Rebecca Barrett - TV Production blog

For my casting, we were told by Simon to use either Mandy.com or Starnow to find our cast for the project. I decided to use Mandy.com as it gave us the option to find actors who were more professional. After I posted my ‘job’ on Mandy, I received an audition for the role of ‘Baby-Doll’ and I accepted her straight away as I was worried about not receiving enough auditions for the roles.  For my other roles, two other actors from Mandy applies for my remake, but unfortunately, a few days before filming began, I received an email from my male actor who was originally planning on coming back to London that morning from Italy (he lived in London, but was in Italy at the time for a job), who said that he would no longer be able to make the date due to taking a paid job that morning. Luckily for me, one of my old friends from secondary school was free for that day and was also interested in the shoot as it benefited his photography course. My other female actress (the second to apply) em...

In our first directors workshop, we went off in groups are selecting a script that Ferg had printed out, we then had to slit ourselves between who was directing and who wanted to be in the other roles. Luckily for our group, we had 5 of us, so, when someone was the director, we had enough people to have a sound and camera operator as well as our two actors and a DOP. With our script we each directed the same piece, however, when we tried to move over the footage to my hard drive, we noticed that my hard drive was blank (there were files in it, they just couldn't be seen). So, to make sure I at least had some footage and a finished edit to show or the workshop, Alan let me use his footage and edit it into my own piece, which is the finished edit above. Luckily, Ferg kept my hard drive overnight at the studios as was able to work out that something had gone wrong in the partition map. luckily, he ha fixed it by doing a fully secure wipe and back-up of the hard drive, which ...

For this project for our Director's unit, my main struggle was choosing my location and finding the props. Location: For my location, I decided to use my grandad's house as the house looks between a mix of modern and old, something which the house within the film shows. This location is also away from the main road and very quiet as there are no children in the area - perfect for this time of film where the house is supposed to be secluded. I also obtained permission from my grandad to use his house for the whole day, as, even though he is a family member, I still need permission, and like the last project, this permission request was also signed electronically. Call sheet: For my call sheet, this will be sent out to crew and cast within the next few days. The call time has been made 10:00 AM for everyone so everyone gets to set an hour early which will allow us to run through a quick blocking session with the actors before shooting, as well as giving Katie ...

In our first lighting workshop of the term, we got to know 'Three-Point lighting'. Three-Point Lighting is the most standard of all lighting set-up's that are used within film or TV production and is made up of three lights: Key, Fill and Back. Key : Also known as the main light in the scene. This light is normally the strongest and is the most influential on the overall look of the scene. It is placed on either side of the camera or subject so one side is well lit, while the other is cast in shadow.  Fill : This secondary light is placed on the opposite side of where the key light is and is primarily used to fill in the shadows that are made from the Key and is commonly less bright and softer. Back : The backlight is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps to separate the subject from the bac...

Background: Director = 3 ("The Strangers", "Mockingbird" and "The Monster") Writer = 4 ("The Strangers", "Mockingbird", "The Monster" and "The Strangers: Prey at Night") Producer = 5 ( "Mockingbird", "The Blackcoat's Daughter", "The Monster", "Stephanie" and "He's Out There" ) Bryan Bertino began his film career when he moved to LA, and, while working as a gaffer, began writing screenplays in his free time. His first film ‘The Strangers’ was submitted for a Nicholl Fellowship with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Although it only reached the quarterfinals, he was able to meet with Vertigo Entertainment and the script was later sold to Universal Studios.  Overall style: Unlike big horror directors, Bryan’s films, especially “The Strangers” doesn’t focus on being “a body count movie”, instead, Bryan focuses on his ...

To help my script out, a well as the other research I had done, I decided to also look at several 'Female Killer' documentaries related to killings over an affair as it would help me write the character of Alice in a better way. I noticed a pattern that while these friends or wives were, in the beginning, very faithful and loving, all it took was for a terrible event to happen and they become a cold-blooded killer. An example are the two below: (Taken directly from the Youtube videos) S tephanie  Erends :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_sgqmxP5A Stephanie is convinced her childhood friend Alicia Ernet stole her boyfriend, and after Alicia makes cruel jokes about Stephanie, She slits Alicia's throat with a wallpaper scraper. Rita Gluzaman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDin69zv-gk After becoming an activist in order to free her husband Yakov (a celebrated microbiologist) but after two decades of living in the US their marriage deteriorates...

For my script changes, Steve gave the feedback: The dialogue "gets bogged down in a long static and wordy scene"  I needed "more action and twist and surprise in the second half" There "is no sense of development to her character" For this, I chopped out a lot of the dialogue and replaced it for action that ramps up the tension in the scene. I realized that action can speak more than words, which is why I decided to make the changes that I did. I added a bigger twist to the ending, where we find out that Carla and John were actually planning to murder Alice as they wanted to be together - I added this change as I wanted there to be a dramatic twist, and my original ending of Alice dying during her struggle with Carla seemed too basic, with the voicemail, it reveals a definite twist. For Carla's character, I made her dialogue and spiraling emotions more apparent within the scene to make her character seem realistic towards the situation ...