Preliminary Evaluation - Planning

How well you managed to plan your storyboards, scripts and how you managed actors, location and props; Did you encounter any problems at various stages with theses? Did you make any changes to your original plans? Why? How did you overcome any difficulties? At the beginning we thought that planning our storyboards and scripts would be a relatively easy task, it was only when we attempted to begin filming we realised that it was a lot harder than we presumed and required us to go into a lot more depth than what we initially thought. We changed completely from our original storyboard and script. We did this because it was obvious when we began filming that our original idea would not work and was not substantial enough to make a good video. The actors we began with were ideal for the original roles however when it came to filming it was hard for them to take their roles seriously. I (Rachael) found it very hard to focus on the lines written in front of me while I was aware a camera was filming. Laith, the original boy actor we used could act the role but however when we attempted to film one day and he didn't turn up we knew that he wasn't reliable. Location for our original idea was also hard to come by in school, we had the idea of a boy and a girl on a date, this wouldn't work in school, therefore this idea after taking into account all factors such a storyboarding, filming, actors and location that this original idea would not work. Now we were back to the stage where we had no idea. Then Maria came up with the idea of a job interview, we still wanted to stay with our original genre idea which was comedy - we got this original idea after we first watched Ted where incidentally there is also a job interview. To further assist us, we typed funny inteviews into youtube and came across this - Awesome _26 Funny. Once we completed this area, we found it relatively easy to complete our script, and soon enough we began filming. The actress and actor we used were much better suited to this role. We used Orla Bradley as our girl, she is a drama student and therefore was at ease with the camera on her, she was able to carry out her actions and lines naturally therefore creating a natural aura overall. The actor we used was Christopher McLarnon. I first of all was quite wary of this, as I have grew up with Christopher my whole life and I know sometimes he can be a bit immature. However, with this role he completely felt comfortable, it allowed him to be humorous, but also to have serious moments, which reflects his personality. I think therefore actors in this instance were perfectly chosen and allowed us to create a sense of normality. Location was also easy to use in school because this idea would be set in an office, and this setting is abundant in a school, therefore we encountered no problems in this area. Because of the nature of our story props were not as big a deal, being dressed in uniform it was not hard to change costume, we simply gave Christopher a tie, and Orla changed her top and put a blazer on. In the room all we used was a box of pens and a page. This was all we felt was needed in order to make the scenario real, we took a minimalist approach. Overall, while we did encounter many problems at the beginning, as we got into it and began to realise what was suitable and what was not, we didn't find it as difficult, and in the end feel that the planning, and going through the failed ideas was what helped us to contribute to an overall successful end product.