Pre-Production: Contacting Schools

Contacting Schools

To keep in line with my role as producer on the major project I underwent several tasks and processes that a producer would be responsible for, in this pre-production unit. One of these tasks was physically contacting these schools to get an accurate real life insight in to how these schools are run, how they came to be, and the contributors that make each school the place it is.

Most of my correspondence was done through email. Once I was set on which schools I wanted to include in my documentary I began emailing them to open a line of communication. In my opening email I explained that I was putting together a hypothetical production package that I wanted to center around their schools. I explained that I had looked at a couple of different schools before choosing them (such as center stage school, and the maidstone players) but none of them seemed to embody the small sense of community that I was looking for.

I wanted to find a school that helped its students peruse their passions and guide them through the shows and exams that (if they chose a career in performing arts) they could use as their first steps in to the industry. The schools needed to be part time but offer a dedicated yet supportive environment centred around its local community which both these schools were. I explained this to them in my opening email to peak their interests and engage them with my project.

In my opening emails I asked about how each school was structured and the classes they offered. I enquired about some of their stand out students were and what their goals for the year were. Prima was the first to reply and was very helpful in getting my creative process started. I first spoke to Katie who was a teacher at Prima and the person that handled all social media and admin work etc. She gave me some information about the schools classes and some of her fondest moments the school, mentioning a few stand out students to her. This got things started but I wanted to know more about how the school came to be, how it was run and what kind of goals or paths lead some of the students to the school.

Katie then kindly gave me Julies (the schools head and founder) contact details and I took it from there. Jute took quite a lot longer to reply and I had to explain in a little more detail what this project was and what I was doing but they did seem interested. I was emailed by Suellen who told me a bit about how the school was founded. Explaining to me the positive impact performing arts had on her life as a child and how she wanted to bring that positive experience to more rural parts of Australia so everyone has the same chances she did. She also told me about her friend and fellow teacher Gill, who before joining Jute was a social worker, who spent a lot of time with troubled young people that suffered from behavioural problems and she experienced first hand the positive effect that performing arts had on these young people. This was really valubal story and something that will help shape the tone and arc of my series.

Meanwhile I continued email contact with Julie, learning about why she decided to set up Prima. She told me about Primas strong sense of community and that although Prima is a positive environment, it also strives to push students to reaching their full potential. Having a strong exam focussed ethos that helps these students get one step ahead of their peers. This pressure felt by students is something that will have a significant impact on the contributors and stories that I include in my pre-production. After further emailing though I still wasn’t getting enough information about contributors. At least not enough to form detailed character profiles as part of my package. So I asked if I could arrange a phone call with Julie as it would be invaluable to be able to speak to the founder of the school and be able to more effectively communicate and share my interest in the performing arts to receive more valuable information in regards to contributors.

To my surprise Julie actually agreed and shortly after I held a detailed phone call with her where I explained why I had chosen to shape this unit around Prima and the performing arts and in return I got valuable insight in to some of the students currently attending Prima, such as Rosa, Joseph and Lucy and several others that I wrote extensive notes about. Jute continued to email me back but at a significantly slower rate than Prima, leading me to have to retrieve some information form the schools website and blog. None the less with my producer skills I was able to gather enough information from this to write character profiles for students at both schools. If I had emailed Jute earlier I may have gotten more detailed information, but since this was a hypothetical pre production I expanded on each character anyway, to make them more interesting to an audience.

Before publishing these profiles online however I had to check if I had permission form both schools, I emailed them examples of what I had done and explained the process. Since there wasn’t time to ask each students concent individually both teachers agreed I could publish this if I changed their names. I was also welcome to use any photos from the schools website since there already public and they were sent over to me.


Overall I’m glad I made the effort to contact both schools as I don’t think my pre production would be as interesting, detailed and effective without the information they provided me.