Writing a Script

I have recently completed writing a script for 'my planning and making a film' module. This was something I found very challenging as I hadn't written a short story since I was about seven.

I knew I had this project coming up so I had plenty of time to think of a story I came up with a few basic ideas but eventually I found a news article about a man who had been wrongly diagnosed with cancer. As soon as I read the article I knew the story would be perfect for a short film so I straight away set about writing a rough draft.

Here is a brief outline of the story:

• James (the protagonist) is diagnosed with a terminal illness.
• He struggles to come to terms with his sudden death.
• He Meets with a friend called George at a pub.
• George is concerned that James isn't taking the situation seriously enough.
• James leaves the pub and returns a few hours later having sold all of his things.
• Him and George go on a massive bender, drinking, buying expensive clothes, eating in expensive restaurants etc....
• After a massive night out James wakes up in the morning and walks to the hospital.
• He is then told he doesn't have cancer.

Before I started writing this script I thought it was going to be a comedy but as soon as I gave it some real thought I realised that for the bulk of the story there isn't really much to laugh about. I mean guess it could still be seen as quite a dark comedy but that is really up to the interpretation of the reader.

Editing and End Product

After the weekend of filming set about editing the film pretty much straight away. The Chief editors for the film were myself, Daniel Dearing and Lucy Baker. We took shifts each having a crack at the editing over the space of a two weeks. I'm very pleased with our edit and also the fantastic music written by George Turner specifically for the film.

Here is the finished product:

The production of this film went incredibly smoothly which is a stark contrast to some other productions I have worked on. I believe this to be down to extremely good planning by the director and producer and also because we never bit off more than we could chew. We scaled down the script and made the film a lot more achievable. On my next film however I would like to be a bit more ambitious and try to push the boundaries a bit more.

The Big Weekend

As planned my production team filmed the newly named short film 'Exits' on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of November.

We had sorted everything out (more or less) before the beginning of the shoot and had gained permission to film on the Saturday in:

• Just Beauty.
• Waverley Cafe.
• Bath Spa Library.

We had also planned to film the street scene on Saturday evening but due to a travel mix up we were stranded at Bath Spa library.

Filming went really well with the library scenes in particular standing out as the best looking shots of the weekend.

On the Sunday we filmed at the following:

• The Salamander.
• Posh n Not.
• A privately owned flat.
• A public street.

This filming went very well and saw all of the actors up their games and out in really believable performances.

Here is a rough behind the scenes of the weekend filmed by Lucy Baker.

Its mostly Lucy babbling like an idiot and us eating but I like to feel it gives a good impression of the feel good atmosphere around the production.