The document discusses the pre-production process for a short film. It describes changes made from the initial idea through production, including altering locations, characters, and ending scenes. Key personnel left the project, requiring the remaining crew to take on additional roles. Pre-production planning was impacted, though the production was completed with a smaller team than anticipated.

1. PRE-
PRODUCTION:EVALUATION

2. Initial idea:
The initial idea made me understand the way that I should have followed throughout the production and pre-
production of my short film.
When I had clearly in mind what the mood of my film would have been, I immediately decided to work
according to how a film of this genre would be produced. I inquired about how the various directors of the
genre approached the creation of all their great films of the past, and I therefore decided to make something
similar because it was what represented me the most when I thought about my product.

3. Proposal:
Only lately I found out how important a
proposal is, in this case I am the producer
of the movie so I didn't actually have to
pitch my idea to someone, but it helped
me to get used to follow a structure in
case of a future experience where I could
have to find someone ti finance or
produce my movie and I will have to
convince them to believe in in my idea.
Lately I've been watching some
interviews of big directors who are
struggling with their career choices and I
heard of how important it is for them to
pitch a movie to big productions.
The synopsis has changed in various ways since I wrote it until the realisation of the
movie. The title, the plotline, the genre, and the message remained the same. But
the imaginary that made the actors wear a certain type of clothes has changed. As
I’ve been inspired by the 80s Miami type of outfit in the first place, I decided to
change it in suits/tuxedos.
The logline hasn’t changed even a bit, this was what I believed in
the most.
My movie it’s not carried by good visual effects, great action
scenes, or solid acting, this because it doesn’t have any of that. I
wanted the audience to be fascinated by the “non-visible” world that
I create, how no one knows the background of any of the characters
but their relationship makes obvious that they know each other from
long time.

4. The structure of my screenplay didn’t
have to change, because it was what I
wanted to be the basics of my movie. I
wanted the audience to care more
about the character than the plot. I
decided to change the ending for lack
of material, so instead of a simple
killing scene in an exterior ambient, I
choreographed an action fight scene in
the same location of act 2.
The message of the movie remains the
same, even the feelings of the
characters remain the same. It’s just
that I wanted to make things easier for
my production.
The characters had to be as believable as I could
make them, especially the leading one.
The first actor(Daniel Parushev) for playing Santiago
backed down for personal motivation, and also
because didn’t feel comfortable with doing some of the
scenes, so we switched to a new actor(Ethan Farrer)
that surprisingly fit the role even better than who I
chose in the first place, and he also was way more
dedicated to do some more scenes.
Characters

5. There was some time between the writing o
the proposal and the production, so my
ideas changed during this period.
During some research on youtube about
action choreography, I decided to create one
on my own and to use it at the end of the
movie. It looked so good in my head and it
was even better when we did it in real life.
This action choreography scene shook all of
us up and we liked it that much that we even
decided to change the ending of the movie.
In britain, a series like Narcos is rated 15+,
and it has strong violence, strong
language,sex, nudity, real corpses and drug
theme. My movie doesn’t present as much
of this features, but it still has a theme
related to drugs so it won’t be suitable to a
young audience.

6. Script:
This is the part where that helped me the
most and that I tried to do the best, this
because having the script well done, giving a
copy to every member of the cast and the
crew helped us to organize the work in the
best way possible.
The cast needed a believable and
professional script so they could give the best
performance possible, while the crew needed
a copy to be sure that whatever was
happening on set was right.
During the production I decided to
add an initial scene at the beginning
of the movie which wasn’t in the
script.
I thought that it would have added
that something more that I was
looking for.
This proved me that even if the script
was what I cared about the most, it
could get some unexpected changes,
which could make it worse or better.

7. The ending of the movie drastically
changed, mainly for two reasons.
The first is because we didn’t have the
time and the conditions to end the movie
like I planned, and also because me and
the crew were way more happy with the
new ending.
It took us less than we programmed to
realize it, and in my opinion it looks even
better than the one I wanted to do at
first.
The first scenes we shot were the ones
that weren’t in the script, so we could
stay better in time.
While the rest of the script has been
studied and tried by both actors to be
more comfortable and ready with the
words and line they weren’t familiar with.

8. Location Scout:
I knew since I started writing the movie that it would have been set in only a few
locations, and I ended up sorting everything in only one place. Because of the
advantages that the location had, like a green screen, more rooms, a
photography studio , etc... I managed to work from scene to scene making it
look like more various locations even if we were in the same building.
At first I planned to shoot only most of the scenes in the College, but then
I realised that the College itself offered me way more facilities than I
thought, and one of these was the props-costumes room. So I managed
to arrange every scene of the movie in the same building, but in different
rooms, and I also decided to change some of the scenes and shoot them
in an exterior ambient.
The schedule drastically changed before and during the the
production, an because of the virus we couldn’t finish the shooting. I
still need 3 days and I still need the same amount of hours that I didn’t
get.

9. Risk Assessment:
The form has been signed by all the
members exposed to the risks, only me,
and I was completely self conscious of
what I was going to be exposed to. I
personally performed some stunts in the
action scenes but everything went as
planned, and no member of the cast and
crew was injured during the production.
I was the coordinator of every stunt in the movie and
the choreographer of the action scenes.
I was completely aware of every risk I was going to be
exposed and every stunt we performed was controlled
by me and my camera assistant.
The ending was changed, so no one is shot by no
firearm, even if there is the use of some prop
weapons for dramatic purposes, but no one gets hit
by anything related to weaponry.
The choreography ends with my character getting
hit by a furniture, I personally performed that stunt,
which even if was the most dangerous, I managed
to don ‘t get injured.

10. Personnel List:
For unprofessional reasons, some of the staff members have
decided not to take part in the project anymore, more precisely one
of the camera assistants and the microphone assistant, this made
the shooting way more harder, this because I had to cover their role
all by myself with the help of staff members who didn't expect to do
what I asked them to do in the day of filming.
Me, Ethan Farrer and Josh Loughton were the only people
working on the movie. We managed to use an entire set to our
vantage even by ourselves. I set al the lights and I chose every
camera movement to use, and Josh has been so gentle to redo
the whole work by different perspectives.
Daniel Parushev and Layton Mensforth left the project and the
positions as camera assistant and microphone assistant for
personal motivations. So me and Josh Loughton covered their
duties, by doing double work and trying to fill the gaps that they
left.
For the camera assistance, Me and Josh set up the set as we
could have the same scenes recorded twice, while the audio
has been captured by the cameras we used.

11. Music Reference:
I didn't really have the chance of using the music tracks that I
decided to use for my movie, because I still do not have enough
footage to pair it with the decided sound.
But I did use some of the tracks for the editing of my trailer while I
was working on the promoting campaign.
I will use the songs in some montages that are going to be part of
the movie, but at the moment I don’t have enough footage to work
on, the music editing is going to be the very last thing I’m going to
work on during the editing phase.
For now I already chose the tracks and I’m sure when and how I
am going to use them.

12. Outline Budget:
All the Materials and the costs were really precise, this is why this
section has been fully followed by me who paid for the products that
in the table had a price, and every material that I loaned/borrowed
was available, or I managed to provide it myself, the scheduled day
or even before.
All the materials that had no cost were provided by the college,
while the SD Card and the USB sticks were the ones I use the
most, and I even had to buy or borrow more than one for work as
fast as I could.
The leather jacket hasn’t been used because the costumes of the
characters changed a little before the production.
The only tripod we had was broken so we had to put or hang the
camera on unusual spots that helped us bypass this issue we
had.
I didn’t have to buy a prop gun because I managed to borrow one
a few days before the first days of shooting.

13. Contributor Release:
Even if some of the Personnel members decided to not take part in the
project anymore, I managed to have their consent before they decided to
abandon the production, but I couldn't and I didn't want to force them to
work with me.
The people that worked with me, signed the consent form as well and they
were all happy with what they did on set.
Every form has been signed by every member of the personnel, and
personally I didn’t undo the forms of the people that didn’t want to work
with me.
Especially when they told me and they signed to help me and to
contribute to the project.
I didn’t take bad their choice, I was happy that they advised me on time
and not on the day of shooting (or at least one of them did). But as I know
and they do, I worked without them.

14. Location Release Permissions:
Having just one location for the movie, it was easy to get the permission
in a short time, having the permission helped me to use the location for
the number of hours I originally scheduled for the shooting, the green
screen also helped a lot in the post production phase to build a fake
background, and the various parts of the location helped to pretend to
be in different places in every scene we shot.
This was probably the easiest part of the whole pre-production bit, the
only things that are changed are the dates and hours of occupancy and
the fact that we are also going to use the exterior of the location,
especially the parking of the building.

15. Resources:
In the first day of shooting we didn’t need any
microphone or to record any audio, this because the
script and the lines were difficult to learn in the short
period of time we had, so we decided to shoot only
the scenes that didn’t require any talking in it, so all
the sounds were captured by internal camera’s
microphone.
Sunderland college provided me a tripod and a slider
that made everything easier during the shooting. The
prop gun was essential in most of the scenes we
filmed and the costumes were arranged by me and
my actor.
This resources haven’t been used at all, the only
tripod we had was broken so the slider wasn’t
useful. We captured the sound with the internal
microphone of the camera so, external microphone
and boom stick weren’t used
The rings were meant to be used for dramatic
purposes, so because the ending scene was
changed, the script didn’t require my character to
wear rings during the movie.

16. Minutes of Meetings:
Every meeting we had, was with every initial member of the personnel. I
have been very lucky to meet everyone on the same days at the same time.
We talked precisely of every role every person had, but because of the ones
who left the project, most of the subdivision of the work we decided together
during the meetings, has not been followed. Not having a microphone
assistant we had to shoot scenes without a microphone, not having one of
the camera assistants, it took us longer to film some bits by our own.
Even if I managed to get all the members of the personnel in a room
together for meeting, and explained them in details how we would have
worked on the movie. I lost nearly half of the crew so all of that was
useless, because we approached new methods to get the same amount
of work done even without the personnel required.

17. Storyboard:
The storyboard has been very important to me, the director,
and my camera assistant to picture every shot.
In my storyboard I tried to draw as clear as possible how to
set every shot, and which camera techniques and movements
to use on the set.
Me and my camera assistant followed very strictly every step
of my storyboard, and during the editing phase,the result was
exactly how I pictured it in first place when I was drawing the
storyboard.
The scenes are perfectly combined to how I draw them on my
storyboard. I looked at it a lot of times and I also forced my
camera assistant to study it so we could match it perfectly.
The storyboard was the thing I cared about the most with the
script, because I described in details how I pictured the movie
in my head, and I wanted to make that picture real.