Filming

During our lesson, we filmed in the school locations. We started off to film outside with a long shot of our character walking to school. We had to quickly film this scene as people kept passing by the camera or getting in the way.

For this scene, Asher was an extra in our film and we focused on getting an over the shoulder shot between Asher and Marcus playing as the main character, Michael as well as a point-of-view shot to show a more perspective side of the characters.

We filmed in the lunch hall to focus on shooting from Marcus' back with the report card on the front of the table to show how lonely he is during college.

Another location we filmed in was the locker room and did a close up shot of the camera in the locker to show what was in Michael's locker. Along with a medium shot from behind him so we have more shots to look at when we edit our scenes together.

We plan to film a scene with a teacher giving Michael the report card so it will connect to the scenes from the locker room to the lunch hall.

Shooting Schedule

Above is our shooting schedule which we have decided upon. So far, we have decided to start filming on the following dates: 22nd, 25th, 26th and the 27th. Locations will be the school shop, Marcus' house and Nathan's house. We have yet to decide if we need to film in the future but this is currently what we have planned.

Group 6 Presentation

Group 6 Presentation

Casting

Marcus Charles

As a group we have decided to use me as the main character as I am the one who is working on the script, we therefore feel that I am more likely to have a greater understanding of the character. Furthermore if we were to use someone outside our group it would have been very difficult to materialise a shooting schedule, that would both suit our group and the actor. This is because a majority of the people we short listed for the part have A levels they are concentrating hard for or they were unable to be available at the times we wanted to shoot
  Other people that were also considered for the part were Shola Stewart, Adeel Ikram and Nathan Jamason. Natahan wanted to be the camera man so it was physically impossible to use him anymore. Adeel couldn't play the role as he had to focus on his media group and we felt that it would be selfish of us to make his group suffer because of us. Finally shola said he wouldn't no if he would be available all the time as he is concentrating on his A levels and doesn't want any extra distractions.

Shop Keeper

We are currently waiting for the shop keeper of the local news agents to get back at us on whether he is going to be able to part take in our movie or whether or not we are going to have to leave that scene out or not. He has givin us permission to shoot outside his shop already and even if he is unable to act in our film we can easily make a few changes that wont affect the project that much.

Character Profiling

Character Profiling

Name:

Michael Watson. Nickname (FREE)

Biography:

Michael was born in inner city London, living part time with his mother and grandmother. He has never seen his father and doesn’t have a male role model who he looks up to. He is deeply troubled by this and doesn’t have a connection with any of his family; he often spends the majority of his time alone in his room. He spends a lot of time reading. At this moment in time he is living with his mother but occasionally stays with his aunt as his mum is always in hospital due illness. Has never considered anyone to be his friend, was often that child getting into fights in primary school and now spends his time in college alone in the library. Lately he has been going through a transition stage trying to understand the world and has started to become paranoid towards other people.

Age:

Late teens 17-18

Height:

Fairly tall

Weight:

12-13 stone

Body Type:

Works out a bit not really

Race:

Black

Eye colour:

Dark brown

Hair type:

Low

Hair colour:

Black

Clothing Style:

Relaxed. Often wears jeans, hoddie and trainers

Speaking Style:

Has confidence issues, so often gives one worded answers or often gets straight to the point. This is not a true reflection of his actual intelligence.

General Demeanour:

May come across as uptight and some would even call him a loner because he keeps himself to himself.

Career:

Currently studying a-levels in college but doesn’t see where his future may lie

Prejudices:

Hates people

Hates politicians

Hates police

Best Qualities:

He has good analytical skills

Worst qualities:

Anger problems

Narrow minded

Mean

Weaknesses:

His weaknesses is himself can not break the barrier he has built to protect himself from disappointment.

Hobbies:

Reading and listening to music

Talents:

 Poetry

Costume of Main Character (Michael Watson)

As a group we have chosen to make our main character wear black as it reflects the characters personality and the problems he is facing in his life. Black costumes nd outfits are often used to show someone has a dark side, and we feelusing thins colour shows how bleek his furtue is and he is living in darkness. This colour also gives little away about our character and shows how distant he is away from society.  We have chosen to give him the stereotypical dress code of a inner city london young male normally associated with crime and gangs. The reason for this being that people in gangs are normally rebels that have rejected what society wants them to do. I feel that our character has rejected society in terms of he doesn't like people and only goes to college beacue he is frightened of doing crime, which may lead to him going to prison.

Group Animatic

Pre production planing- preview of our script

(Close up) of Michael then (Pans) down to the notepad Michael has in his hands (he starts read off of it)

                                               -Cement, gravel, sand and water bound together,

                                               -Sitting on my shoulders four seasons of pressure,

                                               -Bones aching thoughts racing I have never,

                                               -Had an un stressful day,

                                              

                                               -I’m fluffed with rage

                                               -Am I lost in a trance, or am I lost in a daze,

                                               -Am I locked in a cage, or am I locked in a space,

                                               -Cant get pass this word so I cant get pass this page,

                                               -Titanium of known as TI

                                               -I think I’m surrounded by ones of it waiting for the day that

                                                 they free I,

                                                -See I have been feeling like this from I was about knee

                                                  height,

                                                -Wishing, wishing I could just put this tape on rewind      

                    

(Close up) of alarm clock, It rings. Michael slaps his hand down on to it, to turn it off and slowly starts to get up.

                        Michael (yawns) and then (mumbles)

                                                -Grrrrooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaannn Arrrrggghhh.

                        

(Long shot) from outside Michaels window showing him sitting up

                        Michael voice over

                                               -I pray for better days, I dream for better days,

                                               -But still it stays the same,

                                               -Whether its sunny, cold or there’s rain,

                                               -All I feel is strain,

                                               -What I’m in… to me, has no name.

Sound

At the Lambeth CLC, we tried out equipment at a Sound workshop that would benefit for our filming and give us better audio for our short film. We took roles to see the difference on being able to hear with each equipment; cameraman, interviewer and the interviewee.

We experimented using the camera with the boom attached which worked well because you can hear the speaker clearly however you cannot hear the other person asking questions if they were behind the camera or at a distance from the speaker. If they were the next to the interviewee, they could be heard clearly.

Along with the cameras, we used the boom-pole to see if there was any difference in sound. It had the same effect as when the boom was attached to the camera but since it was closer to Nathan, there was an increase in volume which is why he is at a good distance from the boom-pole.

Moving on to more audio equipment, we used a wireless microphone recorder attaching it to the speaker. Attaching the microphone on the speaker, you could hear the slightest movements such as rattling very easily so if the speaker wasn't moving around a lot, the sound would clear.

We tried the Maranz however upon using it, one of the headphones weren't working however the audio was still clear and we could hear the speaker clearly. It is also best to keep still while using this equipment as fiddling with the wire and unnecessary movement can be heard and also includes into the recording of the sound.

Target Audience

 Target Audience


Our target audience is males and females of all ethnicities, between the ages of 16-24. We feel that this is the audience best suited to our film because they are people at the age where they can empathise and possibly relate to our characters situation.  This is also an age where they would be interested in finding out more about teens the same age as them that are dealing with issues that they do not know a lot about. 


From our questionnaire, we received feedback from an age range of 16 - 17 year olds. The most preferred genre that our audience chose was Social Realism followed by Drama which works perfectly with our film. When asked about the biggest impact on modern day society, we got back feedback upon a various amount of issues such as drugs, recession and politics.


Target Audience Mood Board

Ideas

Our Film Ideas

Our initial ideas after reading our brief and seeing the photograph were things like darkness, loneliness, seclusion and the idea of being trapped. We divided the themes into how we could portray them in film, e.g, which ones would be documentary's and which ones would be fiction pieces. We all then decided to pick one idea that we each liked and share it with the group.

Most of us liked the idea of being trapped. We decided to do another brainstorm with the word 'Trapped' as the center idea. We came up with lots of situations, ideas and words associated with being trapped. We thought about what kind of character would be involved and decided to do it on who a teenager can be trapped in their everyday life.

We discussed the many different ways in which one person can be trapped and wrote them down.

A person can be trapped because:

• Clothes
• Race
• School
• Time (Being restricted, e.g having to be home at a certain time.)
• Age
• Knowledge
• Friends
• Status
• Phobias
• Speech
• Gender
• Sexuality

We came to the conclusion that we wanted our film to be about a teen who felt he was restricted in life, trapped, due to everyday situations, and how how he viewed the world.

We were inspired to have our charcter document a day in his life, with a narrative voiceover, by the short film 'Slip of the Tounge'.

We liked the style of the voiceover of this film. We decided to apply some of the ideas to our own short film. We wanted the audience to hear what the character thought about what was happening as the audience see it.