Filmmaking- Level 6's Shoot

The third years/Level 6's are also competing in the Kodak Awards this year with us, and their chosen advert was to be the Think! brief. They organised a shoot called Ya Think! that was set during WWII and featured prisoners escaping a camp, while the german soldier on guard was distracted by using his phone. The filming took place at Heugh Battery, a historic museum on the coast of Hartlepool and Seaton Carew. The level 6's enquired about me and Drew helping them out on shoot by been runners, as we can both drive and easily help with transportation of crew, actors and equipment. The shoot was scheduled for two days but due to bad weather, it was extended to three days and I was able to help out on all three days of shooting.

The first day was a night shoot at Heugh Battery and me and Drew along with Gavin (Level 6 director) were the drivers and made sure everything and everyone was where they needed to be on time. The shoot took off with a rocky start as more time than expected was spent setting up and dressing the location for the shoot. The whole crew participated in moving this sitting shed that was to be used as a prop but too much time and effort went into moving it and it took up too much of the shooting time, the prop didn't fit where the crew wanted it so the movement of it was abandoned and then started focusing on getting the shots in. Once everything was set up and running smoothly, the shoot rolled without any faults, me and Drew helped set up what was needed like the lights and the track and dolly, and during the shoot me and Drew operated the lights to have this quick fading to brightness effect to give the illusion of bombs dropping in the distance.


The crew did well at lighting the set as it was a night shoot and almost complete darkness with no other lights around than the ones we brought. The weather was also harsh but the crew was able to work through it and complete the first day of shooting, but were disappointed with the few amount of shots they got, meaning they would have to make up for it in the second days shoot.

The second days shoot started during the day and focused on getting the day shots straight away, we filmed on a street that was situated in an abandoned housing estate, which gave us privacy when filming from pedestrians but didn't stop the odd driving instructor on a lesson from passing through every now and then. Once everyone was on location and the equipment was ready, the level 6 crew began filming their actor in the middle of the road on his phone, he was then going to get knocked down in the next shot which would look much more effective after some movie magic was applied. The filmed the car driving down the road separately and then edited both shots together to give the effect the car hits him, since Gavin was directing I was the only other driver on set and took the role of driving the car down the road while the crew filmed it for the shoot. After we got all the day shots, we were able to have a break before continuing on with the night shoot in a few hours. Unfortunately once we got all the actors, crew and equipment to the location for the night shoot, the weather changed drastically and began pouring down with rain. We waited it out to see if it would stop or if there would be any change in the weather but it got to the point where the rain continued and we were wasting time, It was unsafe to set up lighting equipment and to use the film camera in this weather, so the crew decided to pack up and reschedule the shoot for another day.  

After rescheduling the shoot and moving it to a third and later date, the finishing shots were achieved smoothly and the shot was a success. There was no weather obstructions and due to previously filming on this location before, it was quicker to set up and pack away which saved time meaning more filming. The crew were able to call a wrap earlier than expected and had captured all their necessary shots as well as some back ups and some experimental shots. Overall the shoot was a success and a nice insight into a level 6 shoot. It taught me some lessons that I can apply to my own shoot and also showed me what to do and what not to do in certain situations. Even though the crew were faced with certain complications, they had fore seen some things happening and allowed a back up date for filming which made it easier to deal with, when those complications happened.  

Filmmaking- Cassidy and Evan Casting

The final two characters to cast for the commercial are Evan and Cassidy age 25-30. Before casting the children and the teenagers for the younger roles, it was difficult starting to look for actors for this role as we had no idea what they needed to look like. We are now in a better position to start casting these roles and must do so quickly to keep in plan with our shooting schedule. Me and my producers Simon and Dan have started looking for these actors, Dan has put out a casting call on the website Star Now and Simon has placed a post on the Four Bridges Facebook page to see if any local talent is interested.

A few days passed by and we began to receive a couple of responses on Star Now but the actors who responded were not exactly fitting to the specification we put out. The actors we heard from didn't suit the role or fit in with the actors we had already cast so I began to start searching Star Now for any local actors and actresses that look similar and well suited to the role. Instantly I found a few actresses who would be great for the role of Cassidy age 25-30.

                                      Lauren Scott- Actor, Model and Dancer from Newcastle                                     

Photo of Lauren Scott- Star Now Profile Picture-
Credit to Kathryn Gribben Photography 

Hayley McKay- Actor and Musician from Newcastle

Photo of Hayley McKay- Star Now Profile Picture
Credit to Hayley McKay

Jacqueline Davis- Actor and Model from Newcastle

Photo of Jacqueline Davis - Star Now Profile Picture
Self Portrait, Credit to Jacqueline Davis

These were the top three actresses for the role of Cassidy so I messaged each one to see if they would be interested in playing the role in the commercial and if they would be available for the shoot. I got responses back from all of them quite quickly and Lauren and Hayley both should interest in the role but were unable to make the shoot date as they were already busy and due to our short notice. Jacqueline was both interested and available to shoot so we sent over her the script and some documents and organised the shoot with her participation. 

As for casting the role of Evan age 25-30 I had very little look when it came to searching on Star Now for male actors local to our shoot. We were able to find one actor who looked similar and a little appropriate for the role but when we contacted him by phone he was already busy on the day we were shooting but was interested and asked to contact him if we have any of roles suitable for him. Due to leaving the casting process for these two characters too late, we decided to use our fellow student and runner for our shoot, Drew Brockbank to play the role of Evan age 25-30. We understand it will be a challenge to get an audience to believe he is a continuation of Conor and Lewis's portrayal of Evan but hopefully we can get away with hiding Drew's long hair and having people take into account how much change people can go through. Because he will be playing a more mature and aged Evan and due to the commercial been only 30 seconds, we're hoping people will buy the portrayal. This is a serious lesson in time management and allowing yourself enough time to cast your actors before the shoot.    

Filmmaking- Auditions

The next stage in our filmmaking process is to cast actors in the role of our characters. There are four main characters been Evan and Cassidy and then their two children, but we need Evan and Cassidy at different ages. So we needed to cast:

• Evan and Cassidy age 9-13
• Evan and Cassidy age 16-20
• Evan and Cassidy age 25-30
• Katie and Jake (Evan and Cassidy's children) age 9-13

These are our main roles to cast and we've come to the conclusion that who ever plays Evan and Cassidy age 9-13, can also play Katie and Jake age 9-13. This will save us time and effort trying to find someone suitable and appropriate looking for the role when we can just use the same kids but change their appearance a little. So now we're looking to cast only six people for our roles in the commercial. Last year a few people on our course and how are in my group, had the chance to go and film audition tapes for a stage school of young actors, the actors range from children to teenagers and I was able to get in contact with the woman who runs the class. Gaynor was very helpful and eager to help me cast my roles and had actors who were appropriate to play Evan and Cassidy age 9-13 and Evan and Cassidy age 16-20. We were able to organise an audition for these actors at the stage school and went down one saturday to meet and audition them for the roles. 

The four actors were:

1. Conor auditioning for the role of Evan age 9-13
2. Lewis auditioning for the role of Evan age 16-20
3. Chloe auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 9-13
4. Sadie auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 16-20

  

The first actor was Conor auditioning for Evan age 9-13,  Conor's appearance looked well as he seems like the type of kid who would spend time outdoors playing sports etc. Conor would be playing the youngest version of Evan and therefore anyone else playing older would need to look like Conor. We gave all the actors a similar monologue to read for us called 'Dreaming of Dragons' and in some places Conor seemed a little wooden and lost for words, but there are some auditioning nerves and also we none of these roles in the commercial are speaking roles so there is no dialogue for Conor to give. Me and my producer Simon were both pleased with the audition and were happy to cast Conor in the role of Evan. 

The second actor was Lewis auditioning for Evan age 16-20, Lewis's appearance was similar to Conor's and was believable that these two could be brothers or related and therefore would work as an onscreen continuation of the character Evan. Lewis fit the role and performed the same monologue with quite some confidence and movement, showing experience in stage or theatre work. Having casted Conor as the younger Evan, me and Simon felt comfortable casting Lewis as Evan age 16-20 for the commercial. 

The third actor/actress to audition was Chloe who was for the role of Cassidy age 9-13, Chloe would be playing the youngest version of Cassidy and therefore setting the appearance and tone for later actresses to play. Chloe's appearance was quite well suited for our commercial because she seems like with the suitable clothes, she could fit in well in any time period, which would help for when we are setting it. She's also young enough to match Conor's age and at the adventurous age where you would play outside and ride bikes etc. Chloe's performance was very powerful and well delivered, she was very strong with her dialogue and obvious signs of theatre experience. Both me and Simon were impressed with Chloe's audition and casted her in the role of Cassidy age 9-13.   

The fourth and final actor/actress to audition was Sadie, who was auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 16-20 which is the teenage stage of Chloe's character. Off the mark we judged Sadie on her likeness to Chloe and if it was believable that Chloe would grow up to look like Sadie and we agreed that the similarities were strong and that on screen it would be a believable transition for child to teenager. Sadie is twenty years old but we felt like we could get away with playing her a few years younger, to match Lewis's age and look. Sadie instantly seemed the most experienced and you could tell this from the way she put herself across. Her performance with the monologue was strong and direct, like the others you could tell the stage background and she had great speech and dialogue techniques which caught you in gained your attention. All this combined made me and Simon accept she was the obvious choice to play Cassidy age 16-20. 

Four of the six main roles have no been casted and that leaves us with Evan and Cassidy age 25-30 to finish the casting for the commercial. We know have more knowledge and now know what to look for in these castings as the younger versions of these characters have already been cast, so we just need to find actors and actresses similar to our actors here.      

Filmmaking- Storyboards

The next stage of the process is to visually plan out the commercial and how it's going to be shot, to do this I have drawn together a rough storyboard of how I imagine each shot to look and be framed. I'm not very skilled at drawing but I have tried to make sure that people can make out what is going on and understand the story and narrative throughout. These storyboards will help the cameraman and crew when it comes to filming, it gives them a better understanding of how the finished film will look, and provides something to go on for the cameraman when preparing his shot list.

 This is the first page of my annotated storyboard, featuring six panels, each panel been a new/different shot. The first four panels are all apart of the same sequence, being the storyline of the two kids. The first two panels show both children riding their bikes (covering the cycling area of the brief) and the fourth and fifth panel have the kids running towards this view of the coast and the all the towns, and ending with the girl giving the boy a kiss on the cheek. Now we've established a connection between them, the fifth panel jumps forward to their teenage years, where they are now camping with some friends (covering camping in the brief). This is a very nice, effective but simple shot of panning around the camp and capturing the teenage couple as she kisses him on the cheek. The sixth and final panel starts the next sequence of them in adulthood, it shows them now older preparing to climb a boulder of some kind (covering climbing in the brief).

This is the second page of the storyboard and continues on the adulthood sequence with the seventh and eighth panels been the woman reaching for the groove and finding the box and then the man proposing down on one knee as she turns around. Now we've established an engagement, we jump even further and they are now parents, the 9th, 10th and 11th panel is to be all one shot but drawing to give the idea of the motion of the shot. It starts on a close up of the rings showing they are now married, it moves out to reveal the happy couple holding hands and walking, and then we pan around the couple to reveal they now have children of their own. We've now covered many of the age groups and areas of people who would use this shop for outdoor activities with children, teenagers, adults and now families. The twelfth panel is a quick shot of the young girl feeding/stroking a horse (covering horse riding, a little little little bit).

  The third and final page only uses one panel to finish off the storyboard and commercial. The thirteenth panel is a group shot of the entire family fishing into the sea (covering fishing in the brief). I imagine it to be a still static shot but there is room for movement if it feels needed. This will be the final shot and then the Go Outdoors logo will appear, officially ending the commercial.

Filmmaking- Script

This is the finished completed shooting script, it contains all the story and narrative for the 30 second commercial and is the 3rd draft of the script. I feel like this is the strongest development and version of the script and includes the most detail and significant visual language to make the script better. It's also lost many unnecessary parts of the script and in many cases, useless scenes/details in the script. The characters names are now final, as well as the locations, so the actors as well as crew can take information and knowledge from the script to add to their performance and work on the shoot. I've personally timed the script as well as a group in our class during a lesson to make sure the script can be contained in 30 seconds for the commercial. We did a test were we mock filmed each scene to see how long each one will be and if all added together will be 30 seconds. I'm confident I can film mine and cut mine down to the 30 second mark for the kodak awards. I've included the finished version of the 'Go Together, Go Outdoors' script below:

Filmmaking- Influences

When writing the script for the Go Outdoors advert, I was already starting to visualise how certain shots would look, and how we would achieve certain moments and scenes. When I started thinking about what influences inspired certain aspects and shots, I noticed music videos seemed to be incorporated quite a bit, as just like an advert, many are trying to tell a story in a limited amount of time. The opening shot to the Go Outdoors advert and and which helped inspire the storyboard from it comes from Coldplay's music video for the song 'Paradise'. Until I started thinking about it, I had

Shot from 'Paradise' music video.
Copyright Coldplay, Parlophone Records, Mat Whitecross
Source: Youtube

 no idea about the similarities, and then I realised I had been striving for a shot, similar to this. The shot is centered to show the road in the middle and this canvas of land and hills behind it, with a man in an elephant costume riding a unicycle in the middle of the shot. I loved the depth to this shot and the build up of layers. The colours are also very strong and paint a temperature in the shot. The first shot in the Go Outdoors shoot is a boy riding is bicycle towards the camera, but he would be riding by the side of the road and not directly in the middle
and the camera is also shifted so its not centered with the road but more in line with the edge of the road to show the boy coming closer to the camera. The framing and placement of this shot from 'Paradise' stuck with me and gave me a better idea of how to maybe represent certain scenes better and in new ways.

Shot from 'Before Sunrise' 1995.
Copyright Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia Pictures
Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Another influential piece of film I feel affected my work on this shoot, was from the film Before Sunrise (1995). This film is very much about the dialogue and the characters chemistry, and thats what the audience respond to the most for this film, I looked into how they were framed and shot in this film and how they were always positioned side by side. I liked the use of this side by side technique and decided I wanted a similar outcome for the characters in the advert.  The shots are also very long and many in one take, which is another technique I liked but wouldn't be as effective in an advert as it needs to be short and quick in 30 seconds. I adapted this idea and developed the shot into a longer and more moving shot as I thought maybe we could have the couples children walking behind and we could pan around the couple to reveal them.

Shot from 'The Fault in our Stars' 2014.
Copyright Fox 2000 Pictures, Temple Hill Entertainment,
TSG Entertainment, 20th Century Fox
Source: TheGuardian.com

Shot from 'True Romance' 1993
Copyright Morgan Creek Productions, Davis Films
A Band Apart, Warner Bros.
Source:Vancouversun.com

As well as the look and style of the film, I also had influences when it came to writing the script and the characters. The story is kind of heart warming and romantic, and the characters living this romance throughout the years need to develop as well as there romance, but also stay the same and have the same and recognisable qualities for the audience to know they are the same couple. I took influence from two on screen couples from films I've seen, the first been Hazel Grace and Gus from The Fault in our Stars (2014), and the second been Clarence and Alabama from True Romance (1993). Their relationships are quite different but I wanted a balance, what I liked from The Fault in our Stars was how intelligent the relationship was and the dialogue between the characters, and from True Romance, I loved the spontaneousness of their relationship and the need they had from each other, making them very clingy and together most of the time. I wanted to use these qualities in the characters in the Go Outdoors advert but with obvious little time to do it. Throughout the advert the characters have this routine/habit of kissing on the cheek which can help show the audience they're the same couple throughout, and I also have them been close like Clarence and Alabama from True Romance.
 

Filmmaking- Target Audience

When creating any product or film, it is important to know and understand the target audience, so you can market it and attract your audience to buy or show interest in the product. The commercial we're creating is for Go Outdoors, so it needs to appeal to Go Outdoors target audience and be in theme with something that would interest them. From research into Go Outdoors previous advertisement campaigns, I've found out that my concept is not far from something they'd already tried, so it would fit in with the style and tone of what they've been doing. Go Outdoors sells a wide variety of outdoor activity wear and equipment and sells to men, women and children who are interested. It's audience is anyone who loves the outdoors, it hopes to intrigue and show off how good the outdoors is and then supply the necessary equipment. Although Go Outdoors does sell children's clothing and equipment, the idea is to peak their interest in the outdoors and the equipment, as there parents will probably be the ones paying and the ones with the money.

Go Outdoor's appeal and audience is very wide, as can be seen on this website here, that features a presentation about marketing for Go Outdoors.

Marketing Presentation: https://prezi.com/vsw8y1zwqulw/copy-of-marketing-go-outdoors/

The presentation states that:

• Go Outdoors is aimed towards an audience who enjoy an active lifestyle, such as walking, hiking, camping, fishing and climbing.
• Variety of ages (depends on the product).
• Aimed at all classes with affordable prices.
• Products for both genders.
• Stores positioned next to popular outdoor activity locations.
• Stores also located according to income statistics; low income and high income areas.  

The presentation also goes into how Go Outdoors is now active on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook to reach more people with it's deals, and how it hasn't reached a huge audience through social media. Leading me to believe Go Outdoor's audience are less in to technology and social media and even more about the outdoors than originally thought.

The story in our Go Outdoors advert is quite good at showing most ages and both genders enjoying the outdoors. As it shows a boy and girl growing up, becoming teenagers and then adults, and eventually parents, it does a good job at showing all age ranges and even families enjoying the outdoors together.