"Dislocation" Horror/Thriller Film: An (Almost Completed) Evaluation.

Like the documentary, even though the process isn't exactly over, I wanted to write about my experience and what I have learned throughout.

Hearing Andy's idea from the start was interesting: it wasn't something I completely understood at first but I think if you understand something the first time, it doesn't give you time for it to grow on you and develop into something much more. I was surprised but happy when Andy asked me to be his producer, he trusted me to help him carry his project from beginning to end which was quite a big responsibility but it helped my confidence massively because I had done a number of things that I hadn't done before, in quite this capacity. I organized meetings with the crew, I posted the advertisement online and communicated with a large amount of people about auditioning and in this, I set up auditions giving the actors the time and a place to turn up and audition for us. We had over twenty people email us altogether and had around eight people turn up for auditions, which anyone else would think was quite poor but when you get people telling you they will be at the audition, not many decide to show up, so eight was a large number for us and Andy and I were very impressed with everyone that came.

Andy is a very creative guy so when he came to me with his pitch idea (which I have written about before), I was over the moon because it was so fantastic. Again, like my documentary, we were going for a pitch that would stand out and would be memorable, and we achieved that. Everyone knows "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and I feel because we did a pitch that was out there, that gave our tutor the confidence that we would pull off this film off. If we were able to make the pitch fun, our idea for the film would blossom just as the pitch did too.

Our shooting days went well in my opinion. The first day we did run out of battery which wasn't the best thing to happen and we didn't end up shooting as much as we wanted that day. It was my responsibility to make sure we had at least two batteries and I didn't deliver on the first day but before we went to shoot on the second day, I went to our college technician to pick up another battery to be on the safe side, and while we missed out on a few shots towards the end of the day, another battery would have been good, but we thought two batteries would have been good enough. The shots we did get on the first day however, were great thanks to our camera man who specializes in getting beautiful shots. All the actors got on great, and cast and crew got on well too. There was a lot of standing about on the second day for a few of the actors so I made sure I was with them for the majority of the time (when I wasn't doing sound) just to be there and make sure they weren't on their own, but there was always someone talking to someone, so the waiting around didn't seem like too long.

This was my first true experience of being a producer and taking control on certain aspects, it was scary and out of my comfort zone but looking back, I'm glad I done it because it's given me the confidence to do more things like this. When Andy and Conor tried to get the contact information for the man that owned the house that we wanted to shoot in, I finally got through the man's wife the next day and I tried to explain to her what we wanted to do. This meant explaining the situation a number of times, she didn't seem suspicious of us but I would have felt a little strange if I got a random phone call out of the blue from students wanting to film in my other property too. She gave us her husband's mobile number and I explained who we were, where we were from, what we were doing and what we wanted to do and he was completely fine with it. He came up to see us filming along with his wife and they were totally at ease with the situation because they could see we were doing no harm and I made sure to let them know that we wouldn't be there too long and we would clean up and obviously be respectful of the property. I'm usually the person standing behind the person giving other people information, just there as a backup so to be the person asking to use this place and reassuring this couple, was a big step for me.

Being producer, sometimes you do have to balance on a fine line and some may think I have crossed this line when communication with the camera man had almost been cut completely. We couldn't get through to him, no number of Facebook messages, text messages or phone calls we made to him where going to get him into class. I had asked for a shot list weeks before we shot, and still on this very day, I do not have one. I understand that everyone works differently and sometimes people don't use them, but when you're on someone else's production and you are asked to make a shot list and give it to the producer even just for the production folder, I don't think it's too much to ask and should been done because it will help both the director and producer, in this case. I have had to send a few messages over Facebook to the camera man to get him to send me this list but it still hasn't appeared. It may not seem like a big deal but I asked him to do a job and not a particularly large one at that, it still wasn't done. The same can be said for the edit and when I sent another message about the edit, we were told by the camera man that he wasn't editing and why did the director think this, even though Andy has proof that he would do a rough cut for him. There was a brief deadline for the rough cut last week and Conor did not deliver, or even come in to explain. I understand completely that he has his own film to do; if I didn't understand, I would have to be very unreasonable, and I'm not. But to completely not reply to us both, then tell us when the director isn't in the country that he didn't know he was doing that, I personally think is unreasonable. I would rather that he had told us that he couldn't do it because he had too much on his plate or he didn't want to, rather than leave us in the lurch and only give us information when we had to badger him for it. It is my job to get information out of both my cast and crew and I don't think Andy or I were unreasonable, but we have both learnt a valuable reason from this experience.


Overall, like my documentary, this has also been an exciting but stressful experience but I am quite happy with how this production went, despite the problems. We had the majority of our actors nailed down quite early and we only had to get one person last minute but she turned out great. We had been organized from the start with sending out the advertisements online, sending scripts out, setting up casting calls and talking with the actors throughout the pre and actual filming process. The footage that Conor shot was fantastic, and that's why Andy chose him because he is so good at cinematography and bringing the right tone and visuals on screen. Andy knew what he wanted from the start and sometimes things just happen; most of the time you yourself can't control them and that's how the film and television industry works, so I don't believe that the things went wrong could have been controlled 100% but I'm very happy with how Andy held the production together. He didn't lose his cool, he has kept a calm and cool mind throughout even if he did feel frustrated at times, it is a real testament to how he works and I would happily work with him again.

Vegetarian Documentary: An (Almost Completed) Evaluation.

Even though we haven't finished editing our documentary, I would like to reflect on this experience and talk about what I've learned and how we got over problems we faced.

I have been passionate about this idea from the start; however, I wasn't sure which part of the vegetarian lifestyle I wanted to delve into because I think I washed over the fact that there is so much information but at the beginning, I didn't want to believe that. I didn't want to feel like I had to pin myself down to one particular area of vegetarianism, which is why the range of questions I asked are quite broad. So throughout this process, ideas have constantly been thrown in by myself, Caoimhe my producer, and our tutor. It wasn't until we actually started editing that we were able to pin down exactly what we wanted to the audience to know. I don't particular think this is such a bad thing because I was learning so much throughout this process and I feel if I had of pinned down a certain area at the beginning, I wouldn't have learnt as much as I have done.

Our passion came through in the pitch which I had posted about before. We wanted it to be a pitch to remember so having our t-shirts with our ideas on them as well as food and beauty products brought into the meeting, done this. I do feel like we were given ideas to push us away from our original idea and while I do very much appreciate those ideas and they were great, I had a vision in my head from the start and I didn't want to veer from it too much or I would feel like it wasn't what I wanted anymore.

When we first put the ad up online at the beginning and we got two responses, I personally didn't think we would get any so when we got two people, I was over the moon. We were very organized and got to meet with both Richard and Lindsey a few weeks beforehand, we showed them the questions we would ask them over coffee and this gave them the chance to ask us any questions or express any concerns they had about it. They were both really interested in what we were doing because they've never had the opportunity to talk about or vent about being a vegetarian before. When we shot with Lindsey, we were quite happy on the day of shooting but I think Caoimhe and I both knew there was something not quite right but because we only had Lindsey and Richard, we both pushed it to the back of our minds, hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as we expected. When we went to watch the footage it was clear that no matter how much we tried to colour it, the lighting was going to be an issue as well as it not being the look I was looking for. We didn't use different angles so if we were to use the footage, we would need a lot of cutaways to cut the interview up or else it would just look like the footage was jumping, and whether that is on YouTube or a big cinema screen, it wouldn't look good and I wouldn't want people to remember "the documentary with the jumping shots". This show is the building block for us all as film makers so we wanted to make the best film we possibly can with our skills, budget and time, that we can, so I don't want my mistake of using the wrong person, dodgy camera angles and not the best lighting to ruin that. I would rather not show my work if that was the case.

I feel like both Caoimhe and I were organized, we were one of the first groups to film but we ended up being one of the last groups to film too. This definitely struck a cord with me because we had been so organized, we got an ad set up, we had our coffee meeting with both interviewees, we had very regular meetings even over Easter and whenever we were off, and both of us were very reliable. We can't say that everything goes perfect when making a film, but I think I thought that because we had been organized, that things would go smoother for us. A few people had actually said that "documentary was the easy way out", they did mean it jokingly of course, but doing a documentary is just as difficult as doing a fictional film. We may not need so many actors, but we still needed people who were willing to talk about the subject, as well as finding locations to film as well as the same problems as filming a fiction (Lighting, camera angles, people's appearance etc. etc.).

I have never been the best at taking criticism and I have had to deal with it more in this particular unit than anything else. Not necessarily against me, but ideas that we've had, footage that we've shot; when we talk about it in our blog or we say how well it went and then we're told that we can't use it or that we should try it this way, it does make you feel a little silly and makes me think "am I just trying to put a positive spin on everything even though it wasn't that positive". I'm not sure if I've gotten any better at taking criticism but I have learned not to take everything so personal, which I still think is a bonus.

I'm really happy with my producer Caoimhe, she has been there for me from the get go and even though she is producing some one else's film too and she has her own projects outside of the Final Year Film area, she has been very supportive and offering up suggestions to help make our film better. Speaking of reliability again, because we both know how people can let you down on shoots and having to work around people's schedules (In both of other projects that we are producing, we have experienced this), we thought it would be best to shoot it and record sound ourselves and I'm very glad we chose to do this. We only had the three of us to worry about, the interviewee was able to book it off work, Caoimhe was able to work us around her work hours and because I don't work, as long as I wasn't shooting something else, I was good to go. This enables Caoimhe to gain more sound experience for our sound unit whereas being on camera has always been one of my favourite things on this course to do, and even though I'm not the best camera person in the class, I think my camera ability was made better because I played around with shots and angles and didn't have to ask permission, I could just do it and if it didn't work, it didn't work, I wasn't wasting anyone's time.


Overall, this has been an exciting but stressful experience for me. I got to work with someone who I'm very good friends with, who was reliable and who was there to back me up when it came to talking about our documentary. The situation with Lindsey and the problems arising there did make me feel like I had done something wrong but I soon learned that this is just the way the business works. I have had different problems to this arise in past projects so I'm not totally oblivious to sorting problems out. I believe that I researched this subject quite well, I could have researched it further but due to other projects, I didn't have time but if I ever felt like I wanted to expand on the documentary in the future, I would know what other research I would like to go into to further the information I want. I'm extremely happy with the second interview footage we have and editing is one of my passions, for the majority of the time, it's quite relaxing so I don't find it a burden. Both Caoimhe and I are producers at heart you could say. Some just think about the story but don't think about the pre or post production work, whereas we thought about the pre and post as well as filming itself and this helped us greatly. The edit isn't finished yet but I can't wait until it is because so far, we are both very happy with how it is shaping up and when it's on the big screen, I will probably still be a little embarrassed, only because it'll be weird seeing my work up in the cinema, but even if it hits home with one person or if it makes one person think twice before making a vegetarian joke, then I feel like I have done my job: made an informative documentary that is still enjoyable and that people remember.

Starting to edit (again!).

Last Tuesday (6th May) began the editing process again. I imported the clips onto Premiere Pro which took longer than expected, then I sorted the interview into bins, so when I was going back to each clip, it would be a lot easier to find it. So Tuesday was more of a logging and organizing day for me.

Wednesday afternoon (7th May) after another class was when Caoimhe joined me and we started clipping and cutting pieces together. We're both really happy with the footage and the way it's visually told on screen that it sometimes kills me having to cut something up, even though I know I have to do it due to time constraints.

We have a lot of information from Richard's interview that we can't all possibly fit in to five minutes which is a shame but as we were editing, we decided to try and keep in the information about parmesan cheese in because we are assuming that most of our audience don't know that this particular cheese isn't actually vegetarian, despite restaurants serving it as vegetarian. We want our audience to walk out of the audience finding out something new, and we think this will do the trick.

We also have some really nice shots of Richard talking about the Vegetarian Society and labels on food and as I was shooting this on the day, I moved in to see the labels and it auto-focused for me. We're using these shots because the audience will be aware of the different types of labelling in stores and we think it's something that some people may not be aware of.

On the Thursday (8th May), we showed Sharron our rough edit and I would say she was quite pleased with it. Caoimhe and I came up with some other titles because we personally didn't feel like "Green Beans and Everything In Between" fitted the documentary anymore. These titles were "Suitable for Vegetarians", "Vegetarian Options Available" and "A Vegeducation". However, talking with our tutor, she thought the title added quirkiness to the film and if we made the start quite quirky too, it would fit in quite well. We also had a lot of footage of Richard talking about the cheese which I didn't really mind but after our tutor telling us that the audience may start to think the film is about cheese, we thought it was best to cut it down but still have an appropriate amount of information still in there so the audience can understand why it's not vegetarian. 

Because of other on going projects during the week, we know from Thursday, we will not get any time to do another edit or go out filming apart from possibly next Wednesday afternoon so we do intend on editing more next Thursday (15th May) during class while the tutor is going over other people's work. 

Extended Research.

Over the month of April, I went vegetarian myself, to see what the life of a vegetarian would be like, the food challenges they face and the questions they were asked. Because I was only doing it over a month, I probably got more questions than your average vegetarian who had been doing it for quite a while, would get within one month.

My family questioned it and asked me why and when I explained my reasoning behind it, they were considered that I would have even less to eat because of the amount of foods I already have to take out of my diet because I have to live a gluten-free lifestyle (which I have talked about briefly before).

I got a lot of questions from my friends in class, and some weren't so much questions, more questioning why I was doing it. A lot of it was joking and usual class antics which I didn't mind; if I said something was wrong with me like I was tired or something along those lines, someone would say "well that's what happens when you're a vegetarian". Of course I know these were all jokes and I'm totally fine with that, I didn't get offended, this was part of the process that I wanted to explore while going vegetarian. I got told a few times that "we all need meat, it's essential" and because I wasn't 100% on the nutritional benefits on eating meat and not eating it, I couldn't exactly agree my point to its full potential. However, I did have my producer on my side the entire time, chiming in and defending vegetarianism whenever she could. Even though she wasn't doing the vegetarian month with me, she also feels quite passionate about defending vegetarianism because we feel that it is criticized too much and for no good reason.

With coursework and filming giving us hardly any time to do anything else, I didn't feel I had the time to fully prepare for my vegetarian month, which is a shame, because if I had've prepared, I think I could have made some really nice recipes throughout the month. I had beans on toast at least every other night, which could really boring, really quickly. I still ate my salads with either pasta and quinoa, I just didn't have meat in them. I never ate a heavy meat lead diet so nothing changed dramatically, but when I was missing meat from my plate, I just added more vegetables or side salad. Most of the food I ate regularly like fruit, vegetables, porridge, milk, beans, bread, muesli and smoothies were already vegetarian, so as I said before, I didn't have to change anything too dramatically.

It was quite an eye opening experience; with the comments from family and friends, combined with looking at the back of foods (more than I already have to) I was surprised to see what foods were and weren't vegetarian. I did slip up a few times during the month but with the same food; I had a milkshake a few times during the month with mini marshmallows and all three times, I ordered it, drank it and only after I had drunk it that I realized that I shouldn't have had the marshmallows. Normally I would have given up at that point but I wanted to stick with it because it wasn't a huge slip up, and it was a learning curve for me too.

I'm really happy that I went vegetarian for the month. I learnt a lot more doing it in actuality then just reading about it online, I was able to experience first hand some of the questions Richard had been asked before too, and I was able to discover foods that I thought were vegetarian but weren't, and vice versa. It really helped me understand my subject more and I wouldn't rule out being vegetarian in the future either.

Cutaway Time! (Photographs to be added!)

The next Wednesday (23rd April) had filmed some cutaways at the place I named in the previous blog post.

(Outside the stationary and book store, Eason's)

(Some of the healthy eating and vegetarian books in Eason's)

(More of the vegetable and healthy eating books in Eason's)

(Outside the book store, Waterstone's)

(Some healthy eating and books about vegetarianism in Waterstone's)

(More books about being vegetarian in Waterstone's)

(Outside the health food shop, Holland and Barrett)

(Outside one of my favourite stores, LUSH, where every single product is vegetarian)

(Outside The Nutmeg, another health food store, slightly
more under the radar than Holland and Barrett)

Scheduled Easter Meeting.

Caoimhe and I had scheduled to meet over Easter to film cutaways but unfortunately something had happened to the camera, so we were unable to do so. We still had our meeting, we just didn't get to film anything that day which I didn't mind too much anyway.

We sat down in a coffee shop to discuss more thoroughly what cutaways we wanted. We made out a list of shops we wanted to go to:

• Holland and Barrett.
• LUSH.
• Easons.
• Waterstones.
• Tesco/ASDA.
• Alley Cat.
• Restaurants in Victoria Square and St. Anne's Square.

We had a small number of concerns about these places. Firstly with Easons and Waterstones, it had been suggested to go into these book stores and look at their vegetarian book range but because of the internet, internet prices are much cheaper than in store places like both Easons and Waterstones. We didn't want anyone to see us in case they thought we were filming or taking pictures of the prices of books and going to buy them online instead. It sounds silly, but I feel like it is a huge concern for these shops and they could have thrown us out at anytime, even if we explain what we were doing.

The same type of thing we had concerns about for Tesco and ASDA. Obviously both these stores are much bigger than the book stores, so they have more security cameras and more people in store. Customers could report us or a member of staff could see us.

We were also worried about going around to restaurants and filming the menus. Again, the same price-comparison concerns were our worry, because I'm sure a lot of people go from restaurant to restaurant looking for the cheapest prices. 

Starting the editing process.

The next week I stayed in college after class to look over footage and to do a quick little edit on the smoothie and LUSH pot cutaways. But before doing that, I split up the interview to make it easier to edit later on. The lighting was a huge problem unfortunately and looking back on the day, I don't understand why I thought it would be a good idea to place her in front of the window. Maybe I just got over excited that I was finally starting the filming process for the documentary, but I tried to change it in Premiere Pro but it wasn't really working. The framing was just slightly off, I thought I had picked a tighter shot so when I seen the back door in shot, I was annoyed because on the camera on the day, I hadn't been able to see it at all.

I was really happy with the sequences I had filmed though, but whether or not I use them in the final film had yet to be decided.

Day Two: Smoothie and LUSH cutaways.

The next day I thought I would film myself making a smoothie to show that vegetarian food doesn't have to be boring. I know that a smoothie is very rarely unsuitable for vegetarians, but I thought it would be quite nice to film the process then speed it up to use possibly at the start or towards the end of the documentary.

Normally a smoothie takes me about ten minutes altogether to make but filming it, it took just under a hour because I had to make sure everything was in shot and I was cutting appropriately because most of the shots I had to do in one take, or else I would've been cutting up unnecessary fruit and wasting it.

After the smoothie, I thought I would take the good chunk of my LUSH pots and do a similar shoot. I would also speed this up in post-production and it would come out like a stop motion piece, which I'm very interested in. I had originally thought of doing a stop motion animation in the documentary but due to the large quantity of other work going on, I didn't feel like I would have enough time to do it, and do it properly. So doing this, it made me feel like I was still adding something different to the documentary, even if it doesn't get used in the final film. 

One of the main reasons I wanted to do the LUSH pots was because we had asked Lindsey a few questions about LUSH and she had talked it about it so we were thinking of putting this (sped up) in over her talking about it.

The production meeting before filming!

On Thursday 3rd April, we had a small production meeting to discuss further details of our interview happening on Saturday 5th April with Lindsey.

We discussed where the interview would be and because of location constraints at Caoimhe's house, we decided that it would be easier to use my house since it would be free and no-one but us would be in. We made plans where I would pick Caoimhe and Lindsey up in Belfast and bring them to mine too. We also talked about possible cutaway locations, but these aren't nailed down until Lindsey answers the questions obviously.

Who Wants To See An Amazing Pitch?

Our second pitch for 'Dislocation' (on Thursday 27th March), Andy and I played a short version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and this answered questions that related to the pitch. It gave us what the genre was, the title of the film, the setting and time period and would audiences like to see the film.

After our fun teaser, we spoke about more details about the film including the actors and their head shots, the locations, the crew and shooting dates, to name a few. This information can be found below:

Title: "Dislocation"

Genre: Comedy Horror, Magic Realism

Time/Setting: Present day Northern Ireland

Theme: Satire battles redemption. Two Geocaching friends search for an evasive cache deep in the forest. Will they find their surreptitious reward, or will it find them?

Actors:
Josh Sugar - Richard Andrews
Dan Groves - Ryan Sloan
Groundskeeper - Dave McCaughey
Chelsea (Dead Girl) - Hannah Gallagher
Old Man - Patrick Allen

Locations:
Car - Andy's Car
Road Cutaways - Hillsborough
Forest Scene - Hillsborough Forest Park
Graveyard - Blaris Cemetery
Open Field - Hillsborough
Cabin Int - TV Studio (BMC Millfield)
Cabin Ext - Hillsborough

Props:
Binoculars, backpacks (x2), costumes, fake wounds, blood pellets, make-up, fake gun, metal box, cigars (x2) and shovel.

Provisional Shooting Dates: 
7th and 8th April

Intended Audience:
Young adults over the age of 15 that enjoy comedies such as "The Inbetweeners" and "How Not To Live Your Life".

How does it fit into 'Dislocation'?
Set in the middle of nowhere, Dan is a hero; he is cool, slick and adventurous. Josh is a lesser version, always in the shadow of his best friend. He tries to be like him so much but always ends up getting it wrong. When Dan is killed, the spotlight is thrust onto Josh, he is being forced to become the hero that the audience expected Dan to be. Josh is in uncharted territory in this front and centre role; scared, determined and dislocated.

Overall, I'm really happy with how our pitch turned out. Andy had a great idea and I'm so glad that we went with it because it was creative and no-one else had an idea like it. It was memorable and fun with a twist, as well as our tutor liking it because it had an edge but we also gave the relevant information.

Pitching Ideas for our Pitch.

Tying in with our morning meeting; after lunch Caoimhe and I sat and discussed possible ideas for our pitch next Thursday (Thursday 27th March). We're working around the vegetarian ideas and because real food is fruit and vegetables, this displays lots of bright colours and we wanted our pitch to be creative as possible. We found it difficult at first trying to think of ideas, but we came up with some good suggestions as to what we could plan.

With the pitch being next Thursday, we don't want to spoil what we will be in our pitch because then the judging panel (two of our tutors) wouldn't be surprised because they may have read our blog. We plan to post photographs of what will be involved in the pitching process and how we intend to grab their audience, once we have actually completed it.

Our Fourth Meeting.

Myself and Caoimhe had another very successful meeting yesterday morning (Thursday 20th March). We first had a meeting with our tutor to discuss how we have progressed throughout the week; we spoke about meeting up with Lindsey and how she was excited to talk about all the various aspects of being a vegetarian, not just the food side of things. We also said how we were planning on meeting up with Richard (another person who said they would like to be involved) on Monday morning.

Our tutor gave us the idea of just concentrating on Lindsey and learning more about her life and her hobbies. While I think this is a great idea, this would change the whole dynamic of the documentary and possibly become unlinked to our 'dislocation' theme. My original plan was to interview people and get their views on why do they think they are being judged for choosing this lifestyle, what problems with people have they encountered, do they think being vegetarian gets easier, why did they start and how did they start. These would just be a few of the questions but I was stream lining it on the fact that we were learning about the vegetarian lifestyle and that anyone who had had reservations about vegetarians or didn't actually know about the lifestyle, would watch the documentary and find out that it's not just about eating vegetables. However, if we just concentrate on one person and their life outside vegetarianism, I start to question what our documentary would even be about. I'm really passionate about learning more about the lifestyle because it's something I have wanted to learn about for a few years and if I can help even a little on reducing the stigma on it, then I will be happy and feel like I have created a successful documentary.

Research Heaven!

The Vegetarian Society are a registered educational charity and have resources from little recipe cards right up to big posters for individuals, schools or parents to order for free. On the order form you have a huge number of options to choose from and there's no minimum or maximum limit to choose from, so you have as little or as much information as you wish. Everything I ordered arrived this Thursday (6th March) and I was shocked (The good shocked!) at how much resources there was, I don't remember everything I ordered, but I was blown away.

Below is a picture of everything I received then I do smaller group photographs of the leaflets/posters and books.

(Everything laid out together)

• Book One: Vegetarianism, a Project Book for Schools that contains nine recipes, a revision sheet, what a vegetarian is and why and information about nutrition.

• Book Two: Serving Vegetarians, this is geared towards restaurant, cafe and caters but if you have friends, family or even your children's friends coming over and they are vegetarian, this is a helpful tool. It contains six recipes, ingredients and meal suggestions and information about working with the society.
  
• Book Three: Veggie Kids' Kitchen, a book for children and young adults that they can read with their parents. It includes ten recipes, safety and hygiene tips for the kitchen and breakfast and lunch ideas for the lunchboxes. 

• Booklet One: Going Veggie... for the taste, that says "these recipes have been developed by chefs at the Cordon Vert Cookery School to inspire you to get cooking. Mouth-watering and satisfying, they each offer a balanced main meal with plenty of protein, iron and other essential nutrients". It contains seven recipes altogether.
  
• Booklet Two: Going Veggie..., is the essential guide for people starting to look into becoming a vegetarian. It includes what a vegetarian is, the first steps, what to buy on a big shop, misconceptions about some products, nutritional advice and information about their approved trademark.

• Three food comparison postcards comparing the nutritional values of certain foods that contain iron, protein and Vitamin B12. 

• Mini Book One: Veggie Guides for Teens (half of the book is for teenagers and when you flip it over and turn it around, the other half is for parents) is for both teenagers and parents. On the teenager side includes what a vegetarian is, tip for success in your new lifestyle, questions that people may ask you to challenge you about vegetarianism and a mini poster about nutrition. On the parent side it contains talking to your child, what you can cook and a helpful starting point for parents.
  
• Mini Book Two: Young Veggie Guide, is aimed at young children and children coming into their teenage ages. It includes a step by step guide into easing into vegetarianism, advice on how to eat when you're not at home, why people are vegetarians and three recipes.

• A pamphlet on the welfare of animals during the Christmas season.
  
• Four large bookmarks with a vegetarian nutritional food plate on the front and on the back of these, is a different recipe.

• A large sheet of pull out cards to give to restaurants and cafe with information on how to make their dessert menus more accessible to vegetarians (with many places not stating whether their desserts are vegetarian friendly or not).

(The front of one of the pull out cards)

(The back of one of the pull out cards.)

• Mini Book One: Meat-Free Made Easy, containing six recipes, a meal planner, ideas for sandwiches and more about the society.
  
• Mini Book Two: Why it's green to go vegetarian, includes information on how becoming vegetarian lowers your own environmental impact.

• A letter from the Vegetarian Society thanking me for contacting them and telling me more about their company.
  
• Mini Book: Healthy Eating for Vegetarians, gives you information on the benefits on a vegetarian diet as well as particular nutrients, a food plate guide, the special needs teenagers, children and pregnant women need and how to become a member of the society and the benefits.
  
• A Folded Poster: V-Healthy, a healthy eating plan with a meal plan and tips and advice on how to do shopping on a budget.
  
• A pamphlet: V-Healthy, this contain six recipes to go along with the eating plan in the bigger poster of the same name.

• An A1 poster of food comparisons with the nutritional values of food vitamins (Very like the food comparisons on the postcards).

• An A1 poster of food comparisons with the nutritional values of food (Very like the food comparisons on the postcards).

(A1 Poster: Enjoy Life, Enjoy Great Food)

• Three A2 posters (held down with other booklets because they were curled) with three different photographs used with the slogan "Your Future Matters")

In terms of research, I know this is just the starting point but I'm so happy with how much information I have that a charity was able to provide! If you want to find out any information about the Vegetarian Society, visit them at http://www.vegsoc.org 

Eating Local.

One of the benefits of researching my documentary idea, is that I get to go and try some new food. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food in restaurants; you wouldn't exactly see me going for frogs legs but when it comes to food 'on the outside' if that's what you can call it, I'm pretty much up for trying anything.

I first started researching vegan restaurants and found a few Facebook pages, and the first page I came across was for "Check Out My Buns". They aren't a restaurant but they are a gluten free and vegan bakery who sell their goods at St. George's Market every weekend. Back in November, I got tested and was told that I needed to go gluten free immediately because my body couldn't cope with eating gluten, as well as not being able to eat soy or carrots too. So when I found out this company was not only vegan (relating well to my initial research) but that it was also gluten free, I was over the moon. On their "About" Facebook page, they said "Delighted to say we are now an exclusively Gluten/Wheat Free bakery, working in an exclusively gluten and wheat free space". This doesn't so much relate to my subject, but for me personally, it's such a good thing to hear and see from companies, especially since I know that cross-contamination won't happen (Not that I have dealt with this yet).

On Wednesday evening, I placed an order with them and picked up on Saturday afternoon at St. George's Market. I picked up some Cocoa Nut Amazeballs otherwise described as healthy nut/fruit snack balls. They are of course, gluten free and vegan but they're also dairy free, egg free, wheat free and no added sugar (The only sugar that's in them is the natural occuring sugars that comes from the dried fruits). So what you're eating is clean and natural, and isn't full of sugary preservatives. I waited until I got home to take some photographs of them:

They were £5 for 6 which is excellent value for something clean and delicious that caters to you. I've already had two but they're not like other snacks. I cut one in half and I felt satisfied; I didn't get that 'chocolate bar' or 'Jaffa cake' feeling, I didn't need to have another one, it just satisfied my sweet tooth for hours, so if you're thinking six isn't very much, it really is, because these will probably last you until the next week (if you don't share them, of course). They are delicious and I don't mean to say I didn't need to have another one because I didn't like them, because I actually love them, but because they don't have all the rubbish that's in other snacks, they left me feeling like I had something sweet and didn't have an addictive craving to eat the entire set (which normal chocolate or other sweet treats do).

I'm really happy with my first 'local' experience of vegan (and gluten free) food and I'll be venturing back next week to the market to see what else this company have to offer. I say 'local' because apart from fruit and vegetables and the odd cake (when I could eat gluten), I've never really bought local food before, but even just walking around the market, it really opened my eyes to local food, even if I can't eat a large majority of it.

To find out more about them; their website, their Twitter and their Facebook page.

Fictional Reality Twist Proposal

Original Thought (Initial Ideas)

A story about a young woman around sixteen years old talking to a friend or a therapist (adding a therapist could make this story cliche however) about what she's been going through lately. She's fallen out with one of her best friends, she's falling behind in school, she's fighting with her parents, she's just broken up with her boyfriend. As she explains what's been going on, she says how if she was a character in a TV show, it would be so much easier because things on TV are always easier. She then turns into a character on her own reality show and she discovers the real pit falls of some of her favourite shows, and tries to hide away from her problems. The cameras pointing in her face, the sound mics always been hooked up, the director forcing her to face people she doesn't want to; all these problems make her face the real problems she's had to deal with lately.

Characters (Names, Descriptions, Personal Profile, Sketches)

Young woman: sixteen years old, appearance and name hasn't been decided yet, dresses like a normal teenager girl coming into her own. She's had a lot going on in her life so I want to give the impression that she hasn't been sleeping and she's been worrying a lot.

Director: man aged between thirty and forty, stubborn, bossy, wants everything his way. Forces the unnamed teenage girl to call her ex-boyfriend, call her best friend that she's just fought with, even though she doesn't want to. He wants the entertainment and isn't concerned about how she feels.

Friend/Therapist: age unknown at this point, friendly, understanding, good listener, doesn't really say much throughout the story.

Best Friend (who she fought with): very much like the main character, she's been going through a lot but decided not to tell anyone. This comes out and the main character then realizes that she didn't understand why her friend was acting so weird but now she knows and understands, but she's going through the same thing.

Ex Boyfriend: We don't see him on screen, he just hear him on the phone, he doesn't sound like an unreasonable guy, he's a little older than her, she was giving him mixed signals and he didn't want to do that anymore.

Story (Start, Middle, End or Conflict and Resolution, or what happens to whom and what's the result. If a poetic idea, then talk about theme and emotion.)

(This is my first initial idea that I wrote in my notebook. I haven't fleshed out a middle or an ending yet)

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

Genre

I want this to be in the comedy drama genre. I don't want to say it will be completely dramatic because I feel like I would be limited in where I could go with the story if it is just drama, but if I'm able to add little comedic effects to it, the audience could connect with it more.

Audience (Who are they?)

I want my audience to be a range of people. I want to attract young people who are interested in reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Hills etc. and show them parts of the reality world that they may not seen or may not be aware of. I also want to attract people who themselves are going through things in their lives, and feel like they have had new problems hit them  to realize how to fix their original problems.

Why you think this is a good idea (Interest to audience, ease of production, simplicity of idea)

This reality twist on a fiction is a good idea in my eyes because it gives you the best of both worlds. It's not exactly a documentary but it has elements of documentary and things being staged as well as it being a fictional story too. For the production, I will need quite a few cast members and just as many crew members; which sound daunting but if I am able to flesh out the story and make it exactly how I see it in my head, I think it could be an interesting experience for everyone because we will be doing two formats (fiction and technically behind the scenes of a documentary style show).

Second Idea: Fictional Reality.

Although not that many people like to admit it, I'm one of those people who watches reality shows. I don't watch the British ones, mainly because I find them over the top which is strange because the American versions are just as bad. I think it's because our generation especially, are so used to watching American programming that we don't see the cringe and the over dramatics as much like we would the British version.

In my spider diagram, I had a few categories connecting to my second idea. I had entertainment linked with TV to start off with. I'm a big television person; I haven't got around to watching the big shows like Game of Thrones, House, House of Cards or Orange is the New Black yet, because there isn't enough hours in the day. I am however a massive fan of shows like The Office (The American version, not the British) and Parks and Recreation, to name two that I thought of as soon as I first came up with this idea. Both shows are mockumentaries, following characters around their daily lives; one being a parks department and the other being an office environment. They both have 'talking heads', where a character will sit or stand in a room and talk to the camera directly and I wanted something similar to this for my second idea.

Another aspect taken from the world of television was the thought of reality shows. There have been numerous reports of former reality stars like Lauren Conrad for example who came out against "The Hills" (One of two reality shows she had been on) and said that the show was in fact for the most part set up. Phonecalls were set up, if you got in a fight with someone, that person would then be at the same restaurant a few days later and you weren't made aware until they came up to your table, meaning the camera could catch your first reaction, whether you wanted the person there or not. There has always been a lot of spectulation about these types of shows and of course, we all know that they're not real, but how much of your actual life is ACTUALLY on these shows? I wanted to use this as a fake behind the scenes of this type of thing and show the audience that it can be just as fake as a fictional show.

Going back to the spider diagram, I wanted to include 'trapped' and 'emotional' in the story too because this girl feels trapped in her own life which is why she is opening up to someone but then she suddenly gets trapped her own reality and doesn't know why. So I want the story to be fictional but with a reality aspect. Below are notes that I wrote down when I first initially thought of the idea to give you more of the story itself (because I hadn't exactly explained that yet):

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

I understand that this story has a few points that I need to address first. It could be very cliched and there is only a small possibility that that could work in my favour. I am also aware that the ending needs to be worked on; she needs to breakdown, or have something happen to make her realize that she needs to be happy within herself and find a way to do that, so that's why she gets taken back to her 'old life' essentially. This is still a very basic idea, but I'm hoping over the next few days I can flesh it out and even if I don't get to make this, I still think I will keep it in my notebook for future reference.

Even though I can see a few problems with the idea, it fits into the theme of 'dislocation' quite nicely. The girl is stuck in her own problems, and she feels dislocated so to help her fix her old problems, she has to face new problems with the cameras being stuck in her face and being told to see people that she doesn't want to. As she does these things, she learns that she's not the only one going through this situation.

Vegan/Vegetarian Documentary Proposal

Purpose (What’s my goal?)

My purpose for my chosen documentary subject is not only to inform the public on another way of healthy living but to educate everyone on what they may not know about vegetarianism or veganism and to break down some common misconceptions about these lifestyles.

Audience (Who will be watching?)

I would like a wide range of people to watch this documentary. It would appeal to younger people and their parents and to people who are looking to change their eating habits or maybe just don’t know anything on the subject, and this will give them more information about both lifestyles.

Content (What do I want to say?)

I want people to understand more about the lifestyles of a vegan or vegetarian; I want to be able to show more of a personal side of people. For example, I want to ask who I interview about how people first reacted to their change, why and when they started, how difficult or easy it is to go out food shopping or going out for dinner. I don’t plan on making this a scientific documentary, I’m not going to go into the science of the body or how food works.

Voice (How do I want to say it?)

This will be a documentary piece with the slight possibility of adding stop motion animation. This will all depend on what footage I film and the topics of conversation as well as stories that come up along the way.

Imagery (What do I want to say?)

I want to interview a number of people who are vegan or vegetarian or have been in the past. I would also like to get the opportunity to visit a few businesses who do vegan/vegetarian food and ask them questions such as: why did they decide to make this type of food, is there a big demand for it, how has it changed in the past five or ten years and if any of them or their employees are following the same lifestyle. Before I even start filming, I want to know what questions or how much information the public really know, so I wanted to create short anonymous questionnaires for people to fill out so I can cater the questions they have, to the documentary.

Style (How do I want to show it?)

I want it to look quite smooth, I don’t want it really slow but the only time I can see it going fast paced is if I choose and/or able to get a number of interviews, while editing their interview together, make their answers quite choppy and follow into each other.

Tone (How do I want the audience to feel?)

I want the audience to feel like they have watched a short documentary and they have learned something and they have a better understanding of a different lifestyle to what they may lead. It may also give the audience an opportunity to want to explore more lifestyles like this and possibly go to the businesses that I mention and try out something different.

Platform (Where will it be viewed?)

It will be shown in the Odeon, Belfast as part of the HND Film Festival and once it has been shown there, I plan on putting it on YouTube on my personal YouTube channel for more people to see, my personal Facebook page and my own Twitter page too.

Promotion (How will it be shared?)

I plan to promote this documentary on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and quite possibly, Vimeo, as well as the blog that I am using to keep track of my progress. I may also put it on a number of DVD’s and USB sticks.

Budget (What can I afford?)

I am not exactly sure how many locations I will be visiting, but to get to these locations, it will simply be using public transport, car or walking. I may also purchase some food from the businesses that I go to because I want to see what they offer as well as going in and knowing something more about them.

First Idea: Vegetarian and Vegan Documentary.

After taking some time looking over my spider diagram, I decided to first choose an idea that I want to find out more information about. In doing this, I choose vegan and vegetarian. For a long time I have been very interested in both lifestyles but I don't know very much about both so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about each or one or the other. I want to create this in a documentary format so that it is more informative and along with the research, if I choose to go with this documentary, throughout the process I will be able to find out new information about both subjects and it may even make me explore them more in my own personal life.

In my notebook, I took a few basic notes on my very first thoughts on the idea:

• Exploring the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, how people react, the questions they get asked, their experience eating out and food shopping, is it as hard as people think it is.
• Interviewing shops/bakeries that make vegetarian and vegan food, how different or difficult it is, how in demand it is and possibly shooting them making the food. 

The theme of 'dislocation' shapes around this idea very well. A lot of people of vegetarians or vegans when asked by 'normal people' or meat eaters, are often questioned why they lead this lifestyle and are often told that they need meat or that "it's just a phase" so many people who live these lifestyles, I would assume, feel quite dislocated until they find people who live the same lifestyle, and don't have to worry about fighting their corner every time they go out for something to eat or if they are invited round to someone's house, for example. 

First Thoughts Spider Diagram.

After my previous post earlier on tonight, I decided to write all of my first thoughts down. I liken it to math; some people can do it in their head, others have to write it out on the page. I'm the type that has to write it down. So that's exactly what I did. I drew a spider diagram (or mind map) of all my first thoughts; these are just words for the moment that stuck out to me while thinking of 'Dislocation'.

After seeing everything written down, it makes everything a lot easier to process. Yes, there are a lot of words written down and you could say, "Well doesn't that make it harder?". Absolutely not in my case, everyone works at different paces and has different ways of working, this is just my way.

Two things I love. Spider diagrams and lists. They make me feel more organized and slowly calm that overwhelming feeling of "there's so much to do and not enough time to do it". The diagram looks slightly organized to anyone looking at it, but to me, I know exactly what goes where, and I'm positive that it's going to help me move past this creative block.

Creative Block.

This process has barely even started and I'm already struggling with certain parts. Over the past few weeks a few people have asked me if I've had any ideas for my film and in all honesty, they're really really rough ideas. So rough that I couldn't explain one right now because it's seriously that rough.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to make my own film and have something that I've written, come to life. It's just that struggle before the ideas that's getting me. My mind blanks when I actually sit down and try and think of something. Before I started this course, I wanted to be a screenwriter, for television mainly; many people know that I'm more of a television watcher than a film watcher and in my opinion, that's not such a bad thing. I have been watching more and more films, and watching classics that I probably should have watched years ago; but if I can't think of at least one idea at this very second, that's something that worries me.

Anyone in my position would be overjoyed because they get to make pretty much anything they want (within our theme, of course) but I'm just not at that 'excited' stage yet, and I really should be. But I'm not.

There's two things holding me back:

Time
We only have five minutes for our film. We can make it longer but for it to be put in the festival, it has to be five minutes. So I could make a fifteen minute, but it would have to be cut down to five, which sounds simple enough but I need to make sure it still makes as much sense as it does in the longer version. I also worry that I can't do a great story in five minutes. It sounds incredibly pessimistic and I would agree, but once you're in that mind set, it's a hard one to get out of and I think this is where the "mind block" is coming from.

Characters
I love characters. One of the reasons I love The Sims so much is because I would spend so much time perfecting the characters look, their job and building them up to have these amazing careers. I love character development and the reason I love television a little more so than films is because television gives you the character development that people love. It doesn't matter whether you have a show like "Sherlock" that only has three episodes per season, or if the show can last as long as "ER", "Friends" or "The Office"; within each show you see each character grow and become a better person without even realizing it half the time. You only realize when you look back at older episodes or you're rewatching the series, when you realize "This person used to be so guarded, but now they're letting themselves be a little more vulnerable" for example. Along with the time aspect I spoke about, I worry that I can't bring across a character well enough within five minutes.

Hopefully in the next few weeks while I'm trying to write down more ideas and develop them, I'll be able to get over my fear of 'it not being good enough' and just go out and do it.