To record the process of this short film being created, I have putting together a blog. Within this blog is a start to finish record of the 10-minute film project to refer back to if any information needs to be found about what happened on a particular day.
Tuesday, February 23rd 2016 – 2:30pm – 4:30pm – Generating ideas for the film
Today we were split into two teams of six to generate ideas for a 10-minute film that we would be making while working with the Performing Art’s Students’ as the actors. Once we had come up with ideas for this project, we then needed to pick out two ideas that we saw as the best two, which would then be presented to the Performing Art’s students on Wednesday, 24th February 2016.
Wednesday, February 24th 2016 – 9:30am – 10:30am – Discussing ideas with the Actors
Today we met with the Performing Art’s Students to discuss the ideas that we had chosen for the film to give them an idea of what the two ideas were about and get their opinion on which one they liked more. Eventually an agreement was made on the “Sims” idea as it seemed a lot easier to both plan out and act out.
We assigned roles for the characters for this film. The roles were: (These characters don’t have names or any characteristics (as of yet) – with the exception of Melissa’s character, who eventually becomes obsessed with power) – character roles might be changed
Kieron – The first Sim character (controlled by Mellissa who is playing on The Sims game)
Melissa – The controller of The Sim
Chloe – The mother of Mellissa’s character
Tink – The controller of Melissa’s character (also revealed to be a “Sim” and is controlled by another character that isn’t shown)
After deciding on the character roles, the actors then needed to go away and decide on characteristics that the character they are playing for the film would have. We are meeting with them again to discuss the characteristics of the characters on Wednesday, March 2nd.
Tuesday, March 1st 2016 – 2:30pm – 4:22pm – Assigning Roles within the Team
After getting into our group for the film project, we decided on which roles each member of out group would do. These are the roles for our team:
Producers – Natalie Biggs and Jack Seville
Director – Joshua Sumner
Technical Support – Katie McDermott
Lead Script Writer – Shona Paton
Lead Storyboarder – Erin Gaukrodger
Tuesday, March 8th 2016 – Learning how to create a script in Adobe Story
Today I learnt how to create a detailed script on Adobe Story. Here is my example of the beginning of a script.
10-Minute Film – Link to the PDF
Tuesday, March 15th 2016 – Creating a shot list for filming
Today I created a shot list for when we filmed the scenes so we could get all the necessary shots from different angles. I emailed Natalie Biggs and also posted the documment in the group chat created specifically for this project so we could communicate with the actors.
Wednesday, March 23rd 2016 Filming at the Playhouse Theatre
Today was the first filming day of the short film project with the actors. We filmed the scenes that were showing the characters when they were at college, and also some shots of the beginning when the characters are walking down the street and just arriving at college so that the film doesn’t just begin showing the at college without any mention of how they got there in the first place. Shona Paton and Natalie Biggs have said that, in order to shoot footage of Mel (Bella) when she is at home at the beginning of the short film, they are going to do another filming session in the next couple of days at Natalie’s house in order to get these shots. Since this won’t require a multi-camera set up, not every member of the team will need to be present to film those scenes, so the team will most likely consist of just Shona and Natalie on that filming day.
Monday, May 23rd 2016
Today I finished the my edit of “The Sims” short film. I didn’t manage to get access to the screen capture footage to add into my edit, so I improvised and put together an edit with the footage I did have access to, while also keeping in mind the original idea.
Joshua Sumner 