Wednesday Filming!!

We've finished filming!!.....sort off
With our first draft deadline loaming, today was the only day we could film in my house, however Hannah couldn't make it with the camera so we had to use Chloe's iPhone camera. We think that we will have to re-film the shots taken today as they may not make the quality of the other shots, but we will have to see when we upload the footage tomorrow.









We had to use the furniture in my room to achieve a high-angle shot.














After filming we gave Liv her wages....so hard earned chocolate ;)

Our finalised idea

We are sticking with the idea that we previously blogged, except we have made some changes. This is the film idea that our opening is based on.

A teenage girl has argument with her mum (it is unclear what the argument is about, but there is a sense that the girl has changed and the mother is worried about her) who kicks her out of the house. She turns to alcohol and one drunken night she breaks into her house and is arrested. She's sent to a youth rehabilitation centre where she see's other teenagers in worse situations than she is. Reluctantly she begin to let the youth workers in, one women in particular and as the film progresses we find out about the girl's life in detail and exactly why she was arrested.

The opening of the film will start with her walking, drunkardly, down a road at night, with POV shots to demonstrate the blurry world that she can see through intoxicated eyes. She reaches a house and shoulders the door, breaking into it. On the floor of the hall she is now in there is a framed photograph on the floor. A flashback is then seen of the girl and a women arguing, ending with the women shouting "Get out!". It then cuts back to the girl at night. She walks up the stairs, then seeing another picture which she picks up and begins to get sad. She walks into her bedroom, which looks very feminine, contrasting with her hooded figure, implying she has changed a lot, and looks absently out of the window, she then feels nauseous and falls back onto her bed, hearing the sound of her mother shouting over and over again. This then causes her to stumble and knock over a pile of photographs. Time has passed and the girl is seen sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking at all the pictures; it is obvious she has been crying. Suddenly a police siren is heard, and in a series of jump cuts she is put into a police car which drives away. The titles "Revive" are then seen.

Sunday Filming!!

Today, we had our first day of filming which I think went rather well. We have finished all of the flashback scene, however we did not manage to get all of the footage in the bedroom shot, therefore we will have to film on another day.









We think that our makeup was very successful and we were pleased with the outcome. We will now have to be careful when we film again, to make sure that it looks the same.

As some of our filming was done outside, we made sure that our actress was wrapped up warm with a hot water bottle between takes.













And we found that a head torch came in handy, as it was very hard to see Liv in some of the shots outside.

Our trip to the BFI!

Today, our Media Studies class went on a school trip to the British Film Institute, in London, for a lecture on representation in TV Drama. Although this was to help us with the exam side of the course, it was still useful for our coursework as we were viewing footage that could inspire us. Also, there was an interview with Richard Stokes, a producer, who has worked for the BBC and ITV, producing TV Dramas such as Torchwood, Law & Order: UK, and Broadchurch (which we watched the first episode of and became completely hooked). We were able to ask Richard questions of our own about the industry and how he came to do what he does for a living, and it was really interesting, especially as I wasn't clear about what a Producer actually did before today. I really enjoyed the visit and now cannot wait to commence with our filming, and create some media of our own!!

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

Risk Assessment

Health and Safety is one of the most important aspects we need to consider when filming. Before filming we sat down and discussed the possible dangers we could face and how we would overcome these below is what we discussed:

Possible risks:

-When filming by the roadside on the pavement, there is a possible danger of falling into the road or a car could come up onto the pavement and damage one of us
-It could be really cold and our actress will only have her tracksuit on and no coat, so may possibly get ill from the temperature
-When filming low angled shots onto the protagonist we will have to stand on chairs or wardrobes which creates a possible risk of one of us falling off and hurting ourselves
-In the argument (flashback) when pushing the parent into the door, it may be too forceful and possibly hurt one of our actress
-When throwing the picture onto the floor it may accidently break, and glass may be broken and possibly damage one of the crew or actresses

How we will overcome them:

-To have full concentration at all times, and be aware of the surroundings and what is going on
-Do not stand on the curb or on the edge of the pavement as that would increase chances of falling into the roadside
-Do not film in road, or do not walk in road when moving locations (use pavement where possible)
-When crossing the road look left and right and be absolutely sure it is safe to cross
-Bring a coat and hot water bottle with us to film and in between shots give to actress to keep her warm
-When standing on wardrobe or chair, make sure it is absolutely sturdy and that you have someone helping up there and helping them down
-Do not mess about when standing on furniture and make sure you have full concentration
-Do not push too hard, and make sure that in the area where the actress is pushed into, that all sharp objects or possible objects that could hurt are removed
-Replace the glass in the frame with plastic
-When throwing the frame, throw it onto a cushion

SUMMARY= 
If all of the above are considered then we should practice good health and safety.

Production Logo

Music Inspiration

In order to create the desired music that we wanted we searched already existent tracks which would fit our opening. By doing this we could create a similar piece and be inspired. Below is my analysis of three tracks we looked at:



I like this track because it is emotional and moody and I think this will fit our opening well as it reflects what she is feeling. From this, we have decided to capture an emotional feel to our own opening like this track.



I like this track too as captures a similar feeling.




We loved this track as it captured an emotional and moody feel, this fits the best out of the three tracks and we are inspired by this very much!

Research: Camera Drunken Effects Research

After deciding that in the narrative our character will be drunk, we thought that it would be most effective to show this aspect particularly through the POV shots. To make these shots realistic and believable we thought that we could use or create some camera effects or editing techniques. I will be researching into our possible and best options that we could use in our film opening.

The first camera technique I looked into was the unsteadiness, this was to make everything seem disorientated and so that you can almost feel the effect of the stumbling. To test this out I have experimented different ways that you can make the shot unsteady using test shots. 

Technique one:
We waved the camera side to side when walking this worked well and could be a possible technique to use

The second camera technique was blurriness, this is also to add to the effect of disorientation and get the full effect of what it is like being drunk. When researching the ways I could get blurry shots on the internet I found out that to get the effect it was mostly created when editing. However, there is one way you could create it, which we could do luckily due to the type of camera we are going to use.

On iMovie there are a number of effects which you can use to get the blurry effect and they are listed below:

• If you slow down the video by quite a bit, it slightly blurs it naturally anyway. Slowing it down does at to the drunken effect as when drunk, reactions are slowed down so this is quite a realistic effect.
• The video effect 'glow' can be used. This blurs it reasonably well but also brightens it quite a bit, this almost makes it feel like a flashback which is not the desired look so this isn't probably the most suitable.
• The video effect 'romantic' can be used. This blurs it slightly but again brightens it up making it also seem like a flashback thus not the most suitable.

The most suitable techniques for our opening is the slowing down of the video.

Finally, after choosing technique 1 and the camera technique for the blurred effect to be most suitable I have used them together at the same time to see how easy and effective it is.

SUMMARY:
From this piece of research I have found out that:
-Technique number 1 was the best technique to get an unsteady look
-Having bright lights in the distance/background when doing technique number 2 adds to the drunken effect, in this case street lights and tail lights on cars would be good
-I think that combining the camera technique of waving the camera with the  slow-mo would be most effective.

Creating original music

As we cannot use music that has been copyrighted, we've decided to create our own sound track for the film opening.

I know a friend who is keen on making music and singing, and he has kindly agreed to help me create a piece to use.

 

 

His name is Antonio Perricone, and I think his voice will suit the dreamy, emotional tone that we want the music to create.

 

 

 

If you want to here more of him, these are the appropriate links:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hedoesntbuildships

 https://soundcloud.com/hedoesntbuildships

Filming Schedule

This is our plan for when we film on Sunday

2:00- camera crew arrive
2:30- actors arrive and are briefed
2:40-3:00 -filming flashback scene
3:00- checking footage, Gill (mother) leaves
3:00-4:30 -wait until it gets dark
4:30-5:00 -brief actress and do her makeup
5:00-5:30 -outside filming
5:30-6:30- inside filming
6:45- actress leaves
6:45-7:00 - eat dinner whilst checking footage
7:00 -leave

Test shots

Last Saturday I had the actress round to take some test shots for our opening

The pictures were taken on my iPod, so the quality will not be as good as the camera we will use for the actual filming, but these test shots will give us a good idea of the composition of the shot and where the actor should stand. It also allowed me to brief the actress in detail at what she would be doing when we do film.

Test shot storyboard from gingermulley

Storyboard: First draft

Makeup experimenting

The girl in our opening, needs to look as though she has been living rough for a couple of days, and so we want her makeup to reflect this and look neglected. I experimented to find the best way to do this makeup.

The left picture is the before shot. I am just wearing eyeliner and mascara. In the photo on the right I rubbed my eye and this is the effect. It isn't really the thing we were looking for as we'd like there to be more black under the eye and its quite weak and faded in the picture meaning it may not show up on the camera.

I then tried using water, and found it was much more effective and it looked as though I had been crying. However, if we do use this method, we'd need to make sure that the tear is coming out of the tear duct, so that it looks more realistic.

Here I was experimenting with lip stick, I basically just wiped my month with my hand. I think it looks really effective and will leave the audience wondering why her lipstick is smudged. I will discuss with the others, and see what they think.

 

Grace :)

External locations

This is the first location we are using. The first shot of our opening is a main road. To establish the suburban setting, as there will be cars and noise. This is Shipbourne road, which is a couple of minutes from my house. We have chosen to film here because there are street lamps which will help light the shot as we are filming at night time, and the rule of thirds will look nice, with the trees in the first, the bus stop in the second, and the girl in the third. The bus stop also helps with the urban feel.

The second location is this smaller road. We chose this road as it allows us to get the frame we had imagined, with the road getting bigger in perspective. It will as be a wide shot, which is a convention of a Social Realism film.

We've chosen my house to film in, as it was the most appropriate being semi-detached, it will help establish the idea that the girl is not lower class but she acts as though she is. Also it is on the road we are using so it will fit in with those shots as the houses will look similar.

Internal Locations

 

 

My room is also quite girly, and this will show she has changed as she is not dressed in this way. It will also appeal to our target audience as they will be middle class and feminine.

Filming checklist

what do we need in order to film?
Locations

• House
• Busy main road
• Long street

Actors

• Teenage girl
• Mother
• Policeman

Costume

• Oversized grey hoodie
• Leggings
• Dirty Trainers
• High-vis jacket

Props

• Bottle of alcohol
• Photographs of the mother and daughter
• Photoframes

Research: Costume, Props and Makeup

In order to succeed in our genre we need our mise-en-scene to be as realistic as possible and this in particularly includes costume, props and make up. To research into this I have studied and analysed these three things in the social realism film openings  that we have already have analysed previously in our initial research.

1. Costume:

This screenshot is from the film Fish Tank. As you can see she has a grey tracksuit on which is baggy and provides a hood to it, which she has up. She also has crystal white trainers on. This look is very youthful and gives off the impression she is a 'chav' and could be feared of.

This screenshot is from Kidulthood. As you can see they are wearing tracksuits with a cheap thin raincoat and baseball caps. This look is also very youthful and 'chavy'.







These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had some kind of casual tracksuit, baggy clothing, and a hood. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.


2. Props:

This screenshot shows one of the main character smoking a cigarette. This prop is used throughout and plays an important part in the realism as smoking is a widely popular activity.

This screenshot is from Fish Tank. As you can see the prop is alcohol. This plays a big part in the film and it also adds to the realism due to it being a popular thing for teenagers to do.









These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had either a cigarette, or alcohol in it. But overall it was mostly alcohol. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.


3.Make-up:


In this screenshot as you can see there is hardly any make-up. It is very bare and gives of the impression that she does not have enough money to glam herself up. It also may represent how troubled she is as she may have other things to worry about other than her looks.






In this screenshot the main character also has minimal make up on. She has a little bit of mascara on and maybe a bit of foundation. I think this naturalistic look is important as it portrays the struggle or the giving up on making yourself look presentable due to other issues over riding them, which would be needed to get across in social realism films.





                   
These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had either natural or no makeup. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.
                                                                                                                              
                   

Summary:

Costume should be baggy, have a hood, or tracksuit if possible

Props used should be alcohol related

Make-up should be natural as possible

Casting

On 13th December 2013, we were invited to an AS drama performance, were each Theatre Studies student performed a one minute monologue. This was a great change for us to make some casting decisions for our film opening, as we need a teenage girl to play the lead role.

Tamsin Keeley- Tamsin played a girl who had started a fire which killed her room mates, her performance was compelling and shocking, and she was able to engage the audience successfully. She's had acting experience before, being part of Stag Youth Theatre, NT and performed in a production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' at Tonbridge School. We feel she would be appropriate for our film because she is the correct age and her hair color, red, will give connotations of anger and fiestiness, which our character needs, she's also had filming experience, being a part of a Wild Wing Arts production.We also took note of her very expressive face. As the character does not talk for the
majority of the opening this will be key to portraying her depressed and drunken state.
However, she has been cast in a number of Media Studies pieces, we have taken the decision not to use her as A, our piece may look unoriginal, with the same girl appearing in several other films, and B, we don't want to put her under any more pressure, as filming can be time consuming.


Liv Chadbon- We have decided to cast Liv as our lead for the following reasons:

• Liv has had experience acting with her previously and is confident that she will be able to portray our character
• We also need someone to play her mother, and her mum is available, so we have the advantage of them looking similar and having picture of Liv with her when she was younger.
• She has had experience in front of a camera, and has had several main cast roles in Tonbridge School productions

Gill Chadbon- will play the girls mother for the following reasons:

• She is Liv's mother therefore she will be able to interact with Liv with ease and they will look alike
• Gaining pictures of the two together from a variety of ages will be easy
• She is a confident and bubbly person who will be able to act upon our instruction

Research: Behaviour of a drunken person

 

The whole idea of our opening is for our character be drunk, therefore, we need to research into how a drunken person behaves as this is a hard to act realistically. To research into this successfully I have used the internet and asked our drama teacher to help me come up with some top tips on how to play a realistic drunk which our actress can follow when we brief her. To display these tips I have presented them in a prezi which is below: 

Reserach: Iconic Sound associated with Social Realism

Diegetic Sound

Police car sirens- as Social Realism deals with real life issues, arrests are likely to take place or similar situations, therefore sirens will be heard. Also, many are set in areas were the crime rates are higher (council estates) so police would be around more frequently.



Sounds of violence- Such as fighting sound effects or gun shots as this scene from 'Kidulthood' demonstrates, because many of the themes Social Realism films deal with involve violence including gangs, domestic abuse and prisons.

Swearing- As Social Realism deals with real life, obscene language is not filtered, it is as true to reality as possible as this the clip above also shows.



Busy streets- As we know from the codes and conventions, Social Realism films are commonly set in urban areas and cities therefore ambience like this is appropriate to set the scene.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Music of the time period- Social Realism films do not use specially made soundtracks, they use music from the setting of the film to make it more real. For example, 'This Is England', which is set in 1983, uses 'Come On Eileen' by Dexys Midnight Runners which won Best British Single at the Brits in the same year. So a Social Realism film in the modern day may use rap music or dubstep.

How is gender represented in the media?

How is gender represented in the media?

Gender is represented in a variety of ways. Over the years the way males and females have been presented to us through media has evolved in sync with our ever changing society. Women once seen as the housewife's and possessions of men who could not think for themselves, and men were the bread-winners who dominated.

We began by making a hierarchy of masculine and feminine people in the public eye. We found that the most feminine women were: - ditsy
                                                   - Blonde
                                                   - High maintenance
                                                  - pink
                                                  - dependant
                                                   - attractive
The least feminine women were: - independent
                                                    -masculine aesthetics e.g quite muscular
                                                    - dominance
                                                 

Here are some posters we made about this topic

                               

Early ideas

Our first idea

A teenage girl an argument with her mum who kicks her out of the house. She turns to alcohol and one drunken night she breaks into her house and is arrested. She's sent to a youth rehabilitation centre where she see's other teenagers in worse situations than she is. Reluctantly she begin to let the youth workers in, one women in particular and as the film progresses we find out about the girl's life in detail and exactly why she was arrested.

The opening of the film would start with her travelling on a bus to her house, walking down the road and breaking in. Now in the house she would look at family photos and items which would remind her of the argument (shown through flash backs). Sirens are heard and we would like to end the scene with her being put into a police car by a policemen.

 Whilst discussing this idea, we started imagining some of the shots we'd like to use in our film opening, as shown in the picture on the left.

This is a CU shot of some leaves with water droplets on them. We'd really like to have the opening set in the rain, or just after rain for pathetic fallacy uses. Her sadness is shown through the rain. This CU will be a nice was of showing this.

Once we've found our actors, we'll need to get some pictures of them to use for shots such as this one. We'll have shots of our actress looking at the pictures in frames, to show that she used to have a good relationship with her mother.



When she is on the bus, we'd like to have some shots of the street life outside, maybe even some rain on the window if that is possible.

Although its hard to tell from this rough drawing, this is a Mid-shot of the mother and daughter during their argument. We liked the idea of the girl having flashbacks of the argument when she's in the house. If the flashback shots appear different to the regular shots in some way, like a filter or a change in focus, it will make it more obvious that there has been a time shift.

A close up of a bottle held loosely in her hand, with give the impression that she is under the influence of alcohol.

We want to use a series of POV shots, to show her intoxication. Changes in focus, and shaky filming will help demonstrate this