MAJOR PROJECT: Composer's Credit Track

I have been working with the Composer who has written and produced the credit track for the film. After sending him the rough cut, I sent him the exact timings for prominent parts of the track. Although it will be the credit track primarily, we wanted it to start during Scene 12 when Frank and the balaclava man are caught in the warehouse stealing the apples. The composer asked me for specific details regarding the style, tempo and intensity of the music we wanted. I said that the first reveal where the warehouse door is lifted up should start with some subtle drumming which should build up to the reveal of Frank in the warehouse. However, the final track shouldn't kick in until the credits actually start. I also sent the composer a few extracts of the instrumental sounds we had in mind and the temporary track which was quite similar to what we had in mind. The track that I have uploaded below is the second version of the track. The only tweak he made, was some added bass towards the end of the track. I was very impressed with the track that he's written, which he said he'd really enjoyed working on. I think that it is similar to the temp track but has it's own unique signature which is perfect for the comedic tone of the film. I also think that the timings are all in the right place for the reveals in the ending which is just what we were looking for.

Overall, I am very pleased that I pushed to have a composer to write the credit track for us. Josh and Ellen were very apprehensive as they didn't want to put any more money into the budget and felt like the temporary track was suitable enough. However, upon hearing the track that the composer made, Josh agreed that it gave the end of the film and the credit sequence a lift and was the perfect fit. I'm so glad that it paid off and that this is something that I pursued to have in the film.

MAJOR PROJECT: Film Poster: Development/Final Design

As part of the submission, we are required to create a poster for the film which will need to be printed out. As a group we decided that we would base the poster off of the Quentin Tarantino ones that I had researched for the branding and title card. Our title card is very simple but bold, using the 3 primary colours - red, blue and yellow. We decided to use this colour palette as it is very fitting for the film and is reminiscent of both the graphics in the original Bonnie & Clyde film and Tarantino's films. The posters created for Tarantino's film have a particular design which is overly simplified and just uses simple shapes and outlines to highlight the imagery in them. The text is always bold and striking, contrasting with a bright coloured background. I previously analysed the poster shown below for one of his most successful and well known films - Kill Bill, which we took inspiration from for our poster design.

Before we shot the film, collectively we designed a mock up design using imagery from Atomic Blonde as Bobbie and Vince Vaughn as Clive, just to stand in as the characters in the time being. This mock up poster was used when it came to creating the real one as we used the same layout of imagery and text. We experimented with different posterising effects on Photoshop, as we wanted the imagery itself to look quite simple and not very detailed like in some of Tarantino's posters where they just use outlines and a two toned effect.

Poster - Version 1

Here is the first version of the poster. The 3 colours are evident with the yellow and blue for the font and a bold red background. We have added the bleeds of blue round the edges also like in the title card. As a temporary slogan for the film, Josh came up with and added the text 'They're middle aged, They're married, They need cash'. I suggested that we should change this to 'They need money' to continue the alliteration which we played around with before the final slogan. The image itself is very simple and doesn't tell the audience too much. 

Version 1 - Landscape

Here we experimented with the poster as landscape as opposed to portrait to see which looked best. However, I think for a film poster, it looked better as portrait which we will have for the final version. In terms of improvements, I voiced to Josh that I felt like the posterised effect was too extreme and the lack of detail took away from the design and from the expressions on their faces. He agreed and we continued to look for alternatives.

Poster - Final Version

Here is the final version of the poster which I will be sending off to have printed. We found an effect on photoshop which was more detailed than the effect we had previously used which I think looks much better and looks more like Sophie and Nik. I am happy with the final image we selected as I think that the unsure look on both of their faces should give a hint to the audience that they are not real criminals. With regards to the slogan, Simon suggested that we made the last sentence more unconventional. 'They need money' was too obvious for a couple in the real world and didn't offer any real clues to the events of the film. Therefore with Simon's suggestion, we altered it to 'They're about to break the law'. I think that this is much more fitting for the project and should throw the audience off and give them something more to think about. Overall, I am pleased with the development of the poster and think that the final design is exactly what we had in mind.

MAJOR PROJECT: Review of Budget & Paying Expenses

Now that the film is in its final editing process, and all expenses have been paid for, I wanted to do a review of the final budget. Initially, we wanted to try and keep the budget very low of around £500-600, this was the first figure that we came up with. After the casting process had been finalised, we chose the talent over the expense and chose to cast 3 actors that were not local and would be expensive to cover for travel. We knew that the budget would need to be increased, and accepted this as part of the process.

Paying Expenses
In terms of travel expenses, we covered these from the rehearsal until the shoot dates. I worked out an average mileage of 25p per mile and checked that this was ok for the actors. Once the shoot days were finalised, I worked out the total mileage for each actor and asked the crew members to send me their travel receipts or mileage so I could work out their expenses. The travel expenses were our biggest expense at £347 for all cast and crew members.

Food
As well as travel expenses, we covered food from the audition day onwards also. This included a buffet for the auditions, lunch on rehearsal day and meals across the shoot days. As Producer, I went out to source all of the food. I made sure that I bought all of the value items to save money, whilst ensuring that I was purchasing enough to keep all of the cast and crew happy and contented on the shoot days. I wanted there to be options at both lunchtime and dinner time as I was catering for a large group and I didn't want there to not be enough of what people liked. For the second shoot day, we ordered pizza for the group. In hindsight, this was a drain on the budget at £40 but it was very popular with the cast and crew. I totalled all of the food expenses up at £170 which was the second biggest expenditure.

Hotel
I had advertised optional accommodation for the cast members during the casting process. As Sophie was travelling over 80 miles to get to the location, I booked her a hotel over the first weekend of filming which was a 2 day shoot. I shopped around for some quotes before booking the Mercure in Maidstone, as Sophie had a membership there. The cost of this expense was £125.

Props/Set Dressing and Costumes
The props and costumes weren't a huge expense as I was able to source a lot of them from home or purchase them at affordable prices. The only costume item, I needed to purchase was the pair of white trainers for Clive which I got from Pound land for £9. The biggest prop expenditure was the apples, of which I sourced almost 150 of for the shoot. The overall expenditure for props/set dressing and costumes was £95.

Composer
The last expenditure was the composer for the credits track. He was really keen to contribute to the project and was happy to work for an agreed £50 as he wanted to gain some more contacts and build his portfolio. We were very lucky to find someone who was very interested in the project and willing to work to a student budget.

Overall, I am pleased with my management of the budget and although the travel expenses in particular were rather expensive, I think that the decision to have the right cast was absolutely worth the extra expense. The other expenses were as expected and fairly minimal which helped to keep the budget down. As the Producer, it was mr job to organise all of the receipts which I kept together in a folder along with any cash for the budget. The receipts were very useful for keeping track of how much we were spending and for totalling up at the end. The final budget outcome was £787 which I think was a suitable figure, and not much over our ideal budget.

MAJOR PROJECT: Research: Post-Production for a Producer

I am aware that as the Producer on this project, my role becomes much less active during the post production stage with regards to the edit. I have done some research regarding this area as I was unsure of what my biggest responsibilities would be and I wanted to be as active as I could.

I found out via Creative Skillset and Prospects.ac.uk that the Producer's main role during this stage is to oversee the production and is largely involved in the creative decision making process. To ensure that I was doing this, I was in the production rooms with Josh and Ellen at all times and was active  with my feedback and suggestions for improvement. Although, I wasn't doing a technical role and actually pressing the buttons during the edit, I have been voicing my opinions throughout the edit process so far and offering my assistance if they had any issues with the edit.

Directly after filming however, I focussed largely on ensuring that all of the cast and contributors had their expenses paid for and enjoyed the process filming. I have since also sent the cast some of the behind the scenes photos and given them some updates on the edit. However, I have asked them to refrain posting any of the photos during Scene 12 on social media as we want the ending to be kept secret until we post the film ourselves.

So that I have a more active role and can focus on another task during the post production stage, I have taken in upon myself to advertise for a composer to create the credits track for the film. This is something that we discussed much earlier on in the project but never decided on. Josh said he's happy for me to pursue this and advertise for the role but to be careful regarding the budget as none of us have worked with a composer during our time on the course and are unsure of how much this will be. I am hoping that this will be a creative step I can pursue, as I think a unique credit track that is written for the film specially will be very beneficial to the production value.