Thinking About Costume

A list of costume possibilities for the different characters:

Sports players - Rugby kit

Emos - Black skin tight jeans, black hoodies, dark eyeshadow, slight pale faces

Chavs - Big hoodies with hoods up, big tracksuit bottoms, big trainers

Jazz band/symphony orchestra - smart shirts, tucked in

Band - Skinny jeans/ripped jeans, band t-shirts, trainers/basketball shoes and accessories

Nerds - Black trousers, shirts, big glasses

Cast Thoughts

We have thought about the cast that we will need for our film.

This is a list of parts that we have so far:

Lead Guy

Lead Girl

"Emos"

"Chavs"

"Nerds"

Band

Jazz Band/Symphony Orchestra

Normal Students

Sporty Students

Friends of Lead Girl

Friend of Lead Boy

Music Technician

Drama Teacher

Music Teacher

Families of lead roles

In some instances we may use actors for more than one part e.g. we could re-use any of the "chavs" because in the shots they will have hoods up and their faces will be to covered up to see.

A beginning for our film

We think that it would be cool to start our film with the two lead characters waking up in the morning and getting ready for the first day at school. We will film the actors sitting up suddenly in bed with messy hair etc. then film as they proceed to other morning tasks like brushing their teeth. When they leave their houses the scene will cut to the school entrance scene.

Audience Profile

After looking at other popular musicals, we have decided that our film will be aimed at people from the ages of 8 to 15. It will probably follow the content style of a PG certificate film. The story will include topics of interst to people of such ages e.g. school life.

Problems with time restrictions.

We have estimated that our film is going to be well over two minutes, and so we needed to cut something out. We have decided to remove the opening scene because it is simply to long. Instead, the film will open at the school entrance with students entering.

I also thought it would be a good idea if in the opening scene we have a time-lapse where the scene cuts from just a few students entering the school, to a few more, and build up.

Because there will be no incet days between now and the deadline, we have changed our story slightly to be set in a school with a 6th form.

Problems with mise-en-scene in the filming

We are planing on basing our video in a 6th form collage, although we are filming in a secondary school. We have some shots of students entering the school with lots of people in, and these shots will be much easier to film if we take the shots as the school day begins. The problem is that most of the actors will be in school uniform, and this will seem unrealistic because it will be obvious that these people are not A level students.

To tackle this problem, we will try to take these shots on a school mufti day so that everyone will be in there own clothes.

Order Of Shots In The School

Rohan and I have decided on an order of shots for our scenes in the school. The order is as follows:

• Students entering the school by the gate
• Students entering the school in the canteen
• 'Emos' in the garden area
• Lead girl in the drama studio
• 'Nerds' in the Library
• Shot of students in the common room
• 'Chavs' by a pylon
• Rugby/football game on the field
• Band recording in a large music room, a shot of the band from the studio and a shot of the jazz band
• Lead guy in a practice room. (Dialogue)

Thought For Music

Today I went over to The Yehudi Menuhin School and listen to loads of peoples compositions written over the last few months. Each one seemed to have it's own unique sound. This has given me an idea that when I write the music for our project, maybe for each group on screen the music could vary according to the genre of music that is commonly associated with the group.

We are going to use a blue screen to take still shots of characters or groups with different backgrounds (e.g. a note pad with doodles on it). These stills could feature text; possibly cast, character and/or group name.

Getting Around The School In Our Project

We have decided that in our project we will capture different stereotypical social groups in different areas of the school. Between each area, we think it will be a good idea to film as we move on to the next area, and when we edit the shots we will speed the footage up.

To avoid the camera from jolting too much (although we aim to have some jolting movements), we think we will film the scenes with our own recreation of a dolly camera (camera taped to office chair).

Ratings

I have looked at the certificates of some musical films to help me understand what types of content I should aim to use. Generally, musicals seem to have very clean content that can be watched by anyone. For instance; Hairspray (2007) and Grease are both rated PG, and High School Musical is rated U.

PG: Parental Guidence
The BFFC defines a 'PG' as follows: "General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for some children. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A 'PG' film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children."

In a film rated PG there is a certain level of exceptance towards more adult features, including: more serious issues such as rasism or crime providing that these issues are not glorified in any way; a level of mild bad language may be used; nudity with no sexual context; the discrete inplication of sexual activity; moderate, undetailed violence.

Rohan and I think that we will try to keep our musical within the boundaries of the PG certificate specifications to help ensure that we create an accurate representation of a musical.