Pre-Production

06/02/2015
Today I worked on my pitch in a few weeks, because I had already started the pitch presentation, today I used the assignment brief and work sheet provided to add slides that were missing from it. I then designed the title-logo for my film idea "Vengeance".

After completing the  logo I made some changes to the Missing In Action Title-logo from my short film last year as a secondary idea for my PMP is "Missing In Action 2". After finishing both of these logos I created a short slideshow video which will be my pitch introduction.

07/02/2015
Today was a short day for working on my PMP, I started researching my PMP Short Film idea. I started the research by first revising what the key concepts of a short film are, then put them into perspective of my short film. I looked into the Target Audience of my film then listed the equipment and resources I'm going to need to create the production.

17/02/2015
So on Thursday (12/02) I talked to Kelly about my "Vengeance" idea. Well she teared it apart and so I've thought of another idea in case I can't win the argument, I am still going to find for my original idea but as a back up I have came up with a story about 2 brothers who haven't spoke for 5 years, they run into each other and try to bury the hatchet but more things get in the way making it harder for the 2 of them.

18/02/2015
So now having a new idea, I don't have a name for the production right now but I am going to create a second proposal for the idea. So I can give Kelly & Neil each a copy of both idea's proposal.

After looking more into  my new idea, now named "What If...?" I have decided to make it my main idea. I switched the story a little and instead of things getting harder for the 2 they instead try and bury the hatchet and the question is asked "What if it never happened?" and it goes into a dream sequence of what if it never happened then has it's final scene out of the dream sequence. My progress today was getting a story structured for my new idea and beginning to look into the finer details of it (Key Concepts & Target Audience).

19/02/2015
Today has been my longest working day so far after working 6 hours straight. Today's progress began with the story for "What If..?" being finalised and a 3 Act Structure made. I then got my production team for the film, I went with the people I felt will bring the best to the production, Alex as my 1st AD, Sam as my Camera Op, but got stuck with Richard since his house is a needed location so he is my Sound Op, I done some research into the idea and updated my Pitch to fit around "What If...?" instead of "Vengeance".

As of right now I'm feeling very confident and strong about my new idea as I feel it is a much better film to be produced as a short. After taking into consideration what Kelly said last week I did think about it and a lot of my "Vengeance" idea was watered down to try and suit being a short film which I wasn't too happy with my self, but when I thought of the new idea I really liked it because it fit perfect for being a short film.

20/02/2015
Today I decided on my 2 Back-up ideas and got my Treatment and Proposal done. After working on them in little portions, I decided to spend today work horsing them to get them complete. I gained a new member to my production team in Liam as my Script Supervisor. I also remembered today I had a SWOT sheet to complete so got that done, tomorrow I plan to update my pitch and have that more ready for Thursday.

Less than a week till the big pitch and yet I don't feel nervous at all I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing because I should feel nervous because it's pitching my final film, the big one, the go-home show but then I don't feel nervous because I feel prepared for it and I am confident with my idea.

26/02/2015
So today is the day of the pitch, after getting some good news from University lets see if I can keep up the good news for "What If...?".

Alright so the pitch wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad but it wasn't perfect. I got some feedback about the content of the production to get rid of the cliches in it. Tomorrow I work on the first draft lets see how it goes.

27/02/2015
Alright, I've read my book on making short films, to get some tips for writing the script, just so I don't go off track and write a full feature, I'll be back in a draft.

So I've got my 1st draft, when I was writing it not only was I taking in the tips from the book but also remembering my conversation with Kelly yesterday about creating a more emotional story than physical but although it is still kind of physical I introduced a new character to the story, a young daughter just to give a moment where the audience can see the characters heart break. But I also have done a flashback to the character as children so more complications come into there. I don't feel it should be too much an issue but more learning the grounds of working with children.

05/03/2015
I had made some progression with cast yesterday, got scripts to them and gave one half of my main cast the character breakdown sheets for the characters. I created a schedule for what I want done each week leading to final hand-in day.

Things became more prepared for cast after talking to the first year actors about needing 2 more actress' and confirming an actor for the "Thug" role. That's where I left off today now it's about completing tasks on the schedule.

08/03/2015
So it's a Sunday but I decided I'd work on my script a little bit more after also deciding to drop the "young" characters in the film to get rid of the extra work of working with kids on a film set, in doing this I also gave characters more lines that will or should bring out a more emotional side to the film.

09/03/2015
Today progression was made with the cast after getting the feedback on people who want to audition after finding out I messaged them, created an event on Facebook for the auditions and invited all known auditions to it. To see how the actors will work together in film I asked Dom and Kieran if it were possible they could come to the auditions to do read-ins with the auditionees. Dom gave the ok but I've heard nothing back from Kieran.

I created a page for the film to get it out in the social media world. I then asked Kelly if she could share the "event" to see if any more actress' want to audition, I got 3 more from second years, 2 of which I worked with in "Missing In Action". This was all that was done today it may or may not be in lesson but tomorrow my plan is to get character breakdown sheets completed.

So very last minute before going to bed I realised there is a key thing that I haven't put a single thought into yet, costume. I will definitely being doing that tomorrow and my creative side was coming out and I've been thinking about the poster and 2 film posters I want to use similar ideas to are "Face Off" and "Warrior":

12/03/2015
Today was audition day for "What If" the plan was to have Kieran and Dom there to read through along with the actors auditioning but after talking to Kelly the conclusion came that having a 1st Year and 2nd Year actor as the main roles in the film wouldn't work because of timetable clashes, so instead Sam Brown who was going to be the thief took the role from Dom. He and Kieran went through the script until the actors auditioning arrived. The 3 people auditioning were, Emily Wynne, Chloe Wood & Bobby-Leigh Howard. All 3 were really good, I talked to Alex who was apart of my auditioning team on the way home about who should get the 2 roles. The choice was difficult because it was choosing 2 from 3 really good actors but we came to the decision to have Chloe and Bobby-Leigh.

16/03/2015
Today we had the script read-through it went really well. There were a few slow downs with people getting distracted but once we got started the read-through went really well. After the read-through, in lesson I had a small meeting with Kelly and Neil about the film. It came to the conclusion that a new script/story had to be made but the name "What If..?" should stick. I got home and began to think of a new idea, I thought of a new idea with a character who see's a girl and wants to talk to her but thinks "What if ...... this happened" and goes through 2 dream sequences about what could happen.

18/03/2015
Today I told the new idea to Neil he said it would be easiest to wait till Kelly is in because she understands the story stuff more. Because of the video that Neil posted onto the Facebook Group I watched more of the person's videos and learned a lot more about writing the script and the reasons why my old script wasn't so good. With the videos I created a couple of sheets explaining the story of the new film and how the ideas of the story fit into the drama points of a short film.

19/03/2015
Today I told Kelly the new idea for "What If...?" she wasn't a fan but gave me some ideas to add that could help it and make it better.

23/03/2015
Today I had a meeting with actors about the new idea, in the meeting I explained what the idea is but the script hadn't been created yet so asked if they had any ideas that could be used in it. When I got home I created a script with all of the new ideas incorporated into it.

25/03/2015
Today more work was done with the script when I was developing the dialogue a line I had in it was "I Wish I had somebody who cared for me" this made me speculate and I decided have talking to some friends that it makes sense to change the name of the film to "The Wish".

26/03/2015
Today I met with the actors and explained what is going to be happening with the new film and that the new script will be done over half term.

10/04/2015
I wrote the new script today it's my favourite of the 5 scripts I've wrote so far, I'm feeling confident with showing it to Kelly on Monday.

16/04/2015
So after getting the feeback from Kelly on the script, the plot finally had good results but there were a few minor errors in the writing so I fixed them and 2 months later can say I have a script ready to create my final production.

21/04/2015
With a script, it was now time for the more technical stuff so today I created the shotlist for the film and designed a title image to give the film more of an identity:

23/04/2015
Today I made the schedule for filming, after some issues with scheduling actors around other people's productions the schedule was done. Filming was ready to start later this week.