5 min project to be completed this term and hoped to have a draft by Tuesday.

Project Confirmation

Today I read on shuspace that I am to direct my project that I have pitched. I have informed the rest of my group and we agreed to meet on monday to begin planning in greater detail.

Pitch Round 2

Todays pitch went excellently, though in some ways the pitch was similar to last time, we addressed all the notes from the previous pitch and placed them into this powerpoint as can be seen below.

The pitch certainly went better than last time which gives me great hope that my film will be chosen.

Art Director Found.

Today we acquired an art director for the film. Alice Hathaway has been brought on to provide Costumes, props, location dressing, make up and any other duties necessary to make an excellent film. I have fully informed Alice about the film and how what needs to be done for the 2nd round of pitching. after reading the script she then went through ideas she had for Costumes, props, location dressing and make up. These ideas were then placed into the presentation for the next day.

Interior shop scouting

Today I went to our possible interior shop, whilst there we discussed possible filming times. obviously the shop owner doesn't want us there during business hours. This gives us two possibilities, on weekdays the shop shuts at 7pm and we can have it from then, or on a Sunday the shop shuts at 3pm which I think would be a better time. I shall discuss this with my group later. 

Pitching Round 1

Today we pitched our Idea to Annie Watson and Chris Hall. The pitch went excellently with the group scoring "High" on everything apart from Having a ready crew which was a medium due to not having an art director.  after the pitch we were handed notes and asked to address the following issues.

1. Get an art director in the room next week and have them talk about the look.
2.Talk more about the motivations of your main character
3.Clarify Georgia- age, look, visual references. 
4.What is the overall feel of the film?
5. what are the age of the boys?
6. use more visual references 
7.use music examples during pitch.
8.Describe in detail the "paper round-off"
9.Who is the main character?
10. How does georgia save Nathan's job? 


I will make sure to address these issues for the next presentation. 

Below are the slides from the presentation itself.