Studio Production: Trailer Shoot

On the 18th of February, the DOP and I filmed the trailer for Teach 'Em A Lesson.

Actors & Crew
In the role of the teacher, we cast the presenter of the show, James Percy-Smith. We felt that it was important to include the presenter in the trailer as he is so heavily featured in the show, and this gives the audience an idea of what to expect. He is also brilliant at portraying the snooty, old fashioned teacher that we required.

For the POV student character, I worked as the GoPro camera operator (wearing a GoPro headmount) / the character acting out their morning tasks. However in the final shots of the trailer, we will be using an older woman from the first year of our course, as she allows the final reveal of who the student is to be a plot twist - as we assume that the student is a child, rather than a middle-aged adult.

Locations
The locations for filming were decided on as a student's house and Maidstone Studios.

The student's house was used for...

• Waking up in bed (girl's bedroom)
• Eating cereal (living room)
• Putting on tie (girl's bedroom)
• Brushing teeth (bathroom)
• Packing bag (girl's bedroom)

The studios were used for...

• Walking to 'school' (studios entrance)
• Walking to school inside (studios hallway)
• Entering and sitting down in the classroom (lecture room 2)

Having previously seen the student's house to know what to expect, along with the girl's bedroom being perfect for an already needed female bedroom as well as being able to dress it up to be slightly more schoolgirl-like, along with it being available time wise and location wise on filming day, the student house was perfect.

The studios was also a very convenient place to film the school shots, as outside of the entrance could be mistaken for school grounds if filmed correctly, as could the hallway, the lecture room was capable of being dressed as a classroom and it was also available time wise and location wise.

Walking to school POV shot outside of Maidstone Studios

Set Dressing
Dressing the set of the bedroom consisted of...

• Displaying stuffed animals around the room
• Scattering school supplies around the room
• Scattering child-like items around the room such as storybooks

Dressing the set of the studios lecture room consisted of...

• Clearing out the room, leaving only a table and two chairs
• Adding a large 'desk' style table to the room
• Putting up two school-style posters
• Moving the whiteboard nearer to the centre and writing 'TODAY: 1 TO 1s, DON'T BE LATE!!!'
• Teacher desk décor including a plant, folders, an apple, a miniature globe, stationary and books
• Adding 'student' to the smaller table
• Placing an exercise book on the student table

I think that with the resources that we had available, we dressed the sets very well. However I feel like the 'classroom' appears to look quite flat in colours due to the amount of white, so will need to be made more vibrant and colourful in post-production.

A set dressing example - needs to be livened up in editing and potentially resized

Props
Many props were bought, borrowed and used for the making of the trailer, including...

• A backpack
• A mobile phone with a childish wallpaper
• A Mickey Mouse bowl
• Chocolate, young appealing cereal with milk & sugar
• A child's toothbrush & toothpaste
• Sweets
• A child's lunchbox
• A feminine pencil case
• Colourful pens & other stationary
• A bright red watch (part of costume)
• A feminine notepad

The addition of these thought out props really helped with production value.

Example of props used

Costume
Costume for James as the teacher consisted of him wearing his own striped tie, shirt, trousers and shoes, with us providing fake comical glasses and a specially bought teacher's gown and cane. I feel that this costume helped for him to look the part, he appears in the way that most audiences could imagine a snooty teach to look.

Costume for myself as the student consisted of child-like and feminine pyjamas for the waking up and having breakfast shots, and a white shirt, black trousers, socks and shoes, a borrowed school tie and a child-like red watch. We deliberately decided on a slightly scruffy shirt with rolled up sleeves, untidy shoes and a loose tie to represent the child's laid back attitude. Due to the trailer following the theme that the student goes against the rules.

The costume for the first year student appearing in the final shots will be exactly the same as my school costume for continuity.

Script & Shooting
When following the script during filming, there were only minor changes made. I gave any input necessary as the GoPro camera operator and producer, but with the DOP in charge I made sure to follow instruction under her style and planning. With the trailer script improved on after the test shoot, we were able to follow it consistently, but decided to make small additions such as adding the character's supposed mum calling out "you're going to be late for school" when she wakes up, along with stretching out her arms as she does so. I think the creative improvisations added to the quality of the trailer.

An improvisation that proved to be successful

It felt quite tricky to get the camera shots correct when filming, as while I was operating the GoPro, the DOP was the person that could see it, and vice versa. So neither of us had total control or manoeuvrability, which proved to be a challenge. There were some shots where my hair (which differs to the first year actress playing the character) fell into shot unnoticed, that will need to be cut around, and areas of the set that weren't supposed to be in shot. But I will be attempting to cut around these issues in editing and making them unnoticeable.

A shot that needs to be resized

The final trailer script is below...

Link to Teach 'Em A Lesson Trailer Script

What's Left

• Filming of the first year portraying the student character on a Sony EX1 will take place tomorrow. Then all material will be recorded for the trailer
• I will then continue editing and add the final shots to the edit
• GFX blackboard rules (as seen in the test shoot trailer) will be created by the DOP and edited into the final cut by myself
• The final soundtrack for the show will be added into the edit with footage cut in time with it by myself

Studio Production: Style Bible

When creating the Style Bible for Teach 'Em A Lesson, I started by referring to a previous example of a style bible for types of categories to use. I found these to be font, background, lower thirds, lighting, set design and costume design. I decided to focus on all of these along with the addition of the colour scheme and prop design to allow the style bible to include more detail. Liaising with the producer and director of the show, I completed the document with great detail for all members of the production to refer to.

Font consists of the main font for the show's logo, an example, the name of the font with a reference to the download link of the shared production drive, the style, the common size, the common colour and the colour if over a transparent or white background and their specific colour codes - all under the information given by the producer and director. I feel that this specific information allows there to be no hesitation when any other production members go ahead with branding. I also pointed out to the producer that when the main font is made smaller, it loses it's clarity and becomes hard to read, so he found a second 'back-up' font for smaller text and I proceeded to add this along with all of the details above to the font section.

Background, while listed second in the style bible, was one of the last additions. As this required adding the finalised logo and a background template, both created by the DOP and approved by the producer before adding to the style bible. These images allow others that access the document to follow the template background as a guide or lift the image of the logo for their own use.

Colours focuses on a single image of the main colour theme (pastel yellow) and it's details, consisting of the name, it's RGB information and it's hash tag code for use in Photoshop etc. for anyone to be able to get an exact match.

Lower Thirds was the last addition of the style bible due to being unsure of the names of the characters to be used on the lower thirds along with the creation of them in general being finalised. The end result is now a clear example of how names and questions will be displayed during filming. I also included details about the design, the position of the lower third in the frame and it's GFX animation to be used.

Lighting - mainly used for a reference for the director, producer and lighting assistant, uses imagery examples of the type of lighting that they plan to use for each round, along with details of lighting placement. Such as the top left light being: rigged and focused on the presenter's desk.

Set Design shows an image example of the type of wall that the director and producer plan to use. The image is one I created myself with three separate images of the pastel yellow theme colour, a wooden pattern and a brick wall editing together, after the producer and director described their set design plan to me. I then found two example of Victorian classrooms that I felt could be what they were looking for as reference material, and with their approval, added the images to the style bible. Lastly, liaising with the producer, I found three example décor images of items/details that will be included on set.

Prop Design shows four example images of the type of furniture and usable props that will be included on set and in the show. These images were also found by myself and the producer to capture the type of set that he and the director were picturing and deciding on.

Costume Design explains the exact costume that the presenter and the contestants will be wearing during the show. With example images for both and bullet points of their exact details. Including each item of clothing and their colours.

I feel that the style bible has a great deal of detail involved, is a useful reference for any decisions made by the producer, director and DOP that may change with planning and a helpful guide for production members that need to know specific branding details.

Link to the Style Bible

Studio Production: Trailer Test Shoot & Production

On the 16th of February, the DOP and myself filmed the test shoot for the show's promotional trailer. It was decided before filming that I would be the camera operator wearing the GoPro for POV footage. Due to availability and the fact that it seemed appropriate to practice the run through in the test shoot and be prepared for the official shoot - rather than test the GoPro myself, for someone else to then take over without practice.

Filming

Following the guidelines of my script and shot list (presented in a previous post), the DOP and I practised creating POV shots by her viewing the live stream of the GoPro on an iPhone app and giving me direction on my movements. Due to the lack of props available on the day of the test shoot, there was a lot of improvisation, including my outfit and Jordan outfit - acting as the teacher (both out of costume and in regular clothes), and props that are scripted as certain items being entirely different, including cereal and milk becoming the items of coffee granules and orange juice, a neck tie becoming a scarf and a toothbrush and toothpaste becoming a pen and hand soap. We felt that putting our effort into décor and props for the test shoot would be unnecessary as the focus needed to be solely on rehearsing the movements and appearance of the GoPro to have it fine tuned and prepared for filming the trailer.

Two shots of the test shoot were however filmed on a Sony EX1 camera, this was intending in planning, as the Sony provides a clear reveal of who's POV the audience is witnessing while remaining as a steady and stable shot on a tripod - yet still with the POV experience due to the character breaking the fourth wall.

A test POV shot of eating 'cereal' that went successfully

Editing
When editing the test trailer by following the script, it felt like a simple process due to almost every shot being a single shot, meaning that they didn't need to be cut together as the clips would if they were, for example, shots of characters having a conversation. Due to the change of location and actions, the shots were able to connect side my side.

GFX
However, the addition of GFX 'School Morning Rules' seemed to be what tied the edit together, working as transitions between each task that the character carries out...

'GFX' example

For each GFX-style title addition to the edit, I simply added a stretched image of the blackboard template created by the DOP for the production's Style Bible, with Titles laid over the image on Final Cut Pro. I think the end result had the desired effect that I intended, as it follows the theme of the show perfectly and has a soft, young appearance for the young viewers. However, this will need to be improved when editing the real promotional trailer. As the stretching of the chalk in the blackboard image is quite obvious and unappealing to the eye, and it will also appear to be more effect to have the text look as if it's being drawn onto the board rather than flat cuts between text - the animation of the text will be done by the DOP, as decided.

Sound

A downside of filming with a GoPro is that the sound quality and volume is very low, so an extra sound needed to be improvised. For example, when the teacher said "you're late" during filming, it was extremely quiet and of bad quality when I reviewed the footage. So I then recorded him saying the same line on an audio device after filming and laid it over the footage. This was a quick fix for the test shoot, but brought to light that we would need to use a Zoom and a Rode Mic alongside the GoPro when filming to capture clear sound quality.

Although most sound effects will be added in post production even in the official trailer. For example, the sound of the backpack being zipped up and the sound of brushing teeth in the test shoot cut was added in post production from Freesound. Due to the fact that the camera angles of the GoPro won't allow me to actually eat or brush my teeth without losing my hand from the shot, the post production sound effects will simulate the desired effect of me doing so.

As the official soundtrack for Teach 'Em A Lesson is not yet finished, I decided to use a different soundtrack from a copyright-free website that remains childlike sounding and upbeat, I then tried to cut around the music to make the edit flow. The track is Ukulele by Bensound.

Below is the edited test shoot trailer...

What will change

• The animation and appearance of the 'school morning rules' GFX
• The quality of costume, props and décor
• The addition of looking into a mirror during the 'tie' scene for variety (as suggested by our tutor)
• The addition of eating a sweet after brushing teeth and adding a lot of sugar to the cereal - to follow a new idea that everything the student does goes against the 'school morning rules' (also suggested by our tutor)
• The camera angle of packing the backpack for shot variety
• Adding the presenter's voice over to the outro of the official trailer

What will stay the same

• Using blackboard GFX
• All of the tasks carried out in the script
• Most of the camera angles

Testing out shooting the trailer proved to be extremely helpful and allowed us to figure out where to make changes and improvements and what will work for the real thing.