Casting

Casting Samantha Stark
For our film opening we have one main character to introduce and one quick shot of two boys running. The main character should be:
Gender: Female
Age: teenager between 15 and 18 years
Hair colour: no bright outstanding hair dyes
Height: anywhere between 5ft and 5ft 10inches

First profile
Name: Ebony Paice
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Hair colour: Brown
Height: 5'6 ft
Acting experience:
3 years of training at the Oast Drama
Performed in amateur dramatics clubs
A* in drama GCSE

Second profile
Name: Lily Fulton
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Hair colour: Brown
Height: 5'5 ft
Acting experience: A* in drama GCSE
Toured a performance of "Tin Man" to local primary schools as a theatre company

Final decision:
We have decided to cast Ebony as our main character because her appearance had the most resemblance to the character we created and her mannerism also reflected that of Samantha. She was also flexible with our shooting schedule and we strongly admired the acting experience she had, therefore trusting her ability to execute the role well.

Extra 1 profile
Name: Ben Bradley
Gender: Male
Age: 12
Hair colour: Brown
Height: 5 ft
Acting experience: Been involved for 3 years in amateur dramatic societies and is planning to take drama as one of his GCSE options
His role: Plays a young boy in the park that runs past the camera screaming for comic effect.

Extra 2 profile
Name: Ethan Simpson
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Hair colour: Blonde
Height: 5'4 ft
Acting experience: Attended a few drama clubs  and is planning to take drama as one of his GCSE options
His role: Plays a second young boy in the park that runs past the camera.

Extra 3 profile
Name: Brian Bradley
Gender: Male
Age: 51
Hair colour: Black
Height: 5'6 ft
Acting experience: Has been involved with various drama productions over the years and took Drama as on of his O-Levels where he achieved an A.
His role:
Plays an adult man in the park who is chasing the two younger boys. Walks quickly past the screen whilst shouting "Come back here, you little fuckers!" for comic effect and a sense of the rough area where the protagonist lives, adds to the drama genre and harsh theme of drugs.

Third Draft - ROADS

Scripting the Voiceover

Our first thought for the voice over was to have the main character recite a famous quote and then completely ruin it with her own ideology. We decided on a Shakespeare quote from Romeo and Juliet and this was our first draft:

"These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume.
What the fuck does that even mean? I'm not bothered about these old sods who wrote those romantic classics. I just think we should live life in the moment and to the full. Don't you?"

After hearing it being said and putting it in the opening we decided it was not what we wanted and also that it was too long. Instead we took inspiration from the voice over in trainspotting. The short snappy phrases and philosophical meaning was more suitable for us and our film opening. Our final voice over is this:

"Wake up. Get dressed. Go to college. Do work. Go home. Do homework. Graduate. Get a job. Have kids. Die. Fuck that, I'm gonna live my life how I want to."

We all agreed that the final voice-over fit a lot better and helped the audience gain a better understanding of the character's attitude to the normal ways of her life. It also builds up the idea of the theme of rebellion from the offset as this will be put directly at the start of our opening, just before and during the first few frames.

Second Draft - ROADS

After re-shooting the bedroom scene and credits, we showed the second edit of our film opening to our teacher and class once again. We then received feedback once again, yet this time solely from the teacher.

Improvements given after feedback from a larger group of teachers were:

The voiceover at the started needs to be re-recorded as it sounds very tinny and as if it was done on a phone, creating atmosphere for a horror film opening.
More narrative is needed as bedroom does not tell story.
Credits; Writing on the pill bottle looks messy, need to be printed.
              Cigarette packet looks too fake.
              Order of credits was wrong, BFI order needs to be checked.
Needs more comical aspects; A toilet scene - someone sitting on the toilet.
                                                Things going wrong.
                                                Underwear falling out of bag in public.
All cuts are in time with the music and fit well.

First Draft - ROADS

Below is the first draft of our final opening, a comedy drama, Roads. After editing and showcasing this to our class and teachers, we developed our ideas further.

As a group, we thought up questions to ask the class to answer whilst viewing our opening twice. They then wrote down their answers and notes onto paper before handing them back to us in order for us to re-shoot and develop our final opening.


           1. What did you like about the opening? (Give specifics)

The non-diegetic background music worked well, was catchy and memorable.

I really like the transition from the man running to where the protagonist is standing at the brick wall.

Credits were imaginative and worked well.

There was a clever use of mise-en-scene and credits.

Subtle but creative credits and the music is well suited.

           2. Would you watch the rest of the film? Why?

Probably, but I would have to see longer/more of the opening to add to narrative.
I think the narrative is slightly unclear so I would watch a bit more to get a better understanding.

           3. Out of 10, how well does it suit the comedy drama genre?

8 - Can not see the drama side of it yet.
6 - I didn't really get the comedy aspect in the opening, seems more of a coming of age.
7 - The music helps (although contrapuntal to the dramatic side).
6 - Music + pizza = comedy

           4. Who would you guess the target audience are?

Youths.
The demographic is very clearly teenagers.
Our age (teenagers) but restricted to that.
Teenage girls.
Teens aged 14-21.

           5. How would you improve the opening in terms of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound and continuity?

Edit the colours to give a stronger contrast - make brighter.
Make the cigarette packet look more realistic and make the zoom at the start smoother.
Add more shots between the credits to add time and easier to follow.
Stabilising is needed on some shots.
Make sure credits are realistic enough so the audience can not tell that they are altered.

           6. From a director's point of view, what else would you add or remove?

I would have added more narrative by adding more scenes of the female protagonist.
Add more shots of the female protagonist during the credit sequence to establish her character further.
More emotion of teenager and their stereotype - moody, swearing etc.

Technology Used and Problems Faced

For the original storyboard:

Over the course of creating our film opening, we have learnt a lot about the technologies we used to construct our product. Originally, we used the Canon DSLR camera and we found that by touching the screen of the camera it focused on specific object. However, we struggled to get the camera to focus on some zoomed in shots and when we filmed fast shots.

For the improved storyboard:

As result of our focusing struggle and unsteadiness with the Canon DSLR camera, we decided to use an iPhone 7 camera. It is of similar quality and we practised a few test shots to see if it was appropriate for are extreme close up and fast movement shots.

Conventions of Genre