For 162MC I am working as part of a group of 6 people. We have chosen a script from our group, which is a short comedy set in an elevator, where two ex spouses get trapped together. We thought that this script would be easy to shoot but very effective, and with two really good actors, we thought it could be a very successful comedic short film.
Actors
Katie, another group member, knows an actress who fits the criteria of Isobel (our lead female character) so we contacted her and she’s definitely interested, and is 100% going to be in our film. She enjoyed the script and is very keen on her role. She will be traveling from Birmingham so we have decided to cover travel expenses as well as food.
Katie and me spent a long time trawling through sites like Star Now and Castingcall Pro yesterday to find actors in the Coventry/Birmingham area to play Brian. We have so far had four replies of people who are interested, one of which we are very keen on getting involved. He already knows and has worked with Claire, our actress, which is a bonus…and both of them are in his showreel and they are perfect for the part. He is currently reading the script and will get in touch as to wether he is definitely on board.
Another actor is a smaller part, and he plays the engineer who comes to fix the lift. Again he is someone Katie knew, so he was easy to contact.
Location
Our location simply involves an elevator, ideally in a shop. We have found a location and I made a phone call to the necessary person for permission. She is happy to give us permission providing we can email her a copy of a public liability insurance form. We have had some issues with this, however we are hoping to get an up to date copy of the form sorted tomorrow. We intend to shoot on Saturday the 19th, and I have booked the equipment out for the 18th to the 21st, so we have access to it over the weekend. We are hoping that everything will come together by tomorrow so we can set definite dates and times with the actors.
This is our location, although there will be no Christmas decorations! The lift is a scenic, glass lift which looks very picturesque and unique. Its also very light, so we won’t need lighting equipment which is beneficial due to limited space.
Props
We visited the drama department in the Ellen Terry building at uni and had a look at the props. We didn’t need a great deal, just a hard hat, high viz jacket and a toolbox and various bits and bobs including a magazine for the actor and some shopping bags. Much of this we have at home, but we managed to book out a high viz jacket and hard hat which weren’t so easy to get hold of without spending money. Fortunately for our limited budget we got the majority of our props for free.
Equipment
I booked out the necessary equipment today, as I wanted to book it far enough in advance to make sure we could get everything we needed. Our equipment list is as follows:
- Sony Z5
- Rifle Mic
- Boom Pole
- Tripod
We don’t require an awful lot of equipment, and we have limited space at our location so we didn’t want to have too much to get in the way. We also thought that with the kind of budget we have for this production, this would be a more realistic amount of kit if we were paying to use it.
Films and Things 