Major Project- Social Media

For the film we decided to make a Facebook page in which the whole group can edit and add to. For this I have made sure that the cast know of the page as we wanted to make sure that we could put their image onto the page with their permission.

The photo's that were chosen for the site were from the Casting Call Pages as all of the cast had agreed but I also showed them the page before the post was published. 

We have currently received 113 likes on Facebook, the largest post reached people has a count of 521.

By using social media we can build a hype around the production and receive support from people who see the page. The actors have appreciated the Facebook page as they can show people who are interested in what they are currently working on. 

Major Project- Locations

To make sure that we had the locations that fit the script I needed to go through the script and write down how many locations we would need, the criteria for the locations e.g tree stump, bench. This lead to scouting locations or looking at the pre-production book and making sure that not only did we get the locations already scouted but that we got new locations that were added to the script.

For permission for the locations I had to contact Kent Film Office and fill in a few of their forms in which I found that we have a lot of dates and locations to plan for.

This was the first application for locations, this then grew due to changes in the script. There is only one issue that is currently being handled due to the lack of information about Barming Woods. Therefore the Barming Woods scenes have now been filmed at Quarry Woods. Quarry Woods was obtained by contacting Kent Wildlife directly instead of contacting Kent Film Office.

We are currently still hoping for permission for Barming Woods as we would like one of the locations this has lead me to contact Barming Parish Council. We would like to film in the highlighted square, this has been sent to the parish council in hope that they know who owns the land. 

Update from Barming Council, they were able to find the owner of the land and sent me the contact information for the agent that handles these types of enquiries, I have contacted him and he has said that he will talk the request over with the land owner. We were not able to secure Barming Woods but we did find some where else called Holborough Woods, Kent Wild Life, were able to show us some images and where it was. By contacting Ray Lewis we were able to get the permission, although we couldn't scout the location and just had to turn up on the day, from google images we were able to see if the area had the criteria that we needed. 

While looking at the images and the Kent Wild Life website we could see there was a large area that fit the criteria needed in the script. 

Major Project-Casting

Casting for Grit was achieved via team work, within the production Lex knows his characters and therefore I thought that I would make sure he would know who I have auditioning for what role. With this Lex was there for all auditions and received all the audition tapes that came in.

We put up the adverts on Casting Call Pro and Star Now, these adverts mentioned the character traits the film and what dates would be required from the cast. We received many applicants for each role, Casting Call Pro had 24 applicants and Star Now had 15. From these application we had to narrow down to the people that not only looked like the characters but also people who we thought would be interested in a student role.

From these people we asked if they would like to come in and audition or send us an audition video. We received these over a period of time in which I also talked to the applicants about how we could get them on board (pay, travel and food). The two main roles were offered more than those that would only be needed for a few days, such roles as Archie and Sean would require the actor to be available a lot longer than those actor who is paying the role of Perry.

We encountered issues with a lot of the actors as we were not offering them enough money, this was at least 60% of our applicants decided we were not offering them enough and decided to not be part of the project. Other issues were encountered when the dates were further discussed, some of the actors could commit to some days but not all, this could not be worked out in the schedule, this meant we had to part ways with these actors. From this we had a very small number of applicants, this lead to Lex and I searching on the sites for actors that fit our criteria, from this we got more audition tapes and had more of a choice of people that we had already picked. Some of the people auditioned for one role but then was chosen for a different role, at first we were concerned that they would pull out of the project as they would not want the other role but thankfully all the actors were happy with given roles.

Once we had chosen our actors, terms were agreed and contracts were signed we went a head and sent them the current script. The feedback from the actors lead us to believe they were right from the roles, each of them engaged with the script and found that they loved the characters they were cast as.

Our cast is as follows:

Jennie Hillard as Zoe

Daniel Shelley as Perry

Zed Josef as Sean 

James Percy Smith as Archie 

These cast members were happy with the dates and if not they were negotiated, each person has signed and sent the contract back to me. They are all excited for filming and we are excited to work with them. 

Major Project- Crew

Grit has a long shooting schedule in which we need to make sure we are crewed for. This means making sure that on every shoot day there is sound, runners and a camera assistant. But due to the length of the project and all of the crew being that of students we need to make sure that the crew are not missing out on their own work. In order to do this we looked at the time tables of each of the students with them and made sure that they were not missing anything and were not taking to much time out of their own work.

Each crew member was hand picked by myself and Lex, we went through current work of the crew members and their blogs to see if they were up to date with their work. From this I then had a chat with each of them about how they would feel about committing to around 5 days to our project. From this we also offered help on their projects as to make up for time they may have lost. In the case of Wesley and Jordan, I offered to be a stand-in for their studio production, this would help them to practise what is needed for the actual production.

Not only did we have members from our own course but I decided to get in touch with some photography students as to get an on set photographer.
I contacted the photography course at the University for the Creative Arts.

Dear Heike Lowenstein,

I am student from Television Production and was hoping you would be able to put out an advert to your students asking if they would like to come with us on our major project and take some stills for us. I am happy to provide project details to those who are interested. If any students are interested please have them contact me on rmeats@students.ucreative.ac.uk 

Thank you 

Roxanne Meats 

As well as the Mid Kent Collage course,

Hello, 

I am student from Television Production, University for the Creative Arts, and was hoping you would be able to put out an advert to your photography students asking if they would like to come with us on our major project and take some stills for us. I am happy to provide project details to those who are interested. If any students are interested please have them contact me on rmeats@students.ucreative.ac.uk 

Thank you 

Roxanne Meats 

This unfortunately didn't get me any responses, so after 2 days I decided to go onto the Facebook group for UCA freshers and see if there were any students that would be free, this direct approach gave me three photographers to contact.

From this I talked to three people but best liked the work of Alex Robert, his work is on Flickr, this gave me a chance to look at the work he had done and to offer him a way to expand his portfolio.

Major Project- Schedule

For Grit a filming schedule needed to be made and kept up to date. For this we created the schedule on a online calendar, Asana website was able to create a calendar that we could all edit and see live.

Each day on the calendar had a running order, cast and crew attendance. This made call sheets easy to create and running orders up to date.

The running order was decided by a conversation between Lex, Mike and myself. Lex and Mike were able to tell me how much time they needed for each scene as they had planned their shots already. The running oder needed to be changed on some days as actor availability sometimes as they had other commitments. 

Major Project- Producing Research

As for this project I am a producer I decided to do some research on what producers do. The Independent have written an article in which they state what producers are, it is a good read but lacks depth.
With quotes such as this the Independent are explaining the role but not in a in-depth manner.

But from this article I came across Rebecca O'Brien a long time short film producer. She has an impressive CV and did not start as a producer but moved into that line of work later on. 

While looking for more about her and her work I found a video on the BFI website- Rebecca O'Brien, she explains how she produced a difficult political film. She also explains as a producer how you are needed on the set of the film, being hands on, helping to trouble shoot and you are personally involved in making the film.

Other websites such as Prospects, have made a list of what a producer does: 

"Responsibilities

Producers are responsible for facilitating a project and are involved in every stage of the television programme, film or video, overseeing the project from beginning to end, both in the studio and on location.

Essentially team leaders, they are supported by production assistants, coordinators and managers, depending on the size of the project.

Tasks include:

• raising funding;
• reading, researching and assessing ideas and finished scripts;
• commissioning writers or securing the rights to novels, plays or screenplays;
• building and developing a network of contacts;
• liaising and discussing projects with financial backers - projects can range from a small, corporate video costing £500 to a multimillion-pound-budget Hollywood feature film;
• using computer software packages for screenwriting, budgeting and scheduling;
• hiring key staff, including a director and a crew to shoot programmes, films or videos;
• controlling the budget and allocating resources;
• pulling together all the strands of creative and practical talent involved in the project to create a team;
• maintaining contemporary technical skills;
• organising shooting schedules - dependent on the type of producer and availability of support staff;
• troubleshooting;
• ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, codes of practice and health and safety laws;
• supervising the progress of the project from production to post production;
• holding regular meetings with the director to discuss characters and scenes;
• acting as a sounding board for the director;
• bringing the finished production in on budget.

In theory, the producer deals with all the practical and political aspects of keeping a project running smoothly, so that the director and the rest of the team can concentrate on the creative aspects.

From this it gives a list of responsibilities that the producer should be doing and should be making sure happens. With the use of this list I will make sure that the production comes together and I can try to make Grit the best from a producers role.

The skills that this website think you need are;

"Skills

You will need to have:

• confidence in their own ability;
• strong communication and people skills;
• presentation and pitching skills;
• strong time and resource management skills;
• creative ability;
• the ability to cope under pressure;
• a strong head for figures;
• leadership skills."

From these skills I will be able to determine what I will need to be like in order to make the filming run smoothly.

Major Project- Contacting Actors

For the production I needed to make sure that all of the actors had the script new what time they were needed in and what was expected of them, the following email was the lay out of each sent:

Hello,

For the audition please find attached the script we would like to audition you for the role of Zoe, with this in consideration, please read the script and find your favourite part of the characters dialogue. We are looking forward to Skyping with you on the 9.12.15, at 4:30 pm. 

The actors that were contacted either came in or sent in audition video's, this was due to the time in which we had. Most of this was done late December meaning videos were the best option as they could be sent to each other. All the actors received feedback on their videos, some having to send more than one as we would like them to read lines from another character. 

Some of the auditioning people were good but they did not fit the project but we have kept their details for the university data base.