Stefanie Goh : POC

Brief:

Piece of Cake is a mockumentary film about a Parent Teacher's group in an average primary school. It is intended to be a light hearted comedy for people of any age to see. It is filmed in the style of a documentary, following the lives of 4 very different parent leading up to the bake sale at the very end.

I realised that I made the synopsis sound very boring, but there is a reason why I am on the production team and aesthetic as opposed to a script writer. :P I promise there is a lot more depth and dimension to it than the way I phrased it, so stick around!

Newspaper article on the film

Here is a newspaper article written by the lovely Colin Leach from Guernsey Press about it.

All I can say is that I cannot wait to get started on it for numerous reasons...the cakes, the company and the fact that it will also be my first time working on an actual film! Ahhhh, so excited! :)
There are 3 of us in the production team, with each of us being assigned specific scenes to work on. I am in charge of two scenes - PTA meeting scenes and Headmaster's office. All of us are also working together on the final bake scene.

*PTA meeting scene: Takes place in a primary school classroom. However, since we are already shooting in an actual classroom, there is not much to dress.
*Headmaster Office: Details on this will be on a separate post under "Piece of Cake"
*Bake Sale: Details on this will be on a separate post under "Piece of Cake"

IN ACTION!

Some things to highlight:

x Large bake sale sign in the background, which you will see again in the bake sale

x Bake sale sign up sheets (mentioned in the script)

x PTA flyers

x Notebooks (To make it more realistic, I even made a page in my notebook specifically for this meeting so that it can be flipped open and on that page)

A page in the notebook

Other graphics made for authenticity

Detailed checklist- PTA Meeting

I decided to expand from the rough set dress list we did as a group and make my own detailed checklist of the scenes I have. This proved to be really useful, especially the notes column as I could highlight certain points to myself, points which I wanted to bring up in production meetings or even to use it as a reminder for others.

It also made it a lot more professional when I sent the detailed breakdown of the budget to the producers for reimbursement.

PTA MEETING

Before

After

IN ACTION!

While we were shooting, I did not realised that they were going to film the same scene so many times but from a different angle. They kept moving the props each time and this was not good for contingency. I felt a little mean, but I had to step in and tell them that they could not pour the drinks from the jar as the change in drink level would REALLY MESS with continually. Since this was my first time being on set, I did not think to mark out each items. But that is definitely something I will do in the future.

JILL'S INTERVIEW

Before

After

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

I was worried that there might be some pictures of the children in the existing room or certain graphics that needed to be covered up for privacy/ copyright reason. And I knew Aidan (producer) mentioned that he wanted some children's drawing in one of our earlier meetings, so I faked some kiddish drawings with crayons and paper as a potential "contingency" plan. I also added in a "devil" mum for some black humour since it is a comedic film. I was not sure how the producers will like my spin on it, but they actually really liked that little touch.

In the end, the angle in which the PTA meeting was shot did not require any cover ups. However, there was also an interview scene in the classroom, where "Jill" is being interviewed. None of the production designers were assigned that scene, but there was a plain wall in shot and I thought the drawings made a good addition to help dress up that shot.

Headmaster's Office

Initial research into the set

Step 1: Analyse the script
Which angle will the film be shooting from?

As I had 3 scenes to work on, the Classroom, Headmaster's office and the final Bake Sale, I colour coded the script so that it was easier for me to break down from there.

While reading, I also realised that for the headmaster scene, it will be shot predominantly from the front, with only a small bit when the camera turns around to face the person coming in. This allowed me to direct my focus and time on set dressing just these two walls instead of the whole room.

Step 2: Research into the space
What room are you trying to recreate?

Step 2: Moodboard for Headmaster's Office

Step 3: Character Analysis
Who inhabits the space? What is his/her personality and what might they have in their space.
Based on what I have read from the script and from what the director briefed me, the headmaster is someone who finds his job stressful as he is not the confrontational type. He is proud of the achievements they have as a school (thus the school's awards on his notice board) but he is clumsy and not very intelligent.

I tried to include little knick knacks to suggest his immaturity. I had a stationary football stationary set on his table, a lego spaceship in one of the shelves and mini skeleton warriors all across the different shelves. (As shown below)

Step 3: Character Analysis

Wall Stuff
For the second wall, I made a notice board and bought a world map to be put up. Even though it is not in direct shot, there is one scene where the camera pans to the person sitting on the opposite side of the desk and that wall is seen for about 2sec. Initially I was going to buy a cork board as the base for the notice board. However, it seems ridiculous that I will be spending over 1/4 of the initial budget on something that will only be on screen for a few moment.

Cost (If buying)
£10.99 (Corkboard) + £3.99 (Sticky adhesive) = £14.98

Cost (Making)
£4.35
Total Savings from DIY: 10.63

Not only does this save cost, but by using mount boards, it is significantly lighter and can be held up with blue tacks without damaging the walls.

Ps. Decided to add my own touch on it and made fake graphics to go on it as well. The tree on the right is also a re-representation of the fictional school (St Thomas)'s logo.

DIY Noticeboard

Budgeting
Initially, the budget I was given was £40, however they decided to increase my budget to £55, as the funding project when really well. Here is the detailed breakdown of said budget:

I am really pleased with the way I broke down the budget and how I managed to save cost on the some of the props. I split it into different sub category (Furniture, Soft furnishing, lighting, greenery...etc) down the x-axis. Since I was set dressing a lecture room from nothing, this help me ensure that I did not miss anything out such as lamps, and greenery as these may not be the foremost items you think of while sourcing.

A thing to note is to remember to factor in the miscellaneous cost such as blue tags, graphics, paper..etc, as all these small stuff adds up as well.

HEADMASTER'S OFFICE (FINAL)

Before

After

Table Details

Wall decoration

On Screen

As this is the biggest scene in the whole film, all of the production designers were involved in this set up and one afternoon, all of us met up to source out the necessary items. But let's rewind on how we got there.

To start with, after the initial meeting with Aidan (Director) and the crew, the production designers, myself included, we were each assigned particular scenes to dress over the Christmas break. However we were still a bit confused as to the direction they wanted to go, so we ask if we could arranged a meeting before the predetermined date they gave us so that we could get started on it.

Once that was sorted, the production designers met up on our own and together, we made a general initial dressing list for ALL of the sets. (Even those that were not assigned to us) We put it all down on one Google Drive file and forwarded it to the crew. This was so that if any of the crew members had any of the items on said wish list, we could borrow them and potentially save some cost. It was especially useful as in the following meetings, as we kept bringing up the list to cross reference anything. It also helped the directors and producers have a clearer vision on what we intend to do with the given space and for us to see if the budget given is sufficient. The different colours were added in after during the following meetings with the producers and directors.

Meeting Schedule

Dressing List

PS. This dressing list is different from the ones I uploaded on the Classroom/ PTA meeting and Headmaster's Office blog post. This is the GENERAL dressing list, while the other 2 goes more into details with specific props for said scenes and the breakdown of cost.

BAKE SALE

In this scene, there will be two contrasting "vibe" going on. (PTA members Vs The "Ordinary") On one end of the hall, it will be filled with bake sale signs and decoration to displays Jill’s efforts and seriousness in the bake sale. Everything present had an "upper class" aura. (Ie. GMO, gluten, dairy and sugar free baked goods)

And on the other side, it is a much more relax and casual, with things kept simple. (Ie. Plastic plates, shop brought cakes and desserts...etc)

When we were sourcing for these items, we actually found some really nice bunting and decorations that fit in really well for the PTA side of the hall from Morrison. (Online) We did a rough costing and realised that the initial budget of £50 was too little for to set dress a hall as big as the given space. When we brought this up to the director, he managed to raise the budget up to a £100 for us! To be honest, when we asked for a raise, I did not expect him to raise it by twice the amount and we could probably source everything with a £20/30 increase. That said, when we realised that Morrison does not deliver to any of our houses and the ones nearby does not sell what we need, we went on a "field" trip to source out the items together for the bake sale. The 2 main places that we got most of our stuff were from Wilko and Partica.