BBC - Mark Kermode's film blog

Saturday 19 May 2012

Pre-Prodution Unit/Dissertation: The Final Flourish


This week has been making the final adjustemtns to both Pre-Production and Dissertation I feel the old adage of the 7 P's has been the way in which we've succeeded in this porject:
Proper preparation prevents p***-poor performance
Here our (almost) final designs for the pre-produtcion unit The Pre-production package (PPP) book design made at Hollingworth & Moss
and the PPP's DVD made at Cyclone

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Pre-Production Unit: Script Writing


Spent yesterday working through the introduction part of my Shooting Script. This was a quite a hard task but managed to finish the first section. Today I decided to tackle the bulk of the script in a different manner. First I found the outline for Act One which I created in the Presentation stage:
Through archive and face-to-face interview we meet the crew, led by Historian Dan Snow. Interweaved with historical footage we are taken through the History of the raid which includes stylistic montage of the next generation team training at relevant land mark Eastney in Portsmouth, reflecting that of the ‘Canoe Commanodes’. Dan then takes us through the ‘Cockle Mk II’ cutting to sequence of the canoes being crafted by experts, The Historic Canoe and Kayak Associtation, with our crew helping the Kayaks take shape. Preperation concludes with a visit from presenter of Bullets, Boots and Bandadges, Military historian Saul David. Saul kits out the team in orignial uniform. The Frankton Four can now undertake:
- I took this as a base and then used post-it notes to formulate a succinct order separating out the individual components. - I then took the notes and put them on our production board and played with the order with the help of Chloe:
Here is the short hand version of the notes we made: Script Order

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Pre-Production Unit: Scripting


Inbetween editing my final rough cut I have been working on the Commentary script for Peter Williams, according to Rabigers 'Directing the Documentary' the script should be
- Double spaced typed script - Set Blocks of narration apart on the page and number them for easy location - Put pages inside plastic wallets to avoid rattling.
The Cockleshell Raid 2012 on this I wrote Timecodes and approx. duration... Had a quick conversation with Hans Petch this morning and he had some great advice in terms of scrtipting a feature length documentary (he has recently worked on a 60 minute BBC 2 doc fronted by Terry Wogan) He suggests:
Breaking the script down to chapters - Intro & 9 x 10 minutes - Write intro & Chapter 1/2 - Do a chapter Summary for 3-9
Here is a rough edit: