Their story, in their words…
I chose to do the Mark Evison Project because I wanted to do something that I usually wouldn’t do. This led me choosing to make a film as my project as I struggle to show my own project to others due to being nervous and embarrassed.
After choosing my project, I started brainstorming ideas on the plot of the film. This is the time when I decided to convert my friend Joe into the project, as he had expressed interest in helping me and had experience in
the creative field by making YouTube videos. I had created three ideas for the film, the ideas were a detective noir film, a slice of life film or a comedy. We rejected two ideas: the detective noir and slice of life. The detective noir as it would be too expensive to get the set pieces, props and time consuming and the slice of life as we thought it would be too boring.
We had our idea and started to brainstorm the story. I said the comedy should be about YouTubers which Joe contributed by saying that it should be focused around making pranks and how YouTubers sometimes go too far with them leading to severe consequences. From establishing the story we spent time during the half term to talk about the characters, plot and pranks.
When the school started we wrote the opening scene to set the tone for the film, over the school term we wrote the script. We sometimes disagreed over the direction of scenes such as dialogue but quickly resolved these disagreements. The script was nearly finished so we decided to choose the actors. Joe recommended some actors, I chose some of his recommendations and chose some of my own friends. I also decided on the extras for the film.
Once the script was finished and actors chosen, we had to find a library to film as the library was the setting of the film. However this proved challenging as Islington library, the library we hoped to use had high prices to film. This caused us to spend a great deal of time thinking where to film it. We came to the decision to film it in Joe’s house until we found a better place. This opportunity came soon as I asked the school library to film which they agreed.
The filming had to wait as many of the actors weren’t free due to the mock exams. After the mock exams was finished, most of the actors had time to film. This led to us quickly finishing the scenes.
During the filming, I needed to work on my camera skills as I messed up several scenes. This meant that I worked on them during the weekend. After working on them I filmed the scenes without any problem. The film was finished and edited, so we showed the film.
The screening itself wasn’t without any hitches as the film was considered a bit violent to show to people in the 6th form under the age of 18, even though the violence was of a comedic nature. This meant that I had to talk to our Head of 6th Form to discuss where and when to show it.
We came to an agreement to show the film at our school’s main site on the date we wanted. The screening went well as we had a full room and everyone enjoyed it.
I would like to thank the Mark Evison Foundation for the support they offered to our making of the film; it was an experience I learned an awful lot from and so I am grateful for that opportunity.
