Casting

Casting our Protagonist

In our film trailer we are introducing our female protagonist and should look something like this:

Gender: Female

Age: teenager between 15 and 18 years

Hair colour: no bright outstanding hair dyes

Height: anywhere between 5ft and 5ft 10inches

We felt that there was no need to audition each actor as they would not have to deliver any lines or perform very physically to get the shots we need as the character stays fairly stationary in each scene. Also, by analysing the acting experience they each had we realised that they could easily follow direction on the day of the shoot of how we want our main character to be portrayed. However, if we were to create the whole of this film where the character would speak and become more physical and emotive, we would think about getting them to prepare an audition piece or deliver a few lines from an extract of our script.

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 decisions:

Protagonist:

Name: Lily Fulton

Age: 17

Contact number: 07758861112

Eye colour: Green

Hair colour: Brown

Height: 5,4 ft

Debbie:

Name: Maeve Wigham

Age: 18

Contact number: 07803207998

Eye colour: Green

Hair colour: Dark brown

Height: 5,7 ft

Protesters: 

Name: Jasmine Warren

Age: 18

Contact number: 077015684

Eye colour: Green

Hair colour: Brown

Height: 5,4 ft

Name: Lauren Haynes

Age: 18

Contact number: 07771622374

Eye colour: Green

Hair colour: Auburn

Height: 5,5 ft

Name: Georgia Wray

Age: 18

Contact number: 07917284931

Eye colour: Blue

Hair colour: Blonde

Height: 5,3ft

Name: Jess Chapman

Age: 18

Contact number: 07880236041

Eye colour: Green

Hair colour: Blonde

Height: 5,9ft

Name: Jo Foucher

Age: 18

Contact number: 07887243214

Eye colour: Brown

Hair colour: Brown

Height: 5,5 ft

Name: Katie Forster

Age: 18

Contact number:

Eye colour: Brown

Hair colour: Brown

Height: 5,4 ft

Name: Louisa Richardson

Age: 18

Contact number: 07775333118

Eye colour: Blue

Hair colour: Blonde

Height: 5,7ft

Name: Rachael Gilby

Age: 18

Contact number: 07342677484

Eye colour: Hazel

Hair colour: Blonde

Height: 5,4ft

Location Recce

For our location recce, we went to our local town, Tunbridge Wells. Social realism often focuses on everyday places to emphasise how anyone can get into this kind of situation. This setting was also suitable place to film for our low budget and to get the right atmosphere we wanted to create with the street lights and natural business.

Our initial idea was to use public toilets in order to make the room look dirty and dark however when carrying out a location recce, we found that using these areas did not give the impression of a bedroom at all. This was due to the mirror positioning and camera angle, this showed a large area behind which included cubicles.

The next idea we had was to use the school toilets as they were extremely accessible to all members of the cast and crew. However, we decided that this would also give off the wrong impression as we could see the toilets behind no matter what camera angle we used; it does not look like a bedroom. We decided to instead do an extreme close up shot on the side of the protagonists mouth showing her applying lipstick which still maintained the initial vision as it was head on and more dramatic as her lips and the bright lipstick filled the screen. The red also follows our colour palette. 

We used a bedroom for an additional scene of the protagonist lying on the bed in her 'prostitute outfit' looking distressed and grabbing her hair. We used a bedroom with plain white floorboards and white bed sheets to enhance the red and black of her outfit and make her the main focus of the shot. The simplistic bedroom also added the idea that she was neglected and living in slight poverty. This was also emphasised as the actress was on a mattress on the floor, rather than a proper bed. 

Protest 

For the protest scene, we wanted to use somewhere rural to give the impression of a street protest as this is where they would be seen in real life. In order to create the idea of a busy protest, we need a large group of actors and to do so we will gather willing actors from school. Due to this, we made the collective decision to film the protest scene somewhere within the school, examples of these areas are below, as we realised that it would be a lot easier to organise as our actors would most likely always be here to film, making the process a lot faster and more efficient. We can also gain access to these actors through the drama department as well to ensure the acting looks professional. 

This first area of the school is completely brick so gives the impression of a rural area or street perfectly. However, the natural lighting is quite dark so would require us to use a lot more artificial lighting and post production editing. Additionally, the space is quite small and is a normal walkway within the school so may be a lot harder to control when filming, especially as it is a school public area.

Another example of a location for filming the protest scene is in a small alleyway on the school grounds. Due to it being a small area, we can use the space completely and get close up shots of busy crowds as the small area allows a small group to look a lot bigger creating a larger impact on the viewer. 

Another area that we thought may be effective was this alleyway as it is well lit in natural light, has rural brick areas as well as some areas of nature in the background and is also a wide enough space to fit a large group. All of these aspects ensure that the protest will look realistic. However, we may have to avoid the windows either side as they can make it look like we are filming in a school, which we do not want to give the impression of. But, we have planned to film mostly close up shots of the protest scene to make it a lot more intense in the final trailer, therefore will make the likelihood of the windows being in shot a lot less likely. 

This is the location that we decided on.

These are some shots from the final trailer that we used for the protest scene. The location worked well as it was not easy to tell that we had filmed in school. We ensured that the camera was at a lower angle in order to make the audience feel as though they were in the protest themselves, which the close up shots and shots from behind the protesters helped to create. We did not need to use any artificial lighting for this scene either as the weather during the day made the atmosphere and scene look well-lit and natural, helping the social realism genre.

Set

After researching into prostitution and child neglect, one location in particular seemed stand out as one of the worst cities for these social issues. This city was Coventry in Warwickshire. We chose to set it in this city as it is well-known among our target audience and will therefore making it more shocking when they realise the problems within the city.