INDEPENDENT TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Complicity 


Complicity  is a crime/drama project aimed towards the Channel 4 audiences. The project was filmed in the Birmingham area. The series will be split into 8 episodes in order for audiences to go on a dark/ crime set journey. Members of the group decided to call the drama 'Complicity' as it shows a mystery and crime meaning. The name is to lure audiences into viewing the program and be intrigued on what to expect.


Synopsis 



Olly ( Luke Stanton) is the main character in the drama, he is the one is who mysteriously murdered by an unknown person. The first episode ( pilot episode) shows the flashback of Olly dead on the floor in his house, the episode also shows the issues he has faced with his friends, family and personal life.Olly is then causing issues with his best friend Dexter ( Jamie Causer) who ends up having a huge argument with him in the first episode, leaving audiences to think of their first victim. Sarah ( Megan Oxtoby) who is Olly's lover becomes annoyed with him for not doing his job properly and has an argument in the office, this leads Sarah being another victim. The episodes will gradually get darker until the show unveils the murderer.

                                                                                                 

3.2.1 ACTION! Olly is about to leave for work.

Love is in the air- But did Sarah kill Olly?

 My Role

I was the production manager for the project and my role to manage the crew, production process and deal with the budgeting and scheduling. I was also part of casting the actors who all have previously worked on BBC related shows in the past. My challenge through the process was dealing with budgeting and scheduling and trying to match them together. I also was given the role to cast some actors for the project, the casting was the most challenging part as it was difficult trying to find people who match the description of the characters. I liaised with the producer and director and we all came up with a decision on who to cast. I communicated with all the actors through e-mail and made sure they had a copy of the script and a informative brief of what to expect throughout the shooting days. 



Final Project 

The final project was edited and completed in just three months. The deadline for the program drama was in January. I believe the drama was a success, and working in the team has made me become a stronger and more confident person working in a group.

TV DRAMA

'' LIFE'S A GAMBLE''

During the TV drama production project I have to work in a group of four team members in order to create the opening 15 minute drama piece which would be shown just before the first ad break, as a team we decided our drama is suitable to be commissioned on Channel 4 as it seems to meet their drama criteria. We decided to call the drama 'Life's A Gamble'' as the title matched the purpose of the drama itself.

SYNOPSIS


Dan Whitbrook is a young married man living in the city of Birmingham who amongst other things has major money problems. Pressured into young marriage due to having made his girlfriend Maria Whitbrook who is currently pregnant and having to put his career ambitions on hold to make time for the coming baby. Major money issues start to emerge due to having to rent a house with his wife Maria. Dan purchases a lottery ticket thinking he’s a winner when all his numbers match up.Thrilled that all their money problems are finally over the Dan and Maria go on a shopping spree. However, due to the ignorance that had started to fester in Dan he failed to notice that the ticket he thought was the winning one was in fact the one he’d purchased the week before. Maria (distraught) has a massive argument with Dan which results in him going out drinking he then gets intoxicated but with his despair comes a young lady called Danielle who enters his life . Danielle persuades Dan to follow her into a dark old Basement which is known to be a drugs den. This then leads onto a  detective called Harry Gray who starts to follow the trail of Dan’s punishable law breaking habit.

Characters Dan and Danielle in the basement.

3.2.1 Action !

Maria doesn't look too pleased with Dan

Maria and Dan argument turns dark.

MY ROLE
My pre-production role was to do script writing as it is something I quite enjoy, I worked closely with both the Assistant Director and Director in order to complete the script. I am also a Production Manager so my main duties is to keep on track with the production schedule and budgeting and make sure that the big files are completed at the end of the post production stages. I am also involved in allocating the location during the production process, so I had to keep in contact with Film Birmingham in order to get permission to film at various locations around the Birmingham region.

Left to right : Paul ( Sound Operator/ Editor ) , Joe ( First AD / Scriptwriter ) Me ( Production Manager / Scriptwriter )        Jono ( Director)

PROFESSIONAL TALKS

During the first couple of weeks of the TV drama module we had some visitors from the television drama industry to talk to us about how they started of in the industry. The first talk was by production coordinators at BBC Doctors who told us what it is like working in that particular industry, this was a very useful talk as it helped me understand what is needed to work in the industry. A couple of weeks later a director from teen soap drama Hollyoaks came to talk to us about how he became a director and what skills and experience is needed to become a television drama director.


TRAILER

During the module as a group we had to think of a cross media project to reflect both of the modules we picked, as a result we decided to create a trailer which crosses both of the modules together. We thought channel 4 drama trailers are shown on E4 quite often so it would be great if our trailer was shown on the ad break of the TV chat show Screen Squeeze.

FINAL PROJECT


After weeks of filming, the final project was completed ready for the deadline date. As a production group we worked extremely hard with the project. There were a lot of strengths as well as some weaknesses, this has helped me identify what drama production could be like in the industry. I had an incredible time working with a great team and learned a lot of skills, I enjoyed being a production manager and understood how time management, organisation and professionalism were the key points to that specific job role.

TV MAGAZINE & TALK SHOW

SHOW


As part of my TV magazine and talk show university module, I have to work with a group of 25 production team members in order to create a show commissioned for E4. The show is called Screen Squeeze and is aimed at a youth audience. The show is currently in the pre-production stage and will be aired at the end of this month.


 LOGO:

 This is the logo for the upcoming TV chat show project that I am currently involved in. This was designed the graphic designer in the team. The logo color is to symbolise E4 as most of the colours used on that channel is normally purple / white.

MY ROLES:

My roles are quite broad as I am a gossip researcher and sound location operator for the VT production process and a lighting operator and vision engineer for the studio production. My roles are quite hands down as I have to manage and balance my time and work along with a group of production team including a presenter. I had to work at different locations during the VT filming, some were interior based and some were exterior based, I have worked with a great VT team and learned some much during my time during the pre-production process. I covered the Film, Gossip and Sports VT as a location sound operator.

My self checking the sound levels

My self and Presenter Alex Kirwin ready to interview

My studio role was quite straight forward, I learned how to use the vision engineering desk as this made me aware on how to deal exposure and color. I had to deal with the white balance and the black balance in order to get an even color temperature.  The vision engineering desk also deals with the lighting on the shots.


LIVE SHOW

On Thursday 3rd April the show went on live, this was a really challenging and crucial day as we only were allowed one take so we had to do a lot of rehearsals beforehand, there was about two run through before the actual live show. The show consisted of two main female presenters , sports presenter and  gossip/ news presenter. Instead of a guest music artist, the producer decided to invest a magician to be the main performer on the show. As a result the show was a success and we fulfilled the half an hour mark. WELL DONE TEAM !

THAT'S A WRAP !

 I have learned so much throughout this module and understood the challenging and time consuming aspects of the television talk show industry. I have worked alongside great team members and learned new skills throughout the module,  also it's quite intriguing to know one day in the future I may be working with some of these amazing people in the television industry.


SCREEN SQUEEZE SHOW 

MUSIC VIDEO '' EMMA DUNN - OH HONEY''

As part of my second year Music, TV and Promo project I had to produce a music video for a client. My client was a local music artists called Emma Dunn who I previously worked with in the past. I worked with a production team consisting for four members, as a team we identified each of our roles and mine was a sound operator,  I had to also deal with script writing for the pre-production side of the project. Throughout the three weeks of production I had make sure the sound levels were on point whilst we was filming in different locations inside and outside, I also used my creative side by sharing camera shot ideas with the music video producer. I also helped with sound operating throughout the post-production as I had to make sure the sound levels were on point and not distorting.

The interview in the beginning of the music video was me and my colleague interviewing Emma Dunn which was part of our cross-media project. My other module was Broadcast Journalism so I used some of my skills from journalism and crossed it over in to my music video project.

SHORT FILM '' GIVE ME STRENGTH''

As part of my film production project I had to produce a short film. After all the research and analysing different short films I decided to focus my short film on the life of a person who suffers from a life threatening illness.

Whilst producing the short film it gave me an opportunity to use my production and camera skills whilst shooting the short film. The camera I used was a sony JVC camera. I used many camera shots such as MCU, MS, LS and a 2S whilst producing the short film. I also wanted to have raw emotion in the short film so I decided to use some camera shots which primarily aims at the main character in the short film.

I also used my editing skills using final cut pro which is a Apple Mac editing software. I was able to edit the film and make it how I wanted it. I used the razor tool to get rid of the unwanted clips, the footage was 23 mins and I was able to edit it so that it fits 3 mins which is the maximum time limit for the project. I also decided to use some voiceovers which is heard through out the film as from some of the films I have analysed there is use of voiceovers.

EVENT PRODUCTION

I organised a live music event to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, there were many music acts who came to event to perform some of their songs. I also produced the event by recording the performances.
 

The video above shows my camera skills for one of the music acts. I was given advice on how to produce the event such as using two sony pw100 cameras. I used one of the cameras to film a long shot of the performers which was set at the back of the room. I decided to use my handheld camera skills on the second camera which gave me an opportunity to take some cutaways and close up shots of the performer.


I edited the event clips on the Apple mac software called final cut pro . The editing took a couple of days to do as I had the cutaways and close up shots in the chosen places in the sequence. I also had to cut out alot of unwanted clips whilst editing. Final cut pro is a straight forward software which I have good knowledge and experience about.

LOCATION INTERVIEW PRODUCTION

As part of my documentary location project I had to produce a  documentary about the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery fashion event.

I had a chance to show some of my creativity skills in production whilst using the camera and also show my ability on how to take different camera shots whilst filming.I used a variety of camera shots such as a MCU, CU and MS. I also panned the camera during some of the scenes as well.

The camera that I used was a sony JVC camera which I found very useful when using to produce the location interview. I has given me an opportunity to strengthen my camera skills as this will help me in the near future when working in production.

I edited this footage on the software called final cut pro, this has helped me develop new methods and ideas when editing. It has given me a chance to be creative when editing and to come up with a great overall location interview production.