Major Project - Production | Project Evaluation

When starting this unit, I felt quite excited to start shooting the project and turning it into an actual video. I did have a few worries such as the actors dropping out, or things not turning out the way we would've liked, but I felt confident that everything would turn out well, and even if it didn't we would work through it as a group.
The whole process of production has been stressful, time consuming but I have learnt a lot about working in a group, meeting several deadlines and communicating really well throughout the whole unit, not just during shoot days and such. Our whole project has changed a fair amount right from the very beginning but the end result definitely shows how much the project has developed, and how much work has been put into the project.
There were a few moments that were pressing and stressful, but I have learnt from those moments and they have helped shaped my experience of creating a project from beginning to end.

What worked?

My favourite part about this project was seeing the script come to life, and working with the actors to achieve my vision in the best way possible. Working with the DOP on deciding what shots to use has been fun as we could experiment as much as we wanted, and also we could visualise what the scenes would look like. Then seeing these visualisations coming to life was really fun and rewarding.

• Communicating & Group Work
• When working within a group, communication is one of the most important factors. Without consistent and effective communication, it can affect the outcome of a project and can also affect certain situations such as shoot days. 
• Half of the time during this project, I feel like our communication as a group has been really effective. We have got individual pieces of work done, but we have communicated with the group when it was completed or what else needs to be complete. 
• I feel as if the communication between myself and the DOP has been very effective as we have constantly shared our opinions on certain decisions together. When preparing our shot list & storyboard, and adjusting the blocking, we both worked well together to make this the best it could be. We also discussed our own opinions and come up with a solution if we didn't feel the same way. 
• Throughout production & post production the DOP/Editor and I have had a really good working relationship and strong communication.
• This is good as we were able to discuss problems and work them out together, but also I could suggest something in the edit, or vice versa and we would work together to make the video the best it could be.
• The strong communication is present throughout the video as it is smooth and there isn't any mishaps that might have been caused by any disagreements or confusion we may have had if our communication wasn't as good as it was.
• Not only was the communication good throughout our good on most occasions, it was also good with the actors in the shoot days. I felt as though the actors trusted my directions and felt confident enough to give any ideas for the scenes we were shooting, whilst also being indifferent if I didn't think they would work.
• By having this good communication with the actors, it made the shoot days more enjoyable, relaxing and the bond between the cast and crew was always very positive and fun, which is good when shooting for 4 consecutive days and more.
• Shoot Days
• Even though there were moments on the shoot days where I felt stressed and overwhelmed, I still think they all went really well.
• We shot all of the footage that we had planned to shoot, and we finished every day on time. Having a big crew during the multi-cam set ups was really useful as we didn't have to stress about all cameras being on the right shot and and no camera we ever left on a bad shot.
• We trusted our crew and everyone worked really well together when a problem occurred.
• Trusting your crew is always a good thing to have as you know that if any problem were to occur they would be on top of it, or they would be happy to help solve it. Also it gave me confidence that our shots would look good as our crew knew what they were doing, meaning I didn't have to constantly check and tell them how to get the shot I wanted.
• The actors were very easy and fun to work with, and I didn't have a problem with directing any of them. They were all understanding and understood by vision, which was good as I didn't have to direct them on specific emotions and actions (which is something that isn't good for a director to do). They played the characters really well, and I never felt as if they strayed away from the character during takes.
• This is really good as I could trust them with playing the characters and I could focus solely on the performance that was coming off on screen. This meant that when it came to editing, we didn't have much of a problem with the acting on screen.
• Creativeness
• All of us had jobs to do that challenged our creativity, like making some of the props, and dressing the set appropriately. By putting our creative skill to work, our props were effective in the outcome and most of them don't look hand made, which adds to the realistic tone that is carried throughout the whole video.
• By having these props made, and the set dressed effectively, it means that the story is told in an effective and entertaining way. It also means that the humour in the show is clear and consistent due to use having control over the looks of the props.
• This in turn makes the outcome humorous and entertaining for the audience, which gives it an edge to the video, making it attractive for the audience.
• This skill also helped during the editing process, as Nisserin and I were able to confer creative ideas with one another, and come up with a good outcome that shows our creative skills and makes our video the best it can be.
• Developing the Edit through Constructive Criticism
• Throughout the whole editing process we were given constructive criticism on our edit. We made note of all of the feedback given to us and we tried every change that was suggested. We didn't necessarily go through with all of the changes as we didn't feel as if they were the best thing for the project, but we took the feedback on board nevertheless. 
• By doing this we have clearly demonstrated that we can take on feedback and work on changes that needed to be made. It also shows that we can take on feedback but also have the confidence to stick to our own opinions, take control and decide against a change that may have been suggested.
• This overall shows that we can take orders but also justify why we made the decisions to go against these orders.
• I'm really happy with the pace and the progress we made during the editing process, and I think we timed every step well as it led us to finishing on time. By taking on this constructive criticism we were able to see what would benefit our production but also learn from any mistakes or mishaps that might've happen the first time around (especially on shoot days).
• Organisation & Time Management
• Much like pre-production, organisation and time management were really important during this stage of production as they ultimately determined whether we would be behind schedule, and get everything done in time.
• I believe, my organisation leading up to the shoot days was advanced and very effective. By preparing the shot list and blocking with the DOP it meant we knew exactly what we wanted, and what the set up would be on the shoot days. Also, by having the paperwork on hand, it meant I could be asked any question and I would know the answer to it or I could look at the paperwork and work it out fairly quickly.
• The prep for the shoot was done way before the shoot day, every shoot day ended on time with everything thing shot, and the editing of the visuals and sound were finished before the deadline day, which meant I was on top of all of my work and managed to get everything done on time. 
• This shows that my organisation skill was used a large amount and it was effective, and my time management was skill was needed and it was efficient, making the project the best it could be and finished on time.

What didn't work?

Even though I'm happy with the production part of our project, and the final outcome, there were still some mishaps and challenges that we went through on different occasions.

• Communication
• Some of our communication as a group was really good, but I feel as though it could've been better for certain circumstances. 
• At the beginning of the unit, we arranged to have a script read through. This went well, but prior to it actually happening the communication between the producer, the DOP and I could've been better. The producer didn't send us the plans or info about the script read through before sending it to the actors, which meant that the actors knew what we were doing and what day we were doing it on before the rest of the crew did.
• I thought this was quite unprofessional as myself and the DOP could've wanted to do something different and then the producer would've had to email them back with the correct info, which could've given the actors the impression that we were unprepared.
• The producer also didn't really keep us informed on important information and updates about the progress she had made on the scheduling of the shoot days.
• Developing on from this, the DOP and I went through all of the scenes and shoot days and discussed what scene we should film first based on the lighting hitting the house. When the DOP sent this information to the producer she wasn't very happy that we had done this, as she felt it was part of her role and she had already done this.
• Realistically she should've asked us first what we thought as we would've had more to say on the matter, but she didn't communicate this to us, so we did it ourselves much to her dismay.
• We also didn't get the schedule of any shoot day a week prior to the shoot day/week, and we either got it along with the actors getting it or afterwards. I felt as if this should've been the other way round just in case we needed it to be changed, and we were only sent this because we had asked for it rather than her sending it to us anyway.
• I would've liked to review the schedule before the actors seeing it, as I could've made some changes if I had needed to, and she should've communicated with us about whether we were happy with how her schedule plans were coming along.
• There were also moments of confusion were some crew members might not have looked at the most recent update of some shoot info like the shot list, and asked about a shot that we had decided against.
• This created a sense of unprofessionalism and it makes the group look unprepared even though the information has been available to all group members for a while due to our shared drive.
• Props
• Even though the majority of the props were prepped and worked really well for our sets, there were a few mishaps that could've been avoided.
• In scene 3, we needed a newspaper prop as Annie and Dean come up with the idea of becoming Young & Famous based on the newspaper article. Quite early on in the process Laura created the newspaper article and she did a good job at it. Nisserin then took the article and made it look more like a newspaper would look like on photoshop, and the overall outcome look realistic and perfect for the scene. The producer had found a source to print the newspaper from, so I assumed she was on top of that. However, the morning of the shoot day, she sent a message in our group asking if anyone had printed the newspaper off.
• This wasn't very professional and as the producer she probably should've asked if we had printed it off a few weeks before hand, rather than the morning. The newspaper was eventually printed off that morning and it worked well for the scene, but we might not have been that lucky, and the producer should've prepared for that earlier.
• We could've come together a week before this shoot week and made a big list of things that still needed to be done, but we did mention this prop several times, so it should've been one of the first jobs she looked to get done.
• Also in the reshoot, she didn't buy all of the props that we needed for the baking of the cookies. This was quite frustrating as it could've effected the continuity of that scene, but also we had mentioned that we needed these ingredients several times before the shoot week. The producer could've bought these props along with buying the food for lunch, but she didn't.
• We managed to find an alternative, but this wasted more time than needed and it would've made the shoot a lot easier if we did have the same props as before.
• Shoot Days
• The majority of our shoot days were very successful and the crew worked really well together as a team. But there were a few mishaps that could've been avoided and really showed unprofessionalism.
• There were a few moments were I heard some members of crew saying inappropriate comments that could've waited until after we had wrapped and weren't around the actors.
• When hearing these comments I didn't let it affect my working ability, so I kept myself professional and made sure the actors weren't paying too much attention to these comments. This could give off a really unprofessional vibe to the actors, and it makes us seem really immature.
• I always made sure to stay calm and keep the actors happy and made sure they weren't aware that some crew members were being inappropriate about other crew members as this could've made us look really bad.
• Also there were a few moments where myself and the DOP felt agitated and stressed due to interruptions such as spontaneous warming up breaks and constant reminder of how much time we were running over by.
• These two circumstances could've been a good idea and wouldn't have made us feel stressed if we had known about the warm up breaks and were of the running over times every so often. But because we weren't aware of this plan and kept hearing the times, it made me feel overwhelmed and it affected my direction.
• Thankfully the actors were great to work with and they understood the stress I felt, so they understood quickly what I wanted, and showed that through their performance.
• Time Management
• There were a few moments were time management wasn't very effective throughout the team, including when we had to make some props at the last minute.
• Before the shoot week I wanted a production meeting with everyone to make sure everyone knew what was going to happen during the shoot week, and I had been asking for this for quite some time. However, the producer found that not many people  could make the date, whether this was because they were busy or she left it quite late to organise this.
• This was quite frustrating for me as I thought it would be a really effective meeting for us to have, however I comprised by having the producer send every bit of information the actors needed before the shoot week.
• The reshoot was also organise quite late into the process, and it only started to take shape 3 weeks after we had decided we would do the reshoot.
• This was quite frustrating as we weren't sure if the actors would be able to make the day we had planned, but we wouldn't know until the producer had communicated with them. We had to put all of our trust in the producer for this, and although it worked out in the end, it was still frustrating that it wasn't done a little sooner.

What did I learn?

Within this unit I have learnt:

• Communication throughout the whole project is really important.
• Without communication the project wouldn't have happened and it definitely wouldn't have had the same outcome. Our communication as a group was overall good and it was effective, which you can see through the final outcome. 
• Even though we had a few issues with communication, we still got through it effectively and worked with what we had offered to us. If I were to do this unit again I would make sure that whenever I felt the communication was lacking I would tell the group. That way we could improve this and hopefully some of the mistakes and inappropriate comments wouldn't have been made. 
• Some communication was maintained throughout post between myself and the DOP/editor, and we were all vocal about our own opinions on shots and ideas, but overall our communication as a whole could've been better.
• Saying that, the outcome has turned out really well, and even though we had issues, they haven't come across on screen.
• Prepare for a problem.
• We weren't faced with too many problems throughout this whole project, but the problems we were faced with have taught me to be prepared for them.
• If you go into a project expecting problems, you can easily resolve them and prepare for them, meaning the problem wouldn't be so problematic. This is something I didn't necessarily do for every mishap that happened, but as the director I made sure to think quickly and resolve any problems that occurred. 
• With the newspaper prop mishap, the producer could've been more prepared for that, but also I could've prepared for that making the newspaper even though I thought the producer was dealing with it.
• That way I would've had a back in the situation that we had been faced with.
• Also if we had a plan B for most scenarios we would've gone through shoot days and most editing stages smoothly. However, having the mishaps and the bumps in the road it has taught us to be more aware of problems and to be more efficient when solving problems.
• Don't assume anything.
• Developing on from this, you shouldn't just assume a job has been done. This isn't saying that you should do the job yourself to make sure it is done, but more check on the person who is doing said job and communicate with them to make sure it is or is being done. 
• This will put you at ease, and the rest of the group as well. It could also remind the person that they need to do it, or clear up any confusion if they weren't aware they were doing that job.
• This then covers all bases, and helps expand the communication skill within the group, whilst also making sure everything is organised and getting done.

Overall, I'm really happy with the outcome of our major project. The pre-production element has translated onto screen really well, and the whole journey has been really rewarding. I have definitely had moments of stress, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated throughout the process, but every project will bring emotions such as these. Working in a group isn't an easy thing to do, and I know that through the ups and downs we have gone through this unit. However, even though we've had problems, we have still managed to create a really good project, and we have got everything complete in time. A few things I will take from this project are - the ability to keep calm, and focused on my role in moments of feeling overwhelmed; staying positive even when things are going wrong or work isn't being done efficiently; and compromise with different opinions especially when working in a group, as everyone has their own thoughts but you can't take everything on board. I stayed focus on my job as director throughout, and this helped me stay calm, but also it helped the performance of the actors, the edit and many other things throughout this project.

I'm really happy with the group I worked with for this project, and I'm happy to end university with this project being my last at uni.

All of our hard work has payed off, and I'm excited to see this being shown on the big screen.

Last Few Edits & Jobs Before Deadline | Development

Before the deadline, there are a few things we need to get sorted and finish in order to complete our work. Here is a list of the jobs we had to do before our deadline:

• Testing the photo freeze.
• We added this into the edit but after watching through it, I've decided it doesn't really work with the tone of our show. If we had done this elsewhere in the video it would make sense, but because we haven't it just feels out of place. We also didn't say in the script whether the photo was actually taken or not, so it would work with or without it, and we'll probably not have it in our final edit. 
• We all agreed it doesn't do anything to our video, and there's no point in keeping it as it seems very out of place.
• Group Crit.
• During the big group crit we had, there were a few audio issues I found, like Marie's door slam wasn't very effective, and the volume of certain things needed to be raised, but other than that I was really happy with how the final outcome looked and sounded, and I think the improvements made over time have been very effective in making the video the best it can be.
• Also we got quite a few laughs during this session, and quite a few people that our two characters had really good chemistry, which is really good. The group liked our video, and that's really good to know as we've been watching it for weeks and are used to it by now.
• We had to shoot the iPad scene to go into scene 17, with the instagram notifications. We originally decided to do this after the group crit, but Laura's iPad ran out of battery, so we had to do it the day after. I created the Instagram image, to go onto the iPad, on photoshop and uploaded it onto youtube so it was all prepared. Once we had shot this scene, we added it in and at first we weren't keen on it, but after a while we actually started to like it, which is good.
• Printing off the poster.
• This was one of the last things we needed to do. We had heard from a second year that there was a printers company in chatham that did printing for cheap. Nisserin called the company and asked them the questions we wanted to know the answers to. This should've been done by Laura, but we didn't want to waste time so Nisserin did it. Myself and Nisserin then went into chatham and printed the poster at the company sourced. It came out really well, and the quality is still really good, which I was worried about.
• We made the 2-3 minute extract, did the three action screenshots from the timeline, and chose two bts pictures for our hand in. After all of this was complete, we were ready for our deadline to come.

I'm really happy with the outcome of every piece of work we have done, and I'm happy with have got everything complete in time.

Final Cut Viewing #5 | Development

We now have all of the shots in place, including our reshoot shots, so the feedback we got from this viewing will be the last few things we work on before our deadline.

Here is Simon's feedback:

I'm really happy with the feedback from this viewing, and they are all things that we can change and add in without any problem. We can shoot the iPad insert at any time before the deadline, and we can adjust the cleaner cuts and audio. We're going to experiment with the freeze of the selfie picture, but if we don't like it we won't be keeping it as we want the video to be the best it can be. 

We have decided to get rid of Marie's new shots as they just don't work and we would rather them not be there and have the scene look realistically put together, than have one shot that looks like a completely different.

For the stage we are at with our edit and the process, I am really happy with how this viewing has gone, and I'm excited to see how our final outcome will look.

Adding the New Shots & Finishing the Edit | Development

After the reshoot, Nisserin and I came together and she added the new shots into the sequence. Most of the shots match the scenes and they work really well in the video, but there are two that aren't the best. These are the two shots of Marie walking from the car to the house. In these shots you can tell the weather is awful, and they don't match scene 17 at all. I think the shot works in terms of making the scene better, but I'm not sure it's the best shot ever, so we might be getting rid of it. We're going to see what Simon thinks about it in our final cut viewing, but for now it can stay.

As Nisserin added in the new visuals, I added in the new audio tracks and edited them so they matched the rest of the scene. The only problem I had with the new audio clips was the dialogue of Annie & Jordan is very quiet, especially compared to our original audio clips. I increased the volume of these clips and tried my best to get rid of any hissing or humming noises, but it was quite annoying that the volume was significantly different. This was probably due to the sound operator, who happened to be Laura, being in the wrong spot, or not getting as close as she could've done. I made it work, but it would've been nice for the audio to be a bit better, but there's nothing that can be done about that now.

Now that all of the changes from the last viewing have been made, and the new shots are in place, Simon can now see the cut and give us some final comments of feedback that we can work on coming up to the deadline.
I'm really happy with how the new shots look, and I'm really happy that we decided to get some more shots for scene 11 & 17.

Monday 30th Apr & Tuesday 1st May | Reshoot

Laura's schedule:

What happened on the day?

• First of all, before the reshoot we were sent the reshoot schedule along with the rest of cast, which I was a little bit confused by. It would've made more sense for Nisserin and I to get the schedule before the rest of the cast as we could change it if we needed to. But this wasn't the case, however if anything needed to be changed I didn't hesitate to make a comment about it.
• In the morning, we heard from Laura that David couldn't make today's reshoot, which was quite frustrating but there's nothing we could've done. Laura suggested cancelling the shoot day, but myself and Nisserin said that there wasn't any point in cancelling and we might as well get the shots of the actors that will be coming.
• We arrived at the location and started by setting up the camera and zoom that we needed. Due to us being the only crew, we didn't need as much equipment and it didn't take us too long to set up everything in the right place. However, some of the props that were already at the location weren't prepared beforehand, so we put some of the props I bought in place while Laura was finding the rest of the props.
• Once the actors arrived we decided to start shooting the outside shots of Marie coming from the car. However, the weather was awful and the rain and wind was very hard to work with. Nisserin and I went outside with Liz and started shooting the two shots we wanted, but the weather was awful and the shots were really difficult to get due to that factor.
• We managed to get two shots, but whether we will use them or not is another thing, as the rain was really heavy and it might look like two different days, which is not what we want.
• The weather is quite problematic for scene 11 as well, as we wanted to shoot outside and through the window. We had quite a lot of time to spare, so we decided to take a step back and assess the situation. We discussed as a group how we could film this scene without being outside, being it was too windy and rainy to do that.
• I suggested just reshooting the same shot as before, but I could move Annie so she starts off in the same place as before, but moves the bag and leans her back against the counter behind her, so she is facing towards Dean and you can see her face in the camera.
• This seemed like the only way we could reshoot this, and everyone agreed that this was a good idea, so that is exactly what we did.
• We started by getting the shots of Dean baking and Dean's recipe so we could get that out of the way, and we could experiment with the different shots.
• At the beginning of the shoot day, when we were putting the props in their location, I found that Laura hadn't bought all of the props for making the cookie mixture. This was quite problematic and the continuity of the mixture would be different, but we made do by putting milk and flour in a bowl with the rest of the gross ingredients, we could've put eggs in but there weren't any eggs either.
• Once we shot the MS of this, then another CU of the ingredients entering the bowl, and a CU of the cookie mixture going onto the baking tray, we moved onto the shots of Annie. I blocked the new actions with Christine and she understood what I wanted her to do. We had a few run-throughs and had a few takes of this shot as there were a few line mishaps, but eventually we got the shot we needed, and then we moved onto getting the iPad shots we needed.
• Once these were done we wrapped for the day. After we wrapped we decided that if David could make the day after, we would shoot his shots in the morning. Laura called him and asked, and he said he was free, so we had a second reshoot day the day after.
• SECOND SHOOT DAY
• Once we arrived we set up the camera, zoom and lights, and we also set up the green screen. We wanted to get some shots of David as Jordan Hamsay to add to the advert, as we thought that would help the audience recognise him at the end of the video. We set up the lights how we wanted them so we could get straight into filming once David arrived.
• When David did arrive, we had him stand in front of the green screen and say a few lines for the advert. We also had him sharpen some knives to add a little bit of entertainment in the advert and make it more realistic.
• Then once I was happy with this footage we moved onto getting the two shots for scene 17. I blocked the scene again with David and showed him the footage we have edited already so he remembers everything. It took a few takes to get right, for both the shot inside the house and the iPad shot, as their were line mishaps and continuity mishaps. But we eventually got all of the shots we needed and it was a relaxed way of shooting, which I really enjoyed.
• Then once I was happy with the shots we got, we wrapped for the day again and packed everything away before taking the equipment back.

Notes:

This reshoot was a lot more relaxed than our normal shoot days were, but that was probably because we didn't have as many shots to get, and we weren't rushed for time. We did have a few moments where we had to solve problems, but we worked well as a team and communicated well in order to solve these problems effectively. The only thing that I thought was quite time consuming and problematic was finding the props in the house, when they should've been prepared before hand, and also not having all of the ingredients for scene 11. This could affect the continuity of the scene, but hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

Overall, I think this reshoot went really well, and the new shots will definitely make a big difference, but for the better.

Reshoot Plans | Development

After discussing doing a reshoot as a group, the producer has eventually scheduled to do a one day shoot with Greg, Christine, Liz & David. In order to prepare for this reshoot, we need to make sure we have a list of props to remember and a list of shots that have been prepared and blocked.

Blocking & New Shots

I came together with the DOP and we discussed what new shots we wanted to shoot for both scene 11 & 17. Scene 17 was quite simple, as we knew we needed a shot of Jordan from inside the house, and a shot that acted as Annie's iPad view. We also want a shot of Marie walking out of the car and up the driveway so we can make it more obvious that Marie has arrive at Annie & Dean's house. Going on from this, I want to record a sound effect of a car arriving at the house and leaving, so we can make Marie's arrival and departure more obvious.
For scene 11 we needed a shot of Annie's face and we want to try and go through the window. We tried this in preparation and we both decided the shot was really nice. We even decided to go through the other window to get Dean's face when he's mixing the ingredients as we really liked the way the shot looked. We also need more CU of the baking ingredients, and we need to be able to see Dean's recipe. We need to find a place to put The Last Dish logo recipe so it's in shot, but we can make that decision on the day of the shoot.
Nisserin also mentioned, while we had Christine, that we should get a shot of her saying "how did you get in the house" and a few reaction shots. This is a good idea as we might as well use the actors to our advantage while we have them.
We also need to get shots of the iPad screen, so for scene 9 we will get a shot of Annie setting up Instagram, and another in scene 11 where we see her take a picture on her iPad. These shots will give us extra coverage to work from, whilst also bringing the them of the characters being new to these technologies.
Before the reshoot, I fell ill so I wasn't able to work with the DOP in making the blocking and a new shot list. Thankfully, the DOP was very helpful and made the changes for me, and if I thought they needed to be a bit different I would change them - but they didn't need to be changed.

We both decided that there wasn't any point in making a shoot pack for this day as the only crew we were going to have was just us three, and we knew what we needed to get.

Props

We watched through the scenes several times and made a list of the props we needed to have for each scene, especially scene 11 as this is the one where you'll see more of the set. Nisserin very helpfully created a tick list for the props and we will follow this when getting the props together for the reshoot.

Quite a lot of the props are already in the location we will be filming in, but I do own a few of them so I need to make sure I have those prepared for this reshoot.

For The Last Dish recipe book, I decided to create this as I came up with the idea and I had a good idea as to how it could look. I did some research on some of the cook books I own, but also some general cook books, to see what design plan I should get some influence from.

I like the square shaped pictures that are present in two of the recipe books, so I'm going to find some pictures of meals (both breakfast, dinner, dessert & drink) and make them a sharp square shape in order to resemble these recipe book designs. In the Bake Off recipe book, I really like the way the title is in front of a filled in shape which is in front of the background. I want to try and add this into the recipe book as well as it makes the text a lot easier to read, and this is quite important in the audience noticing it in the shot, along with everything else going on in the shot we will be reshooting.

I started off by getting a bunch of different photos of different meals, and I made a grid on photoshop. I put all of the photos in the grid spaces and changed the opacity of the pictures so they were ever so slightly faint. Due to the images being faint, I had to erase the parts of the pictures that weren't in their own grid, which took some time, but it was worth it.

I added the logo of the cooking show, and an extra layer of text that said 'Recipe'. I made the background shape of the text in the same way as I made the background on the logo - which is having three different layers that are three different shades to add some depth. I also added another layer of text that says "Made By Jordan Hamsay" just so it's clear that this show is linked with the character of Jordan Hamsay.

At that is the final design of the recipe book. I then printed it out and stuck it to another recipe book to make it look realistic, and that is the prop we will be using for our reshoot.

I'm really happy with the outcome of this prop, and I think it will look really good in the shot. I also think it will add a bit more foreshadowing for scene 17 during the show, and it will be really effective.
I think we are as prepared as we can be for our reshoot, and as long as we have all of the props and get all the shots done that are on the shot list, we will have a good, relaxing and productive time. 

Poster UPDATE | Development

Previously, I had mentioned that I would be trying out different poster designs, and then as a group we would decide which one we liked the most. However, due to the sound editing work I've been doing, and the preparation for the reshoot, I found there wasn't any time to make any more edits from scratch. I have made the decision to stick with our first poster design, and upon talking to the others about this, they are ok with this decision.

There were a few extra things I needed to add to the poster in order to make it look like a real poster. I started with adding poster credits, which had been previously made by Nisserin (who had also made the credits for the video). I had found the font that real movie posters use, but due to this being a TV poster and it's quite different, I thought having a different type of font would work well. The font we have used is quite quirky but it goes with the font of our main title, which gives the poster a comedic vibe, which is perfect for our sitcom. Also, I decided to have the font in a white colour, as it stand out better against the background, and it makes it easier to read.

One of the problems I had with the positioning of these credits, is the Big Laughs Network logo was in the way of some of the text. At first I tried changing the size of both layers, but neither worked as well as I would've hoped. Instead, I decided to change the Big Laughs Network logo, so rather than it being in one line, it is now in three lines. I prefer the look of this logo for the poster, and it fits nicely in the right hand corner. It's big enough to see, whilst also not being overly distracting which is exactly what we want.

I then added the UCA logo, but originally it was black. I showed this to Nisserin and we both decided that it would look better white. The black made the poster look a bit weird due to the other layers of white text. I also think the colour white brightens the poster, which in turn makes the audience think the sitcom is lighthearted, funny and an easy watch, which is the desire.

I had to make a few last minute adjustments to the characters images, as I felt there was still quite a lot of green from the green screen. I used the colour replacement tool and edited each character to ensure that the green was completely gone. By doing this, it makes the poster look a lot better and it makes it look final, which is exactly what I wanted.

Overall, I'm really happy with the end result of our poster. I think the research done previously has helped majorly in terms of how the characters should be composed in the image, and to keep it quite simple. The other two like the poster as well, and upon showing Simon he is very happy with it. All we need to do now is to get it printed and hope that the quality will come across on paper.

Rough Cut Viewing w/ Simon & Andrea #4 | Development

With the music now into the sequence, and some of the previous changes having been made, we had another rough cut viewing, but this time it was with Andrea and Simon.

They both watched the show separately but here is their feedback:

Quite a lot of the suggestions made from both Andrea and Simon were good and useful to us when making the video the best it could be. Andrea mentioned she wanted to see more of The Last Dish element before scene 17, and we discussed either having a poster of Jordan Hamsay in their kitchen during scene 11, or a recipe book. We will discuss this further and see what will work better, but I do think it's a good idea.
One idea I had, to add a bit more of a pause between the iPad going off, was to shoot a car (which will supposedly be Marie's) driving off into the distance that we can cut to.
Simon wanted to add a sting in between scene 8 and scene 9. I'm not too keen on this idea as I don't think it'll work as well as the normal links do, but we're going to try it and see what it does to the video. Another idea I didn't like the sound of was getting a sound effect of Jordan Hamsay throwing up. I have made the decision not to do this as I don't want it to make audience's cringe and I also think it won't really add to the humour of the situation.
Other than that, I really liked the feedback given and I think, for this stage in the editing process, it was a very good tutorial.

Adding Music into Scenes | Development

We recently got sent our new composed music by our composer - who was found by me through close sources - and I straight away edited the music into our sequence. I then raised the volume of the music in scene 1, and edited music in throughout the different scenes that Simon had asked for.

The music that was added into scene 2 & 3 is quite upbeat but it also has a negative tone, in the sense that it adds a little bit of tension to the scene. The range of notes in the music track keeps the scene entertaining, and almost quickens the pace of it, which is something Simon told us was needed. I adjusted the volume of this track so the music wasn't too over powering over the actors dialogue. The only problem I had with this music track was it had a very abrupt ending, meaning it would end in the scene and it would feel like something in the video had gone wrong technically. I faded it out a little so the ending wasn't so harsh, and I made the title sequence start quick soon after that had finished, so there isn't too much of an empty gap.

The new title sequence is really upbeat and just what we wanted. The old one had grown on me throughout the editing process as I was used to it, but the new one definitely feels and sounds a lot better for the show. It has a 70's style to it, whilst also not being overly vintage, and it's fun to listen to. It will attract viewers of all ages, and it's very distinctive meaning, when someone hears this music they should recognise it as the Young & Famous theme tune. I adjusted the volume of this as it was quite loud, but I made sure to keep an eye on the audio level. The duration of it is long enough for the title sequence and hopefully it'll be long enough for the credits, if it's not we can adjust it easily.

I added a little bit of music during the seaside shots to quicken the pace of the shots, and to bring us to scene 6 a little bit faster. I didn't think scene 6, 7 or 8 needed music as they are quite quick scenes and the editing of it is quick and clean. However, scene 9 & 10 definitely needed music to quicken the pace of the two scenes. The music the composer made didn't necessarily fit for this scene, so I found a royalty free track on line that is fun and uptempo. Once I had added it onto this scene, I thought it worked really well - it quickened the pace of the scene and added more humour to it. I really liked this change, and I thought it definitely made this scene stand out against the others.

I then changed the stings to be the composer stings, and they fitted in really well. They were a good length and there was a lot of variation to choose from. However, one of the sad stings didn't really work with the tone of the show, so I found another royalty free one that worked instead.

Music was added into scene 11, and I definitely think it made the scene quicker and more intriguing. It's easy listening music and it adds a sense of casualness to the scene which works really well in terms of the story line. Along with this, scene 12 had music added to it, which had a fast tempo but dipped in out of a seriousness tone and a fun tone. This was perfect as the dialogue Annie & Dean have together starts off quite silly and then turns fairly serious, and then back to silly. I decided to end the music as we cut into scene 13 as I didn't think that scene needed a music bed underneath it. It's already quite an interesting scene with the tv screen being used, and I didn't want to distract the audience away from Marie rejecting Annie & Dean again.
Similarly, in scene 15, I decided not to have any music as I didn't want to steer away from the sad tone of this scene. If music was added, it would've bought the energy up and I wanted this scene to noticeably be the sad scene where the characters feel defeated. This gives a good difference in all the scenes as you can clearly feel the emotions of the characters change which then shifts again during scene 16.
At first, I wasn't sure what music bed to put behind scene 17, however myself and Nisserin discussed this and the idea of using The Last Dish advert's music was worth trying. I added the music in and kept it playing until Jordan Hamsay leaves the scene, which helps create fun and joy at the beginning of the scene, and then sadness and a feeling of being rejected at the end. I think overlapped the credit music in scene 17 to the credits, and it starts after the characters stop talking. This works as it gives the audience something to listen to and keeps their attention on the scene before the credits appear.

Overall, I think by adding this music it has definitely made the show feel a lot more like a sitcom, and it feels quicker. The pace of the scenes are good, and the music definitely helps carry them from one scene to the other. Now the show feels a lot better and more complete, and I'm really happy with the outcome of this change that has been made.

Rough Cut Viewing #3 | Development

After our last tutorial, we made some of the improvements suggested but we also decided against some of them. We made the change that Simon asked, but if we decided that it didn't work for the production, we kept it the same. Or if we decided it did work and looked a lot better than we made the change.

After editing the sound and making those changes, we had another tutorial with Simon, here was his feedback from the session:

The main change Simon wanted to be made was to add more music into the scenes. This will lift the video and will make it seem more like a sitcom than a drama, which is what it feels like in this current moment. We have a composer editing music together for us, so when we get those files I can add them to the sequence. However, if we find we need more music to add to the scenes we'll find royalty free music, as I'm not sure they will be enough time for him to make new music tracks for us.
He wants to see a lot more of the iPad screen, so when we do the reshoot we can arrange to shoot those clips, and add them in afterwards. We still need to do a reshoot for scene 11 & 17, so the producer needs to start planning and scheduling this with the actors.
These changes suggested are all good ones, so we will make these changes and so how this effects the show. One of the changes I don't think will work is cutting out Dean's line "he wouldn't do such a thing". I understand why this would make the scene quicker and why it needs to be quicker, but the dialogue won't make any sense, and there isn't any other way around this.

Editing the Sound | Development

Over the Easter holiday, myself and Nisserin transferred all of the files onto my hard drive so I could edit the sound throughout the two weeks. By having the zoom sound in every scene,  cleaning up the dialogue, and having all of the sound effects needed, it will help bring the whole video to life. It'll also be easier to add clips into the sequence and adjust certain things in the edit, and the rough cut viewings will be more effective by having clean audio.

I started with editing the audio of scene 1. The zoom audio for this wasn't too complicated to edit together due to us shooting it in a multi-cam set up. We used the same take for every shot, so it meant the zoom had all three characters dialogue and you could hear everyone clearly. When this was edited together it made the shot reverse shot between Marie and Annie & Dean really smooth and clean, which in turn made the whole scene feel a lot more professional and interesting. There were some shots that had it's own audio, so I had to the constant power transition a few times, and adjust the audio to make the sound seem like one piece of audio.
There weren't too many problems that occurred during this scene in terms of audio, I just had to adjust the volume of all the audio tracks to make it sound smooth. When adjusting the volume I made sure to keep the peak level under -6, and the dialogue around -12, however some tracks where less then that due to the dialogue being quiet. I did raise the volume as much as I could without it sounding too edited. I struggled with finding a good balance of the dialogue and the music track underneath. You need to be able to hear the dialogue clearly over the music and atmos, but you also need to hear the music otherwise there isn't any point in having it. I had the volume to a point that I thought worked well, but when the other two watch it they can give me opinions on whether the music should be louder.

Once I was happy with this scene, I moved onto scenes 2 & 3. Much like the shot reverse shot in scene 1, scene 2 stayed on the same shot. This meant the dialogue was easy to work with, however there were moments were Dean moves around in the car a bit too much and it had picked up on the zoom. I have tried to edit the volume of these bits so they aren't quite as loud, but I don't think they will be too distracting. When in the location, we recorded some atmos of the outside so I used a fair amount in order to keep the scene running smoothly, and hiding any moments where the audio sounds separate.
When I started editing the sound of scene 3, I realised we needed a sound effect of Marie shutting her door, as the audio we have for this shot is really quiet due to the positioning of the zoom. This isn't too much of a problem as we can record this sound effect separately, we just need to remember to do it. Another thing I noticed was, in the shot of Annie & Dean after Marie walks away, you can't hear Marie's footsteps. Instead of recording that later, I cut and pasted the previous audio of her walking over to her parents, and adjusted the volume so it fades away. This works really well, and it brings the scene to life. It's such a simple addition but it does make a big difference to the realism of the scene.
Again I adjusted the volume of the audio tracks in this scene, keeping an eye on the audio meters. I found that the audio from this scene wasn't too problematic and it all flows smoothly together.

After this scene, I went on to adjust some of the sound of scene 6, 7 & 8. For the shots where we see Dean pacing but can hear Annie in the living room, I wanted to add an effect on her audio to make it sound like she is in a different room. I struggled quite a lot with this as you had to be able to hear it, but also it shouldn't sound the same as when she is in her living room. I thought adding an echo type sound effect would be effective, so I added the studio reverb effect. I changed the impulse to small room to keep the echo realistic and effective. When the effect was added onto the audio clip, there was a difference but I wasn't too keen on it, I didn't think it was as realistic as it could've been. Later on I revisited the audio clip and did some research into how this could be done differently. In the research I did, I found an effect called Lowpass that makes the audio sound muffled, almost like the character is in a different room. When I added this filter onto the audio clip I thought it sounded a lot better, and more realistic. I then used this same effect for an audio clip that needed the same effect in the same scene, and it both worked really well.
The same thing happened with the Last Dish advert - which we had previously shot and edited together - which was on the TV screen. I needed it to sound like it was on the TV screen and I tried several different effects to try and create this, but I finally found something that worked. Liked the Lowpass effect, there was an effect called Highpass which gave it the effect that it was coming the TV. I added this onto the audio clip and it worked really well, and out of the different experiments I tried this was definitely the best.

When editing scene 9 & 10, I remembered that we recorded the sound on a camera due to the zoom not working. This didn't make much difference to the process of adding the sound tracks into the sequence, but it did have a background hissing noise which I had to get rid of on audition. I adjusted this with the Hiss Reduction effect and tried multiple times to get it to a point that I was happy with.

The transition between scene 9 and 10 was quite difficult to edit as Dean is talking in both takes, but I played around with the two tracks and experimented with different ways in which it could. Eventually I found a good balance of audio from scene 9 and 10, and it created a good transition between the two scenes.

I edited scene 11 with the zoom audio, and adjusted the volume levels like I had done for the other scenes. It was fairly easy to link the baking audio tracks together, so it sounds really smooth and clean. When editing the audio for scene 12 & 13, I remembered to add the Highpass  effect on the TV screen in Marie's house, and this was really effective when bringing this scene to life. It sounded like it was coming from her TV, and it was a good difference from Marie's dialogue, making it seem realistic.

Scene's 15, 16 & 17 weren't too complicated to edit either, as the dialogue worked well together, and we had shot in the multi-cam set up, meaning I didn't have to find a lot of different audio tracks. I made sure all of the tracks sounded smooth and if I had any problems I experimented with the constant power effect and the exponential effect. I also added any other sound effects that needed to be added, such as the knocking on the door which we decided worked a lot better then the door bell. Any other sound effects that I thought we need like the car sound effects, I wrote down ready to tell the others.
With all of the audio clean, edited together and synced, it made the whole video look really clean and it was a smooth watch. It definitely bought a lot of the scenes to life, and it made watching a lot more bearable without all of the over lapping dialogue we had before.
Overall, I'm really happy with how the edit of the audio has turned out, and I feel as if I have used my knowledge from previous work to help me, along with extra research I have done. The effects I have experimented with and chosen to use have worked really well, and I'm happy with the end result.
I will get the opinions of the other two and Simon, and see if anything else needs to change in terms of audio.

Rough Cut Viewing #2 | Development

For our second rough cut viewing with Simon, he had a little bit more to say due to us having all scenes edited roughly.

• Scene 1:
• We need to see Marie straight after Dean has said her name at the beginning, after the corkscrew mishap.
• I wasn't aware we didn't do this already, but we might be able to use a different shot size for this improvement.
• The shot of Marie needs to be cut to quicker after hearing "sweets are natural" from Annie.
• Scene 3:
• When Annie says "are you listening to me?" we need to see Dean reading the newspaper.
• We need a tighter shot of Annie & Dean reading the newspaper so it cuts nicer.
• We can look back at the shots we managed to shoot, and if we struggle we can always try and change the size of another shot, but we'll have to see what will work best.
• Instead of Annie saying "famous. Young and famous. I'm a genius." we should cut straight to the title sequence after hearing her say "famous".
• I think her dialogue is quite humorous, but we're going to try this and see if it makes the scene any quicker, cause it is quite slow at the moment.
• Scene 8:
• We need to cut quicker and cleaner in between the characters movements, so we can cut quicker after Annie leaving the living room and appearing at the door with Bob.
• This is the same for when Dean says "grow up" to Annie and going back to the door afterwards.
• He also wants to see more Bob in scene 8, as he's an interesting character and it gives a good dynamic between the different characters in that shot.
• Scene 9:
• If possible, we could see what Annie is doing on her iPad, so it brings the Instagram theme more into the video and informs the audience of it as well.
• We can definitely try this by shooting another shoot when we do our reshoot which will most probably need to happen.
• We need to see a CU of Dean when we see Betty, especially on the strangle.
• This is something that can be done because we do have a single of Dean, but we originally decided not to use it due to Nisserin and I not really liking it that much.
• However, Nisserin can try and make the shot look better in the grade.
• Scene 11:
• We need to make more out of the gross cookies and really get the idea across to the audience that the cookies he is making our disgusting and abnormal.
• We can get this when we reshoot, but we can get some CU of the baking itself and maybe a CU of the recipe so the audience can read the ingredients being put in with the cookies.
• As said before, there is too much back and we need to see more of Annie's face as she is talking. 
• This is why we will need to reshoot this scene.
• We need to see Annie's reverse when she says "he's away on business".
• We also need to see Annie when she is saying "it's now or never".
• Scene 12:
• There needs to be a shot of the view from the binoculars in the door, along with a shoot of the camera on the door.
• We can always go back to the location and get these shots without having the actors with us.
• We should cut back to Marie in the living room after Dean mentions The Last Dish.
• Scene 14:
• This scene doesn't really add anything to the video, so we should delete it, but keep the part of the two characters walking into the door to keep it clear to the audience that they have just arrived home.
• Scene 16:
• Get to Jordan Hamsay in the window quicker and stay on that shot longer.
• Get rid of Annie's dialogue when she says "come to the door quick".
• I'm actually not too keen on this change as I'm not entirely sure it will make much sense with her just saying Dean, because that doesn't necessarily mean Dean should come to the door.
• We might try this, but I don't think we'll make this change.
• Scene 17:
• We might need to reshoot this scene as we need to see Jordan Hamsay's face when he says his name.
• Maybe try and adding bars and tones along with a beep sound or something similar when Jordan Hamsay is sick to keep the humour alive, and make this scene more interesting and fun.
• We also need a reverse of Annie & Dean when they are talking to Marie.

Overall Simon said the video was really good as a whole but we should definitely consider reshooting scene 11 & 17.

We will make most of these changes, and try some of them to see if they work. We also will probably reshoot the two scenes as we want them to be the best they can be, and if we can get the actors back we might as well try.

I'm really happy with the feedback we have got, and I think it's a good amount to work with as this stage in the edit.

Editing the New Scenes & Starting the Sound Design | Development

Before adding in any of the new scenes we had previously shot, Nisserin put all of the scene sequences into one sequence. This meant that we could watch all scenes together as one, but also easily edit the scenes in their own individual sequence. Once this was done she started to edit the new scenes, starting with scene 1, 2 & 3.
We used the same set up as before, where we had the shot list, shoot notes & script on different monitors and then the main monitors had the editing software. Nisserin followed the shot list mostly, but there were a few more shots we got on the shoot day, and they worked better than the original shots we had planned.

When seeing the three first scenes, before the title sequence, now edited together roughly and in our main sequence, it makes the whole video feel smoother and more put together. It also gave us an idea as to what our first few scenes will be like and whether they are attractive enough for the audience to want to keep watching. I think scene 3 might be a bit too long, but I don't want to make any drastic editing decisions without all of the scenes being edited.

When Nisserin edited together scene 12, I realised I didn't really like that we cut to the WS and I thought it might work better if we cut to the 'Briar Lodge' shot, that we have used in the beginning of scene 2, and then straight to the 2-S. This is just an idea, and we're going to see what both ideas will look like. Also, when editing Scene 13, Nisserin tried the green screen of the security camera and I really like the way it looks. She gave it a desaturated effect and added a green screen overlay, and I think it looks realistic and works really well. At the end of the scene we couldn't decide whether to cut to the security camera or cut straight to scene 14. Upon watching it cut to the security camera first, I'm not so keen on it but we'll try both ways and see what works best.

After Nisserin had edited together all of the scenes roughly (including scenes 14, 15, 16 & 17), we decided that I would start working on some sound design elements such as sound effects. By having some of these elements in the video, it brings it to life and gives us a good idea as to what it will look like in the final edit.
For scene 1, I added some of the chatting atmosphere we recorded, to make the fake talking look realistic. I also added a music track that sounds like background music that would be played in the background of these type of events. I then added a louder recording of the corkscrew landing in the cup to exaggerate it for our rough cut viewing.
I skipped scenes 2 & 3 and went straight to scene 6, 7, 8 where I did quite a lot of the sound design. That was the first scene I found the zoom recording for and added it into the scene, so I just made sure I added some more sound effects like a doorbell sound and so on. I started to do the same with scene 9, but I didn't get round to finishing it completely, but there is still time for me to do that later.
The scenes in between 9 & 17 didn't need any major sound effects that affected the story, so I skipped straight to scene 17. I added the sound effects of the notifications on the iPad, and I duplicated it a few times to show that Annie is getting a lot of likes on her instagram post.
I also added some stings - that we won't use due to us having a composer making us music - just so we could see how that link will work.

Now that we have all scenes edited roughly, and some of the sound design is present, we can show Simon our rough cut and see what improvements he thinks we should make. I think all of the scenes go really well together and the story is told well. There are definitely parts of the video that need to be adjusted and maybe cut down but we don't want to do anything else until Simon has seen it. Overall, I'm happy with our rough cut so far.

Thursday 15th Mar | Shoot Day #6

Laura's schedule:

What happened on the day?

On this day we were shooting scenes 2, 3, 12 & 13, with the characters Annie, Dean & Marie.

• This day started off a little differently to how our normal shoot days started. The only crew members, added onto the three of us, that the producer had arranged for the day was only Jemma to operate the sound. This meant that we weren't able to do a multi-cam set up if we wanted to, and also it meant there weren't as many of us to help set up the equipment and set.
• Due to us not having any runners, it meant that Laura had to go and pick up both Jemma and Christine before coming to the location. This also meant that myself and Nisserin arrived at the location first and talked to the house owner before setting up the equipment, and also welcoming the actors.
• Once all of the actors and crew had arrived, we placed the camera and took the actors to the location that we would be shooting scene 2 in. We are using Nisserin's car as Annie & Dean's car due to it being fairly modern and simple, which is the type of car I think they would own. I then blocked scene 2 with the actors 
• We couldn't use the green micra that we planned to use in pre-production due to it not working, but also I'm not sure our characters would fit comfortably in the car due to it being a small size.
• We started by shooting the shot through the car window, and so you could hear the dialogue clearly we had Jemma sit in the back of the car with the boom. We started with Dean turning off the car ignition and then ending with both of them getting out of the car. This meant that it would be easy for us to cut into during post, and hopefully that will make the scene look smooth along with the wide.
• When I was happy with the coverage from this shot, myself and Nisserin crossed the road and did a camera reframe for a WS. The actors went through the scene from beginning to end, and we had Marie get out of her car as Annie & Dean get out, so we could see Marie in the WS. This shot was slightly harder to get due to the road being really close and having to wait for a pause of cars, so they wouldn't get in the way of our shot.
• Once I was happy with these shots, we moved onto shooting scene 3. We started by shooting a GV type shot of Marie walking out of the car door and down towards Annie & Dean. This shoot was a MS but as Marie moved it'll be turned into a single of Marie talking to Annie & Dean.
• We had a few minor issues when shooting the shot, such as the boom being in shot or the camera not being framed correctly for when Marie walks back into the house, but other than that the takes were good.
• We then reframed the camera and shot a 2-S of Annie & Dean talking to Marie. For this shot, I told the actors that they needed to carry on with their dialogue until they turn around during the scene. They were quick to act on this and when run-throughing this part of the scene they did it perfectly. Then once I was happy with this shot, we did the reverse and moved the camera to the other side of the gate. 
• For this side of gate we planned to shoot two different sizes - one WMS and a 2-S MS of the couple looking at the newspaper.
• It was at this point in the shoot day that the producer started telling us how much time we had left to shoot the scene and that we were over running in time. This actually caused a lot of stress rather than speeding the shooting process up, due to her mentioning how much time we were running over every few minutes. Not only did she keep mentioning this, she also told everyone on set including the cast how much we were over running by. This wasn't a very professional move as I feel like it made the actors think they needed to rush the scenes so we could get them done. This then went against the natural realistic tone of the show that I wanted throughout as the acting would be quick and forced.
• After doing this shot, we realised that we should probably get Annie's reverse shot when she turns around to look at Dean who is reading the newspaper. This shot didn't take very long to get as we knew what we wanted, and it was quite a simple shot. We then started shooting the GV's of the newspaper & the letter box - which we shot from two different angles.
• When shooting these GV's the producer was getting quite vocal and asked whether these shots really needed to be shot, and whether we could get away with not getting these GV's. This was due to how long we were over running by, however both myself and the DOP had the same thought that even if we had over ran we would still be getting the shots, so we carried on with how we were. 
• The newspaper prop was also problematic as it was prepared last minute, which could jeopardise how our prop looks in the shot. Laura created the newspaper article before our first shoot week, and Nisserin created it to make it look more realistic. Myself and the DOP asked the producer if it could be printed and ready for the shoot week so we didn't have to worry about getting it done for this shoot week. She also had a source from one of our actors who could print off our newspaper on the same paper, which would make it look even more realistic. However, the producer didn't prepare this prop, and on the morning of this shoot day, asked in our group chat if anyone had printed it off. I was quite shocked by this as it was her job as the producer to make sure all of the props were ready a few days or even a week before we shoot, and she had a month and a half to do this job, as the file had been on our shared drive the whole time. Nisserin ended up having to print it off and rush in the morning to try and make it look like a real newspaper. She did a good job, but it would've been more effective for the show if the producer had stuck with the first source she found, as it would've made the newspaper look more realistic.
• Once the GV's were shot, we wrapped this scene and started to prep for scene 12. We did a camera reset and the actors took a little break so they weren't stood outside for too long. Nisserin moved her car to be parked next to 'Marie's' car to look as if Annie & Dean have just driven up and parked.
• We started this scene with shooting a WS. This gave the actors a chance to do run-throughs of the scene after I had blocked it with them. Jemma and I stood in front of the car and ducked down whilst we were shooting the scene. This is so I could be heard in the zoom which will help when editing, and I trusted the DOP to do a good and effective shot.
• Once this shot was complete, the camera was moved closer to do the 2-S of Annie & Dean. There were a few takes where the lines were mixed up a little bit, so we had to do a few of them, but eventually we got enough coverage and we could re frame to a single of Dean. This only took one take as Greg knew what his lines were and felt confident about it, and you could tell through the take. 
• We then moved into the doorway and shot the security camera shot which only took a few takes. After the second take one of the home owners had to leave and move their car which was in our shot. This was quite problematic but it meant that Nisserin just had to reframe the shot so we couldn't tell that it had gone.
• Then once I was happy with the coverage we got from both scenes, we stopped for lunch, and due to the shooting of Scene 12 not taking as long as planned we finished on time.
• AFTER LUNCH
• We started to set up in the living room for scene 13. We only needed Marie for this shot so it meant I could focus on directing only her for this scene, which made things a lot more relaxed. We started shooting the WS, and on this shot Nisserin suggested turning the TV off so the light wasn't green. Once I was happy with this shot we moved onto the single of Marie sat on the sofa, and the TV was still off for this shot. 
• Then once I was happy with this shot, we shot the MS of the TV which had the green screen on it. When it comes to post, Nisserin will be putting the previously shot security camera footage on the screen to make it look like Marie is watching one of her cameras. 
• Laura told us, when we had finished with these shots, that we had quite a lot of time to spare and whether there were any GV's we wanted to shoot. There wasn't any that we had planned, but I thought we could get one of the TV remote just so we had enough coverage to work with in post.
• Then once I was happy with all of the coverage we got from the day, we wrapped for the day and for the whole shoot.

Notes:

I think by not having a huge amount of crew, it did make things quicker in terms of setting up equipment and making sure everyone was in the right place doing the right thing. However, having the extra hands during the shoot week was really helpful as we were able to use a lot more equipment and set up efficiently. I do think having more crew is better for a higher quality production, but I think we did alright with just the four of us.
The mentioning of how much time we were running over when shooting scene 2 wasn't very helpful and made me feel very stressed in the moment. This then affected my directing skill whilst shooting that scene as I felt very overwhelmed by the constant mentioning of how much time we were running over by. Thankfully, the actors were really good and kept up their act in a natural way, but it could've made them act more forcefully in order to get the shot done quickly. Also, I think it was unnecessary and inappropriate when the producer asked me and the DOP whether we could not shoot the GV's because we were running over, in front of the actors. Both the DOP and I agreed that we would get every shot we had planned even if we were over running in time. It didn't matter to us if we had less time for lunch as we could make it work, so we decided to keep going as planned. The producer just needed to be patient and possibly bring me aside to tell me every so often how far we were behind, so I wouldn't be constantly hearing it and feeling overwhelmed and rushed. I'm glad we carried on as we did as it meant we got all of the shots we needed, and the actors were very good to understand what we wanted.
Overall, this shoot day was good but there were points where it was busy and stressful, but sometimes that stress could've been avoided. I do think there were a few times were crew members were inappropriate in front of the cast, however the rest of the crew stayed professional which helped keep the atmosphere relaxed and professional.
I'm happy with all of the footage we have got throughout all of the shoot days, and I'm glad we are done with the shoot days (excluding the potential reshoot).