Pre-Production

We realised that the best way to go about our meetings would be to go to a mutual venue, near to where we all lived so that we could get there easily, somewhere where we were nice and comfortable where we could bounce ideas off each other and would be able to make enough noise conversing.

The obvious choice was Matty's Cafe on the Lower Bristol Road.

I find it impossible to focus in a meeting, and let my imagination run wild, without the aid of a good greasy fry-up.

Here, we discussed re-writes, locations, props, cast, and everything else that we needed to sort before the actual filming (over the course of two or three fry-ups on various days, may I point out...).

We decided that Josh would maintain his role of cameraman, Adam would be the stage-manager, Katy would direct, Annabel would edit, and I would be the producer. We felt these were the most practical roles for each of us, as we stayed within our own areas of 'expertise'.

I was particularly glad to be producer, as having lived in Bath my whole life, I am more clued up as to locations that may remain unknown to other students, and I know a lot of people in the area, so finding people who might own certain props would be easier.

We carried out auditions, and after a small dispute, agreed on our cast. Katy and I agreed from the start, whereas the boys seemed to have a slightly different vision. However, as director, Katy made the final decision, and I have to say that I am absolutely totally chuffed with our cast - I think everybody is perfect for their role, and those who are struggling a little more than others to 'become' their character will certainly get there with a little encouragement.

I have also liaised with an aunt and uncle of mine who own a stunning mansion on the outskirts of Bath which serves as an absolutely perfect location for the entire film. They agreed that we could use the property for the designated weekend. This means that we can shoot the entire thing in the same place, which solves the transport issues we had last time when we were trying to move from one area of Bath to another for all the different locations. We have also ensured that some of our cast members can drive, so that all of the cast and crew can get there in one journey. It is also on a major bus route - so if anyone can't drive and needs to arrive at a different time to the rest of the crew, they can get there easily.

Just to top it all off, the house is just down the road from our favourite film-group chippie.

This is a picture of the view from the house (for privacy reasons, the owners were uncomfortable with the idea of a photograph of the whole house appearing on the internet...):

I also spent a lot of time perusing the Bath shops, looking for props, gathering them from home, and asking friends and family what weird and wonderful objects they possessed. I also collated a lot of costumes.

We briefly toyed with the idea of using a sheep in the film. I have a friend who has a pet - yes a pet - sheep. She takes it for walks on a lead and everything. We thought it would be a nice addition to the film, to use animals.

We decided eventually against using the sheep for practicality purposes - we would not be able to transport the sheep to the location without a huge amount of logistical planning, and we wouldn't be able to fit into the schedule a trip to visit and film the sheep.

Shaun. Oh, sorry, I mean shame. (Terrible, isn't it?!)

We also set up a Facebook group, which served as a place where we could put all of our ideas, pictures, videos and so forth - just another means of communication between the five of us to make our life a little easier in the run-up to the shoot.

Change of Plan...

After a detailed meeting, we decided to scrap all of our previous plans concerning 'Treament', as we only had a couple of weeks until filming and it would take too much time to rewrite the entire script into a format where it would be entertaining...

We decided to go with an alternative script called 'The Industry' which is a parody of the 'behind-the-scenes' documentaries that always seem to appear in the 'Extras' sections of films on DVDs.

Done in a style that flits between a talking-heads format and a naturalistic shaky-cam format, it provided a lot more scope for a more feasible project. We realised that it would have to be re-written in a style where improvisation from the cast could easily be incorporated - we realised the humour would only work effectively if it was done in a totally naturalistic style, where the audience would totally believe that what they were seeing really happened. It would be in the style of 'The Office' with Ricky Gervais, with similar camera movement, and a script and acting that would be hilarious in an ironic way, where the audience would be able to relate to real-life people and situations and find it funny through their own comparisons to reality.

Here is a clip from 'The Office', to demonstrate the style we will be using:

The clip includes talking-heads scenes - where the documentary maker interviews the 'characters', as well as broader scenes showing the location. This is just an example of how we envisage the overall style of the piece we are going to make.

This is a clip from 'This is Spinal Tap' - a film which also uses a similar style:

And again, another clip from a more recent film called 'Confetti' which again uses the same improvised, naturalistic style:

Although I was feeling massively fired-up about creating 'Treatment', I feel that this opens up so many new doors to us, and that we can make this into a really really funny film.

Choosing a script to make into a film...

I am ecstatic to say that we have a new member in our group! This new member is Katy, who is the very first friend that I met at Bath Spa University, and I know her to be an awesome and imaginative person, so the fact that she has joined the team fills me with joy!

We spent a good few days looking through all the scripts written by the people on our module in order to choose one to make into our next incredible masterpiece.

We eventually settled on a script called 'Treatment' involving a man who forgets to take his medication and goes insane. We knew it would involve a large amount of editing and re-writing, as some parts, such as the references to Schizophrenia, we thought were unsuitable for a short film intended to be a comedy.

We were also unimpressed by the original ending, so there was an extended discussion about the possibility of including a large chorus number for a humorous and unexpected ending. With two musical members of the group - myself and Josh - this seemed like a highly feasible option. As it was a black comedy, the obvious influence was the infamous and controversial ending to 'The Life of Brian' - one of the Monty Python masterpieces. For those of you poor unfortunate people who have never seen it, here is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

I already have a huge amount of musical and visual ideas floating around in my head....

I know from previous composing experience that it is best to work with a partner, to bounce ideas off each other, in particular if one is more experienced in a particular area (I know more about piano and classical vocal composition - Josh knows more about electric music and more popular stuff, so a combination of our 'talents' should be a new and interesting musical endeavour!).

I am already getting fired up about this project....