Risk Assessment

As part of our film planning we had to consider all the risks we would have to be aware of when filming on locations. So to do this we had to complete a risk assessment, which shows all the risks and how they will be controlled:

Location Risk Assessment A2

Costume Research

When looking at each characters costume choices, we began to look at how we would want them seen on screen and how their costumes could be seen by an audience member. We first began to look towards the Male lead character who we wanted a costume that wouldn't give away too much of his character.

Having the character dress in all black with no dignifying clothing item or accessory, gives the audience a sense of mystery about him and want to know more about this character, giving them a shock when they find out his back story of his past and his death.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Our female character in our film will have three costumes as we see her throughout the film. This will be in the form of a pair of Pajamas, an Everyday Outfit, and then an outfit when she decides that she'd like to reinvent herself. We liked the idea of her wearing darker reds with black/grey accessories, so she slides under the radar of anyone's attention.

When she has her personal transformation into her higher equilibrium we decided to move away from the autumnal colours we see her wearing throughout the film and go for a brighter and happier colour with a Blue dress. This is also showing the idea of a new life and moving on from darker times. Her hair will also change from being a lazy pony tail into her hair being down and made up and her glasses removed.

For our final character, we have our supporting male, who comes into the film at the end that creates the females higher equilibrium. We chose to dress him as different as we could from our male lead character to show the contrast in the personalities and future relationship of the two.

He is dressed alot smarter than the Male Lead, as though he was going to work also. We also chose a light blue shirt to match with our female character to make show a link between the two characters.

We've also had to make a costume plot for when we are on set and getting the characters costumes ready:

Costume Plot

Location Research

These are the photos of the locations we will be using to film our scenes in our short film. We all think that these locations are ideal and suitable to film at. Also it is easy for us all to get to, as we have accessible transport in the group.

Here is a photo of the first location we will be filming which is the female character's bedroom. It is quite a dark bedroom. When we see the bedroom for the first time it appears to be rather messy, and it looks like it's not well looked after. This shows that Mallory doesn't care about appearance. She doesn't care about appearance because there is none there to judge her on how tidy her bedroom is. The room will be rather dark, and won't be very lively with items of importance. This shows the idea of her maybe being old fashioned. She shows also by this that she is not caring for style but only for humbleness and the homely feel.

It may seem like a landfill to the audience, but to Mallory it's her normal bedroom. Around the bedroom will be photographs, and what looks like her friends and moments she's cherished when she used to socialize with her friends and party. This shows that there is still a part of her, that doesn't want to be the boring person she is now, and constantly working all the time. Her bed will be made perfectly on the one side to show that she is alone. However, the fact that she has got a double bed shows that she hopes one day that someone would fill that empty space. The room will look really clean and like a proper bedroom the next time we see it, which suggests to the audience that she has a sudden change of heart. The male's death showed her that life is short and you make the most of it, by having a social life for example. Her clothes and bedroom reflect this.

The room will be easily accessible to all the production team members, as it would be a good way of representing the female character with a few additions and changes. In the bedroom there is limited space, so we would have to limit the amount of camera equipment we will need for us to able to film.

Here is a photo of the outside of the house. As you can see here this is a fairly big sized house and clearly looks like more than one person is living here. When the audience find out that only Mallory lives here, it builds up sympathy for this character in the way that she is well of with her finances but she spends it on things that make her appear to seem desperate for someone to live and share with her. Also, she comes across as hopeful and dreamy as if one day her house would be like this if she had a family or if she had boyfriend. This house shows that she'd rather spend her money on things she would need in the future, instead of things she needs to get where she wants to be. An example of this would be nice clothes to allow her to meet someone she likes. This location is easy for us all production team members to get to, and of course there will be loads of space for us as it is located in a cul-de-sac, meaning there won't be many vehicles driving down here.

 We will also be filming in the dining room. As you can see this is just a plain, and small dining room with nothing that stands out, or anything fancy, it is just a plain dining room, which shows that she is a very plain and not very interesting person. There will be loads of paperwork on the table and on the floor which will look very disorganized and messy, which will also show that she doesn't care much about the appearance of her home. Also it shows that she is alone, and that she has no one to impress or any visitors.

Here are some photos of the second location we will be filming at.

As you can see in these photos there is a large main road with a path on the side. Next to it is quite a big field. The scene we will be filming here is when the female character bumps into the male character and when she drops her bags. The two characters will be engaging in conversation, and when they say goodbye to each other and they both go in the opposite directions, the female character turns around and sees that he has completely gone.

The reason we have decided to film in this location is because there is lots of space, and it is virtually clear to the audience that there is no place that this male character can hide within the amount of time between when they both go in the opposite direction and from when she turns around. So this leaves the audience wondering how this character disappeared in such a short amount of time, with no side roads or bushes to quickly hide into.

Location is a vital part of a film, and we feel that this street location would set the realistic, mystery mood we want in our film. Not many people walk round here, so this adds more mystery as to exactly why this mystery male character walks down there. This location will be good in setting the mystery and realistic atmosphere and the element of mystery in the males' mystery as to why exactly he is walking down there. This location will be easy for us all as a group to get to as we have accessible transport from one of member's in the group.

The only thing we will all have to be careful with is that we will need to be aware of cars driving on the road, so if any of us cross the road we will need to take extra care especially as at times we will be carrying expensive filming equipment. We will be covering this in the risk assessment that we will later carry out in the preparation process. 

Now here are some photos of the third location we will be filming at:

 In these photos shows a park with massive open fields. This is the scene where the female character is sitting on a bench and she hears the sound of a male voice which is the voice of the male character who she bumped into in road location. This is an ideal location once again because like with the second location there is lots of open space, but with this location there is even more open space. There will be an establishing shot of the park.









As you can see more clearly in this photo there is lots of open space.

So in this scene the similar event will happen again with them both talking then walking in the opposite direction, only for her to turn around seconds later to see that he has completely vanished. It will become clear to the audience that there is literally no place for this male person to hide or go in the amount of time between when they go in the opposite directions and when the female character turns around. The location allows us to show the that there is something not quite right about this mystery male character. This location will be fairly easy to get to due to the accessible transport we have in our group.



Here are some photos now of the fourth location we will be filming at:

This photo shows a part of a shop. Past here is the train where the female character will be making her way to. So we will simply film her walking past this shop. This should be fairly easy to film, and also simple to get to.

The female character will be shopping here and will bump into the male character once again, but it would be hard to show the disappearance of the male character.

The only other issues with filming here is that as this is popular shopping place, quite a few people will be shopping here and of course may get in the way of the camera during filming. Also we would need rights to film here.




Now here is the final location we will be filming at. Here are some photos of the location.

These photos show the train station where we will be filming. The scene that we will film which happens at this location will see the male character and the female character once again engage in conversation, after she hears the same male voice again asking about the train times when she is looking at the train timetable.

As they engage in conversation, the female wonders off to the train timetable asking the male character what train he was getting and where he was going. But when he doesn't reply she turns around and sees that he has vanished.



For the third time the audience is left wondering where this male character went and how he dissapeared in the amount of time between when she walked to the train timetable and turning around. In these photos you can clearly see that there is nowhere for him to hide.

This location is also easy for us to get to as we have accessible transport from one of our members in the group. We would have to take extra care when filming as we are by a train track, and trains will be passing at arriving times stated on the timetable.

Film Treatment

Here is the treatment of our film giving every single detail of what happens in the film.

Film Treatment

Identified Target Audience

In this post I am going to be identifying the different British Board of Film Classifications. I will be looking at how our film compares to the BBFC. I will also identify our target audience and give an example of a person who would would be a typical target audience member. 

Our Target Audience Member 

This is Kate Marshall. She is a British female twenty years old and a student at Staffordshire University and studies English literature, as she has a major interest in English, she also enjoys studying different drama texts and plays.

She has a band income of £3000 a year through her part time as a factory assistant. She is a regular user of the book sharing website Scribd. She has a good family background and has been bought up really well by her parents. She has two sisters and two brothers, so she has quite a big family. Her favourite films include "The Note Book" and"Time traveler's Wife" (2009). These films are all drama and romance genres are what she would take the much interest in.

Her hobbies include going out with her friends to the cinema and other places, also she enjoys going shopping with her mates as well.  

BBFC 

As part of our film we have to identify an appropriate British Board of Film Classification for our film, so therefore we had to look at all the BBFC classifications. Here is a link to all the different British Board of Classifications from my AS media blog last year.

http://www.tdbmediagwhs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/identified-target-audience.html 

Our British Board of Film Classification is a PG, so therefore it is a parental guidance film.

Now for the target audience of our film the age range is going to be 14-45 with the gender being female. The ethnicity is going to be British and their income level is going to be part time/middle class jobs. For their education they would of been to university. Their film tastes will be drama, thriller and romance.

The ways they view films is Internet streaming, low key film festivals, limited cinemas. The way they would find out about the film is mainly YouTube in the trainers, adverts on DVDs before the film begins or on a film site when people are searching for new and upcoming films.

Existing Film Analysis

So to find out that our target audience would like our film, of course we did some research of some other films with a similar target audience to ours that likes them films.

Night At The Museum

The Time Traveler's Wife

These two films are similar to our film as they both have the same/similar target audience. With the film The Night At The Museum, the target audience is mainly female, and consists of the similar age range as ours.

The film "The Time Traveler's Wife" also has the same target audience, as it is accessible to all age ranges but mainly females due to it being a romance drama.



    

Final Idea Pitch

Now we as a group had agreed on our final film idea, it was time to pitch it to the commissioner (Mr Hood). At the end of our pitch we would all know if our film was to be commissioned or not. So to see how our film pitch went and what advice our commissioner gave us in order to make our film plan better watch this video below:



So first of all lets begin with the main positive: Our film was commissioned first time round.

Now lets recap some of the points, positives and negatives that were bought up in our pitch and some of the advice that was given to us in order to improve our film plan:

The first few positives made were that we would be able to pick our actresses easily, location was good but just need to be aware of the health and safety. So prior to the health and safety the risk assessment is a task we need to get sorted.

Now the first point that was bought up was the location. We were told that the location at particularly when the female character turns round and the male character has disappeared is a vital part of our film. As we need to make it clear that there are no exits for this male character, as people might misunderstand this part of the film.

So prior to this point the timing of the cuts and the editing was bought up as well as we were told that this is going to be key to our film, as to whether these sequences work or not.

A point that was suggested to us for our film was having a level of narrative. This was suggested so there could be an added level of pity for this female character so that audience could feel some kind of pity and sympathy her. It would also be good as we there would be a bigger contrast in emotions the audience will feel in the film as it is happy when she meets this person, but it's later not real. There was also a suggestion to have a short narrative at the start of the film as well when she wakes up.

The next point that was bought up was the costume and bedroom representation, and how we were going to use all of this to represent her as someone who doesn't quite follow the path as everybody would all want ourselve and someone who is alone and doesn't have a partner. So we told our commissioner that we are going to have the girl dressed in a big, thick, cardigans, with sunglasses. For her bedroom we said that we were thinking of having a double-bed and putting it on one side and having her bedroom look like a confined space so that it looks like no one could live there.

Referring to this point and the narrative, a suggestion was made to us of after the girl finds out that the male character is not real, and she wakes up the next morning, instead of her going through her usual routine of getting her cardigan and putting her nerdy sun glasses on, she should glamor herself up and bumps into someone who turns out to be real. This was suggested as it would be a very effective way to close the narrative, as the audience would know that the female character is fine and okay.

Our commissioner was concerned about our target audience range of 18 to 30. So we said that we thought that the age of characters within that age range would be relatable to them. Our commissioner then said but why wouldn't someone over the age of 30 who is about 38 for example not find our film interesting. We also said that some films have young female lead and young male lead characters in them and referred to an example of the film "Tom Traveller's Wife".

We were given advice to increase our target audience a little bit more.

Overall our film pitch went really well. We've just got to develop our narrative a bit more and increase our target audience a little bit.

R&P Schedule

Before we could even get our film commissioned we had to decide on the schedule for our filming process in order for all of our jobs given to be done, completed and discussed with each other on time, for the deadlines given. Here is a timetable showing who will be completing what when:

My Member's Short Film Pitches

Tom Bentley (me): Separation

This is my (Tom Bentley) short film pitch I did. The name of my short film is "Separation".

    

My Own Evaluation

I think I did really well with my film pitch, and presented to the rest of class very well, as I was confident and was speaking clearly. I think my story was a really good idea, and I think I came up with a good target audience.

Feedback

The first question I was asked was how does the brother know that the girl he mugs down the alley is his long-lost twin sister. So I explained that to the group. Secondly I was asked how I was going to show the separation at birth, so there was suggestion of possibly a narrative in an establishing sequence as he is traveling to work, which was suggested by Mr. Hood.

Finally I was asked how I was going to get twenty-five year old actors. So I responded to this by saying maybe getting teachers in the school who are in their high twenty's, who look about twenty-five to film if they have enough time. Someone though in the group suggested making the age lower, to around eighteen, as it would be easier to get actors that age. It would also be a good idea as the mugging, and stealing elements that would be in my film are more associated with youth.

Overall I delivered a fluently well, presented film pitch to the rest of the class, with useful feedback from the group.

Lucy Smith: Puzzle Pieces

This is Lucy Smith's film pitch that she did. The name of her short film is "Puzzle pieces".

Evaluation

We liked the idea of how Lucy called it an "Indie" styled film where boy meets girl in the end. This would of been different to the other short films that we have looked at as it would be in the indie style filters. However, we did think it may be a little too simplistic for us as if we chosen some of the elements they may need to have been changed or made more exciting like that of a short film. The location was another concern as we would have to film in a big city meaning we would have high risk factors of equipment and busy times in a city.

Jack Parkes: Replay

This is Jack Parkes' film pitch that he did. The name of his short film is "Replay".

Evaluation 

The film idea was innovative and would be easy to have a comparison as professional film that in some ways has similar features to the idea that has been pitched. The way in which we could use the shot types to represent the bully getting hit in the film would also be good as we can imply things without showing it. Also the location would be ideal for us to films it is at the school. We did however think that the ending may be a little cliche with the bully getting hit by a car due to the conversion of the nerd's powers which he uses for bad. We would have to consider an alternative ending if we chose this film as we wanted to steer away from cliche. 

Charlotte Billingham: The Illusion of Existence 

This is Charlotte Billingham's film pitch that she did. The name of her short film is "The Illusion of Existence".

Evaluation 

The storyline of this film was great and would be interesting to a wide audience. There wouldn't be a worry to find many actors for this film as there isn't many actors needed in the film. There is a typical twist in the short film which many short films have, which we found when we did research, would be appealing to the audience. The only worry though with this film was the problems we would have with location safety with it being by roads and having to find a specific road that is right for the film and representation of the film. 

Production Team Name

Our decided production team name is "Justice" productions. We all found it rather difficult to come up with this name, but the way in which we came up this name is that we thought of scales which has a relation to balancing. In the end we came up with the name "Justice" as we want to do Justice to our film.

This is our production team logo: