LOCATION PROBLEMS

This post illustrates some of the problems we faced regarding shooting. The problem came during after shooting so had to be corrected during the editing process. This post also looks at how we managed to rectify them.

After we had filmed and edited the school scenes we didn't feel that it flowed well with the rest of the sequence. The "school" stood out too much as it did look more like a park than an actual school.
How did we resolve this?
Initially we attempted to super impose a school name and logo onto the park wall. After spending around an hour on photoshop testing different signs we attempted to add it into the scene. This again didn't look right as it looked fake which wasn't the look we wanted.
FINAL CHANGE
In the end we had to reshoot the whole end in a different location. We use the Latymer School for ease and to clearly get across that we were walking into a school. A bonus to changing the location was that we were able to change the final shot. Whilst previously we all walked in together you weren't able to see the rivalry between my character and Zenia's character. Be re-shooting we were able to add in a 'bump' we clearly depicted tension between the two character's and allowed the audience to see an insight into the rest of the film

Original location

This incident made us realise that a lot more thought had to go into location planning and practice shots were necessary in seeing problems before it was too late.  

Location

This post shows our initial ideas regarding the location of filming as well as some of the potential struggles we would face.


There were 4 main locations that we used

LAUREN'S BEDROOM- my bedroom
This room was

• Bright
• Pink 
• Clean 
• Organised 
• Showed off her achievements 
• Girly

SCARLETT'S ROOM-Emily's Bedroom.
This room was

• Dark 
• Messy 
• Untidy
• Red
• Grown up 
• full of school brochures

BOTH ROOMS WERE USED TO REFLECT THE CHARACTERS PERSONALITY. As the intro was very short the rooms allowed the audience to see more of what the characters are like.

JOURNEY TO SCHOOL

This shots we to again show the contrasts between the characters. Lauren was going to be shown getting the bus with her friends. This showed how popular she was. Originally we were going to have a shot of Lauren meeting her friends on the bus however this idea was quickly scraped because of practical reasons. 

Scarlett's journey to school was going to be much different. Originally Scarlett was going to be shown waiting for a train at an empty train station to show isolation and reinforce that fact she is new and alone. However this idea had to be scraped as well because of practical reasons. Instead we decided to have her walking to school along side a reasonably empty road. 

SCHOOL 

This was the harder section to film as on a sunday all schools at closed. In order to get around this we decided to shoot at the local park. We chose an entrance that look grand- to fit the theme of the school. The location had a grand stone entrance and was wide enough to allow all 5 characters to walk in together.

From this exercise we learnt that a lot of detail needed to be taken when planning your location and some of the possible problems you would face to avoid and struggles during films.  

PROBLEMS FACED DURING SHOOTING

This post is to outline in detail the issues that we faced during filming as well as how we managed to correct them. 

Lighting
As previously mentioned lighting was one of the main problems we faced during our initial shoots however we soon managed to correct this by the use of peg lighting.
Weather and Outside Shots
During our main shoot we were originally meant to film our 'going to school' scenes however these shots we quickly rained off. We attempted to film these scenes in the rain however the dark and grey skies contradicted the bright and colourful atmosphere of our film.
Timing
Timing was another big constraint of ours. We had to film all of the inside scenes before we could film the school scenes because of the costume and make-up changes. However, we had to film the indoor shots quickly otherwise the lighting would be too dark giving away the fact that we didn't film in the morning.

Although all of the factors could have been planned out in advanced it was very much depending on the day and weather whether or not it would actually affect the shoot.

SHOOTING

During our meetings we needed to establish our shoot days. To further increase the productivity of our shoot we plan each shoot accordingly to plan time for reshoots. This post discusses the main aims of original shoot dates as well as any problems we faced.

During our initial planning meeting we had arranged 3 set days for filming

• Practice Shoot
• Main Shoot
• Re-Shoot

During our practice shoot we didn't actually record any raw footage. Instead we used this time to test out our storyboard and shot types. We used a Cannon DSLR as a camera recorder to test where the camera would have to be positioned for each shot. These pictures were then used for our animatic where we saw gaps in the storyline and framing of certain shots.

MAIN SHOOT

During our main shoot we only shot at one location-My house. This meant we were only filming half of the shots that we needed. One of the main problems that we faced that day was lighting. During the practice shoot the lighting was fine as we were only taking pictures and it was a sunny day. However, during the day of our main shoot the weather was a lot greyer and colder. This affected the amount of natural lighting that we got we affected the quality of our shots. As we reviewed the shots at school the day after we found many of them too be too dark to use or too grainy. To resolve this problem we then used Peg Lighting equipment for the rest of the shoots. 

RESHOOT

The time that we had changed location to Emily's house. Here is where were shot all the scenes that featured Zenia. This shoot ran effectively as we now used the official lighting instead of having to play around with different lights in order to get a brighter set.

RE-RESHOOT

In this shoot we had to re do the darker shots that were done at my house as well as the shots of the girls getting to school. This shoot also ran effectively as we knew the shots we needed and again it was now much easier as we had proper lighting. 

From this we learned that a lot more planning needs to go into the shooting days as well as the importance of planning for any problems that we may encounter during shooting.

10/02/13 Shoot Preparation

In preparation for our first ever shoot I have created a timetable to ensure we are well organised throughout the day and also lists of things our main characters we will need so we do not forget anything.

Costumes, Props and Make-Up

Olivia (Lauren):

• Cream chiffon blouse
• Black skater skirt
• Black tights
• Black heeled brogues
• Pearl earrings
• Brown satchel
• Trophies and Medals
• Report Card
• Calendar/Diary
• Photos
• Towel
• Nude Lipstick and gloss
• Mascara
• Blush

Zenia (Scarlett):

• White school shirt
• Black bodycon skirt
• White knee-high socks
• Black wedges
• Hoop earrings
• Pauls Boutique bag
• Cigarettes
• Red lipstick
• Thick eyeliner
• Bronzer

Shoot Inspirations

Before filming, we had to set up and arrange each room according to the character. These two moodboards show the mise-en-scene, colours and atmospheres we were trying to create for our two locations.

LAUREN

We wanted Lauren's room to look very pink, and show her girly personality. We arranged her bed to have pink pillows and set up lots of makeup products and bottles around her room. We also positioned medals and pieces of work around her room to show she was clever and not a typical 'dumb blonde'. Pictures of friends also were featured a lot as Lauren's character is supposed to be very popular.

SCARLETT

Scarlett's room on the hand was strewn with clothes, wrappers and make up to show she was messy and unorganised. We also carefully positioned cigarettes around her room to show she was a smoker and perhaps more of a 'bad girl' in comparison to pristine Lauren. We set up school brochures to hint this was a new school for Scarlett and postcards around her room symbolised her travels across the world. We tried to make each location for Scarlett as messy as possible- her desk, draw, and floor, as all of these were shown up close in shots.

Animatic and Reflections

During the planning process we completed an animatic in which we used still images to create a rough cut of our opening sequence.  This post talks about the benefits to the process and what we learnt from it.

Animatic
Benefits
There were many benefits to creating the Animatic before we began to shot the real sequence. After planning our storyboard the creation of the Animatic allowed us to see whether the shots flowed smoothly instead of jumping from long to CU (eg.)
It also allowed us to see where we were able to place our title-Pretty Popular- and to fit the other titles. Furthermore it also allowed to us see whether we needed to change any of the actions during the sequence.
In addition we were able to see whether our music choice fitted with our sequence. 

What we learnt from the animatic
After we produced our animatic we felt that the music didn't fit with our piece very well. This meant we had time to change it and find a more matching song. 
In addition we also realised that we needed to change the placing of our title. Originally we were going to zoom into the window where the title would appear however, from our animatic we realised that this wouldn't work so had to change its position in the sequence. 

How to improve our animatic
Our animatic used very rough pictures so it meant the angle and framing of the shots did not mirror what we wanted them to look like in our sequence. This made it much harder during filming as we didn't know exactly how to frame the individual shots.

Conclusion
I believe that this process was very useful as it allowed us to see a rough cut of our sequence before we started filming meaning that we could fix any immediate problems that we encountered. 

Final Shot List and Storyboard

Here is a picture of our original storyboard. We needed to create this as a plan for all of our initial shots. We kept referring back to this throughout the production and post-production process. However, much of it changed. Shots were removed, added and framing was altered.

This shot list is closer in detail to the final product.

1. LS PAN - Lauren's room
2. MS - Lauren asleep in bed
3. CU SPLITSCREEN - Alarm clock/Mobile Phone
4. MS - Scarlett in bed checking phone
5. CU - Scarlett's feet walking through messy clothes on floor
6. ECU - Lauren grabbing toothbrush
7. CU - Lauren brushing teeth (head flick down)
8. CU - Scarlett washing face (head flick up)
9. CU - Scarlett turning sink tap on
10. ECU - Scarlett turning shower on
11. ECU - Shower head turning on
12. LS - Lauren entering room after shower
13. CU - Lauren picking up hairdryer
14. MCU SPLITSCREEN - Hairdrying
15. CU - Lauren buttoning up shirt
16. CU - Scarlett unbuttoning shirt
17. CU/MS SPLITSCREEN - Pulling up skirts
18. MS PAN - Desk to Lauren picking up mascara
19. ECU - Lauren grabbing mascara
20. MS - Lauren unscrewing the mascara
21. CU SPLITSCREEN - Both applying mascara
22. MCU PAN - Dressing table to Scarlett grabbing lipstick
23. ECU SPLITSCREEN - Both applying lipstick/gloss
24. MS - Lauren packing bag
25. CU SPLITSCREEN - Taking objects from a drawer
26. MCU - Scarlett picking up bag
27. MLS - Lauren walking down corridor to leave
28. ECU - Lauren's door
29. ECU - Scarlett's door
30. LS - Scarlett leaving the house
31. ELS - Lauren and friends at bus stop, bus arrives
32. LS - Scarlett walking down road (towards camera)
33. ELS - Bus pulling away
34. MS PAN - Scarlett walking
35. LS PAN - Lauren and friends walking and chatting
36. MLS - Scarlett leaning against wall lighting a cigarette
37. MS PAN - Lauren and friends walking, friends go into school gate
38. MS PAN - Scarlett walking
39. LS - Both walking toward school gate
40. CU - Girls bump eachother
41. LS - Continuing to walk towards school door

Props and Costume List

When planning, we had to think carefully about costume and props. Our opening sequence is very much revolved around the representation of the two characters, so their clothing really needed to reflect their characteristics.

Lauren

Costume: Pink pyjamas, hoody, towel (for head), flesh-coloured tights, smart heels, pale coloured blouse, blazer, skater skirt, pearl jewellery

Props: Cambridge Satchel, Mascara, girly notepad, pens, hair dryer, perfume and make-up for counter, laptop, alarm clock

Scarlett

Costume: Plain dark-jumper, stripy socks, plain white school shirt, black tube skirt, black over the knee socks, red hoody, red vans

Props: Paul's Boutique bag, cigarettes and lighter, lipstick, clutter and clothes for the messy room, Blackberry

Other Friends

Costume: Dark coloured skirt, black tights, blazer/smart jacket, smart heels

Props: Smart school bags (satchels?) 

Voice Over Script

After realising that we were not having any dialogue in our opening sequence, we thought a voice over might be necessary to help anchor the narrative. We tossed around many ideas, one girl narrating, both girls narrating, or an external character narrating.

We thought about who this external character could be, and came up with the idea of using a Headteacher reciting the school rules, possibly in an assembly. Although this did not anchor the narrative like we orignally intended,we wanted to try and relate the rules to the shots. For example, a rule about punctuality could be played over a shot of the girl looking at the alarm, a rule banning make-up could be over Scarlett putting on bright red lipstick, or one relating politeness could be heard over a shot of Lauren smiling into the camera.

However, after much consideration, we decided to scrap the idea of a VO completely as the wording seemed unrealistic and out of place over the shots. It also reduced the upbeat and happy feel to the opening, so we decided on sticking to just the music track and diegetic sounds.

Floor Plan - Lauren's Room

Creating a floor plan was essential when we were planning the shots. It allowed us to figure out where we could place the camera and what type of shots we were physically able to take. We could judge the location based on the positioning of the standard room features. 

Using Olivia's room as Lauren's was perfect, there was just enough space for shooting, and features like the sink were suited to her character.

Scarlett's Bedroom

Floor plan of Emily's bedroom, the location which will be used as Scarlett's bedroom. Walls, carpet, armchair and shelves are red, and tables, wardrobes and bed are white. This room was primarily selected due to the colouring, whilst also having ease of access in the hallway outside, and well as the access provided by the positioning of the bed and wardrobes. In addition to this, my bedroom already has some retro London themed decorations, such as canvas prints, union jack bunting and a clock shaped like a bicycle, and this contributed to the British feel of our film.

Music

Our soundtrack was downloaded from www.freeplaymusic.com and is called 'Full of Mesh'.

On the website, it is credited as a 

"Happy upbeat track with dual guitars rocking riffs, solid rhythm section gets your foot tapping."

1. Full Of Mesh (1:07) - Found on Solid Rock Vol 1

Happy upbeat track with dual guitars working rocking riffs, solid rhythm section gets your foot tapping.Feeling: Rocking/Upbeat, Motivational, Adventure/Action,Rhythmic/Upbeat | Style: Rock & Roll Instrument: Drums, Bass, Guitar | Tempo: Med-Fast Composed by:Leroy Bocchieri, BMI Published by: Freeplaymusic, BMI

LOCATIONS

STUDIO CANAL

This blog post is about our research into our distributor 'Studio Canal'. It discusses the features of the company and why we chose them to distribute our film.

STUDIO CANAL

• Established in May 1999 Studio Canal is a UK film distributor.
• It is a subsidiary of the CANAL+ group.
• It is considered one of Europe's leading companies when it comes to co-producing, distibuting and international selling of the film
•  The ONLY studio operating simultaneously across 3 European bases- The UK, Germany and France.
• They distribute more than 50 films a year across Europe. 

Associated with Attack the Block, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and Sightseers.

WHY DID WE CHOSE STUDIO CANAL?

• With it being a British based company it had expertise in the field that we are producing for.
• A recognised household name 
• Previously distributed many successful films
• Fast Girls was distributed by Studio Canal. This Film is closely linked with ours. We share similar target audiences and a heavy focus on the 'British-ness' of our film. 
• It has companies in Germany to distribute the film in addition to uses the known conglomerates , Criterion, Rialto Pictures, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment, MGM and Universal Pictures, to distribute to the American market.

Fast Girls

Research into the latest British chick flick 


FAST GIRLS

Fast Girls is the latest British made chick flick. Released around the London 2012 games the style of the film was well received by UK audiences.
What was the film about?
'A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.'-IMDB
CAST

British cast-This helped to attract a British audience. 

Including   the actor Noel Clarke who was involved in previous British films such as 4,3,2,1 and TV shows such a Dr.Who. 

Development

There was a dilemma as to whether base the film around the upcoming 2012 London olympics however because of legal issues with the trademark of the Olympics as fictional event was created. Inspirtation was taken from 'Rocky'.

Promotion and Release

first launched at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011. The cast promoted the film at the Cannes film festival 2012 in an attempt to secure an international distributor. Studio Canal attained the rights for UK distribution. The film was premiered at Leicester Square in London a few weeks before the London Olympics. The red carpet had tracks marks on it to create synergy with the film's theme. The film when on general release 15th June 2012.

Reception

considered cheesy and felt it will never be considered a 'classic'  

However 'Fast Girls is at its best when dwelling on the ‘girl power’ aspect of the story, and the foursome who make up the core of the relay team.'

Music-British artists.

The characters are from different social background with different levels of wealth. We were able to link this idea with our film and use the idea of the two protagonists clashing as a main focus for our film. 

Furthermore there was also heavy focus on Britain. We also used this aspect in our film to  appeal more to our national audience. 

Looking back out our opening sequence we could have used more features from Fast Girls as it was the latest British chick flick and embodied all the features we wanted. However, we also wanted to create our own film with our own ideas so i feel our minimalistic references to this film worked in our favour. 

Official trailer.

Proposal- Presentation

At The Latymer School we are required to give a presentation proposing our film idea and only if approved by our teachers are we allowed to continue on with our project. (We got the go ahead!)

Here are screen shots of our proposal presentation:

Certification

There was much deliberation about the certification of Pretty Popular and whether a 12A or 15 would be more suitable. We decided to do further research into the differences on the http://www.bbfc.co.uk to help the decision.

Differences between the 12A rating and 15

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

We also wanted to find out what out film opening was allowed to contain if it were to be a 12A. Although violence is unlikely for our genre, there is a possibility of it including strong language or sexual references. We also wondered if Scarlett's character smoking would have an impact on the certification. 

The BBFC's Guidelines:

12/12A

- There may be strong language (eg 'f***') at 12 or 12A, but it must be infrequent. The context is important.

- There may be moderate language (eg uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at 12 or 12A).

- Any discriminatory language will not be endorsed by the work as a whole.
- Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed at 12 or 12A.
- Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Comedy may lessen the impact of sex references.
- There may be nudity in 12A films but sexual nudity should only be brief and discreet.
- Heterosexual and homosexual sex and sex references are treated the same.

15

- There is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (eg f***). - There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this. - At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, as long as there is no strong or graphic detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category and may involve some nudity and movement. - There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. - There can be strong references to sex and sexual behaviour.

From these findings, we realised that smoking did not come up as an issue. We also noted that we were going to portray it in a negative light, in association to the rebellious and mischievous side to Scarlett. We wanted a lower rating to further our audience reach, especially as it has a high-school theme and would therefore attract a younger audience. Our final decision was to give Pretty Popular the 12A rating.