General Production Diary (excluding last term)

16/09/21

 Today we further developed our copycat scene, which is our first project we are working along side the filmmakers. We typed up our script and pitched our idea we have so far to Kelly. Next we will be creating a powerpoint presentation to try to really sell our scene and why we should do it. Personally, I love the idea of our group recreating a scene from "the end of the fucking world" because I like how doable it is yet so good, with it being pretty simple and straightforward but with a major storyline embedded beneath the surface, Id be excited to give it a go. I love the characters and how they juxtapose each other, with Bonnie being very suspicious and guilty and the other two, James and Alyssa, being blind sighted to the whole situation, I feel the facial expressions in this specific scene will really give clarity to the audience of the visible tension and how they all individually feel. Plus it isn't too long of a scene... so overall I'm looking forward to next Thursday, having this lesson with the filmmakers is a favorite moment in the week of mine, especially because the focus is on screen acting. 

21/09/21

 Today we began with a quick warm-up by playing some games, one in which I love and that is the TV Chanel game. Where when your number is called, you have to present a TV Chanel that others can guess. Afterwards, we looked at audio from some famous movies (Lady Bird and Taken) and written some notes on how the pace, volume, accent, pronunciation, pitch, frequency etc all impacted the scene and how it played a huge role in bringing that character to life. We then went into groups of 6 and received our own scripts that we read from, really focusing on audio. I loved this task because it allows us to focus on only one thing for a change and develop that skill. 

29/09/21

After classes today, I attended a workshop created by two LAMDA Drama School Students about auditioning and self-tapes. I found it really useful and fun; I left feeling like I'd learnt a lot and took a lot from what was said. I loved when they gave advice about starting with the facts in a script, metaphorically linking to them being the roots of a tree, and the branches being your own creative interpretation of the character. This stuck with me... Very interesting. Overall, the experience was amazing and would definitely love to participate in many more workshops in the future. 

04/10/21

Today I auditioned for some of the second year student short films and found it really fun. I knew I personally wasn't getting marked on these but I wanted to practice auditioning and get as much experience in everything as possible. Next time, however, I won't put my name down for as many and Ill pick one or two maybe so that I can focus more on the character development of the specific movies I'm auditioning for. I did get a role in Toms movie so I'm very happy about that! Also the cast list was put up for the murder mystery and I got the role I wanted so I'm super pleased. The murder mystery play is something Ive never done anything like before, since it involves audience interaction with live hot seating... wow, it sounds so unique and interesting.

18/10/21

Something a bit different today... we shot for the college promo video so were filmed in our day to day college routine. It was fun and the people doing it were so kind. It took around an hour and we were filmed  in multiple places- LRC, walking in the corridors and both canteens. It was a voluntary opportunity which around 10 people and I chose to participate. Overall, it was fun and a unique experience because its not something I've ever done before. 

01/11/21

Today was the first day back of the second term. We went in, played some warm-up games and half way through I was pulled out to go to a photo shoot for a second years short movie. These shots will be used in some scenes of the movie. It was shots of Daniel and I in a nearby park. It didn't take long and I was back in college. When I came back in, we were pretty much done for the day we were just talking about dates for the diary and what will be happening the rest of the year.  

02/11/21

I found out I will get to do some presenting work on Thursday today yayy, that's very fun and exciting. Ethan and I are in one group and Emie and Morgan are in the other. I'm actually really excited about this! It's something fresh and different. Later today we read through the connections script for the first time and looked at the layout of it. In this script, the subtext is actually written to be spoken. My opinion on the play is that its got lots of room for us to add whatever we like into it and bring it to life. I think the script is quite okay. After first read through if I had to pick one character that stood out to me it was Crystal. That is just from one read through though. It's been a fun day today. 

03/11/21

Wednesday. Today we improvised a scene with everybody in it. A scene from Charlie and the chocolate factory. This is the first lesson involving Charlie we've done. Later on, I went to Sam's house with Daniel, Tom, Sam, Jack, three makeup artists, Mark to shoot Envy. I really enjoyed filming it. The makeup artists did such a good job. There was a scene in it which took forever to film because we worked really hard trying to get the lighting right. We shot the rest quite quickly but were really pushed for time with the last scene we still had to shoot, the very first shoot, because the camera battery was on one percent. We actually managed to get it thankfully and it all worked out okay. I had a lot of fun filming it and cant wait to see it. Even though I do hate watching myself back...

Video Link- https://youtu.be/s-635v3tqSE

04/11/21

I came in earlier today because we had the interviews at school. I decided to wear green jeans to a green screen which was very silly of me. Oops. So I couldn't do the green screen bit at the start with Ethan I could only go to the schools and do that bit. I really really enjoyed it because it was something different and the kids' reactions were too funny. "Woah I feel like I'm dreaming!" hahah cute. They recognised the green jeans before they knew me. They seemed to be more intelligent than me also telling me all about pressure plates and whatever else. After filming that, we came back to college from Riverdale Primary in Redcar and we talked about Christmas adverts and that being our next project. We get to come up with some ideas to contribute and think of some heart warming stories that could possibly be filmed for the John Lewis Advert project. 

Video Link-  https://youtu.be/W1zKVS_ripU

08/11/21

2nd week back. We began with devising scenes with two given characters that we had to use in the scene. After we read through Charlie and The Chocolate Factory for the first time. My first thoughts of the script are it wasn't what I was expecting. There are a lot of large chunks from characters, monologues, and less back and forth interacting with each of the characters. The character I originally wanted to audition for was Violet and after reading the script I still think she attracts me to that role but she would also challenge me. I would still like to keep her accent as American, more an over the top American, borderline southern and give her a lot of attitude and selfishness. Auditions will probably be next week, I'm excited... 

09/11/21

We got quite a bit done today. So the first task was to finish our radio dramas. In my group there are me, Emie, Jamie, La Toya, Sienna and Harley and we had such a laugh doing it. The first time we shot it I kept getting all the words wrong... mainly drought, Malaise and Famine. All words which I've either never heard of or never use in day to day talk anywayy, so we had to scrap all what we done last week because it was no good and just shot it from start to finish with no background music and just stopping when we mess up to carry on on another recording. I added all the clips to iMovie and edited it so that all the mistakes are chopped out. Then we voiceovered the music and all that's left to do is for Sienna to add in her sound affects. Afterwards we did a cold read on the new mystery drama TV/ film piece that will be shot before January. It was only the scripts first draft so nothing was final. I read for Maylee and quite liked that role. I would like to audition for a character in this because its looking to be good and would bring lots of experience with it and add to our show-reels. Omg Id so love to be in it, but I know there are very few characters that a lot will go for. Its still go to try though. I stayed back a short time to read the rest of the script. I actually really like read throughs. However, I think reading it the first time and not really knowing the characters and story line is quite tough. Good fun though:)

10/11/21

We looked at the Oompa Loompas for Charlie today and decided that each chant/ song should be related to the country the person who is punished is from. For example, Violets chant should be a cheer chant to represent America and so on. We created little sequences in groups doing cheer chants and movements to get us thinking of what we will do when staging Charlie. I thought my cheerleading days were long gone lol but here we are.

11/11/21

Started working on our John Lewis adverts and picked our production company name. "In Depth Productions". We then created our logo and developed a basic outline of the story line. We will soon pick the music that needs to be original and something that has not really been heard of. 

17/11/21

Today was fun. A woman came in to run a workshop from a drama school in Scarborough. She was so nice and very informative. We warmed up our bodies to start off with. Then played a game which helped make us aware of our space around us. Afterwards we got into pairs and it involved a lot of improv and focusing. We later got into different pairs and we mirrored how our partner worked, giving exaggeration and mimicking the funny individual things we naturally do. Then we played a game in a circle which required focus, eye contact and quick movement, trying not to slow down the tempo of the circle. Overall, I think some things we found out were really important and that even some of the games we played could be used as warm up games for classes. It sounds like quite a good drama school! The woman answered a lot of questions on it also and was very enthusiastic and passionate about her job. Definitely is worth considering. 

18/11/21

I feel like we got a lot done today and I really enjoyed it. I feel progress was made in the John Lewis ad. So today we got to make a presentation which we will present to the class next week to pitch our idea in the best way possible. We included all the details including our production company name, song choice, basic idea etc. Here is what it looked like...

Video Link- https://youtu.be/Q3CgOFiXlAo

During this lesson, we had auditions for the feature film. I auditioned for Maylee. I thought the audition went well and I enjoyed it. I was asked afterwards if I could audition for Alice on Monday because they thought I would better fit her so of course I wanted to and was pleased that I was asked. So now I have her audition on mon also. Yay exciting. I would really love to be a part of this because I'm interested in the story and its onscreen acting, it would look really good on my showreel also!

22/11/21

We got the cast list today for the feature film! I auditioned for Alice and that went well so I really would love to play her. I was in fact casted as Alice yayyy Im really happy about that! I can't wait to get started. What I need to do from here is to read through the script again to get a feel of what she's like and do some work on developing character. Then learn what I need to learn when I need to learn it. Also sort out costume, she's a feminist and a business-like woman so she would wear something showing authority and smart. She's sarcastic and loves her job, wanting nothing more than to be took seriously and treat like everybody else does in the office, with her being a woman there should be no difference. She treats Jenny's case very seriously and will do her all to solve this case, being the dedicated detective she is. Its also set in the 80's, so I need to keep that in mind as well as her background that if its not written on the character breakdown then I will make it up as it really helps me knowing as much as I can about her. We start on Monday omg, excitinggg.

23/11/21

Today in Kanes lesson, we looked at pronunciation and articulation with our speech. We warmed up our voices and practiced some tongue twisters to get us thinking about pronouncing each and every letter. With having, what it can been know as a "neutral" accent, we are able to add other accents that is required over the top easier, helping us learn and develop other accents more quickly. What I need to work on is pronouncing my "t's" which is obviously a north east thing. Also the accent I would like to develop for fun is the New York accent because in my own opinion that's one of the hardest accents to master. Right now it takes a lot of warming that accent up to have it sounding borderline okay, but I would love to just whip that out quicker and better. We rehearsed monologues and performed them in groups to get feedback with pronunciation. The stated accent that we had top do was well-spoken British/ RP British/ London. Sienna, Emie and La Toya are all very good at the accent and their pronunciation. I enjoyed today it was fun!

25/11/21

Today I'd say we've been very productive. We done our pitch in the style of a presentation for our Christmas advert. I loved hearing everyone else's amazing ideas and can't wait to see them on the screen. I also found out the film schedule today for "Alice and The cold case". Very busy for the next couple of weeks with this and Charlie and our adverts. Super excited about everything we are currently doing. Over the weekend we will be writing the script for the advert, we have also already done our proposal. Then I'll be learning my lines for Tuesday. On Monday we are bringing in costumes and having a full read through of the script for "Alice and the cold case". It's all happening right now lol.

29/11/21

Today we did a bit of a read through for Alice And The Cold Case before we start shooting tomorrow. I stayed back longer to rehearse with Morgan, Harley and Sienna any scenes we had together that we wanted to go over. Ive also done some character development work on Alice that helps me a lot. Most things aren't stated In the text but I've given Alice a background and depth altogether. 

Alice And There Cold case

Alice McKinley- Character Breakdown

Dominant Impression (what we see)

Alice

Age- Late 20’s

Female

Mannerisms- Charming yet so straight forward and deadly serious

Clothes- Smart, 80’s business woman vibes, Shows authority

Grooming- Takes very good care of herself, her appearance is thought out: her hair, clothes, makeup…

Movement- Confidently walks, Head up, straight not slouched, moves with urgency and power, is a powerful individual

Style of speech- My own accent, made slightly better sounding and less common, especially when talking to Captain

Anything Else- She uses sarcasm as a way to rise above and not be walked all over, a way to be seen as not an easy target in hopes to be not messed about with. She has a great set of eyes for when someone is trying to humiliate or patronise her and it doesn’t sit well with her ego and attitude. 

Dominant attitude (Personality)

Occupation- Works as a detective, is right now on administrative leave

Intelligence- Very intelligent, knows how to talk to people and knows her job inside and out, even though others don’t really believe in her

Knowledge- remains in control, powerful individual, how to stand up for herself, her occupation, has general knowledge and can quickly catch on when something doesn’t add up 

Personality- Sarcastic, witty, strong, feminist, confident, in control, powerful, mocking, dedicated, hard-worker, kind with people who appreciate her, authentic, honest, straight to the point, states the facts, decisive, intelligent, sensitive, reserved, not an open book, closed off, motivated, determined to overcome anything in her way. 

Temperament- bold and brave

Likes/dislikes- Likes: Her job, being respected, being treat equally, power, having a voice, getting deeply involved with cases, discovering, solving, being smart, people who appreciate her and her work, helping others, being involved where she can make an impact. Dislikes: Sexism, Men who think they are in control and are more powerful, power-hungry people, judgemental people, disrespect, rude comments, cases left unsolved, unbothered detectives/ reporters, false media, false accusations, administrative leave, being treat differently because she’s a woman, being used and taken advantage of, people doubting her ability.

Beliefs- Strongly believes in herself, is a feminist, believes in her work, helping others, everyone has there own problems to deal with, the law, self worth and being respectful, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough, Try and fail at least, but never fail to try, having a good mindset is key, everything is possible. 

Fears- Losing her passion(her job), living her life being mistreat by everyone, becoming weak, taken as a fool.

Goals- to prove capability in work and get off administrative leave, equality, solve many cases and help many people, to become a person that is looked up to, a role model, inspirational

Self-Image- Thinks highly of herself in a good, healthy way not a narcissistic way, portrays herself the same way as how she wants to feel inside, strong. Deep down there lies a lot of self doubt and worry. 

The Characters World- 

Relationships- Single, has friends outside of the office, not a lot of friends but a few close friends that she can rely on at any time, has a family that doesn’t believe in her, her own father is sexist and her mother has always favourited her youngest child, her only brother. I wouldn’t say she is truly appreciated by her family that’s why its harder for people to become friends with her as she won’t just accept anyone easily, as she has quite a high defensive wall that comes between aquentences and friends that has been built up over time through her own family rejecting and mistreating her. 

Ethnicity and Cultural Background- White British. Brought up in lower- middle class household that didn’t offer many luxuries but offered the basics of life like roof over head, enough food on the table etc. She attended a normal school but has always been very intelligent and top of classes, didn’t get praised for this growing up. 

General history- Brought up in the 60’s. After school went on to further education and got lucky with her job in the office, only woman working there, she wasn’t treat the same or good at all really but its always been her dream career for her growing up and she would change it for the world or the people. 

Personal History- Her closest friends have all got their own jobs and lives so they don’t see much of each other anymore but if anything was needed they were the people for her to count on. They meet up at least once a year for drinks and food and they were always fun times for Alice, being with the only people she trusts. Her mother and father aren’t in contact with Alice anymore and haven’t been since she became an adult and went after her dream career. They have always attached the feeling of not being good enough to Alices mind throughout her life and even with them not in it, she has this inner obstacle of proving her worth and being enough that had been embedded in to her from her parents. Thats were she gets her dedication and motivation from.

She is motivated by the thought of her parents. 

The way they treat her makes her angry. But what makes her happy is her true friends that shower a little love and affection over her, that being the only love and affection she gets. 

She is really hurt that she has been put on administrative leave and will do anything to get off it, not letting her parents win. Her career is at stake and also that little voice in her mind that she NEEDS to overcome in order to reach happiness and full potential is at stake.

Fun facts- she loves animals, that’s because they don’t judge, she also is a big fan of crime shows where they show how to truly know when someone is lying. She’s becoming a pro at noticing white lies and big lies, which is great for her job. 

She has found herself on administrative leave at this time because the disadvantage of her being the only woman in the office has caught her off guard and has now came into play in a negative way. It will be a stupid reason to why she is on it, something that she would get away with if she was a man. 

ALICE KEY WORDS- Sarcastic, strong, independent, dedicated, brave, true.

30/11/21

First day on set today for Alice And The Cold Case!!! Wow the set was amazing, that was the first time id ever seen it today. I was in all day today and shot 4 of my scenes. It went pretty well and I enjoyed it so so much arghh. I got my makeup done which went on nice too, so thankful for that:) Overall, its been a really busy and exciting day. I feel like I've already learnt a lot just from being on set and I loved how everyone was taking it seriously and were very professional with it. 3 of my scenes today were on my own, monologues and split phone scenes, the last one we shot was me and Harley, Alice and Captain. Harley was great! Over the moon with it. Have came home and and learnt three new scenes for tomorrow. Excitingg...

01/12/21

Shoot day 2 of Alice And The Cold Case done. Today we shot scene 8, which was a really long scene, lasting 8 minutes... Daniel was amazing we got his shots in one take done and dusted. I had also missed out one of the scenes we were shooting today so learnt it 10 mins before shooting, it was a phone scene and thankfully Emily read for me so it was easier to react. Last scene was with Harley, amazing work from him as usual and that didn't take long to do. Overall, happy with today and have came home and learnt my lines again for tomorrow. Only 2-3 scenes to do tomorrow. It will be last shoot day of this week.

02/12/21

Day 3 of shooting Alice And The Cold Case. Today was a little stressful to say the least because to start the day off there were lots of mixed signals with scheduling. That was eventually sorted and then I got there, had my hair and makeup done to realise the two scenes I had learnt the night before should have been three and so I'd missed a scene which we were shooting today. I thought oh its okay because I learnt a scene on the day of shoot yesterday I'll just do it today. However, looking over the script in little breaks through the day I realised Alice actually had quite a lot of chunky dialogue so I was forcing my brain to learn it lol and yeah... I couldn't learn it and act it with a deep understanding if we were shooting it today. So I'm so so glad we were able to push it back so now we can actually make it good. This is quite an important scene I would say so I'm glad it can be done properly now. We did shoot a scene with Morgan and I and also a scene with Meghan and I. I'm not too proud of the scene I did with Morgan, not going to lie. I just think I was a little stressed about learning that other scene for later on, that we didn't end up shooting anyway, that the scenes we were shooting didn't get my full attention. I'm so glad to be a part of this feature film though because I really think its giving me the experience I need, with learning lines and performing with the film crew all there and the pressure on this... It is all what I want to get used to and learn whilst experiencing. Hopefully I haven't annoyed the film crew too much because I would like to be cast in more things in the future so I really hope they don't hate me lol arghh. Its a learning curve...

24/01/22

Today was the first day back after performing Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. We began looking at the connections script and went into small groups in order to walk through the first 10 pages roughly. I feel like I know little about this script at the moment but hopefully tonight I will read through the full thing and decide on which characters I am more leaning towards auditioning for. For the audition process, we are self taping which I think is cool and its something different to what we normally do. Right now, I would like to audition for a main part so would self tape. Its good that everyone can be a part of this who wants to be because there are so many lines that can be handed out to anyone that haven't been given a role.  I'm quite excited to get stuck in and start working on this script named, "Remote".

25/01/22

Today we looked at self taping as that's how we will audition for "remote". I have changed who I am interested in auditioning for just in today's lesson, I now like Antler and Skin. This is because I think they will challenge me the most out of all characters and I may have more fun playing. I would be happy with any part to be honest tho:)

31/01/22

I really enjoyed today's lesson. We devised scenes in small groups as characters we would love to play in "remote". My chosen character, from of the two I auditioned for, was Skin. In my group there were the two Marks playing Oil and Blister. Our scene was primarily about the first meet up between Blister, Skin and Oil, the first time we ask to borrow a fiver. I liked the scene we devised and thought it was a great way to introduce how each of us would play our characters. Everyone else's scenes were also really great to watch and I could see their visions to how they wanted to play their characters. One thing I like is that everyone who is auditioning for the same character played it different. I'm excited to find out the cast list but nervous because there's only one cast arghh scary.

13/02/22

Today we talked about something quite new which we've never done before: script writing. I feel like I struggle with script writing but would so love to improve on it so this could help me. I enjoyed creative writing at school but for me its getting that initial idea that I like down and from there on, its easy to build on. We have an assignment set to write a 250 word opening of any genre, any storyline we want of a movie idea. Keeping the words to a maximum of 250 will really help us get straight to the point. Im really not sure what to do mine about yet. One thing that helps is that we will be swapping our openings with someone else and they write the middle. The same with the end too. This will help us just focus on this specific section of the movie idea. 

We also went to watch the degree students' show today. I loved it! It was a bunch of different musical songs and scenes that they performed into a mashup like show. They all did very well:)

03/03/22

Can I just say how much I love starting these lessons with six word stories! They're so fun, like actually...

A stranger- "The one I wish I knew..."

A perfect friend- "Always and forever; never any doubt."

Since we are working on script writing and writing plots for stories in general in Thursdays lessons with the Film and TV gang, today we swapped our stories again for the ending write up. I have Samantha's opening and Rebecca's middle section of the story. 

We looked a lot at writing our sitcom in todays lesson also. In my group there is: Me, Emie, La Toya, Courtney, Freya. We have mind mapped and plotted many ideas but have begun to develop the idea of "the funeral". To sum it up, Two sisters, one cheeky, bubbly and witty and one sophisticated, perfect and smart, receive an invitation to their uncles funeral. They wake up late on the day and have a mad rush in order to get there on time. When they turn up and sit down, they realise it's the wrong funeral. How will they escape this funeral of sobbing, heartbroken individuals, pressuring them to give a heartwarming speech about "Brenda", who they've never once interacted with in their lives? Finally, they escape, to realise they got the wrong Friday for the funeral. 

That idea is to be tweaked and played around with; it isn't set in stone. 

For me, writing can be fun when the initial idea is there, or at least when it's a good day for lots of creativity to flow.

10/03/22

Ok so today we further developed our sitcom ideas and ours seems to be coming together a lot more now, especially with us getting the basic skeleton of the story down. We also written a lot of notes which are here...

Then we did a task on tweets and we had to tweet responses to tell a story through this type of vibe. La Toya and I worked together on it and came up with a basic story of a physco ex getting involved with a proposal tweet. 

https://stocktoncollege-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/02100768_stockton_ac_uk/EWhq5cc7Yd1AgZaaMBLJqzkBmZPF70q55VofX1tWeRlGqg

I also auditioned to play thew role of Destiny in the second year film students sitcoms. I got the part and am now shooting the into tomorrow and more scenes very soon. I love the scripts for this; they're so funny. 

11/03/22

Friday. Today was really fun. We shot the intros to a TV sitcom project the second years have been working on. Its vibe is similar to "first dates". My scenes were all improvised. The first scene was an interview in the green screen room. The second scene was the walk into the date, talking with the host/waiter. I really loved filming this; I thought it was so funny and the idea is great. Loved it. Filming more on Monday, but this time it will be the scripted scene with Mark:)

16/03/22

Today was so different and fun. We had Tom teach us a lesson on singing. With me, I don't know an awful lot about singing and technique but I am always singing for fun. We began with a warm up. It involved not just a vocal warm up but a physical warm up too, including some yoga, and some exercises for the voice. When we actually got to singing, I noticed that these exercises were really important because I felt more able to sing higher notes and there was less strain. I tried my best that's all that matters, even if it didn't sound that good I am actually happy as long as I tried. Knowing that I've never had a sining lesson or anything like that, I knew it would be tricky but practicing in groups made me feel a lot better because we weren't obviously just singing solo.

We moved on to sing two songs from "Blood Brothers" - "Marilyn Monroe" and "Tell me it's not true". I didn't know these songs before we began singing them today so that's one of the many things I've learnt. We also sung in a harmony today which I thought was really cool, each group sining at different octaves; allowing us to discover our own vocal range. 

I learnt more today about the anatomy of the body and how your vocal cords work, along with plosive sounds. I learnt the importance of a warmup, the importance of good posture and physical health when it comes to singing. Overall, I would love to do more lessons like that on singing moving into the future. I felt I definitely took away lots of new and important information and enjoyed every minute of it:)