May 2008

This was our third and final session with creative producer and development specialist Lisa Neely. We spent the first half of the session discussing the progress of our own projects and Lisa gave spome really useful advice on where to go next in terms of completing the development phase and moving on to the next stage of pre-production.

For the second half Lisa gave us an article from a newspaper about dating agencies in London and we divided into two groups and the task was to come up with a concept, a pitch and a logline for a feature film inspired by this article. Both groups came up with a completely different idea and it was really fascinating to see how one idea can inspire to completely different stories. It was great to be able to put everything we had learnt about development into practice and showed up areas of weakness as well as strengths in out own abilities.

Lisa finsihed the session by giving us information on how to get development funding and about the differences in the devlopment process between Hollywood and the UK industries.

I have really enjoyed these creative sessions and at this point my instinct tells me that this is the area of production I am best suited to and have the greatest passion for, but the course has already been full of surprises so I can't wait to see whether I still think this in a few weeks time!

Week 4: Session 2: Physical Production 1

This was the first of four sessions on Physical Production, all of which will be taken by Line Producer Victoria Goodall. This first session was an introduction to the role of a line producer and the considerations a line producer when they first take on a project and their responsibilites in getting it ready for production. Victoria was great; really energetic and down to earth.

She was keen to stress the central importance of making sure the script fits the budget, warning us about hidden costs of locations, actors, special effects etc. The role of a line producer seems more practical than creative in that it is a line producers job to make sure that there is the right balance between the creative and financial aspects of a production and that the project runs on budget and is completed.

We discussed the differences in cost and creativity in shooting on Film, SD and HD and the importance of considering the post-production process as well as the physical production when making these kind of decisions.

We went over what Carlo has told us about completion bonding and Victoria had a pretty different perspective in that the bonder is not the enemy of the producer! It would be a line producers role to report to them on a daily basis during the shoot and keep them informed on the progress, both financially and creatively, of the projects.

As well as the facts, Victoria told us plenty of anecdotes of her own experiences on film sets and projects, both that went brilliantly well and others that were a disaster. It was good to hear how the theories work on practice and the common mistakes that lots of producers and directors and line producers make.

Over the next two sessions we are going to take a short film and with Victoria's help, as a group, we will budget and schedule the film. I hope that what I learn from this will enable me to make a draft of a budget and schedule for my own project afterwards.

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Week 4: Development and Physical Production

Ricardo Nunes