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My final note:

It was a pleasure to work alongside a fantastic crew who put their blood, sweat and tears in to making this gigantic project come to life and I owe the biggest thanks to them for the amount of time and effort they contributed to this film because it really paid off in the end. Very lovely and very talented people!

And of course, a massive thanks to those who were involved and helped out on set, this film literally wouldn't have existed without the very passionate people from our course.

Here is a full crew and cast list below to give full credit to the amazing people who were apart of this project:

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Here is a super amazing poster made by Katie!

I think it fits the vibe of the film perfectly :)

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Here is the final film!

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Thought process behind my sound design

Because of the very different tones and actions in each scene, I really wanted to split up the scenes in to four parts to make them seem like different locations and tones with the sound design.

The first scene I imagined to be very intimate and so the sound design is quite minimal, it relies on environmental sounds such as a record playing softly in the background, the sound of makeup being applied is very exaggerated and the girls laughing and giggling in the background to imply that the scene is an enclosed space for the two girls to be themselves around eachother.

The second scene which is the dance scene is the complete opposite of the first and so for sound I decided to add really bassy, reverbed music and lots of chatting/laughing to fill up the chaotic atmosphere of the room and to also imply that there was a dance happening since we didn't have enough extras to fill up the room. There's a part in this scene where Maggie comes in with Terry and she feels as though everyone is watching her even though in reality they aren't so I decided to add a lot of distorted voices and whispers etc to make it seem like a tense atmosphere when the spotlight hits her, which all disappears when Anna finds her, implying that Anna is a comfort for Maggie, reinforcing their bond with one another.

The third scene is when the fight takes place off screen which was fun to design, I tried to think of what a group of people's reaction to a fight would be and so the music completely cuts out and you can hear people in the background encourage Terry and Dempsey to fight. This scene is also when the tension rises between the actors and so I wanted to keep sound design to a minimum to allow the dialogue to be the strongest part of it.

The fourth scene is the confession of Maggie and the cool down after the climactic fight, the sound design here is muffled and minimal, very environmental as we hear people in the background come in and out of the dance hall. This scene is very slow paced compared to the previous one as it is just between Maggie and Anna and so to emphasise Maggie's emotional confession of her love for Anna I decided to bring back the music from the bedroom scene but have it sound like it's coming from the dance hall, the music is very slow paced and consists of love songs which I thought would really pack an emotional punch as Maggie confesses as well as act as a call back to the first scene when Maggie's intial confession fails, these slow paced song also make sense as the dance is coming to the end and usually slow dance songs would be used to end the night. Once Anna somewhat rejects Maggie's romantic advance but still accepts her as a friend the music picks up again and becomes louder, the crowd in the dance hall begin to get louder as well to create a happy atmosphere as even though Maggie is rejected she is still accepted in some way and so it comes to a bitter sweet end conveying the message of heartfelt social and self acceptance as they go back in to the dance.

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And now on to Sound Design!

I have just finalised and finished my sound design for the The Coming Out of Maggie and though I would make a post talking about my overall process and what I found difficult/what I learned.

Firstly since I have never done sound design before, I found it incredibly intimidating to use protools as I am not well versed in it, luckily Louie was also doing sound design for his projects the same time I was so he was there to help out a lot and show me the basics and more complex things of the software, once he showed me about I got the hang of it pretty quickly as I learnt that protools is actually very user friendly. While I was stressed out doing the sound design at point overall I had lots of fun doing it.

I spent a total of six days doing the sound design, the biggest thing I took away from my role is that you NEED to deligate a LOT of time for sound design, the controls are easy enough to manage but what takes the most amount of time is actually finding the sounds effects etc you want on the sound bank which has millions of options.

The first day really only including me setting everything up and sorting out tracks for each person and sorting dialogue into those tracks so not much designing was done however, it meant I could quickly get on to designing the next day.

The second day consisted of me adding in natural sounding sound effects just to add a bit of texture to the film e.g. adding a music box sound to the music box you see in one of the shots, adding fabric rustling for when the fight happens between Terry and Dempsey etc.

The third day is when I started to get a bit out of schedule as originally I was planning to divide sound design into four parts for the four scenes but I found that I didn't really stick to that and worked on the project as a whole. So today I was on the hunt for 80s royalty free music that I could add which turned out to be almost impossible. The music had to be throughout the entire film and so I had to figure out a way to not make it sound so continous or noticeable, the music I found that day was minimal as it either didn't fit the vibe of the film, it was too short to add in without sounding repetitive or it just outright didn't sound good, this added a lot of stress on as I didn't really know what to do and so I went home and that night I scrounged youtube for hours to find appropriate music which in the end I did.

On the fourth day I added in the music and planned out what song would be in each scene to see if it made scene to be there, this took a considerable amount of time as I had to listen to the whole film over and over again which was around 10 minutes at a time. By the end of day four the music was complete and so all that left me to do was mix everything.

The fifth day was a day dedicated to mixing and adding effects to every track to make it sound cohesive to the envirnoment. I found this to be incredibly fun as I got to hear the film come to life.

Day six was really just polishing everything off and mixing the complete tracks as well as adding in some extra tracks such as the mum's dialogue which is voiced by Katie's mum and then some voice recordings of unhappy partygoers who were voiced by Louie and Ethan. I got my group to listen to the whole film individually to see what they thought and if there needed be any last minute changes before we added credits, everyone was pleased with it and so with that the sound design was complete!

Final thoughts: As a first time sound designer I really enjoyed my role even if it was immensely stressful at times due to time pressure but overall I think I got the hang of it pretty quick, I'm actually considering doing sound design as a specialty next year because I enjoyed it so much!

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Some things from set...

Here is a poster that Isaac made for the dance down below, I think it looks super cool and fits our colour theme and vision perfectly!

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Shooting days overview (day 3)

Today was our final day of shooting.

We shot two major scenes today which meant that it was a very long day for everyone involved, that being the main crew, extended crew, main cast and about 20 extras. It was a very big shoot in fact, it's the biggest shoot I've ever been and worked on, so the pressure was high.

My biggest difficulty I faced today was just endurance and being mindful of the amount of people I was recording sound of and to ensure sound was steady throughout the day especially since we filmed two scenes.

I think that the day went pretty well, mostly everything we needed shot was shot, we were ahead of schedule most of time and sound was recorded well throughout. There were a couple things in the script that were missing due to small errors in schedule but we problem solved best we could and it didn't really make an impact to the edit plan anyways so I think it wasn't detrimental to the shoot.

Luckily I had a boom op, Fred assissting me today otherwise my arms would've been dead. I'm so thankful he was there to help me today because there were points where I didn't know where to hold the boom in relation to the shots due to the amount of people present and actors who were speaking. Fred is really well versed in sound so he gave really good tips which allowed for us to get the best sound possible.

I had to gets lots of roomtones and wildtracks today which was long but very worth it as some of the wildtracks I got were really funny such as when I got Isaac, Joe and Lachlan (Terry, Dempsey and Jimmy) to act out a fight scene so that I could add it in the sound design later.

Overall, while today was a long day for everyone it was very enjoyable and a great opportunity as a second year to be able to work with so many people on a set.

Here is a still from today down below:

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Shooting days overview (day 2)

Today was the second day of our schedule

Initially we were going just set up the room for the dance scene at 1/53 in craiglockhart today but unforntunately because we didn't get time to shoot the final scene yesterday due to over exhaustion we had to figure out a way to film the final scene today as well which added a lot of pressure on to our already tight schedule. Luckily for us we found the perfect solution.

After setting up the hall which took a considerable amount of time due to the amount of set dressing we had to do for the dance, we found a stack of lockers that would be perfect for the final scene. The final scene was initially meant to take place outside but due to us not being able to get any permission for an outside location at craiglockgart we had to make some sacrifices which I honestly think worked well in our favour.

Because the final scene occured between only the two actresses, Hannah and Annabelle again and because it was the reveal of Maggie coming out to Anna, I knew that the sound needed to be quite intimate to reflect the first scene where Maggie fails her intial confession to create an emotional bond between the two scenes and characters. This scene in particular is completely dialogue driven and so I found that quite challenging to deal with but I got it done nonetheless and I am pleased with the result as all dialogue was clear. At one point however, I had to get my fellow cast mate, Ben to hold the boom as I mixed due to some audio levels changing between the characters and so I couldn't hold the boom and mix at the same time so the extra pair of hands came in handy.

Overall, today went perfectly since we got the final scene shot and the room set up for tomorrow and I got all the sound I needed in good time as we wrapped pretty early to make sure we were ready for tomorrow.

Here are some stills of the set from today below:

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Shooting days overview (day 1)

March 25th

Today was our scheduled first day of shooting! We just wrapped about an hour ago so I thought I'd document a little overview of how my role went on the shoot.

First things first, I have never done the role of sound before on any shoot i've been on so this was a big task for me to become accustomed to. The hardest part for me was boom opping and figuring out where to stand, how to track the actors to make sure I got their dialogue and where edge of frame was. The most difficult part of all of that was however, actually holding the boom for extended periods of time, my arms are far too weak and so I was struggling a lot, the big thing I took away from today was that I really need to go to the gym lol. Overall though, I think I got the hang of it and was proud of my ability to adapt to different shots and get good sound.

Mixing went really good, I was pretty confident with setting up and formatting the mix-pre 3 as it's very user friendly, I also got a refresher from Louie who is great at sound a couple days before my shoot to make sure I knew what I was doing.

I think today went pretty great and I enjoyed being able to see the script and film start to come to life, the more I do sound over the next few days the more confident I will be in doing it I feel.

I made sure to get everything I needed for sound including room tone and wild tracks.

For the first scene in particular I knew I wanted the sound to feel very close to the mouth and very intimate and so I did my best to make the sound as clear as possible to make the setting seem like an intimate exchange between two girls getting ready in their bedroom, for this I made sure to get wild tracks of the two actresses, Hannah and Annabelle going through each of their lines seperately.

Here is a picture of me in action from today down below along with some other on set stills:

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Cast decisions

My group and I sent out emails and messages to relevant platforms to acquire a group of actors that were experienced and free during our shoot dates. After that we waited for a couple days to let the responses pile in, there were quite a few and so we met as a group to narrow down the list to our final cast.

For Maggie we decided to go for someone who was outside of uni due to the rest of the cast being within our course. We originally found a girl that we all liked alot and had a lot of experience in acting and so we felt that would be perfect for a lead role, however she later emailed us back saying that she was unavailable for our shoot dates and so we were back to square one. Luckily however, another girl named Hannah actually sent in a self-tape originally for the role of Anna but we all agreed as a group based on her performace and appearance that Maggie would be her best role. And so, Maggie was set.

For Anna we all agreed that Annabelle from our course was the epitome of Anna based on her own personal style (which is very reminiscent of the 70s/80s) and her self-tape which she sent in to us, Annabelle gave us the energy that we were looking for and so the role of Anna was decided. Katie and I when writting the script in the first place envisioned Annabelle as Anna, so this casting worked out nicely.

Now on to the male roles...

There weren't many self-tapes in for the male characters so we decided to turn to our coursemates who we thought would be keen and fit the part.

For Dempsey we as a group knew that we wanted him to seem confrontational but not cocky so as to fit the character description in the script, Joe, my flatmate and coursemate showed his interest in the role as he wanted to get more in to acting. Since he was my flatmate I got to see a bit of his performace of Dempsey and I was very confident he would fit the role based off of what I saw. I talked this over with my group and we agreed he would be Dempsey.

For Terry we wanted a man who was visably older than the rest of the characters to show the difference of maturity as the reason a fight breaks out in the script is because Terry is older than everyone else, he is an adult, which highlights his creepy behaviour towards Maggie. This proved difficult for casting as finding someone older is quite hard and we didn't want him to be any older than 25. Isaac in our course is known for his acting as he has been in a lot of our student films and so I knew that he would be good at adapting himself for the role. The fact that he is ginger, noticably taller and has a strong english accent we thought this would be enough to set him apart from the group of smaller irish/scottish accented actors since Isaac is not visably older. Having Isaac and Joe play Terry and Dempsey was good for the casting due to the fact that they are friends and so they are comfortable with eachother and since the two characters fight in the film it would mean that they would be able to practice with one another beforehand and also not have to build up a relationship to make the fight not see, rigid

Finally, For Jimmy, Katie and I wrote his character as quite goofy and ditsy, almost a puppy running after Anna. His character is playful and so we needed to find someone who was capable of fitting that role which would be tough. Isaac was originally thought of to play Jimmy due to his natural outgoing nature but we thought Terry was better suited for him and so Lachlan DB was considered as he expressed his interest in the film, Lachlan has also been in many student films and so we knew he would be good at learning lines and fitting the vibe of Jimmy well.

And with that the cast was complete!

Here is a summary of the roles down below:

Maggie: Hannah

Anna: Annabelle

Dempsey: Joe

Terry: Isaac

Jimmy: Lachlan

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Little ideas

The idea for a smooth transition from the bedroom scene to the dance scene was desirable as we didn't want to waste time showing the girls heading to the dance and we also wanted Maggie's entrance to be a bit more shocking and so we decided on bridging the gap between the two scenes by having a picture montage. This idea is great in the sense that it heads straight in to the action with fast paced cuts and sets the scene up nicely instead of opting for drab establishing shots that would slow down the pace alot. The idea to use a photo collage was popular as it stays true to real life 80s prom traditions, especially with the purposely awkward poses.

Since I am also working on sound, I thought this idea would also give me great opportunities for sound design as I can audibly set the scene instead of relying on visual, I plan to have lots of chatter and laughter to make it seem like a dense space as well as have 80s themed music as it is of course a dance, I will also add ambiant sound such as doors opening and closing etc.

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Characterisation of Maggie and Anna

We preferably wanted Anna to be in a pink dress and for her to have blonde hair to emulate the classic popular girl stereotype often found within 80s films. This makes her seem girlish and wanted as her colours seem bright and inviting.

For Maggie, we wanted to contrast that. Giving her a blue dress and casting someone with darker hair would make her seem isolated and aloof, much different to that of Anna.

Both of their dress colours also stick to the theme of blue, pink, purple which makes the set seem more cohesive

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TCOM pinterest board

We made a pinterest board to be able to visual the vibe of our film and seperate scenes in to categories of colours to make it visually appealing and stay true to the 80s. The main colours we focused on was blue, purple and pink.

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TCOM playlist

My group and I decided to make playlist to be able to tap in to the tone of film by using music from the time period.

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The Coming out of Maggie final script

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The Coming out of Maggie - Adapted

We have decided to stray away from the confines of the original story and go for a more exciting route which circulates more on the mindscape of Maggie and her relationship with Anna.

Our story is set in the 1980s, for more accessability and audience rapor to the time period. It now takes place at a high school dance instead of a social gathering as we liked the overall aesthetic of this idea more, giving us more opportunity to tap in to set design and classic 80s trademarks.

Another vast deviation from the original is that of the relationship between Maggie and Anna. Maggie is romantically attracted to Anna, a girl who has a boyfriend and is moving out of town for college soon, meaning she is unavailable for Maggie. We made this decision so that Maggie's social isolation would make sense for the time period due to the high amounts of discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community at the time. We also made this decision as for us, it deepend the relationship between the two girls, and made more room for conflict within the story once Maggie confesses her feelings. This also explains why she would take Terry, who in our story is an older man graduated from college, as it would show Maggie's desperation for fitting in to the heteronormative norms of the 80s. Having Terry as a much obviously older man would also garner negative attention from those at the dance, again, giving room for a build up of tension until the climax.

The character of Dempsey much stays the same to the original story, however the knowledge of him liking Maggie is eluded to much earlier on (within the first scene) as it again, pressures Maggie to 'come out' when she feels she has no other choice - Dempsey's character acts as an inciting incident alongside the limited time Maggie has to tell Anna before Anna moves away and the negative attention Maggie gets at the dance due to bringing Terry.

Our story more focuses on Maggie craving acceptance for herself rather than from other people, whilst Anna ultimately rejects her advances, Maggie was still able to tell someone very close to her and be accepted for who she is, something we as a group feel is an important message to portray and encourage.

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A decision on the story

At our meeting today, My group and I decided on choosing 'The coming out of Maggie' as our story to adapt. This I believe was our best option as it followed all of our set criteria.

This story is based in the 1890s, it is set at a dance, often referred to as the 'saturday night hops' by many of the character. Our main character is of course, Maggie, who is a socially outcast girl due to her overall plainess, who wishes someone other than her best friend, Anna, would take her to the dance.

There is a clear narrative arc, as Maggie brings a boy named 'Terry' which sparks a fight at the dance which is between both Dempsey (he likes Maggie) and Terry, to which it is later discovered that Terry is an imposter actually called Tony. This part of the story serves as the climax. Once Tony is dealt with, Dempsey offers to take Maggie to the dance from now on, serving as the resolution to the story.

Overall this story is about social acceptance within a social hierarchy and the lengths one will go to in order to be liked. - Maggie tries anything to look wanted and loved not excluding bringing an imposter to a dance.

This story gives us many opportunities to deepen the characters and the relations between them, and to also elevate the clear tension to make a coherent narrative.