Filming

Trying to find my director's eye.

Niall's House

Niall's House

and again..

Looking for alternative and interesting shot angles

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Musical frustration...

Camera Man

Location Research continued

I went out to certain areas around Norwich and took photographs of locations we had previously discussed and were enthusiastic about using in the film, as well as some other possible locations.

Picture 1 was the shot I was most keen on finding. This is where the opening two minutes finishes and ends and had to right. It's a plain bench, no graffiti, no litter, no rubbish bins. It's quite obviously in a park, and the natural background of the trees, the grass and the bushes give a tranquil and calming feel which fits in perfectly  with the song  we have chosen and the ethos of the opening itself.

Picture 2 & 3 are similar shots of paths and walkways within Chapelfield Gardens and for me just confirmed that Chapelfield Gardens is the right choice of location for what will make up most of our opening.

Chapelfield Gardens was a location we already knew well, and didn't need to think about too much. The real location research was to find locations within Norwich that would work well for the shots where our character (Niall Fletcher) has left home and is walking towards the park through various locations in the centre of Norwich. Most of the possible locations I found were alleyways or quiet streets, but Picture 4 is a location that particularly caught my eye as I believe it has the makings for what could be a strong sequence to fit into the opening. The bridge has the potential to be shot from below, showing Niall walking across the bridge but filming the shot from below. The tunnel below the bridge has a lot of interesting looking graffiti in it and if I was to film on a sunny day like when I took the photograph, I think a shot of Niall walking from the dark tunnel into the light outside could look really impressive.

Picture 1:   Bench - Chapelfield Gardens

Picture 2:   Scenery shot - Chapelfield Gardens

Picture 3:   Scenery shot - Chapelfield Gardens

Picture 4:   Bridge off an estate near the forum in Norwich

Character costume design and research

We want our character to suit a look of a teenage boy that loves music, has a relaxed attitude towards life, and wears casual clothes to reflect that. We want to show this in his clothing.

I've drawn a picture of the image I have in my head of what Niall should look like. The clothing is casual, and looks like someone who acts that way, but is ready for anything. His attire looks like it would be an easy way to stay warm, but at the same time comfortable, and easy to travel in.
There's another image below, which is an example of the kind of shirt/hoodie I'm looking for.

Further audience research

To get a more detailed understanding on what an audience our age is looking for I filmed or recorded five students of the 6th form, and asked them broad questions on openings and film, and then some more detailed questions that relate to my film.

Location research

One of the most important locations we needed to find was a park where the opening sequence would start and finish. This shot needs to be picturesque in order to portray the mood we want to open the film with. I suggested eaton park and Tom suggested chapelfield gardens. Both have the scenery we want to film, but we are yet to decide between the two. Each has certain aspects which we could use, and I think we could use them both, and make it look like they're the same park.

Production company - name and logo

We have decided to name our production company Optimus Productions. This is because 'optimus' is the latin word for 'the best'. And we want our project and production company to be THE BEST! We have created the logo and background for our production company which will we show at the very beginning of our film...

Our final production company name and logo. 

Music

Mat Weddle performing his version of Trouble by Coldplay

For our opening 2 minutes we needed to find a song performed by an unsigned group/artist that fit the mood and stroyline. We were looking for a slow, acoustic and a rather soppy song as it fit the mood of the opening 2 minutes. A while back we found an unsigned group on youtube called Obadiah Parker who we really liked! One of his songs particularly appealed to us and we realised that it was perfect for our film. Although Obadiah Parker is an unsigned group, we decided to send the lead singer Matt Weddle an email asking for his permission to use the song just incase he wasn't happy about it. A couple weeks later Matt replied saying he was more than happy for us to use the song for our project.

Actors

We were looking for a male aged between 16-18 to play our main character named Niall Fletcher. We imagined Niall as a good looking and rather stylish guy so that was what we were looking for when finding an actor to play the role.

In the end we decided to use Jack Gould as our actor as he fit the look we were going for. He's also featured in a small film before so he has acting experience and has been in front of a camera before. He also got an A grade in this drama GCSE suggesting that his acting skills are more than good enough. He is also a good friend so we know he is going to be reliable and he is very easy to contact when arranging dates.