Production Diary for 1 minute film

Production Diary

Thinking of ideas for my film

I received the assignment which was to make a 1 minute film using 1 location and 1 actor. As the rest is completely up to me, I spent quite a lot of time thinking of an idea for this film. I produced a mindmap with many different ideas on to help me choose the best.
I came up with some ideas such as:
Exploring mental illness, in particular schizophrenia as this would be a way to create more than one character whilst still sticking to the brief of using one actor

A film based around text messages which would be shown on-screen, as this could show an exchange of conversation whilst only showing one actor on screen

An old person in a hospital bed, recording a message for family with the fear she might not make it through the night

I wrote out a rough script for the latter of my ideas, however I decided I couldn't think of a strong enough script with the necessary sensitivity.

I then tried out my first idea, and came up with a basic idea; a girl so troubled by the things she is experiencing that she kills herself.

Writing the script

Once I'd decided on a solid idea for my film I began researching suicide notes to put together a realistic and effective script. My film, summed up in as few words as possible, is about a young girl who kills herself with a little help from an apparition of herself that she sees.
Once I had wrote up my script, I then asked 3 people from the class to read through it and make notes on how they think it could be improved, any issues and confusion within the script and to generally see what they thought of it. I got some comments back complementing my good and correct formatting of the script however they didn't understand the relevance of the note (originally, the script did not specify that it was a suicide note she was writing). From this comment, I added to the script that it was a suicide note that she was writing.

I decided that the character of Claire would have long dark hair, as when she is sat looking down at the floor, as she is at the opening of the film, it will fall over her face and will cast shadows concealing her face when the spotlight is shining down on her from above. This shows how she wants to hide and keep herself hidden; hidden from the apparition she sees and also from the outside world she has isolated herself from because of these things she is thinking and seeing.

I chose to use the sound effect of a heartbeat to play throughout the entireity of the film as I intended for it to emphasise the feeling of loneliness. I want the viewer to sympathise with Claire; filming in a completely dark room will also help this as there will be no other distractions and it once again shows Claire's loneliness and despair. There are no doors or windows visible around Claire, she is trapped within the darkness her own mind and sees no way out, just as the viewer can physically see no way out on the screen. Claire's feelings of there being no way out is ultimately clear when she takes her own life at the end of the film. 

The way in which 'evil Claire' assists Claire by putting the pills into her mouth is an insight into one of the reasons why Claire ends her life. There is a slight nod towards medically psychotic tendencies, she is seeing and hearing another version of herself which in a logical and rational world does not happen to people without a mental illness. Also visible is depression, as it is clear her death was not a sudden spur of the moment decision. She has been feeling very low for some time and has thought about what she is doing. This is evident through the way she has taken the time to write a suicide note to her parents; her death is not in any way accidental. 

I chose for Claire to speak as voice over as opposed to directly out loud as I intended for this to give the effect of her reading the letter over in her head.
Although on the front page of the script shown above, my film is title 'Assignment', I have changed my film title to 'Go Away'.

Script Breakdown

I missed the equipment section from my script breakdown list. For my equipment I will need a shoulder cam and a tripod and lighting. Once I have chosen a location, I will be able to decide exactly what lighting is needed.

As a note on my script, I changed the location to 'a dark room' as opposed to a hallway. This was because I needed to use a wider space than a hallway to film most scenes in order to create the effect in post production of there being two of the same actor on screen at the same time. I thought of many different locations for my film, such as my own house, Eaglescliffe village hall and the TV studio at my college. I decided on using the TV studio, as all the walls are painted black and it is mostly empty which will help create the dark and empty background needed for my film. It also has lighting already set up which I can change to a position where I can focus the light directly onto 'Claire' to create the spotlight effect I want to have.
I highlighted anything to do with the cast of the film in green and anything to do with the characters entailed within the cast I underlined in purple. From this, I found I need a young girl who can appear to look 18 with long dark hair and of average height and weight. I chose Penny Eastbury to play the character of Claire in my film as she fit this description well. The character of Evil Claire will be played by the same actress, and will looks almost identical to Claire in the film except for perhaps wearing a different top or jacket to help show the viewer they are not the exact same character. This differentiation between the two will also be shown through body language, Claire spends the entireity of the film slumped on the floor, however evil Claire is stood up and mobile. Through evil Claire standing up, she appears a lot taller and bigger than Claire, showing the intimidating power she has over Claire.

Due to the film I'm creating being only 1 minute long with minimum lighting needs or special effects, I will take the part of the entire crew. I will direct the film, be in charge of health and safety and all lighting, film it and sort out anything else that might arrise on the day. Once I have shot my film, I will also be the one editing it and sorting out any sound design.
From this rough script breakdown, I then created an official document as one scribbled on my script is not of a professional standard.

Storyboards

I started producing storyboards to exactly show how I wanted my film to look and began to decide on certain shots I would use within my film.

For this shot, I want to use a mid shot from a slightly high angle so it appears as if we are looking down on claire. She is writing a note to her parents, in which she apologises and tries to explain why she wants to die. In all of my storyboards, I have left the background blank. This is because, as wrote in the picture, I want the background entirely black. A light will be shone down on her from above, making her visible in an otherwise completely dark setting. Her hair is falling over her face as she looks down at the note to write it.

In this shot, I will use a wider shot than the one before it. This will show that she is sat in the corner of the room, leaving a lot of dark empty space around her making her appear vulnerable, threatened and scared. At this point, she has finished writing the note and is now reading over it and crying. Her head is slightly more lifted than in the previous storyboardy allowing us to see tears rolling down her cheeks.

This shot is a close up of Claire's face. She is still to the right of the shot and not taking up the full screen. She looks up, to reveal she has been crying. Her expression turns to anger, now she has read over her note she is upset yet angry that this is her only option. Her hair is rather messed up.

The square drawn around Claire shows where I would like the framing of the shot to be, she fills the entire shot. This will be a mid shot taken from above her. She is layed on the floor, still in a dark and empty room crying uncontrollably and shaking, hugging her knees up to her chest. This shot is a 'flashback', and is intended to show that she has been feeling sad and upset for a while and something that stays ingrained in her mind.

As it goes back to the present moment, a shot is shown of Claire looking up, still crying, bringing the viewer back to the present moment. Background is still the all black room with a single light over Claire.

Claire is in the same place of the bottom right corner, however behind her to the left appears 'Evil Claire'. She is barely visible due to the only light being on Claire. This is a wide shot in order to show Evil Claire stood up and Claire in the corner.

 The shot continues Evil Claire moves forward towards Claire, and therefore nearer to the light making Claire visible, more of her is visible. She is holding a bottle of pills in her hand and pours them into Claire's hand. Claire moves her hand up to her mouth and swallows the pills.

A close up of Claire's face. She seems daze, clearly under a negative effect from whatever medication she's just taken. Her eyes roll to the back of her head, during this movement her body falls backwards as well.

She falls out of the view of the shot, leaving the camera looking at just the darkness. The film ends.

 Budget

This is the budget for my film imagined as if I would really have to pay for it. I created it in Microsoft Excel as this produces budgets of a near professional standard.
I managed to make my film for free however, as I was the entire crew, all the equipment was lent from college, the location was within college so I did not need to pay for that, all props were my own and Penny was pleased to play the role of Claire for free as long as she can have the film to add to her own showreel.

Risk Assessment

As my film is entirely shot in a mostly empty TV Studio, there is not too many risks present whilst making the film.
The first risk present is danger from alcohol/drugs, as medication is needed as a prop. This could be severe if consumed by someone on set, and the person as risk is Penny as she plays Claire who will be handling the medication. To prevent this, I said to ensure all at risk are aware they are potentially harmful. However, since writing this risk assessment and I have decided to completely remove this risk by using crushed up mints in a medication bottle to look like medication. If accidentally ingested, there will be no harm.

The next risk I identified was my film will be shot in a dark room, and people could trip over things such as cables. This is a risk not only to the people involved in the film, but could also damage expensive equipment. To prevent any risk to the cast and crew or equipment, I will ensure all involved are aware of where everything is in the room to avoid tripping, and will also keep the main lights on when filming is not happening.
I have also completely removed the final risk now I have decided to use mints instead of medication.

Clearances

This is the location release form I made. This is important to ensure everything within my film is legal and I have full rights to the film. I asked the person in charge of the College TV studio to sign it.

This Actors Contract is also necessary to ensure I have all rights to the film, but also to protect Penny. 

Shooting the film

Prior to the shoot, I ensured I had contact details for Penny and also ensured she knew exactly where she needed to be and at what time. We met at the TV Studio at 1 o clock. I begun by adjusting the lighting, this took about half an hour as I wanted it to be just right. I took a few practice shots to check that the lighting was how I wanted it until it was just right. I cleared any clutter from the room out of the back of the shot to ensure I have the dark empty space I wanted.

Between the initial start of the project and the time of filming, I had had many more ideas for my film which I wanted to try out. One of these was the complete removal of the voice over, leaving the film mostly silent apart from evil Claire's input. 

I didn't encounter many problems during the day, as it was a relatively risk free film to shoot. The only real problem I faced was the realisation that my storyboards didn't constitute an interesting or entire film, so the majority of the shots were decided during the shoot. 

I think i'd chose well with my casting, as Penny was a great actress. She did everything as directed, and as I had explained to her quite a lot about the character she was portraying, she even offered some suggestion of what she could do herself. Her hair fell over her face and when combined with the lighting this cast the shadows across her face just as I'd wanted.

Here is the note used as a prop in my film. I wanted it to be quite messy in appearance, the writing isn't impeccably neat as this shows the rush and stress Claire felt at the time of writing the note. 

Editing the Film

Once I had shot the film, the next step was to edit it. Using Adobe Prelude, I ingested all of the files onto the computer from the camera. I made sure all of the files were going to the right location and saved in an appropriate file that would be easy to find and identify what was in it. Once the files were ingested through Prelude, I opened Adobe Premiere Pro to edit them and cut them together.

I found this editing process the longest and most difficult of the whole pre production and film making process as all the software used was relatively new to me however once I'd got to grips with it I started to make a quite good film. I spent a lot of time watching and choosing the clips I wanted (there was over 50 initially) and cutting certain clips as I only needed so much of a certain clip in my film. Below is a screenshot taken during the editing process, you can see along the timeline in blue all of the clips cut and placed together. Below this, in green is the audio of a heartbeat I downloaded from a royalty free sound effects site, www.freesfx.co.uk. 

My intention of adding in the heartbeat and making it last the duration of the film was to further connect the viewer with Claire, to make them feel as though they are really getting inside her mind. It's also shows her as afraid as for her heart beat to be that loud she must be frightened. I initially wanted my film to consist of quite quick cuts, cut along with the beat of the heart however I decided that this wouldn't fit with the style nor the narrative of my film.

Another part of the editing I struggled with was editing it so there was two of the same actor on screen at once. I had filmed both parts using a tripod so the camera was in the exact same position which allows me to do this. I used the 6 point Garbage Matte tool, and after a lot of fiddling and moving around I finally got the shot to look real. 

The next stage of editing I did was the colour correct the film. I did this by applying a three way colour corrector to each shot and making the shadows slightly blue, as in many of the shots, due to the direct light on penny, she looked very bright and her skin looked very peachy (which is lovely), however adding the blue undertones gave a much sadder tone to the entire film. 

I also added music to the film, which was an emotional piece of classical music called Prelude No. 18 by Chris Zabriske. This music was also copyright free and I was therefore allowed to use it in my film. I feel the music definitely improved my film as it certainly made it feel more emotional and helped make it more interesting as it would of otherwise been an empty room with vastly empty audio.

The Film

This is my opening shot. This was not previously planned on the storyboards, nor was it depicted in the script however I feel it was an effective way to open my film. It is a lot more interesting than just the actors face as I had initially planned, as that is shown quite a lot during the film and this shot asks a lot of questions, such as who is holding the pen, what are they writing, where is this person etc. If I had opened with my original idea of showing Claire sat on the floor alone in the room writing the note, the viewer would straight away know who was writing the note and where they were. The shot shows Claire's hand nervously fumbling about with the pen, a natural action many people do when struggling to begin a piece of writing, particularly something as difficult as what she is about to write.

The next shot shows Claire looking down at the piece of paper. She is clearly upset to be writing this note, shown through her facial expressions. The lighting creates an entirely black background, only thing visible is Claire's face and even the majority of this is covered up by the shadows cast from over her face. Her being alone in the darkness shows the isolation she feels.

The next shot shows Claire writing the note. The fact that she isn't sat on a nice comfy seat resting her paper on a table shows that this is an unpleasant thing for her to do and the physical darkness surrounding the note represents the metaphorical darkness surrounding the note. This is the viewers first real insight into what is going on, this shot is kept on screen long enough for most viewers to have time to read what she has wrote so far. It is a note to her parents, and she is apologising to them. This keeps the film interesting by offering more questions such why is she apologising to her parents and why is she writing a letter rather than talking to them directly. This shot was not pre planned in my storyboards however I decided it would reveal a bit more about the character and the situation she is in, as from my peer feedback I received for my initial script I found there was some confusion as to what the note is and what it's significance is. 

All the previous shots so far have been close ups, and this mid shot shows just how alone and empty the space she is in is. She is shown fumbling with her pen again, thinking what else to write. This recurring action shows she is of a nervous disposition, perhaps one of the reasons contributing to her death at the end of the film.

Another shot of the note reveals even more. She is saying goodbye, and telling them she loves them. Once again, more questions planted in the viewers mind; where is she going? why would she leave her parents if she loves them? The shots of the note carry the narrative of the film, as there is very little dialogue and at this point in the film there has been none, the notes act as dialogue. I originally wanted Claire to be reading the note out loud as voice over, however decided that showing the note on screen would be more effective. By speaking the note aloud, it would be hard to show the difficulty she is finding to write the note. By seeing her struggle to write the note, and seeing sections of it bit by bit is intended to cause the viewer to empathise with the character. Writing a note, as opposed to speaking out loud, could show she finds communicating with people difficult, another possible contributing factor to her death.

Another close up of her face this time shows another dimension to the character of Claire. As she reads through the note, her expression turns to anger and frustration; this is something she really doesn't want to do.

Though unclear in the above image, this mid shot shows Claire and Evil Claire. Evil Claire appears from behind her, barely visible as she stays in the dark shadows surrounding Claire. Though I feel I could of portrayed this better, this shot was intended to show Evil Claire as the dark side of Claire's mind, which is why Claire is lit up and Evil Claire is almost invisible. This shot was just as I had planned in my storyboard, however in my script I said that Evil Claire physically puts the pills into Claire hand, however this would of been much beyond my editing capabilities, so by placing the bottle of pills on the floor next to Claire and Claire then reaching out to them I still showed Evil Claire's assistance in the debacle.

In this shot, Claire's face too is hardly visible now due to shadow; the 'evil' is beginning to take over. 

This close up showing the contents of the bottle shows that she has made her decision now. If I was to shoot the film again, I would use a more convincing 'medication' as the crushed up mints I used didn't look as effective as I had hoped. However, real medication could have been potentially dangerous to have on set particularly in a college.

Once again, in this mid shot showing her swallowing the 'pills', her face is completely blacked out by shadow. She is finding it difficult to swallow them, once again showing that she has been almost forced into this. Technically, forced by herself (Evil Claire) however she feels that this is out of her control and something that must be done.

This close up shot shows her closing her eyes, looking up and falling backwards. Her face is once again bright and visible, and this is the first time her face is clearly shown with no shadows covering it. She is finally free.

She falls back out of shot, leaving the titles to roll onto the black screen and the film to end.

Film Link: http://vimeo.com/114662833