Evaluation for Script to Screen

In this evaluation, I'm going to evaluate what went well or what could be improved on in my final edit of ‘Tell Me No’ which was the name our film for the Script to Screen unit. I am also going to evaluate what went well or what can be improved on throughout the entirety of the pre-production and the production stages too. So, throughout this unit, I was in charge of writing the risk assessment and the call list for this production, which I did quite easily and quickly getting it done before the deadline of the pre-production was supposed to be.  

 

I was also in charge of being the producer for the production. I didn't like this idea at first because I thought the director was in charge of all of the three stages of production not just the production phase. I started to like being the producer as I got to be in charge and help with any problems that we might have had in the production side and in the post-production side. Since the idea we had chosen was supposed to be shot in the Rochester campus I didn't have high hopes in the beginning for our group being able to shoot there. However, I did like the idea of filming somewhere different than where we film usually which is the studios. 

 

All of a sudden tier four came and we had to stay inside the house and moved to online learning and we're not allowed in the Rochester or the Maidstone campus. This threw a massive break in our group system as we had to come up with a Plan B to make sure everyone was safe and didn't risk their lives on getting COVID-19. We decided to make most of the meetings that the three main characters had online over Zoom screen recordings. This made the camera quality for the meetings decrease and look bad. However, if we were allowed to film in the campus, we would have filmed on a professional camera so then the quality would be better. 

 

Since we didn't want all of our footage to just be over Zoom, we had one of our teammates film a couple extra scenes so then we have a variety of shots to use in the final cut. When planning for the production we all decided to produce a trailer instead of a scene. This would make it easier for us to be able to use a variety of shots instead of just one shot from a scene from the chosen film idea. And because we had to film at home, our audio quality that came from the zoom meetings were very low and sounded really gritty. If we were to be able to film outside of the house, we would have had better audio quality due to the better microphones we have at the campus. 

 

Another problem that I had in the post-production phase was that one of the scenes that we filmed had a swear word in it. I wasn't really comfortable with putting the swear word out on public Since the majority of trailers that have been produced don't really have swear words. So, for one of the edits, I had to put a bleep or a censor noise over the swear word and I removed the actual sound file of the actress saying the swear word so then the censor noise could cover it easier. I didn't really like doing it as I found this task very tedious because I found it to be very difficult to get the timing just right, so it didn't cut off the next word that the actress was saying. 

 

Another problem we had in the production phase was that we didn't have any fashion designs to use for one of the scenes. Luckily one of my sister’s friends was able to spare a couple designs and gave us the all clear to use them. This saved us a lot of stress and made the whole of the production phase a whole lot easier. There are lots of things that I've learned from this unit. I've learned that: you need to plan a backup plan just in just in case the main plan doesn't go ahead, the editing phase takes some time and it's okay to take your time on it and not to rush ahead which is what I did in this unit as long as you stick to the deadline.  

 

I also learned that in my writing I need to plan how the characters get into the situation that they're supposed to be in instead of worrying about what's going to happen in the middle of the story and that I need to plan the beginning before I plan the middle and I need to plan the middle before I plan the end. That way the stories that I make can be more in depth. And that I also need to plan out what's going to happen in the story before I pitch the story idea to my group. I really enjoyed this unit, and I can't wait to spread my creativity on the other units that I have this year. 

My Edits for 'Tell Me No'

 

These are the two final products that I made for the 'Script to Screen' unit. I decided to do two videos because I wanted to have one video with a swearword in, which was in the script and was bleeped or censored out, and one video without the swearword in and skipped over it cutting it out of the second version. I didn't really like the fact that we had to use a scene with a swearword in as normally in trailers you don't usually have swearwords in it, so I made the effort to bleep it out because the scene was still integral to the story itself. Also, because of the COVID restrictions we had to film the majority of the scenes on Zoom so the quality of those scenes was not that great.  Even though we couldn't film in the Rochester campus I am very pleased with how well our team thought of a Plan B idea and I was pleased for how well our team adapted to the change and how well we all acted in the film itself.

Zoom Meeting Summary - 4/1/2021

In the meeting today, we discussed if there could be an alternative way to film this video as Tier 4 has been announced and we aren't going back face-to-face until the end of the month. We also discussed if it could be done online in regard to the COVID restrictions happening at the moment. We then had the idea of making it into a 2-minute film trailer rather than just an excerpt of the film. We thought this would be good because then we can highlight parts of the script which we thought would be best for the trailer, that we think would entice the audience to watch the full film, and that we could all edit our own little trailers at home instead of having one person doing it so that we all have something to do instead of just sitting at home doing nothing because of COVID restrictions and it helps us not put each other at risk of COVID-19 by filming in person.

We discussed that the meeting between Lou and Medina could happen over zoom to save our actors from travelling to the campus which is closed at the current moment. We also then discussed about making ourselves, in the group, actors to save our classmates having the struggle of acting in our film when they have their own stuff going on with their own filming and figuring out how to do it online. We also then discussed about having another actress playing the role of Emma. However, if we can't find an actress to play the role of Emma then we would change the role of Emma into a male called Emmet but that is just our backup plan and not set in stone yet.