Disconnected Pre-Production/Post- Production. @spenceanderrson-blog1 - Tumblr Blog

Post-Production and Evaluation for FMP

I have been editing all my clips together on Adobe Premiere Pro. I have mainly been colour correcting having a blue tone throughout the project in homage to Donnie Darko which gave me inspiration for the plot line of the film. I have also been constructing black boarders to give a more film look. I have reduced the saturation of certain scenes that I had to turn into flash back scenes from what wasn’t in the original story as it has had to be condensed down. I have been using various music choices that are mainly piano based and eery to fit the tones of the scenes from looking at a number of different number of films that do the same such as Donnie Darko, 500 days of Summer and a later edition was Revolutionary Road.

Unfortunately the film isn’t finished for my FMP due to a number of different reasons;

Going in too ambitiously

Problems with some cast members failing to turn up on the day

Problems with obtaining different locations.

Although I had problems with some cast members while in making this production, I have learnt myself that I do take full responsibility in being over ambitious as it is my first short film. I did think that going into a production for a 38 page script was going to be easy and I was very wrong. Its made me learn that its better to make things short and sweet then trying to extend it to a bigger duration time as you’re gonna put too much pressure on yourself when its only you and a very small crew.

On course of filming I found I had to change different locations due to timing and everyone else's busy scheduling. And then there was the issue which I had covered before about arriving too late to the forest as the camera Nikon D3200 wasn’t able to pick up enough light.

On the plus side; I have learnt how to communicate my vision a lot more clearer to my cast and do realise the importance of directing and being firm but fair in the process. I’ve had an extremely fun time being the boss of my own production. Say, if theres a cut you’re not satisfied with then you keep going over that same line until you’ve got it. But you have to make sure you’ve let your actor or actress know exactly how you want them to portray that one take or the film will begin to lose its flow.

However, even though I haven’t managed to get it all finished for my FMP this is still quite an ambitious project and I will still be aiming to finish it afterwards as it as become a hobby of mine and I am learning a lot more from it as well.

The last month before FMP release

As it is now a month before my FMP release, I am having to come up with different story arcs in order to have a feel of the story, I have my three cast members this Saturday so i am able to film the Drome break up scene however, as I haven't been able to pick up clips for Francis and Erica's first encounter, I'm thinking to re tweak this into Francis narrating over the clips of where they first meet since Zachary is one of my most loyal cast members, I'm also filming parts for the opening sequence as I'm still unsatisfied with how it's turning out and I wanna go for a different direction so the audience can understand Francis' environment as he narrates over clips of his desk, bed and the curtains etc. I am however happy to say I do have a edited ending for the film which does leave a cliche' cliffhanger but as time is consuming it will have to do for now but I am happy with how it is shot and I feel the music works well here as well. So far in the editing process I have 6 minutes completely edited and up to scratch but more needs to be done. I am hoping to reach 10-15 minutes.

"disconnected." Francis and Erica Burton's first encounter Undergone where Francis and Erica first met, I managed to get some nice initial shots of the ending of this scene. However, as I started filming at 14:30 and rounded things up at 18:00 I came to the conclusion that it's very noticeable with the day going past. Myself and Judd, had to keep patting Rosalind's wig as the wind kept blowing past and would've shown her natural blonde hair. On top of this my sound equipment decided to fail on me with the best shots at the end I managed to pick up. As my main female lead Rosalind was only available at 14:30, I will need to organise a day with her and Zachary where they are both free earlier in the day so the shot looks continuous. If it was only sound that was the problem, I would've had to bring both my cast into a silent proof room in order to record the voices to overlay the footage. I have edited what I have so far and can see that half way through the scene, Rosalind's character was not holding the folder in her arms when I was making initial close ups. so I can make notes of what else needs to be taken into account and what other improvements I need to take into account. Continuity is a main priority I am aiming to get better at as I will be taking notes as it makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

Location Analysis: Nightmare Scene; Shotover, Headington This is the location I am thinking to use in a scene for my film. I was recommended this place by the Oxford City Council and took a day out their to have a look at the location. I like the atmosphere, it creates a dark and secluded area with the amount of trees that are scattered and really close together. We went out to film on the 18th of February but unfortunately it was too dark to film as it had got to 17:00 and the Nikon 3200 we were using couldn't pick up any light. I have now learnt that planning and researching into both equipment and timing. I have now requested my cast and crew that we will plan a morning shoot which is planned for the April holidays after all interior shots are done so I can get all footage that requires lighting finished so I can do exterior shots over the holidays as I'm relying on the college for lighting and they will be shut over April.

First Day of Filming 28/01/2015 First day of filming occurred back the first initial location that was chosen in my residential living room. I started with the opening sequence of Francis struggling with his comic book ideas. I wasn't entirely satisfied with all the shots I had from my first day of shooting so I rounded up the cast member and crew for the following week on the Wednesday. I did however get enough ECUs which was part of my original plan as I wanted to have the audience to decode a claustrophobic feeling towards the character as if we were underneath is skin and felt exactly what he was feeling struggling with his life's dream. I used one light to the left corner of where Zachary Coleman was sat to give it a more dark and neo noir atmosphere. Owen Morris (Drome) helped to provide a clapper board as the sound equipment was recorded separately to the camera so everything was recorded at the same pace. My mum (Kim Anderson) provided make up for Zachary to make him look drained as if his character spends most of his evenings doing the same recurring procrastination. From what I can evaluate and take in from my first day of filming is that red seems to have developed as a recurring theme which is something I am intrigued to use as an aesthetic for the films visual look. More of the job roles including call sheets and location reports and permission will be included in my separate pre production folder which will be handed in for my FMP with the finished film :)

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Location Analysis

I was looking into different locations and came across my own hometown in Kidlington for the Francis and Erica first meet. I had taken the photos at night time, but I will be shooting this specific scene on a nice sunny day, which means I will have to be checking weather forecasts nearer the time. I feel its a good location cause I know the area of kidlington quite well, and since its my first big project, I am able to promote my hometown with mainly the footage being set around here :). The postbox is necessary due to the story structure which you'll find out more once the film is finished and the red fits in with the aesthetics that seem prominent in the filming thats already gone ahead.

Disconnected: Location Report; Francis' Room

Location: 12 Osborne Close Kidlington OX5 1TU

Date: 28/01/15

Time of Day: Afternoon

Description Of The Area: Its a housing estate, located in the living room. Its spacious with emergency exits appointed behind the curtains and a back door by where the bed is laid. The house it self is a 3 bedroom facility with one bathroom and toilet opposite side.

Health and Safety Issues: Lighting, Fireplace, Smokers (Myself), Stair case, Cutlery

Access Problems: Give my mum at least a weeks notice before filming

Facilities (toilets, seating areas, nearest telephones): All accessible

Food and Drink: Mums permission

Any other considerations (Potential permits needed, disabled access and so forth): None

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Disconnected: Drome Comic Book Designs

So with what I mentioned previously about the ideas I had of designing Drome, I did a basic sketch of Drome (first pictures) in order to out lay my designs and give to my two artists Ian Cotterill and Adam Richards. I gave them both a thorough description of what necessities and designs I wanted for the actual character. Adam Richards had proven to create a very visual Drome for which even had some additional inspiration for how I want my on screen Drome to look which I find to be quite an achievement. While Ian gave me a very comic book adaptation of the character which is relevant as Francis Smith is an aspiring comic book artist. I feel both had a very good approach to the criteria I had set them and both will be featured in the films duration time line. Not sure if mine really matches to the capabilities of these guys, but thats not my field, which backs up my criteria I set myself of collaborating with other people from other fields of the film world. I will keep you posted on once my two make up artists have created my on screen Drome.

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Disconnected: Make Up Utensils

As I am new to the film/make up world, I turned to my mother (Kim Anderson in the picture) who gave me advice on make up on set for filming. She had qualified her theatrical make up course back around 5 years ago and has always been enthusiastic to co-operate in the career but has never had the chance until now. As I know she is very talented and want to boost her career up, I have assigned her to be a co-make up consultant along with Rosalind Perring. The two have not met yet, but I am sure they will learn a lot from each other. I look forward to seeing what occurs in the process and what I could possibly learn from this as well.

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Finished copy of the script. Me and Zachary Coleman had spent 4 months on writing this and we have sent loads out to fellow casting members. Before we film all of their scenes, Me and Zachary have agreed to do one or more read throughs with the whole cast attending so that everyone is up to date. As Zachary is in full awareness of the scripts initial character, we can go ahead and film all of his monologue scenes where no other characters are present.

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Disconnected: Final Teaser Poster

We now have our final teaser poster that will be used in order to draw in attention from an audience amongst us on social media. I have spoken to my tutor Nic Morgan and explained that there will be two versions of the film "disconnected." one shortened version that will be roughly around 10 minutes in duration which will handed in as my final major project. Where as with the other version will be much longer at hopefully half an hour to 40 minutes which is for myself to take with me where ever I go in my career pathway. The credit for the font use and layout goes strictly to Jordan Spencer, however, as you can see from the previous post, I took all the photos in order to develop my teaser poster. So I will happily take 50% credit for the teaser poster. I have already expressed to Jordan I am giving him full control for the official main poster design of "disconnected." as I will be far too busy filming and Jordan Spencer is much more trained in those regards of graphic design. I'm very pleased with it and have set a similar version as my cover photo for the Facebook page "Spencer".

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Disconnected: Teaser Poster Designs

After figuring out who I was going to act in "disconnected", I felt it be necessary to start taking photographs for the teaser poster. As from what I know of teaser posters, while discussing with my associate Jordan Spencer, is that the teaser poster should never give too much of the story away but create mystery which is what we intended on doing. I feel a poster is necessary to create and build a future audience as it makes people more interested if you promote your work to this extent. I wish to use the teaser poster on my Facebook page, so people can recognise what it is I am currently working on while also building up hype for the film in general. I decided to take Zachary back to where I'd initially plan to use as his bedroom which is still the plan. We took around over 100 photos altogether, but I've put the ones that I feel work the best here so my final choice is yet to be decided. I wanted to make sure the teaser poster always stayed truthful to Francis Smith being partly the main focus and incorporate his passion for his comic book too. So it was about finding a good healthy balance which I am quite pleased with in the process of developing these photos. My next post will show the final teaser poster we've decided to go with.

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Disconnected: Cast/Character Profiles

Name: Owen Morris

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Address: (N/A: Confidential Reasons)

Character Name: Drome

Owen Morris is currently on the same year duration as Rosalind Perring of performing arts at Banbury and Bicester College. He had originally auditioned for Aaron Richards; in which that role was later given to Rob Cotterill. However, the character of Drome was quite different then any of the other characters "Disconnected" has going for it. Me and Zachary were only starting develop on the right look and persona Drome should carry since he is Francis' invision of his mental disorder. After spending more time with Owen, he really input a lot of ideas as to look and act Drome has about himself. He even went as far to picture out a particular scene which I was working on which I felt from his in vision worked perfectly. After doing test character developments of Drome with his improvisation, I feel he is well suited to the role. He really is able to use his facial expressions to his advantage at giving a stern yet creepy look which is what I imagine Dromes character to be like. Owen will be under going the most make up and prosthetics as his character is very much more supernatural/fantasy based. I will post up all the different ways we developed Drome in comic book sketches and real life experimentation.

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Disconnected: Cast/Characters Profiles

Name: Sophie Beckinsale

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Address: 7 Wards Crescent, Bodicote OX15 4DY

Character Name: Audrey Mumble

Sophie Beckinsale was in the same year duration as Zachary Coleman for performing arts. I'd met her as we both work together at the "Willow Theatre Company" and got talking about my film and she was very excited and enthusiastic to audition. As she is a very talented pursuing actress, she was originally auditioning for Erica Burton; with in which that role was later given to Rosalind Perring as I mentioned earlier. I then spoke to Sophie asking if she'd be interested in performing the role of Audrey Mumble as I'd be able to work 1:1 with her and Rosalind to build up their on screen chemistry together. She was very intrigued and accepted my offer. I chose Sophie because I feel she's a very experienced individual as she's chief director of the "Willow Theatre Company's" upcoming production "Remembering Neverland" a theatre production based on "Hook" the film. She also knows Zachary very well as they have collaborated on many theatre productions in the past together. In return, I will be playing a lost boy for her production so we will each have a turn at directing each other for different projects which should be great fun to experiment with.

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Disconnected: Cast/Character Profiles

Name: Rob Cotterill

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Address: (N/A: Confidential Reasons)

Character Name: Aaron Richards

Rob Cotterill had been studying performing arts at Banbury and Bicester College from September 2012 - June 2014. He very much takes 'method acting very seriously. This will be the first time I have collaborated with Rob, but I feel his performance for Aaron Richards was unexpectedly outstanding. He had completely transformed himself from how he normally is to a completely different person with such grand intentions. I felt from his performance it would be very interesting to see his and Zachary's onscreen chemistry together as their characters are very much the opposite of each other persona wise. But have had similar experiences which is intended to bring them closer together. I feel Rob is very motivated and ambitious in order to pursue a lifestyle in the acting department and improvises very well with the materials he is given. He also re in acted Aaron in a much more descriptive and darkened way then I imagined. I've spent a lot more time with Rob recently as he has inspired me to perhaps take on acting as a secondary interest. I do wish to be a lot more versatile with the filming industry so I feel we could learn a lot from each other in the process of making this film. I look forward to working with Rob on this project and will be interested to see the result of my choice

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Disconnected: Cast/Character Profiles

Name: Rosalind 'Rozzy' Perring

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Address: (N/A: Confidential Reasons)

Character Name: Erica Burton

Rosalind Perring is currently doing her last year of Level 3 performing arts. She is also another individual who I collaborated with for my Music Video criteria where I used the track 'Lana Del Ray - Young and Beautiful.' I am proud to say, that was her first time ever performing in front of the camera and she gave good results. Likewise to Zachary, I feel very comfortable working with her as she is a very bright and talented pursuing actress. I feel her's and Zachary's on screen chemistry for my Music Video went extremely well, so I feel they would be good to collaborate for a much bigger project. She also brought the character to life with an exhilarating performance and understood exactly what I needed. She was able to convey a very realistic view of a girls reaction to an encounter of a romantic experience. With her also having a brother with Aspergers Syndrome, I feel that helps develop how she may view Francis on different groundings due to an intimate relationship, of course. She has also confirmed she will be a secondary make up artist for the film set with my mother Kim Anderson. Rosalind is always committed to her roles as I've experienced in the past with her, she also understands the character very well she must portray as a normal, flirtatious girl exceeding to achieve in a psychology degree. I have very high hopes that she will deliver the right tools and mechanisms to my film as a leading actress

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Disconnected: Cast/Character Profiles

Name: Zachary Coleman

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Address: 41 Lords Piece Road, Chipping Norton, OX7 5HT

Character Name: Francis Smith

Zachary Coleman had been studying performing arts from September 2011 - June 2013 at Banbury and Bicester College. We had collaborated together on a previous project of mine which was a Music Video criteria with the chosen track I used being 'Lana Del Ray - Young and Beautiful.'. So I was very much used to working with him previously and have become close collaborators and friends. Zachary had been involved with this project, "disconnected" from when I first gained ideas of it. We then decided to co-write the script together for our great chemistry working together and our heavy passion involved on the project. I had chosen Zachary Coleman to play Francis Smith for many reasons. Since he had helped discover the project for me, I gave him permission to analyse my every speaking and body language, since he considers himself as a 'method actor', I felt this would be useful to him. I feel very much at ease working with him as he is very understanding as to what I'm setting out for and brings a lot of useful ideas to the table as well. From getting him to analyse my every move, he was able to understand the character to a much greater extent then I could have ever dreamed of. He brought a very different approach to the character then anyone else where he understood the difference between theatre staged acting and film acting. It felt a lot more of a natural approach which really shined out for me. I am very pleased to have Zachary as my leading actor as we are currently still tweaking together the script.

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