Production Evaluation Catherine J. Longstaff

How did your pre production evidence ensure the smooth progression of your final production?

PersonnelPre Production was critical in allowing the production to run smoothly without coming across too many problems that could halt production. By working with a small but talented crew from the beginning with the drive to complete the production through both the highs and the lows. By also working with a small crew it allows the team to work more closely together which means that communication between the different departments can work more closely to create the best possible outcome. This is very true with the makeup and wardrobe department. By having only one person on each department that knows the style of the production is very important so the character’s costumes reflects the character through the costume and makeup and that they match each other creating the character on screen.

LocationBy working only with four main locations during the beginning section of the production and the trailer it allows me to look more closely at the range of different shots that might be helpful to the narrative. But as there is very little set dressing needed during filming it gives more time to filming instead of setting up the scene. Working in locations such as the Headland beach and Burn Valley Park it allows me to work with the natural landscape during the scene without the need to dress the set with props. However choosing this location the main focus was to make sure that the locations were fitting to the emotional connection that the locations have on the drama. By including the interview room scene in this early stage of production, was important for the completion of the trailer and a site that I would have continued to use if the interview scene needed to be filmed for the small amount of the narrative that I needed to film.

EquipmentWith nearly all the equipment borrowed and rented by the college it allowed the small budget that I worked out to remain small without overcosting the equipment needed to film. By working with only one camera made me plan each shot very carefully and be doing more than one take of the same action it allows the actor to play around with the character they are playing creating different opinions for me to edit into the final production. By using a Zoom Microphone Recording device it allowed me to get extra audio when increase it was needed during editing. However also the most of the props were collected from a range of different locations free which were used to create a more detailed story. The murder weapon, the brick needed to look old and just a broke piece of building work with was taken place on the other side of the fence in the Burn Valley, this connection showed that this attack was a moment of rage and wasn’t meant to happen. The evidence bags, that were used during the pan over shot in the interview room are real evidence bags mainly used to collect drugs from prisons. This was collected due to my connections with the prison service, however the bags are used throughout the police and prison systems. By using props like these it gives the drama a more realistic feel to the narrative.

FinanceWorking on a small budget, this meant that most of the props and the equipment were borrowed or collected from a range of different sources to give the narrative more realistic. By keeping the budget low it and with borrowing equipment it allowed me to spend more money on collecting props and to pay for transport to and from location but also for catering costs. By working in a small team the budget for catering is lowered keeping the price down across the board.

FacilitiesWith most of my locations outside in the beginning of the production any extra facilities weren’t needed however as it went on a space was needed for the interview room set. By booking out the room it allowed me to work out what I wanted the room to look like a real interview room in a police station. By planning the room layout that matches the planning of a real interview room it gives the scene a more realistic scene that sums up the tension of the drama.

How does your final product use or develop forms and conventions of a drama/documentary?

Before starting the pre production I started to look at what other crime dramas that are linked in a similar way to the production proposal I had started to build up. As crime drama’s are a main title within modern drama and is watched by thousands I found that trying something new was needed to stand out from the other crime dramas out on screen already. At first I started to look at ‘The Prey’ (2014) ITV drama created by Chris Lunt as the first inspiration behind my drama. In the Prey, a police officer is accused of murdering his wife and then goes on the run trying to find out who had killed his wife and had set him up. This drama drew me to look at the murderer’s side to the story, instead of looking at the victim’s side or the police. By looking at the murderer’s side of the story, it humanizes the murders in a way that isn’t scene very much in modern dramas. In my production, I wanted to show how the emotionally draining hiding a crime can be for someone who isn’t normally responsible for a crime. But also I wanted to also show how these types of crimes commonly known as ‘rage crimes’ which was a point made in the Prey can happen to anyone. The other inspiration is the tv drama ‘Line of Duty’ (2012) BBC created by Jed Mercurio. However it was series three that caught my eye in planning my production, this is mainly because of the narrative behind the series that someone shifts blame onto another to try to hide their own guilt. The Caddy as he is called is an informate for a gang and to escape he frames a fellow officer for his crimes. This sense of blaming another for the crime is one way that could give the audience a small hint of the question of if the character meant to kill her friend or not? As an innocent person wouldn’t hid their crime.

It was not just the plots to these dramas that drew me into watching them more closely. During the Prey, most of the interviews that take place during the episodes happen in a shot rev shot format. I only chose to do this during the interview room scene mainly because of the way I wanted to hold the identity of the victim until the the flashback scenes as it will allow the audience to see that this could happen to any friendship. But this also happened often in Line of Duty during many of the interview or conversation as this gives the emotion behind each character's words. But for the fight scene I chose to remain behind the the victim in an over the shoulder almost like of shot, this is mainly because I wanted to add more tension by not showing the face of the character of Rachel during the scene till the last moment. This is also in a way similar to Line of Duty and the identity of The Caddy not been shown till the last moment to add a little bit of tension. However showing how the character was like before the argument was key and happened in flashbacks. This was an idea that I saw in Line of Duty, mainly during interview scenes but also by looking at what flashbacks can do to the audience and how they can draw the character into the light more.

How effective was your use of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene?

CameraBy planning the shoot ahead of time allowed me more opportunity to work out what camera angles and positions that I wanted to collect during filming to help explain the drama more clearly. I found that by doing this, it allowed filming to flow more smoothly along without any major problems. Working with a single camera, it made me work out which take I needed to refilm on site so I had extra footage incase something happened to the original footage. The other reason for this was the weather on the day, and as the wind pushed the rain into the lens I had a few problems keeping the image clear. During filming I found that for the pan shots, using a tripod was very important to keep the pan smooth without it being too jumpy however for the moving shots were the camera itself moves it was easier to do this freehand. Doing this on the Headland beach location, I found that by working on freehand tracking shots created smoother flowing scenes which wouldn’t be possible is the scene was built up with a range of static clips to show the movement. This also worked in during the fight scene, by using a tracking shot instead of a shot reverse shot mainly because the force of this scene is set on one character only, and how she is reacting. Also by working on a tracking shot as she goes after her friend with the weapon it allowed the audience to also follow the killer in that short amount of time. This also puts a thought of doubt that I wanted to place in the audience’s head about what truly happened and if she meant to killer her friend or not.

EditingWhen starting to edit the footage that I had collected I found that it looked and felt better to have very little transitions between takes. This is mainly because I found that by using clean cuts worked and flowed better than using transitions when they weren’t needed. However with the times that I have used transitions was mainly because of how the two clips work together, for example in the flashback scenes I chose to use a static transition between each of the flashback scenes as if they were only sections of larger clip showing the past of the two girl’s friendship. Also during editing I found that by changing the original footage from it’s original state by adding an effect to all the footage of the character Phoebe mainly because this helped to create a more dark and depressing feel to the scenes. This combat effect worked by increasing the emotional impact to the audience. I believe that this effect has helped to also explain more of the narrative to the audience without giving too much information to them, as this affects gives the audience the feeling that whatever has happened with this character her world has started to crumble around her. And this unknown event draws the audience in on the production. The other effect that I used was during the flashback scenes from the night before. This was mainly due to the fact that these screens were taken at night and at times the footage became very pixilated because of this. However unable to reshoot these scenes due to other a range of different reasons, I found that by using the black and white effect on these scenes it created a more harsh effect to the footage and shows the true effect that the scene plays with the audience.

SoundOne of the problems that I faced with filming on some of the locations was mainly due to the sound quality of the location and how it effects to the footage. However audio plays an important role within my production and more so with the fight scene audio and the audio of the phone call. The night footage was a main concern, mainly due to the use of the car headlights to light the scene. Because of this, the audio was mixed with the dialogue and the car engine however this does match up with the girls’ habit of meeting at night in the park and helps to explain the mixed noise within the audio. The other problem I had with audio during location was taken at the beach location was the effect the wind had on the audio. Thankfully there was no audio during these scenes which meant that no dialogue had to be edited or re-recorded due to the weather conditions on the day. However if I was to film the whole production footage would need to be filmed later on the beach with the police finding the body the wind could be a problem that would need to be addressed.

Mise En SceneThe mise en scene of the production was needed to be contemporary mainly because the production is set in the modern age with two modern teenage girls. This is visible in the clothing that the two characters are different to each character showing the personality of each character from their clothing. Also the use of mobile phones was very important to the drama not only due to age of the drama but also as this plays an important role within the drama as this is a connection to the two crime scenes due to the phone signal. The use of the car is common in a criminal act and with more and more young people being able to drive the use of a car would be helpful during this type of crime and is also the reason why the act of it being an act of rage might not be the reason why the crime happened. But also the type of car that is being used also shows how vehicles have changed over time and with the scene of which the car keys are shown also shows the time period of which the scene is from with the use of an electric car locking system instead of the old fashioned key lock. This only heightens the tension about how society has changed so much that more young people are involved more in serious crimes. This in itself has shown how times have changed not only in fashions, technology or vehicles but also the way that society has changed in itself and how more young people are getting involved in crimes that they normally wouldn’t get normally get involved with.

What skills have your acquired during the production?

During this production period I have acquired a range of skills and have also developed them through different stages of the production. Due to being a photography student I already had some camera skills however filming was a new skill for me. With the photography training that I had already collected helped me frame up my shots and my assessment on using the environment within the image to showcase the location but also to help the audience understand what is important about the location itself within the drama. Also when filming, I chose to try different techniques and angles to capture the action in a way that I wouldn’t use in normally however by using my photography skills and how I would capture an image of an object I found that by working with these previous skills I was able to work more closely in capturing the action of the characters on scene and at the same time giving them little pieces of information about what truly happened in the scene. During filming I have experimented with the zoom of the camera during some scenes of the drama mainly to try to show the audience the emotions that are happening in the drama. But also mainly working in autofocus throughout the shoot allowed me to make sure that much of the things on screen will be in focus however there was some times where the camera did become unfocused and is unable to be used.

The other skill that I learnt very well was my use of the editing software Final Cut. I do have some experience with Final Cut, due to the earlier edits in Media. However I have not used Final Cut to this extent and for this long. When starting to edit I knew that due to the mood of the production I needed to make sure that the look of the footage makes the audience think very carefully about what has happened to this character that they are introduced too. For this, using an effect called ‘Combat’ was a new addition that I hadn’t used very often in my other productions. The other thing that I worked on very closely was the less use of transitions throughout the edit mainly because it was not needed with each clip as many of the scenes worked well flowing naturally into each other. The other real problem that I needed to work on throughout the whole of the editing production, was to make sure that each scene flowed naturally to create a seamless flow. This was done by selecting the correct parts of the clip that I needed to use to create the narrative but also by using the blade tool within Final Cut very effective.

What challenges did you face when constructing your product and how did you overcome these?

With every production there will be a number of problems that the crew will have to face and during the planning and filming of my production I dealt with only a few of the main problems that are common during production. One of the problems I faced was due to filming on location was the weather. During filming on the beach and the headland walkway I had to deal with bad weather conditions and high winds that caused some problems with audio which was easily overcome due to the no dialogue needed in these scenes. But also the other problem that I faced with the weather was the problem of water on the lens of the camera due to the direction of the wind. Luckily I planned ahead of the bad weather due to the weather reports and the location of the location being on the North East coast where the weather can come in very quickly. One of the other problems that I faced during filming on location was the lighting problems that I had for the night shoots. As the scene needed to be filmed at night I had a real problem with grainy footage due to the low light. I overcame this by using car headlights to light the location however this in itself caused problems with audio. As the car’s engine was left on due to the light it cause problems with the dialogue within the scene as it is hearable within the audio. To overcome these two problems were very simple due to the fact that I was unable to refilm due to problems with the actors’ personal lives. During editing in Final Cut, I found that by adding a black and white effect to the footage allowed me to create a more believable flashback scene than using the original footage. But also when editing I was able to increase the dialogue within the scene by lowering the sound a small amount to enable the car engine noise to be decreased within the track so the dialogue was able to be more clear during the drama. The problem that I face after the main body of filming was the loss of one of my key cast members. During the time to which I was preparing to dress the location for the interview room I was contacted by one of my actresses that for personal reasons they had to pull out of the production. This was only told to me a day before filming the scene and had to work very quickly into recasting my police sergeant, however this was only made possible by changing the character altogether. This happened due to the limited access to other actors who could possibly play the character of a police sergeant. Luckily I was able to recast the character very quickly and was able to film knowing that the actor I had chosen could play the character correctly however he could also bring his own twist to the character.

What have you learned about the production of media texts and what would you do differently next time?

I have learned that by looking at other productions before the pre production was very important to me to see how other productions have developed from pre production to the finished product. And at the end of my production I found that by having that market research helped me very much to narrow down on my production narrative. However if I was to try to complete this narrative again I would look more closely at how the crime could work in this type of environment. But also how these locations change after the event. I would also like to show more about the emotional trauma that this crime had on the characters involved. Including the murderers emotional trauma after the crime but also the way that she lives her life after it trying to remain quiet about what truly happened to her friend. Also from a technological point of view on this production I would have liked to have been able to film with two cameras instead of one to capture different sides of the scene. But also would allow the scene to be viewed in more detail and more of the location is visible showing the audience the locations to which were important to the character. Also during filming I found it difficult to capture a range of different shots in capturing all the scenes that would flowed very well together as the actor only has to act the scene once as another camera will be able to capture the same scene allowing the two angles to be edited together very cleanly. However the main difference that I would take in the re-filming of the production is by refilming the night scene in a time where I was able to film in more light giving me time to film the scene from a shot reverse shot angle instead of the over the shoulder position.