Production Log
28th Feb
During our first FMP lesson, we were unsure about what it was we wanted to make as we
were stuck between a music video or a short film. We thought that the best course of action would
be to brainstorm ideas for both and then once we were able to come up with one that we could all
get behind, that would be the product that wed make. We generated quite a few ideas for both a
music video and a short film, however none were enough to make us all invested and so we were
still undecided. We decided to change our approach on how we were going to choose what
product we were going to make, so instead of coming up with ideas, we thought about whether a
music video or short film would benefit us more in terms of gaining experience and showreel
footage. At this point, we were all leaning towards a short film, however we were struggling for
strong ideas and therefore this was the only area that was holding us back; as it was by the end of
the lesson at this point we decided that we would spend time thinking about it before committing
ourselves.
7th March
At the start of this lesson we all came in having thought about whether we would prefer to
make a music video or a short film and we were all confident that we were capable of creating a
short film that would be to a high standard. We then decided to continue brainstorming ideas, but
we struggled with generating any that would be feasible and therefore resorted to looking online for
inspiration. We found numerous narrative ideas that we thought would translate well to a short film,
we noted all of the ones we came across and continued searching for one that would inspire us.
We found one idea in particular that we all thought had potential but we werent completely sold on
it, however we decided to try and develop it further in order to make it more of a complete narrative
as well as talking about the techniques and style that we could incorporate into it. After developing
the narrative we decided that this was the idea that we were going to go with and focus our time on
making it into a strong and impactful story.
14th March
In todays lesson we got set the brief that showed us all of the paperwork that we would
have to complete and so our first task today was to fairly delegate it out among us. We did this and
made sure that everyone was happy with the work that they had to do and the workload that they
had, we then naturally progressed onto discussing the pitch that we have to deliver at the start of
April. We decided it would be easier for us to delegate the individual areas we have to cover
equally amongst us and then make sure we all do those slides rather than one person creating the
entire prezi. As the account that we were making the prezi on was James, he began on his slides
first, while Will decided to work on the proposal that we had to present alongside our pitch. Will
made good progress with this however it is a piece of work that he will be continuing in his spare
time, outside of college. Just before the lesson finished we thought it would be a good idea for us
to create a survey so that we could also begin our primary research as soon as possible, so all
three of us created it together by all coming up with questions that we thought would be relevant
and useful. Once we had created the survey and posted it on social media for people to complete,
it was the end of the lesson.
21st March
During this lesson Will was able to continue working on the proposal that he had started in
the previous lesson. We also began looking at actors briefly on Casting Call Pro to get an idea of
who is available and the type of actor that we would want to play our lead protagonist, after looking
on the website at the talent that is available in our local area, we decided to wait before contacting
anyone until we had more confirmed details (such as dates and locations). After this, we continued
with the prezi that we are going to use to aid us during our pitch, as well as setting up our group
Weebly page that we will showcase our research and pre-production work on. Once we had done
all this and made sure we all had the necessary details to access everything, Will continued to
work on the proposal until the end of the lesson, while Dexter and James worked on the prezi.
3rd April
During todays lesson, Will was able to finish the entire proposal meaning that it is now fully
completed with a level of detail that he is happy with so that all he has to do now is print it out,
ready to hand over during our pitch on Wednesday (5th April). We were able to complete all of the
slides that I had been assigned to complete on the prezi, meaning that all of my work was
completed ready for our pitch. Once we had got all of the content into the prezi, we then added
photographs to the slides to make it more visual for our audience of our presentation. As soon as
we finished this, we went onto our Weebly and uploaded all of the research that we had done onto
our website, while also analysing it all and uploading those documents too. We felt that we didnt
have enough primary research, as we only had a survey, so we conducted a focus group that
looked at our branding (title, log line and mood reel), which turned out to be extremely beneficial.
After the focus group finished, we then uploaded the results to our website. We then completely
finished all of the other work that we had been assigned to do for the Weebly. Today was a very
productive day for the group.
5th April
Today we delivered our pitch and we all feel that it went very well. The feedback that we
received from the panel was generally positive we feel and we think that we presented our idea for
our final major project well. The positives that we received from the panel was that the proposal
pack that we supplied was very thorough and provided a high level of detail about our proposed
idea and production as well as our group delivering the pitch well also. The improvements that we
could make to our project was to recalculate the totals on our budget to ensure that it is accurate to
an industry standard and to develop our narrative further. To develop the narrative, the panel
recommended that we incorporate more of a motivation for our protagonist so that our audience
are more invested in the short story that she is going on throughout the film. The panel also
provided us with ideas in how we can do this, such as specific shots we can use to convey this
information to the audience, which we will take on board and include in our final product. The final
piece of advice that they gave us was to give ourselves a longer editing window to accommodate
for any issues that could arise, such as the need for a reshoot. Overall, we feel that our pitch went
well and we are extremely excited to begin production of our short film.
28th April
Today was the first lesson we had back since the Easter holidays and so we were eager to
get lots of work done to ensure that we meet our production deadline. Unfortunately James was ill
today so it was just Will and Dexter in, however we messaged James with some paperwork that he
could complete at home. The first task that Dexter and Will completed was delegating the pre-
production paperwork that needed completing and making sure that everyone was aware of what
they were assigned. After this, Will began and completed all the risk assessments that are needed
for the three locations we were going to be filming at, as these are essential pieces of paperwork
we need for the shoots. During this time, Dexter completed the RECCEs for all of the locations as
well as beginning to contact actresses that we wanted to cast for our short film. Between the two of
them, they began discussing filming dates that we were both available for, as well as when we
would begin shooting so that we could start supplying actresses and location owners with dates
that we would be looking to shoot on. Dexter and Will then went to speak to Ben from the Hatch
about the possibility of us being able to use one of the dark rooms at college to film in as this would
be where the final scene of our film takes place. After being shown around the different rooms and
Ben saying that he was happy for us to use them on the rough dates we supplied him with, we
were able to confirm that it would be feasible for us to use colleges dark rooms as a location for
our short film. Today was a very productive day for Dexter and Will and we were able to make large
strides towards beginning the production stage of our project.
2nd May
Today all three of us were in and we decided that our main priority was to confirm filming
dates so that we could begin production as our final deadline was just under 4 weeks away. We
agreed that our first filming day is going to be Friday 5th May, where we will film both the house
and woods scene, then on Tuesday 9th May, we will film the dark room scene. After these two
filming days, we will have hopefully captured all of the footage we need and then can begin our
edits. We booked out all of the equipment that we needed, and Dexter was able to negotiate with
the hatch, meaning we have access to the higher education camera so therefore, we can now
capture higher quality and more appealing footage. Once everything was agreed between us three,
we contacted our actress to double check that she would be available as she previous had said
she was. We then continued with the paperwork we had left until the end of the lesson.
5th May (Filming Day 1)
Today was our first filming day. We agreed that we would meet at Dexters house at
11:00am. As Will was driving down Dexters road at 10:50am, James and Dexter were driving the
opposite way, as we crossed, they told me that they forgot to book a tripod and that we had to drive
to college to get one before we could start. We drove to college and picked up a tripod from the
hatch. On the way back from college, James and Dexter picked up our actress from her house
before meeting Will at Dexters house. Once we got there, we began setting up the equipment and
the location ready for us to film. When we began filming, we noticed that there was a hiss begin
picked up on the Zoom audio recorder; as audio is such a key part of our film, we decided it wasnt
something that we could ignore. James drove back to college to exchange the XLR cable at the
hatch, however when he got there it had shut until 5:00pm, which meant we had to come up with
another solution. Our actress friend from Music had one and so James went to go meet her to pick
up. While James was out, Dexter and Will began filming the shots that wouldnt require any audio.
When James returned with the new XLR cable, we tested it to find that there was still a hiss
present. We discussed about whether it would be worth trying to use the audio equipment we had
and hope that we could correct it during post-production or whether to re-organise our shoot for
another day. We decided that wed rather re-organise the shoot rather than risking having poor
audio in our short film. We found out the dates that our actress is free and confirmed that we would
film on both Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
8th May
After college today, we discussed in the group chat and made sure that we had all of the
props that we would need for the shoots as we had been underprepared in this area during our first
shoot. We delegated out props that each of us would be responsible for supplying for the filming
days, Will had to make envelopes for overdue bills and a photo album for our main character.
James had to supply the camping equipment such as a tent and a sleeping bag and Dex finished
the storyboards and the equipment to light a fire with for the woods scene. We spent the rest of the
evening creating or supplying our assigned props.
9th May (Filming Day 2)
Today was our first filming day. Our plan for the day was make sure that we filmed
everything we needed at Dexters house and both day and night scenes at the woods. We had
agreed that we would begin filming in the afternoon as we had college in the morning and our actor
would be free by then. In the morning, Jacob allowed us to use his camera and drone, as well as
volunteered to come on the shoot with us. He turned out to be a phenomenal help with his vast
knowledge of how to use the equipment and general skills aided us. James, Dexter and our
actress drove over to Dexters house and Jacob and Will met them there shortly afterwards. When
we arrived, we decided to reshoot the beginning that we had shot the other day as the lighting
would have changed and wanted to keep continuity in our film. We were filming at Dexters house
till around 4:30pm, which was quite a long time considering the amount of footage we actually
captured. However, as we were going to have to wait till it got dark to film our night scenes in the
woods, it wasnt too much of an issue.
When we finished filming at Dexters, we drove over to Uphill woods and began filming the
day scene that would feature in our film. Again, this took quite a while longer than we were
expecting and we finished this segment at around 7:30pm. James, Dex and our actress left at
roughly 7:40pm to get themselves some food while Jacob and Will waited with our set and
equipment at the location. The plan was for them to go and get their food, then once they returned,
Will would go and get himself some food so that nobody was left on their own with the equipment
and set. However, James, Dexter and our actress didnt end up returning until roughly 9:15pm,
which meant that we were rapidly running out of light to film. When they got back, Will left to go
and get himself something to eat. During this time, Dexter, James and Jacob were able to film our
final scene and begin packing up. Will called to check how we were getting on and, as we had
finished, he came back to take Jacob home, while James took Dexter and our actress home.
10th May (Filming Day 3)
The plan for today was to meet at Uphill woods at 11:40am, to shoot our ending shot for our
film, revealing that the girl in our story has been killed. After this, we had planned to go onto college
to film the final scene in the dark room where the photo developing takes place. Will would have
had to leave filming at 3:00pm at the latest as he had family commitments in the late afternoon/
evening, however we hoped that we would be all wrapped up by then. Will arrived to Uphill woods
at 12:10pm as he got caught in traffic on the A370. He tried to call the others to find out where they
were but he couldnt get through to them. Dexter messaged him through the group chat explaining
that they had gone into town to buy some fake blood to use and that theyd be back in about 30
minutes. They arrived about 15 minutes later and we began filming right away. We set up the
scene, which we felt looked really good and captured the footage we needed. We then filmed a few
shots in the car just to tie together the different locations so that our final film flows well and has
continuity. By this time, it was around 2:15pm and we needed to drop our actress home before
filming in the dark room at college. We decided that there would be no point in Will waiting for our
actress to get dropped home, to then have to leave anyway so he left at this time, with the plan
being for James and Dexter to go and film the final scene. When James and Dexter got to college,
neither Ben or Nick were in, which meant that they were unable to film in the dark room. We then
reorganised the filming day for the dark room to Thursday 11th May.
11th May (Filming Day 4)
Today was our final filming day in our last location of Dark Room C at the University
Campus of Weston College. We had scheduled lessons in the morning and then a journalism
lesson in the first session of the afternoon. During the morning lesson, James and Dexter set up
the dark room for filming in the afternoon. The dark room looked phenomenal, the lighting was
authentic and ideal and the props used really brought the set to life, overall we were very
impressed with the work they had done. During the journalism lesson in the afternoon, we began
filming our final scene. It took us around an hour from start to finish and was a successful shoot.
Upon review of the footage on location, we were very pleased with the quality of it and how the
scene came together and captured everything that we had pictured it to do. We were grateful to
complete our filming and therefore could progress into the editing (post) stage of our production,
remaining on schedule despite some issues that arose during the filming period.
Monday 22nd May
During todays lesson, James and Dexter started sorting through all of the footage and
audio, organising it and pair the necessary files together so that when we begin editing, the
process is much smoother. While they were doing this, Will was sorting out paperwork that needed
doing, such as permission forms and uploading it all onto our Weebly, ready for the deadline on
Friday. Will was able to get through a decent amount of paperwork, meaning that the only
paperwork that still needed doing was the shot list, which James said he would do once the edit
has been completed. We had to negotiate with Jacob over the use of some of the drone footage
that we captured during our third filming day as he wanted to use it in his FMP. The final agreement
that we came to was that Jacob would use the footage in his final film, however he would exclude it
from his film that would be getting screened. James organised the footage and audio for scene 1
and 2, while Will did scenes 3 and 5 and Dexter arranged the red room scene.
Tuesday 23rd May
After completing the organisation of the footage and audio yesterday, we could begin the
main edit of our final film. Dexter lead the editing as he had made it known that he some key
editing ideas that he wanted to incorporate into our film, also he is the most experienced editor in
the group and is therefore the best man for the job. During this time, Will continued to gather
together the permission forms that we needed from our actress and actor and upload them to our
Weebly website, while also keeping the production log updated. At the end of the lesson, Dexter
decided to take the edit home with him so he could continue it there.
Thursday 24th May
Today we all met at Dexters house in the morning to help with the edit which he had been
doing since Tuesday. We decided that we would need to film one more shot, about 15 seconds
worth of footage, just to make the transition between the first and second scene smoother. We
spent the morning editing the short film around the transition between scene one and two, as we
would fill this gap in later. At around 10:30am, James and Will went to college to complete the final
pieces of paperwork that the group needed to do before the deadline tomorrow, while Dexter
stayed at his to edit. When we got to college, James started the shooting shot list, while Will
started the storyboards. At about 11:45am, James left to pick Dexter up to film the extra footage at
the forest while Will stayed in college to finish the paperwork. During the time at college, Will was
able to complete the storyboards and shooting shot list, uploading them both to Weebly and
structuring it so it was ready for Dexter and James to add their final pieces of paperwork. The
shoot went well and James and Dexter returned to college at around 2:00pm. We agreed that Will
would stay in college to update the production log while Dexter would go home to finish the edit,
inserting the new footage. As all of the paperwork was essentially complete by this point, bar a few
items that James and Dexter needed to upload, Will ticked off the sections of the hand-in sheet
that revolved around this section of our work. As James and Dexter are going out tomorrow, they
said that they would call into college to at some point before the deadline to put the finished film
into the hand-in folder on the shared drive, meaning that everything would be handed in.
