Vimeo Link

Attached is the link to our short drama we made for Creative Project Development and Realisation; Ticker:

https://vimeo.com/164695618

Evaluation: Creative project Development and Realisation

CPDR has definitely been my most valuable module in my first year of university, allowing me to explore a wide range of genres and types of films in order to gain new skills on a very broad spectrum. From the very first session in CPDR I learnt new skills, especially with our first big project being an experimental sound piece. I was able to learn how to make not only a creative sound piece, but a unique piece of work which came from the minds of myself and two other crew members. The sound piece in particular really helped my creative side flourish as soon as began the year, with having to think of a creative idea that would intrigue and fasciate someone through the power of sound and not visuals. Following on from this, the sound piece did not only help me flourish creatively, it also helped me to realise just how important a well-designed sound scape is. With sound being just as important and visuals in terms of a 50/50 ratio, I have throughout the year concentrated more and more on the sound scapes for our projects each time we started a new production.

Moving on from the sound piece into making a documentary, this was once again a new and exciting experience for me personally as making a documentary is a type of film I have never tackled to make before. With working on a drag queen documentary, being the director but taking the predominant role as cinematographer as well, I was able to have full creative control over how the project turned out. I have practiced in directing before, however this was the first project I have worked on where I feel like I successfully lead a team with an organised production and ending up with a great product which we were all very proud of. The concept of making a documentary was also something I had never tackled in terms of how to deal with interviewees, and how to ask them questions to get the best possible answers. Overall, the experienced helped to develop my interpersonal skills from a directing point of view, but also my cinematography skills when needing to create a fun, dynamic well-thought out documentary for a lovely, well-deserved subject.

As well as both of these projects being useful in developing a range of my skills, our final project working on the drama has helped me especially from multiple different angles. The drama allowed me to practice many skills that I have never had chance to develop on a production properly before. One of these skills was working with actors. I have had previous experience, however this was at a much more professional level in terms of the relationship we grew with them. We allowed them to have full access to the production upon they're audition, filling them in on the tiniest details in order to get their full-perspective on what they though of our idea. Not only was working with actors a new experience, the drama project was the first production I have taken the fully respective role as cinematographer. In previous projects i have practiced cinematography (on some more than others), however this was my official debut as a cinematographer. To say this was my first active and official role as cinematographer, I feel extremely proud of my self in terms of the end product, but as well as this module making me feel confident enough to take on the role.

All in all, CPDR has been my most important model this year, as it has helped to begin my transformation into a well-rounded film maker. I have learnt technical as well as interpersonal skills that I will carry with me into my career into the industry after I graduate from university.

Evaluation: The New Ticker

As a whole, working on Ticker has been an amazing experience, working first hand with actors but also, this is the most technically advanced production I have worked on. The project as a whole has many strengths and weaknesses, but in my opinion the strengths outweigh the weaknesses by a long shot. When we started production on the film we as a group knew that it was a very ambitious production to choose. We also knew that it would be a huge learning experience for us, allowing us to create a film which none o us had ever tried before. By this I mean in terms of the production value; needing to stage a heart surgery being the biggest aspect due to the large amount of props and carefully thought out cinematography in order to make the surgery look real.

Before we began filming, the pre-production process saw us doing a lot of research, some of which included looking for inspiration from other films and even programmes. Our biggest inspirations were American Horror Story and Sweeney Todd, but both for different reasons. We decided that Sweeney Todd would be the best place to start in terms of its aesthetics. The vibrantly red blood throughout the film, alongside extremely dark colour correction almost makes the film look fake with its over stylised production; this is exactly the look we were going for. We knew that staging the heart surgery portion of the film would be difficult, but we knew we wanted to make it as real as possible, in order to do this we saw it fit to use bright, fake red blood during the shots. With our other inspiration, whilst Sweeney Todd was for aesthetics, American Horror Story was an inspiration and a good point of reference during the filming and editing process. The jump-cut montages along with the  dutch angles used from a cinematography point of view it was great to see and be able to replicate shots that were heavily inspired by the sow. However, the inspiration is very subtle whereby I chose to replicate some movements in shots that I saw during season one.

I have loved working on Ticker, and I feel as though I have played a strong role as cinematographer providing my editor with well-shot footage in order to make a well-executed piece of drama. Having said this, there are some things about the production that made some points stressful. Some members of our team seemed to put more effort and heart into the production compared to others, to a point where a crucial element of the piece was left until the last few days before the deadline. We felt organised throughout the production, with all hands on deck ordering props, getting documents ready and getting filming sorted at the earliest point possible in order to ensure production ran as smoothly as possible. The visual side of the edit had a lot of hours put in from as soon as the footage came out of the studio, however the sound was left much later meaning we had less time to keep the snd as consistent as the edit.

All in all I feel as if we have produced a great drama piece, and I have seen it as an eye-opening experience from the start until the finished product was ready for the presentation.

Editing: Progress and Change

When the editing process came about our editor and director stepped up to the plate and made a
brilliant sequence with the footage we had collected. With a strong American Horror Story theme running from start to finish with jump-cuts, blood and gore we have ended up with a strong, visually pleasing and successful piece. Our editor began by importing all of the footage into Avid Media Composer, renaming all of the clips in order to help keep our project organised from start to finish. Going through all of the clips, with our shot list, script and story boards alongside it was clear what sequence of shots we needed as a rough cut. As editing followed on, effects, colour correction and jump-cut montage sequences began to appear in the timeline to create the effects we were aiming for; gory but stylised. During editing we also came across a few issues with some of the footage we recorded, however we managed to work around these issues. Some shots we took had lighting errors and others with continuity issues, so we had to substitue some snd sacrifice a fast paced montage sequence to begin the film. Although we had to sacrifice this, we still had a great edit to end with, which stuck with our original themes and inspirations of films and TV shows such as Sweeney Todd which at times we sat and watched whilst editing.

Production images/documents

HOPE PHILLIPS: The storyboards which were drawn prior to production, and which we also used on set when we were filming both films.

HOPE PHILLIPS, ALEX T-G: Photo's taken during the filming of our steam punk drama when filming the surgery scene in workstation 101.

Below are copies of the pre-production documents our producer made, as well as others creating documents to help/relate to their own individual roles:

PRODUCTION NAME

CALL SHEET NO.

DATE

PRODUCTION COMPANY DETAILS

CONTACT TEL NOS

Unit Mobiles:  

PRODUCER Alex Timmins-Griffin

PRODUCTION CREW: Leah Smith Jagger, Jodie Louise Norton, Maya Russel Baines, Shona Long  Hope Phillips

Director:          Hope Phillips Producer:        Alex Timmins-Griffin Unit Call (PLACE)		UNIT CALL         0.00HRS EST. WRAP:      Breakfast from:   Lunch:                 Sunrise: 0.00   Sunset:            0.00 Weather Forecast:
UNIT BASE	LOCATION

SET/SYNOPSIS	SC	D/N	Set up	Shoot	CAST
INT Medical Room/Studio		D	9:00am	11:30am	Jareth
INT Jareths lab		D	9:00am	12:00pm	Jareth
INT Medical Room/Studio		D	9:00am	11:00am	Jareth&Alice

ARTISTE	CHARACTER	CAR	PICK UP	M/UP COSTUME	ON SET

TRANSPORT ARRANGEMENTS

PARKING         

Monday 18^th April. Hopes Dad will come and pick up the crew and take them to Hopes house in Mansfield and drop the crew off early morning Wednesday 20^th April

Day In Brief

LOCATION CONTACTS
Alex Timmins-Griffin 07*********

Student Name/s	Student Contact Details	Production Name	Level /Module
Alex Timmins-Griffin Hope Phillips Leah Smith Jagger Jodie Norton Shona Long Maya Russel-Baines		Ticker	Level 4 CPDR
Script Synopsis
Jareth, a mad scientist is in a new hope to save his wife Alice as she has been in a coma for a month. His only hope to save both her and his unborn child is to create a mechanical heart. Will he be able to perform this transplant?
Script Attached  Y/N
Description of Role/s	Jareth & Alice
Jareth is a crazy individual but crazy for all the right reasons. Everything he does must be perfection Alice is in a coma
Description of Cast Required
A male in his late 20’s A woman
Shooting Dates
Monday 18th April 2016 Tuesday 19th April 2016 Wednesday 20th April 2016
Location Details
Workstation 101, Sheffield Hopes House in Mansfield
Additional Information/ Notes

PRODUCTION NAME: Ticker

PRODUCTION COMPANY:

PRODUCER: Alex Timmins-Griffin

DIRECTOR: Hope Phillips

DATES PICK UP Monday 18^th April

DATES RETURN Thursday 21^st April

QTY	DESCRIPTION	NOTES
4	Fake blood
3	Lambs Hearts	Fresh
2	2 packs of pigs skin	Fresh
1	Needle
1	Lab Coat
1	Surgical Equipment Set
1	Monitor
4	White Sheets
1	Zoom h4n
1	Hydrophpone
1	Handheld mic
1	Shot gun mic
2	Tripods
1	Canon 70D
1	Canon FX100
1	Slider
1	Shoulder Mount
1	Goggles
4	Wires
1	Breathing apparatus
1	Cogs
1	Mechanical Heart

No.	Type	Description
1	ECU	Pocket watch ticking
2	CU/ L reverse pan	Across desk, only showing notes
3	Ls	From back of Lab looking at JARETH working with his back to camera.
4	Track in	From Ls whilst speaking his first lines
5	MS R Pan	Pan to face Jareth as he slams mechanism on desk.
6	CU	Eyes “Tick, tick, tick…”
7	MS (Front)	Covering whole scene
8	LS from end of desk	Knocking over the cogs
9	CU	Cogs rolling
10	CU R track	Follow cogs rolling
11	ECU	Single cog rolls off of the desk
12	CU pan down	Follow Cog as it falls/ catch in hand.
13	CU pan up	Cog catch/ Put Cog in mechanism.
14	MS Dirty	From behind Jareth. Placing goggles on desk.
15	CU Face	“And here we go”
16	CU/ Track up and back	Lifting mechanism into hands
17	CU	Hands tapping on desk
18	WS From where Mechanism is	Listening to ticking and getting closer to camera as he questions if it is ticking.
19	R pan	Across desk show photo
20	Low LS	From Mechanism drop to sobbing on chair
21	Over shoulder Ms	Jareth looking at Photo
22	CU face	“it’s ticking”
23	Ls	Retrieve from bin
24	CU mechanism	“Don’t stop”
25	LS	Stand and leave

LAB

Sound List
Studio Audio – 13^th April 2016
Jodie Norton

No:	Title:	Notes:
1.	Medical Tape Take 1
2.	Medical Tape Take 2
3.	Plaster Take 1
4.	Plaster Take 2
5.	Opening Bandage Take 1
6..	Fabric Cut Take 1
7.	Fabric Cut Take 2
8.	Scissors Take 1
9.	Scissors Take 2
10.	Gloves Snap Take 1
11.	Gloves Snap Take 2
12.	Finger Tapping Take 1
13.	Finger Tapping Take 2
14.	Ticking Part 1
15.	Ticking Part 2
16.	Heartbeat Take 1
17.	Switch Take 1
18.	Switch Take 2

19.	Machine Take 1
20.	Machine Take 2
21.	Machine Take 3
22.	Screw Take 1
23.	Shakey Breathing Take 1
24.	Deep Breath Take 1
25.	Deep Softer Breathe Take 2
26.	Assisted Breathing Take 1
27.	Test	Not using
28.	Heartbeat Take 2	Contact Mic on Leahs Chest
29.	Test	Not using
30.	Chest Bang Take 1
31.	Box Knock Take 1
32.	Box Knock Take 2
33.	Box Knock Take 3
34.	Paper Flick Take 1
35.	Paper Flick Take 2
36.	Paper Rip Take 1
37.	Paper Rip Take 2
38.	Paper Crunch Take 1
39.	Paper Rip Take 3
40.	Paper Rip Take 4
41.	Cog Spill Take 1	Mono
42.	Cog Spill Take 2	Mono
43.	Cog Spill Take 3	Contact
44.	Cog Spill Take 4	Contact
45.	Cog Roll Take 1	Contact
46.	Cog Roll Take 2	Contact
47.	Cog Roll Take 3	Contact
48.	Cog Roll Take 4	Mono
49.	Cog Roll Take 5	Mono
50.	Cog Roll Take 6	Mono
51.	Foot Steps Take 1	Mono
52.	Foot Steps Take 2	Mono
53.	Test	Not Using
54.	Moving Knives Take 1
55.	Moving Knives Take 2
56.	Cutting Flesh Take 1
57.	Ripping Flesh Take 1
58.	Probing Take 1
59.	Probing Take 2
60.	Ripping Flesh Take 2
61.	Cut and Rib Crack Take 1
62.	Rib Crack/Probing Take 1
63.	Rib Crack Take 1
64.	Rib Crack Take 2
65.	Crack Take 1
66.	Blank Space Noise	Runs for 2 mins
67.	Banging Noise Take 1	Contact – Outside by trainstation
68.	Banging Noise Take 2	Contact – Outside by trainstation
69.	Scraping Noise Take 1	Contact – Outside by trainstation