Anti Smoking Production Blog

 

Anti Smoking Production Blog

03/03/2015
We began today forming the idea for what our film was going to be about. We sat down and talked about the ideas we had thought of seperately, and discussed which parts would and wouldn't work.
We eventually settled with a combination of mine and Alex's ideas.
The movie would be about The Grim Reaper as a personification of the negative effects of smoking being an everyday nuisance in a smokers life

04/03/2015
Today was mostly just getting paperwork out of the way so we could start filming as soon as possible. We plan to audition actors tomorrow for the part of the protagonist and the extras.

05/03/2015
Today we casted actors for the role. One of the actors we were going to audition was sick, so Jack got the part by default. I'm pretty confident in his ability, he should help make this film great.

10/03/2015
Today is the first day of shooting. Everything went according to plan. All actors and production crew turned up on time and were organised. Makeup artists did a fantastic job on Doms makeup. We actually managed to complete more scenes than expected, putting us ahead of schedule.

13/03/2015
Today is just preperation and organisation for a second and last day of shooting.

17/03/2015
Today was the second day of shooting. Things didn't start well today. One of our actors was late, another couldn't come in due to having to go to the hospital and our makeup artists had not come in without any explanation. After a while we managed to pull everything together and get a different makeup artist to help with the makeup. We quickly got back on schedule and shot everything we needed. Its onto editing now.

24/03/2015
The film is finished! The majority of the struggle in the post production of this fim was finding the right music. Eventually we came to a point where we would try anything to see if it worked. Eventually we settled with Mozart which I think added a lot of comedic value to the film. It doesn't fit perfectly to some parts of the film, but there are many parts where it matches up very well with the cuts.

 

 

Evaluation



To find out how effective our film was in deterring people from smoking. We created a survey to find out our viewers opinions.

From the respones we recieved it seems safe to say that A Grim Addiction was fairly effective in its delivery. I was somewhat dissapointed with the answers to question five, and if I were to do it over again perhaps I would have made the message more hard hitting for the audience.

Another issue I personally had with the final result is the choice of music. When we began the project we didn't have a peice of music in mind and therefore it wasn't created to fit with any particular track. In the end we settled with a peice by Mozart which worked well, but it wasn't perfect. Given another shot I'd probably stick with Mozart, but make the film to match the music.

Despite these issues I still think the film was a great success and I am very proud of the final product. I think we did a great job of translating jokes written on a peice of paper into a visual comedy, while still retaining a clear message to the audience.

A Grim Addiction

 

 

A GRIM ADDICTION

By

Luke Small

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INT: CLASSROOM

Three people sit in a classroom, finishing up college work. Two of them get up and pat Dan on the shoulder, gesturing for him to come with them. Dan stands and goes with his friends out of the classroom.

INT: COLLEGE

Dan reaches the bottom of the stairs with his friends; he says something inaudible to them and gestures to the door. He breaks off from them and heads in the opposite direction.

EXT: COLLEGE SMOKING AREA

Dan Stops outside and puts a cigarette in his mouth, he pulls out his lighter and lights it. He takes a drag, and looks up only to be confronted by the grim reaper looking over his shoulder standing uncomfortably close. Dan stares back in disapproval.

INT: COLLEGE

Dan returns to class, the Grim Reaper annoyingly maintains his distance the entire journey back, already becoming a nuisance.  The grim reaper sits down with Dan, casually annoying people in the surrounding area. Dan starts to cough. The reaper takes interest and raises his scythe only to look disappointed when Dan stops.

INT: CAR

The reaper gets into the car with him and his friends, awkwardly squashed into the middle seat in the back.

EXT: FIELD

Dan plays a sport; all the while the Grim Reaper is riding on his back, making running very hard. Later the reaper gets off his back only to tackle him.

INT: RESTAURAUNT

Dan goes on a date with a girl to a nice restaurant. The Grim Reaper joins them, putting his feet up on the table and having generally poor table etiquette. When the bill comes for the food Dan opens his wallet to pay only for the reaper to rip any money there is out of it and in return throwing cigarettes at Dan.

INT: DOCTORS OFFICE

Dan is at the doctors and the doctor illustrates that smoking is dangerous, and then points out the grim reaper, and then the grim reaper knocks the papers out of the doctor’s hands.

EXT: FOOTPATH

Dan takes a walk in public, the grim reaper, is a general nuisance to those around.

 

INT: BEDROOM

Dan wakes up to a bright light, he looks around to see the grim reaper sitting next to him reading a book.

EXT: BRIDGE

Dan and the reaper stand side by side in unpleasant and cold weather conditions. Dan, cigarette in hand is shivering. The Grim Reaper is wearing a warm coat and colourful gloves over his robe.

INT:

Dan plays a civil game of chess with the Reaper, only to be checkmated. Dan loses his temper and flips the board.

INT: CINEMA

Dan sits in the cinema with his girlfriend and the Reaper, the reaper nudges him, gesturing he wants to go outside. Dan ignores him. The Reaper then tries to physically pull him out of his chair; Dan falls out of his chair and gets angry, getting into a fight with the reaper while people watch the movie. An audience member shushes Dan, a dismayed Dan is tackled to the ground by the reaper and dragged out of the door.

INT: College

Dan finally considers quitting. Picking up a leaflet from a stand and looking at it. The grim reaper stands in front of him, and slaps the leaflet out of his hand.

<Can you deal with this for the rest of your life?>

The Grim Reaper and Dan stare at each other for a moment. He slaps Dan in the face.