Year 11 / Year 9 and 10 Media BTEC students

Hello everybody, most of you have finished your scripts and preproduction by now. Those of you who have not yet finished will have to attend the after-school sessions on a Thursday evening to catch up; the first session is this week.

You will be grouped into fours according to who has finished their scripts and will begin to work on the production of your scripts. First of all you will be pitching your proposals to each other. It will be up to you to decide amongst your group which film you will make; think about who has produced the best proposal, who has written the most exciting and inspiring script and who has produced the project which will be the most practical to film.

Next you will need to produce a list of the elements you will require to begin filming. You will need to think about:

Cast: how many people will you need to film. When will you need them? Try to work out who you will need for each scene.

Locations: where will you need to shoot scenes for your film? Will you need permissions? At what time of day or night will you need to shoot your film?

Costumes: what will your characters need to wear? Do you have the costumes yourself? If not, how will you acquire them? Will you need to borrow from family, friends etc?

Props: what props will you need for your film? Do you have the props yourself? If not, how will you acquire them? Will you need to borrow from family, friends etc?

Next you will need to think about blocking and scene selection. You will be going out with your group and copies of your chosen script to film some test shots for your film. This will require thinking about the shots you will use and also about blocking: working out where your characters will stand and their positions in relation to each other.

Once you have worked out these ideas, you will have until next week to sort out everything you need to begin filming: your homework this week is to arrange permissions, find appropriate locations, and assemble any costumes and props you will require.

Good luck and happy filming!

To Year 11 / Year 9 and 10 BTEC Media students

Welcome back everybody, I hope you have had a good break!

You should all now have finished your scripts and be ready to finish your pre-production. Any of you who have not will, unfortunately, have to come in to finish the scripts in detention.

The next step you need to do is to create some storyboard shots for your film. I have storyboard shots on file; ask me for them and I will put them onto your computer.

In the meantime, have a look at this link:

http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Hound.html

It provides an examples of a storyboard from the film Hellboy 2,  produced by Josh Sheppard, a professional storyboard artist who has worked on nearly 40 films.

You will not need to produce storyboards as detailed as these but you will need to produce at least 4 or 5 simple storyboard sketches, showing what happens in key scenes. Each will need a simple sketch or photograph accompanied by a written description of what happens in the scene.

Once this is finished, you will have to answer the following questions in a post on your blogger.com:

What is your target audience?

What locations will you need to make your film?

How many people will you need for cast / crew?
Will you need permission for filming in certain locations?
Are there any potential health and safety risks? If so, how will you make filming as safe as possible?
How can you group your filming into a schedule (so all scenes set in the same place are filmed together, to save time)?
How would you pitch your film to a producer?

For this last question, you will have to write a two minute pitch, describing why your film is exciting and interesting, and why it should be made. You will all pitch your films to the other people in your group and discuss which of your films should be made.