{"id":16,"date":"2026-02-26T12:33:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediastudies.pinehurst.school.nz\/yantong-lu\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2026-09-02T20:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:56:09","slug":"production","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mediastudies.pinehurst.school.nz\/yantong-lu\/production\/","title":{"rendered":"Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Production \u2014 “Final File”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Premiere Pro Workshop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Brainstorming & Concept Creation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Evidence and context of discussions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My original idea: “Closing Shift”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My orignial idea that I had in mind before we started any discussion was about a junior detective going home from work at a police station. She carries a case file with missing people on it and every stop enters a person. When reviewing the case file the audience will be focused on the realisation of the detective seeing the people on the case file matches the people coming on the bus. It will end on a sort of hook therefore allowing interpretation on themes such as superficiality, supernatural, and horror. There is no proper explaination to why the detective appears on the final page of the missing page report however, we initally wanted a distopian effect of how the detective was also ‘missing’ perhaps this was a dream or victimised by the ‘killer’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning for Production<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Orignial storyboarding design by Joel <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breakdown of the scenes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mood Board<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Roles & Responsibilities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Roles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Role<\/th>Person<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Casting Director<\/td>Yantong<\/td><\/tr>
Health and Safety Officer<\/td>Bruce<\/td><\/tr>
Storyboarder<\/td>Joel<\/td><\/tr>
Script Writer<\/td>Yantong<\/td><\/tr>
Location Scout<\/td>Yantong<\/td><\/tr>
Costume\/Prop Designer<\/td>Joel<\/td><\/tr>
Tech Support<\/td>Yantong & Joel<\/td><\/tr>
Scheduler<\/td>Yantong<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did the group decide who got each role?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The roles were mainly decided through discussion, considering each person\u2019s interests, strengths and previous ideas. I took on the casting director<\/strong> role because I have good connections with people in the Drama Club and could potentially find actors if we needed them. Bruce became the health and safety officer<\/strong> because he was particularly keen to take on that responsibility. Joel took the storyboarder<\/strong> role because he was enthusiastic about visually developing the story on Canva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I became the script writer<\/strong> because I had the original plot idea and a clear vision for how the scene could develop, including the characters\u2019 motives and personalities. I also became the location scout<\/strong> because, before we delegated roles, I already had ideas about filming on a bus or in a caf\u00e9 based on our original plot. Joel took responsibility for costume and prop design<\/strong> because of his knowledge and interest in mise-en-sc\u00e8ne. We also shared tech support<\/strong>, while I took responsibility for scheduling<\/strong> to help organise the production process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First task under each role<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My first tasks for each role were fairly straightforward. As the casting director, I had to think about potential actors and who we could contact if we needed them. Bruce, as the health and safety officer, had to look at possible risks with our locations and filming. Joel started working on the storyboard and planning the camera shots on Canva, while I worked on developing the original plot into a clearer scene. For location scouting, I looked into places that could work with our idea, especially the bus and caf\u00e9. Joel also considered the costumes and props we would need, while we shared the tech side of things and I helped organise the schedule and deadlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of our planning was done through in-class discussions, with some communication on Discord when we wanted to develop ideas before the next lesson. We spent quite a lot of time talking through how we wanted the story to work and what each part of the production would look like. One thing I realised during this process was how difficult it can be to explain an idea that feels really clear in your own head. I already had a strong visual idea of how I wanted the scene to play out, but explaining that exact image to everyone else was harder than I expected. Because of this, we had a lot of discussions, and at one point we spent almost a whole double Media period actually acting out different parts of the scene so everyone could understand what we were trying to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This also made me realise that I am quite a visual learner and communicator. Acting things out and physically showing what I meant was much easier for me than just trying to explain it verbally. Even though the planning process involved a lot of discussion and sometimes felt like we were going back and forth, it was interesting seeing how everyone’s ideas slowly came together and became a shared vision rather than just one person’s idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going into these roles, I think the main thing I still need to work on is communicating my ideas clearly enough for everyone else to understand and contribute to them. I have realised that having a strong idea in my own head is not necessarily enough, because I need to be able to turn that idea into something the whole group can actually visualise and work with. This is something I want to improve as we continue with the production, especially when we are making decisions together and developing the original idea further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casting director<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At first, we thought we would need two extra actors, so we brainstormed different characters that could be included in the scene. However, as we developed the idea, we realised that we could actually play the characters ourselves and didn’t really need outside actors. We ended up casting within our group, with me playing Leah<\/strong>, Joel playing #1<\/strong>, Bruce playing #2<\/strong>, and a parent playing the waiter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn’t hold auditions because we decided that bringing in outside actors would probably make the process more complicated. We would have had to explain the whole plot, the characters and exactly how we wanted each scene to be acted. Since we had already created the idea together, it made more sense for us to act in it ourselves. This also meant we could start filming without having to spend extra time finding and explaining everything to other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think working with people we already knew made the directing and casting process much easier. There was already a basic understanding between everyone because we had all discussed the plot and worked on developing it together. Everyone already knew what the overall idea was and what they needed to do, so we didn’t have to constantly explain the story from the beginning. It also made it easier to communicate during filming because we were comfortable discussing changes and trying different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I think our casting choices worked well because everyone already understood the story and was involved in creating it. However, one thing I would change is spending more time establishing a strong foundation for the characters and the scene before we started. Sometimes we assumed that everyone understood what we meant, which made some of our ideas more ambiguous than they needed to be. Having a more structured discussion at the beginning would have made sure everyone had the same understanding before we moved into filming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • include the change in police station<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    4. Scheduler and Mock filming session<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Our schedule I would say was well organised. Since my best friend and her family owned the resturant, it was easy to communicate to check the resturant availability for a mock rehersal.<\/strong> We agreed we would do a runthrough without any special equipment to visualise except the cannon camera. We agreed on a Tuesday (16 June) and waited for it to turn dark which was around 7pm. We had 2 hours to get a visualisation to how we want the final film to turn out which also includes after the mock shoot, we would have to look over the footage and decide what was a good idea and what to change (especially the angles and sound effect additions). We initally thought there was enough time for us to find all the shots we needed for further review however to our suprise we only got as far as the entrace which meanr we did not have enough time for the second part of the film which was building tension. Upon reflection, our main issue was that we spent to much time discussing what needs to be done which took an hour before the actual shooting. Next time, I would defintely make a checklist of shots we need to take and the appropriate equipment that we needed to bring along with having all the discussions in class or outside of shooting\/filming hours so we can use our time more wisely on practical fimling. In terms of time management, since we scheduled the actual shoot day to be on Monday, I hope for us to arrive at 5pm just before dark to set up, and debreif everything along with having extra hours so we can have less pressure to end at 9pm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the videos below show the active discussion of trying out different angles, filming process, and modified ideas. Majority included me directing the vision I had in my head and some improptu actions. We got time to discuss a few things and review the footage for further imrpovement. You can see in the videos, I was constantly bringing ideas to the tables as well as my teammates however I hope for improvement we could finalise movements down to the eye movements to not leave much of the ideas until the day of the shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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