The pre-production process behind The Mug was somewhat messy. After being assigned groups, we created a group chat on Facebook Messenger so we could continue our planning outside of class. None of us were overly sure on how we would include the others in the process of making our films, as it seems like we’re all people who like to work relatively independently. I settled on getting my group members to source some of the sound effects I used, although they didn’t ask for anything in return.

In preparation I created a script markup, a floor plan, a storyboard, and a shot list (in that order). I wasn’t too sure on how we were meant to mark up the shot sizes, as I’d forgotten what the ripple lines meant, so I instead opted for what I felt was the next closest thing. I then highlighted certain elements of the script which I would need to consider further, such as props and sound effects.
Here is the result:

After completing my markup, I started working on a floor plan. Floor plans are one of my favorite things to create in pre-pro. I’m a terrible drawer, but floor plans are somewhat technical drawings, so there *is* a (kind-of) right way to do it. This means that I can use a ruler and get everything looking accurate to the real life space, and I find this very useful for plotting out action. I chose to film the piece in my kitchen, I thought that perhaps the front door of the house may be a better place for Sam to enter, as it is obviously a door to outside (instead of the sliding door between the kitchen and entrance). It was definitely exciting to use two separate locations joined together to create one seamless exchange, as this is something I don’t often do.

Once I know where my action would take place, I could create a basic storyboard – disclaimer: I cannot draw well, this very well may be the least impressive storyboard you see from this assignment. I decided to color code my storyboard to a small extent, drawing MEL in blue, SAM in red, and props in green. Storyboarding is definitely need more practice with. Perhaps this is the kind of task I could’ve delegated to my fellow group members, but I guess there is probably an advantage in knowing the space well when storyboarding. I know the geometry of the room with my eyes closed, so I was able to (hopefully) accurately represent the real world space I would be shooting in.

Finally, I created a shotlist. Nothing fancy, just basic descriptions of each shot I would need to get. I didn’t end up actually using the shotlist when shooting, because this information was covered better in my other documentation, but perhaps it could’ve proved useful in some strange situation.

That’s the majority of my pre-production documentation from the creation of The Mug!