Planning Targets

A very good effort thus far and lots of analysis.  To improve your response aim to evidence more of your time-management and planning and include lots of video diaries and evidence of your progress that way too!  Document every stage of your journey.

Youtube Tutorials

This tutorial really helped with the scenes that we struggled with due to poor lighting. As we began filming the last finishing touches in Winter, we had to put up with scheduling before it got dark, which was an issue as we would be at school during the light hours so had to rush home to film. In the scenes that were unfortunately too dark, we applied colour grading to the footage to fix the cool and warm tones. This was proceeded through the scene of Ricky running his fingers through his hair.

In the party scene, we had to take away the original sound because it was copyrighted popular music with the diegetic sound of the dialogue between the characters. We found a non-copyright audio for a busy bar, which had light music and heavy talking, which we then overlayed onto our scene thus making it look and sound like a busy party, although we only had a small cast, this was fine once we added the bar audio.

Storyboard - First 30 Seconds..

Location Research

If possible we will try get some filming done at our school, to conform to a stereotypical teen movie. If not feasible, we will just set the film in Summer.

If we do go ahead with a couple shots of the school in order to conform to a teen movie, we will base some shots in either a classroom. or crowded area.
-- http://www.therfield.surrey.sch.uk/ --


Due to a low budget for our film trailer, we will use public places such as fields and train stations, along with shots coming from the actors' homes.

So far from our filming, the locations we have gotten are as follows:

 1. Ashtead Common
2. West Wittering Beach
3. Eleanor Smith's home
4. Scenic shots of Brazil
5. Portsmouth
6. London
7. Brighton

Trailers usually corporate several scenic locations, therefore the location is not of a big worry as the more locations better, but obviously it is important to carry through a main location, which most likely be an indoor situation.



These are some photographs taken at the locations we have filmed in during the time.

 The shots taken at the beach will be used for the dream sequence at the start of the trailer.
 This will progress later into the trailer with scenic shots of other areas such as Brighton Beach, and Ashtead Common.

The shots taken in Ashtead Common so far will focus on the protagonist and her alone time, her independence while growing up, whereas shots like the one to the left here is more for the cinematography, not the story line.










So far, we have filmed the protagonist cycling through a field, having a deep conversation with her bestfriend, and several scenic shots. The common is a successful place to film if we want to inhabit that of an indie coming-of-age teen movie as nature is always key to being "indie".













This shot is of two potential characters in our trailer, however of the lesser importance, more so used as extra's which may help the story fold together. During my photoshoot for my photography class, I managed to film a couple shots of the two subject's relationship together, just simply being around eachother, this may go towards our trailer if there is a suitable part.

Trailer Ideas and Brainstorm

A Coming-Of-Age teen movie..

To accomplish a successfully produced coming of age trailer is a very complex thing to do. It will either turn out horrifically terrible, or with the least possibility, a special piece of work. However, we do aim to achieve the "special piece of work" instead. 

The whole basis of our movie trailer will explore the idea of a 17 year old girl experiencing the usual issues of growing up.

- This is just a brief idea however this may change to an extent over the next few weeks -

The rough idea looks into the protagonist, (Lola) played by "Luiza Paulielo" who plays the unusual outcast kid, meanwhile her bestfriend is the cool rebellious one who tries to get Lola out of her comfort zone (Sam) "Eleanor Smith". The love interest (Ricky) is played by "Rodrigo Pintos" who creates conflict between the two friends.

We are going to try create a narrative in our trailer with narration over the top, thus conforming to a typical coming of age trailer, making it more personal to the audience, and a direct approach to explaining the plot.

It will start with a birds eye view point of the protagonist asleep in bed which follows with a narrative from the protagonist.We have filmed several shots of the protagonist and love interest together, in which we will use at the beginning as a dream sequence, regularly used in this type of genre, of the main character lusting over some guy. During the trailer we will see the character grow and go through several scenes in hope to win over the guy of her dreams.

London BFI Film Festival - Moonlight Review - A 17 year old's perspective

MOONLIGHT

A Compelling Drama take on Sexuality and Black masculinity

During the London BFI Film Festival, I was lucky enough to attend the showing of Moonlight "A timeless story of human connection and self-discovery" as described by IMDB. 

The movie followed the life of a young boy, to Adult, showing the hardships of living in a rough neighbourhood, whilst trying to find himself. Moonlight expressed several struggles and issues with sexuality that we still in fact see today. It was a movie that wasn't necessarily a comedy but shared a joke now and then to ease the tension. However the general atmosphere portrayed that of a drama, following the abuse of drugs, sexual encounters, and bullying. A movie that was definitely worth the watch, heavily relatable and heartfelt.

Barry Jenkins did not fail to show the struggle of being a Gay Black man in America. It was successfully shown through Chiron's character development, Jenkins used a smart approach in portraying the characters pain through the lack of dialogue from the character, showing the loneliness and depression within him. Thus showing that being gay was considered a weakness to him, being an easy target to those at his school. However this dramatically changed towards the end as we see the difference in Chiron, both physically and emotionally.

Without spoiling too much of the movie, because no one likes a spoiler alert, you are in for a coming-of-age story in which we see the protagonist grow as a character and go through pain, confusion, courage, and acceptance. From Little, to Chiron, to Black.