Evaluation - Becky

For assignment 7, we needed to create our own TV drama which we based on the genre of psychological/appocolyse. Our idea was based around a teenage girl who woke up from a party thinking she was about to have an ordinary day. What she didnt know was that she was stuck in a world where she couldnt get out and time didnt move.  She is all alone until someone punches her which knocks her out, to which she is explaining what this 'world' is about. Our group wanted to go into as much detail as possible without giving away too much. We thought by leaving the clip on a cliffhanger would encourage our target audience to want to watch more. We planned to base the tv drama mainly on our target audience but still wanted to grab as many people as possible allowing the tv drama to be open to anyone.

I think our group worked well, we made sure we equally split the work load giving each person something to complete. We wanted to have the majority of the work done before we started to film which would then give us as much time to edit to get our tv drama to a good professional standard. We wanted to make sure our actresses didn't feel as though they were having too many lines to remember on the day, which made the rehearsals on the day a lot easier for both the crew members and actresses. The filming was able to run a lot smoother and caused less confusion towards the actresses, meaning that we could get thefilming done quicker as we didnt need to use lots of camera memory space rilling it up with the same clips of the actresses forgetting their lines.

We all tried to help edit as much as possible each hsving our own say, making the editing job easier and allowing our own suggestions to be put in there. We mainly used short simples cuts which created the effect that we were planning on having towards the audience. This meant again creating a really amazing effect without giving away too much detail. We wanted to give keep the audience guessing what was going to happen next. I beleive that the music we used fitted really well creating tension from the audience.  The party scene music we thought helped enhance the atmosphere and give the audience some kind of hint of what it was that the actresses in the scene were doing.

Overal I felt as though our TV Drama went well. We managed time well and effectively due to the obstacles that we had to overcome. I believe we kept to our target audience well and kept them in mind whilst also pushing ourselves to open to a wider audience range. We worked well as a group, all happy and taking our strong points and using them tpwith the written work. We made sure each individual was happy with the tasks they were giving, allowing new challenges when it came to a task we previously haven't complted. I enjoyed working within the group, we were able to take on crew member job roles we knew we wereIinterested in allowing us to have some kind of experience.

Reflection on filming - Becky

We had a few issues when filming, due to the idea our TV Drama meaning we had tombe very aware and cautious when filming and how we went about filming. The most difficult part was when we changed the location to filming outside, we spent a lot of time waiting for the traffic to pass or to wait for any walkers to be out of site. This kept us crew members aware of anything thing that could stop our idea from working.

We had the troubles of filming inside the house due to the pets that were there. We had to keep letting the dog out into the garden which was the background to the shots which weretaken from the lounge. We over came the majority of the oobstacles allowing us to learn different ways to overcome them and keep the filming to a professional standard.

We did all the filming on two different cameras due to ellies sound not working properly. This allowed either Ellie or Victoria to catch different perspectives and angles. Ellie mainly focused on catching the shots which were either far away or up close that didn't need to catch any dialogue.

Overal the filming went well, we filmed as much as we could to the best standard possible in the time which we gave ourselves.  I thought it worked well using two cameras which gave us more of a choice from which angle looked better.

Rehearsals - Becky

We planned our rehearsals to be held on the day of the filming, allowing the actresses to have the script more in their memory. Also due to the short amount of notice we gave, it was he only time available where all crew members and actresses xould attend.This allowed the crew members time to help spend time explainning and promtimg the actresses before and throughout.

Before we filmed we allowed a few minutes for the actresses to read through their lines and memorise as much as possible. We found it easier to rehearse one line or two and then record them saying the line allowing the filming to be paced well, encouraging the actreses to feel calm and allowing them to take their time.

Issues and how we overcame them - Becky

Our group had a varied amount of issues during both filming and pre-production that we had to over come. During the pre-production,  we managed tosplit out the work evenly allowing each group member to equally have set work that they had to complete.

We had more issues when it came to the last few final pieces of work to complete before we filmed. Our main difficulties we found were the actual idea itself and how we were goingto get the ideas that we had in our heads, written down exactly how we wanted it to. Coming up with the idea took a while due to the stereotypical TV Dramas people expect.

Me and Cheryl both colaborated on 'finding the talent'. Our group was trying to think of people who were easily available and could obviously act. Our first choice was to get people from college but that was most difficult due to exams coming up and their spare time needed for revision. I then thought of my sister who I knew was finishing university and could possible help, but we left it until quite short notice meaning Amy was busy. I then knew my best friend Deanna had finished college allowing her to be free. We were anle to use her when needed and managed to get the filming complete vey quickly.

Evaluation - Cheryl

For Assignment 7 we had to shoot 5 minutes of the beginning of a TV Drama. Our group based our TV Drama around an apocalyptic theme. We came up with the idea of  a girl waking up convinced its the next day when really a couple of months have passed. she wakes up to find she is all alone. She then bumps into a person who knocks her out. When she wakes up the apocalypse is explained to her. The 5 minute clips ends with a loud bang on the door. We end our TV Drama on a cliff hanger to make the audience want to see more. The target audience for our drama is teenagers to young adults. It could also stretch into middle aged. Our drama is for both genders.

Our group worked well together. We got all the paperwork done first then we started to film. We kept to our time schedule well and because the tasks where divided equally no one was over loaded.
Before filming we rehearsed with our actors jut so they knew what they where doing. Also, this put less pressure on the actors. This helped filming go quicker and the final product was better because of the rehearsals.

After filming we came together and started editing. In our final product we used short quick clips as to keep the audience interested. Also, we put backing music to the drama to add tension for the viewer. This worked well. Also, music was added during the party to create more of a believable atmosphere. We adjusted lighting in Final Cut to balance the lighting out and make everything look similar lighting wise.

Overall, I am pleased with our final product. I feel we really got across the narrative well. I feel we related to our target audience. After showing our drama to several people in our target audience they enjoyed it and understood what was going on. We worked well together as a group and succeeded in the assignment set.

Evaluation - Ellie

A TV drama is a dramatic production aired on television, it is divided into episodes that together make up a 'season' or 'series'. They are created for almost purely entertainment purposes.

For this assignment, we were tasked with creating the first 5 minutes of the pilot episode of a TV Drama. In my group there was Victoria, Cheryl, Becky, and I. We decided to go together as a group because we had been together as a group for the previous assignment and we were all happy with our team and are comfortable with each other (and therefore more comfortable with sharing ideas, suggestions, criticisms, etc, than we would have been with a group we didn't know well). We are all aware of our different strengths and they come together quite well - Becky is best at paperwork, Victoria and I are best at the creative aspects, and Cheryl is best when it comes to making decisions regarding our final production.

Taking into consideration our time limit and us having never created something like this before, I think that overall what we produced is quite good and the production of it went quite well. Although we did encounter quite a few issues prior to filming, I think it still went quite well - well enough for us to produce a good quality production. However, I think that we should have watched some episodes of more TV drama closer to the time of filming as many of the shots we got were especially short (uncharacteristic of many TV dramas).

Although our original idea meant it was supposed to be very fast-paced with quick, confusing shots, I think that we have too many parts of our production with that kind of editing and, paired with the shortness of the majority of our shots, it just makes the overall piece seem amateurish and jumpy, and makes the bits that we need fast-paced and confusing rather ineffective.
Our audience feedback told us that this kind of editing is 'at times too disorientating' and 'makes it seem like [we] don't know how to edit', as opposed to our intention of it being obviously purposefully like that and intriguing. If we were to re-edit I would possibly change one of these fast jumpy scenes to be more normal (which would make the other scene more effective) and lengthen some of the speaking shots during the conversation between our two main characters as I feel that the way the camera keeps jumping from both of their faces without much pause is quite uncomfortable to watch.
UPDATE: Rewatching the re-edited version, I think that because I have added to the 'party scene' (the very beginning scene) it makes the other scenes that had similar editing to the original version of it stand out more because of how different this first scene now looks. Feedback from the audience of the re-edited version tells us that it is more understandable than they originally thought, with similar reasons to our own - 'probably because the party is now really different to the other bits'.
I am super happy with how the editing of this scene went because the bright colours ensure that the production as a whole is not visually boring.

Editing was somehow simultaneously made easier and more difficult because, due to one of our cameras' sound not working properly, we planned filming accordingly to ensure we still captured the sound we needed with the other camera. Although this made editing and syncing the sound and visual more difficult, it worked out quite well because, when editing we found that my camera's sound did work but still sounded significantly different to that filmed on our other camera; this meant that us being cautious and prepared prevented us from encountering what would have been a quite significant issue during editing.

In terms of our final production, although it is much better than we had anticipated I definitely think it could be improved. For example, we were unable to capture some of the shots we wanted due to limited time in our schedules for filming and a lack of available locations. These few missing parts have shortened our final piece quite significantly and I believe it may have made our story line a lot less clear and possibly more difficult to follow.
Personally, I think that, although effective at some points, the lack of sound/background music makes part of the beginning of our TV advert (when Felicia has just woken up and it getting ready) feel quite boring. If I have time, I would like to discuss adding music to this part with my group, see if we can possibly find something suitable, and then add it in so that it makes that part less boring while also making the silent parts more effective.
UPDATE: I'm now fine with having this scene with basic sounds of her movements, with no additional music, because I think it could be slightly overwhelming having it immediately after our quite extreme first scene, and think the silence is representative of her feelings being hungover.

There is also a part of our drama that I find quite visually boring (where our two main characters are sat on a sofa talking) despite revelations - because there isn't much movement, nor any change in the mise-en-scene, and lighting) and it makes our inexperience show through.

Despite these issues that I would like to change, I like the overall outcome and, as well as getting audience feedback that concluded the same, personally feel that it leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat: wanting more information, wondering what is going on, and what is about to happen.

UPDATE: After re-editing slightly, I am very pleased with the final production and don't think we can do much else without re-shooting but I wouldn't want to anyway because of how much I like what we have produced.

Reflection on filming - Cheryl

Filming was a challenge due to the apocalyptic theme of our TV Drama. The outside locations were the hardest to film as of the passing traffic and people. No one is meant to be around in our TV Drama this includes passing vehicles so we would have to wait until all traffic had past until we could film. Also, we had difficulty indoors as the house we filmed in had a dog and as he also wasn't in the script we had to make sure he was out of shoot.

However, we overcome these difficulties and got across the impression in our TV Drama that our main character was alone in the world.

Overall, I feel we got enough footage and the footage we got was a high quality so I am happy with the final piece.

Rehearsals - Cheryl

Rehearsals took place on the day of filming. This was because it was the only time we could get everyone together due to people's busy timetables. As we needed all crew and actors around we had to pick a day where everyone was available. This day fell on Friday 2nd May. Everyone ran threw the script and practiced before starting filming on that day. Once everyone was confident we filmed.

However, we did run threw the script with the crew during class. This was so all the crew knew what was gong on and we could think about production alongside the script more. This helped when we got on set to work out how we would like everything to be in the shoot and actors reactions.

During filming the crew would give the actors prompts about how they should be feeling/reacting  different situations. This was to get the best overall footage and as the actors had only learnt the script earlier that day it was sometimes hard for them to remember what was going on.

Reflection on filming - Ellie

I was slightly anxious prior to filming as I was not acquainted with both of the actresses, and I didn't know what to expect. However, Deanna took instruction well, and we had no problems with either of them and overall they did quite well.

I think the actual process of filming okay, despite our worries leading up to it - the weather stayed constant across the span of our filming, we captured some interesting shots, and I think the time that we filmed outside (early afternoon on a weekday) meant that we were interrupted by pedestrians and vehicles much less than we could have been otherwise.

Despite this, we still struggled slightly with the outside location, as we wanted somewhere quiet and vaguely empty where it would seem 'idle' and, although this was mostly the case where we were filming, there were parked cars about. We figured that the parked cars weren't a major problem and we'd just try to keep them mostly out of shot, but vehicles kept passing on the road and were increasingly becoming an issue because we continually had to stop filming as they passed or wait for a passerby to get out of shot.

I was slightly anxious prior to filming as I was not acquainted with both of the actresses, and I didn't know what to expect. However, Deanna took instruction well, and we had no problems with either of them and overall they did quite well.

Due to my camera's sound not working properly, we planned to sync the footage taken from mine to the sound from Victoria's; because of this we planned to film simultaneously to ensure continuity, make filming go faster (as we had a very limited time to record), and so we could sync the sound. This enabled me to take shots from further distances as I did not have to be close because whatever sound my camera captured we would likely not be using. However, we had some trouble with positioning shots so that Victoria and I didn't catch each other in frame accidentally.

I think that we got enough shots to make our TV Drama to a good quality but unfortunately, due to us not filming chronologically, we have a few continuity errors that we didn't notice and fix while filming. I don't think this matters too much because the few shots where this has happened aren't vital but I'm afraid that it might still affect how long the overall production will be.

Overall, I think it went quite well and, having edited some of it so far, I think it looks quite good - especially as we were not sure if we would even be able to produce a good finished result.

Rehearsals - Ellie

Due to a mixture of clashing schedules and the late timing in which we had organised who exactly our actresses would be, there wasn't enough time to enable us to have a day (prior to the day of filming) of rehearsals. Instead, on the day we did a table-reading like practice; this involved us first going through the story and script with the actresses, ensuring everyone was aware of the story, what's happening (both plot, and for filming purposes).

During filming, we, the crew, also provided prompts for the lines during filming, as well as prompting to remind the actresses how they should be feeling/reacting because, especially for Deanna (Playing Felicia), it was difficult for them to remember what their characters should know up to that point as we were not filming chronologically and they had only learnt the script earlier that day.

We also often had the actresses do short runs through the lines before we began recording, although this was not always necessary because we were able to take our time and film line by line as it's not live and we knew we would just be able to edit it together during the editing process - we did this because we did not want to put additional pressure and stress on our actresses and have it show through in the final product.  This worked out quite well as it gave us a little leeway with filming and enabled us to get the shots we needed at a decent quality but in a way so that it overwhelmed neither us nor the actresses.

Issues and how we overcame them - Ellie

We encountered a multitude of difficulties before filming even began; the first, and what I think was the most major issue at that point, was not having a concrete idea. This set us back from filming for quite a while as we not only spent too long trying to come up with the idea, but we then had trouble ensuring everyone was on the same page.
This translated through when writing the script as we didn't all have the same views and I had to spend my time helping Victoria with writing it - the actual writing of it was prolonged because we were defining and solidifying our idea as we went, which meant that at each stage we had to spend time making sure we agreed with what was happening.

This, in turn, made my ability to do work awkward because I was unable to start the storyboard until we had a script.

We also had problems with casting actors/actresses to be in our production. We had problems with this for multiple reasons, such as; we don't know many people that we would be confident in asking to help us, people we could ask were unavailable due to preparation for upcoming exams, and the posters from the talent report Cheryl and Becky did got no responses. This was extremely stressful as we were in the week that we needed to use for filming if we wanted to leave enough time to edit and we felt there wasn't much we could do other than attempt to think of last resorts.
Luckily, we came up with Becky's sister (whom enjoys acting); unfortunately though despite her being willing to star in our product, we couldn't use her because of her Uni schedule and our schedules conflicted for the week we would have needed her. However, Becky and Victoria then got in contact with others who were available at a time we would be able to film.

Evaluation - Victoria

First of all the assignment set out to a good start, it was slow in places but all together the pre production work was coming to life. However the more work that got completed over time, the closer we came to doing work related to our idea of which didn't exist at the time. I think not having an idea for a long period of time definitely threw us off and set us back a lot, and we spent a lot of time dealing with writers block just unable to come up with do-able ideas. Keeping in mind we couldn't go 'all out' in a way, we couldn't over estimate our production value, of which most of our ideas consisted of.

The biggest challenge for me was writing the script, it held me back personally, and took the longest out of all of the work i had to do, this was down to lack of knowledge over how to layout and approach the script itself. Thanks to Ellie I got through it, she helped me with setting it out and teaching me basic techniques when it came to doing something I was not confident in.

We also had to keep in mind of potential actors starring in it, as we couldn't be in it ourselves we knew finding people we knew to be in it would be an issue as we weren't too familiar with people willing to put themselves in front of a camera and act for us, to settle this Cheryl set out a Talent so we coudl hold auditions for possible actors, this wasn't successful due to lack fo replies. We were at this point desparete to find people so Becky got in touch with her sister who was unable to film due to her uni course getting in the way, she then got in touch with another friend who was up for the part. I then got in touch with my friend Leah who was happy to help out.

Filming itself was a challenge but I think we got the footage we needed to get by, if we had more time it would have been more planned out and we would have more thought out shots that linked ect. I think the quality of our footage and the idea behind it is good enough to push through and prove the efforts we went to.

Editing is still a work in process and will unfortunately not be up in time for the deadline, if we had a few more days I know it'd probably be done in time to a good standard. Due to using multiple cameras editing is of course going to be the biggest challenge as we need to sync audio for each transitioning shot which is something we've only seen be done in TV and not actually practised ourselves.

Issues and how you overcame them - Cheryl

During our pre production we did not have many issues. We split up the work equally and got in with it. Once it came to filming time we did encounter a few issues.

We realized we had not yet picked actors for our tv drama. As it was running quite late and we needed actors ASAP we decided holding auditions was not the best of plans. This was because holding auditions would take up a lot of well needed time. Instead we turned to our friends to see if any of them would help out. We found someone with acting experience and used her as the main character and then another friend as the secondary. This resulted us in having more time for filming and editing.

As our tv drama was meant to be in a deserted town we did have trouble with traffic and people during the filming process. To over come this we would wait until all traffic/people had past then carried on filming. This did take longer but in the end we got the overall product we wanted.

Reflection on filming - Victoria

Despite the amount of stress and worry we went through in terms of filming it actually went really well. We didn't know how we were going to approach filming, we knew we were using two DSLR camera's one was mine and the others was Ellie's but we didn't exactly know how to use two cameras to capture a scene, although it wasn't until I realized how to edit with two cameras that it's all down to syncing audio.

With Ellie's camera we were relying on backup shots and different angles because her sound wasn't working properly so I had to capture all the sound with mine and then later sync the audio with her shots in editing.

We didn't really know what to except when filming, especially as our main actor was a friend of Becky's and we didn't know her making us conscious about directing her in terms of shots and where to film so she's comfortable. A problem we faced was filming multiple angles with both me and Ellie in the same room, we struggled with positioning so we wouldn't capture the other cameraman such as the over the shoulder shots. 

We filmed a good portion outside which was also a struggle as we wanted a desolate location where it would seem really quiet and 'idle' which was hard because there was cars about which we figured could be cars left by their owners but the passing cars were an issue and we found ourselves having to stop filming every time a car passed or if somebody walked by we'd wait for them to be out of shot.

Overall I feel like filming well really well, we will not truly know the result of filming until we finish it and look at the final edited piece, however I do feel like it could have gone a lot worse, we had a well through out script, a good storyboard and good intentions, so it went well for a group who didn't have high exceptions of a good end result. 

Rehearsals - Victoria

Because organizing our actors to be in our drama had such late timing we didn't really have time to rehearse the lines so we ended up doing a table read like situation where we went through the story and the script with the actors and made them aware of the story, whats going on, how their characters are feeling and we helped set the scene in order to get them into character.

Technically we rehearsed before our actors said their lines, because we could take our time and go line by line as it's not live and we're not expected to be consecutive in terms of speaking as the actors had only been given the script on that day. We got into a habit of giving our actors time to learn their line(s) before we started rolling, as soon as they were ready we would press record with the lines still fresh in their memory, this actually worked out really well as we got into a steady routine of taking it bit by bit which didn't over throw us.

Issues and how you overcame them - Victoria

We came across many errors during the run up to preparing to film. The pre-production work was a lot lighter and easier for me as it just seemed like harmless paperwork that I could take my time with, it was only until the more serious paperwork which heavily involved stuff to do with filming such as the script which I only finished today and took over a week, this was because our idea was very distorted and we weren't sure how to  meaning I had to write it as we thought of ideas.

This kept going until we finally made our way towards the end of the script and we knew we had to wrap it up which gave us a concluding idea. I wouldn't have finished the script in time if I didn't have help from one of our group members Ellie who helped direct how to layout the script and gave ideas  throughout. Since I didn't know how to lay out this script this of course set me back along with the lack of ideas.

Another set back was casting people to be in our TV Drama, we don't know a lot of people in or outside of college that we are confident with asking to help us out. We then resorted to setting Cheryl to do the talent report to hold auditions but got no responses and this was all in the week we needed to be filming. Casting was definitely the hardest part as we felt helpless towards anything we could do. Luckily we had to think of last resorts and started thinking of any possibilities as we were very desperate at this point, Becky then told us her Sister enjoys acting so we got in touch with her but unluckily her Uni schedule was too busy to match our filming schedule, Becky then gt in touch with someone else who is now available to film on a day we are all free.