Pre-production

- Catalyst from the beginning -

The timeline of 'Catalyst'

JANUARY 2019

This is when I had the initial idea of 'Catalyst'. Back then it was called 'Anachronism' and contained about half of the characters there are now. The story was more or less the same however the progression was very messy and overall quite boring.

I think when it came to the initial sketch of the show (which is what I've dubbed this version of the show) I was so desperate to just write it and film it that I didn't take the time to consider if it was any good or if it was just hot trash.

NOVEMBER 2019

After finishing the initial sketch of 'Catalyst' I thought I was never going to touch it again and was just going to forget about it. However, one day while I was scrolling through some of my older projects I had found it and remembered how excited I had been about it. It was then when I decided I was going to give it another go. I had renamed it to 'Catalyst', added some extra characters (such as Kingsley, Rosie, Christian...) and spent a lot longer developing the plot.

Yet I had gotten so caught up with the end of year tests and planning for other film projects, such as the recreation project, that I had completely forgotten about it, once again.

JUNE 2020

During the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, I found myself struggling to keep motivated. What I had enjoyed before seemed like a chore and I was resistant to do anything but lay in my bed and sleep. Then it was announced that we were going to go back to school for the next four Mondays before being on summer holidays. After going I had spoken to Mr Secular as he had briefly mentioned the year 11 final major project. My mind immediately went to 'Catalyst' i felt myself having that same surge of inspiration and raw passion to make the series not just an idea but a physical thing...

MARCH 2021

It is final major project time and to write, film and edit a seven-episode series in a matter of weeks would be near impossible even without a major global pandemic going on. So i have decided to settle with writing scripts for the episodes as writing is something i am extremely passionate about and see as a future career.

MARCH 2022

It's been a year and with CMP approaching for year 12 i've decided to create a pilot episode for how I picture the series to look on a smaller scale budget.

Previous scripts

2019 script

2019.pdf

This was the first outline back hen it was called 'Anachronism.' It was incredibly basic and all in all not a good script. But it was most certainly a good start. I will most certainly show the progression.


There are painstakingly obvious differences between the two scripts. Upon preliminary inspection, the most obvious difference is the formating on the cover. 2020 is cleaner and more professional while 2019 already seems amateur. The actual structure of the 2019 script shows to lack substance and weight compared to the a lot more detailed explanations and scene breakdowns in the 2020 script. While the 2020 script is most certainly not the best script I've written you can certainly see an improvement comapred to it's 2019 counterpart.

2020 script

2020.pdf

This was the second draft I wrote a year later. There's a massive difference between the two and I'm happy with how it was going yet it needed more nuance and maturity.

- Story writing -

Script writing

First draft

Script CATALYST 1st DRAFT.pdf


This is the first draft of the script for Catalyst. Upon finishing it we were rather shocked to see the total page count be at something as high as twenty-eight, I originally suspected it would struggle to reach the twenty to twenty-five page mark so there will obviously need to be some trimming and slimming that will come in due course with future drafts.

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Nia and I have shared the script with two teachers and two peers who have agreed to read through it and evaluate it. This is going to be beneficial so we can get an overall census on how the script, and therefore the final production will be received to an audience.


Peer feedback

As expected we've been told the script is way too long and will need to be cut down. Cut down to the extent of us essentially doing a singular scene. While this comes as a disappointment to both of us, we completely understand why we have to do this. We have decided to use the scene in which Calvin and Chester have their big fight which ultimately ends in Calvin leaving and buffing it up with more context so it doesn't make the audience feel completely out of the loop.

Stylistically we plan on either tricking it to look like a single take or actually filming it in one take. This is something that Nia and I will discuss in length as this looks like it will be a challenge, however a comfortable challenge as oppose to a 28 page script. I suppose we could have cuts in the scene but it will have to be something we discuss in length.

Catalyst short outline

Old outline

New Catalyst Script Outline

New outline

Second draft

Script Catalyst Draft 2.pdf

This is the second draft of Catalyst. Of course, it's a lot shorter and is only the argument scene between Calvin and Chester. It's been extended to about 11 pages which is obviously a lot longer than the original scene. Of course, when only doing one scene a lot more nuance and context needs to be added to both the characters. For example, I've implemented the fact that Chester's parents have died, Calvin has relapsed and Calvin's brother Kinglsey.

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It's definitely going to be a lot easier to film a ten-minute scene compared to the half-hour long film that the original script demanded. It will put less strain on Nia and me to create it as well as the fact that we can put more time and effort into making it something which is actually good as opposed to rushing it just to get it done.

Peer Feedback

XAV'S NOTES ON DRAFT 2.mov

Xavier's notes for our script

In all honesty, I'm not sure if I agree with Xavier's notes. While I understand where he's coming from when he describes it as dialogue-heavy I think he may have missed the point. In my eyes the dialogue is what drives the film, and of course the cinematography however that would come later with blocking and shot lists. We were still willing to take on his advice and decided to slim down some of the dialogue.

third draft

Script Catalyst FINAL DRAFT.pdf


This was the third script of Catalyst. I considered the notes Xavier gave us and decided to do a few rewrites. Nothing major, just a few cuts in dialogue. Now, this was actually meant to be the final draft however after my interview with Jules Becker I was partial to making a few last-minute adjustments the day before filming.

The changes I planned on making included changing the ending so that it would end how it starts. With Calvin.

As well as that Calvin would no longer walk in, choke on bread and get hymleiched by Chester but would now walk into a seemingly empty house only for Chester to walk in on her. This would add tension to the scene as Calvin went out of her way to avoid seeing Chester only for him to show up anyway.

final draft

Script Catalyst Final draft.pdf

This was the final draft that we decided to use for Catalyst. It has an alternative ending as well as some changes to dialogue and actions.

Overall while I do think it's the superior script to all of my previous drafts i'm sure that I will eventually find something I wish i changed about it. But at this very point in time, i'm rather happy with how it's come out. I think it's concise, to the point, descriptive but not overly wordy. I think it's a good script.

Character breakdowns

Chester Smith

Age: 18

Height: 5'8"

Appearance: skinny skeletal-like face, tired, scruffy

Background: Since a young boy Chester has always been a caring person. Sometimes too much. He's always trying to prove himself to everyone as a capable put-together person who can help anyone and solve any mystery. He spends most of his days reading or spending time with his best friend Calvin or aunt Rachel after a car crash that left him the sole survivor. However, when his aunt goes away for a business trip he is left to his own devices when his friend Emily suddenly disappears out of nowhere he begins to lose control of himself as he falls down a slippery road of self destruction.

Calvin Gardner

Age: 18

Height: 5'4"

Appearance: slender, tired, puffy-eyed

Background: Calvin has been in and out of the system her entire life. She's hopped from foster home to foster home while trying to maintain a relationship with her older brother Kingston. Now living with Chester, she is extremely protective of the ones she loves and always wants to keep people safe. This becomes difficult however when she has the occasional relapse. Ever since Emily disappeared she's been going off the rails even more than before which is putting strain on her relationship with Chester.

- technical -

moodboards

Aesthetic

Cinematography

The main inspirations I'm drawing for cinematography come from films and TV like Malcom & Marie and Mr Robot. The main shots i'm looking at are close ups, over the shoulder and canted angles.

Colour palette

The main colours i'm looking at are navy, washed out greens as well as light greys and browns.

wardrobe



Chester's standard wardrobe is a mix & match of all different styles and aesthetics. It has some ties to early 90s America however often has aspects of Y2K and modern fashion. He mainly wears earthy, darker and muted tones such as navy greens, blacks and darker blues.

Generally, Chester wears a simple plain t-shirt, black denim jacket, dark blue jeans and either trainers or Doc Martens. He's got quite a variety in style and he doesn't typically stick to one outfit. He likes to mix it up, and try something new.

He would never be called a fashion icon or particularly experimental however it's always tasteful and presentable.




Calvin's standard wardrobe mainly follows darker tones, green tones which are complemented by the occasional dash of colour (usually a stolen item of Chesters).

She's typically wearing a long camouflage jacket, dark jeans, sneakers or boots and an oddly fitting t-shirt which she most likely stole from Chester.

auditions


We of course needed a cast for our film so using Canva Nia and I designed a poster which we could share around to organise some auditions. We advertised a casting call and for anyone who was interested to contact us.

We shared it out exclusively on Instagram however in retrospect we probably also should've extended it to the brit bulletin and the performative strand teachers however it didnt matter in the end as we managed to get it out there.

We received about 10 replies from people who were interested, bear in mind it was a ratio of 9:1 girls to boys which put us in an awkward position. We had plenty of girls to audition for Calvin but only boy to audition for Chester. But we made do with what we had and began to email all the auditionees.


We organised for our auditionees to meet us on Tuesday the 26th of April on G3 over the course of the day. We picked this day as the only people that wouldn't be in lessons were film meaning everyone would have time to audition, although, in the end, it didn't matter. While we did send out the emails with the relevant times and locations only two people showed up. Some had warned us that the shooting days didn't correspond with their own schedule however most didn't tell us which while was disappointing, made the job of finding our Calvin a lot easier.

IMG_0273.MOV

Raluca Ungureanu

First up was Raluca. She's a relatively old friend of mine and I've always vaguely pictured her in the role of Calvin so it was fun watching her audition for this character which has been in my head for so long.

IMG_0274.MOV

Zara Taylor

Zara's performance was incredible, on par with Raluca's. The only thing that stopped me from giving the role to Zara is, and i'm aware of how condescending this may sound, but she was too nice for the role.

Alfie Jackson


I found myself in the awkward position of not having a single male cast member to play Chester. I reached out as much as I could and managed to find one of my male actor friends who said he would be more than happy to film. I couldn't particularly audition him so it was a bit of a shot into the dark however I had no other choice.

Our cast

Alfie Jackson as 'Chester'

Raluca Ungureanu as 'Calvin'

planning documents

Call Sheet & Shooting Schedule

These are all the scheduling documents to make sure that the day goes to plan. On the left is a call sheet that contained all the information regarding when the cast and crew are scheduled to arrive, the high/low weather of the day, the location, the safety note and the emergency information. On the right is the broken down schedule for throughout the day.

Prop list & Kit List

Prop List

Kit List

Location Recce





This is the floor plan that Nia managed to get for us both so we (mainly me as she's the one that actually lives there) could understand the layout of the house a bit more. This was going to be necessary for the purposes of mapping out and choreographing the camera movement.









This is the physical document that gives a written detailed understanding of the location. It lists the contact information of the owner, the various light sources, the actual address, as well as any potential risks or problems we could encounter.

Floor Plan

Location Recce form- Nia's house.docx

Our location recce video

FinalVideo_1651829314.735113.MOV