PreProduction Unit- Developing Characters and pre-writing

I recently created some character profile sheets for the characters I created for Inoculum, and after some thought I discovered that they were quite generic and wooden. I mentioned previously that making Delaney a "step-mother" allowed for an interesting dynamic between her and Abigail, but other than that, the Reed family seem too... perfect,with little to no differentiating characteristics or underlying personal conflicts to define them.
This was something I really wanted to work on improving, and as such I decided to do some brain-storming, which I hoped would lead to the creation of much more interesting characters, without having to change the overall story of Inoculum too much.
I feel that the most defined character is Delaney, and as such I shall begin with her. I wrote this character synopsis quickly today;

Delaney Reed
Delaney isn't Abigail's blood relative, and in fact, she and Abigail aren't very close at all. At times, it seems almost as if Delaney is vying for Douglas' attention. It seems very much that Delaney is a stereotypical modern day interpretation of the "Evil stepmother", commonly seen in fairytales (albeit not in the classic sense), not paying too much attention to Abigail and mostly wanting Douglas all to herself.
The fact Abigail is held in such high regard and how ABigail's deceased mother is still present in photos displayed around the house is something that intimidates Delaney, so much that she feels like she is merely a replacement. Eventually it is revealed that she merely wants someone to love her as much as she loves them, and due to Douglas' apparent disregard for her deteriorating health later in the film, Delaney leaves Douglas for her own safety, after he grabs her and becomes violent after mistakenly believing she had killed Abigail.

• There is potential to make Delaney considerably younger than Douglas, which would make it more realistic that she would be less willing to be what she considers "Abigail's replacement Mum", as she would still be young enough to want to enjoy her young life before settling down. She could resent Abigail for this reason.
• Delaney would prefer her relationship to be just herself and Douglas, and sees Abigail's presence as just "part of the package."

Something I would like to happen in regards to the evolution of Delaney's character throughout the film is for the audience to begin to feel a sense of sympathy towards her. As she is not a blood relative of Abigail, she suffers the same ill effects of her "cell-stealing" as everyone/thing else, and as a result, she begins to literally fall apart and rot away. This, in combination with Douglas apparently valuing the health of his daughter over that of his wife, and the losing battle for his affection she has with Abigail is something that I hope will cause a shift of who is the "bad guy" and "good guy" of the film, creating a very minor "twist ending."

I hope that an audience will at least begin to understand the reason Delaney isn't as close to Abigail as some mothers are because of this.

Douglas Reed

Douglas is Abigail's only surviving parent. Losing his wife made Douglas overly protective of his daughter, and she is very much the centre of his universe. There are hints that perhaps Douglas would like a replacement mother-figure for Abigail, which is why he quickly married Delaney after being together only a short time.

Douglas is seemingly oblivious to the tensions that sometimes occur between Delaney and Abigail, and is just happy that they are all somewhat of a "normal family" again. When Abigail gets ill with a life-threatening disease, Douglas immediately wants to give her the best care possible, but cannot afford the private health-care that would be needed in order to treat her. When Abigail suggests that she take an experimental vaccine provided by a pharmaceutical company because "mum would have wanted me to at least try" it, Douglas agrees.

When Abigail begins to absorb the cells of the living things around her, and Delaney begins to suffer for it, Douglas reassures them both that everything will be fine, and insists that they put all their faith in the scientists working on finding a way to reverse the process.

• Douglas appears to be still very much in love with his previous, deceased wife.
• He doesn't understand that what he sees as a sweet sentiment to Abigail's mother (having photographs of her mother still around the house) is actually affecting Delaney and making her feel uncomfortable.

Abigail Reed

Although she is very close to her father, she is very rebellious towards Delaney. She harbors an unspoken resentment towards Delaney since she married her father. She believes that her father remarried too soon after the death of her real mother, and feels that she is being pushed out.
When she becomes ill, Abigail immediately wants to take part in the OmegaPharm clinical trials (mainly due to wanting to avoid the possibility of having her arm amputated.)

• Abigail has fond memories of her mother, and brings her up quite often. This, along with the photographs of her mother around the house could be seen as a sign that she is merely trying to make Delaney feel uncomfortable, or not as important as her real mother.
• Abigail understands that her condition causes her body to "steal" the cells of all living things around her, and it frustrates her that she cannot control this, and that people are suffering because of it.
• Abigail considers killing herself in order to stop herself from harming others, but ultimately cannot go through with it.

I hope to continue developing these characters, and I also hope to discuss them with the cast members that will be playing them in the future so that they can really make the characters their own.

Pre-Production Unit: Location Scouting

I have recently begun investigating potential filming locations for the final scene of "Inoculum" which will take place in a park. In this scene, Douglas will enter, take a seat on a bench, and suddenly begin to have a nosebleed, which will indicate that perhaps Abigail's character is still alive and is continuing to steal people's cells.

For this scene, one location we have been considering extensively is Mote Park, a location close to the centre of Maidstone. The reason we have chosen this area in particular is that it is closeby to our base of operations (Maidstone television Studios) and since this one location is only going to be used for several seconds of the film, we believe it would be best for us to stay close to home in order to avoid paying for too much travel.

In terms of the aesthetics of the location, I believe it would be more than suitable for this scene. It is quite a large park, with plenty of room to capture fantastic scenery, and make the characters in the scene look incredibly small and insignificant, which is the impression we want to give of Douglas in this scene.
I used Google maps to get a quick impression of the scale and overall look of the location, but I feel it would be best for myself and Charlie to actually visit the area and perform a test shoot in order to check if the location appears on camera in the way we want it to.

The photographs above are available on google maps. I decided to obtain photographs of Mote Park both during regular weather, and winter when there is snow/frost on the ground. The reason for this is that we will be filming around the winter time, which means there will be a possibility of there being snow around.

I have also begun to consider other locations that we will need to obtain in order to complete our film. This includes a laboratory for a brief scene in which scientists will be shown studying cells taken from Abigail (which will reveal that her body is in fact stealing cells from other living things around her.)
A laboratory is something that neither I nor Charlie have open access to, and as such I decided to contact Kent Film Office and request a brochure of any laboratory film locations they had. I was sent a complete .PDF document of the locations they had, and I decided that the MidKent College Medway Campus location was one that would definitely suit our needs.
I feel that aside from the actual look of the location, the centrality of it means it can be accessed easily which creates the possibility of our actors meeting us at the location, rather than us having to bring them there ourselves.
This gives us more time to set up our equipment and work on other aspects of the production at the location while the actors are on their way.
Once I had decided on which location would suit our project, I obtained the contact details for the owners of the location (Once again by emailing Kent Film Office) and sent the following email to MidKent College's marketing department.

I was also provided with a phone number in order to contact the location, but I feel that an email before contacting them by phone is a courtesy that is likely to surprise the building's owners less, and make them more susceptible to allowing us to use their location.

These two locations, although only used briefly in our film, will provide interesting backdrops Charlie to work with as a cinematographer, and I truly believe they could be used to add atmosphere and effect to our film.
I will continue to pursue alternative locations (in case there are any mishaps or problems that mean we cannot use these locations anymore for whatever reason) and make a note of any potential alternatives so that we are never caught off guard.

I will also be seeing about the possibility of us obtaining an office for a small shoot at the maidstone television studios, which we can "dress up" as a doctors consulting room, which will be the very first scene in the film. I am confident we can replicate the feel of a doctors office, but I will not know for sure until we have seen the room. Confirming this location is a priority, and something I will work on very soon.

As you can see from the above photos, the room we have been offered to use at the Maidstone Television Studios is very small., and although this fits the kind of sized setting you would find in a Doctor's consulting room, I feel that it would restrict Charlie cinematography wise, as he would have to find a way to maneuver his camera around in quite a tight space.
However, if we cannot find an alternative location, this would be an ideal substitute, providing we can obtain all the necessary props and decorative items to help the location emulate a doctor's consultancy room.

Pre-Production Unit- Listing Our Location Requirements

I have recently begun collecting information and scouting out potential film locations for "Inoculum." Judging from the screenplay I am developing, it seems that I will need a multiple of 4 main locations.

1. A Doctor's consultation room.
This is where the movie will begin. The doctor's consultation room must look similar to a typical family doctor's surgery, and will be the place we immediately see when the film begins. Due to this fact, it is important that the room we acquire can be made to look interesting, and immediately engage the audience.

2. A Family Home.
This is where the main body of the story will take place. This house will belong to Douglas and Delaney Reed, and must be accessible for us to film in throughout the project.

3. A laboratory.
The laboratory I am looking for will be used only briefly in our film to show scientists conducting research on the medication that will be given to Abigail which will give her the "powers" that the film is about.

4. A park.
This location will be used for the films ending, and will only be used briefly. At the moment, Charlie and I have our sights set on a place called "Mote Park", which Charlie is familiar with, and is local to the Maidstone area, which means it will be easily accessible. I have already contacted the Kent Film Office to request a filming permit for this area.

I have begun seeking out these locations through Kent Film Office, who have provided me with several brochures of places that may be suitable for us to use.

Unfortunately, a lot of the places that Kent Film Office sent us require a lot of money to secure as a film location, and also they believe it will be difficult for us to secure a doctor's consultation room as a film location due to confidentiality issues.
One suggestion that Simon had was for me to see about securing a room at the Maidstone Television Studios that we may be able to use as a Doctor's Office. This will require some "dressing up" however.

Pre-Production Unit: What I will be Submitting in the Pre-Production Package.

It is important for the purposes of this project that I clearly state what I as an individual will be contributing to the pre-production package. This will allow my work to be more easily differentiated from the work Charlie will be submitting. In order to do this, we have made an agreement between ourselves about what we will be working on throughout the duration of this project.

Since I have selected the roles of Screenwriter and Producer for this project, I have decided that the things I will be contributing to the pre-production package will be centred around these two things. Things I will be submitting include;

• Fully completed Production Script
• Final Cast, including why they were chosen.
• Final Character synopsis and analysis (including some information on how these characters developed)
• Pitch materials.
• Thorough investigation into our audience and platform (young adults onwards and international film festivals that we could potentially submit to.)

Now that I have a clear idea of exactly what I want to contribute for Charlie and my pre-production book, I can focus on these areas specifically, and avoid stepping into Charlie's work territory, and he can do the same. Hopefully this will allow he and I to work at a much more convenient rate, completing work quickly.

Of course, if either one of us begin to struggle creating or gathering the information needed for any of the things we want to contribute to the project, the other member of the group will be able to step in help out, which is always beneficial.

Pre-Production Unit- Continuing to Investigate Format and Distribution Method

Today I am going to spend the majority of my time researching international (and local) film festivals that we could submit "Inoculum" to. I believe it is important for me to do this at this stage in the pre-production process, as doing so will allow me to make changes to the initial project brief in order for our film to be submittable to a certain festival.
For example, as mentioned in a previous blog post where I briefly investigated some film festivals, there are a number of factors that limit what kind of films are submittable to certain film festivals, and under which category.
For example, some films can only be submitted if they are under a certain running-time, created by a certain type of film-maker (in our case, Students), and sometimes even under a certain production budget.
One festival I am particularly interested in submitting Inoculum to is the "British Independent Film Festival", a festival that has been running for 7 years now. I discovered this festival several years ago, whilst studying my Creative and Media diploma at my sixth form, and now that I am planning a production, I believe it would be very beneficial for me and Charlie to submit to this particular festival.

One reason I have selected this film festival in particular is because it is held in our home country of Britain, which means if need be, myself and Charlie could actually realistically and affordably visit the festival at the time of our film's showing and receive instant feedback based on the audience response. It would also allow any curious viewers to ask us questions about our film and the overall production if they wish.
I began my investigation into the submission standards and process for this film festival by visiting this website: https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=7829 which I found through a google search.
I found this site particularly useful, and I managed to ascertain some very important information right away, including the actual date the festival will be held, as well as the categories that you can submit to.

The overall objective of the festival is as follows:

and the categories that the festival accepts submission for are:

As you can see from the listed categories, in conjunction with the running-time limit of 25 minutes we have already established for our film project, I came to the conclusion that there is a total of two categories that me and Charlie are able to submit our film to when completed. These categories are;

• Short Film
• Student Film

Once I had established which categories our film would be submittable to, I decide to check out some of the more technical requirements, including the price of submission and the deadline for submission to these categories. 

I first checked out requirements to submit to the "Short Film Category."

The first major aspect I wanted to know was the price of submission. Because myself and Charlie are working with a very small budget, relying mostly on our student finance for this project, we have to consider the price of submission very carefully. The prices for each category are actually relatively cheap, especially when considering that me and Charlie will no doubt split the price between us.

Short Film's entry price and submission deadline can be seen here:

I believe that me and Charlie will be best paying the £45 Student fee and submitting for the "Late Deadline", which is March 15th 2016. I believe having this deadline will give us plenty of time to realistically shoot and edit our film from January onwards ready for submission prior to this date.

The requirements and pricing for the "Student" category feature almost exactly the same requirements as the Short-film category, with the exception being that in order to submit to the Student category, the people submitting to the category must be students at the time of production. Obviously this applies to myself and Charlie anyway.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR US?
Something I discovered during my research however was that there are different awards depending on the submission for each category, which I think could aid us in other areas of the production.
All of the awards that are able to be won in the SHORT FILM category are;

And the awards able to be won in the STUDENT category are:

As you can see, there are more awards to be won in the Short Film category than there are in the Student Film category. I have been thinking that this may be beneficial for us to mention in other areas of preproduction and production. For example, in casting-calls, adding that the film is being submitted for consideration where actors and actresses could be recognised for their hard work (via the "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" awards, may allow for a much greater amount, and higher standard of actor application for this project.
I believe that winning any of the awards offered in the Short Film category will definitely give me, Charlie and the cast we will be working with a sense of authenticity as film-makers, and as such I believe that the Short Film Category is the best category for us to submit to.
One thing to consider however is that the Short Film category can be applied to by creators of all ages and experiences, meaning that we will have a lot higher standard competition, from people that could potentially have many more years experiences in film-making than myself and Charlie, whereas in the Student Film category, we would be submitting alongside people of similar experience as ourselves, which means the competition would be around the same level as us.

Another submission requirement for the British Independent Film Festival are the following;

From what I can gather, these materials are required to show the production and development stage of the films that are being submitted, which would also be used to show that the people submitting the films actually created them. These materials should be relatively easy to get a hold of, as we will be producing most of these things as part of our academic submission anyway.

Another area of importance is the attendance for the festival. Something I will be considering highly when confirming which festival we will submit our project to is the amount to people that attend the project, and the overall opportunity for exposure myself, Charlie and our cast and crew will have to a larger audience.
I will also be considering how successful previous production companies that have submitted to this film festival have become, and investigating what projects they have gone onto after submission. I believe this will give me and Charlie a better idea of where we will be at after the project, should our film be successful at this festival.

As I continue my investigations, I have decided to follow the festival's facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/BritishIndependentFilmFestival?pnref=lhc so that I can continue to learn more about the festival and others submitting to it.

Pre-Production Unit- Researching Film Producers (The importance of Casting)

I have recently begun to research my role as a producer for this project, with the intention being that I can learn about the potential problems I may come across by looking at what producers before me have done- where they have struggled, and how they have overcome the problems in order to produce their finished product.

I began my investigations by trying to remember any films I had seen recently that really stood out to me because of their casting and locations, something that I aim to spend a lot of time and effort on in my own project. I remembered a film I watched over the summer holidays called "Cherry Tree Lane", an independent film in which a husband and wife is held hostage in their home by a gang of youths because of something their son did.

The entire film is over an hour long, and all takes place in one location. However, having on location did not hinder the film in any way, due to the excellent casting of the characters. For example, the main antagonist of the film; Rian (Jumayn Hunter) is a very violent and unlikable character, with his mannerisms being a major part of the reason we grow to dislike him as a person. In my opinion this was a fantastic casting choice, as by the end of the film (with the payoff being the family fighting back against the youths) I genuinely wanted to see Rian get hurt and pay for what he had put the family through.

After a brief internet search, I found that the producer of the film was Ken Marshall, who runs the UK based independent film company "Steel Mill Pictures". Steel Mill Pictures has a website, and so I figured that if I were to find out more information about Ken and his work, I should begin there.
I discovered that there were several other films that Ken has produced under the Steel Mill Pictures company, and one of which was a film called "Filth." With this information, I was able to find out more through the use of youtube, when I came across several interviews with Ken himself, in which he outlines some of the difficulties he came across.
One in particular which I found interesting was this interview at "Filth"s premiere.

In this interview, the conception of Filth is brought up, including the difficulties that he went through getting financial backing for the film. The interviewer explains that the films biggest star James Mcavoy is a "draw", but not a "guaranteed success", and Ken agrees, but retorts that the prospect of working with James Mcavoy is something that he could use to attract other cast members.
From this I learnt the importance of "star power" when it comes to casting decisions, and that it would be important in my own short film to try and assemble a cast with as much star power as possible. Obviously I will not be able to employ somebody of James Mcavoy's level, but I could still run some background checks on my cast applicant's previous works to see if they have generated any attention in the past with their acting skills and performances.

Not satisfied with simply checking out these interviews though, I decided to contact Steel Mill Pictures directly to see if I could get any advice on being a film producer. I did this by using a contact email which I found on the SteelMill Pictures website.
The email I sent was this;

I tried to keep the email as brief and to the point as possible, whilst still making sure to praise the previous works of the company. I am hoping that receiving advice from an established independent film company will up the quality of the work I produce, and therefore allow me to create a higher standard film as a result.

Pre-Production Unit: Starnow to Gather a Cast

I have recently begun fulfilling my role as a producer by beginning to scout potential talent for our film's characters. I did this by creating a advertisement on the website "Starnow". Starnow is a worldwide website where creative minds can advertise their projects, or register themselves to a database so that they can be found and contacted by employers to work on projects.
From the success my classmates have had with the website in the past, and the benefits of having applicants being able to apply and immediately give me access to view their previous works, photographs and biography, I decided to begin my search here.
I began by creating a new advertisement which would give a basic outline of the film's plot, so that any interested applicants would immediately get a feel of the kind of tone we want to set with our film.

I also gave some idea of each character so that applicants would get a feel for the kind of role they would be taking on. At the point of this blog post, I have already had 4 applicants for two of the characters I have made listings for, and so I think this was definitely the best course of action to take when looking for actors.

You may notice that we have also listed the positions we have advertised as "expenses paid." This was an attempt to entice more applicants to our project, as something I have noticed is that more people will apply for something if they feel their is no financial loss on their end. A lot of actors want to be paid for their work, but unfortunately we do not really have the budget to do so. We can however see if we can be able to pay for trains and petrol so that the actors that apply do not actually lose any money by coming to act for us.

We also believe we may be able to provide catering for actors on the day of filming.

Pre-Production Unit: The Illness and "Cure" Explained

This blog post will explain a key story-telling component of our film, the illness which affects Abigail, as there has been some confusion as to exactly what the illness does, and what it is based on.

The illness itself is a form of a real-life disease, "Necrosis."  Necrosis is a disease where the body's tissue effectively dies off due to a lack of blood-flow to body-parts. This is shown through the rashes and slow rotting of body parts, which can eventually become gangrene.
Our disease is a variation of this, as ours affects Abigail a lot faster than Necrosis, so much so that it will kill her relatively quickly if not for the experimental drug trial Douglas signs her up for.
Once Abigail takes the experimental drug (the "cure") she is provided, it takes affect almost immediately, with her rashes disappearing and her generally feeling a lot better.

However, "the cure" has a drawback. Although it appears that it has reversed the process of Necrosis that was afflicting Abigail, it turns out that her body is in fact "stealing" cells from all living organisms around her, and using them to repair the ones missing in her body. In effect, her Necrosis wasn't cured after all, and her body has merely gained the ability steal cells from other beings to repair the constant damage caused by the Necrosis.

The procedure in which Abigail steals people's cells happen overtime, but for some reason it does not affect her father at all, because he and Abigail share similar genetics, he is left immune to the affects of her cell "stealing." First, plants begin to wither and die extremely quickly around Abigail (A sign their cells are being stolen) and when Abigail's parents buy her a pet goldfish as a reward for being brave through the clinical trials she is going through, it only lasts until the next morning, and is found dead.
It doesn't stop there though. Eventually Abigail's illness begins to affect the humans around her, most prominently her step-mother Delaney. These people begin to develop rashes, and become lethargic and generally run down. Eventually people get ill across the country and begin to drop dead in the streets. A sign that someone is about to die from having too many cells stolen is the sudden nosebleed they suffer before dropping dead.

Pre-Production Unit- Critiquing my Script Style (Very early introduction draft)

Today I writing the script for "Inoculum." However, as I began to create the introduction sequence, I became aware of a few problems, which I wish to analyse and critique in this blog post.

Inoculum (October 19th 2015 Draft)

My first problem is that I feel there is way too much dialogue in this script. In a previous blog post, and in several skillset group gatherings, I outlined the potential problem I might have with "exposition dialogue", dialogue that simply tells the story without showing what is happening.
I feel that there is too much exposition dialogue in my introduction sequence, and that a lot of the dialogue comes from the character of Doctor Hughes.

Doctor Hughes is supposed to be a minor character, but due to the amount of dialogue he has in the introductory sequence, and how much the focus is on him as a character as opposed to the characters of Abigail, Delaney and Dougas, I feel there may be a potential danger that an audience will become more focused on Doctor Hughes, rather than the actual main characters.

I also feel that there should be more emphasis on the description of all three main characters, as it is currently quite difficult for a director to understand what Douglas and Delaney look like, and how they dress etc.

I also made a change to the actual way in which the film begins. I originally intended for Abigail to begin as a perfectly healthy character, and show her getting slowly ill and the progression of the rashes she develops. I am however, aware that this would eat away at the time I have to create my short film, and as a result, I decided to begin the film immediately at the doctor's office with Abigail being referred to a higher medical authority for the experimental treatment which will eventually cause the side effect of her body stealing the living cells of living things around her.

Another problem I discovered was that the setting which is being used (the doctor's office) may be too similar to the setting which I intend for the characters to visit directly after this scene (A medical laboratory). I need to develop a way in which I can either transition to a completely different setting, in order for the audience to understand that this is a different place entirely, other than simply a different room in the same building.

One way I feel I could combat the problems I have outlined is to have the entire introduction (Abigail getting ill and the doctor referring the family to an experimental drug facility) as a voiceover from one of the parents points of view. This will allow for more development of the parents characters and also eliminate the need to spend so much film time in the doctors office.

At this point I feel that I should probably continue pre-writing before I begin to actually complete a script, as I am a little unsure about what order to show scenes effectively.

Pre-Production Unit- Investigating Scripts

I have decided that it would be very worth my time investigating other scripts that have been written in a similar genre to my own. This would allow for a deeper understanding of exactly how I should lay out my own script. I have found that one of my weaknesses throughout this course in terms of script-writing has been the fact that I seem to include a lot of detail in my scripts-something that isn't particularly necessary.
I need to remember that details that are self explanatory need not be written about in the script (for example, if the setting is a kitchen, it would make sense for there to be food utensils dotted around and chairs, maybe a kitchen table etc) and as such I need to condense what I am writing about into a format that will best allow the director (Charlie) to quickly and effectively read the script and direct the actors to what is going on without having to read through a lot of description.
Of course, SOME description is important in a script in order to get my ideas across and emphasise certain details that are important to the story-telling form, but I must be careful when doing so to not place TOO much un-needed description on things that may not be particularly important to the storytelling. This will make the Director's job easier, and also condense my script into a much more manageable form.

A script I made sure to pay careful attention to was the script for "I am Legend" written by Mark Protosevich. Comparisons between my idea and "I am Legend" have been made before by others that have heard my idea, and so I decided to check out the script for the movie in order to see if there were any obvious script-writing styles that I should investigate to improve my own script.

Something I noticed was that the entire situation about what has happened to the world thus far in "I Am Legend" was explained in the films introduction via voiceover, but it wasn't simply a retelling or exposition dialogue. It was a voiceover used in conjunction with what was being shown on-screen in order to subtly show that the world was post-apocalyptic, and that Neville (played by Will Smith) was the last remaining survivor of some kind of huge disaster.

Several key facts are stated throughout the introduction, including the date, and the main protagonists name. However, the main character states these facts while recording a video diary, which then changes into a voiceover of a montage of the main character going about his day, which adds a sense of realism to the story, as someone would usually state these facts anyway when creating a video blog.
Small details like this are something I think I should pay special attention to. How can I show key facts and what is happening, without it seeming like forced information to the viewer? This is something I need to consider during my writing process in order for the situations in my own film to appear more natural and organic.

Pre-Production Unit- Creating key "Moments."

As I showed in a previous blog post, I recently had the opportunity to speak with a BAFTA award nominated screenwriter, Steve Coombes, who gave me some very useful advice when writing screenplays.
The most useful piece of advice he gave me was to spend time developing key "moments" in my story, especially my ending. He told me that in screenwriting, people may forget lines of dialogue or even entire characters, but viewers never really forget the key "moments".
I was advised that as long as there are sufficient "moments" in my screenplay that can capture the viewers imagination and keep them emotionally invested in my creation, then the story I am trying to tell will be remembered purely for these moments.

With this in mind, I decided to outline the key moments in my film before beginning to write my actual script. This way I will be able to tell beforehand if there are any massive gaps in plot that will need to be filled in with other key storytelling moments. This will also allow me to roughly gauge how long each moments will be, and how long into the short film these moments will occur, giving me a rough outline of how long my film will be.

All the rough film moments are here.

1. The key characters and setting are introduced. 0:00- 1:00
2. The problem is introduced (Abigail is ill). 1:00- 2:00
3. Abigail is taken to the doctors and the problem is (sort of) diagnosed. Abigail is referred to a specialist clinical trial. 2:00- 4:00
4. The family visit the specialist clinic and the drug is prescribed. The illness is described. 4:00- 6:00
5. Abigail shows signs of getting better, but there are also some vague signs that she is absorbing the living cells of things around her. (small animals and plants dying around her slowly, including Abigail's pet goldfish) 6:00- 7:00
6. The people around her begin to get ill, developing skin rashes. 7:00- 8:00
7. The research lab that gave Abigail the drugs discover that her cells are taking cells from other living things. 8:00- 9:00
8. The fact Abigail is responsible for people becoming ill is made public by the research laboratory. 9:00-10:00
9. Whilst Douglas is at work, and Delaney and Abigail are at home, a group of people mob the house, yelling abuse and throwing stones at the house. 10:00-12:00
10. While Douglas is driving home, he notices a person collapse on the street due Abigail's effects. 12:00-12:20
11. Douglas returns home and finds some of the property outside broken. He rushes inside and finds Delaney and Abigail terrified. News reports show that people have begun dying. 12:20-14:00
12. Douglas takes Abigail back to the experimental drug facility to try and get some answers. The scientists there explain that they are working on a way to reverse the effects the drug has had on Abigail. 14:00- 16:00
13. When they return home, they find Delaney extremely stressed, as the house has been raided by thugs and they have left a note demanding that Abigail be killed or they will be back. Delaney begins to grow ill. 16:00- 17:30
14. Delaney begins to grow delirious, having vivid hallucinations and developing horrible sores on her body. She even suggests that they do as the mob demanded. This makes Douglas extremely angry. 17:30-20:00
15. The next day Douglas goes to work leaving Abigail and Delaney, and when he returns home he finds blood on the kitchen floor. He begins to panic, and finds Delaney. He becomes violent demanding to know what she has done with their daughter, believing she has hurt Abigail. However, Abigail is fine, and it turns out the blood on the kitchen floor was from where Delaney cut herself carving meat. She leaves Douglas. 20:00-21:30
16. Douglas receives a phone call from the science facility informing him that there is absolutely nothing they can do to stop the process Abigail's body is going through. The scientists suggest that Abigail be terminated. 21:30- 22:30
17. After spending all night debating what to do, Douglas enters Abigail's room with a pillow, and just as it looks as if he is about to smother her, the scene abruptly goes to black. 22:30-23:20
18. Douglas walks through a local park and sits down at a bench, miserable. His eyes suddenly begin bleeding. End. 23:20- 24:30

From this process, I have learnt that the story I want to tell in "inoculum" is definitely possible in the time-frame I have suggested. My next step will be to begin actually scripting the film around these moments, and editing these moments if necessary.

Pre-Production Unit- Screenwriter/ Producer Skillset Group

Today I took part in a skill-set group for my two positions that I will have as part of my pre-production and major project units. This skill-set groups involved everyone in that class that was also working in the same positions as me, and I found that it was incredibly useful to see where other people were at in there projects, as it gave me an idea about whether or not I was at a comfortable stage in my project, or if I needed to begin getting a move on with what I am doing.
I was happy to find that everyone in both groups I attended seem to be at the same stage I am at, and as such I realize that I am on the right track time-wise.
Below are some of my contributions and what I learned in both skill-set groups.

Producer's Skillset Group:
In this group I learnt that being a producer is quite possibly one of the most difficult positions in a production crew, as it is exceedingly hard to keep a track of the projects budget, perform cast and location searches as well as keep track of shooting schedules and make time to see potential cast members and locations etc.
I noticed that a lot of the other producers have already begun to look for their locations and cast, and have begun outlining a rough budget for their films, and so I believe this is something I should strongly consider beginning soon.
We noted that not a lot of the producers in my group were struggling creatively, and the main problems stemmed from the logistic side of being a producer, including being able to transport cast members from location to location at a reasonable price, as well as the sheer number of cast members. Some of us have scenes which require a lot of extras, and picking actors from up and down the country to play these roles simply would not be cost efficient for us.
Some advice I tried to offer was based on my own experiences of working as an actor in small productions was to entice actors to apply for positions on casting calls by offering them small perks. If a paid position isn't available due to a lack of funding, other benefits such as paid travel, named credits, or an invite to the showing of the finished product at the end of year showing could all be used to tempt potential applicants.
This could also work with potential filming locations. For example, the prospect of advertisement in a film's credits, or by having the location name prominent in a certain scene's background could be enough to persuade whoever owns a location to offer the use of their premises in exchange for this service.

Screenwriter's Skill-set Group:
In the screenwriter's group, I learnt a massive amount about what the other members of the class were working on, including their creative approaches, and how they differ to mine. I tried to offer some advice in terms of writing creatively, based on my experiences working with screenwriters in the past, and some general conversations I have had with them.
I feel that this skill-set group was very much a confidence-booster, as it made me feel that I was on track creatively, and that a lot of the difficulties I had been having were also affecting the other people in the group. This made me feel that I wasn't doing anything particularly wrong in my approach to script-writing, and it felt good to share my creative ideas with everyone else, and in return listen to theirs and offer any advice I had.

Pre-Production Unit- Investigating Short Film

I have recently been looking into what makes a short film "great". Although by this point I do have a bit of experience working with short-film, I still feel that it is important for me to accurately pinpoint exactly what makes a short-film format work as opposed to a regular feature-length film.
In "Short Screenplay: Your Short Film from Concept to Production" by Dan Gurkis, the general dos and dont's of short-film making are outlined, including some storyline and character concepts that most certainly do not work.

In this graphic, and the accompanying article that comes with it, Dan Gurkis explains that plot elements such as resolution through the death of characters and dream sequences are over-done in film. and do not work in a short-film environment due to time-restraints and the over-usage. Although I never intended for our film to contain any dream sequences, it was still nonetheless interesting to read about how they didn't particularly fit in the "short film" format.

A very important part I read about was the usage of multiple subplots in short film. I read about how having lots of mini-stories within a short film can be quite confusing for the viewer, and as such they are best avoid when writing for a short film format. With this in mind, I will do my best to make the central story the only focus of the film, and try not to create a film with many small subplots that could oversaturate it.

Pre-Production Unit- Project Greenlight pitch and Feedback

Major Project Presentation from Mark Cooper

This powerpoint presentation was created for mine and Charlie's presentation to pitch the idea for our major project. This slideshow was used during our pitch to demonstrate certain points. We presented our idea to our group and tutors, and received some very useful feedback which I believe will help improve our final film.
The main points of feedback here are:

The Title
It seems that most people liked the working title "inoculum", due to the fact that it is quite a vague title, but sounds like "inoculation", which gives a very loose idea of what will happen in the film.

The Genre
In another blog, (and the pitch presentation) I described how there were two kinds of sci-fi, Soft sci-fi and Hard sci-fi. Simon, my tutor explained that he would consider the Soft-Scifi genre, and our film to be mor of a "psuedo-science" genre. I may begin to use this term to describe our film rather than Soft-scifi, as I believe it does in fact give a clearer idea of the kind of material our film contains.

Abigail's Age
Something that was brought up was the character Abigail's age. Originally, I wanted for Abigail to be portrayed by a little girl, as I believe that it would add some depth and make the story more powerful, as it would be a lot harder for Abigail's parents to decide whether to end her life or not if she was very young.
It was recommended that we change Abigail's age from being a small child, to a teenager, as working with a child would be very difficult, as we would have to arrange CRB checks, chaperones, and make sure that the child was working reasonable hours etc. This makes sense to me from a technical standpoint, and as such I feel it would be much wiser for myself and Charlie to seek out a teenager who looks relatively young to play the part of Abigail instead.

Our Roles
Something that was of concern for our tutors was the amount of roles myself and Charlie have given ourselves. It was advised that we seek our other people to help with out project, rather than trying to handle it all ourselves. This is perfectly understandable, and we will definitely look into getting some crew together to help us in the production phase of our film.

All in all, I feel that the feedback we received was incredibly useful. Most, if not all of it was concerns about the technical nature of our film, as opposed to the storyline. People seemed to understand the general concept of the film we pitched, and there didn't seem to be anybody that was majorly confused by the ideas we pitched.
I feel that as long as we concentrate on keeping the technical aspects of our film as simple and easy to pull off as possible, we will have no problem completing it.

Pre-Production Unit- Finalised Elevator Pitch

We have recently created a finalised "elevator pitch" for our film. An elevator pitch is a condensed version of the storyline, which can be used to quickly get the storyline across in a hurry. This comes from people quickly pitching ideas in elevators, with little to no time to do so.
Our new elevator pitch synopsis is;

"After a couple discovers that their daughter has a fatal illness which causes her bodies cells to decay rapidly, they sign up for an experimental drug trial- with disastrous consequences."

I tried to make this elevator pitch as informative as possible, whilst still keeping some aspects of the film's storyline secret. For example, what is the fatal illness the daughter has? What are the disastrous consequences that come about as a result of the drug trials?
This pitch, whilst not being as detailed as a full story synopsis, gives a very brief outline of what could be expected to happen in the film me and Charlie create. Although on the day we have our greenlight pitch we will have to explain as much of our story as possible, this elevator pitch would be a great way to open the discussion.

Pre-Production Unit- Creating Our Film's Characters

Today myself and Charlie concentrated on creating characters for our film. We wanted to give the impression that the events that occur in our film could realistically happen to anyone in the world, and so we chose for the central characters of our film to be a family of three.

Douglas Reed- 35 Years Old
Douglas is a father in his mid-30s. He is an incredibly hard working and devoted father who cares very much for his wife Delany and his daughter. He is also very passive, and as such it is shocking when he reacts violently or aggressive towards anything. When he discovers that Abigail has become ill with a fatal sickness, he is heartbroken and immediately signs her up for an experimental drug trial which could hold a cure.
As the events of the film unfold, we see how his relationship with his wife, Delaney begins to fracture, and how he ultimate ends up hating her for her polar opposite opinion on what should be done about the situation.

Delaney Reed- 35 Years Old
She is very loving towards her husband, but less so towards Abigail. This is mostly because she feels a certain disconnect with her because she is not her own child. Delaney does her best to be a proper wife, and does all the motherly duties she should do in terms of taking care of Abigail, but she seems to treat her very much as though she comes as part of the package, with Douglas being her main priority.

Abigail Reed- 15 Years Old
Abigail is a girl in her teens. She is very mild mannered in her approach to life, and doesn't quite seem to really comprehend the severity of the illness she has become afflicted with. The only time she really begins to understand how much the situation is affecting the people around her is when the people around her begin to resent her because she is making them ill.

All in all, I am very happy with the way these characters are developing. I intend for the rift between Douglas and Delaney to be one of the main subjects of the film besides Abigail's illness, and the pressure of society telling Delaney to kill her step-daughter for their sake is something I want to feature prominently in terms of how her character develops throughout the film. I believe it will be important for me to create a realistic "evolution" of Delaney's character, and by this I mean it will be important for Delaney to gradually come around to the idea of ending Abigail's life as opposed to outright jumping to that conclusion as soon as the idea is suggested.
I do not believe that any parent would immediately decide to kill their only child for the benefit of others, and so I believe that having Delaney come around to the idea over time, and reluctantly is the only realistically feasible way.

I also believe the dynamic between Delaney and Abigail could be quite interesting, as it very much mirrors the recognisable fairy-tale character "evil stepmother" stereotype, albeit in a much more subtle way. This is something viewers may be able to immediately recognise, as the idea of an uneasy step-mother/step child relationship is something that has been represented in many classic fairy-tales such as Snow white and even to an extent in the modern day Harry Potter series, with Harry's relationship with his Uncle and Aunt, who treat him very unfairly because he is not their actual child, and instead lavish all their love and attention on their own child, Dudley.
I think this dynamic would add a nice, subtle subplot to my story that could be expanded upon through the ways in which Abigail and Delaney's characters act around each other.

Pre-Production Unit- NoFilmSchool.com

Charlie has recently made me aware of a very useful website called NoFilmSchool.com, which has comprehensive tips and tricks to improve film-making abilities. These range from technical aspects, such as what kind of camera/lens to use in a certain situation, to the more creative ones, such as this article for editors, on how to create an "Oh F**k" moment in film.

I expect we will both be using this website quite a bit during the course of this project for background reading in order to improve our film-making abilities.
Something quite basic I ascertained from this website was this article by an editor in which he mentions how to combat creative blocks and ideas that come to you when you're in the most random of places (or away from your work area). This is something I regularly suffer from as a screenwriter, and something I have been working on combating for a while.

For example, I have recently purchased a tablet which runs the Microsoft Office package, which will allow me to edit screenplays, jot down creative ideas and even do basic edits to small amounts of film wherever I am, wherever I get my ideas. This is something that is incredibly useful to me, as I often get ideas at the most random times, such as when I am on the bus or at a shop.
NoFilmSchool also has ideas for film-fund raising, such as film-making competitions and festivals to enter with cash-prizes, and various useful contacts that could come in handy during our film-making process.

Pre-Production Unit- Defining My Story's Genre and Investigating that Genre.

I have recently been having some trouble defining exactly what genre of film my story idea would fit into. Originally I thought it would be defined as a Drama, but after explaining my idea to several of my friends and others working with me at Maidstone Television Studios, I have decided to define my film as a "Sci-fi/ Drama".

Science Fiction or "Sci-fi" is generally accepted as a genre of film, television program or book that explores the usage of technology, gadgets, aliens, the future and all things to do with science. (Think Doctor Who, Alien, Terminator, Star Trek etc.) However, my story doesn't exactly contain too much technology and most certainly has nothing to do with aliens or time-travel or anything that your typical science fiction flick would deal with.
So how did I come to the conclusion that my film would fit into the sci-fi genre?

The Two Types of Sci-fi
After doing some investigation into the sci-fi genre online, I discovered that there are actually two different sub-genres of sci-fi stories.

Hard Sci-Fi- A genre of sci-fi that is very heavy on the accurate use of technology and scientific theories.
Soft Sci-Fi- A genre of sci-fi that isn't so heavy on the accuracy of the technology within the story, and is mainly focussed on social science and the interaction and relationships between humans.

With this in mind, I believe that my film could be defined as a soft Sci-fi film, as although it will contain some fantastical qualities, such as the fictional disease and vaccination that causes the families child to "steal" cells from other living beings, the interaction between the family and society, and the moral choices the family have to make between saving the world, or saving their child will play a key part in the telling of the story.

The Drama Side
I also defined my film as a "Drama", and more specifically, I believe it to be a "melodrama." Melodrama is a sub-genre of drama that is designed in such a way that it will cause heightened emotions in the audience (Eg. Titanic, Sophie's Choice, Marley and Me.) This genre also focuses on a more serious tone of story-telling, as opposed to a humorous one. I cannot think of any moments in my film which would be considered intentionally humorous, and as such, I feel that defining it as a Drama (or Melodrama) is the perfect way to do so.

Pre-Production Unit- Submitting to Public Access Television?

Something I have recently been considering is the possibility that we could submit our completed film to a Public Access TV station. This would allow our film to be seen by a much broader audience and would also aid in myself and Charlie "breaking in" to the mainstream film industry before we leave University.
Before I began my investigation into the matter to see if this was possible, I was already aware that my local television station; Notts TV based in Nottingham accepts independent films occasionally and shows them on their channel. Therefore, I decided to check out the Notts TV website first to see if that would lead me anywhere.
However, after checking the site, the nearest I could find to being able to submit short films was a page on Commissioning programs for the channel. HERE.
I did however also find a corporate email address to which I will contact and ask about getting our completed film put on Notts TV.

I also came across another public access channel based in New York called "Thirteen". Submitting to this channel would also be beneficial for us, as it would allow for there to be eyes on our product in a completely different country. It would be well-worth myself and Charlie investigating the possibility of us submitting to this channel in the future, as well as weighing up the pros and cons of us doing so.

Pre-Production Unit- Interviewing BAFTA award nominated screenplay writer and Top 5 Tips.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a BAFTA nominated screenplay writer; Steve Coombes whilst I gathered footage for a video unrelated to my Pre-Production Unit. However, whilst I spoke with him, he provided me with some fantastic insight into the screenplay writing industry, including how to go about actually forming my screenplay from start to finish.
You could argue that I could ascertain this information myself from books and such, and whilst I will be doing this throughout my pre-production unit, I feel that it really did help being able to speak to someone like Steve who has experience in a field I am interested in, as it allowed me to ask questions and ultimately learn from a very reliable source.
The video we created can be viewed here, and is a part of the UCA's TVPlay Youtube channel series.

I enjoyed the experience of being able to briefly speak to and learn from Steve, and found it comforting to know that the way in which I operate as a screenplay writer (inventing an ending and working my way backwards with the story) was a technique that is actually used in the industry by professionals.

I any more opportunities to speak with writers like Steve happen, I will most certainly take them.

Pre-Production Unit- Investigating Film Festivals

Myself and Charlie have recently begun investigating UK and international film festivals that we could possibly submit our completed major project film to. The main reasons for this is that not only would this open our film up to a broader audience and provide us with some much needed exposure (potentially leading us to further work in the future) but there are also very rewarding prizes for well made films, including funding for future projects and cash prizes (which would be fantastic for Charlie and I to pay for future projects or pay off any debts we may incur as part of this project.

I began my search for film festivals to submit to through a simple Google search, which delivered some useful results for both UK and international film festivals, many of which are specifically targeted to younger film makers. It would be advantageous for us to apply for a festival for younger film-makers, as an audience of said festival would be more likely to understand budgets restraints and difficulties we may encounter during production. Also, other films at the festival are likely to be similar quality to our own due to the film-makers having relatively the same amount of experience in film-making that we may have.
An extremely useful website I found which documents a lot of festivals both in the UK and internationally was the British Film Council Website, which has an entire directory on festivals, along with links to the official websites for each festival, highlighting the entry requirements, prizes and history of each festival.

I also decided to be more specific with the kind of film festival our film would be submitted to, and since I would define the genre of the film we are making to be "sci-fi/drama", I decided to look for independent science fiction film festivals. As a result I found out about Sci-Fi London, a London-based international film festival.

Sci-fi London would have been a fantastic festival for us to submit our film to for several reasons. For one, it is an international film festival, hosted in our home-country, which means we can expose our film to people from many different countries, without having to leave our own country. This also means we can attend the festival in person, and answer any questions that viewers may have about the film's story, characters or production.
All in all, submitting to- and attending this film festival could have been a very valuable experience, and could have been a fantastic starting point for Charlie and I to begin our film career outside of student film. Unfortunately, during my investigation into the festival, I came across this small piece of information in the entry requirements;

Unfortunately, I expect the film we create for our course will probably be around 15, 20 or 25 minutes, which will be longer than the basic criteria for a sci-fi film submission in this festival.
We may of course be able to submit a different, cut-down version of our film- but if we are to do this, we will have to be very careful not to cut any crucial story-telling moments, or anything that would affect the overall message the film is trying to send.

Another film festival I found was the USA based Phoenix Film Festival which accepts films in all kinds of genres, including sci-fi. Although the submission period for 2016's festival is now open, I don't foresee that our film will be shot and edited in time for the deadline.

We will continue to look for suitable film festivals throughout this project, and gather enough information to pinpoint exactly which film festivals we would like to submit to in 2016 so that we can provide an indepth discussion about our platform and why we have chosen it in our pre-production package submission.

Pre-Production Unit- Developing a Storyline for Pre to Major Project

I have recently begun developing a storyline for myself and Charlie Ansell's short film. I wanted to create something that would allow us to tell a dramatic story, with a serious underlying message that would be able to be filmed and developed on a student budget, and I believe the story I have devised will allow us to do this.
Using the "Book Spine" rule that I found in "Pixar's 22 Rules of Story (That aren't really by Pixar)" I managed to create a storyline that I believe has the ability to be complex and dynamic enough to fit a the requirements for a short film, whilst still being interesting and compelling enough to keep an audience interested.

The story revolves around a couple that discovers that their child has become infected with a rare disease which causes the cells in the child's body to break down rapidly, which will ultimately lead to a very untimely death. There is no known cure, and as a result of the families desperation to save their child, they volunteer to take part in experimental clinical trials, with the hope that their child will somehow get better and be saved.
Miraculously the child eventually begins to recover and show an overall improvement in health. It seems that normality has returned until people, animals and plants living close to the child begin to fall ill and die. It is then revealed that the things that are deteriorating are losing their cells, and the child is somehow absorbing them to fix their own cells.
This angers the public and they then begin to subject the family to abuse, forming a hate campaign and eventually (when a massive amount of people have died) demanding that the child be killed. This causes the family to begin falling apart, disagreeing and questioning what is the right thing to do, with one eventually believing that the child should be killed so that everyone else may live, and the other not wanting to kill the child and instead working with the scientists forming the clinical trials to try and find a cure. This ultimately leads to a break up.
The film ends with the parent who originally didn't want to kill the child having a break-down and looming over the sleeping child with a pillow (presumably to smother the child) but cuts away to another scene before anything is done. The next scene shows the parent sat in silence in the park in silence, before dying- leaving the viewer to wonder whether or not the parent killed the child or not.

I specifically wanted to create an ending to this film which would be very ambiguous and allow the viewer to make their own mind up about how the film ended. I expect viewers of this film will be in one of two categories;

• Those who agree with killing the child in order to save everybody else in the world.
• Those who would not kill their child because they can't imagine taking their life.

I feel that the ending I have decided for this film will satisfy people with either one of these impressions and create a sense of gloom in both. 

Pre-Production Unit- Reading up on Storytelling

As part of my research into my role as a script-writer and overall storyteller, it was suggested by Charlie that I read an ebook that was tweeted by an employee of Pixar animation studios, who had written the ebook based on his experiences of working with fellow animators and directors. Although Pixar is known more for their work with animation, the general idea behind telling a story is still there, and this ebook is therefore useful for me to read.

The book itself is called Pixar's 22 Rules of Story (That aren't really by Pixar) by Stephan Vladimir Bugaj and details some of the aspects of story-telling that I have become accustomed to during my time on this course. Among the most useful pieces of information I gathered from this ebook was what is known as "The Story Spine".  This "story spine" dictates that the key components in story-telling are these:

• Introduce the protagonist and their world.
• Present the protagonist with a critical, worldchanging challenge.
• Litter the path to confronting that critical challenge with increasingly difficult obstacles.
• See how the protagonist overcomes the obstacles and takes on the big challenge. 

I believe that revising this rule will be beneficial as a refresher for my storytelling techniques, as it will allow me to make sure that I have everything required in order to tell a successful story, including character, problems and motivation and resolution.




Pixar's 22 Rules of Story (That aren't really by Pixar): http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52675998e4b07faca3f636a5/t/527f0a75e4b012bf9e7361c5/1384057461885/Pixar22RulesAnalyzed_Bugaj.pdf

Pre-Production Unit: My Roles

As I will be working with a partner on this unit, it will be important for me to properly define and understand my roles. After speaking with Charlie, I have decided that my roles will be:

• Script-writer
• Story-board Artist
• Producer
• Co-Editor

Charlie has decided that his roles will include Cinematography. I believe that he will thrive in this position, as our film may contain some quite graphic situations and scenes, and I was impressed by the way Charlie handled the filming of a scene for his Fiction Adaptation film piece in year 2 where a girl was depicted being raped, but nothing explicit was shown. 

Because of this, I think Charlie understands how to insinuate that graphic situations are occurring, without actually showing the graphic detail, which considering we will be working with a shoestring budget, will be very useful.

I may also be involved in working with sound equipment and operating a camera if it becomes necessary on shoot days and none of the other students in our class are available to help.