Pre production planning

Before i began to film i did some more planning just to make the filming process and easy as possible and to make sure that no mistakes were made and every thing got done. The things which i did was:

Storyboards:

In the storyboards there are hand drawn pictures of what is going to happen in each shot. Next to the picture its says what action is going to happen in each shot, what the lighting is going to be and also if there is any sound or dialogue. I found this very useful because it let me lay out all the shots and give me a better insight of what is going to happen rather than just turning up and not knowing what to film. Also it enabled me to start planning editing, because i had to think about sound lighting.

Shot List:

In the shot list it said what is going to happen in each shot. Also what sort of shot it actually is like a close up. I made this after making the storyboard. This will be helpful when filming, because it will save us carrying around all of the storyboards, and also make sure that i do not forget to film something and then have to go back and film it. 

Shooting schedule:

The shooting schedule basically is a plan of when i am going to film and checking to see weather the actress is also available at that time as well. The shooting schedule will also have noted down what props will be needed on which day, and also what equipment and costumes. 

The narrative of the film opening

The narrative of the film opening is going to be abstract shots with a voiceover. Basically we are going to show the audience a montage of shots of a girl, the main character, Olivia. She will be in the location of a garden in which the audience will learn is the garden of a mental institute. The audience will be able to learn this through the voice over. The voice over will make the montage of shots make sense because they will tell the story of where she is and why she is there. The narrative will let the audience know that Olivia has been sexually abused by her step-father. Although as she was little when this all started to happen, she believed what he told her of that he loved her and wanted to be with her. This went on for many years with year growing up believing that his love for her was real and that one day her and the father would be together. Then one day she told her mother about her "love" for the dad, and that they was going to be together. The mother at hearing this thought that she was mentally ill, and decided that she needed help and sent her to a mental institute. The only reason why the girl agreed to go was because the step father said that if she does go then they can be together when she gets out. Although after being in the institute for such a long time she has time to reflect and realises that the father never loved her and never will and has developed some sort of hatred for him. Now she is coming out because her mother wants her back. This storyline will be cleverly worded in the voice over. The rest of the film will her about her coming out of the institue and dealing with seeing the step father, and how her mother is going to react at seeing her daughter. Also her coming back to reality and dealing with life.

Casting

The casting of this role will be very important. This is because the actress that we have to cast will be the only cast member in the opening sequence. We looking at weather we would cast a male of female, it soon became clear that we wanted to cast a female as we felt that a girl would fit in much more with the narrative than a boy would. Next we considered the age of the actress. I did not want her to be too young as she may not have got much acting experience, and felt that the role would be best played by a girl aged around 15-17. Finally the appearance of the girl would also be important. I wanted to to be stereotypically pretty but not to be over the top, as it was not important to the narrative. When considering all of these factors, i looked at 3 different actresses. These were Amy (top) Georgina (Left) and Antonia (right). I also did a test to see if all actress were able to play the role, in the way that i wanted it to be portrayed. In this i asked the to act of some of the scenes that i wanted to be in my film opening.

   

After careful consideration i decided to choose Antonia as the actress that i wanted to use in my film. This was becuase she has previous acting expriecne, is usually available and also lives near to the location that we want to film in. She also fits in with all of the      characteristics that i wanted our lead actress to have