Risk Assessments

Written by Tom Bailey

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is a careful examination of the making of the production and what could potentially cause harm to anyone involved. The primary purpose of the risk assessment is to enable the production team to establish exactly where the risks lie and what precautions need to be taken in order to avoid them. All workers have a right to be protected from harm caused by a failure to take reasonable control measures. Accidents and ill health can have a very negative effect on a business if output is lost as a result of accidents occurring due to the correct precautions not being carried out, if machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase or you have to go to court. It is a legal requirement for businesses assesses the risks in their workplace so that they can put in place a plan to control the risks factoring in any potential hazards. With the production of ‘Fallen Grace’ we noted the potential hazards in the filming of each scene.

The house party scene

There are a few potential risks with the party scene but they can be avoided with careful planning. One main risk is with the setting up the crane, this is due to the fact that after rainfall the balcony becomes quite slippery and handling a heavy piece of equipment like a crane will be quite dangerous, however it is easily manageable when two people set up the equipment slowly and carefully to avoid all risks even if the balcony is wet. Although the apartment isn’t particularly high up, the balcony is over ten feet above the car park, meaning that if a member of the cast or crew were to fall off they could be seriously injured. We intend to avoid this risk by only allowing the crew out onto the balcony (limiting the amount of people on the balcony) and staying away from the railings. The railings are quite high and the chance of anyone falling through or over them is very small; however we want to eliminate any potential risks. Other than this there aren’t too many potential hazards. There will be the use of party poppers in which people could cause harm to other artists if they make contact with their face but this is very unlikely and is avoidable through simply being careful and making sure there is no one directly opposite when firing. 

The basement scene

In the basement scene the potential risks are the following, when Clare is tied up we have to make sure that the rags aren’t too tight so our actress will feel comfortable and there are no chances of her having difficulty breathing or encountering problems with her blood circulation.  Also part of the makeup involves the use of wax which will give a realistic blood effect, Clare will have to avoid this touching her hair as it will stick and cause irritation.  We can avoid this by taking extreme precaution to ensure Clare’s hair doesn’t make contact with the wax. The steps leading down to the basement are quite steep, this creates a hazard as, if a member of our cast or crew were to fall down the stairs they could potentially be seriously injured, we can avoid this hazard by each going down the stairs one at a time, taking our time and watching where we step, this will be especially important when handling equipment.

The field and woods scenes

The potential risks we could encounter in the field and wood scenes are also fairly minimal excluding the possibility of it raining and the equipment getting wet, potentially causing damage which will be very costly and jeopardise the rest of the production. However it can easily be avoided as we have planned the filming after checking the weather forecast for a suitable day when there will be no weather hazards. The woods we are planning on filming in are quite dense so there is the potential for our artists to catch themselves on the branches resulting in minor injury; we can avoid this by informing our artists to extra cautious when walking and running through the woods. The ground is also quite uneven, if our artists are running over it there is the potential for them to trip up and twist their ankle or fall down and injure themselves, we can reduce this hazard by cautioning our artists about the uneven surface so they are careful and the risk of injury is reduced.

The classroom scene

The risks that could occur in the classroom scene are fairly minimal as we will be in a safe environment of a school which has regularly building regulation tests to ensure the safety of the pupils because of this there is only one major risk, this is in the scene where Sophie who plays Zara throws furniture around the room, this could cause injuring to any members of the cast or crew that become too close. This can be avoided by the cast and crew keeping a safe distance when the furniture is being thrown. There are of course other risks that apply to every scene that we film such as the wires from all the equipment could be potential tripping hazards, we can reduce this risk by using gaffer tape to tape down any wires that are lying around and also making sure they are kept well away from our artists to reduce the chances of someone tripping over the wire. 

The explosions

By far the scene with the most potential risks is the explosion scene, as we are working with explosives, the dangers are quite clear as there is the potential for our actors or crew being burned or injured by the heat and the force of the explosion. We have arranged to film the explosions with an explosives expert ‘Ted Lewis’. Ted is a fully licensed professional working with explosives under his company name ‘Lancashire Militia’.  Lancashire Militia specialise in creating explosions for civil war re-enactments and pirate events. We are fully confident that by working with a licensed professional like Ted will ensure we take the necessary precautions to avoid harm to anyone involved. Some of these precautions include: Only, Ted and anyone carrying a licence can touch or be within a certain distance of the explosives, Our only roles in the explosion filming will be to film the explosion (from a safe distance) and direct by explaining to Ted what we would like the explosion to look like so he can organise and detonate the explosion himself. 

In conclusion all the risks in these four scenes are relatively small however if not taken seriously, we could have some consequences, we plan to take the right steps and methods to avoid all possible problems to ensure that throughout the production no one is  injured and no equipment is damaged.

More Preparation

Written by Emma Taylor

As our trailer uses elements of telekinetic powers (Grace can move objects without touching them) we needed a way to convey this on screen. In order to do this quickly and effectively on the shoot, Tom Bailey, Assistant Director and I practiced doing these shots in preportation for our up and coming film shoot. 

I suggested that we should reverse the clips, eg. if Grace dropped a pencil, we could reverse the clip to look like it was coming from the floor.

Tom and I practiced this with two different objects.

The first trail is below:

Practice shot number 1 from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

We found that because the pencil bounced on the ground, that we should use a heavier item, so the object could just fly up instead of the item staggering before flying upwards. 

This is our second trail which we found worked a lot more smoothly. 

Practice Shots from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

We used three separate clips. One of the item falling, a close up of it hitting the ground (we then duplicated the clip and reversed it) and we used a long shot of the item being picked up.

A screen shot of our practice shots on Final Cut Pro X

Using the Final Cut Pro X editing suite we reversed and duplicated the clips.

Music for Our Trailer

Written by Emma Taylor

Tom Bailey and I searched the web for royalty free music which we could use on our A Level trailer which doesn't flout copyright regulations.

In order to gain access to some royalty free music I had had to sign for the licence and state its purpose and agree to the company's terms and conditions.

We are aware that trailers use more than one piece of music in their finished products, so we contacted some bands to see if they would give us the rights to use some of their music in our trailer. If some of the music we had didn't fit properly with our finished visual products, then having more options from bands is good as security. The bands we contacted (Abi contacted 'Mumm-Ra' on Twitter and I contacted Cyrus Rose on Facebook) were very supportive and gave us the rights to one of their songs, and also wanted to see our finished production.

YouTube also gives the option for accessing royalty free music with no lyrics on which could be useful for us to use. YouTube gives different options of genres of music depending on the type of mood we want to create in the movie. It is also possible to download music from YouTube for our film which creatives have made themselves and we ask permission via comments, or if the film maker has put in the text box below the video 'can be used for movie purposes' or other alternatives along those lines.

Here is a link to the YouTube royalty free music site: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary

Costumes

Written by Emma Taylor

Characters often express themselves using clothing just as we do in real life. For example, if you like a particular band you may wear a band t shirt. If you like punk rock music you more common than not see people with long hair, black skinny jeans, a black band t shirt and boots with a leather jacket. Whilst these are stereotypes, they are very useful in films to quickly establish a character's identity using non verbal codes, and the audience doesn't even notice. This can make characters more relatable and appealing, or we could see a middle aged man, wearing a big coat with blue jeans and greasy hair walking down a street and establish him as a character you wouldn't particularly want to meet. Having all your characters in a film well dressed, doesn't replicate real life, making it seem false and not realistic, which is ultimately what we're aiming for, even if it is an animation or sci-fi film.

Whilst costumes have clearly been shown in the character profiles we have made for each of the actors, there are some elements of costume which cannot be used. For example checkered shirts. You never seen them in films or in TV because of 'moire patterns'. Moire patterns happens because there is two patterns interacting with another, which actually creates a third pattern and moves with the light in that particular shot. This causes the audience to become disorientated and can really ruin a film if you are noticing costume and camera techniques rather than focusing on the story.

Example one of 'moire'

example two of 'moire' on screen

Another element of costume we have to think about is continuity. As out character of Grace gets abducted, she cannot change clothes half way through, and her clothing gets progressively more ripped and ruined through the trailer. As were not filming these scenes in order however, we can't ruin the clothing as we go along. In order for this to work on screen, we are buying three different sets of the same outfit and will ruin them progressively, ranging from perfect condition, to quite destroyed. They do this on films such as Harry Potter and the TV show 'By Any Means' where he has several different outfits to show the progression in the film.

Character of Tom Tom in 'By Any Means'

Tom Tom in 'By Any Means'

Above is a behind the scenes shot and example of different costumes showing progression in the new British drama from the BBC 'By Any Means' showing the character of 'Tom Tom'.

References

Written by Emma Taylor

On one of my earlier posts about script writing I stated the following text from a book called 'On Film Making'. In this post I will explain how I have used this advice into the planning for this production.

Director's Notes

As a director, 'On Film Making...' suggests that for any film that we're planning to make, there are some key questions we must be able to answer.

1. How many characters are there in your story? - Select three 'principles', remember that drama and tension is easily created through characters reacting to each other on screen, so try and stay away from 'there is only one main character'. Often it is most effective to have three main characters as there is then a triangular relationship, perhaps a central character who is being pulled in opposite directions by the others. Note - that in films with dramatic scenes where there is only one character present, these tend to be the scenes where the environment itself plays the part of the protagonist, and makes the central character react to their surroundings, horror movies is an obvious example.

2. Who is your point of view character? Sometimes it can be difficult to decide between who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist. Ask yourself: by the end of the story, what does your character hope to achieve? And what is required to make this achievable whilst creating a visible result on screen? But there also has to be a negative objective - to try and prevent the end goal from happening - but this too should be a result of an action.' For Example - A girl wants a boy to be her boyfriend (the achievement). But the boy isn't interested, due to the fact that he has a date with the girl's horrible half sister (negative objective), but only because the half sister has found out the girl likes this boy, and wants to spite her (the result of an action).

3. How does the conflict lead to crisis? What is at stake for the main characters? Is there a confrontation scene? In a well constructed story the audience is held in expectation of what is called a obligatory scene brought about by a reversal (or series of reversals). The obligatory scene (the scene that the audience expects and looks forward to), classically expresses the theme and the story's central moral.

1. Whist Grace is our focus in the film and it's her journey we're following, we actually have 3 main characters; Grace, Zara and Joe. Whilst they are friends, enigmas and conflicts are made when Grace goes missing and both friends become increasingly worried, anxious and on age, creating yet more tension eg. Zara becomes quite psychotic as she can't quite cope with her emotions, and throws chairs across the school classroom. 

2. We follow to separate stories (the journey of Grace, and the journey of her friends trying to find her), but fundamentally, Grace is the story, so the film follows her emotions, her thoughts and her feelings, making the audience relate and feel sympathy for Grace. It is also true in our film that when there is only one character, the environment is the cause of tension. For example, there is a scene where there is an explosion behind Grace when she's running and she gets caught by the blast. There are no other characters, but the environment is the source of tension here. 

3. The conflict here certainly leads to a crisis. But as this is a trailer, we don't want to give too many plot twists away, so we will miss out the confrontation scene where Grace's friends find her locked in an MI5 agency prison. This would be the obligatory scene here, but this would not be expected in a trailer. 

Explosions, Fire Engines and Helicopters

Written by Emma Taylor

Usually in a trailer, there must we a wide array of shots from many different scenes in the feature film. In order for this to happen, I've pulled in some favours from a variety of different people to make out trailer stand out. As explosions, fire engines and helicopters are very expensive to hire, I have arranged for each of the contributors to get a short promotional film made for them in return for letting us use their resources. 

Fire Engines

When I went on a your round a local fire station with my local Beaver Scout group, the fire men were very interested and supportive of helping the community. With this in mind, I asked them if they would kindly get the fire engine out one day, put their siren and lights on, and get kitted up as if they were going to a real fire. They said they would be willing to do this, and I think that it would be a great couple of shots for the latter part of the trailer to connote danger and destruction.

The Beaver Scout Section with the fire engine - Photo by Andrew Cooper

Me in a fire officer's uniform - Photograph by Chris Taylor

Helicopters

As out lead character Grace is wanted by the Government and I already has an offer to film at a heli-school,  I thought I'd use this opportunity for my A2 production, as government agencies would use helicopters to find an individual. They have invited us to film take offs and landings, and also inside the helicopter, which will be very useful to display authority and power in our production.

This will be at Barton Air School.

Barton Air School, Manchester. Photo credited by Air Team Images

Explosions

As a Scout myself I have many opportunities available to me that not many other people have the chance to do. One of them is learning about armories including Cannons and Rifles. The person with the licenses for these (Ted Lewis) makes explosions for professional film companies and also does professional reenactments with his explosive devices. I was shocked at the scale these explosions (to give you an idea, fire alarms go off 2 miles away from the explosion when it's set off).

Ted also invited me up to take some photographs of him and his team using Cannons and setting off some fire works, they are featured below. 

Cannon Explosion - Photo taken by Emma Taylor

Cannon Explosion - Photo taken by Emma Taylor

Cannon Explosion - Photo taken by Emma Taylor

Fireworks (Long exposure photograph) Taken by Emma Taylor

Our plan for our trailer is to have our main character Grace to fall, caught up in an explosion behind her. A chiche done by many action films, but we think that with the right composition and cinematography, it could be a really good shot. Obviously there are a lot of health and safety issues to address here, so Tom Bailey (Assistant Director) and I are going to a meeting with Ted to see how we can make this work safely. 

Below is an example of the many emails which have been sent to organize this event.

Emails between Ted Lewis and Emma Taylor

In addition to this Ted has an annual firework and explosion display every year near Bonfire night. This is one of the biggest bonfires in the UK and Ted's agreed that we can film there - do some shots with our actors looking up at fireworks ect. Below is a poster advertising the event.

NOTE: Due to adverse weather (furious thunder and lightning) conditions we couldn't film due to potential damage to my camera.

Poster for Ted's Annual Bonfire 

Extras Required

As we're shooting in a school and also want to film a house a house party, we will require extras, rather than filming in school time where there will be many disturbances and filming at a real party, because we wont get the reactions we want for example - some people being silly on camera which will ruin our shots.

We have advertised for extras by using posters around the Sixth Form, and will also open this extra work out to the drama school (where out main actors are coming from). There will be drinks and refreshments included and we will send out further details to anyone who shows interest. 

For the school scenes (4 in total) we have had to ask members of staff if they're available to be the 'adult in charge' and kindly our deputy head of year, Miss Mohammed has accepted to do this for us. It will also need to be organised for the caretakers to open up the school at the times we want as we're planning on filming during half term.

We're hoping for thirty extras in total, but if we don't get that many volunteers then we can still manipulate the shots so it looks like there are more people than they are. eg. do more close ups and see a few people walking behind, rather than extreme long shots where we can quite obviously see that there are not that many people.

The poster for extras and contact details

I also posted a post onto a local drama school's Facebook page where some of the members might be interested on being on screen. A Facebook event was also set up to get information out to the extras, actors and crew quickly on details of what to wear and bring ect.

My post on the VA Facebook page asking for extras

The Facebook group for extras

The details given to extras are as follows:

BRGS (Glen Road, Waterfoot)

Thursday 31st October 2013.
10.30- 2.30


Costume:
Feel free to wear whatever you like within the following boundaries:

No striped clothing
Nothing too brightly coloured which stands out
Smart-casual clothing
No heels 

Food:
Drinks and refreshments will be provided, but if you could bring a packed lunch/food to keep you going.

Also – please bring your usual school bag with you and a pencil case.

Frequent brakes will be provided and please sign in in the sixth form centre.

Thank you for helping us out, we hope you enjoy the day and we’ll see you on the 31st!

Properties List and Costings

Properties List and Costings

Café scene

Cups

Plate of food

Bedroom scenes

Hair gel-Sam

Flowers to put in her hair-Abi

School bags-full cast and crew

Make up (foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, make up bag)-Abi, Claire, Sophie

Kerrang magazine (rock magazines)-to be bought

Party scene

Red plastic cups-TBB

Fairy lights-Abi, Emma

Some form of drink e.g. lemonade etc.-Saqib

Music-to be decided

Stereo system-Abi

Cd-to be decided

Walking down the corridor scene

School bags-full cast and crew

Mobile phones-full cast and crew

Diary scene

Diary-Emma

Pen-Abi

Lamp-Emma or to buy

Papers-Emma notebook

Firework display

Blanket and warm clothing e.g. coats -Tom

Sparklers-To be bought

Classroom scene

Laptop/netbook-Abi

Whiteboard pen-School provided

Papers-Emma

Briefcase-Abi

Text books –Abi/school

Pencil and pencil case-Abi

Chair to be thrown-School

Run down building

Make up-Abi, Emma, Sophie, Claire

Blood-to be bought

Wood scene

Torches for the woods- Abi, Emma, tom

Cellar

Chair-to be decided

Duct tape/Gag-Abi, Emma

 Rope- to be bought

Water bottle-to be bought

Make up-Abi, Emma, Sophie, Claire

Costings

Kerrang-£2.50 Tesco

Red Party cups-£1.85-£2.00 Tesco

Drinks: 2 for £2.00X2 Tesco

Sparklers- 7 for£0.99

Café food- £10

Blood capsules-£0.88

Water bottle-£0.60

Extra cost-£6.00
(flowers (to say thank you to teachers)
food and refreshments for actors)

TOTAL-£22.97

Receipt

One of the props required

I went out to ASDA to buy some of the props required for the upcoming shoots.