Totally Maisy- Day 1

We were all really excited to meet our cast and start filming today. We knew today and Saturday were to be our hardest but most exciting shoots as they were on location and with the most cast/crew and extras. Today's shoot was at the school so the crew arrived at half 7 to begin setting up and then the cast call time was 8. We had a late start as Maisy was stuck in the Dartford tunnel traffic, so we had to cut our whole script read through, down to just the first scene read through.

Our Director, Jordan then briefed the cast and crew and Hennie and I gave a brief health and safety talk so that the cast and crew knew what precautions to take. 

The cast all bonded together really quickly and really well which I was really pleased with as that was my main concern to begin with as they had never met each other before. By the end of the day it felt like everyone was old friend and we were all really excited for the next 3 days filming.

If I could have changed anything from the firsts day shoots, it would be that the extras were waiting around for quite some time at the beginning of the day so I should have made their call time later. They didn't seem to mind though and ate their way through the provided food!

We also had time to take our promotional image that we will be using for all our posters, dvd cases etc. I am really pleased with how this came out and think it really portrays the different characters and their friendship groups. 

1 day to go!

With one day till the big shoot I am getting very nervous but excited. There is still somethings to sort out with directer and 1st AD so we are having a meeting first thing tomorrow to go over last minute issues to do with the schedule and extras. 
This is the list of things we need to do tomorrow:

• Meet with Jordan and Josh at 10am.
• Print at studios (Call sheets, scripts, shooting schedule and shot list.)
• Collect equipment from studios.
• Collect dolly from UCA campus.
• Buy last costumes pieces (A few white shirts from Primark)
• Food shop for first few days. 

Our first day involves most of our entire cast so Hennie and I have to make sure to cater for them all. It will also test our organisation skills with so many people to control.

Location: School

For all of our school scenes we will be filming at Oasis Academy at Hextable. So today Hennie, Jordan and Josh went to have a look at it and choose which rooms we would be filming in.
The four locations we would need are:

• Form Room- Mrs Greenway's room.
• History Room- Mr Walker's room.
• 2 parts of the corridor. (When Katie and Vicky see the 3 girls and when Maisy bumps into Mr Walker and Jack)
• A base where we can set up hair/make up and wardrobe and food.

All of the school scenes will take place on Wednesday, on our first day of filming. 

This is the room we will be using as the Form room as there is good light in here and spread out tables so it means we can spread out our 15 extras to make it look busier:

Mrs Greenways desk

The history room looks the same as this just slightly biggger.

This is the corridor we will be using. It is nice and bright and also looks really modern.

 I really this cornered area of the corridor so will use this to film one of the corridor scenes.

My brilliant production team.

BBC 3

Now that we have decided that 'Totally Maisy,' will be for BBC 3, it has allowed for room in the script to be a bit more tongue-in-cheek and a bit cheekier, we are not producing a crude television programme but it is now possible to add things in that are more suitable for that time and channel. For example there is now a few things that have been added in that go over Maisy and the girls head as they are very naive characters, not mature for their age in the 'sexual sense.' This adds to the comedic element of 'Totally Maisy.' 

The story and narrative has not changed even though the platform has, but it still works. 'Totally Maisy' was always going to be too old for children's TV so fits much better now. 

The main change we have had to do is the branding as Hennie had been emailing the graphic designer telling them that the program was for CBBC, they had been looking at other CBBC logos for inspiration and as the audience range for CBBC is 6-12 it would have been suitable for them. Now the platform has changed, Hennie let them know this so they could think about an older audience (approx 15-34.) 

Anorexia Research

As I created a side story for one of my characters, Cassie, I needed to do some research into the illness that Cassie is beginning to have. Cassie is suffering with the illness anorexia but her 2 best friends, Maisy and Gemma do not know and neither do her family as she is keeping it so secret.

I got the following research from the NHS website so it is accurate and scientific in every aspect.

Symptoms:

• Eating as little as possible
• Making yourself vomit
• Over excerising- burning more calories than you consume in a day. 

The need to obsessively burn calories usually draws people with anorexia to high impact activities, such as running, dancing or aerobics. Some people will use any available opportunity to burn calories, such as preferring to stand than sit as it burns more calories. 

I will use this information with Cassie and make her standing and never sitting, so this will be a subtle hint to the audience that many not even pick up on. 

Warning signs in others:

• Losing weight
• Missing meals
• Complaining about being fat, even though they are normal or underweight.
• Repeatedly weighing themselves and looking in the mirror.
• Saying they have already eaten.
• Only eaten certain low calorie foods in your prescence.
• Feeling uncomfortable or refusing to eat in public places. 

I will incorporate some of this points into Cassie's character, especially the feeling uncomfortable eating in public places. There is also a scene where Cassie inspects herself in the mirror for a while which will show her low self esteem.  

OCD and Anorexia

Like in most real life cases, Cassie has OCD along with her anorexia. This is very common as the illness's come hand in hand. This is what I found out about it:

-Individual repeatedly checks refrigerator, shelves or other parts of the house, in order to make sure that every piece of food brought in is in its proper designated place. 

I have used this information to create a trait that Cassie has in which she has drawer under her bed filled withe chocolate and crisps all nicely set out in a neat and proper order. She spends hours sorting this food and making sure everything is in the right place. This is her way of not eating by distracting herself with this job. 

This is a blog I found of a suffer of both OCD and anorexia which I think will come in handy when writing for Cassie as it shows their unique way of thinking:

http://andthenshedisappeared.blogspot.co.uk

Costume

As the costume for 'Totally Maisy' is everyday wear we will be asking the cast to bring their own costumes. 
The only thing that we will need to purchase is:

• Matching ties to create the school uniform.
• School badge for Rob's blazer.
• Embarrassing underwear for katie.

This is the table I created so we have an idea of the costume needed for each character.

Contract/Consent form

From Simon's lecture today I decided it would be a very good idea to produce a consent/contract form for our cast and crew, so that they can agree to our terms and conditions. My producer Hennie will be sending these out to the cast and crew today when she lets them know they have been cast. 

Cast

So here it is, pictures of our cast!

Maisy

Cassie

Gemma

Jack

Rob

Joe

Maisys Mum

Mrs Greenway

Mr Walker

TBC

2 Audition days

We had our first audition day on Sunday at Becketts sports centre in Dartford. We managed to hire out the dance studio for £10, which was really helpful and helped our budget out. Hennie, our director Jordan, 1st AD Josh and I turned up a bit late and already had a que of eagerly awaiting teenagers. Josh filmed the auditions for us so we could watch at a later date and decide on cast. In the end we had about 7 auditionees for various parts. We ended up asking each girl and boy to do each of the female and male roles as we wanted to see who they would most suit.

I was really impressed with the eagerness and willing to help of the teens. The next audition day was Tuesday at the studios where we had two Maisy's mum audition and one boy for rob/jack. Again we filmed these auditions and I edited a quick youtube video together to show Josh and Jordan. 
This is the video:

For the audition process we also took part in to skype calls and received audition tapes from actors and actress's. 

Yesterday evening Hennie, Jordan and Josh all got together for a gruelling few hours to decide who we thought would make the best cast. 

New Platform

After recieiving emails from CITV and CBBC, who kindly let me know that some of the themes that 'Totally Maisy' covers are not suitable for childrens television. After these emails I was at a lose end as I did not really know where 'Totally Maisy' would fit. I expressed these concerns to my tutor and he suggested that even though the programme is for children it does not necessarily need to be on kids tv. Smon suggested to look at the likes of BBC 3 and E4 whos audience range is from 16-34, which sounds a lot more of what I want. After some initial research I realised I would not have to change my script a lot but maybe just give it a more of an edge.  

Examples of BBC 3 programs thats are similiar (not a million miles away from) Totally Maisy:

• Some Girls
• Bad Education

Examples of E4 programs:

• The Inbetweeners
• My Mad Fat Diary

After initial research I am leaning towards bbc3 but I will continue to research further into both channels to see which would be more suitable for Totally Maisy.