Supervised Arts Leadership- Project Plan

The project is to help deliver a two minute twenty second short film as part of the BFI film Academy at the Showroom in Sheffield, the main constraints that have been put on what can be filmed is that it has to be of a PG standard (i.e. no excessive or gratuitous violence/gore) and (other than being two minutes twenty seconds longs) that it has to be filmed in or around the Showroom, as this will make it easier for the mentors to get to each group's shoot.

We were put into groups of five by Meabh (the course leader) and given roles to perform in the group for the the project, based on what we had expressed an interest on in the first session. These five roles are: cinematographer, director, writer, producer and editor. My role for the project is the writer, so I'll have to write the outline and the screenplay taking into account the ideas discussed in the production meetings.

The timescale is for the film is ten weeks (the duration of the course), although the actual shooting will take place on week 5 (30th November), meaning we will have 3 weeks (taking out the introductory session) to plan the film before filming it. Then on the final week it will be played for family and friends ( 25th January), which effectively makes them the main audience for the film, so by keeping it PG it will hopefully satisfy that audience.

For the project to work everyone must take part in doing everything expected from their role, I've already stated what I have to do for my role, but for others like the director this involves compiling a storyboard and shot list; for a producer they have to organise the equipment, locations, etc.

The equipment is being supplied to the course by the Sheffield independent film company, we will be show how to use the cameras in week 3 (the 16th November), as for the costumes and props we (the group) will have to supply them ourselves. Also, for the course we will have mentors from the industry coming in to give us masterclasses on the various aspects of filmmaking, which will give us an idea as to what will need to be done at each stage of the filmmaking process.

We will know the film will be a success if everyone pulls their weight and does their job the project should be a success, but should anything go wrong on the shoot we'll have to find a solution during the editing stage.

In terms of reviewing the project, I will do this once I have seen the finished piece, and also take into account the production, this will be recorded on this blog.