Pre-Production: Project Development (What I decided to Include and scrap form my site)

Project Development: What I decided to Include and scrap form my site

Putting together my website where my whole pre production package will be housed was a valuable experience. I put a lot of thought and effort in to each of its sections but ultimately there were a few things I decided to scrap or not include in my package.

What I did decide: In addition to what was outlined on my learning agreement I also have included poster designs, logo’s and other branding/promotional information. This helps w=outline the visual approach and design of my series. I also included a full script for the first episode of my series on the website, instead of keeping it separate (writing the script in its self was a unique challenge since I haven’t done much of it since the start of second year, and its never been one of my strong points. But having made it very visual and focussed on contributors that I began to know quite well, I was able to make it feel realistic and give a clear vision of the show).

I also included a full production schedule as well as research in to my time slot. This demonstrates that I have clearly thought about each aspect of my production and have allowed for contingency palns and additional filming in my schedule since there is a lot that could go wrong in such a large scale production.

At the same time there were some items I chose not to include.


At first I wanted to write a script for a different episode (possibly episode 5) but I this was at a point when I didn’t have all my contributors nailed down, and wasn’t aware myself of all the information related to the production. So I ultimately decided episode 1 would be more efficient to write.

When writing my crew profiles I strongly considered the possibility of including more roles. On such a large scale production some if the other key parts that would need to be filled would be things such as audio and visual engineers. With this kind of set up and its parallels to live TV you would rely on engineers to keep things running smoothly. But I ultimately decided that adding more crew roles would oversaturate my readers with information. And that such a role, even on a production like this is not unique and different enough to warrant a full profile dedicated to it. Especially since I would likely need a large number of engineers and production assistants to keep the show running and writing about them all would not be practical.

One contributor that was also rejected from my website was Taylor Fry. Taylor was an Australian drama student who would have formed part of the Jute cast. She only started attending the school recently and is due to take her first exam later this year. Despite this she is one of the most confident and promising young students Jute has. But I ultimately decided her inclusion wasn’t necessary for multiple reasons. Firstly I already had a large number of female students from Jute, as well as drama students. Her character had some strong resemblances to others like Jade or Grace and as such she didn’t feel different enough to get her own profile and episode dedicated to her. I also wanted to reduce the contributors in Australia by one to give me more of a chance to explore the teachers and founders of each school that would be more interesting to an audience than Taylor.

As you know I already scrapped CenterStage school from my plan as it was too large and wouldn’t have made an effective comparison with Prima. But another location I decided not to include was a theatre location. I wanted to have a theatre as my “diary room” and it could also be the location of the finale shows. But I had trouble finding such a location in rural Australia. Its inclusion also may not have made much sense to speak to contributors in and would require further rigging and permissions when we could just use the open more attractive grounds next to each school.