Referral Tasks
How my creative process informed my Final Outcome
My final outcome is a 4 minute sitcom style pilot for what could be continued on as a mini web series.
When we wrote out proposals I had initially started with the intention of making a series; however I didn't want to be married to my original idea so I experimented with different storytelling styles such as a short film, and different types of series. I was very keen on making something that focussed on putting class differences aside and of all my ideas the two I had that complied with this the best were
I ended up discarding this script but I do think it was a valuable tool in the development of my final outcome as originally I struggled the most to write my first episode( which I ended up writing last and became my final outcome). I was having this problem because I wasn't sure how to best introduce these characters. By writing the proceeding episodes I had a clear idea of the journeys of each individual character and since I knew their end point it was much easier. to establish their starting point. I was able to clearly set out the intention of the characters and dynamics that would have continued through the later episodes. This helped me narrow down which scenes/jokes I wanted to present in my outcome e.g the arguments between Bernaliya and Charlie or the confrontations between Max and Will.
Shoot 1 and losing a cast member
We decided to film on the 8th of May as it was a bank holiday and it was a day that all the cast and crew were available to film. However; since it was now a bank holiday we were no longer able to film in the communal area in Scape Greenwich since it is a student accommodation and you can't film in the communal area during holidays. As a last minute replacement we were able to film in a a study cafe in Covent Garden that had a similar set up , The manager I had spoken to to obtain filming permission from had told me that since it was a bank holiday I would not need to separately book a room and that I could use any space available and that it should be emptier anyway and that we could film from 9:30AM to 6:00 PM. My mistake was that I didn't ask for written confirmation of this. When we showed up a on the day, a different manager was in charge and no information about our wanting to film hadn't been passed on to her. She ended up allowing us to film; however I had to waste around 40 minutes explaining the same thing that I had to explain the person in the charge the previous week and wait for her to double check with the previous manager. If I had had written confirmation this would've saved me a lot of hassle and I would have been able to use that time to start setting up. The manager on the 8th of May still said we could stay till 6:00 PM however; she understandably asked us to stay. within one corner of one of the smaller rooms within the cafe so as not do disturb the other customers. This proved to be very impractical as there was a cast of 5 actors along with 4 crew members and equipment that we had to set up. I decided to start setting up and try begin filming regardless. We were now wasting time blocking in a new location and we were already behind schedule for the day. The new space was proving to be too crowded and I could feel that my actors were worrying about not disturbing other customers. I decided that it wasn't worth carrying on filming since the cast and crew were feeling so uncomfortable so we left the cafe and had to decide when to reshoot. I still wanted to stick to the original plan of filming all the interior shots take place within the common room on the same day. It was important to me that we had filmed these scenes by the end of that week so that I could start editing before week 8 which I had planned as my contingency week. The rest of the cast were available the Thursday of that same week except for the actor playing 'Charlie'. He wasn't available at all that week. I decided instead of waiting another week it would be wiser to just recast. This would mean that we would lose a lot of the preparation that wen't into developing Charlie's character and nuances with the actor,Sam, but I still wanted to give myself enough time to edit and this felt like the more sensible decision. I had however learnt the following things to do for the next time to film after that first day of shooting to ensure it goes smoother next time.
Editing+Final Outcome Decisions
Discarding Episode 3 because of how out of focus it all is.
Before I started editing I spoke to Laura maybe just focusing my energy into editing just one of the episodes and make it as strong as possible since the additional episodes whilst they develop the story further don't help make the first episode feel more complete. When I started editing I decided to discard episode three as well because I found a lot of the main footage was out of focus specifically from the episode 3 rushes and I decided it wouldn't be worth carrying on editing Ep 3 since I didn't have time to reshoot and as a result of this I chose to only present the one opening episode as my final outcome.
Thus final outcome is the one episode.
I found that one of my decisions during shooting affected my editing process. We found when we were filming that because of his darker skin we couldn't see Esmonde's face properly in his shots. As a results all that shots that he is in are slightly more exposed, I didn't however consider at the time that I should shoot everything with the same exposure. Consequently in the edit I found that there was a very noticeable difference in all the shots with Esmonde and of everyone else, In an attempt to remedy this I tried to I increased the exposure and brightness on premier pro for all of the other shots. I did however find that it was now looking very washed out so I tried to make the shots looks more. natural by adding either a yellow or green hue in premier pro. Watching it back now the colour grade looks far too obvious and I should have tried to make it more subtle.
My final outcome is a 4 minute sitcom style pilot for what could be continued on as a mini web series.
When we wrote out proposals I had initially started with the intention of making a series; however I didn't want to be married to my original idea so I experimented with different storytelling styles such as a short film, and different types of series. I was very keen on making something that focussed on putting class differences aside and of all my ideas the two I had that complied with this the best were
- A short film idea called 'This or That' that follows two characters who list differences in their upbringing as they grew up but the visuals show them doing communal things such as sharing food etc so they are gradually coming together and by the final scene they have found common ground.
- A sitcom style film that is based around the same characters.
I decided I wanted to go for the sitcom approach because I waned to create something light hearted and I found myself when writing the short film idea that I was trying too hard to make something poignant and compelling to the point where it felt forced and artificial. I found with the sitcom format as there was not as much pressure to make something that felt so complete (as it's left open for further episodes) I was able to more freely able something that was humorous that I would watch myself. My final outcome is called 'Common Room'. I had set myself the restraint of basing as much of my project in the same location ,in this scenario the common room, because I was writing more than one episode and they were becoming very ambitious chaotic ideas that wouldn't have been short enough do so by setting this limitation I was able to make sure I was making something more attainable whilst still complying with my original message of putting aside differences to find common ground. I feel by having the film take place in the common room it simply amplifies this idea that whilst the characters are in common room they are doing just that.
Below are images from when I was planning and storybooarding the episodes I didn’t make
When developing this idea the two sources I used a spring board were the series' Grandma's House and the Disney series: 'Saved by the Bell'. The former is a family sitcom that takes places in the protagonist's living room and the latter is a mini series that takes place in one frame in the window sill of a high School. Watching these allowed me to start considering the kind of situations I could place my characters in and how I could reinvent the space I had to be a the backdrop to a different situation in every episode. I combined this new restriction with the research I had done at the start of the project about communal experiences to generate ideas. I decided the most interesting settings I wanted to explore for the characters within the 18-21 age range were scenes surrounding food and dining and a house party. As a result a story with a serial structure that unfolded over the course of 5 mini episodes was developed, with the climax episode taking place at a dinner table and the episodes leading up to one big house party. I decided the focal point of the series would be the friendship between Charlie and Bernaliya. Charlie's character being a stereotypically working class English 'lad' whilst Bernaliya is a wealthy British Indian girl. Throughout the episodes they argue about the differences in their upbringing until in the end they finally learn to put their differences aside. Originally I was not sure how to structure this subplot but since basing the whole story in one location I was able to generate ideas that revolved around the space. In the first two episodes the arguments are lighthearted and playful however I wanted to make the third episode quite tense. In order to achieve this I started looking into how I would be able to adapt the 'common room' space to create the most drama possible to create an effective climax in the series. I looked at the dinner table scene in the film adaptation of the play 'August:Osage County' and argument scene in Baz Luhrman's adaptation of the Great Gatsby. What these scenes have in common is that they feel very claustrophobic and it is the first time the characters openly vocalise problems they have with the other characters. In my episode 3 this would have Charlie expressing his resentment towards the fact that Bernaliya always makes him feel inadequate because he assumes she thinks she is superior to him and Will explaining to Max that he shouldn't constantly be making joke at his expense. What I took from the scenes below was they create a sense of tension by not giving the characters a chance to leave the room similarly I started looking at how I could dress my set differently in this episode specifically. My episode would have taken place over an evening meal, when Bernaliya decides to prepare an Indian evening meal for the other house mates. This episode would have taken place in the evening which is different to the preceding episodes which take place in the day time. The closed curtains and doors would have contributed to the similar claustrophobic atmosphere that I was keen to emulate earlier. I had also intended for the common room in this episode to be decorated as a a traditional Indian living room. Where the characters are eating on the floor and the room is lit with paper lanterns. This would have meant the atmosphere in the room was different to the other rooms thus subliminally sending the message to the audience that the atmosphere of this episode was a little different to the other episodes i.e more tense/serious. I also looked at the film 'The 100 Foot Journey' to look at how dining is shown on screen and more specifically because I was interested in seeing if people having a difference in opinion can be shown whilst also depicting a shared experience and the 100 foot journey specifically deals with cultural differences and food.
(reference image below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHt93KBF-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne4ZA2SPCQ8
Below are images from when I was planning and storybooarding the episodes I didn’t make
When developing this idea the two sources I used a spring board were the series' Grandma's House and the Disney series: 'Saved by the Bell'. The former is a family sitcom that takes places in the protagonist's living room and the latter is a mini series that takes place in one frame in the window sill of a high School. Watching these allowed me to start considering the kind of situations I could place my characters in and how I could reinvent the space I had to be a the backdrop to a different situation in every episode. I combined this new restriction with the research I had done at the start of the project about communal experiences to generate ideas. I decided the most interesting settings I wanted to explore for the characters within the 18-21 age range were scenes surrounding food and dining and a house party. As a result a story with a serial structure that unfolded over the course of 5 mini episodes was developed, with the climax episode taking place at a dinner table and the episodes leading up to one big house party. I decided the focal point of the series would be the friendship between Charlie and Bernaliya. Charlie's character being a stereotypically working class English 'lad' whilst Bernaliya is a wealthy British Indian girl. Throughout the episodes they argue about the differences in their upbringing until in the end they finally learn to put their differences aside. Originally I was not sure how to structure this subplot but since basing the whole story in one location I was able to generate ideas that revolved around the space. In the first two episodes the arguments are lighthearted and playful however I wanted to make the third episode quite tense. In order to achieve this I started looking into how I would be able to adapt the 'common room' space to create the most drama possible to create an effective climax in the series. I looked at the dinner table scene in the film adaptation of the play 'August:Osage County' and argument scene in Baz Luhrman's adaptation of the Great Gatsby. What these scenes have in common is that they feel very claustrophobic and it is the first time the characters openly vocalise problems they have with the other characters. In my episode 3 this would have Charlie expressing his resentment towards the fact that Bernaliya always makes him feel inadequate because he assumes she thinks she is superior to him and Will explaining to Max that he shouldn't constantly be making joke at his expense. What I took from the scenes below was they create a sense of tension by not giving the characters a chance to leave the room similarly I started looking at how I could dress my set differently in this episode specifically. My episode would have taken place over an evening meal, when Bernaliya decides to prepare an Indian evening meal for the other house mates. This episode would have taken place in the evening which is different to the preceding episodes which take place in the day time. The closed curtains and doors would have contributed to the similar claustrophobic atmosphere that I was keen to emulate earlier. I had also intended for the common room in this episode to be decorated as a a traditional Indian living room. Where the characters are eating on the floor and the room is lit with paper lanterns. This would have meant the atmosphere in the room was different to the other rooms thus subliminally sending the message to the audience that the atmosphere of this episode was a little different to the other episodes i.e more tense/serious. I also looked at the film 'The 100 Foot Journey' to look at how dining is shown on screen and more specifically because I was interested in seeing if people having a difference in opinion can be shown whilst also depicting a shared experience and the 100 foot journey specifically deals with cultural differences and food.
(reference image below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHt93KBF-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne4ZA2SPCQ8
I ended up discarding this script but I do think it was a valuable tool in the development of my final outcome as originally I struggled the most to write my first episode( which I ended up writing last and became my final outcome). I was having this problem because I wasn't sure how to best introduce these characters. By writing the proceeding episodes I had a clear idea of the journeys of each individual character and since I knew their end point it was much easier. to establish their starting point. I was able to clearly set out the intention of the characters and dynamics that would have continued through the later episodes. This helped me narrow down which scenes/jokes I wanted to present in my outcome e.g the arguments between Bernaliya and Charlie or the confrontations between Max and Will.
Shoot 1 and losing a cast member
- Getting written confirmation of permission to film from the venue
- Be very clear on the size of the cast and crew when obtaining permission to film so that the venue know how many people to expect/ accomodate
- In the same way I had asked people to help me film and record audio it might be worth having someone around to oversee the day and be in charge of timekeeping just so that I could focus my attention on directing.
Editing+Final Outcome Decisions
Discarding Episode 3 because of how out of focus it all is.
Before I started editing I spoke to Laura maybe just focusing my energy into editing just one of the episodes and make it as strong as possible since the additional episodes whilst they develop the story further don't help make the first episode feel more complete. When I started editing I decided to discard episode three as well because I found a lot of the main footage was out of focus specifically from the episode 3 rushes and I decided it wouldn't be worth carrying on editing Ep 3 since I didn't have time to reshoot and as a result of this I chose to only present the one opening episode as my final outcome.
Thus final outcome is the one episode.
I found that one of my decisions during shooting affected my editing process. We found when we were filming that because of his darker skin we couldn't see Esmonde's face properly in his shots. As a results all that shots that he is in are slightly more exposed, I didn't however consider at the time that I should shoot everything with the same exposure. Consequently in the edit I found that there was a very noticeable difference in all the shots with Esmonde and of everyone else, In an attempt to remedy this I tried to I increased the exposure and brightness on premier pro for all of the other shots. I did however find that it was now looking very washed out so I tried to make the shots looks more. natural by adding either a yellow or green hue in premier pro. Watching it back now the colour grade looks far too obvious and I should have tried to make it more subtle.
My personal intention with this project was to create a light hearted sitcom about unlikely friendships. Since I didn't make all the episodes that I had written the complete storyline wasn't conveyed and the message I intended to spread about putting aside differences to find common ground may not have across fully; however I did also want to use this project as a way of experimenting with writing comedy for the first time and I did find that I experimented with many different subgenera of comedy such as surrealism and slapstick and as a result this FMP has still been a valuable excerise even though I not necessarily achieve my aim of producing a series.
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