Revise of concept- concept two

The second concept I came up with, and wrote a rough version here...  The camera follows the protagonist on their every day uni life, walking around casually working alone. Slowly you see people standing in the distance pointing and whispering about him. The viewer is confused as to why (and if he is being bullied as he looks quite nerdy), but it turns out he is a local celebrity. He avoids eye contact from anyone when leaving the library and walks out, starts quickening his speed as small clusters of people start forming around him in the corridor (no one is aggressive). He runs into a quiet room where he sits in the corner and opens his bag with his back to the camera, he takes out something (a milkybar) and is there for a moment before putting something (rubbish) back in his bag, before running out the room. he is chased by screaming fan girls. where we see him run home from uni. he goes to his bedroom, and the viewer clicks that he is the grown up milky bar kid (from his decor). he takes hat off and lies on his bed, and has a flash back of his first day at uni saying "the milky bars are on me," then showing his slow addiction and the breaking of that promise which he hasnt been able to live up to. it then cuts back to him in his room holding a milky bar.




From this very basic concept, Sara and I were able to start rewriting the concept and wrote the script/shot list here:
The day and life of the Milky Bar Kid. (Guilt) - Extended Concept/Script/Shot list
1.1 First opening shot – University elections are taking place and we see two candidates battling out on their podiums (wide shot from the other side of the room)
1.2 Two candidates side-by-side glancing at each other trying to out do one and other (mid shot)
1.3 Milkybars are on me (side shot)
1.4 Throwing Milkybars (wide shot)
2.1 Walking proudly staring at posters (low angle shot)
2.2 Camera pans past the posters
3.1 Sat alone in the drawing room working alone (pans across face)
3.2 Walk out of room and goes down lift (camera follows him)
3.3 In the Students’ Union area he is looking at the finance charts where they have completely ran out of money and all the expenditures have been on Milkybars. (over the shoulder shot)
3.4 Face stressed (extreme close up)
4.1 People point towards him at the end of the lift (wide shot)
4.2 Scared face (close up)
4.3 He runs towards the stairs (wide shot)
4.4 Angry mob chases after him (back wide shot)
4.5 He gets to the top of the stairs (back shot to front view of the Milkybar kid)
4.6 Gets into the drawing room (the camera is already in the room and he walks towards it)
4.7 Sits in the corner scared (mid shot to close up of face)
4.8 Cup (close up)
4.9 Makes himself a cup of tea to calm himself down (mid shot view of him sitting on the chair)
4.10 Eats the milky bar (wide shot)




From having the initial plan sorted out I was able to start organising our time with Sara, where we came up with this plan for the week, which we then revised once we knew which day we were able to film. We then broke down the Wednesday where we would be filming down, so we knew what we were doing throughout the day and what time we were able to shoot in the certain locations.Plan for this week:
Monday- Planning, scripting and storyboarding
Tuesday- Organise props, location, timings, actors and finishing off Monday's work
Wednesday- Hire out the equipment needed and finish off anything from Monday or Tuesday that has yet to be completed
Thursday- Set up the equipment and film all day
Friday- Finish off any research and start editingSaturday- Finish editing and any other post production work
Monday- Show video in film showing crit

Revised Plan:
Monday- Planning, scripting, organise props, location, actors, timings, risk assessment, reserve equipment, location photographs ready for storyboarding 
Tuesday- Storyboarding, opening and end credit sequences, make props
Wednesday- Set up the equipment and film all day
Thursday- Post production work
Friday- Post production work
Weekend- Finish off any blogging which hasn't been done.

Break down of Wednesday
9.00-9.30 collect equipment 
9.30-10.30 set up and test lighting, adjust camera settings, clear set and place props
10.30-12 filming in the Students' Union area 
12.30-1.30 filming in the Students' Union office
1.30-Onwards filming by the lift, on the stairs, inside the drawing room




We also assigned our roles at the beginning of the process, which you can see has changed naturally, as well as having an extra member of the team being added the day before we started shooting.Planned roles:
Sacha- Concept, script, shot list, storyboarding, animatic and directing.
Sara- Editing, lighting, sound, costume and makeup.
Simon- Original concept, script, shot list, sound concept. Filming, post production.
All- On sight research, organisation, art department work

Actual roles:
Sacha- Director, producer, script writer, pre production, assistant editor (colour correction)
Sara- Organising costume, assistant producer, end credits
Simon- Camera man, prop buying, initial concept work
James- Sound recording, sound editing and general editing, on site health and safety, prop buying, casting director, assistant director



The next thing we needed to start doing was to look into who would be acting for us. Sara managed to convince Stuart Brown to be our lead of the Milkybar Kid, and I asked the current president of the Students' Union Tom Hoare to be a candidate running head to head with Stuart (which he found hilarious and said yes to straight away!). The only actors which needed sorting out was the extras, which I posted out messages to people I knew in the University to ask to come if possible, but most of the extra's will be chosen on the day.

As we revised the concept, and there were various issues with the whole group coming in at one time to work together at once, the whole preproduction side of the project slipped a bit.

The next process was to storyboard, as it was my role to do this, I did some research into how others do it. This photograph was taken from the book 'The Storyboard Design Course: The Ultimate Guide for Artists, Directors, Producers and Scriptwriters' by Guiseppe Cristiano. I found this page the most helpful of all, as it reminded me that I didn't need to worry about the stylistic qualities as such, as long as the narrative is well told and understandable.

The main research I did into how to storyboard was through the book previously mentioned, but also this gem of an article, where fifteen of the greatest known films of all time's storyboards are shown. I adore all of the different approaches to how to create a storyboard, yet at the same time all of them are fully understandable and could easily be worked from. I particularly like the one used for the zero gravity fight seen in Inception, as it is cleverly planned out showing the movement of the people within the space, rather than drawing out the environment for every frame. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/12/sketching-out-psycho-production-storyboards-from-15-beloved-films/265785/

Like the Gerbil video, I started off storyboarding with the environment drawings (drawn overlaid onto location photographs), and then drew the action on a layer over the top. Due to the problems with timing as mentioned before, I was given a very limited time to actually storyboard, and never managed to properly add the action layers into all of the frames, and it is mainly just the environments shown. I think that when filming, the lack of a fully complete storyboard (although it clearly shows the distance of the environment from the camera), people started to get confused with how to film the scenes.

Before filming, the health and safety side of everything needed to be sorted out. Especially in the Students' Union area and office. So Sara and I went to discuss the problems we may come across when filming, and wrote a risk assessment together. Here is the general email James Murphy (who is the Student Liaison for the Union) sent to Andrew the Health and Safety Officer.

Students filming in the Students’ Union area and the Students’ Union office.

Sacha  Frampton, Sara Gowthorpe & Simon Sturgeon

Duration:

Set up: 30 minutes

Filming: 1.5 hours

Equipment

Dado lights [with lead]

Slow Motion camera [with lead]

Tripod + XD Camera [no leads]

Information

The students will be filming scenes in the Students’ Union area and the office.

No other specific equipment is needed and there will be minimal risks associated with the scenes.

The students have asked if staff and students could be asked to use an alternative route to the smoking area for 5 minute intervals while they film. They will have 2 students to stand at each end of the area to speak to students.

Is this possible to do – as I have suggested they don’t ‘prevent’ students?

Risk Assessment attached

Once all of this was finally completed, we were ready to start filming!