Kim’s Weblog

Pre-Production- Two Adverts

October 23, 2009 at 9:03 pm (A2 Coursework- Preproduction)

In order to complete the production of our TV adverts we have to combine all our prior research we have found and formulate the story boards, script, narrative/script, find actors and locations and fill in the appropriate sheets.

We all took on our own roles within the preproduction these can be found on my previous post http://kimriw.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/research-perfume-analysis/ and the work carried out by each team member can be found on their blogs:

Christina:christina1200.wordpress.com

Amber: Ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com

Elliott: Elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com

Before beginning my role of creating the storyboards  I made a miniature mind map for each advert involving the type of location we wanted, the actors, costumes, props, and narrative, I did this so that I knew everything was in one place so that I can reference back to it throughout the preproduction and production.

To create the story boards I need to work with Amber to find out which camera angles she felt she would like to use for each shot, I also needed the help of Christina as she created the narrative/script, after combining the two and creating the story boards pasted below I filled in a camera shot list. Although these have been completed it is likely on the day we will experiment with the angles and find that some shots don’t work the way they have been drawn.

Next we needed our actors, as a group we decided that we would use Samantha Swingle, Lauren Owers and Mat Steer, we didn’t hold auditions as we felt it would be easier to ask the people we know and can rely on, also we felt they were the type of people we needed for our adverts. For locations Amber researched into different areas of London we could use, such as Big Ben, a tube station, a park, a fountain and steps by Buckingham Palace, to further this research herself and Elliott intend to visit and take photos in the half term. Following this I filled in the needed forms to go ahead with shooting, these included, talent release, location release, location scouting, camera shot list and risk assessment forms and once combining all this research and planning I can inform the appropriate person to acquire permission to film in London and once we return from half term we can organise our equipment and actors and begin.

Whilst doing this Elliott has been working on the brand design and the labels for the perfume, this can be found on his blog <http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/creating-the-brand-image/>.

5th November

On this day we all took a trip to London so that we could location scout, we already had a rough idea of where we were looking due to Amber’s prior research so we only had to take a few pictures and discuss how we could use each area to its full potential. From this trip we decided to use the exterior of Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Park, below are some pictures we took, in total Christina took about 29 and the pictures will vary on each blog but these are the ones which show the places we are going to use to film in.

In the following lesson Amber emailed  the royal park police a copy of this email can be found on her blog  <http://ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/permission-to-film/>  this aspect of pre-production is also be mentioned in my research into technicalities post. With the location chosen and story boards drawn we now need our actors so to do this we are going hold auditions , previously we decided we weren’t going to but we need one or two males to act in our adverts so the easiest way to find them is to audition for them, Elliott was in charge of creating the posters and we all gave our opinion on how attractive the poster was and whether he had worded it right so we would find the ‘right’ people for our advert, the finished product can be found on his blog <http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/10-november-2009/> we then placed them around the college where people would see them so that hopefully we will have some potential actors audition on thursday 12th November.

12th November 2009

In this lesson we spent our times updating our blogs and preparing for the auditions we were holding at lunch time, to do this Elliott printed off arrow posters and more audition posters, Christina began to look into the costumes we could use for the production (http://christina1200.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions-121109/) whilst Amber updated her blog with the story boards and shot lists we worked on together and I filled in the risk assessment form for both adverts. 

When we got to lunchtime we waited for people to arrive, however not many people did so we took the initiative  for Hayley Dutton and I to go into the canteen and approach groups of people during their lunch break, this approach sort of worked, many people asked us how much they’d get paid and what the advert was about some even asked if they’d be on TV. In total we managed to get 8 auditionees and some friends who offered to help if we didn’t find anyone. After reviewing the pictures we chose to use Samantha Swingle and Paul Zuna for Bisous  which we intend to film on saturday 5th December and Lewis Coventry and Clare Holland for Lost and Found however if Lewis is unavailable Ben Slater will take on the role instead, we intend to film this on Wednesday 25th November.

Following the auditions we felt it would be a good idea to join an online photo sharing website so that we didn’t have to post every picture to the blogs; just the most important ones, the albums can be found at this link

http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions/ (this is where the pictures of auditionees are)

http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu110/cakemedia/

We now needed to inform the actors when we would need them, to do this I text them all saying that they had got through and that we would need them on a specific day and whether they could make it or not, then we can make plans for their costume and props etc.

19th November 2009

Since our last lesson a few things hadn’t gone to plan and it began to feel like we wouldn’t be able to complete our task on time, due to cast members jobs, actors not replying/not being available and just trying to move forward with the whole project in general, due to this I took time to share these issues with our tutor- Andreas, he told us to create a list of problems and to then think of solutions, our first problem was dates of filming, I decided that maybe it’d be better if we changed actors so that we could film on a thursday in our media lesson, so to do this I text all our chosen auditionees (that hadn’t replied) to see if they were still interested, Clare replied that she couldn’t participate anymore, Paul didn’t reply and Lewis couldn’t get time off college that day. So instead of using people we didn’t know we turned to our back ups, which were people we knew we could rely on. These were Filiz Hassan and Ben Slater, who were both free on Thursdays so it’d be easy to film them, we then found out that Lewis was free on saturdays so we switched him to our Bisous advert with Samantha. Another problem was the weather, so for this I checked the weather and found out it should only be cloudy on the thursday we intend to film so it shouldn’t be too bad.

To summarise, we are now filming Lost/Found on 26th November using Filiz Hassan and Ben Slater and intend to film Bisous on 5th December using Lewis Coventry and Samantha Swingle. Follwing this I could fill in the Call sheets, so we can inform our actors how to get to our locations, fortunately Lewis can drive so all we need to do is give him the address and postcode, Sam knows where Christina lives so she will be able to get there, Ben lives near the central line, so we just need to arrange a meeting place, but we will be travelling with Filiz to London, however I will still fill in the forms with all our cast in mind.

Whilst I did this, Christina looked into costume and Elliott made a budget, however there will be further dicussion on the budget as it is rather a lot of money to be spending for just a piece of coursework. This information can be found

http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/19-november-2009/

http://christina1200.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions-121109/

I also decided seeing as we were nearing the date of filming and still hadn’t heard back from the email she sent to the royal park police, I chose to send another email, this time to the email I found and posted in a previous posting about filming in London, I informed the appropriate person about the size of crew, dates and times and our purpose and now await an email back, I also printed a copy of the email to take with us when we film just incase someone asks us about us filming.

During the week leading up to filming we came across some problems, Filiz could no longer be our actress, she had to revise for an exam instead, so whilst going into melt down we set about finding another actress. I asked my friend Grace, Elliott asked friends in his AS classes and Christina asked her two friends, we saw a glimour of hope when Christina’s friend Katie said she would do it, however soon after she declined due to other commitments, we then returned back to Lauren Owers whom we had originally chosen but she had informed us she was only free on Mondays and Tuesday however with some negotiation she accepted and was our actress. Christina then continued on to tell her what we wanted her to wear and how to do her hair and make up, whilst I ensured Ben knew where to meet us and at what time. Instead of using a college camera we decided to use my own one as it would be easier for the group as we would be able to use it at anytime we want whereas with the college cameras you have to book them out. We booked a tripod from Andreas and a battery.

Pre-production following Lost/Found:

Bisous:

Having completed the filming of Lost/Found, Elliott began to edit footage with the help of Amber and Christina  whilst I continued to complete all pre-production by making a list of all the potential problems that could arise during the filming.

Costume: Ensuring our actors have the appropriate attire, hair and make up was the duty of Christina, after consulting her she assured me that our actors knew exactly what they were going to wear, therefore this was no longer a problem.

Perfume Bottle: After much discussion we have decided on a bottle, it costs £3 in New Look which we will stick the label onto for use in the production

Location: We intended to use Christina’s home but since then we have occurred some problems with her sister not being to sure on whether she wants us to use the house, however until confirmation we cannot find another location

Props: Our props include net curtains, tissue paper, a hand held fan, lights and a dressing table. Hopefully at home I have a couple of hand held fan at home which we can use if not, if we look in ASDA or £ land it is likely that we will find one, a net curtain can also be found in ASDA  as can the tissue paper. However we are encountering more problems with the dressing table, firstly Christina doesn’t own one, getting one to her home would have financial issues. We could possibly  use boxes with a cloth and a mirror, a table and a mirror or maybe even look around into shops that sell them and see if there is anyway of using them.

Equipment:  For this shoot we need a tripod, camera and the platform attachments and we have booked all of these with Andreas and are collecting them at the end of the lesson.