Cassettes - Pre Production Diary Part 1

Students at Staffordshire University were given the assessment to work on a project on June 3rd in which they would make a "short film consisting of three scenes all containing dialogue, each around one minute long, at least one scene indoors and one scene outdoors. The work should demonstrate proficiency in camera operation and setup, audio recording and mixing quality and lighting. (Use of natural, practical and artificial where appropriate). Keep the film simple concentrate on the technique. Don’t spend time writing content, use something that already exists. Plenty of stage play scripts that you could nab a few minutes worth of dialogue from."

Scripts were considered across a varying range of websites from SimplyScipts to AustralianShortFilms. Students looked across the internet at over 50 scripts such as Serine by Madonna Weaver and May to August by Robert J. Lee.

May to August is a story about a young girl who is curious and interested in cassettes, she stumbles upon a garage sale in which there is a box of cassettes. She buys them and takes them hone to find out that they are actually answering machine cassettes. The cassettes reveal the last words a woman wanted to say to a man who it is revealed is already dead before the tapes are recorded. Students felt that this story fit the criteria of both the brief and what they wanted to achieve.

The short only contained two scenes but students discussed a potential extra scene in which the girl, Daisy takes the cassettes to the grave of the man as a way to close the piece. This was amended and the script underwent 6 drafts.

Below is a copy of the script which was used on set.