Evaluation of Group Project

KAS PRODUCTIONS 

Due to the insufficient input that Simon failed to contribute, it was clear that the production name was incorrect and needed to change. Say hello to... 

KA PRODUCTIONS

KA Productions was our final group change and feels more right in terms of who should be credited for the work we produced.

I enjoyed working on this project with Keely. The communication that we have and understanding of each others views, have been amazing to experience. We both did equal amounts of work and expressed our ideas about the film with no problems. We always kept in constant contact to make sure nothing went misunderstood via text message, phone calls and e-mail.

In the editing process, we both played the role of editor and had a great time doing so. The film turned out exactly how we planned. The edits and effects, the cuts and timing and shots that we intended to do from the planning stages came out in our edits. The music we used fit the criteria of creating that eerie feel that we wanted and was composed in the right way. Keely and i were both happy with the input that Sacha had given us towards this part of the production.

There are a few minor details that could be improved in our film, one being the lighting, some of the footage was too dark as we had used lighting in a studio for the 1st time. It was a learning curve when we were using the lights, some were floor lights and the others were attached to the ceiling. The only trouble we had was that we could not use the ladder (due to health and safety reasons conducted by the college) to re-arrange the positioning of the lights. The other improvements and adjustments would be the sound. We used a boom mic which knowingly picks up every single noise, whether in the room out in the hall or even out of the building. Its amazing the dynamics that that microphone uses. 

The shots that we definitely needed to use sometimes had no sound at all or it peaked too high. In this case we try to bring down the gain or level of the sound for the footage that did carry sound, but its ambiance changed dramatically leaving some kind of unbalanced volume.

We tried our absolute best to carry off what we had to work with and i can gladly say i am happy with our end product as this is our 1st try.

Filming with the Cast and Crew

KAS PRODUCTIONS

After the pitch, a few days later i had an idea that i thought would make a more exciting production. A member of the panel told us that we should try and find a message or moral for our story and said we should play with the idea that "Phobia's" could be our main theme. Running with this idea, i started to mould a story-line that could grow with the groups input. After doing so i sent the idea over to Keely of which i told

 her to send it to Simon. She agreed that she liked the idea and would pass it on to our third member of the team.

We did not get no response from Simon claiming that he had received the new idea or whether he approved it. 

So in our next meeting Keely and i worked on the new script and treatment to fit our new idea. We de-cluttered the story to make it more simple as the phobia idea was too hard to follow. We went through a list of phobias from the website www.phobialist.com

And these so called phobias were very intriguing. Its amazing how for almost every action in life a phobia can be linked. There are crazy phobia's such as: 

Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.

Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind.(Ancraophobia)

Barophobia- Fear of gravity

Crystallophobia- Fear of crystals or glass

Sesquipedalophobia- Fear of long words

After realising that trying portray these kind of fears

 in our film, of which we wanted minimal dial

ogue would be very difficult because we wanted a more eerie approach that what could be salvaged out of this idea. So we came up with a new script and felt happy enough to proceed with our search for actors.

Within a matter of days, Keely received e-mails from actors who were interested in the project. Unfortunately some of the applicants dropped out last minute due to exams and such which left us with two main characters which you could say was ideal as we only needed to and we did not have to audition the actors. Up until the first day of filming we were lead to believe that we had secured our two main characters, but on that day we were notified that one actor could not do the project. We didn't really panic because Keely had smartly lined up another adequate actor for the role.

Meeting the two actors and filming was a joy to do, we came prepared to direct and film what we intended to and completed our tasks that were made out for that day.

For the entire time we filmed and created new scripts, storyboards and treatments etc, Simon did not show up. Keely and i made the group decision that we would not include Simon any further in the decision making and apart of our team.

Todays News Blog

Who's the Competition?

Choreographer and part-time student Stephanie Wilcox from London will take on an extremely exciting challenge next weekend. Fitness first and LA Fitness have given her the opportunity to create a successful workout video, that will be uploaded to the Internet for people to see. These gyms have sponsored the event to create the first fitness video competition.

The competition is to be held next weekend in London's Square Trafalgar for the whole 2 days. The clubs will set up booths from 8am to give out a limited amount of half price gym memberships and discounts to all students. They have also teamed up with Apple to promote awareness to non-competitors about the healthy choices one can make in their life, 2GB i-pods and accessories such as the armband for i-pod nanos will be given out to a mini competition contestants who win a game show styled quiz on fitness and the body.  An award of £1000 and a re-make of the amateur video that contestants would have previously made for their audition tapes will be just the beginning of the excitement that competitors will have to look forward to.

 

Wilcox is definitely up for the challenge, she told us:

“This is such a new form of competition and I’m so excited that I have made it so far in the competition. This week they have us running obstacle and assault courses to prove our strength. I’m a bit nervous about that because it’s something new to me, but I feel that I have the right mind-frame about winning and so I'm gaining more confidence.”

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodnano/  

 http://www.fitnessfirst.co.uk/

http://www.lafitness.co.uk/

THE PITCH! ooooooh

KAS PRODUCTIONS

On the day of the pitch the group and i were very nervous. On this occasion all members turned up and on time fully prepared on what we were gonna say. We divided up parts of the presentation that we thought members could identify more with i.e. the budget was something that Keely felt comfortable explaining, and the camerawork was something that Simon expressed great interest. I took on the role of storyteller because this was something that i was deeply in tune with. 

After pitching to the panel we were asked some questions that we thought there were obvious answers in our pitch.  We were given instruction on how to make our story and film more intense in terms of appearing like a thriller. We were also given ideas on how to improve our ideas and our way of thinking.

After the pitch the team felt like i story was not really accepted as a true production and so in the teams next meeting, we discussed the ways that we could improve of production for the better by taking in the suggestions the panel gave us. This was hard to do because we loved our idea and had details in it that we thought would give the project the edge that perhaps no other would come up with...We thought anyway!

More Pitch Prep

KAS PRODUCTIONS

We had to finalise all the paperwork that was required to give a successful pitch. The majority of the portfolio was done just to give a taster of what we can offer in our production. We simply brushed up on what we done and then tried to practice the way in which we would present it.

Our idea seemed solid and very practical. We worked on the idea intensely, trying to make our themes concrete and make the film entertaining. Keely had worked on the budget because she knew what she was doing, i haven't got a clue about numbers and figures. After she had estimated what budget we would be working with, it was shocking at the amount of money it would take to create such a small production. It really made me think about the contributions and possibly volunteer work that could be useful if you did not have to pay the whole crew for about 2 weeks work! 

MORE PAPER WORK FUN! lol

KAS PRODUCTIONS

It was now time to say hello to Shot lists, Shooting Scripts, Risk Assessments, call sheets, Contributor Release forms & Location Agreements, Shot notes/logging!

Keely and i spent the day going through all the paperwork that we done, trying to meet our own deadline in time for the actual pitch. Still we weren't getting much feedback from Simon and in terms of us having to work as a three we were kind of worried. We finally sent a message to him and he responded to us as if he has been recieving our e-mails. We gave him one task, which was to draw up a storyboard to go with the script that we had written.

All three of us got together to fill out the RECCE forms for our script and take photographs for our portfolio and build up our vision of the story. One of the places that we thought fit our plan well, was the Library on campus. We took photo's and filled out the forms and were happy with the idea that the library would match the scene we are trying to create. We left that day having discussed locations and coming up with a name for our mystery thriller "Trail".

The Lovely PAPERWORK!!

KAS PRODUCTIONS

Our next task was to get started on the paper work. In this lesson we did not see Simon and hadn't been able to contact him. As time was limited Keely and I figured that we would see him perhaps on another day as we could not reach him via text message, e-mail or phone call!

So we had decided that we had to proceed and do the things that would need immediate focus. 

• RECCE forms 
• Budget 
• Treatment
• Storyboard 

All these documents are important for the progression of the production and that's why we wanted to get them out of the way first even though a group member was not present.

                                                                                                                                                                         We began the Treatment and really got to mesh and mould our ideas solidly and i can say that both Keely and i are happy with what we achieved with the treatment and budget today. The rest of our post-production paperwork will be done as the week goes along.

Who are you?

KAS PRODUCTIONS

Production Roles

After discussing our film idea our next task was to assign ourselves production roles that best suits our personalities and skills. The roles that we needed to fill out were Producer, Director, Researcher, Storyboard Illustrator, Camera, Sound and Editor. We distributed out the roles evenly and according to personal experience and preference. Keely's roles are Director, Researcher and Sound, Simon's roles are Camera and Storyboard illustrator and mine are Producer and Editor.

After the roles were given out we had to begin our production process. This meant beginning research and writing our script and creating a production schedule.

Schedule

3 weeks pre-production

• Storyboard
• Script
• Treatment
• Budget
• RECCE
• Release forms
• Location
• Contributors

• Schedule
• 8 weeks
• Risk assessments
• Resource list
• Equipment
• Talent-Casting
• Costume
• Crew
• Props
• Set
• Poster advertising “Actors wanted”

2 weeks production

· Library scene

· Kitchen scene

· College library scene

· Dark room scene

· Inside Police station

· Outside Police station.

3 Weeks post-production

• Log and capture all the footage.
• Make rough cut
• Music
• Final edit

DEADLINE: 3^rd June 2008

The Idea

KAS PRODUCTIONS

So the original idea of doing a Digital design documentary was discarded as being boring and something that we couldn't all relate to. Although this idea would have been boring to only me and Keely, Simon was out numbered and he decided to join forces to create something original. I could fairly say that Simon's idea would have been a test of our production skills and how we could turn something so different into something with a twist and make it our own as a team, but we realized that we wanted to create an idea from scratch and build on it using things we have learnt in semester one.

                                                                                                                                                                          

The 2nd idea that we then came up with after the digital design idea, was to create a Mystery Thriller that is a sub-genre to a Drama. This idea is about a boy being followed and he progressively becomes paranoid and starts to loose focus in his life. The audience watching the film would be in the same position as the main character of which he doesn't know who is stalking him, but clues are to be put in place so then at the final reveal of who it is would become blantently obvious after reviewing how the film went.

Pitch Prep!

KAS PRODUCTIONS

The Pitch Preparation

I am apart of a production team called KAS Productions. The name was created by the first initial of the team Members name: Keely, Aleicia and Simon. We thought that this name would easily make our company recognizable and easy to understand what the letters stood for. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

In preparation for our Pitch to a panel of executive Producers from broadcasting networks, we had to come up with ideas that could possibly make a good film that our target audience would enjoy. We brainstormed ideas and wrote them down. An idea that came natural to our team member Simon was Digital design. He thought that we should consider documenting the technique that is involved in creating that kind of production. As this was something that Keely and I had not had any insight of, we agreed that this could be something that we could research and learn as we go along. After discussing this in much more detail, it became apparent that the idea was boring and could possibly ruin our chances of using our creativity for a production we could enjoy and be proud of. In our next meeting, our feelings were shared with Simon and he agreed that our new idea sounded promising, but we could tell that he only said this as he was out numbered.

SEMESTER TWO

The "Saline" Experience!

SALINE

Yesterday the class and i were invited down to Weston Beach by an Independant Film Company called Perciville Productions. They were shooting a short film called Saline of which the two main characters where from Weston College. We went down there to help on the set as a bit of a taster of the production process and be runners for the day. The crew were very helpful and informative about the business of making films and working on television. We were told that there are long days and long nights involved in making a film and about dressing the set to make the production a success and even more, believeable!

We basically had go fetch and carry items and equipment back and forth from the Hotel that the team were staying in and barracade certain parts of the beach so on-lookers didn't walk into shot. Also, we had to deliver information to the public if they asked any questions about what was happening on the beach. From this experience i found out that i definately do not want to be a producer or a director or anybody that has to be on set right in the midst of chasos when something goes wrong or is delayed. I can say that being on the set for less than 2 hours definately steered me away from that side of things. You certainly have to have patience and i know i don't have that...yet! If there is a way, i will try and learn to get some to improve my way of looking at things.

My Conclusion of Semester One

Coming into this course i had a vague idea of what was to come and what i was about to learn. I have actually been suprised by the curriculum and i am very happy about the things i have learned in semester one. Starting with script writing was really exciting for me as i have never done something in the league we were taught in. The amount of thought and depth that I learned must be put in them was a good way to test if i was ever capable of writing a script for any situation i.e. Leaving Home and my thoughts about Radio, written in the form of a story, very descriptive and readable for radio. Working with Pro Tools was also very new to me, previously, the softwares i had used for editing audio were; Adobe Audition and Garageband and have been introduced to Reason and Cubase but have never really got the chance to understand it and learn how to use it properly. After Gill had taught me the basic elements of using Pro Tools, i feel that i am much more confident in using the software. The phrase "Vox Pop", was also very new to me, after doin media studies for 5 years from GCSE's through to A-Levels and 1 year at my previous university, i had never come across the phrase Vox Pop but had definately done that form of interviewing on several occasions. From experiencing one semester at Weston College, sometimes i wonder if i was ever being taught anything properly previously, it feels like i have learnt more important things and the curriculum actually makes sense and teaches what it says in the title of the course! I have also learnt that creating the right interview/vox pop question is the best way to get the right editable answer without too many prompts from the interviewer. Working in a group always proves very difficult for me, but this time round i have found an easier way of dealing with this kind of task. The group members assigned themselves roles that made it much easier to know what was going on, we all knew what we had to do and just got on with what with it. The ideas were diliberated on excessively to make sure that we had covered all the important areas and topic of our show, and made the absolute best of what we had. I thouroughly enjoyed that project and i am totally happy with the outcome of our radio production. Overall, i have learnt something from every lesson i have attended and so far happy with my progress, i am also excited to know what is to come.

The British Board of Film Censors

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912, and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984.

Designed to keep the public and the industry informed about the work of the BBFC, this website includes 

up to the minute information about classification decisions; the policies and Guidelines used by the BBFC when

 classifying a work; how to submit a film, DVD or video game for classification as well as information about the BBFC.

In 1984 Parliament passed the Video Recordings Act. This act stated that, subject to certain exemptions, video recordings offered for sale or hire commercially in the UK must be classified by an authority designated by the Secretary of State. The  President and Vice Presidents of the BBFC were so designated, and charged with applying the new test of 'suitability for viewing in the home'. At this point the Board's title was changed to British Board of Film Classification to reflect the fact that classification plays a far larger part in the Board's work than censorship.

The BBFC classifies films on behalf of the local authorities who license cinemas under the Licensing Act 2003. The BBFC classifies videos, DVDs and some digital works under the Video Recordings Act 1984.  (The digital works covered by the VRA are those whose exemption is forfeited under section 2(2) because they depict human sexual activity, gross violence or other matters of concern.)

 The BBFC will not classify material which it believes to be in breach of the criminal law. Where possible the BBFC will carry out its responsibilities through appropriate use of the classification categories, particularly in order to protect children from actual or potential harm.  If necessary, however, the Board may cut or even reject a film, video, DVD or digital work.  The Board's approach to rejects is set out at the end of these Guidelines.