Behind the scenes

Beach scenes,19th February

On Friday Sydney and I went down to Pett beach to finish filming our opening. The weather on the day wasn't what we wanted ideally as it was very sunny one minute and pouring it down with rain the next. Regardless of the weather we filmed the beach scenes which seem to have come out well.

Production Company research

Behind the scenes

Bathroom, swimming and outdoors scenes filming at Paddock Wood 6th February 

Photos and video credit to Sydney Lignac

The weather on the day was perfect for our opening being both cloudy and windy. The shot we had the most difficult filming was the blood scene for the beginning of the opening as we found it difficult to get the fake blood to fall the wall we wanted it too; slow and dramatic.

Digital Storyboard

Test footage

Our test footage was helpful in practising using the camera and learning how to get the best shots. As well as confirming we'd chosen the correct actress as she has a good screen presence.

Storyboard

BBFC Ratings

The BBFC or British board of Film Classification sets ratings for all films produced in the UK. By researching into the ratings we can decide on which is most appropriate for our film and the opening we are developing for it. We plan for our opening to include scenes of smoking and drinking or suggested smoking a drinking, both of which will need to be considered when deciding on the rating.

Can include:

• Strong violence
• Frequent strong language
• Sexual activity
• Strong verbal references to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexxual violence
• Discriminatory language or behaviour
• Drug taking

Can include:

• Moderate language
• Sex briefly and discreetly portrayed
• Moderate violence - no detail
• No anti-social behaviour endorsed
• No glamorisation of drugs 
• Infrequent sight of drugs

Overall it is evident that our opening will have to rated 15 as it will glamorise the use of  cigarettes and alcohol and endorse the anti-social behaviour that comes from it. Also if we made the whole film strong language would be a frequent occurrence to highlight the strong feelings of the main protagonists especially when they argue.

Character profile - India

India 

• 17 years old influences Fleur to become a more rebellious and adventurous character, not knowing about her terminal illness.
• India will wear darker clothing with a quirky twist to highlight her ambiguous character, which is especially essential in the opening as we become more interested in who she actually is.
• Her clothes will be noticeably darker than Fleurs implying that maybe she's a bad influence.
• India will wear more prominent make up to Fleur to show she is a more experimental and extroverted character.
• We chose to use Sydney for the part of India as she is a confident person with the correct facial features for the role.

Shot ideas - Swimming

Inspired from shots in 'The Great Gatsby' (left) and 'One day', I would like to incorporate a swimming shot into our opening, maybe to highlight Fleurs need to reflect on her situation as swimming a solitude sport. 

These images I took in the summer are similar to what I'd like to achieve in the opening as well as shots from the front of our main protagonist swimming.

Character profile - Fleur

FLEUR

• Terminally ill with leukaemia, Fleur pretends she has nothing wrong when around others in order to lead a normal life.
• When alone, she seems to just be waiting for the inevitable.
• As she is constantly pretending to others she is an awkward and introverted character with an air of mystery about her.
• Fleur has an easily influenced character and takes on a similar persona to India when she is brought into her world.
• Natural looking make-up and simple clothes fit Fleur's personality as she wants to go un-noticed as much as possible. 
• Plaid shirts over plain tops with a pair of jeans being an ideal outfit, with minimal jewellery; a simple stud in each ear.

We chose Maya as our actor for Fleur, as she has a young face and a natural look.

Leukemia definition

We felt it necessary to research into our main protagonists illness in order to gain a realistic view of that par of her life. 

Leukemia definition:

"A malignant progressive disease in which the bone marrow and other blood-forming organs produce increased numbers of immature or abnormal leucocytes. These suppress the production of normal blood cells, leading to anaemia and other symptoms."

Symptoms of leukemia include:

• excessive sweating (night sweats)
• fatigue and weakness
• unintentional weight loss
• bone pain and tenderness
• painless, swollen lymph nodes (especially in the neck and armpits
• enlargement of the liver or spleen.
• bruising and bleeding (nosebleeds)
• small red spots on the skin (petechiae)

How we will apply this to our film opening:

Firstly we will need to consider the sensitive viewers to this topic, so we will need to think carefully when presenting the illness, making the portrayal both realistic but sensitive. In Fleur's case, the illness is a negative aspect of her life, however we will also show her as a lively teenage girl who at times does not let her illness define her.  Despite this, the illness is also presented as a limitation as it plays a vital role in the plot of the film. 

Make-up:

In order to ensure the audience knows straight away that the protagonist is ill, we will use makeup to gain this look. 

• Little or no foundation will be used as the protagonist is already relatively pale
• Concealer or powder only (pale)
• Lightly applied greys/ browns to under the eye
• Lightly applied greys/ browns to around the mouth/nose
• Powder applied to the lips to give a dry effect
• Fake blood (nosebleed) for the beginning shots

Shooting Schedule

Location recce - Bathroom

Our opening sequence begins with Fleur having a nose bleed and opening a mirror to get her pills. For this shot we needed a opening mirror, again we looked at two different locations:

We chose to use Amy's Grandmother's bathroom (top image) as the mirror was more simple and the colour of the walls fits the palette of our opening. The sink is under the window not the mirror which isn't what we initially wanted but we can easily change our story board to fit the location. The bathroom is also sea themed making it easy to believe her house is by the sea.

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