Old Concept Pre – Production work
Below, you will be able to see my old pre – production concept work. It shows potential ideas me and my teammate (Spencer) came up with when thinking of what ideas to do for this project.
Summary
My college was recently given the task of doing a film pitch trailer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will be working with a classmate for this project. On this page you will find the link to Spencer’s blog and pre production work I have done.
Me and Spencer have decided to do ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead’ for our project. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is a comedy play created by Tom Stopper.
We decided to do this for our project as me and Spencer were discussing what genres we were interested in, they were comedy and tragedy. After speaking with my lecturer about our ideas he recommended I do research on two comedy characters from Hamlet. I then found the book for their play and decided to do this for the RSC project.
Crew list
Producer and Joint Director – Sammy Gabrria-Nivas
Camera Operator and Joint Director – Spencer Leeke
Research
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two characters childhood friends of Hamlet. Their role in the play is to keep an eye on Hamlet as the play progresses.
Production Schedule
22/09/2017 – RSC project launch
25/09/2017 – Pre – Production begins
02/09/2017 – Rehearsal Pitches
09/10/2017 – Pitch to Client
16/10/2017 – Production
23/10/2017 – Filming and Editing
30/10/2017 – Final Screening to the roc
Mood Board
Below, you will find a mood board which represents ideas for our project.
New Pre – Production work
When myself and Spencer presented our practice pitch we received feedback that we didn’t know enough about the play to present it to the RSC. We discussed this further with our lecturer and decided to focus on a play that we were familiar with.
Myself and Spencer discussed the plays: Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. After weighing up the pros and cons we decided that our play was going to be about Macbeth.
Summary of our idea
Me and Spencer have decided that we will be doing Macbeth as our idea. We will be focusing on the opening scene of the play that foreshadows of what will happen in the play.
The link to my teammates blog can be found here – Spencer’s Blog
MindMaps
These pdf documents show our ideas for our project. My teammate helped me with this as I brainstormed my ideas.
Setting for our product
We have decided to set our product in a modern day setting because we believe a modern day setting will appeal to our target audience.
Synopsis
For our trailer product we are creating a scene from Macbeth’s Act 1 Scene 1 featuring the three witches. The trailer will be 60 seconds long. In addition, we have chosen to do that the setting for Macbeth will be modern day. We have decided to set this in the modern day because we want to present the three witches in a new way to our target audience. Moreover, we think a modern setting will appeal to our target audience who are young adults/older audiences.
Crew list
Spencer Leeke – Joint Director and Camera Opreator
Sammy Gabrria-Nivas – Joint Director and Producer
Location Recce
The three potential filming locations we will film our trailer are: Oversly Wood (Alcester), Charlecote Park and Baddesley Clinton. Another potential filming location is the cafe since our product will have a modern day setting.
Location Recce – Cafe
This photo shows a potential location where I will like to set our product in. This area would be good for a modern-day setting because me and my teammate can think creatively of why we would want to use this cafe for our setting and understand how it would appeal to our target audience.
This area is big and the film equipment can be used anywhere in this big space. However there are some disadvantages to this location. If any equiment is left anywhere an actor/crew member could trip over the equiment and hurt themselves. To prevent this all equiment must be must in a apporaite location.
Another disadvantage, is if any water bottles are near the computer equipment they could spill and damage the computers. And, someone could get electrocuted if there is any damage to the wires. To prevent this, water must be kept away from the computer and film equipment.
Overall, the cafe could be a good filming location for our test trailer because we can think creatively of why we would want to choose a cafe as our setting. This would also make our target audience interested in why choose this setting for our test trailer. There are some disadvantages to this location, however by properly checking this area then it will be good to film in this cafe for our product.
Location 2 – Study Room
This is location we will be using for filming a shot from the storyboard.
The only disadvantage of this room is the carpet. For example, we will be unable to film if the carpet if filithy and dirty. Therefore, the carpet must be cleaned before any filming takes place.
Target Audience
Me and Spencer will aim our product at the following audiences: young adults and older audiences as our film trailer will be dark and mysterious.
Focus for our trailer
Above, is a piece of the script that will be featured in our trailer. Me and Spencer have decided we will be doing the first scene of Act 1 for our play.
The reason why we have decided this will be for our trailer product is that we want to keep it simple and make it effective. We will be focusing on important technical aspects in our trailer such as: composition, sound, lighting and editing.
Setting for play
The setting for Macbeth will be a Modern take. The three witches will be presented to the target audiecne as beautiful. The Witches in the original play are presented to the target audience as ugly and sinister. However, in our product we want to take the characters in a different direction and present in a new way to our target audience.
We also want to make one of the witches male because we want to break gender representation in theatre.
Research
The link of above helped me as I did research about Macbeth.
What is the play about?
The play begins with the three witches telling a prophecy about Macbeth becoming the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. In addition, they say that Banquo (Macbeth’s friend in the play) descendants will become king as well. The three witches plan on meeting Macbeth.
When they finally meet Macbeth they tell him about the prophecy. Macbeth becomes excited by this and Banquo thinks the prophecy is nonsense. Macbeth writes to his wife (Lady Macbeth) about the prophecy the three witches told him. She is also interested in his encounter with the three witches. Lady Macbeth is told by a messenger that King Duncan (King of Scotland in the play) will be arriving to the castle. She plans on calling on evil spirits to help her and manipulates Macbeth into killing King Duncan.
Macbeth then becomes King and Thane of Cawdor after the killing of King Duncan. However, he realises the witches prophecy about Banquo and his descendants will come true. He then decides to kill Banquo and his son (Fleance) so the prophecy cannot come true. Macbeth’s plan fails as Banquo is killed and but Fleance escapes.
Macbeth then begins seeing the ghost of Banquo and is told another prophecy by the witches. A lord called Macduff will execute Macbeth and become the next King of Scotland and Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth then becomes scared by this prophecy and then starts a war. He kills Macduffs family and makes sure the prophecy does not comes true. However, their prophcy comes true as Macbeth is killed by Macduff and his wife (Lady Macbeth) commits suicide because of her thinking about her role in the killing of King Duncan.
What are the key points of the play?
- The three witches tell a prophecy about Macbeth becoming the king of Scotland and about Banquo’s descendants becoming king.
- They meet Macbeth and Banquo and tell them about what will happen.
- Macbeth then sends a letter to his wife about his encounter with the three witches.
- She manipulates Macbeth into killing King Duncan and claiming power for themselves.
- Macbeth then becomes King and realises the prophecy about Banquo’s descendents will come true.
- Macbeth orders the killing of Banquo but his son escapes.
- Macbeth is told by the three witches about Macduff executing him and becoming the next king of Scotland and Thane of Cawdor.
- Macbeth then starts a war and kills Macduff’s family.
- Macduff kills Macbeth.
What is the undertone for this play?
Each section of the play has a different meaning. Act one is about treachery (something that is sinister). This Act is important in the play as is shows who the real villains of the play are which are the Three Witches.
They are the real villains of Macbeth because they map out the events of the play and their prophesy’s show they are shown to be evil spells that control Macbeth. They are so powerful they control the world that Macbeth is set in.
How is the Director approaching the play?
Shakespeare uses dramatic effect (what an audience experiences in the play) to effect the audience in the play. It is up to the audience as to what they see in the play.
An example of how dramatic effect is created in the play is the three witches prophecy about Macbeth. The audience would expect to see an atmosphere that foreshadows the events that will happen in the play.
Audience for Macbeth
This web page by the RSC shows who they aim their audience at. They aim their audience at the following: young, art attenders, family, under 16’s, local, cultural and global audiences.
The webpage shows the RSC aims their plays at different audiences. They show that they want to aim their plays at not just young people and families. They want to aim their plays at diverse audiences.
However, since Macbeth is a dark play it would be suitable to aim it at young adults and older adults.
Production Schedule
I will post the production schedule for my group near my deadline date. There will be a slide show of screenshots that show myself and my groups progress for this project.
Below, is a image that shows my production schedule for this project. Once again, I will post all slideshow that shows my groups progress.
Story Boards
Above, you will be able to see my storyboard I did. This storyboard shows me and my teammates vision for our final product. We experimented with this storyboard by doing a test shoot. The candle test shoot can be found on Spencer’s blog.
Prezzi Presentation Link
Above, you will find the link to the presentation I have designed for the pitch to the RSC.
Film Equipment
Below, you will see the equipment myself and Spencer will be using for filming our short trailer.
Equipment we are using
Two JVC 150s
Two Camera Tripods
Back up Equipment
3 Small handheld JVC Cameras
iPhone 7
Motorola G4+
RSC Feedback
On Friday 13th October 2017 Me and Spencer did our pitch to the RSC. I am very happy with my pitch as the clients understood our vision for our product and what we wanted achieve. I felt our presentation went very well and we got our point across to them. For example, they understood what target audience we will be aiming our product at and why we choose our target audience.
Another example, is thinking of how product would appeal to our target audience. We told the client about why decided to make on of the witches male for our trailer. The clients said that we did a lot of research of our target audience and we understand who we are aiming our product at.
The clients gave us feedback on how we should present the trailer and what improvements we should make that will make our final product look at the best to it is.
Feedback points
- Make the title card of our trailer stand out. Eg: film titles
- The witches must strike fear into the audience and be shown as to be powerful.
Audio Track Mindmap
Below, you will be able to see an audio track mind map I have created that shows ideas and considerations of where to put my audio track for my final product.
I have decided that I will be using the Petshop’s It’s a sin because it has a very good musical introduction that will be perfect to put into my title sequence and ending of my trailer.
Risk Assessment
Below, you will see the Risk assessment I have created for our production of our short film trailer.
Sammy Productions 
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