Action Plan for Monday

This should be a busy day for us as we need to get a lot done within quite a short day. Our next deadline is on Tuesday so we will be needing to get forms, shooting, editing and possibly uploading all done in that day. It will be a challenge but I think that if we have a brief meeting at the beginning of the day, that we will be able to assign roles for the day, deadlines and make sure that everyone is working really hard.

Forms will need to be made for using equipment and shooting and signed by Nick/Pete (My role)
Shooting will then need to commence promptly (actors and Loz on camera and myself on sound)
Editing will need to be started and hopefully finished (we will assign this role at the start of the day, as it has been changed for each episode)
We will also need someone uploading the video and promoting the episode (editors will be uploading the video and anyone can promote the episode but I will mainly be doing this on our deadline when we air the episode, linknig it to Facebook etc)

Self Assessment of Second Episode Production

Overall this second episode has gone a lot better than the first episode. We have taken into account the changes that CRaM wanted us to change, so we have managed to get rid of any inappropriate language and stick to using non-offensive words if we feel the need for impact. However, they wanted us to keep the episode itself down to one minute and thirty seconds, this was not accomplished. We have made the second episode just over four minutes long and this is shorter than the first episode, which is good but considerable more than we were allowed. I this was because the script that was written was far too detailed and not many members of the group wanted to change anything, therefore there was more footage to shoot and then too much footage to get down to such a short time. For our next episode, we will be trying to improve the time again and as we have a shorter time to shoot than before, we should have less footage which may make it easier for us to cut down the time.

This time around I also thought that our script was better constructed and it included a lot more humour that a wider audience would find funny. This made the viewing experience a lot more understandable and it was easier to get to grips with what was going on throughout the episode.

As I was watching the episode, I had noticed that our camera man(Loz), used a few new camera shots and he used a lot more wider shots to view more characters. These worked really well and helped to set the scene and explain the story visually.

The editing this time round was a lot better. There were no unneeded effects or zooms and everything was cut in the right places to make sense throughout. However, I thought that the sound still need tweaking as in some places it cuts out when no one is talking and it doesn't run smoothly. I think that this may be helped if I were there for that shoot (as I am working with most of the sound for the episodes), to listen to the sound while the camera man works so more attention can looked on for the sound. I was able to be present for one of shoots and I listened to sound and it went really well but we decided not to use that footage as we changed rooms which were filming in. I think it can also be helped by the editors, as they need cut it a lot more smoothly and pay more attention to the sound of footage. I think that I will make sure I pick up my role within sound a lot more so that I can over see the editors and make sure the sound is a lot better for the third episode.

The marketing that I have been helping out with has come a long way since the beginning of the project and we have been paying more attention to promoting the series than we were to begin with. I have been spending a lot of time at the end of editing, linking the uploaded videos from Vimeo and YouTube so they now appear on Facebook for all the fans to view and comment. I have been posting little messages with them and also updates of when more videos will be on he site. Many of the other members of the group have updating it too, with news of how the production is going and of any delays or progress. This has really helped to get more views or our video but I think that we can a lot more with the marketing to help get more people involved. I have noticed that the other group have started to make posters to advertise when their episode will be shown and I think that this may help us a lot. If we were able to pin up posters around the college, we would be targeting our audience and also notifying a lot more people of that we exist. We may have a lot of fans on our page but we do not get many of them actually viewing the videos so if we could get others interested in a different form then we could get more views.

Finally, my main role as production manager has gone quite well as I am starting to get quite used to the forms that I need to produce and I am getting done promptly for the shoot that we need them for. I have been receiving some late requests for the forms but it hasn't been too much of an issue as we have had the time but I think that when it comes to Monday we will have a small amount of time and we may be rushed. I shall have to make sure that I am not making any stupid mistakes with the form, spellings or dates incorrect so that the forms can be signed and approved as soon as possible.

Facebook - Marketing

As part of marketing we have to advise our videos on social networking sites such as Facebook, so I have been linking some of the videos from Youtube or Vimeo to our fan page on Facebook. This will let our fans and others who want to watch, to see all of our progress, updates and all the videos that we produce. This is a screen grab from me linking the second episode and the trailer for the third episode, to Facebook.

Preivew of Episode Three

Here is a preview of episode three.

Detention Deficit Ep3 from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Teaser Trailer - Friendly Competition Humour

Here is the teaser trailer that our group made yesterday, for episode three. It doesn't give a lot of an insight to the next episode but the humour based on our apposing team works well.

Episode Two

Here is the video for episode two of Detention Deficit. I think that this episode is a lot better than the first. A lot has been altered from the first episode, to improve and it works a lot better. The shoot went really well and the editing was almost done on the same day, so it was really good progress.

Episode Two - Script

Here is the script that James wrote for our second episode.


"starts off with everyone sitting down at their desks, sonny starts talking to keith

sonny: keith. we’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes now. why haven’t you annoyed me yet?

keith: (looks frustrated with sonny) I'm pacing myself

sonny: so, you’re going to annoy me in a little while instead

keith: no. you ignoranus

sonny: (laughs)

vince and valerie start talking over sonny laughing

vince: what did you call him?

valerie: ignoranus, what the hell have you been smoking in your crack pipe.

sonny: crack (continues laughing)

pier: guys, i’ve nailed it. i have nailed it (bangs book on desk)

keith: sorry, but am i going completely mad? (raises voice)

valerie: going?

sonny: you’ve been a patient at the fucking luni-bin for a while mate

keith: can i just explain how im pacing my. fucking self

sonny: well, it happens

pier: what

sonny: he’s annoying me again

keith: fuck you guys

pause for a while

vince: enlighten me keith

keith: i’ve left my redbull outside the door. so i’m only allowed some every 30 minutes. it should help me sleep. hence, why i’m pacing myself.

everyone stares at him

vince: you didn’t enlighten me

chris: really. (everyone stares) how’s it working out for you. that’s a good idea. good little system. pacing yourself. i do the same for when i play guitar. i don’t want to overwork myself, you know.

everyone continues staring, silence

sonny: who. the. fuck. are you? (shocked face)

chris: i’m chris, pleased to meet you

valerie: why are you in detention then, did you kiss the teachers arse too much

pier: you do seem the type that would stay out, if i’m honest

chris: i chewed gum in class.

vince: i’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe

pause

sonny: wrong moment vince

vince: sorry

pier: (speaking to chris) is that all

chris: yeh, nothing really bad. why you in detention then?

pier: if i told you, i’d have to kill you

fade out

keith and chris are sitting together

keith: thanks for thinking my idea was good by the way. these guys don’t appreciate me.

chris: that’s alright. actually. it’s half past now. you want me to go get your red bull from outside?

keith: (excited voice, slightly nagging) oh yes please. that’d be great. (laughs) if i didn’t have that. i’d probably los the plot. have an axiety attack or something.

chris: that’s okay, i’ll go get it

chris goes to open door, but it doesn’t open

chris: uh, guys. the door isn’t opening

keith: what! (loud, going out of control)

keith starts having an axiety attack, shaking his shoulders. sonny walks up to him and punches him in the face. he falls onto his chair.

sonny: i am not going through that shit again

valerie: the less of that the better

sonny: don’t talk to me

valerie: screw you sonny

chris: what the hell is wrong with you?

sonny: trust me, you’ll thank me later

vince: he is a crazy, moonstruck hound junkie. he needs to be controlled

pier: (talks to chris) did you say the doors locked?

chris: why else would hound junkie have gone fucking mental

sonny: you’re learning

pier: so, i’m trapped here? (looks worried)

chris: yes. we all are

sonny: that’s alright, pier will think of a plan

pier: (awkward laugh) yeh. sure. i’ll think of something

valerie: what. is your mind blank?

vince: what about your amazing idea earlier

pier: i’ll think of another one. that plan isn’t well suited for this type of escape

sonny: type of escape...(interrupts)

pier: stay the fuck out of this sonny. i’ll think of a plan. just give me a minute to gather my thoughts.

fade out.

fades in - 20 minutes later

chris: it’s been ages. a teacher hasn’t even come and checked up on us.

sonny: they don’t. teachers. they’re quite happy to just leave us here to rot. we’re trash to them. we’re the ones who fuck the system. and when your in here, your trash too.

chris: i’m not trash, i’m a good student.

valerie: no your not. you’re a fucking criminal.

vince: i don’t see what’s so special about rugby balls anyway. wilson this and wilson that. basket balls are better. i could have a good conversation with a basket ball

everyone looks over at vince

chris: what are you talking about?

vince: when we’ve been driven to madness. i wanna know who my best friend will be

chris: and you chose a basket ball?

vince: yeh

sonny: suppose they got a nice tan. just don’t impregnate it, might have loadsa golf balls rolling about.

vince: you don’t understand. you’re not ready for the truth

chris: i need to get out of here, any plan yet?

pier: i can’t think. i’m lost. i’m lost.( hangs his head in shame, crying)

sonny: every single fucking day, you think of a plan to escape. every. single, fucking day. are you telling me that the one day we need to a plan, you can’t think of one?

pier: i’m sorry (wails) i’m lost

sonny: you can do it, think

pier: i can’t

sonny: yes you can. ( stands up and grabs piers head) use your head!

rams piers head into the door

valerie: great. now what?

chris: we’re trapped

sonny: fuck sake, stand back, i’ll get the door open

sonny kicks the door really hard, nothing happens

chris: we’re screwed.

pier: (wakes back up) uh, what happened

sonny: call a doctor

pier: sonny, i’m fine, just got a fucking bad headache.

chris: not surprised ( murmurs)

sonny: not for you dipshit

valerie/chris: who

sonny: for me. i think i’ve just broken my leg

end credits"

YouTube Account

As we have only got a Vimeo account to post all of our videos on to, we have been advised to make a YouTube account. This will be useful for us because YouTube is very popular with the younger generation, who are trying to target and therefore we may managed to get more views of our episodes, trailers and bloopers. Below is a screen grab of our YouTube account and we have started to post a few videos on there.

Action Plan For Today

As we have a short amount of lesson time, as we had an exam, we have decided to rehearse the lines. We are going to rehearse with the actors that we have in our group today and we will run the script by the other actor not within the group.

Form For Thursday 28th Shoot

Here are the forms for the shoot that I made for the shoot that we wanted to do for Thursday the 28th of January. This shoot was to shoot the footage of our second episode of Detention Deficit. The first image is of the permission letter that I wrote for using the equipment and the last two images are of the risk assessment that we needed to have for the shoot.

Feedback From Episode One

We have gathered some feedback from the other group, for our first episode. We all commented on our own episode but then also on the other groups. Below are the main points of criticism that we received from others and some of them appeared more than once I have put numbers next to them to symbolize this.

The clock shot is too long and becomes boring (x10)
College's don't normally hold detention in a computer room
At the beginning the sound isn't very good but improves as episode goes on (x3)
The bleeping of the swear words gets annoying
Shouldn't really have any swearing - not needed (x12)
Some acting is over acted and unnecessary, however, one actor is enthusiastic

We will be working on all these points to improve our next episode. There will be no swearing in the next episode and we will be having rehearsals. We will also keep an eye on the sound to make sure that it is consitantly good quality and we will take into account that are shots may need to be quicker and a lot clearer to explain to the audience.

Facebook Event

For our second episode, as our first wasn't a big hit, I decided to make an event on Facebook. These are pages were you tell people of an event that is going on, use links, names of the event and you can invite people to join the page and accept to coming to the event. We made the airing of the second episode an event, so I wrote a little something about the event, put a date on it, picture and then invited anyone who would be interested. Below is a screen grab of the event page that I created.

Teaser Trailer For Episode Two

Here is the episode that we made for to advertise the second episode.

Detention Deficit Teaser 2 from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Role Throughout Production and Improving Next Episode

My role in the beginning of the production was sound supervisor and working with some of marketing of the series. I was in-charge of the music for each episode and from the very start the group knew what they wanted and I had to go find it. I found the tracks that we wanted but they needed to be cut down so I needed to email the artists and ask permission to whether I could use their track and cut it down for out episodes. I thought that the best way to find the bands was to us MySpace and then find a free download and cut it down from there. After I downloaded them I would then put them into Garageband, cut them down and then export them as an mp3, ready to be given to the editor.
As for my other role as assistant with the marketing, someone else started off making all of the others sites so I no longer needed that role. However, throughout the whole production I have worked with the Facebook account to promote the series and get fans to become interested and want to continue to watch.
I managed to pick up a new role as the project started to develop. We had discovered that we had missed out a major role of the production and that we needed to assign it or we would get nothing finished. I took up this role and it was production manger. This role consisted of making all of the forms for the production, such as, permission slips, model release forms and risk assessments. This role I have kept all the way through the production of the first episode and I think that I really want to carry on with the role for the next episode. It takes plenty of patience to complete all of forms and especially as our group wanted to do many shoots and borrow a lot equipment. I think that I have completed this role really well and I think that the group has appreciated me doing it.

It is now coming close to the airing of the second episode, as we need to have it uploaded on Tuesday. I think that we have a lot to organize and there are certain things that we need to complete before we can even think that we have it done in time. We have not yet planned our next shoot, as other members of the group have mentioned that some of our actors can not be available. This is a big issue because we only have one day to shoot and if we do not finish the shoot by Tuesday, we will not have enough footage to edit and therefore deadline will be missed again. I think that we could solve this by trying to get these actors in any brakes they have, make the forms and make sure that we work hard and get the footage that we need. I think that biggest issue that we will have is that we are not very organized and this has really let down our first episode. We need to have more meetings so that everyone knows exactly what is going on, who is doing what and when the deadlines are for these tasks. We need to organize when we want equipment, well in advance and make sure that we give equipment to reliable people. This will help the shoots go a lot smoother and help to give people plenty of notice. I think that another good thing for us to do is to make sure that we know exactly what content we can have and knowing where it will be viewed, that we have the appropriate content. For example, no swearing as it will be shown to a public audience.
The best thing that our group can do to make sure that we meet the deadline, is to be a lot more organized and in doing so then make sure that these task are fully completed, rather than having a calm attitude that time can be wasted.

First Episode of Detention Deficit

Here is the video of our first episode of Detention Deficit. I think that it has turned out quite well considering we have had a lot of ups and downs throughout this project.

Detention Deficit: Episode ONE from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

January 22th - Work and Finishing First Episode

Today was our deadline for uploading our first episode and we spent all of our lessons today editing the final version and uploading it to Vimeo. My task for the day was to promote the airing of the first episode on Facebook and to also send emails to the bands songs that we have used and to let them know of the first episode and have access to links.
I also spent some of my time over-looking the editing and watching how it progressed throughout the afternoon. We worked quite hard this afternoon and I think that we have done quite well considering all the problems that we have faced. We did not managed to meet the deadline at the end of the lesson but it was uploaded by 7 for viewing. I think that if we were much more organised, we may have made the deadline a lot easier and the outcome would also be of better quality.

January 21st - Meeting and Work

Today has been very successful, considering that we didn't have a lot of time to shoot. I started by helping to shoot the second episode and worked with the boom mic of the shoot. I then went on to updating our status on Facebook to promote the airing of the first episode. My final task of the day was to complete editing the blooper reel and then to upload it to Vimeo. I have completed this but I still need to upload it to Vimeo so others can view it.
We have to complete a lot of things before we air the episodes on Tuesday. We have to bleep out the swearing in the episodes and also any other footage that we have created such as the bloopers. We also need to shoot the second episode, I need to write forms for it and bloopers shall be made from this too. I need to post a lot more statuses of Facebook to promote the airing and I also need to get one more model release form signed.

January 20th - Work

Today we didn't have much of a meeting but we all working on completing out action plan for today. My action plan was to make some forms for the next shoot that we are going to be doing, make sure that the model release forms are signed and also to take some pictures of the group editing. I have managed to get everyone but one actor to sign the model release forms and I have also managed to produce the forms for the next shoot. I didn't need to take pictures in the end, as James had already taken some but I found another task to get on with. We needed another piece of music downloaded and cut down so I worked on this and then gave it to Matt H for titles.
As for the rest of the group, they all managed to get a lot of editing done, whether it was for the main episode, the bloopers or the titles and credits.

Letter From CRaM Creative

We have received a letter from CRaM Creatives, as they are sponsoring us, they had a few points which they wanted to mention and things they wanted to change. They are interested in showing our episodes at the Junction and on their own professional web TV channel. Therefore, they will want the episodes to not include any offensive language. We will need to bleep them out of the episode we have already shot and then make sure that any other episodes that we make, that they don't have offensive language in.
They also wanted us to mention them in the credits and animated there logo for it to appear at the end. We have been working on all of this and it is coming along well.

Plan For Wednesday 20th

Tomorrow(wednesday 20th) I am planning or working the music for the sound track for the series. I need to find the track which I cut on garageband and give it to Matt H or who ever is doing the title sequence tomorrow. I also need to discuss with the group to whether they want the other track, as I am having trouble finding a free download so I may not be able to cut it down or use it for the series. If I do managed to get it and cut it down, I will also have to give that to Matt H.
My next task will be to start making some forms for our next shoot, for the next episode and also to make sure that all of the model release forms are signed ready. I think that my last task will be to take some pictures of the group editing the first episode and putting it all together. These photos can be useful for Blogger and also to promote the series and get people interested.

Our whole group will mainly be working on editing. Matt H will be working on the title sequence, credit and I will also be working with him to give him the sound. James will be helping us all out with our work, making sure it gets done and also working on the next episode. Loz, Hayden and possibly Alex will be working on the editing all of the footage we have gathered for the first episode, cutting it and putting it together ready for uploading on Friday. I think that Joe can be working on the social networking sites and posting about all the editing and the how the episode is coming alone. I am not too sure that everyone will be doing all these things, like this, but this is what I think we need to get done and which people would be completing each task.

January 19th - Work

Today was a mixture of working on our show project and working on the Fiver project for the Junction. During the first session, in my group for the Fiver, we came up with ideas to brief to Simon about what we thought we would want the documentary to be like.
In the second session of the day we all worked on the show project. I needed to work on getting images of all the forms that we had produced so far and posting them on to my blog as evidence. i also had to make sure Alex made all of our model release forms and printed them off so we could get them signed. I managed to get all of these completed and now my next task is to make sure everyone who acted in the episodes to sign them.

How My Role Has Changed

At the beginning of the project I was assigned the role of working with marketing and sound when editing started. As the project has progressed we have all helped others with their work and naturally changed roles slightly. Especially as a new role was introduced, we then had to assigned that to someone in the group. I am still working with the sound of the series, however, instead of working with the marketing and websites, I am now a production manager so I am now in charge of getting all forms and permissions made and signed. I think that this was a good role for me, as I don't normally like the paperwork side of things but I have really enjoyed this role and I have really taken it on seriously. Now I have had a taster of a different role I have never done before, I think that this could be possibility for me in the future.

January 18th - Meeting and Work

Today we had a brief meeting with the whole class to see at what point each group is at with the show project and Pete wanted to note when we all think that we would ready so he could make a deadline. We have been progressing quickly recently with our project and we are about to start planning the second episode and hoping to have the first episode uploaded by wednesday.

My tasks today were to print out the forms which are needed for us to shoot our last footage for the first episode, to download a track which we need and edit it in garageband and I have also needed to upload some evidence of what paperwork we have done to blogger. I managed to complete all of this, however I couldn't find the track to download so we will have to find another way to get hold of it.

Production Forms For Shoot on Tuesday 19th

Here are some images of the risk assessment and the permission slip which I had to produce for our group to be able to shoot on Tuesday. First is the permission slip image and below that is the risk assessment image.
In order; First permission slip, second permission slip which has been corrected and then risk assessment.

Self Assessment of Progress so Far

I think that I have kept up with tasks quite promptly and to good standards. Managing to post each day, meetings and the work that I have done each day, has been quite simple. The tasks that I have needed to get done for the production of the series as always been completed within in good time. However, I think that when posting my evidence I need to be efficient and getting it all completed on the day that we have cone it.

Our marketing has gone okay so far but it needs improvement. I was originally set the role of helping with the marketing and doing sound. Throughout the project this has changed so I still competed the sound but now I am production manager instead of helping with marketing. This means that I don't have much control over the websites. I think that they need a lot more posts each day and more interesting topics and updates.

I think scripting have gone really well. It has been written by James and completed really quickly. We are coming to the end of the first episode, production wise, and we already have a script for the second episode. Planning has progressed throughout our production because at the beginning we didn't remember to make the forms so this was bad planning. We now are working on planning the next episode so we are more than on track. As for shooting we are on time with this and we will finish today for the first episode. I haven't been present for our shoots for first episode but I haven't been present for our first shoots for the first episode but I have got a lot of feedback from the rest of the group.

We are right on schedule for the uploading our first episode for wednesday and I am currently working on planning and writing forms for the next episode.

Shot List For Scene One of First Episode

Another piece of information that we need to complete was a shot list for each scene within our episode. When we had our meeting on Friday we chose who would complete each part of the forms that need to be done and we Hayden was given the task of making the shot list. Below is a type up of what he wrote.

1) very slow zoom out from Pier's eyes
2)very slow zoom in to clock
3)very slow zoom out from Keith rambling in Pier's ears
4)Keith and Pier, over the shoulder, Sonny in back ground
5)SAME SHOT
6)Sonny over the should shot at Keith and Pier
7)Sonny right medium close shot
8)Keith centre FPS shot
9)Keith left side pencil case enters and camera shake
10)Keith centre shot
11)Side shot Keith with Pier
12)Side shot of Pier
13)Centre shot of Sonny
14)Centre shot of Keith

January 15th - Meeting and Work

Today we had a brief meeting in our production group, we had to see what else was needed to get completed before we start to edit the first episode and we discovered that we were missing quite a lot of paperwork which we forgot about.
As I am production manager I decided to write down all the pieces of paper work and we then would work out would do which piece so that it would get completed quicker. Below is a list of what we needed to get done and who completed each.

Story board - Hayden
Shot list - Hayden
Model Release forms - Alex
Print out of emails to The Avalanches and Ending in ing - Philippa
Full updated version of the script printed out - Philippa

All of these were completed today so we are now ready to move on to finish a small bit of filming and then editing for the first episode.

Today we have also come up tasks that we need to get done by Monday, Wednesday and by the end of the week. I need to write model release forms, permission and risk assessment forms for Monday and by Wednesday I need to make sure that I have editing the sound track and uploaded it to MP3. By the end of the week I need to make sure that all of the paper work all correct and to start the next set of forms for the next episode so that we don't get behind.

Teaser Trailer for First Episode

Here is the first teaser trailer, for our first episode.

Detention Deficit Teaser Trailer from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Photos From First Shoot

Here are a few images of our first shoot for the first episode. I wasn't present for the shoot but the group said it went really well and you get a rough idea of what they did from the images below.

Production Forms For Our First Shoot - First Episode

Here are images of the forms that I created for the shoot of the first episode. I needed to produce a risk assessment of the shoot so the shoot would be as safe as possible. I also had to produced a permission letter so that we were able to use all of the equipment that we needed for the shoot. We also need model release forms for each of the actors in the shoot, however they still need to be given back by actors who have signed them and put in our folder.

Production Forms For Shoot on January 13th

Here are some images of the forms we needed to produce the sound for our trailer. We wanted to make a short trailer for our first episode and we had managed to get the footage but the sounded need to be completed correctly. In order; permission slip and the last two are images of the risk assessment.

January 13th - Planning The Day - Success?

I have been quite successful with my day and it has been very productive. I almost completed all of my tasks. I have completed, printed out and got signed all of the risk assessments and permissions that we need for the rest of the week. They were almost all done correctly but there was one mistake on one of the permissions which meant that it wasn't allowed and had to be written again.

I have also completed my second task, I have a reply from The Avalanches and they have let us sample their song. I have also managed to download the track and edit it in Garageband so it is now ready for putting on each of the episodes.

My final task of the day I personally did not complete, as we decided to only send one person to meet out new actor for Valarie. Loz decided to go meet her and see whether she is right for the part. Hopefully we should find out tomorrow whether we will use her within the micro-series.

I think today was a very productive day and I managed to get a lot more completed than I needed to.

Response from Ending In Ing

Our group wanted to used 25 seconds from one of 'Ending In Ing' songs to be played in the beginning credits of our micro-series. I decided to add them as a friend on MySpace and then send them a message asking whether it would be ok. We managed to get a friend acceptance within one day and I then sent them a message. They then replied to my message within another day days and they have said that it would be ok for us to sample it and that we should credit them in the ending credits.
Below is a screen shot of the messages that we sent and received from 'Ending In Ing'. We are also planning on sending them a link to the series, after we have finished, so that they can see how we have put in part of their track and credited them.



Below is the link to their MySpace page.

http://www.myspace.com/endingining1

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

We have been given permission from 'The Avalanches' to sample 25 seconds of their song 'Frontier Psychiatrist'. Below is the video for the song that we are going to be using and we think that this will work really well with our episodes.

Response From The Avalanches

Our group wanted to used 25 seconds from one of 'The Avalanches' songs to be played in the ending credits of our micro-series. I decided to add them as a friend on MySpace and then send them a message asking whether it would be ok. We managed to get a friend acceptance in two days of adding them and I then sent them a message. They then replied to my message within another two days and they have said that it would be ok for us to sample it and that we should credit them in the ending credits.

Below is a screen shot of the messages that we sent and received from 'The Avalanches'. We are also planning on sending them a link to the series, after we have finished, so that they can see how we have put in part of their track and credited them.

(In order, a big picture of the whole thing, my message to them and their reply.)

Below is a link to their MySpace page.

http://www.myspace.com/theavalanches

Model Release Forms

Here are the model release forms for all of shoots for our first episode. I have managed to get everyone within the first episode to sign a version of our release form. This was really important as this gave us permission to use any footage or pictures that we make of them and use it within our project. If we didn't have these forms, then we wouldn't be able to upload any of our episodes.

January 13th - Planning The Day

The first task that I need to get done today is to download my risk assessments from my mail, print them off and get them signed by Nick. I shall have to check that I have all the risk assessments for the filming that we need to do this week and that they all include the correct content.

The second task that I need to complete is to check my MySpace account and see if The Avalanches have got back to me about us sample one of their songs. If they have replied with yes, I shall have to make the sample and send it to the guy that will be putting it together for us.

The last task that I need to do today is to meet up with a girl called Amy who is auditioning to play the role of Valarie in our series. I will need to see if she is right for the personality of the character and see if she is willing to act tomorrow.

January 12th - Meeting and Work

Today was another brief meeting within our group, as we just discussed what was needed to be done and then we got on with it. During this meeting we came to the decision that me and Alex are going to be the production managers that work with a lot of the forms that needed to be written and signed. The main forms are risk assessments, permission forms for equipment and permission for places to shoot. We have needed to use all of these so I got to work on this straight away and we completed some shooting today on a trailer and I have completed a form for the use of the equipment and the risk assessment.
This is an important task to complete and most businesses need to complete these forms so that the work they need to do can be done. It doesn't take too long to complete but the risk assessment can be hard sometimes and it does take a while to think of all the things that could possibly go wrong.
I have now started on completing the next set of forms for the fist shoot of the first episode that we will have on thursday. I will hopefully be posting all of these forms on here.

Production Forms For Shoot on January 12th

Here are some images of the forms that we needed for one of our first shoots, which was to make the trailer footage. We wanted to produce a trailer to advertise our series and I needed to produce a permission slip so we can use the equipment and also a risk assessment so that our shoot is perfectly safe. In order; permission slip and then two images of the risk assessment.

Case Study - Comparing Marketing Campaigns

I have decided to look at other micro-series again and compare them to what we are planning on doing with ours. This time I am going to look at the way in which they have set their marketing campaigns across and how this may help me with our marketing campaign.

The first series I looked at was 'We need girlfriends' and I thought that this would be a good one to look at in detail because they have used Blogger for there site and we have set our own Blogger page with ours. At first glance, they don't seem to have a lot on this site but I think this works well as you don't want it too cluttered with advertising and unneeded information. They have used a menu down one side, with heading, which will then direct you to all the needed information about the series, characters and makers etc. This works very well as it is a simple way to keep the site clear and easy to use. Just simple browsing and you can find out a lot of information and get a lot of viewers. On the main page you have their production logo and small amount of vital information. This is also another good idea as it brings the audience straight into what the site and the series is and gets their attention straight away. Also on the main page is advertising for merchandise t-shirt's which the fans can buy. This is always a good idea with anything that you produce because it gets an income and fans. However, in our case I don't think that we would want to waste out small budget on t-shirts, as we can find other ways to get a big audience without money.
I think that this way of campaigning would work best for us because it is something that we can do quite easily, minus the t-shirts. It would be really effective and especially when we can link it all up with Twitter and Facebook and get a lot of people looking at it for the next episode and the information.




































The other micro-series which I decided to look at was for 'The Guild' and they have used a slightly different campaigning style. They have an advantage, as I think they are being sponsored by someone in their site so they are to have access to a lot advertising. When you first visit the page you see a lot more advertising. They are able to have a DVD out and they have decided to display this at the very top of the page and as soon as someone visits the site they know that they can get the DVD. You can also see that they have been able to buy web space so they are display their video straight on to their website. This then means less searching for the audience and they will get a lot more fans. As you work your way down to start to see that they are linked with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and Xbox. This is a great way of getting a lot of people involved with the series and a lot of fans. In a way we are doing this, by displaying links on a lot of our pages and on a daily basis so people have access to everything.
I don't think that this will be a good idea for our campaign because we just don't have the budget for it, even though it would get us a lot more hits. I know that we will use the links, which will help us a lot but I think that keeping to plan and simple will be best.

Test Footage for Episode One - Hayden

Test footage of Hayden.

Hayden test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Test Footage for Episode One - Matt H

Test footage of Matt H.

Matt test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Test Footage for Episode One - James

Test footage of James.

James Test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Test Footage for Episode One - Alex

We decided that we needed to produce some test footage for the first episode, especially so we can see what the character will be like.

Test footage Alexander from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Practice Shoot - Forms

Here are the forms for the first shoot we needed to do, to make some practice footage. One is a risk assessment and one is a permission form.

January 11th - Meeting/Work Done

Our meeting today was quite brief and the first half was held by Pete. Pete wanted to see how we were with our production, what we need to do and if we had any questions. So far we have most of the vital parts up and working. We have a full, rough script for the first episode, Facebook, Twitter and a few other pages being set up. There is also a advertising/fan page on blogger which will be updated as much as the others. We have a few people auditioning for each of the characters and we have yet to hold the date for the auditions. Finally, we have the name for our series designed and just needs to have a photo taken and uploaded.

We then decided to have a brief meeting in our group and discuss what needs doing today and who will be doing what. I am completing the sound for the series and working on a bit of the Facebook sites. My job for today was to send email to a band call The Avalanches, ask whether we could sample their one of their songs and then if I get a reply quick enough, sample it and put it together in MP3 format. I then needed to put that sample and a few others together for a practitioner, who said that he would put something together for us if we gave him ideas of what we wanted. However, I didn't get this far as the band has yet to reply so I decided to work more on the Facebook pages and I managed to access to edit the site today so I am now able to do a lot more with it.
Today the rest of the group decided to start making some practice footage for the first episode, as the majority of the actors may end up being part of our group. I spent half of my time today going in and seeing how it was going. It seemed to be going really well and it has given them an insight to which characters they want to play and who would work better for the role if they get it. I think we managed to get a lot and it will be really useful and it will help us when it comes to shooting the real thing.

Today went quite well and I think it was the most productive day we have had. I will be working to help keep it like it. I know that there are a lot of things that we need to do and I think that we could be doing these a lot quicker. We need audition dates,times and place, more website pages to be set up and a lot more posted on each of them and I think it would be useful for us to make a plan of what we need to do and when, how we are going to complete it.

Episode One - Script

Script Ep1 Rough Version

Detention deficit – Pilot episode script

Starts with pier looking bored leaning on his desk. He looks at the clock, the hand keeps on moving slower and slower. Even goes backwards. Sound of the clock out rules everything else. This is pier zoning out on the clock. Sounds comes back and you can hear Keith mumbling. This turns into Keith talking really quickly. Keith is talking to pier.

Keith: (talking really quickly, hard to make out what he’s saying)

Pier: (sighs)

Pier looks at sonny. Sonny understands what’s on Piers mind.

Sonny: he loco

Pier: (laughs)

Keith knows that he was being made fun of but he continues talking

Sonny: (interrupts Keith) you know what. Uh, Keith. (Pause) you need to talk more. I’m starting to forget you’re here.

Keith: (mocking what sonny has just said to him) “you know what”. You’re really, fucking rude. You need some manners. I’m talking about life. The world. Emotions. Feelings. All that shit. Stuff that brings people closer together. And you’re taking that away.

After keith has told sonny how he feels, sonny throws a pencil case at his face.

Sonny: you talk too much. (aggressive tone)

Keith looks really wound up. His eye starts twitching

Pier: you’ve set him off now. They’ll be no stopping him. You’ve unleashed the ultimate evil. Pandora’s Box. Has been opened.

Sonny: what are you saying? (Looks frustrated and slightly nervous) he does it all the fucking time. He drinks more coffee than the teachers.

Pier: I have a plan to escape, unharmed by the beast

Sonny: Keith

Pier: that one yea. Anyway, the plan is. we tie shoelaces together, until it’s long enough to use as a rope. And then we simply climb down out the window. I call it, ‘operation window lace’.

Sonny: wow pier, not too bad. Apart from the fact that we’re on the ground floor already. (Slaps pier round the back of the head) and what’s wrong with just walking through the door.

Just after sonny finished talking, a pencil case hits him in the face, Keith threw it at him

Sonny: crap!

Keith runs around making a mess of the room, running and moving really quickly. He’s gone insane.

Pier: same old shit. Different day

Fades out, then fades in with “15minutes later”

Keith is lying on the floor after a caffeine come down. The room is a dip.

Sonny: (walking over to keith to see how he is) he’s got to get off this, its turning him into a monster.

Sonny picks up a monster can next to Keith

Valerie walks over as well.

Valerie: look at the room, he’s trashed it. He’s a devil.

Valerie picks up a can of red devil from near keith

Sonny: he needs to kick this shit in.

Sonny picks up a big bottle of kick

Sonny: why are you talking to me (frustrated aggressive tone)

Valerie: don’t know. Everyone in this room is a freak anyway.

Pier walks past

Pier: aye aye aye

Sonny: well. Don’t talk to me

Valerie: (looks at camera) who’s that?

Sonny: I said don’t talk to me.

Valerie: who’s sitting under the table?

Vince: (long pause) hey

Vince get’s out from under the table. Gets out awkwardly, rustling tin foil and gear

Valerie: who are you?

Sonny: that’s Vince. Alright Vince? I haven’t seen you around for ages. You been under the table all this time? (sniggers)

Vince: yes (calm voice)

Sonny: bloody hell mate, I was only joking. What the fuck you playing at. Hiding under the table. Toddlers do that. You’re not a toddler.

Vince: I’ve been here, to prevent intrusion of my mind

Valerie: (looks surprised) okay

They all go to sit down

Sonny: (looks at time, only half an hour has passed) what. This is bullshit

Valerie: speaking of bullshit. What’s this I hear about you throwing a fridge at Damien?

Pier: I heard about that too (continues drawing his plans)

Sonny: there’s nothing much more to say. I threw a fridge at Damien. He annoyed me. Thought it was pretty funny.

Flashback scene where you find out it was a frijj milkshake

Valerie: what a load of shit. Why do you make up stuff as ridiculous as that. You’re an idiot sonny. A first degree idiot.

Sonny: shut up. It’s true.

Valerie: yeah, whatever.

Fades out, fades in

Valerie goes to sit next to Vince. Vince is drawing something in his book.

Valerie: hey vince. What you doing.

Vince: just some drawing. It’s a good way to pass time. And let my creativity spill out.

Valerie: (looking at his work) what is it?

Vince: (putting a lot of detail into picture. Looking concentrated) out of all the ones I’ve seen. This. Is my favourite crop circle.

Valerie: oh

Vince: it’s just so textured and the shape is so alien. It’s just amazing

Valerie: yea, amazing (sounds sarcastic)

Shows the page with a simple circle on the paper. Valerie goes to sit near sonny. Sonny is talking to pier

Sonny: you’ve been doing detention for ages now. Do you feel any different? Have you changed?

Valerie: are you rehabilitated?

Sonny: shut up, what does that mean anyway

Pier: rehabilitated? Well now, let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means.

Sonny: it means have you..

Pier: I know what you think it means sonny. To me it’s just a made up word. A politicians word, so young fella’s like…

Sonny: stop quoting stuff pier. Dammit (frustrated)

They all go quiet for a moment

Sonny: could time possibly go any slower

Vince: the more you concentrate on the time, the slower it will go

Sonny: did you have to tell me that. Shit

Pier: aye aye aye. I can’t think of a better plan than window lace

Valerie: im bored. When can I go

Sonny: you can’t go until the teacher has dismissed us.

Vince: sometimes, he forgets.

Pier: no need to worry everyone. I’ve almost got a plan.

Sonny: I’m going to lose my mind in a minute

Vince: it will feel more like 3 minutes because you’re staring at the clock like that.

Valerie: could this get any worse

Keith wakes up with his twitchy eye

Sonny: oh shit

‘Credits’