Character Profile Focus Group

We did a focus group to see how relatable our characters were to our target audience. Here is a tally we did to keep track of our primary audience preferred names.

• Chav - Brandon
• Nerd - Patrick
• Goth - Estar
• Popular Girl - Zoe
• Jock/Athlete - Finn 

Fashion Planning

Estar

• Black and white dress
• Black cardigan 
• Black tights
• Dangling earrings
• Dark lipstick
• Eye liner

We went with black clothing to show the audience clearly what character she was. We chose this dress because the black and white are binary opposites, and contrast nicely with each other. The colour white connotes innocence and hope which foreshadows the end of the film, where we see her being and looking happier.

The clothes we have chosen are fashionable clothing and we chose her to wear lots of makeup so that we could challenge the stereotype of 'goths' and 'emos'.

Location and Prop List

For our new idea we need don't need as many locations, the locations we will be using are

Sixth form corridor - this is because it's convenient also because there are always lots of people there at break or lunch time so it would be easy to film. The corridor is long and daughting

Outside of sixth form - This is because it is outside of the corridor, this means we can show him walking into the corridor as the opening scene starts.

Props

School bag - so that it shows that he is in school.

Changing The Idea

When filming our opening scene we concurred some problems with lighting. It got too dark when we were filming so the footage was grainy. We also had problems trying to get everyone to be free at the same time when we needed to film, this meant we had to film small parts of it each day. We also had problems with the sound when recording, the sound was't picking up very well on the scenes we filmed.

We also realised it would be too long and too hard to edit all the footage into a two minute clip. Because of these problems we have decided to change the idea of our opening scene but we are keeping the narrative the same.

Our new idea for the opening scene shows a boy named Patrick (played by Matt Wagstaff) who has bi-polar walking down a hallway. It shows him walking down the hallway for 5 days. Each day Patrick feels a different emotion everyday. We will show his emotions by the use of camera angles, lighting and way we hold the camera. For example we will make the camera shaky to show when he is angry and we will film him from behind to show he is upset or sad.

We used the mental illness bi-polar to try and include a minority of people that have it.

Shot List

In this task we did a shot list, we looked at the location, shot description, type, duration, sound, props and the action in the scene. We did this so we can look what we need to do and what sound effects are happening in each shot. 

Filming Diary Day 3 - 11/12/15

On Friday the 11th of December I filmed with Patrick (played by Matt Wagstaff). I filmed with him in the library. We filmed the scene where Patrick is in the library skipping detention and is doing work and reading his notes.

Unfortunately there was no teacher in there at the time of filming so the speech that was needed couldn't be recorded. This means that we will have to record it another time and add it in as non diegetic sound. 

Filming Diary Day 2 - 10/12/15

On Thursday the 10th of December we filmed the scene with Brandon (played by James Ling). We filmed the scene in the living room of Freya's House. We filmed straight after school which meant it was getting dark but there was still enough light in the shot so we didn't need to use extra lighting.

We had problems with the angles and making sure the tri-pod was exactly straight, some scenes we filmed had the camera tilted to the side because there were walls in the way so we couldn't quiteget the angle we wanted.

Here is all of the raw footage from when we filmed with Brandom (James Ling)

 

Filming Diary Day 1 - 07/12/15

On Monday the 7th of December, we filmed the scene with Estar (played by Rachael Stone) in her bedroom. The variety of angles we included were good. Although we could have incorporated more interesting angles. For example a close up from the angle of the computer when she's on Facebook.

We did have a few problems when filming parts of our scene one of them is that the actor had other commitments this meant that it was dark when we filmed which meant that some of the footage is grainy. The means that we may need to re-film parts when it's day or it's lighter. Also we would need to think more about lighting the characters face more to make them seem more important so it's clearer for the audience.  

Another problem we found was with the zoom on Freya's camera, the issue being it was static and jumpy, when it needs to be smoother. The continuity of the shots also could be improved as they seem to be a bit jumpy.

Here is all of the raw footage from when we filmed with Estar (Rach Stone)

Script

Risk Assessment

 in this task we had to a risk assessment to show what risks there are, how likely they are to happen and how we can avoid them.

Character Profiles

The information in red are things we added after doing a focus group.

Name: Brandon

Age: 17

Character Role: Protagonist/hero

Home town: Bristol

Class: Working class

Family: Divorced Mum and Dad, and a biological younger brother, as well as lots of step siblings who he doesn't really know. Bad relationship with all of them.

Relationship with Parents: Bad relationship, they don't care about what he does. argue a lot.

Fashion Sense: Slobbish, chavy (hoodies and snapbacks)

Hobbies: Has no ambition, does street art and secretly sketches

Biggest secret: He is gay (which is why he is so pessimistic and bad tempered)

Attitude towards others: Rude, judgemental

Mannerisms:

Audiences reception: Frustrated with his decisions and attitude because they see his soft side (body language, facial expressions)

Name: Patrick

Age: 16 (nearly 17)

Character Role: Princess

Home Town: Small town near Bristol (then moved to a bigger town where the film is set)

Class: Started in the upper working class, then his Dad started working harder and the family progressed to middle class

Family: Mum, Dad (resentment in the relationship) Two older sisters (who are both at uni)

Relationship with Parents: They put a lot of pressure on him and that annoys him, but he wants to make them proud

Fashion Sense: Basic, practical and plain (jean and t-shirts) He wears glasses that he fiddles with and always a beanie (that he wears low on his head to hide himself)

Hobbies: Hasn't got a lot of spare time, because he's always doing homework. Plays the Piano

Biggest Secret: Smokes due to stress

Attitude Towards Others: Thinks highly of himself. Silently judgemental and dismissive of others problems

Mannerisms: Plays with his hat a lot

Audiences Reception: Feel empathy towards him

Name: Estar

Age: 16

Character Role: Donor (of sorts)

Home Town: London (recently moved)

Class: Comfortable working class

Family: Working Mum, Dad recently got injured and left the Army

Relationship Status: Recently broken up (boyfriend cheated on her)

Fashion sense: Dark colours, band t-shirts, skinny jeans

Hobbies: Really enjoys science

Biggest Secret: Is depressed and self harms (don't go into detail in the film, as it may be a trigger for the target audience)

Attitude Towards Others: Doesn't go out of her way to be nice, not rude, keeps herself to herself

Mannerisms: Holds and massaged her wrist

Audience Reception: No immediate impression of her until later on in the film, when her secret is revealed and then they feel empathy




Name: Finn

Age: 16

Character Role: False hero (of sorts)

Home Town: Fairly big town

Class: Middle class

Family: Dad, older brother and little sister

Fashion sense: Football t-shirts (etc)

Hobbies: Football, cross-country running

Biggest Secret: Only started football to be popular

Attitude Towards Others: Thinks highly of himself, judgemental, isn't aware of others problems

Mannerisms:

Audience Reception: Find him annoying and dislikeable

Name: Zoe

Age:17

Character Role: N/A

Home Town: N/A

Class: Middle class

Family: Mum, Dad, 4 brothers and 3 sisters (that no one at school know about)

Fashion Sense: Well put together, skirts, expensive clothing

Hobbies: Shopping, looking after her siblings

Biggest secret: Her big family, and her youngest sisters disabilities

Attitude Towards Others: Rude, judgemental, but kind when she finds out about another persons problems

We decided that to avoid using stereotypical names for the characters, we'd leave it and then do a focus group to see what our target audiences reception of the characters are, and what name they think would suit the character.

Thinking of Concept/Final Idea

For this piece of research we made a mind map to brain storm our ideas and final concept for our coming-of-age film and it's opening sequence.

From this piece of research it has meant that my group could start discussing the ideas that we prefer and also which we would be able to do and would be easier to do. We have started to think about costumes and the other aspects of mise en scene that need to be organised before we start filming.

Props and Location

Props

• Paper with detention list on - used for when the teacher is walking down the corridor and when she puts down the paper on the desk and close ups are used on the paper.

• School stuff (folder, paper, pencil case) - used for the scene where Patrick is in the library doing work.

• Handbag - used for the scene when Zoe is skipping detention and is shopping with her friend in the high street

• Backpack - used for when Finn is skipping detention and is playing football on the sixth form field with his friends

• Laptop - used for the scene where Ester is in her bedroom looking sad

• 1 Football - used for the scene where Finn is on the football field 

• Phone(s) - used for when Finn is on the football field and Patrick is in the library and they are checking Facebook. 

• Torch (used for extra lighting in some shots) - used for the bedroom shots with Ester sitting on her bed, as it was too dark

Locations

• Lower school - used for establishing shot of school as it looks daunting and imposing look to it 

• Classroom - used for end of opening scene showing the 5 students walking into detention 

• Freya's House - used for when the protagonist runs down the stairs to the door to grab detention slip. We chose Freya's house as it is convenient and small (fitting Brandon's social class)

• Rach's bedroom - when it cuts to a close up of the goth girls face and zooms out to show where she is. We chose Rach's house because it is convenient as she is the actor and lives locally. Our character has recently moved house so the pinks walls contrast with her personality and character to show that she is not comfortable with her new home. The room is very messy and small which works well with the characters social class.  

• Sports field - when it cuts to a close up of the jocks face and zooms out to show where he is

• High street - when it cuts to a close up of the popular girls face and zooms out to show where she is

• Library - when it cuts to a close up of the nerd guys face then zooms out to show where he is 

• Another bedroom - when it cuts to a close up of the chav guys face and then zooms out to show where he is 

• Living room - used for when the protagonist is looking out the window and see's a postman carrying the detention letter.