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Contents
1 2015
5
1.1 March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
”The Sa rist Is Not An Easy Man To Live With” (Pollard, A- 1970)- Research Sa re (2015-03-10 18:33)
7
Research//Chris Morris (2015-03-18 11:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
The Origins Of Sa re// Sa re in Poli cs//Dangers of Sa re (2015-03-19 20:16) . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
The Creators// ’The YouTuber’ Documentary (2015-03-28 22:34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
”The Rise Of The Vlogger” (Razzel, 2012) // Research (2015-03-29 12:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
1.2 April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
The Search For Stardom// Treatment// Inﬂuences and Style (2015-04-04 19:12) . . . . . . . . . . .
14
Idea Development- Following Research (2015-04-09 13:46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
Process of Pre-Produc on// Reﬂec on (2015-04-14 00:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
Pre Produc on Folder (2015-04-15 15:28) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1.3 May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
The Search For Stardom- The Shoot Analysis (2015-05-01 01:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
The Edi ng Process// Reﬂec on (2015-05-05 11:55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
What’s Next For Jim Hogan? (2015-05-07 12:41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
”The Final Hurrah” //Reﬂec on on FMP (2015-05-07 17:29) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1.
2015
5
1.1
6
March
”The Sa rist Is Not An Easy Man To Live With” (Pollard, A- 1970)- Research Sa re (2015-03-10 18:33)
When developing my idea from 360MC the workings of sa re was a huge element in taking the project forward. The
ideas intent is to shame the modern online society that has started to take a strangle hold across the globe, by poking
fun at YouTubers. Therefore if I’m going to be able to successfully achieve my intent, then I will have to gain a much
larger understanding of sa re. Throughout this blog post, I shall be looking into the workings of sa re throughout
history and possible ways it can be useful within my work.
The dic onaries deﬁni on of sa re is
1. Sa re is a genre of literature, and some mes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and
shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corpora ons, government
or society itself, into improvement.
”ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corpora ons, government or society itself, into improvement”. The
ﬁnal few words (in bold) are the most important for me personally, due to the subject of my project. In my opinion people are taking unnecessary risks for fame through social media and online pla orms like Facebook, Vine and
YouTube (example in the video below)
h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSt7X32w1LY
Therefore I believe that there may well be a market for a sa rical piece to highlight this issue.
When delving deeper into the workings of sa re it is important to understand that there are diﬀerent areas that
can poten ally be explored and have diﬀerent meanings. As stated by Pollard ”respec vely between the sa ric and
comic and the sa ric and ironic...there is sa ric irony...there is also sa ric comedy”. (Pollard, A- 1970). When crea ng
my piece it is important to diﬀeren ate between the two.
Ironic sa re according to A. Melville Clark is more of a ”tone of sa re” (sited Pollard, A 1970) and occasionally more
”generous and irony that is more serious than sa re” (Pollard, A- 1970). Comparing this to sa ric comedy whereby
”comedy is kindly; it makes fun but it accepts it, it laughs at but also laughs with its bu ”. (Pollard, A- 1970). Therefore
when comparing the two, we can see that ironic sa re has a more serious tone, however comic sa re goes all out and
laughs at not only the subject but itself at the same me. When developing my project, its important i diﬀeren ate
between the two. For me I believe that the sa ric comedy is be er suited to my idea and the mockumentary style
that I’m proposing.
”The most important aspect of sa re is its subject ma er...what sets it apart from other kinds of literature is its
approach to the subject” (Hodgart, M- 2010). What this tell us is that when using sa re, its the topic in ques on that
is the most important aspect that the sa rist. Meaning that to create something that can be seen as successful in
sa rical terms has to stand out from other forms of similar products. When looking at my proposal I believe that this
is an area that I’m well suited in, as I’m exploring an area, that (to my knowledge) is yet to be fully explored.
References
Hodgart, M (2010). Sa re Origins and Principles. New Jersey: Transac on Publishers . 108-109.
Pollard, A (1970). Sa re . London: Methuen. 5-6.
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Research//Chris Morris (2015-03-18 11:01)
When developing my proposal back in 360MC, Chris Morris’ work was a huge inﬂuence on what I felt I could achieve
going forward into my FMP. Throughout his successful career he has used the workings of sa re, however in recent
years he seems to have faded out of the limelight somewhat. As a performer he hasn’t really had a sustained role
since his BrassEye series back in 2001. Since then the mainstream media has been dwindling, as stated by Brian Logan
”...how toothless much mainstream ”sa re” has become...our comedy, and our culture, crave a sa rist with that ﬁre
in his belly, that moral indigna on, that fearlessness and insight.” (2015). This tells us that our current society is crying
out for a sa rist who has no fear in his work, something that aside from comedians like Stewart Lee and Frankie Boylewho has subsequently re red- there has been no one to even take the reigns from Morris.
[embed]h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=304Kj8t8hUs[/embed]
When rela ng my own work to Morris, although I’m not exploring such tence subjects (e.g. paedophillia, terroists),
the relentless nature of his work is something that I want to explore within my FMP. The ever evolving online society
that possesses us is a current aﬀair that aﬀects so many of us and share the views that I have about the never ending
desire for fame. This is the exact reason why there is an opportunity to use this topic in the best way possible- by
laughing at it!
As Morris stated in an interview when talking about a funny story involving Osama Bin Laden ”All those li le stories (referring to stories about Bin Laden) of course make sense once you get over the fact that they’re about the
wrong people”. (Morris, 2013). This tells us that once you forget about how the media perceives a person, that everyone is human. Therefore its an almost certainty that they’ve done something that is accessible to sa re- as Morris
did with the crea on of Four Lions back in 2010.
When applying this to my work and the life of a YouTuber, people see one side of the character once they are on
screen. However its possible that they are living a completely diﬀerent life once they are not recording. Something
that we saw to an extent during the YouTube documentary ’The Creators’ (Burstein, 2015), whereby we see these
huge online stars from a diﬀerent angle and delve a li le more into their backgrounds.
This is something I’m hoping to achieve with my FMP, by exploring the personality of a YouTuber from in front of
the camera and away from it. By taking forward a comic sa rical approach, I’m hoping that i can highlight an current
issue by crea ng a ﬁlm that laughs at itself.
References
Film School Rejects, 2013, Chris Morris Talks Four Lions [Online] [Date Accessed: March 28th] Available at:
h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IR1DF _9pw
Logan, B. (2014 ). Chris Morris: the comeback starts here. Available: h p://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/20/chris-morris-comeback-s tewart-lee-comedy-vehicle. Last accessed 28th March .
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The Origins Of Sa re// Sa re in Poli cs//Dangers of Sa re (2015-03-19 20:16)
With sa re playing such a huge part in the development of ’The Search For Stardom’ it is important to explore the
origins of sa re to gain a greater understanding of the subject in hand.
The origin of sa re ”as a mode of human experience seems to have come out of primi ve magic, ritual and curse.
One of the earliest records of it as sa re–that is sa re iden ﬁed as such–is in Aeschylus’ me (circa 475 BC)” (Gill,NS
2015). This states that the ﬁrst recorded no on of sa re was around the Ancient Greek period in history. However,
the Romans ’oﬃcially’ claimed as ”the Greeks never split sa re oﬀ into its own genre” (Gill, NS, 2015) Sa re, in the
Roman sense ”had a tendency from the beginning towards social cri cism – some of it quite nasty”. (Gill, NS 2015).
Although the Romans claim the origin of sa re, one of the earliest and simplest forms of sa re is present with the
Eskimo song of derision. ”The Eskimo society was un l recently on about the same level as that of the last Stone
Age: it lacked any dis nct system of law, let alone police or magistrates to enforce the law...The Eskimo sa rist has
precisely the same as Alexander Pope, to make ’men not afraid of God afraid of me’” (Hodgart, M 2010). It seems
both Eskimo- although thousands of miles from Roman ruling both have fairly ’nasty’ forms of sa re and actually used
against diﬀerent forms of society, rather than the wider range of topics we see today (e.g. Poli cs, sexual rela ons
bad manners etc.) As stated by Hodgart who when discussing the Eskimo song ”The chief means of punishing bad
social behaviour is by the sa rical song, which makes the delinquent hang his head in shame”. (Hodgart 2010) This
tells us that in past mes sa re was used for a tool against the lower classes to stay in line and not to distruct the
hierarchy.
This brings me onto the topics of sa re and the eﬀects it has on its subjects, ”Samuel Johnson once stated that ’Public
aﬀairs vex no man’, but he could not have been more wrong: to some degree public aﬀairs vex every man, if he pays
his taxes, does military service or even objects to the way his neighbour is behaving...there is an essen al connec on
between sa re and poli cs”.(Hodgart,M 2010) It is seen throughout poli cs that sa re has aﬀected establishments
and its people. In Britain it ﬁrst came about in the 18th Century as cartoonists fought with each other regarding two
sides of the House of Commons- a form of sa re that is s ll present within the print media today. Sa re has had
some serious eﬀects on poli cal ﬁgures throughout me; some it has helped, some it has hindered. As we can see
with Boris Johnson, who ﬁrst appeared on sa rical TV show Have I Got News For You back in 1998 before he was an
MP. ”But even once he entered professional poli cs Boris con nued to appear on the show, reaching high oﬃce by
becoming Mayor of London in 2008.”(Khorsandi,S 2015) This proves that the use of sa re can have a strong inﬂuence
on the public and how ﬁgures are portrayed.
As seen in recent mes being a sa rist can also be a dangerous job, with the Charile Hebdo shoo ngs in Paris earlier this year. As to diﬀerent religions and socie es ’comedy sa re’ can be taken in many diﬀerent ways- such as
threats to their forms of power.
Khorsandi, S. (2015). What Is Sa re. Available: h p://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqpr4wx. Last accessed 2nd April .
Hodgart, M (2010). Sa re Origins and Principles. New Jersey: Transac on Publishers . 108-109.
Gill, NS . (). Roots Of Sa re. Available: h p://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/la nliterature/a/rootsofsa re.h tm. Last
accessed 1st April 2015.
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The Creators// ’The YouTuber’ Documentary (2015-03-28 22:34)
[embed]h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oru DBLK8A[/embed]
Whilst in the pre produc on stage of The Search For Stardom it came to my a en on that there was a documentary coming out on YouTube based around some of the biggest UK Youtubers currently in the global eye.
With the proposal being a mockumentary based around the life of a YouTuber, i thought it would be wise to check
out the documentary to see whether or not I could delve a li le deeper into the life of a YouTuber and possibly gain
any possible ideas in the process.
The one observa on that stood out to me most was the fact that two of the main subjects had both gone through
depression and mental issues, eﬀected or caused by the pressure of ’YouTubing’. This is something that interested
me, as I always thought that people only do Youtubing for the enjoyment and fame. However it actually seems that
this is someone’s livelihood and without it would have nothing.
This has deﬁnitely given me something to think about when developing my FMP idea and the obsession that YouTubers have with their profession, so much so that its aﬀec ng their health. And also is relevant to the ques on i asked
in my 306MC presenta on, just how far will people go for online fame?
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”The Rise Of The Vlogger” (Razzel, 2012) // Research (2015-03-29 12:17)
With the en rety of my proposal based around the life of a Youtuber, I thought it would be wise to look into the origins
of the Youtuber and the evolu on of the ’online celebrity’.
At just 9 years old YouTube is the 3rd largest site in the world (according to Alexa.com) and over the last 3/4 years the
emergence of the ’vlogger’ has been an unstoppable one.
”It is easy to mock this new form of stardom as something ﬂimsy. But this is to forget the long history of celebries whose column inches rested on no discernible skill – from the previous decade of reality TV stars”. (Wallop, 2014).
What this tells us is that the online star has taken over from the reality star at the start of the last decade. Stars like
Jade Goody, who were made by Big Brother are now emerging from YouTube as well. However it would be harsh
to label these online celebri es as talentless as stated by Dr James Benne , head of media arts at Royal Holloway,
University of London, who says: “People like PewDiePie, Alﬁe and Zoella (All YouTubers) are very skilful at using social
media. They are good at telling stories. They are good at crea ng a new form of in macy and interac on with fans
that is diﬀerent from the Hollywood model of celebrity.” (sited- Wallop, 2014) This tells us that in fact, successful
Youtubers have actually shown how talented they are by ﬁnding an audience and s cking to them. Some have got
best selling books and fashion lines, I think showing that they’re not just some fool sat in front of a camera. I think
it also shows just how hard it is to be a success at this industry, with some uploading videos every day, as well as
star ng their own business ventures we see thats its not an easy job to be at the top of the ladder.
When applying this to my proposal for my FMP, I think its important to understand that, becoming a success at vlogging isn’t easy. YouTubers fan bases have taken years to expand to the point where they at the point to release books
etc. This is where I think my idea works, by following a ’wannabe’ YouTuber Jim Hogan and his neglect for the me it
takes to become an online celebrity.
However, my idea is to highlight the nega ve aspects that these new celebri es have had on ’up and coming’ YouTubers and there constant despera on to get views in videos- at all costs! (as seen below).
[embed]h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Hiat8szdg[/embed]
From a personal point of view it’s an important issue that is fairly untouched in the media, so hopefully i can be
one of the ﬁrst to explore this issue.
References
Razzell, K. (2012). The Rise Of The Vlogger. Available: h p://www.channel4.com/news/the-rise-of-the-vloggers. Last
accessed 4th April.
Wallop, H. (2014 ). Alﬁe Deyes, PewDiePie, Tavi Gevinson: the unstoppable rise of the social superstars.
Available: h p://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/11116284/Alﬁe-De yes-PewDiePie-Tavi-Gevinsonthe-unstoppable-rise-of-the-social-sup erstars.html. Last accessed 4th April.
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1.2
April
13
The Search For Stardom// Treatment// Inﬂuences and Style (2015-04-04 19:12)
Having submi ed my proposal back in 360MC, one of the ﬁrst steps to take is to write a treatment to go with the
script. A treatment is a more descrip ve way of showing how the ﬁlm is, including possible shots and styles that will
be used during the ﬁlm. There are 4 main sequences for the ﬁlm which are; the interview, the YouTube sequence,
observa onal documentary style and
An out of focus shot MS reveals Jim Hogan slumped in a chair on a roof top, the camera struggles to ﬁnd focus and
scans the horizon revealing a number of busy crew members fran cally running around. The shot ends as the camera
eventually ﬁnds Jim in focus.
All interview sec ons will be framed similarly to The Oﬃce (2001)
TILES: The Search for Stardom fades onto the screen.
Jim Hogans Youtube page suddenly appears on screen, with the video tled ’Hello Internet’ playing. The sequence
will be MS with Jim looking at the camera involving a number of jump cuts, un l the shot comes to a snappy end. (1)
The Youtube sec ons will all be shot following the normal ’vlogger’ conven ons of MS with the subject in the middle
of the screen looking directly into the camera
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A wide shot of Jims house fades into shot, a slow glide greets us as we slowly move into the front door, Jims silhoue e appears behind the glass door. The door slowly creeps open as the camera stops gliding in and ﬁnishes at a
MS.
We see a close up of the door as it swings open to reveal a CU of Jims face as he looks out onto the street. It cuts to
inside the house as a MS of Jim as he closes the door. A long tracking shot follows Jim around the house all framed as
a MS constantly behind him, the camera stops into the doorway of the oﬃce as we observe take a seat into his chair.
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Long tracking shot was inspired by the opening shot in The Place Beyond The Pines (2012, Cianfrance)
A YouTube screen once again appears on screen as a similar sequence (as 1) is revealed again, with jump cuts and an
sudden ending.
The same interview sequence from the start of the ﬁlm, with Jim slumped in his chair as a MS.
The same following style as seen in the ﬁrst tracking shot.
With the script based around 3 types of sequences- Interview, Youtube and Observa onal documentary style. All
will be fairly similarly shot. In terms of the ﬁlm, the content is the most important aspect, with the footage taking
care of itself in many areas.
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Idea Development- Following Research (2015-04-09 13:46)
Following on from my research into aspects that may well aﬀect the outcome of my ﬁlm, throughout this post I shall
be looking at the development of my idea and my process going forward from now on.
Firstly the idea is fundamentally the same as it was back in the ﬁrst proposal back in 360MC. Whereby it shall be
a 10 minute mockumentary following the life of ’wannabe’ online celebrity Jim Hogan.
However the genre has slightly changed. Before, I felt that it should be more in the style of Sacha Baron Cohen’s
work in Borat. Where its a fairly lighthearted comedy. But in ’The Search For Stardom’ I feel a darker comedy would
be more suitable in highligh ng the issues surrounding the online celebrity and asking the ques on just how far will
people go for a slice of the fame pie? My project will now be more similar to the workings of Chris Morris instead
of Cohen, as the more extreme workings of sa re within Morris’ work could have the poten al to work within my
proposal be er due to his darker nature, rather than the more lighthearted workings of Cohen.
Also having watched the short documentary ’The Creators’(Burstein,2015) has opened my eyes to behind the lives
of YouTubers more and the frail es that they have on the other side of the camera- something that I’m looking at
including within my ﬁlm. Its also helped with the character development of Jim Hogan, as before I was looking at him
being a heartless bastard. But now I feel that the audience should have access to a so er side of Jim, possibly in a
shocking revela on.
Reﬂec ng on the research process has re-instated by desire to make this ﬁlm and also the reasons behind crea ng it.
I feel that this is a perfect opportunity to be able to make something that cri ques the evolving online world that we
live in. On a personal level I’m hoping that this ﬁlm highlights the never ending desire that some people in society
have for fame.
The primary research has also helped me understand that there is a market, although I wish I had a more extensive amount of primary research to analyse, the small number of people I’ve talked to responded posi vely to the
proposal. As well as the test shoot that I submi ed for 360MC , which was well received across a number of diﬀerent
social media pla orms.
Overall the research has deﬁnitely helped and in some cases change my outlook on the project. Although I wish I
had created a larger spectrum of primary research, possibly do a large online poll to see whether or not the YouTube
community would be interested in my idea.
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Process of Pre-Produc on// Reﬂec on (2015-04-14 00:12)
Throughout this post I shall be reﬂec ng on the pre produc on aspect of the produc on, with shoo ng about to
begin, I think it would be wise to summarise the posi ve and nega ve outcomes of pre produc on and my hopes for
the up and coming shoot.
At the beginning of the pre produc on process, I was s ll having doubts about what idea I wanted to take forward. On one hand was ’The Search For Stardom’, but I was having reserva ons about where I wanted to go with the
project, having worked on the idea since September I felt like I needed a new challenge. The one issue was, that I
had no back up idea however a er a mee ng with my tutor she reassured me to s ck with the original idea and try
and gain some sort of mo va on with it.
With her words fresh in my mind I a empted to create a diﬀerent adapta on of the original idea, although
slightly far fetched this idea did at least help me gain some understanding as to what was possible with this character
(1st dra of script below).
The Search For Stardom.1st Dra pdf
Having created the ﬁrst dra , it opened my eyes to the endless possibili es of Jim Hogan. However, it was
quickly evident that the budget would not cover this version of the script, but this dra was more to fall back in love
with the idea.
Having ﬁnally stuck on an idea, I then proceed in gaining a lead role to play the character of Jim Hogan. As
stated in my cas ng post, we had some huge issues to overcome, with my 1st choice actor dropping out just a week
before shoo ng was set to begin. With such a huge issue happening so close to shoo ng, I felt proud with how
I reacted, as I professionally managed to dra in my second choice with li le drama or fuss. My professionalism
throughout this phase has shown just how I’ve developed as a media professional in the past three years of studying,
as a couple of years ago, I don’t believe I would’ve acted in the same way.
Script development was also a key element regarding the process of the produc on, I contemplated a few different ways to take the project. With the original idea script being rather ambi ous- in terms of budget. I felt that by
down scaling it in terms of produc on value would allow the content of the script to be the key aspect of the ﬁlm.
Therefore I changed the narra ve to suit a more realis c budget, by just including two main loca ons. However in
this process it was important not to lose the quality within the narra ve, something that I think I’ve achieved within
the ﬁnal dra of the script (below).
THE SEARCH FOR STARDOM-ﬁnal
Loca on scou ng was always going to be a massively important aspect of the ﬁlm, originally due to the idea
at the me, I was going to need around 10 loca ons (see ﬁrst dra of script). However due to this not being
par cularly feasible due to budget I had, I had to change the project to a more realis c target. With the ﬁnal dra of
the script produced, it turned out that permission was needed for just two loca ons. Required was a roof-top of some
sort and a fairly normal family home- that preferably had wide open spaces due to the ease of ﬁlming without being
in enclosed areas. Firstly I tried ge ng loca ons from online, on the website h p://www.ukﬁlmloca on.com/searchloca ons/search/result s with the inten on of ﬁnding a roo op and family home. A er reﬁning my search, I came
across a number of loca ons that I felt from ﬁrst glance looked suitable (see pictures below).
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A er making enquiries from around the dates we were looking at ﬁlming on, there seemed to be a lack of
contact from the site. Having also tried contac ng their phone number, there seemed to be li le progress from even
ge ng the chance of doing a loca on recce. Having waited a couple of weeks I decided to move onto other op ons
by using a few friends and other contacts we managed to secure two ideal loca ons for the produc on. The roo op
was secured through a verbal agreement through a friend’s friend who works at a rather quiet carpark in the town of
Nuneaton. The family home loca on was agreed through my friends family home, that really was perfect in terms of
what was needed for the narra ve. Overall I’m fairly happy with the loca on process, as I feel that I changed plans
at the correct me as I felt that ﬁnding a loca on through the website didn’t seem to be going anywhere (I’m s ll yet
to receive a reply), so instead of was ng anymore me I moved onto other op ons. Which looking back on it now
seems like a wise decision.
In conclusion I felt that the pre produc on process was a fairly successful, with all major issues like cas ng
and loca ons overcome in a professional manner.
20
Pre Produc on Folder (2015-04-15 15:28)
Call Sheet- Thursday
Call Sheet- Friday
ACTOR RELEASE TSFS
CREW INFO SHEET- TSFS
Shot List- Thursday
Shot List- Friday
Shoo ng-Schedule
THE SEARCH FOR STARDOM-EDIT (1)
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1.3
22
May
The Search For Stardom- The Shoot Analysis (2015-05-01 01:54)
With ﬁlming completed, throughout this post I shall be looking into the outcome of the shoot across the two days.
Thursday 16th April
On the ﬁrst of the two day shoot, the weather was something that we needed to have a look at before shooting anything. With the schedule sta ng all of the outside scenes, we were praying that the rain would stay away.
Fortunately it did and we were able to proceed with ﬁlming as planned. We started by ﬁlming all of the diﬃcult
tracking shots from the roo op, although a me draining process, it was deﬁnitely a worthwhile one. With the shots
looking fantas c when having a quick glance through a er takes.
On the Thursday there weren’t really any major issues to overcome, as all crew and cast seemed to seemingless pull in the same direc on, something as a director that I’m extremely proud of seeing.
There was one slight issue which was the lack of public passers by when ﬁlming in Warwick, as we were hoping to have a shot in a bustling town, however I think we may have missed the busy period in the day. As when
we arrived at around 6pm most shops were shut and possible passer bys have le the town centres high street.
Because of this result we decided to think on our feet and make a slight script change, resul ng in the footage that
we collected s ll making sense within the overall narra ve.
When looking back on the ﬁrst day of ﬁlming, I felt it pre y much went as well as it could’ve gone, with just a
couple of small issues to overcome. As well as gaining a large amount of great footage that has a huge impact on the
ﬁlm.
Friday 17th April
23
On the second and ﬁnal day of ﬁlming we immediately ran into an issue regarding the sound. For the ﬁrst
take of the day, the riﬂe mic seemed to be faulty. Having changed the ba eries, there was s ll no pick up from the
mic. Fortunately one of the crew members- James had his personal mic on his possession, resul ng in the rest of the
ﬁlm being recorded on his microphone. Although not a huge issue, it did result with the boom pole now being out of
ac on as James’ mic only clipped onto the camera. Luckily there weren’t any shots that were hugely aﬀected as the
sound was always suﬃcient in all ﬁles.
Aside from this once again the day went rather smoothly, the only other issue was me as we only had the loca on un l 6pm, resul ng in a couple of the last shots being a slightly rushed process, something that if I were to ﬁlm
again, I would make sure that I had suﬃcient me for all shots, as the pressure involved was slightly uncomfortable,
even though there was no visible eﬀects of that me restraint.
Overall I was very pleased with the outcome of the two shoo ng days, with all issues overcome successfully
as possible, as well as achieving everything we set out to do each day during the shoo ng schedule. Something that
was made possible by all the cast and crew’s professionalism and eﬃciency throughout the two days.
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The Edi ng Process// Reﬂec on (2015-05-05 11:55)
Having completed shoo ng, it was now me to begin the edi ng process.
The ﬁrst task was to sync all the sound ﬁles as we’d decided to record the audio through a riﬂe microphone
a ached to an edirol, resul ng in having separate video and sound ﬁles. This was a rather ﬁddly and lengthy process,
something that I’d rather avoided doing. This could possibly be something that I would look at changing if I were
going to create this project again, by ﬁnding a diﬀerent source of sound that wouldn’t require syncing at the start of
the edit.
With the sound eventually all synced it was me to start the edit, this process was a fairly easy one, with all
the required shots present and no really sound issues either. Therefore the edit went fairly swimmingly, un l
comple ng the ﬁrst dra . Where a er a mee ng with my tutor we realised that there was an issue with the script,
rather than the edit itself. It seemed that the mood change of Jim towards the end of the script came out of the blue
and an extra scene or two would be needed in between to allow the narra ve to make sense.
There was also an issue with context within some shots, something that we agreed would probably be helped
by a voice over, just to reinstate the ’mockumentary’ style that I was a emp ng to create.
With these two problems highlighted, I had to quickly move forward with a resolu on. With our actor unavailable, I decided to add a scene including a number of crew members searching for Jim Hogan. A er recording and
adding it into the edit, I felt it deﬁnitely added to the narra ve, although its not par cularly something that I would
want to go through again.
If I were to shoot again next me I would have the script properly probed by professional script editors. As I
was the only one who saw the script before ﬁlming began, when really I think it needed another pair of eyes to look
through it, just to make sure the narra ve made sense. Also this resulted in me having to step in and star within the
produc on- again something I would’ve liked to have avoided seeing as I’m not a professional actor.
However it was yet another couple of obstacles that were overcome with the result of a pre y decent ﬁnal
edit. There are always going to be aspects that I felt I should’ve done diﬀerently- regarding the script etc. But overall
I felt that the produc on and overall edit of this project went well, with a ﬁnal piece of work to be happy with.
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With the edit completed, it was now me to create a one minute trailer for the ﬁlm. With the length of the
ﬁlm being just over 10 minutes, I felt that it was important not to give too much away, but also make the audience
really stand up and take no ce. Therefore inspired by YouTube channel Screen Junkies, I decided to embark on
crea ng an ’Honest Trailer’ for the ﬁlm. By doing so I feel that it shows what genre the ﬁlm is (comedy) but at the
same me, keep most of the narra ve under wraps.
[embed]h ps://vimeo.com/126913315[/embed]
26
What’s Next For Jim Hogan? (2015-05-07 12:41)
The distribu on of the ﬁlm is going to be a hugely important aspect as although its fundamentally for a University
project, I would like a much larger audience to see my work across the country and even the globe.
Firstly I looked into some suitable ﬁlm fes vals that I’m considering placing The Search For Stardom into;
Based in Chicago, The Laugh or Die Comedy Fest would deﬁnitely be suitable for The Search For Stardom as
its dedicated to to Independent Comedy Films, Comedians and Comedy Art & Entertainment of all types! Entry fee:
£20
Entry Fee: £50
A more local op on would be the Coventry Film Fes val, having only been held for just 2 years, it’s deﬁnitely
an easy way of ge ng the local popula on to see the ﬁlm. Entry Fee: £30
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Entry Fee: £40
Entry fee: £25
With fes vals being a certaindy, I was also wondering about what else I could poten ally do with the ﬁlm besides just releasing it to the public online, where probably just friends and family would see it anyway. Thinking
bigger, due to the strong YouTube links the ﬁlm has, I was thinking about contac ng some Youtubers who have a
fairly big audience and asking them to possibly promote the ﬁlm on there channel. Doing this would give the ﬁlm a
lot more coverage, with some huge audiences ﬂocking online to see their favourite YouTubers. Therefore even if one
of them just men oned it in a bio it could raise a lot more interest in the ﬁlm.
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”The Final Hurrah” //Reﬂec on on FMP (2015-05-07 17:29)
With the edit completed and the overall comple on of this module very close indeed, in my ﬁnal post I’m going to
be looking back at the en re process of this produc on and what changes I would make if I could go over and do the
en re process again- all the way from the origins of the idea- to the ﬁnal edit here today.
Firstly I’m going to look way back to October 2014 where the origins of the idea that was to become The
Search For Stardom began. It started with me, rather ironically poking fun at YouTubers- through a YouTube video.
[embed]h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwqjmlPssw0[/embed]
Looking back, I would’ve never had thought that I’d create an en re short ﬁlm for my FMP that was based on
a 1.30 video, that was eﬀec vely me having a laugh.
But since then the idea developed and ﬂourished into the product that it is today, something that has both
surprised me- as I never thought I would have gone through with that idea, and also incredibly proud seeing as I’ve
managed to write, produce and direct my own short ﬁlm- again something I thought would never happen.
A er being given the go ahead on my idea back in January, it was the ﬁrst and only point in the produc on
where I really didn’t feel that this was the right idea to take forward. At the me I felt that it was a bit of a gimmick
and something that wouldn’t be taken seriously going forward into the working world a er University. But a er
conversa ons with my tutor, I agreed to take the project forward into my FMP. Something when looking back,
that I’m glad I did as star ng a new idea from scratch at that stage of the year, wouldn’t really have been feasible,
especially considering I didn’t even have any other backup ideas at the me.
Having ﬁnalised an idea it was now me for the research process of the produc on. This is really the area
that I feel I should’ve improved. As although I delved into Chris Morris and the new arrival of the online celebrity, I
feel that I could’ve looked more into key thinkers, within areas of sa re and the wri ng of comedy. Doing this could
have helped me during the scriptwri ng stage of the produc on and could’ve avoided script issues that I had later
on in the project. Another area I wish I’d looked into more, was the audience that I was aiming this ﬁlm at. Because
although it’s based around YouTube and vlogging- something that has huge appeal to the younger teenagers. Some
of the topics that are seen within the ﬁlm aren’t really suitable for this age group. Something I may well have found
out, if I’d researched a li le deeper into the poten al audience.
With the research completed, I moved onto the pre produc on phase of script wri ng, loca on scou ng and
cas ng.
Firstly when looking back at the script wri ng phase, I feel that I possibly rushed the process and neglected a
few elements of the narra ve when wri ng. Because of this I ran into issues that were only discovered in the edi ng
process, which resulted in having to ﬁlm extra scenes just a week before the deadline. This is something that I would
never let happen again if I were to write and produce my own produc on again. Next me I would aim to get another
set of eyes to look over the script before I’d ﬁnalised it and sent it oﬀ to poten al cast. At least then I would have
me to make crucial changes before the shoo ng process had begun.
Aside from the script, I’m fairly happy with my decision making in other areas, such as the loca on scou ng,
when I realised that securing a loca on through a website wasn’t going places, I decided to take it into my own hands
and use some of my contacts to gain suitable loca ons for the shoot.
I also had pre y major issues in the cas ng process with my ﬁrst choice actor (Jonney Clarke) becoming unavailable just a week before the dates of produc on. However I felt that I acted in a very professional manner when
29
trying to resolve the issue. Instead of having a meltdown I calmly got hold of our 2nd choice- William Turner Roden,
fortunately he was available resul ng with the produc on ge ng back on track. In the end everything worked out
perfectly because I felt that Will put in a fantas c performance throughout and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other
way.
A er ba ling through a few issues throughout pre produc on, it was me for the shoot, with all paperwork
completed. Me and my three crew members; James Pon n (Sound), Joel Davidson (Cinematography) and Grant
Snaith (1st AD) embarked on the ﬁrst day of shoot on loca on on a roo op in Nuneaton. Surprisingly the day went
smoothly as we eﬃciently slogged through the shot list with fantas c results. That was the story of the two day
shoot really, with both crew and cast coming together and working perfectly in sync to get the results we wanted.
With the edit now complete and the ﬁnal version ready to be uploaded, I feel I can look back upon this project with
great pride and be pleased how I handed a number of diﬀerent situa ons. The script may not have been at the
level it possibly could’ve been, but I feel that it’s a mistake that I shall never do again. Saying this, I s ll feel that I’ve
created a professional piece to be happy with and a ﬁlm that I can take forward into the working world.
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Edited: May 8, 2015