Health and safety

During filming our main risk of health and safety was filming on the beach, as it had rained the previous day it was very slippery on the ground, the three of us looked out for each other at all times to make sure we weren't about to slip over. The shot with Fleur and India on a reasonably high wall also had reasonable risk surrounding it, both girls walked slowly to avoid falling off and we're responsible for there own safety.

The smoking scene in the montage was an optional scene depending on the actors we found Sydney was happy to smoke for the film and is 18 so this is legal. It was also legal for Maya to smoke but as she felt uncomfortable smoking we didn't make her she just held a cigarette to give the impression she had been. 

As our actress, Maya, was under 16 we made sure that her parents knew where she was at all time and where okay with what she was doing at all time. 

Fonts

These are some of my initial ideas when it came to fonts for the titles in our opening. I personally like the look of the thin fonts the most but I'm not certain as to whether they would stand out well enough. 

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.

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

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.

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.

Google maps

Costume ideas

''Clothes are not used to create a spectacle in themselves, but are used to support character and acting style''

Character costume inspiration:

Thirteen (2003)

Ten Things I Hate About You
(1999)

Like Crazy (2012)

These three examples constitute a similar image to how our protagonist will ideally look. The image from 'Thirteen' represents the more rebellious side of the main character, and her influential friend. 

The remaining examples represent the protagonist's initial style, of which is relatively natural to the extent that she will wear very little make-up and have basic clothing such as plaid shirts and ripped jeans.  

Main Protagonist

Hair colour: brunette

Hair style: mid-long which will be worn down 

Clothing selection: black or denim ripped jeans, plaid shirt, hooded sweatshirt, converse trainers
Jewellery: nose ring/small pair of earlobe studs
Make-up: bare minimum, eyebrow definition, eye-liner

Second Protagonist
Hair colour: brunette/black
Hair style: long which may be tied up (ponytail)
Clothing selection: leather jacket, dark jeans, boots 
Jewellery selection: hooped earrings, rings   
Make-up: defined eyebrows and eyes, strongly pigmented lipstick

Shooting Script

Location Recce - Beaches

A main part of our opening sequence is the beach location, where the main protagonist goes to reflect on her past friendship. We looked at two different beach locations Hastings being our groups initial idea as its close to a town which could also be used in our sequence.

The whether on the day of the recce was perfect for what we want in our opening; grey sky and dry, by having the correct whether we can picture how the sequence would hopefully look. As a group we decided that Hastings wouldn't be right for our opening as there wasn't a promenade or flat walk way with benches close enough to the town. Consequently we looked at our plan B location: Pett level.

 We preferred Pett level as a location for our film as it has a long walk way with a selection of benches looking out at the sea, the beach could also be used for other scenes in the opening as it has walls and fences along it. However by using Pett we will need to re-think how the main protagonist is going to get to the beach from her house as there are no houses just off the beach, this could be achieved with an elliptical jump cut to show that she's walked a considerable distance.