Pre-Production: Final Evaluation
Throughout this year, Young & Famous has developed extensively in story, characters, planning, design and much more. As a group we have overcome many challenges to get our project to the stage it is at now, where we believe we are ready to enter our shooting period.
From our initial inspiration of real life couple David and Jackie, we have transformed them into completely new characters, making Young & Famous unrecognisable from the initial idea of our pilot episode. In our first ideas meeting we discussed the idea of having the grandchildren involved in Annie & Dean's life all the way through the series however this has changed to them not being seen at all until the very last episode, which is not being made. This was changed for the better because it allowed our characters to have more of a purpose in the show. It has given us a reason for our audiences to tune in and watch as they want to see whether they are successful in winning the hearts of their children and grandchildren back with their crazy schemes and ridiculous antics. We believe this is a good story as it is quite a sensitive subject that not many tackle when concerning the older generation. No one likes to be told they're too ordinary or too much effort to be cared about and this is something that we wanted to look into further and show the opposite side. By this I mean show the ordinary couple and show that they are worth caring about. We hope that this subject will hit home with a lot of people who watch it and make them want to reach out to their families and tell them they love them more as it is often not said enough. Although this may seem quite a heavy subject to be dealing with, we didn't want to make Annie & Dean these two mopey old people who constantly complain about the fact their children won't see them; we wanted to make them a fun and lively couple that are so clearly out of their comfort zones that audiences can't help but laugh and see the desperate lengths they will go to to reach their family and restore their positions in their hearts. We are proud of the story we have created for Young & Famous and feel that we have approached the subject in the best way possible as it gets across the message we wish to portray through a positive and fun format.
Throughout the pre-production process we have created six drafts of the pilot script "Son of a Biscuit". I was a co-writer on this with Director Becca and this has been an incredibly fun experience. I have never co-written before therefore it was a new experience that I needed to research in order for us to successfully co-write a comedy. Through this research we discovered that the best co-writers share each others scenes by re-writing them and then returning to discuss what next can be improved. By doing this it merges the writing styles creating one 'voice' throughout the script. One thing I have learnt through this process is that writing comedy is hard. It is difficult to be funny when writing as different characters. Humour is a very personal thing and comes in many different forms such as dark humour and slapstick comedy. What one person may find hilarious, another may not understand it at all. It was challenging trying to find a balance between being funny and also getting the message across of what these two characters are trying to achieve. Moving forward from our submitted sixth draft, I think that we can review it again and make some of the dialogue lines more humorous as currently I feel that it is lacking potential comedy that could be added for further effect.
As I am the Producer for Young & Famous, it was important that I researched into what is needed of me to be the best Producer I can be. One of the main challenges I have found when producing Young & Famous is making sure that every little detail of the show is there and making sure that whatever is needed to make the show amazing is achievable. I have found this challenging because of how realistic everything needs to be for this sitcom. As it is based on your typical real life older couple, every aspect of the show needs to be believable. For example the location in which Annie & Dean live needs to be believable for where they live, which is in a village and therefore the location needs to look like a village. This was challenging as village houses tend to not look ordinary which is what our characters appear to be, however we have chosen a village house that using the power of editing we have managed to turn the house into a semi-detatched making it fit with the more ordinary look for our characters. Although there were some concerns with our chosen location, we as a group really believe that it suits our characters. Not only this but it is logistically easier for us to film in this location as it is a detached that has free parking, lots of room to store equipment and crew, whilst allowing enough space for our cameras and actors to move freely in each space. As we are students our budget isn't massive and therefore we are able to put the money towards the set design, props and costumes which will ultimately raise our production values than if we were to rent a place that may have the right amount of 'ordinary' on the outside but not have enough budget to kit out the inside with Annie & Dean like knickknacks to make Young & Famous believable. This is why we have chosen our location and we truly believe it is the right decision.
It has also been challenging throughout the casting process, keeping on top of all those who applied which was tricky as we had over 80 applicants all applying for different roles. It was challenging choosing and filtering through the actors and actresses who I believed fitted certain roles and offering them the chance to audition. It was a particular challenge when we were all set and ready to go with the auditions when we suddenly realised one of the characters no longer belonged in the pilot but a completely new character needed to be cast. I had to work quickly to email all of the actresses that were applying for this role that had been cut and introduce to them the opportunity of auditioning for this new role. We were extremely lucky that many of the actresses decided that they would like to audition for this new role at such short notice and also give us feedback into their thoughts for the new script draft that was sent to them. With the final numbers for auditions we had over 30 people signed up and ready to audition which was incredible. As Producer it was important that I made sure we looked professional and confident in our project, to make the artists want to be more involved and committed to the show. As we are only a student production and cannot afford to pay our cast, it was all the more important that we understood everything about the idea and the characters and that we really excited the auditionees and convinced them that our project was worth being a part of. This worked out really well as we received some amazing auditions giving us a wonderful cast that are committed to the project and are excited to be a part of it. My job now is to keep them that way and make sure that they are always up to speed on the latest with Young & Famous.
As our actors will only be paid in travel expenses I needed to create a budget that will allow for this as well as allow for all of the props, costumes and food to be efficiently funded as well. Our budget is £600 for the entire shoot and rehearsals. In our advertisement for Young & Famous I stated how we are looking for Kent Based Actors and any that are outside of Kent that are a part of our cast understand that their travel expenses will be capped at a certain amount for each day, for example no more than £10 a day. As our show requires a lot of props and set design, it is important that we have enough budget to cover this as we want and need our production values to be high so that Young & Famous is the best it can be. In particular it needs to be good as I am producing the show meaning I cannot afford for it to look 'underproduced'. As we all believe in Young & Famous and want it to be really good, as the producer I need to do it justice in order for the show to be the best it can be through set design, costumes, props, location, casting and having the appropriate amount of people for each scene. By this I mean having lots of extras dressed in formal attire for the opening teaser. This is an incredibly important scene as it is the first thing we see and is a huge introduction into the characters Annie & Dean before they even speak. This is why it is important that there is the appropriate amount of budget to cover the cost that this will take to produce.
I have researched in depth as to where to source these costumes and props and have found it very challenging to stay within our budget. Due to the amount we need and how realistic we are aiming the show to look, the props and costumes need to be right. I have had to take Becca's vision and portray how it can be made possible whilst keeping to the budget. I have concluded that the best way to do this would be to look around at what we already own and what family and friends already own and attempt to accumulate a collection of items that will work for us. This is particularly needed for set dressing items such as old photos in photo frames and table cloths and antiques that we believe Annie & Dean would own. These are so important to the show as they show who the characters are and exactly what lives they lead without even having to hear a word from them. Things like these certainly cannot be underproduced and it is my role to ensure that they are not. Certain props such as Arnold the robotic cat we cannot scrimp on because they are key to the storyline and they have to be as exact as possible to what the vision for Young & Famous is. Another way of keeping within our budget for costumes in particular is looking for items in local charity shops and market stalls that will sell items that we are in need of to make the character's really come to life. Charity shops are a perfect source of finding clothes for the older generation as I have found they tend to donate their clothes more, due to them often being found in charity shops compared to clothes a young person may wear. Ideally we would like the majority of the costumes to come from what our actors already own, however if this is not possible or what they have is not suitable then I have researched into other options as to what we can use. A possible way of getting around the cost issue is to buy the items we need and leave the tags in them and then return the items once we have finished the shoot, so long as the items are undamaged, returning the funds back into the budget and saving money. By doing this, we are still able to achieve the look we are after, giving us another option.
I am also responsible for creating the shooting schedule to ensure that every scene is shot within a specific time frame. This has to have been one of the more challenging aspects to the pre-production unit for me because of how much there was to consider when creating the schedule. As our location is a working home, there are only a limited amount of hours we have when the house is empty, giving us the time to shoot undisrupted. These hours are 8am till 3pm which is ample time to shoot the scenes that Becca and Nisserin wish on each day. My job as Producer was to schedule each scene within a time frame for that day whilst allowing time for regular camera re-sets, lunch breaks and costume changes that all need to happen on a shoot. I attempted to group certain days with corresponding scenes such as having all scenes that are shot in the kitchen on one day and scenes that are in a separate location to be filmed on another day. It was challenging to work out how much time would be roughly needed to film each scene and this required me to look at the script and at how long each scene lasted and work out a reasonably generous time frame to allow extra time in case we run over. Overall I drafted 3 different schedules and chose the one that suited both cast and crew for the shoot period. From creating the schedule I then created call sheets for the actors for each day, telling what scenes they would be involved in, what their time of arrival would be and what costumes they would be required to wear. The call sheets also tell where the nearest hospital is in the unlikely case of emergency, where the nearest train station is and whether there is parking on the location. These call sheets also give out the crews contact details so that cast members can contact us in case they need to for any reason.
These call sheets then lead me to writing risk assessments for each location. For this it was important to recce them first to ensure that I had a broad understanding of what possible risks there are for filming. This was challenging to find lots of risks as the majority of our locations are within a safe environment such as Annie & Dean's home. However, it was important to find every risk possible to eliminate any chances of getting into trouble if a member of the cast or crew are injured and we are taken through any legal proceedings. Although there are the main risks listed onto each risk assessment, there may still be more that can be added to them which will only cover us further in case of an accident.
I have really enjoyed working with Nisserin and Becca and have felt that we have been a great support network for each other when creating the Pre-Production Book for Young & Famous. We have constantly supported each other throughout the process and have ensured that we have stuck to task and this shows through our final product. When producing drafts, test shoots and general ideas we have always collaborated well and this has only improved Young & Famous further. I am very proud of what we have achieved and believe that Young & Famous will be a great product. I particularly feel this because I have enjoyed the process so much and working with them both has been very successful in achieving our visions from the beginning. We have found that compromising is a great thing because even when our ideas weren't always compatible the compromise that we concluded often lead on to bigger and better ideas that have only benefitted our project. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the Pre-Production Book with Nisserin and Becca in our production company Big Laughs Network.
Moving forward from the pre-production unit we plan on meeting our cast in mid January for a meet and greet session where we will review the script and begin a rehearsal with them to allow them to get to know each other as actors. This meet and greet will also allow us to see how they behave together as a cast, allowing us time to make changes if necessary and also allow us to find the final cast member Jordan Hamsey! During this meet and greet, the cast will sign contracts that I will draw up for them detailing exactly what is required of them and to also secure their commitment to the project. The contracts will also state about the travel expense payment and what their cap will be if they live outside of Kent. We plan on fixing from the 19th February through to the 27th where we will complete all of our scenes for Young & Famous and begin the edit in March. This will then give us plenty of time to go back and reshoot scenes or shots if it is needed, giving us the best chance to make a great piece of work to be proud of.
From our initial inspiration of real life couple David and Jackie, we have transformed them into completely new characters, making Young & Famous unrecognisable from the initial idea of our pilot episode. In our first ideas meeting we discussed the idea of having the grandchildren involved in Annie & Dean's life all the way through the series however this has changed to them not being seen at all until the very last episode, which is not being made. This was changed for the better because it allowed our characters to have more of a purpose in the show. It has given us a reason for our audiences to tune in and watch as they want to see whether they are successful in winning the hearts of their children and grandchildren back with their crazy schemes and ridiculous antics. We believe this is a good story as it is quite a sensitive subject that not many tackle when concerning the older generation. No one likes to be told they're too ordinary or too much effort to be cared about and this is something that we wanted to look into further and show the opposite side. By this I mean show the ordinary couple and show that they are worth caring about. We hope that this subject will hit home with a lot of people who watch it and make them want to reach out to their families and tell them they love them more as it is often not said enough. Although this may seem quite a heavy subject to be dealing with, we didn't want to make Annie & Dean these two mopey old people who constantly complain about the fact their children won't see them; we wanted to make them a fun and lively couple that are so clearly out of their comfort zones that audiences can't help but laugh and see the desperate lengths they will go to to reach their family and restore their positions in their hearts. We are proud of the story we have created for Young & Famous and feel that we have approached the subject in the best way possible as it gets across the message we wish to portray through a positive and fun format.
Throughout the pre-production process we have created six drafts of the pilot script "Son of a Biscuit". I was a co-writer on this with Director Becca and this has been an incredibly fun experience. I have never co-written before therefore it was a new experience that I needed to research in order for us to successfully co-write a comedy. Through this research we discovered that the best co-writers share each others scenes by re-writing them and then returning to discuss what next can be improved. By doing this it merges the writing styles creating one 'voice' throughout the script. One thing I have learnt through this process is that writing comedy is hard. It is difficult to be funny when writing as different characters. Humour is a very personal thing and comes in many different forms such as dark humour and slapstick comedy. What one person may find hilarious, another may not understand it at all. It was challenging trying to find a balance between being funny and also getting the message across of what these two characters are trying to achieve. Moving forward from our submitted sixth draft, I think that we can review it again and make some of the dialogue lines more humorous as currently I feel that it is lacking potential comedy that could be added for further effect.
As I am the Producer for Young & Famous, it was important that I researched into what is needed of me to be the best Producer I can be. One of the main challenges I have found when producing Young & Famous is making sure that every little detail of the show is there and making sure that whatever is needed to make the show amazing is achievable. I have found this challenging because of how realistic everything needs to be for this sitcom. As it is based on your typical real life older couple, every aspect of the show needs to be believable. For example the location in which Annie & Dean live needs to be believable for where they live, which is in a village and therefore the location needs to look like a village. This was challenging as village houses tend to not look ordinary which is what our characters appear to be, however we have chosen a village house that using the power of editing we have managed to turn the house into a semi-detatched making it fit with the more ordinary look for our characters. Although there were some concerns with our chosen location, we as a group really believe that it suits our characters. Not only this but it is logistically easier for us to film in this location as it is a detached that has free parking, lots of room to store equipment and crew, whilst allowing enough space for our cameras and actors to move freely in each space. As we are students our budget isn't massive and therefore we are able to put the money towards the set design, props and costumes which will ultimately raise our production values than if we were to rent a place that may have the right amount of 'ordinary' on the outside but not have enough budget to kit out the inside with Annie & Dean like knickknacks to make Young & Famous believable. This is why we have chosen our location and we truly believe it is the right decision.
It has also been challenging throughout the casting process, keeping on top of all those who applied which was tricky as we had over 80 applicants all applying for different roles. It was challenging choosing and filtering through the actors and actresses who I believed fitted certain roles and offering them the chance to audition. It was a particular challenge when we were all set and ready to go with the auditions when we suddenly realised one of the characters no longer belonged in the pilot but a completely new character needed to be cast. I had to work quickly to email all of the actresses that were applying for this role that had been cut and introduce to them the opportunity of auditioning for this new role. We were extremely lucky that many of the actresses decided that they would like to audition for this new role at such short notice and also give us feedback into their thoughts for the new script draft that was sent to them. With the final numbers for auditions we had over 30 people signed up and ready to audition which was incredible. As Producer it was important that I made sure we looked professional and confident in our project, to make the artists want to be more involved and committed to the show. As we are only a student production and cannot afford to pay our cast, it was all the more important that we understood everything about the idea and the characters and that we really excited the auditionees and convinced them that our project was worth being a part of. This worked out really well as we received some amazing auditions giving us a wonderful cast that are committed to the project and are excited to be a part of it. My job now is to keep them that way and make sure that they are always up to speed on the latest with Young & Famous.
As our actors will only be paid in travel expenses I needed to create a budget that will allow for this as well as allow for all of the props, costumes and food to be efficiently funded as well. Our budget is £600 for the entire shoot and rehearsals. In our advertisement for Young & Famous I stated how we are looking for Kent Based Actors and any that are outside of Kent that are a part of our cast understand that their travel expenses will be capped at a certain amount for each day, for example no more than £10 a day. As our show requires a lot of props and set design, it is important that we have enough budget to cover this as we want and need our production values to be high so that Young & Famous is the best it can be. In particular it needs to be good as I am producing the show meaning I cannot afford for it to look 'underproduced'. As we all believe in Young & Famous and want it to be really good, as the producer I need to do it justice in order for the show to be the best it can be through set design, costumes, props, location, casting and having the appropriate amount of people for each scene. By this I mean having lots of extras dressed in formal attire for the opening teaser. This is an incredibly important scene as it is the first thing we see and is a huge introduction into the characters Annie & Dean before they even speak. This is why it is important that there is the appropriate amount of budget to cover the cost that this will take to produce.
I have researched in depth as to where to source these costumes and props and have found it very challenging to stay within our budget. Due to the amount we need and how realistic we are aiming the show to look, the props and costumes need to be right. I have had to take Becca's vision and portray how it can be made possible whilst keeping to the budget. I have concluded that the best way to do this would be to look around at what we already own and what family and friends already own and attempt to accumulate a collection of items that will work for us. This is particularly needed for set dressing items such as old photos in photo frames and table cloths and antiques that we believe Annie & Dean would own. These are so important to the show as they show who the characters are and exactly what lives they lead without even having to hear a word from them. Things like these certainly cannot be underproduced and it is my role to ensure that they are not. Certain props such as Arnold the robotic cat we cannot scrimp on because they are key to the storyline and they have to be as exact as possible to what the vision for Young & Famous is. Another way of keeping within our budget for costumes in particular is looking for items in local charity shops and market stalls that will sell items that we are in need of to make the character's really come to life. Charity shops are a perfect source of finding clothes for the older generation as I have found they tend to donate their clothes more, due to them often being found in charity shops compared to clothes a young person may wear. Ideally we would like the majority of the costumes to come from what our actors already own, however if this is not possible or what they have is not suitable then I have researched into other options as to what we can use. A possible way of getting around the cost issue is to buy the items we need and leave the tags in them and then return the items once we have finished the shoot, so long as the items are undamaged, returning the funds back into the budget and saving money. By doing this, we are still able to achieve the look we are after, giving us another option.
I am also responsible for creating the shooting schedule to ensure that every scene is shot within a specific time frame. This has to have been one of the more challenging aspects to the pre-production unit for me because of how much there was to consider when creating the schedule. As our location is a working home, there are only a limited amount of hours we have when the house is empty, giving us the time to shoot undisrupted. These hours are 8am till 3pm which is ample time to shoot the scenes that Becca and Nisserin wish on each day. My job as Producer was to schedule each scene within a time frame for that day whilst allowing time for regular camera re-sets, lunch breaks and costume changes that all need to happen on a shoot. I attempted to group certain days with corresponding scenes such as having all scenes that are shot in the kitchen on one day and scenes that are in a separate location to be filmed on another day. It was challenging to work out how much time would be roughly needed to film each scene and this required me to look at the script and at how long each scene lasted and work out a reasonably generous time frame to allow extra time in case we run over. Overall I drafted 3 different schedules and chose the one that suited both cast and crew for the shoot period. From creating the schedule I then created call sheets for the actors for each day, telling what scenes they would be involved in, what their time of arrival would be and what costumes they would be required to wear. The call sheets also tell where the nearest hospital is in the unlikely case of emergency, where the nearest train station is and whether there is parking on the location. These call sheets also give out the crews contact details so that cast members can contact us in case they need to for any reason.
These call sheets then lead me to writing risk assessments for each location. For this it was important to recce them first to ensure that I had a broad understanding of what possible risks there are for filming. This was challenging to find lots of risks as the majority of our locations are within a safe environment such as Annie & Dean's home. However, it was important to find every risk possible to eliminate any chances of getting into trouble if a member of the cast or crew are injured and we are taken through any legal proceedings. Although there are the main risks listed onto each risk assessment, there may still be more that can be added to them which will only cover us further in case of an accident.
I have really enjoyed working with Nisserin and Becca and have felt that we have been a great support network for each other when creating the Pre-Production Book for Young & Famous. We have constantly supported each other throughout the process and have ensured that we have stuck to task and this shows through our final product. When producing drafts, test shoots and general ideas we have always collaborated well and this has only improved Young & Famous further. I am very proud of what we have achieved and believe that Young & Famous will be a great product. I particularly feel this because I have enjoyed the process so much and working with them both has been very successful in achieving our visions from the beginning. We have found that compromising is a great thing because even when our ideas weren't always compatible the compromise that we concluded often lead on to bigger and better ideas that have only benefitted our project. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the Pre-Production Book with Nisserin and Becca in our production company Big Laughs Network.
Moving forward from the pre-production unit we plan on meeting our cast in mid January for a meet and greet session where we will review the script and begin a rehearsal with them to allow them to get to know each other as actors. This meet and greet will also allow us to see how they behave together as a cast, allowing us time to make changes if necessary and also allow us to find the final cast member Jordan Hamsey! During this meet and greet, the cast will sign contracts that I will draw up for them detailing exactly what is required of them and to also secure their commitment to the project. The contracts will also state about the travel expense payment and what their cap will be if they live outside of Kent. We plan on fixing from the 19th February through to the 27th where we will complete all of our scenes for Young & Famous and begin the edit in March. This will then give us plenty of time to go back and reshoot scenes or shots if it is needed, giving us the best chance to make a great piece of work to be proud of.
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