Intro

Our task was to create an episode for a BBC Three programme that could be part of a series
using the structure of 3 acts to create a storyline.

Overall look and feel (mise en scene)

I began my research by looking into what the overall look and feel of programming at BBC
Three was.

Going back to the service licence from 2013 I found that the remit was as follows:

“The remit of BBC Three is to bring younger audiences to high quality public service
broadcasting through a mixed-genre schedule of innovative UK content featuring new UK
talent. The channel should use the full range of digital platforms to deliver its content and to
build an interactive relationship with its audience. The channel’s target audience is 16-34 year
old”

I also discovered through their Internet based ‘iPlayer’ app that BBC Three covered topical
national issues one of which was ‘Homelessness’.
Having ‘Unity House’ , a Alcohol & Drug rehabilitation centre, in the next street from where I
live and having gotten to know some of the local users of this service I decided to use
‘Homelessness’ as my theme and this fitted with BBC Three’s 16-34 target audience as it is
a subject close to this age range.
This issue is often highlighted on BBC Three in a documentary style, examples of which are
'Love and Drugs on the street’ and ‘Britain’s Hidden Homeless’ amongst others.

I decided to twist the presentation style and present it in a ‘dramatic’ style by covering the
subject in a short ‘Seasonal’ drama series about 'Homelessness and friendship at
Christmas'.

The idea is that being a short series, such as a three part series, it could be aired over the
short Christmas Season of programming.
After my 1st episode the idea was that this could possibly expand, showing the short story of
unlikely friendship and support from an unusual place and an unlikely and unassuming
young 'Hero' called Albert.

Given that BBC three originally broadcast 90% UK produced material I thought this subject
would help set the ‘mise en scene’ during a very ‘English Christmas’ time.
I tried to emphasise our often cold dark inhospitable mid winter Christmas period in direct
contrast to my warm and cosy inside scenes which were made to look all the more
welcoming due to the cosy lighting and seasonal decorations.

Quality of content

Overall I did try to get a fairly accurate portrayal of the homelessness issue.

I depicted how it also affects young girls, not just older people or men as it used to be often
thought.
My character accurately showed that some of these people are not always so obviously
homeless. My film showed that sometimes homeless people can just be mistaken for
somebody carrying a load of shopping bags back home on a cold dark night (my opening
scene).

I also showed a realistic portrayal of how some people ‘sleep rough’ both with equipment,
clothing and location.
Cardboard is often used as an extra layer of insulation either on top or as in my character's
situation between her sleeping bag and the floor.
I carefully dressed her and did some research talking to a resident of Unity House.

I also discovered that although some sleep openly in shop doorways others, who sometimes
perceive a sense of shame of their situation or just for security, will try to find a secluded
place to ‘bed down’ so that others may not see them.
My character found a gateway in a quiet dark Lane and hid her bags under a bush each
morning.
Lastly I showed that shelter residents are offered practical advice and solutions to get them
off of the streets permanently.

The contrast between the well lit cosy house with the Christmas Tree opposed to the cold
dark gateway helped emphasise the harsh conditions that these people face.

I helped this further by filming quite late on a moonless but clear dark late evening.
I also decorated the Christmas tree to the max to make it look the total opposite of the
conditions outside, warm, cosy and inviting as possible.

Technical quality

Overall I was happy with the quality of my content when considering the limitations that my
project was under due to the current Covid pandemic.

The concept, cast, script, camera angles and atmosphere portrayed the story as I wanted.
This was emphasised by my choice of music and scenes to help set the various moods and
accuracy around the subject.
Also the weather and time of day (of shooting) helped with the external environmental
lighting conditions and the characters clothing and equipment and locations were accurate to
the story.

However there were some limitations that I can now see clearly in the final piece and
although I was aware of some of these limitations during the filmmaking process I had
limited options on how to improve the situation at the time.
I ended up improvising as best I could with certain degrees of success as explained below.

Available cast leading to unsuitable script problem

The initial problem I found was the finding and recruiting of a young cast for my ‘Bullies’
project.
This became harder than expected due to limitations on mixing and travel when various
children or that their parents had to isolate due to Covid or other complications causing them
to drop out due to the pandemic.
This started to give me problems when trying to fully cast my ‘Bullies’ storyline.
Solution
I had to rethink my story to suit the people who I had available and that I knew I could rely
on.
Though not trained drama students, I knew that my family that I live with would be available
and that we would probably not be affected by Covid isolation periods during the shooting.
This was because as I live with them I would probably be also isolating with them if required.
If the worse happened I realised I would probably have a better chance of completing my
shooting schedule if anybody tested positive as we could probably carry on shooting in
isolation together.

Location problem
Similar to my casting problem I found that some locations were unable to be used due to my
reliance on others for transport arrangements as I am not a qualified driver myself yet.
Solution
I realised where I lived was in an old and atmospheric part of Chippenham which would be
ideal for many different styles of programming so, as above, I rethought my story to suit my
available location which tied in well with using my Family in the cast.
With our street being next to the oldest street in Chippenham complete with Victorian style
street lighting, large driveway gates and small lanes, I thought the ‘Christmas theme’ and
modern topic of ‘homelessness’ also tied in well to the location.

Time management problem

As I had Covid cast & location problems leading me to rewrite my story everything took
longer.
This pushed me to a slight panic / disorganisation problem that meant I did not have a kit list
ready in time to book it out before the College closed for the Christmas break.

My initial ‘Bullies’ storyline was set outside in daytime.

Although I had access to a fairly good quality camera phone for daytime shots I did not
realise how badly its performance deteriorated during low light level night time and interior
shots, I only fully realised on shooting.
This meant the technical quality of my production could have been better and I particularly
suffered issues of poor focusing and grainy footage at various stages both inside and out
partly caused by insufficient lighting.
Solution
My solution was on some shots, especially the exterior and night time bedroom shots’ was to
do an extraordinary number of takes to get even a reasonable result.
However I did notice that when I previewed some of this footage on a larger screen some of
the imperfections actually added atmosphere to the Homeless rough sleeping scenes.
I ended up using a combination of extension leads and standard lamps with the shades
removed and high power cob lights borrowed from my Father’s carpentry workshop.
These were all run into position with borrowed extension leads and carefully placed to hide
them from the shot.
Some gave too much light so I then had to position or shade them carefully so as to not
directly light the scene more than required.

How did you make the 3 act structure work? Would you use it again?

The 3 act structure was great, and yes I would use it again.
It immediately made it easier to visualise the whole project.

The 1st Act, my setup, introduced the audience to ‘Albert’ & ‘The Girl’ with the climax being
Albert realising that she had a problem that she was homeless and sleeping rough.
I thought it a slight point to deliberately not give a name to the girl as so many homeless
people are ‘anonymous’ to society

The 2nd Act posed a problem to Albert, which he and the audience would want a solution
for. This was how to solve her problem and the massive difference between both their
situations despite them being in the same street.
On finding her ‘Homeless at Christmas’ sign the following morning Albert was clearly
bothered by her situation and also seemed aware of his own ‘better situation’ in comparison
to hers.
This was emphasised by the existence of his ‘Christmas Santa List’ or things ‘he wanted’
rather than what ‘she needed’
The climax of Act 2 was Albert balancing his ‘gifts’ with her ‘needs’ by passing them straight
on to her in an unexpected but delightful and selfless way.

The 3rd Act showed the positive result of Albert’s anonymous selfless actions, the girl sought
shelter which she received and also the potential for a longer term solution for her was
shown.
The ‘Wrap up’ at the end showed both the Girl and Albert sleeping peacefully with our ‘Hero’
Albert happy in the private knowledge that he had helped her, obviously not that worried
about any gifts he had given up to do so.

Conclusion

To a certain degree I tried to pick up on one typical 'Hero' stereotype and twist it slightly.

In my drama our unlikely little 'Hero' Albert uses his 'anonymity' to carry out his good deed.
Often characters like Superman’s ‘Clark Kent’ persona or ‘Spider-man’s ‘Peter Parker’
persona are also anonymous to the person they help.
The homeless girl was not actually aware who helped her in the episode apart from the
name ‘Albert’ being written on the envelope.
Albert's own family were also not even aware of how he had helped a stranger and done so
without any expectation of thanks.
Like Classic heroes this leaves the audience with the ‘tease’ that in some future date or
episode their true identity could possibly be revealed.

The 'Hero' character is more typically a stronger or older person than the person they are
helping, but as a twist on this, I have flipped this expectation with my Hero seeming to be the
'little' and normally 'weaker' character but he surprises the audience and actually shows that
he has 'strength of character' shown through his selfless actions.

To illustrate this I chose a story line, location, and characters that I felt I could actually ‘cast’
with some expectation of success but mainly let myself down with time management prior to
shooting.
This left me with poor choices of equipment and much more work to improvise and re-shoot
some scenes.
All of this could have been improved if I had managed my time better before.
I let myself down in that I had not selected equipment in time to produce the clear shots as I
would have wished for.
Also on editing I realised that in one scene I had missed my shadow being visible whilst I
was camera operating as it was cast onto the subject (which was the ‘Santa’s Letter’).

However the final result did largely hit my initial targets in respect of the subject choice,
content, accuracy of subject, technicality of the various shot angles and editing & music
giving the feel and atmosphere of a Seasonal topical piece with the potential to extend to
more episodes.