PRE-PRODUCTION BOOKLET
CHARACTER PROFILES
JAKE BECKETT
WILL ANDERSON
AUDITIONS
WILL ANDERSON AND JAKE BECKETT
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Hamza Paweez and Luke Dixon
This is the audition of Hamza Paweez and Luke Dixon who are auditioning for the role of Jake Beckett and young Will Anderson. I thought this audition was one of the best auditions I had received. There are many reasons for this, one being both people audition were off script even though I said they didn’t have to be. This shows to me that they are really interested in the production and really want to be apart of it, shown through their dedication. This also made the scene flow better and appear more natural on camera. Another reason for this audition working well was due to the actors on screen chemistry, this is down to the fact that both actors are very comfortable acting with each other due to working with each other previously. I really liked the way they interacted with each other and it followed a similar relationship I want the characters of Will and Jake to share. I didn’t give the actors any context surrounding the scene due to wanting to know how they would interpret the scene or how they would act as that said character. Luke Dixon who was auditioning for the role of Will Anderson played the character exactly how I wanted it, he was vulnerable and weak. Hamza Paweez who is auditioning for Jake Beckett, he played the stronger confident character which was exactly how I wanted it to be done. Though I would of liked him to push a bit further a be more confident with it. But with a bit of direction these two would make the perfect fit for the characters I want to ca |
Sam Colledge and Owen Feetham
In this audition Sam Colledge auditioned for the role of Jake Beckett and Owen Feetham auditioned for Will Anderson. I thought this was a successful audition due to both actor speaking clearly with good projection in their voices, this will be beneficial because I wanted to film outside for some scene and their voice may be lost in the open space. I also liked the fact that they didn’t race through their lines, they took time with each line which is because I want the scene to be more lengthy and dramatic. Even though there was many aspects of this audition which were successful I thought it wasn’t the best audition for example due to the actors not completely knowing the lines they didn’t act physically through the use of body movement and gesture because they were focusing on reading the lines. This made the scene flat and lacking in energy which is needed in scenes with lengthy dialogue to keep the audiences attention. Another thing which wasn’t very good with the audition was their voices lacked emotion, they sounded like they were reading the script for the first line and didn’t understand the meaning and feeling behind each line. This is what would make the scene more realistic and engaging to watch. I want my audience to align with these characters and if they lack in emotion people aren’t going to be able to understand them. Overall, I don’t think I will cast these two for the roles within the film. . |
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Alex Bristow
This is Alex Bristow audition for the role of Jake Beckett. I thought this audition was successful mainly due to how Alex used his voice within the audience. His voice is very deep which in itself draws attention to him. This also means he has loud projection and has a lot of authority when he speaks. This is very important for the role of Jake Beckett as his character is supposed to be very confident and powerful. Alex didn’t know the lines off by heart to be completely off script, yet I didn’t ask them to be, but the fact that he knew his line moderately well shows to be me that he committed to the production and wants to be apart of it and when he is apart of it he will work professionally. I thought his facial expressions were good however could have been improved and had more to them. Yet, I do understand that he was performing alone without anyone to play the role of Will Anderson. I thought Alex was really good at acting but I don’t think he is suited for the role of Jake Beckett. However, I do think he would make a really good award presenter in the film. This is because of his deep authorative voice which would work at announcing a winner of an award. |
AWARD ANNOUNCER
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Charlotte Harper
This is Charlotte Harper auditioning for the role of the award announcer/Rebecca Newman. Charlotte’s audition went very successfully. This was due to her clear delivery of lines and her loud projection in her voice. I think Charlotte was good in the scene as she made sure her voice was heard and demanded attention with it, this is exactly what is needed of somebody presenting an award. However, even though her voice was heard it did lack emotion within the scene, if she had given a bit more emotion the audition would of come across more engaging for the audience to watch. Charlotte didn’t physically act, using gestures or body movement due to reading the lines of the script thus meaning we didn’t get to see her full potential. If she knew her lines a bit better she would be able to act them out a bit more. Another aspect which puts he off casting Charlotte for the role is the fact she looks to young for the role. Considering the role is supposed to be played by someone who is in her early twenties on camera this is hard to believe completely. |
Grace David
This is Grace David’s audition for the role of the award announcer/ Rebecca Newman. I thought Grace was really good in audition because he is looking the part of the award announcer in terms of age and her adult like mannerisms. Alongside this she acted well in her audition for example when saying her lines she spoke slowly which drew attention to what she was saying. Grace also annunciate the words she was saying to fully get the message across. Grace had really good expression on her face which really sold the line to the audience. However, due to not knowing the line Grace couldn’t use her body as much when saying the lines this meant she couldn’t fully get into characters and relax with what she was saying. Overall, the audition went well. |
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Jemimah Newman-Smith
This is Jemimah Newman-Smith’ audition for the role of the award announcer/ Rebecca Newman. This audition with Jemimah was successful due to Jemimah speaking clearly and slowly which meant she executed her lines flawlessly so people could understand her. I also thought that Jemimah in terms of looks fitted the role perfectly due to being similar age to the character in which she was playing. Thus meaning the scene would make sense and be realistic on screen. However, in the script given to Jemimah there was some big words within it, which when she auditioned she stumbled over them because they were difficult to say and also because she hadn’t properly learnt the lines completely prior to the audition. This meant her audition was thrown a bit as she was focusing more on the words rather then the acting part of it all. Yet, I did take it into consideration that the words were difficult to say and people will find it challenging to say them. |
Natasha Trott
This is Natasha Trott’s audition for the role of the award announcer/ Rebecca Newman. I thought Natasha’s audition was the best audition out of all the award announcer auditions this is due to her ticking all the boxes. For example, Natasha looked the perfect age for the role which meant she would look realistic on screen playing the role. Due to her LAMDA training Natasha spoke clearly and with good projection within her scene. Natasha knew the words for her audition which meant she could focus on facial expressions and the gestures she did when acting rather then just the lines themselves. Overall, this makes Natasha a solid candidate for the role of Rebecca Newman and the award announcer. |
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My final decision for the cast in my short film 'The Acceptance Speech' is Luke and Hamza playing the roles of young Will Anderson and Jake Beckett. I thought these two actors would be great role due to their on screen chemistry and the way in which they interpreted the scene suggests to me that they understand the characters and how to play them correctly. I was originally going to cast my friends to play the roles however by hiring actors who have worked with professional companies I will achieve the good quality acting which is seen within psychological drama short films. The other actor in which I decided to give the role too for the role of the award announcer was Natasha Trott. I really liked Natasha's scene in which she performed in her audition tape. Se
ACTOR PROFILES
CONVERSATION WITH ACTORS
Luke Dixon
Hamza Parweez
Alex Bristow
TEST SHOOTS
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This is the first test shoot I did for my film ‘The Acceptance Speech’. In the video as you can see I am experimenting with different lighting to see which lighting looks best and works best for my film. I used different methods to get lighting which looks good for example I used the natural lighting within the room, which was very dark so wouldn’t work. I also used my camera mounted light to see how this looked within shots. I messed around with the brightness levels in order to see what level the lighting look the best as, not too dark but not too harsh either. Overall, I found doing this test shoot helpful as it helped me to uncover how I was going to film the award ceremony scene with my actors and when I get to my filming date.
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This is the second test shoot in which I did for my short film ‘The Acceptance Speech’. Due to filming a lot of scenes outside I wanted to practice with outside lighting. I used a light reflector in order to bounce the natural sunlight onto my actress’s face to give her more light which makes the shot look better and also my actress. Overall, I thought this test shoots was successful as I was able to practice using this technique and catching the light. The only issue with this is because there was over cast during some of the time we were filming I couldn’t get as much light onto the light reflector to bounce onto my actress’s face. This could be the same when filming so if there isn’t enough sunlight in the sky to use this technique I could use a camera mounted light instead to get more light into the shot.
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ROUGH EDIT
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This is the rough draft of the first edit of my film. I have created a rough draft of my film in order to get an idea of what the film will look like once its all put together. Another reason being is getting advice of other people surrounding what should be improved, what’s good or what needs to go. This gives me time to improve my film and make it the best version it could be. I have created a survey in which I have sent around to the target audience of my short film, the survey has questions surrounding the first draft. Basically, its my way of retrieving information and opinions of people to improve my film. Here are the results in which I accumulated:
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FEED BACK ON FIRST DRAFT
For the first question about my first draft of my short film I asked, ‘What do you like most about my production so far’. I got mixed results, which is good news to me as it shows that my film has succeeded in many areas and has a variety of reason to why it’s the level it is. One person commented on the ‘happy montage’ at the end of the film, this is basically a montage of my two characters friendship growing. I am glad this is something that stands out in the film as this section of the film I spent the most time and effort into whilst editing. I am going to try and get the rest of the film up to this standard for it to all look good. Two people spoke about the location of the award ceremony, one person saying, ‘I really like the locations you used in your film, especially the award ceremony one’. This is good news to hear as I went to immense effort in order for this location to look realistic due to not having the budget to hire out an avenue with a similar backdrop.
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Another response in which I received was saying they really liked the storyline and how it is all constructive together as well as the acting. This is valuable feedback to receive as I spent a lot of my time when making this film focusing on finding the perfect actors for the roles. I auditioned many actors and even contacted professional drama companies in which I could use for my film. This meant that I had a lot of variety and choice when it came to pick my actors, I picked my actors mainly due to the on-screen chemistry that they had which thus makes the scene flow more naturally and allow the audience to really invest themselves into these characters. Overall, the feedback in which I have received is allowed me to focus on what’s good about my production and thus meaning I can identify the weaker aspects. This means I know where to spend extra time fixing in my second draft of my short film.
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A lot of my feedback was to do with sound, this varied from bad quality where you were unable to hear dialogue in specific scenes to the lack of sound made the scene appear awkward and have less emotion behind them. To solve this issue, I will watch my film throughout and see what specific type of music I will be needing in different places. For example, the happy scene will need more upbeat and jolly music whereas when something bad happens I could focus more on violin and piano music. I think this will make the scene more dramatic and emotional to watch and thus get the better reaction out of the audience.
Another person said that I needed to fix the ‘sad montage’ as the clips were randomly placed within that segment of the film and didn’t draw any effect due to just being placed without much thought. One of the biggest issues surrounding this was I hadn’t found any good music which would align with the ‘sad montage’ when editing so I couldn’t edit the footage to anything. To solve this issue I will look up different music online or even looking into purchasing music in order to make sure it suites the scene. When I have my music, I will edit the montage together in order for it to work really effectively and look really good on screen. |
For the second question within my survey I asked, ‘What needs to be improved in my films?’ this is vital question for improving my film as I will be able to identify what didn’t work and be able to hear people’s opinions who have watched the film for the first time. One of my first response talked about atmosphere, this person said, ‘I think in the first scene there should be a crowd talking sound effect and people clapping/cheering when the award announcer is called on stage’. This is a clever idea as I want to create the illusion to the audience that the first scene is set at an award ceremony where many people are. By adding in these sound effects in it will make the scene more realistic and thus flow much better. I will create these sound effects through Foley and add them in the second draft of the film. Another point someone made was that there was a random gap within the film where footage wasn’t placed. This gap lasted around five seconds along which is a very long time for nothing to appear in this time. I think when editing I accidentally left a gap where footage would have been, and a scene would of occurred. To solve this problem I will go back through footage and identify what is missing in this gap and uncover it.
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For the third question within my survey I asked, ‘What do you think was the best aspect of my film’. The response for this question was very mixed as many people voted on different things. This is good as it shows that I am rounded in what was good within my film, yet it does show that everything has room for improvement. The most popular response was ‘acting’ in which 40% of people asked said this was the best aspect. The second most popular response was editing in which 30% of people voted for, thirdly was cinematography which 20% of people for and finally was sound that 10% voted for. This shows to me that I was good at casting for the film and the scenes in which the actors did a lot of dialogue worked well. However, this does show me that I need to improve on the sound within my film as this was the least popular aspect of my film. I could do this by following the advice given from the previous question.
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This is the results for the question 'What do you think was the worst aspect of my film' I got a very one sided response with this question within the survey. The most popular response was sound, in which 70% asked voted for. This was probably due to my film having next to nothing sound within it as it was the rough first draft of the film. However, I do know how to fix this issue and get my film looking better. I received a lot of feedback about my film for example making audio louder in specific areas and adding sound effects in. The second most popular response was cinematography in which 20% of people voted on. I think this was due to some shots being shaky and out of focus. To solve this I will use warp stabilizer in post-production in order to even out the shots and make them appear smoother and more cinematic. The next popular aspect was editing, in which 10% of people voted for. However, I am sure I will improve my editing techniques when it comes to focusing more on the intranet details rather than simply putting the footage in chronological order.
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For question five I asked my target audience to rate my editing so far. This averaged out as two and half stars. Now, this is quite low which suggest to me that there is a lot room for improvement. I haven’t actually been able to show off all my editing techniques or been able to show what I want my film to look like yet. As for the first draft I was just placing all my clips in chronological order, no sound effect, no added music and no special effects, straight up the roar film. This is probably what the editing isn’t as good as it could be. However, I have done lots of research into different techniques I can use for editing in which will help to improve the film completely.
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For question six I asked the question ‘ Do you think I have achieved my idea’ 90% of people asked in the question said I had achieved my idea where as the other 10% said I hadn’t. Someone said it follows the research in which I have done covering the topic of my short film and also my pre-production booklet links up nicely with my film. This suggests that I have followed everything that I needed to cover and have succeeded. The other 10% discussed how because the story had developed across the production it had changed, however I think this is for the best you need your short film to grow throughout the production process as this is what makes it better.
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Majority of people answering question seven said they would watch my final edit after seeing the rough draft. This is because the rough draft even though it hasn’t reached it full potential did spark something within the target audience which makes them want to watch the film when it’s finished. This is a good sign as if nobody was interested in the film it would show that the film has failed and the editing id very bad. However, I can know show to everyone interested that the film will turn out 100% better than the first draft. Especially, after the helpful feedback on what to improve I have received.
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