Third Year Choice - Major Project

Upon completing second year we were briefed on what we will be doing in our third and final year of university. Our year primarily consists of and 8,000 word Dissertation following on from our proposal, Pre-Production for the first half of the year then leading on too our 'Major Project' consisting of three main choices;

1. Professional Pre-Production is an option in which we can create and develop an idea with a hypothetical budget. This allows for casting high level actors and shooting in locations which would be impossible for a student budget. This option goes through the first half of the third year but does not get made after Christmas.
2. Major Project Pre-Production is an option in which you create and develop an idea with a realistic student budget. The idea is developed as an individual or small group. After the first half of the year, this idea is then put into production, filmed and screened at the end of the year. The actors, locations and ways of filming have to be realistic and achievable.
3. Screenplay Option is primarily a screenwriting option, with the opportunity to write a long form piece of work. Writing episodes of a series or numerous episodes for a screenplay that is not necessarily made.

After consideration for each other the ideas for the majority of the summer I came to the conclusion that the screenplay option was my least favored. Also through my time at university I have come to love seeing a project through, from the initial idea to the screening I have enjoyed creating a film from nothing. Although the Professional Pre-Production did sound enticing, with the possibility of fictitiously using real actors which allows for so many possibilities.

Ultimately, from the beginning I was drawn and will pursue the Major Project. This is due to my personal enjoyment of shoot days, while stressful, it is to me the fundamental part of the film making process.

Also seeing the prior third years' projects screening, set a precedent and showed what we are capable of which inspired me to want to create my own film and see it through to production.

Now it is time to consider what other members of our course want to do and see if there are opportunities to work together and potentially help on each others ideas. Also now it is time to get a set few achievable ideas together an pitch them to Simon our course leader and other members of our course to see the possibilities and look for flaws and areas to work on to help polish the idea.