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Evaluation
Logistics
We each took different roles withing the logistical aspect of pre-production, Myself and Sophie were responsible for the location recce for the two main areas we would be using to film.
The location recce was simple as there were only two exterior locations that we were filming on, and the one I had to organise was the private road behind my house. This presented no issues as the road is largely used and as a part of our ownership of the house, we have full access to it at all times. The other location was the house of someone we knew so they were flexible with the times we had to be filming on. This made it so that the location recce document was not as vital to the final product as other documents.
I also comprised the call sheets for each day of filming we had planned, however, these presented a bit more of a challenge as they were based off of the shoot schedule that was done with very minimal planning. We knew that we would not be able to film on Saturdays as that is when Corey is working and he was a key character in the film, so that left Sundays as the most convenient day of the week to schedule. We initially scheduled the next few Sundays exclusively for filming without checking any of us had any plans already or the weather, which we could have improved would we to have been more considerate with our planning. The weather came in especially challenging as on the first day we had scheduled to film on (8th of December) storm Darragh swept through the country and made filming anything coherent impossible. Therefore we treated that day as a practice so that we were prepared and knew what a day on set would be like for when we actually filmed the first scene the following Sunday. We stayed largely on time with arrivals excluding a few occasions where some crew members were slightly late, however this never greatly impacted our ability to film.
The Shoot schedule was made a few weeks in advance and was done with little consideration of availability. This meant that some of the dates on there were not accurate to the final date we decided on and had we taken more careful consideration, we could have been more efficient in filming the scenes. However, this did not present a detrimental issue. Because it was planned so far in advance, we were able to schedule in more scenes to film, therefore creating a 5-6 minute film, rather than a 2-3 minute one. We were able to put more effort into creating a better film, which made the process more satisfying.
The edit schedule was a document that Tyler prepared as a part of pre-production, but it was one of the more insignificant ones. When it came to editing, we didn't really follow the schedule, and it was very unorganised as to when and who would be doing it, which therefore may have impacted the time it took for us to finish the project. If we had followed the schedule then we may have had more time to reshoots at more convenient dates, as it left us with having to film after school one day, leaving us with a small window to film before it got dark.
Filming the interrogation scene 23/12/24
Finance
Makeup for the interrogation scene 23/12/24
Creative
Finance was a relatively small aspect of our overall project as most of the things that we needed for the film, we already had. However, there were still a few things that needed to be logged, which is why Corey created a budget document entailing what we would spend any money on.
We ended up with a pretty low overall spend which could have impacted the quality of our final film. If we were to improve this project, the best course of action would likely have been to budget more accurately and possibly have gotten more equipment. We couldn't obtain any microphones and so the audio can sometimes be a bit low quality, especially in the external scenes. If we could have been provided with more equipment by the school, this would have also improved the quality significantly.
Overall, financial planning, whilst still helpful, didn't have too drastic an effect on the final product. However, with more in depth budgeting, it is possible that it would have been more effective.
During the creative planning process, we each took different parts of the planning, such as treatment, storyboard, shot list, and scripts. We each did our own draft of a script, and Tyler's was chosen as the final script because it had the most engaging dialogue and coherent scene building. We stuck to the script when filming but after the first day on set, we decided to tweak it slightly because some of the lines sounded worse when they were said out loud than on paper. For example, the line "Then let's at least have some fun with it whilst we can" sounded too unnatural so we decided to go for a line that would sound more like they were in a professional setting. This meant that we spent a large chunk of time on set planning the scene just before we filmed, which cost us a lot of time and was especially hurtful in the first official take of the crime scene because we lost daylight very quickly and had to return another day after school to reshoot. If we had taken more time in pre-production to write the script, we could have saved a lot of time on set, leaving more time to edit and write the evaluation.
We had all discussed a rough idea of what we wanted to make beforehand so each version of the treatment was vaguely similar, but with some character name differences as well as the event that took place. The treatment was aimed to be what we showed to the producers to sell our idea so it had to be an effective way of explaining our ideas. This is why we combined the best parts of each treatment, to get the best final product which we were all satisfied with.
We each chose a scene to plan with the storyboard, which meant that we could more efficiently get the work done, as if it was only one persons responsibility to create a whole storyboard, it would have taken up much more time, slowing down production. The scene we each storyboarded corresponded with the scene that we would direct, meaning we all had a part to play in filming, even if we weren't behind the camera. However, we did run into the issue that we had run over the time limit for the film so we had to scrap Libby's scene of a fight that broke out. This meant that Libby had wasted a large amount of time on a storyboard that was eventually useless. We should have discussed further about the runtime of the film so that we could have avoided this issue.
We decided to take a similar route with the shot lists, having us each take the scene we storyboarded and convert it into the shot list document. Not only did this increase efficiency, but also meant that we understood the shots we needed to list better than if someone else did them.
BTS photoshoot after filming 23/12/24
Legal and regulations
Reshoots of the tackle scene with a new and improved crash mat (03/02/25)
Tyler was made responsible for the legal aspect of pre-production, he created documents for the risk assessment, music release, and actor contracts.
The risk assessment required detailed descriptions of what could happen on set that may result in injury. For this, we had to visit each location and thoroughly check the area we would be using for dangerous aspects. The area that gave us the most grief in terms of safety issues was the scene where Trent and Fent dispose of a body at Connaught waters. This was because there were issues such as the shallow water, which meant we had to use a dummy body instead of being able to throw an actor into the water. We also decided that it would be better to film in a private location as carrying a fake body bag across Chingford and disposing of it in public would not be a good idea. Other safety issues mainly concerned Corey as there are multiple scenes where he could have been harmed for the . The first came in the crime scene where he has to run away and get tackled by Tyler onto a concrete floor. To prevent any harm we placed a crash mat on the floor which allowed us to make the fall look more realistic, as well as preventing harm. However, on the first take of that scene, the thing we put on the floor was not sufficient enough and lead to minor injury to Corey and Tyler, which meant on the reshoots we had to fashion a new method which involved placing cardboard on the floor and pillows on that cardboard. This was much more successful and meant we could do multiple takes. Also, the scene where Corey has to crash his head on the table and 'kill himself', he kicked the table leg as he 'hit' the table so that he could go slower and lighter to avoid any harm, whilst also maintaining the realistic sounds and not making it look too silly. As well as this, general issues were mentioned such as the risks that weather may propose, which we didn't think would affect production too extreme, however, a storm hit us on a day we planned to film and we therefore postponed formal shooting for that day.
Films are regulated by the BBFC, who chose which age rating a film should get based on the content of it. We aimed to get a 15 rating so we had to cut back on any major gore that may have been seen, for example in the suicide
For the music release, we initially wanted to use some copyrighted music by Boa, which was meant to improve the film soundtrack, however we didn't consider that this particular song would be copyrighted and in order to be in line with the brief, we had to find a royalty free alternative, as it told us we had to show the film at a film festival. This meant that this particular document was not very helpful or impactful on our final product.
Finally, the actor contracts. Because none of the actors were being paid for their roles, the contracts were not too big of an issue. Tyler made contracts and had us all sign them regardless. These had little impact on our final product.
project management
We made sure that we kept ourselves organised by constantly communicating on a group chat. This allowed us to plan everything together and communicate efficiently, therefore there was no issues where one person didn't have the right amount of information. Using this group chat, we planned what parts of pre-production we would each complete, distributing the storyboard, shot list, and other miscellaneous parts. We each picked a scene to storyboard and then the correlating shot list which increased efficiency greatly. If we were doing this more professionally we could have made a separate group chat so that the messages were easier to retrieve. Whilst we kept this communication throughout production, we still run into issues that were out of our control. On the first and second day of filming, some actors were late or got lost and halted production by over an hour. This meant that we lost daylight very quickly making it harder to film scenes with good continuity. Thankfully, on the first day it was just practice, and the second day he wasn't on camera. We also had to delay a day of filming multiple times, once due to the weather being too cold and icy to film in an unsafe location, and the second because Corey got food poisoning the day before and he was a major part of that scene so we couldn't film anything that day either.
We had one major day of reshoots where we had to redo the tackling scene with Tyler and Corey where we ran into a couple issues. One of which was the weather and lighting which was slightly different to the original day. This however did not pose too much of an issue as the film was in black and white so you can't really tell the difference. The main issue though was that Corey couldn't bring his car on that day so we had to spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to work around it as it would be in the background of most of our shots we had already filmed.
We also kept a record of the meeting minutes as we talked about changes that we would make. This document can be found in the logistics and finance page.
We also kept all of our files (pre-production documents and videos from the set) in a google drive so that we all had quick and easy access to all the things we needed for each of our websites.
Editing the first draft 17/12/24
Conclusions
By completing the vigorous aspects of pre-production expected in a fully fledged movie, we were able to fully meet the demands of the brief. The brief in question was to create "a short narrative film or film extract. The film (or film extract) will be shown during the upcoming ‘film genre festival’ and so you should utilise recognisable generic codes and conventions within your production, either typically or by subverting them."
Our film successfully uses conventions of Noir detective thriller films to be recognisable as a part of that genre, as well as to be entertaining and engaging for the audience.
We set out to create a clear creative plan for our product, which involved each of us writing our own draft of the treatment and script, each implementing different aspects that we wanted in the final film. Our final product is reflective of the different things we all wrote about, as we took some parts out of each draft that would eventually become the final film. The main thing that we wanted to use to convey the genre of the film was through costumes and props. We made sure that the two detectives had as similar outfits as possible and shared frequent funny lines, as it would further create the idea that they had been working together for a long time, making them more enjoyable and interesting to watch on screen.
Another key aspect that we wanted to have was a black and white filter over the entire film. This is a given for the noir genre and it helped us also in not having to worry as much about lighting. Whilst we still kept it low-key for the most part as a convention of the thriller side of the movie, because of the filter, it was hard to notice much of a difference, especially in the crime scene when it started to get dark towards the end.
We initially wanted to use a lot of copyrighted music, as we thought that because the film wasn't actually being released anywhere it would be alright. However, we learnt that this was not the case and had to find some royalty free music instead. If we had had a larger budget, then we could have made the final film better with the copyrighted music, however, this was an unavoidable issue.
From a personal standpoint, there are many things that we could have improved in ourselves. On multiple occasions on set we found ourselves wasting lots of time planning the scene there and then, as the storyboards and shot lists didn't lend themselves to the location we were filming, which meant that in some scenes we lost daylight pretty fast as we filmed in the winter months. We could have also done with being more punctual, as most days we had arranged a time, we ended up not all being on set until at least half an hour after the arranged time.
In conclusion, pre-production did have a large part to play in our final product, mostly in a positive way. it allowed us to thoroughly plan for a lot of things that saved time on set. However, we did end up improvising a lot of the lines and shots because it was easier on the day. Overall though, the planning helped keep everyone on the same wavelength and so none of the improvisations felt unnatural or wrong.
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