Editing a rough copy

We have decided to cut together a rough copy of our film in order to see what shots are good and what shots we will need to reconsider and re film. It is important for us to do this as it gives us a rough overview of how the finishing product will look like. This also gives us all a chance to explore the editing techniques which we can use. 

Pre production and filming - DAY ONE

12/02/16-

Today we all met at Hollies house with our cast and also saved this day to start filming.

After reading the script we organised which part we would start with and decided it would be best to film in chronological order. 

After the cast were all set and ready to go, we made sure the props were also in place. The main prop in the opening 20 seconds is Tiffany's diary and also the photos on her wall. We also used a iPhone to do a rough copy of the voice over of Tiffany's diary entry. This was so that we could act with the voice over playing on top to get a more realistic and accurate idea of how the timing will be.

We then used a tripod to do a tracking shot around the room- this we found slightly difficult as we were in a very small space so it was difficult to move around the room. 

I took the role as the camera/director

Hollie focuses on the set and also helped with the director role

Abi helped with camera and make up and also costume. 

Our first day shooting was slightly difficult as we we were not completely sure what the character of Hailey was doing- this made it hard for us to shoot as it was difficult for us to establish what we wanted audience to know about her. In order to overcome this we decided to leave Hailey's role till the end, this was so we had time to think of what would be best suited for her character.

Unfortunately, not everything went well for us on this day. Some of our shots were difficult to film, which made it hard for us to get many good shoots. An example of a shot which didn't work is the main establishing shot of Tiffany's room. Also the shots which we shot outside of Britany walking outside with her high heels did not look very good, this is because the grass was wet and muddy so the heels kept sinking into the grass. This distracted us, and made it almost impossible to film any good shots.]

Call Sheet

 To make sure we were prepared for the day we created a call sheet which meant that we knew what was happening on the day and what time of day would be suitable to film in. We also had a group chat on WhatApp which allowed us all to stay connected and easily able to contact each other to discuss our ideas and feedback.

Character Profiles

Name: Hailey
Age: 16
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Blue/Green
Hair Colour: Ginger
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: Ginger hair  
How does he/she dress?: something pink, short skirts, heels or unsuitable shoes, regularly seeen in a lab room in her lab coat. 
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: homework, science experiments, sports
Speech patterns: None
Personal traits:  Unaware, unconcerned and dopey. Usually makes the dumb comments.

Britany "The Dumb Blonde"
Name: Britany
Age: 16
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Blonde
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: None 
How does he/she dress?: Over the top, short skirts, pink clothing, latest fashion, always carries a hand bag. 
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: Shopping
Speech patterns: None
Personal traits:  Makes dumb and inappropriate comments, usually does not think logically. Very dumb

Tiffany "the ring leader"
Name: Tiffany
Age: 17
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Brown
Hair Colour: Mousy Blonde
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: None 
How does he/she dress?: Pink crop tops, short black skirts, suitable but slightly slutty.
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: Cheerleading
Speech patterns: demanding and stern
Personal traits:  Bossy, demanding, strong minded, passionate, hint of darkness to her personality, slightly sinister.

Story Board

Shot 1: We discussed the potential distributers for our film and after doing our research, we agreed that Universal would be the best distributer as they have distributed similar genre films in the past

Shot 2: We have not yet agreed on a production company name but we will have the production company next, with a black screen.

Shot 3: Mid Shot with all three characters, Tiffany in the centre to show she is the leader. (Title of film appears with fade effect) 

Shot 4-6: We decided to do a scrap book effect which we found on Final Cut pro, where we can add pictures of the cast on the story board as well as the titles.

Shot 7: is a tracking shot around the room, a wide angle shot of the room and Tiffany is seen on her bed writing in her diary. The voice over begins.

Shot 8: The voice over continues, mid shot/over the shoulder of Tiffany looking in the mirror and taking down the pictures of her ex boyfriend.

Shot 9: Close up of the pictures of Tiffanys ex boyfriend.

Shot 10: Cross Cut to the next character- Medium Close up of Britany using a face mask

Shot 11: Close up of the text message, "You ready bitch? Tiff x" appears on the phone screen.

Shot 12: Tracking Mid shot of Britany running out the door.

  Shot 13: The mid shot of Hailey in the library allows the audience to understand the character personality.

 Shot 14: Close up of the phone, similar to the previous shot of Britany.

 Shot 15: Eye line match shot of the clock.

 Shot 16: Long shot of the characters walking towards each other to show they are all friends. Non-diegetic sound of music

Shot 17: Mid shot of tracking around the girls, dialogue is said.


Shot 18: The girls walk off in a line, tracking shot is used. The music cuts out.

Inspiration from other films

 This is a collection of some pictures and screenshots from teen dramas which we were influenced and inspired by. The photo of Miley Cyrus writing in her diary is taken from the film 'LOL' which is a teen drama. We thought of our idea about having our main character Tiffany write in the diary would work well because this was a key scene in the film LOL and as it was used in this film, we thought that it is a typical stereotype for teen girls to write in their diaries. Also taken from the film LOL is the screenshot of the three girls walking besides eachother. The main character is in the middle, which we thought was important as it shows the audience who is the centre of attention, and who is the "leader" of the group. This is why we chose to use three girls in our film. We decided that we would base our diary entry about hate and revenge on a boyfriend because of the film "10 things I hate about you" when at the end of the film she lists all the reasons why she does not like the boy in her notepad, but she resights this as a poem. This was a creative idea which we thought was effective so thought we would use it in our film, but make it a voice over instead as we feel this would make it better.

Title Ideas

     Struggling to find a title which we thought was interesting but also gives away information for the movie was something as a group we found difficult. Originally we came up with "Tiff's Lovers" this was inspired from "Lover's Tiff" which is a term used to describe couples who argue. We liked this title as we thought it fitted our character, however, the re arrange of the words implied that Tiffany had multiple lovers, providing a inaccurate portrayal of the film.

   After hard thinking, we decided on the name "Triple Payback" we thought this was relevant and a successful title because it was based around 3 best friends, who were planning revenge, hence the word "payback" which has connotations to revenge. The word "payback" also has a more sinister play on the word which foreshadows that something dark is going to happen in the film.

  We decided to have a short title for our film because we looked at our findings from our Questionnaire and found that people prefer shorter titles for example, "Mean Girls" and "Heather's".

Props and Organising

   Here are a few of our props and materials we used when filming. We wrote out Tiffany's voice over in the diary and made the writing in a typical girly writing and lots of hearts. This is so that the writing represents the character of Tiffany.





This is a selection of the make up we used on all of the cast. I did most of the casts make up and used mainly light pinks and bronzer and blusher with a hint of pink lipstick.





The character played by Ronni is Britanny, she is a "dumb blonde" character who cares lots about her skin and appearance. We brought a face mask from Superdrug and applied this to her skin for the bath scene. This was in order to represent her character but to also add humour.



For decoration in Tiffany's room we had to use pictures from the internet of a "boyfriend" for Tiffany. We went on Google and tried to find some typical teenage boy photos which we could stick around her bedroom.

Planning for filming

In order to ensure we are ready to start filming we have created a costume and prop list of all the important props we will need on the day. Most of the costume our actresses will be bringing themselves, however, we will be providing them with the props and also doing their make-up for them.

We will be making a 'revenge poster' which will be a key object in the film as it will suggest to the audience what is going on.
The diary is also a key prop as it will be used by Tiffany when the voice over is on.

Expanding our script

After we created our script we added the key camera shots and important camera techniques we will be including in our opening sequence. This is important for us to do because it means that we can add these details to our storyboard and makes us organised for when we start filming. 

Location Ideas

 

This is the location of Tiffany's bedroom. We decided to use Hollie's bedroom as this is a 'typical teenage bedroom' which will mean the setting is already realistic. We will be adding our own props to the set, for example, photos of Tiffany and her friends, posters. The room is already naturally lit, this is good for us because it means that the lighting will already be in good quality, however we will be adding extra lights in order to get the finest quality we can.

                                                                                                                              

            

We went on to Google Maps to find suitable places we can film the walking scene and the path we want the characters to take when walking to the forest. We chose to film on the bridge as we think that this would be a interesting place to film. The bridge adds to the secrecy of the location the girls are going to be going, and we can also shoot a establishing shot which will make it more interesting.

Script Draft 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11W3sZE2YLGUg9eCfn62j4Ytl79FDuBGYaQMfDAmVkrs/edit?usp=sharing

Questionnaire

I decided to share my questionnaire on Twitter and made people retweet and favourite my questionnaire in order to receive more results. By putting it on Twitter allowed us to target specifically our target audience around (14-25) year olds. It also allowed us to see what people these ages want in a Teen Drama. It was useful for us to put it on Twitter because it meant that we did not have to ask so many people ourself, instead other people did it for us.