Lighting

Our media teacher allowed us to leave the classroom and experiment with lighting. We looked at how the lighting affects the subject of the camera shot at certain angles. For example, when the light comes from behind the subject it makes them appear to be a dark figure (this would be great for more dramatic and dynamic genres of films such as horror) but when the lighting is coming from in front of the subject it highlights them completely making them fully visible to the camera.

If there is insufficient natural lighting there are ways to change this so the lighting is adequate. For example, you could use professional lighting equipment that can light up the subject from any chosen angle or if you don't have access to this you could use other methods (that may be less effective) such as shining light off reflective surfaces and onto your subject using easily accessible items like mirrors or tin foil.

For our filming, we are filming outdoors around midday when the best lighting is available but when we are indoors we will have to consider how we will create good lighting as indoor lighting usually does not look as good on the camera. We will be considering the above methods when we do our filming.

Script

Location 1: Chalkwell Park

This is an image of Chalkwell Park found on Google maps.


We are going to be filming the majority of the outside scenes in Chalkwell park, mainly because this is close to our first destination of filming and is a perfect fit for the settings we are trying to achieve.


Here's the directions from Chalkwell Train Station to Joe's house and then Chalkwell Park: 

Location 2: Joe's House

The phone call scene will be partially filmed in Joe Dodds' house in his bedroom as well as the scenes involving the conversations with Paul and his friend. We have decided to use this location because it is convenient and nearby close to college, meaning if any extra shots or changes need to be made we can quickly do so. By being nearby college it also reduces the risk of damage to the equipment as it is a short distance from the college. 

The house also fits the requirements needed for the scene as it is a modern house, which fits into the setting of our trailer. 

Here is a picture of the house from Google Maps:

Character Blog: Paul

Paul is the main character of All You Need Is Love. He's a teenager aged 19, who's romantically linked to Lucy, who he's been dating for 6 months prior to the story. Pauls quite vain and self centered at times, and cares more about himself than anyone else a lot of the time. Despite this, he's still quite a pleasant and charismatic person. He's quite artistic, often writing poems, music and creating art. Paul shows a disregard for others feelings when he lies and changes his mind about plans to ones he supposedly cares about. He's portrayed as absent minded and quite fickle, choosing one girl then another due to one link in common. After starting to listen to The Beatles Paul shows some obsessive personalities. It's clear that Paul is impressionable as he's influenced by his friend on numerous times throughout the film. Despite not caring about each others, Paul is quite emotional himself seen after he visibly regrets a lot of his decisions and is quite sad when he knows he's upset Lucy.

Character Blog: Lucy

Lucy is Paul's main love interest in our All You Need Is Love. She's a teenager aged 18, who's romantically linked to Paul, who she's been dating for 6 months prior to the beginning of the story. In contrast to Paul, who's quite self centered and vane, Lucy is quite caring of her boyfriends feelings and emotions and cares deeply about him and others. Despite this, we still see Lucy standing up for herself and giving Paul a hard time after he's treated her badly. She's seen as quite clingy and is shown making the effort in the relationship with Paul, when he doesn't. Even after Paul's been clearly interested in someone else Lucy still calls him up eagerly and keeps a check up if their plans are still on. Lucy is portrayed as quite emotional, this is reflected when she's shown visibly upset after being rejected by Paul.

Character Blog: Stella

Stella is Paul's second love interest in our production "All You Need Is Love." Although Paul leaves Lucy for Stella and treats Lucy bad due to his new found fondness for her, Stella is still not to be presented in a negative way, as she need to be presented as not knowing about Paul and Lucy's relationship before. This may make her appear as quite naive but it's essential to the plot. Stella is a huge fan of 'The Beatles' and knows a lot of trivia about the band and often recites it or makes reference to the band and their songs throughout the scenes. Stella's quite an upbeat character and is annoyed when others are seen as miserable, shown when Paul is upset about Lucy and Stella tells him to stop being so miserable. This also shows that she's more interested in talking about The Beatles with Paul over thinking about Paul's feelings. This is similar to Paul who doesn't care much about others feelings. Stella is slightly younger than Lucy but only by one or two months, so she's younger than Paul also. Stella is quite a nice person, she's seen making the first effort to talk to Paul and it needs to be established that she's the one who arranges them two meeting up and cares more for the relationship than Paul.

Props & Costumes

We have to consider the props we need in the film to make our film more realistic and to make sure we have an adequate budget and access to adequate props. We also need to think about how many costumes each character needs as most of the scenes happen on different days in the film and it is unlikely the characters would wear the same clothes everyday.


Paul
Paul will be needing four costumes and three changes which will take place:

1. Before the shots of Paul & Lucy
2. Before the shots of Paul being filmed at Joe's house
3. Before Stella dumps Paul

Paul also needs a few props such as John Lennon-style tea glasses, a drawing of the Beatles, his letter to Ringo Starr written on pink paper, a CD of The Beatles, magazines including a magazine with The Beatles on the cover, a DVD of The Beatles, The Beatles t-shirt, a poster and a phone. The glasses, t-shirt, DVD, magazines, drawing and poster will be provided by Joe, the pink paper will be provided by me and Josh will be using his own phone.

Lucy

Lucy will be needing 3 costumes and 2 changes which will take place:

1. Before the shots of Paul & Lucy
2. Before the shots of Lucy being filmed at my house

Lucy only needs a phone for the phone call shots and I can use my own phone for this.

Stella

Stella will be needing 2 costumes and 1 costume change which will take place before she dumps Paul.

Harris

Harris will be needing 2 costumes and 1 costume change which will take place inbetween the shots when Paul and Harris have their two conversations.

Weather & Lighting

As it is winter at the moment, we have less daylight hours which will affect our lighting so we have to be careful about when we film the shots to make sure our shots have the correct lighting conditions. We have decided to film between 11am and 3pm as this is when it is most bright outside and we will start by filming our outdoor scenes where we need the best lighting possible. As some of the shots at Joe's house and my house are meant to be set in the evening, the possibility of it being dark outside does not matter because we will have the correct lighting conditions as well as having lighting indoors.

As well as the lighting conditions, we need to consider the weather as it is cold at the moment and it rains frequently and this could result in hazardous conditions. I have checked the weather forecast for our filming day (Friday, 9th December) and according to BBC Weather it will be mostly sunny and the temperature will be 6°c. This means that our filming can take place then as the weather conditions will be appropriate for the setting of our film as well as not being hazardous to my filming group, the actors and our equipment. However, BBC Weather also says it will be raining the evening before our filming day so the ground may still be damp and weather websites are not always reliable so we will have to consider this and assess the situation on the day of our filming. Ideally we would like to set our Chalkwell Park scenes on dry ground and the best lighting conditions possible so if the conditions are otherwise then we may have to reconsider our filming day in the park but the scenes in Joe's house and my house could still take place.

Costumes

Lucy
The female protagonist would wear white to imply her innocence and vulnerability. This foreshadows she is oblivious to the hearbreak the male protagonist will do to her. She may also wear a pink as this conveys the universal theme of love, but as its a less strong colour than red; it could insinuate young playful love as opposed to red which is deemed as more passionate. Furthermore, the significance of the protagonist having blonde fits in with symbolism of femininity, whilst also referring to the cliche that "blondes" draw male audiences in. Although Lucy would need to wear either pink or white, it would be crucial to have her dressed in more of a casual attire as well, this will make our production look more legitimate and entice teens to watch it as they will relate to her due to her casual outfit. Not just this but it will make the audience sympathize more with Lucy and view Paul more negatively than before due to their ability to emphasize with her. Baring in mind that the shoot is in the winter and the film is set in the winter, obvious winter clothing is needed for our shoot in terms of legitimacy and believability.

Paul
The male protagonist would wear a darker attire to covey a love for rock music with a emo twist. This will add a slight comical twist as it shows more of a surprise when he starts listening to The Beatles. Once he starts listening to The Beatles he adds elements into his attire to show his fixation with the Beatles memoriabillia. Furthermore, Paul may also wear the colour of blue as this symbolises his mellow attitude to the life and is considered to be a stereotypical male colour, it would be a good idea to wear the John Lennon glasses with blue lenses. Paul could be inclined to have some red in his attire as this symobilses romance and passion. In relation to the male protagonist, it is his passion which leads him to cheat on the female protagonist, but it can also be argued that he is a romantic at heart, this is also seen with his love letters to Stella, the remaining Beatles and his artistic tendancies. Consequently, he would also wear a red mp3 player highlight to the audience his love for music which initially overrides his love for Lucy, this would also be a good idea to symbolize his love for music and the possible danger it has caused his relationships. Baring in mind that the shoot is in the winter and the film is set in the winter, obvious winter clothing is needed for our shoot in terms of legitimacy and believability, potentially Paul could wear a dark over coat/trench coat, popularized by The Beatles in the early 60's.

Stella
The other female protagonist may wear the colour of red, as this colour also symbolises a sense of conflict and danger and in relation to the premise of the film; she is the obstcale that halts the unrequited love between the male and female protagonist. She also needs to be in Beatles esque clothing, such as shirts and braces, this will reflect her love for The Beatles, as well as Pauls.


Paul's Friend
The male protagonist may wear neutral colours such as brown, white or grey to symbolise his status as the voice of reason, due to the fact brown in particular symbolises friendship and this can refer to his loyalty to his friend, Paul.

Budget

First filming day:
Tape: £2.50

Glasses : £5

The Beatles T-shirt: £12

Train fares: £9(Wes)

 £3.10(Mollie)

 £3.10(Josh)

 £3.10(Joe)

 £3.10(Mel)

 £3.10(Jordan)

Poster: £3.99

Total: £47.99

Other filming days:

Train fares: £9(Wes)

£3.10(Mollie)

£3.10(Josh)

£3.10(Joe)

£3.10(Mel)

£3.10(Jordan)
Total: £24.50 per day

Order of shots (rough idea)

Chalkwell Park

• Paul and Stella shots
• Lucy looking devastated
• Paul and Lucy shots

Joe's house

• Paul and Harris having a conversation about Paul's life
• Paul shots
• Stella dumping Paul

Mel's house

• Phone call
• Lucy shots