Filming Diary

We arrived in Brighton at 11.30am, having been driven by Willa's dad Bill. After waking up Thea and her boyfriend George, we filmed the scenes in which Isaac and Grace are inside the house. In particular, we filmed the scene in which Grace slumps at the inside of the front door in the hall, after having just been walked out on by Isaac, in the midst of a dramatic fight.
After filming all our indoors shots, we went to have lunch in the lanes, which was where we would be filming that night. We planned to get to the beach to film at 3.55 which is when the sunset was said to happen. We got there for 3.30 and filmed some improvised shots of Thea and George running around, and eventually when the sun set over the sea, the lighting worked very well and looked just as dramatic and beautiful as we had hoped. After this, we went back to the house and filmed some of the shots set in the evening, for example when Isaac and Grace were fighting indoors. We then packed up all of the equipment and were driven home to London.

Ident Planing

Ident Planning 1

We have decided to use the same production company name that we used for our AS-level coursework but create a different ident. Our chosen name was 'Silver De Courcy Films' or SDC. Although our trailer is for a low budget indie film, we wanted to take some inspiration from the moving idents used in  Optimum Releasing.

Our initial idea was to use a moving light to form the letter of the company's title. This grew into the idea of a lightning bolt forming an 'S' and following into the full title of the company. This use of light is very popular in a number of idents we have looked at such as Optimum Releasing:

We wanted to create this same sort of flashlight effect which goes across the title and highlights it. Therefore our basic idea was to create a lightning flash to form the 'S' and then follow the rest of the title through with a flashlight effect.

W.H

Filming Schedule 2

Filming Schedule 2

On Thursday we will be filming shots within school. These shots require a lot of planning as they have a lot of extras involved and we also have limited time to film them as we are using school facilities.

The first set of shots we will be doing is Shots 5 and 6.

These are showing the characters where they meet - at university. We will be using our lecture theatre for this as we think it looks most like it is out of a university. However, as it is a lecture, we need a lot of extras to make it look realistic. To make sure this happened, we wrote a post on our year's Facebook group asking them to come and sit in as extras. We have asked them all to bring a piece of casual clothing such as a hoodie etc. to make it look like they are actually in university rather than just in uniform.

So that we don't waste time with the extras, we will be arriving in the lecture theatre at 12.35pm to set up the shots and position of Grace and Isaac. We have asked the actors, Thea and George to arrive at 1.15pm and the rest of the extras to arrive at 1.30pm so that we have time to run through what the main actors have to do before everyone else arrives.

In the afternoon we will be filming Shot 12.

It is necessary that we film this after lunch and before the end of school because otherwise our location will be extremely busy and impossible to control. This will be filmed in the café in our school as it looks most like it is out of university.

Following this, we will then be filming Shots 8-11.

This will be filmed in our library at school as we cannot film in Sussex library. We have already tested the area we will be filming, which is quiet and away from other pupils so there wont be any distractions. In preparation for this, we asked the Librarians whether we were allowed to film in the library last week just to check that it would not be disruptive to other peoples' work.

W.H.

Title Research

For the title of our film, we want something quite simple which does not sound too cheesy. However, we do want it to sound dramatic at the same time.

'Dear John' is rather an intriguing and interesting title because it is the start of a letter, so the audience is left wondering who is writing the letter, and who 'John' is. We could do something similar,  but 'Dear Isaac' is too similar.

'Blue Valentine' is another interesting title. Our title will be more similar to this in the way that it is very abstract and does not really let the audience know what the film is about, whilst at the same time managing to somehow capture the whole of the essence of the film in two words. The juxtaposition of the words 'blue' and 'valentine' are interesting because blue is usually affiliated with tragedy, and feeling sad or lonely, whereas valentine is just the opposite. The word 'valentine' suggests romance, so lets the audience know what the film is about and roughly what to expect, whilst leaving an element of mystery.

'Revolutionary Road' is another two word title. This title could ultimately be about anything, and does not particularly hint towards a romantic film, 

Sound

For the sound in our trailer, we are using mainly non-dijetic sound. We will be putting one music track over the trailer - this is because other romance trailers such as Dear John and Blue Valentine use a single track rather than multiple tracks. The track will be melancholic and rather simple, with guitar and voice and maybe piano. We will write our own lyrics, roughly according to the narrative of our film.

We will also have some dialogue in the trailer, for example when Isaac and Grace are at the bus stop at the beginning they are having a conversation. We will use a micro-track to record this on set, and upload it onto Final Cut Pro to put over our filming. It is important we get the sound right, because this part slightly let us down on our coursework last year.

We will alter the feel of the music according to the mood we are trying to create in different parts of the trailer. For example, here, Grace is putting her head in her hands because she is upset and frustrating, so we will try and make the music sound very sad and dramatic to get across what she is feeling to our audience.

Similarly, in this shot Grace and Isaac are having a tension filled argument, so we will have the music building up. We may also make it louder, and amplify the sound of Isaac shouting to show the large scale of the argument.

In shots like this, we will make the music sound lighter and more happy, and have happy lyrics rather than sad depressing ones. This is to show the audience the different stages in Isaac and Grace's relationship, taking them through the basic narrative of the film without giving away too much. Also, we want to evoke emotion in the viewers which our music will hopefully do.

B.M

Logos

Logo research prezi

Filming Schedule 1

This Sunday we will start our first day of real filming in Brighton. Since we are travelling down only for one day, we need to be prepared so that our timing goes to plan otherwise we will not be able to finish the shots we need to do.

Sunset: 15:55

12:00: Location - 5

Shot 20 - Grace, Costume 10, Isaac, Costume 2

Shot 32 - Grace, Costume 12

Shot 44 - Isaac, Costume 2

Shot 35 - Grace, Costume 13

13:00: Location - 1/2

Shot 15 - Grace, Costume 4, Isaac, Costume 1

Shot 57 - Isaac, Costume 6

14:00: Location - 1.4

Shot 48 - Grace, Costume 13

Shot 54 - Grace, Costume 13

15:00: Location - 1.2

Shot 13/14 - Grace, Costume 6, Isaac, Costume 1

16:00: Location - 1.3

Shot 17/18 - Grace, Costume 6, Isaac, Costume 1

17:00: Location - 5

All evening/fight shots (27-9, 33-5, 47, 51)

Poster Audience Research

To find out what our audience is looking for, we showed a number of people around our target age group some romantic film posters and asked them a set of questions. These were the posters and questions:

 

1. What genre do these belong to and what do you think the film is about?

2. Which title font do you think is most effective and why?

3. How does the use of text affect whether you want to see the film? For example in Like Crazy they use a lot more text than that of the poster for The Lucky One - are you more likely to want to see Like Crazy or The Lucky One? Does it affect you?

4. What do you notice about the use of colour in the Blue Valentine poster in comparison to the other posters? How does this change the mood of the film if indeed it does? What do you notice about their costume in comparison to the others - what mood is this trying to create? Do you like this poster?

5. How do the awards on the posters of Blue Valentine and Like Crazy affect you as an audience? Does it make you wan to see it more or less?

W.H.

More poster research

More poster research

Like Crazy:

This poster is reasonably different in layout in comparison to other typical romance film posters. Although it follows the same colour and lighting as that in other posters, i.e. happy, sunny daylight with a lens flare, the taglines overtake the poster and become the centre of attention. This is very different to that of 'The Lucky One' (below) which only has one small tagline which is not very noticeable. Therefore in this poster, the audience is drawn into the text and then into the title rather than reading it as an afterthought. This means that the audience has more of an understanding of the plot of the film. It uses the yellow colour for the title to separate itself from the taglines, but the white and yellow follows throughout the rest of the poster allowing it to look like a professional format. It also replicates the colouring of the image. The audience is also able to find more about the plot also through the background of the image as it uses the typical Brighton beach, so gives it setting.

The Lucky One:

This poster is very similar to 'The Vow'. It is quite minimalistic and focusses solely on the two main characters and their relationship. The centre-point of the poster is the lighting behind the couple's silhouettes connoting an atmosphere of hopefulness. It also emphasises the actor's shapes against each other and so also allows the audience to understand more about the relationship of the two main characters. The close up shot of them also creates a sense of familiarity and intensity between the actors and the audience, drawing them into the story behind the characters. The text echoes the lightness of the picture with the colouring. The title also grabs the attention of the audience through the block, bold font. The eye is then drawn to other key pieces of information like the actors and release date. Therefore the audience has taken in the key information with only a glance at the poster.

B.M