Things We need to include

Things we need to include…

I had a look at past work and feel that there are certain elements we need to add into our portfolios to make them stronger. Below is a list with a brief explanation of what should be included.

1.       Running order – here we can give a brief description as to what happens in each scene, further through production we could possibly do a similar one but this time including camera angles, music etc.

2.       Treatment – we can give a brief description on each character, including headshots of the actors we cast to play specific parts and maybe include here some information about the characters acting background and why we thought they would be good to play the character.

3.       Initial ideas- here we should write about how we built our ideas right from the beginning and how we finalised our current idea. This could be done in a step by step plan. Followed by this we can also include ways of improving our ideas and talk about our editing skills and how we want the final product to look. What we each can bring to our project.

4.       Script- (this has already been done, perhaps we could go over it and make sure it is to a professional manner)

5.       Weekly plan- Basically this will include how we have planned our time over the few months including pre-production, production and post-production. Also to keep a personal diary in this case it will allow you to write your evaluation easier.

6.       Log sheets/ Log shots – these should be done whilst filming as it will make editing quicker and easier.

7.       Auditions – when we are undertaking the auditions we should take notes about the cast as I mentioned before and beforehand look at evidence of their acting skills.

8.       Location recce – we need to take pictures of all locations and explain why we choose it in full detail, this includes problems hiring it etc.

9.       Risk Assessment - (this should be of second nature now)

10.   Budget

11.   Consent forms

12.   Music – We should write a quick biography about the soundtrack, who produced it, why we used it and why we thought it worked.

The entire above, if done correctly could help us later through production when editing and writing our evaluations. It will also show how much effort and thought went into producing our project.

Documentary research…

Last night I watched the ITV documentary called Her Majesty’s Prison. Whilst watching it I jotted down some notes in rough, which enabled me to elaborate how I felt we could incorporate some of the elements into our own docu-drama.

The documentary was about one of the roughest prisons in the UK in a town called Aylesbury. It focused on gang violence in the prison and how individual prisons will strive to do anything to either be sent back to a prison nearer to home or even just for status quo. For me it was quite hard to watch because when it showed interviews with the prisoners they partly blamed a lot of their behaviour on past experiences from when they was younger from either their personal family lives or just peer pressure.

·         Prison gang – fight for survival

·         No qualms on dying

·         Careless behaviour

·         Even in prison it was still about maintain a reputation

·         Paranoia

·         A few prisoners wanted to hurt people and wanted to have fights. Some said it made the day go faster as they get bored doing nothing.

·         Confused behaviour – psychotic thoughts

Those are some of the notes I briefly jotted down, most from the prisoners perspectives. Like I mentioned before a lot of the prisoners blamed their actions on past life experiences in which I feel in regard to our production when interviewing gang member, (the pastor) or the families, it is important for us to ask questions such as why they believed that was a correct way for them to behave and really search deep down to why they go down the wrong path and associate themselves with gangs and violence.

With the information we receive it is important that at the end of the documentary we give information to the audience offering them helplines and support groups as this could possibly allow young adults who may have these same thoughts ask for help.

For me this is an interesting topic, but if we could get it out there it would be great to know we could help others.