MASTERCLASS
This weeks masterclass was headed off by publicist Clea Tammes who is incredibly well accomplished. My five main takeaways from this talk were as follows.
1. As the common theme follows, Clea advised us to get as much experience working in the film world as possible. She noted that volunteering at the Edinburgh international film festival and any other festivals that will take you is great experience to watching PR.
2. Clea also recommended some good reads to expand our knowledge on her world, such as Screen International, Deadline, Variety and more.
3. Understanding your audience is imperative and will guide you in your route with publicity for the project. The key idea following all projects is to not blow all of your content too early, this will lead the audience to get bored.
4. If a film has a sequel which you are working on you have to capitalise on the audience that this has already got from the prior film (build onto what’s given to you). This also goes with actors that already have a fanbase – marquee value.
5. Publicity revolves around keeping your project safe, so this includes preventing scandals and leaks and how if leaks happen, how you can spin it into good publicity. conversations with press are always important and you must do so strategically.
Having previously worked briefly at PR agency, Premier PR, these insights into publicity were very helpful for if I continue my journey with PR. Clea allowed me to understand a more elevated role in this and what I could work towards if I were to continue with PR!
GRAD FILM
This week I had the incredible opportunity to visit a set for a film shooting just outside of Edinburgh. Whilst on this, I made sure that I spoke to as many of the people that I met about information that could further me in my role as AD on Us Not Them. An amazing woman called Laura McBride aided me in understanding all of the different roles particularly within the 1st 2nd and 3rd AD’s, and what’s asked of them on set. Following me telling her my role on Us Not Them, we discussed some contacts that I could use for broadening my casting contacts and some that may be able to help us with student shorts. Colin Jones also arrived on set having done the casting for the film and gave me some advice on the taping part of the casting process; this being that meeting in person as soon as possible is the best route to go! It allows you to fully grasp the depth and extent of the actors abilities and also allows you to get to know their personality far better than if meeting over zoom. This also helps you in ensuring that the actors will not be difficult for the director to work with. I have also done some casting previously from my own short films so this was just an extended process to my prior knowledge.
With our HOD’s for Us Not Them, this being Louis Hudd (Director), Jude O’Connor (Director of Photography) and Hana VK (Producer), we began our casting process. Louis and I produced a call out which was then sent out to all Facebook chats that were based on film and acting in Scotland. We decided that casting people based in Scotland would be far easier as it would reduce the costs of housing and travel from the Actors, however were willing to stretch the budget if it meant a perfect fit for the roles, so were still looking around the UK through our backstage and starnow posts. Due to me having successfully used Backstage and Starnow for the casting of my short film at London Film Academy I offered my subscriptions and knowledge of the websites to further our casting call. The process of this included the following:
Hana and I also caught up with the crew and ensured that all young scots cards (to whom applicable) were ordered in preparation for the shoot.
