''Love Actually'' - Production plan continued

Last lesson My group and I continued planning our recreation of the first 2-3 minutes of the film of our choice, Love Actually. We had previously decided on three locations where we would ideally like to shoot: Norwich train station, Norwich airport and Chapelfield shopping centre, also in Norwich. Therefore we spent the start of the lesson using the internet to research the telephone numbers of these places in order to ring the companies to see if they would allow us to film in their associations.  Thankfully, they all agreed and we arranged a set time and date with each of them so that they knew when to except us. After getting permission from the places where we wanted to film, we then sat down and wrote an email to our schools Deputy head Dr Fox. During the first couple of minutes of Love actually actor Colin Firth does a voice over, meaning we to needed someone to do a voice over for our recreation of the film. We decided on Dr Fox as we felt his voice was appropriate for the film. Consequently, we then wrote him an email consisting of three elements, a) asking him whether he would kindly participate b) with various times and days of when we as a group could have the time to meet him and record his voice - either during media lessons or at break and lunch. c) and finally, including a copy of the script from Love Actually stating what lines he would need to say.

The next part of the lesson was spent looking at various different clips of televisions shows such as: Gavin and Stacy and Early Doors, plus others. The purpose of this was to evaluate each scene and look at what camera shots were used and  whether they included an establishing shot, the 180 rule, diegetic/non diegetic sound and how they were edited. Doing this allowed me and my group to see how using different camera shots and techniques can be effective and made us think about what to use in our own production.

Next lesson we hope to do a storyboard of different shots for our short film, which will helps us to make it more interesting for our audience, as well as the fact when getting to our locations to shoot, our shots would have already been planned, meaning no time would be being wasted.

''Love Actually'' - Production plan

Having looked at our list that we prepared last lesson of films that my group and I possibly wanted to do for our recreation of the two minutes to a film opening we started todays lesson by looking at these five on YouTube. Initially we just put down what films we all liked and thought would be interesting to recreate, however today we learn't that some of the films we had on the list are too complicated and far-fetched for us to recreate them realistically.
Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging;

For example we looked at the first two minutes of this film, but found that to get someone dressed in her costume, have enough people in one room to look like there is a party going on and then to get someone running down the street in a olive outfit was going to be too hard to do.


In the end we came to the conclusion as a group that Love Actually written by Richard Curtis would be the most appropriate in terms of practicality of filming, as well as having an effective opening that my group and I both liked.
Love Actually;










We have planned to film our opening in the following locations:

·Norwich Airport

·Chapelfield shopping centre

Justification

We chose these places because obviously the start to the film is situated in an airport, therefore Norwich Airport would be the most obvious and suitable place to shoot. Chapelfield shopping centre was chosen because even though Norwich Airport would undoubtable be the best place, it is a small scale airline and is not often very busy, so we decided to collaborate shots between the two locations in order to make the two minutes appear busier (like how it appears in the actual film.) Chapelfield was chosen because airports also have shops in them so the two will look like they're the same place.


Permission
Having chosen our locations where we would ideally like to film, as they are public places and we do not have the rights to film there we need to get permission.
To do this we went on Norwich Airport and Chapelfield's websites where they each had numbers of how they could be contacted:
·http://www.norwichairport.co.uk/contact.asp
·http://www.chapelfield.co.uk/About-Us/Contact-Us
We then rang each place and spoke to the relevant person to ask whether we would be able to film. Getting permission from Chapelfield was far easier as they only have one number by which they can be contacted. When we rang a lady answered and then straight away put us through to someone who could tell us if we could film or not. Norwich airport was far harder as there are various different numbers for different enquiries, eventually however, we were able to speak to someone who could give us permission to film. Luckily, both of our chosen locations gave us permission to film, but told us to be weary of other people and not to film them without their consent. Norwich airport also asked that we do not go outside to where the airplanes are taking off and landing for health and safety purposes. This is not a problem because if we want to get a shot of an airplane we can do so out of one of the airport windows. 

Quick Test

Based on Mise En Scene and Three Point Lighting System


1. The term Mise en scene means everything you an see in a given frame or sequence of shots.

2. Five elements of Mise en scene:
- Settings and props
- Costumes, hair and makeup
- Facial expressions and body language
- Lighting and colour
- Positioning of characters/objects with in the frame

3. If you wanted to create a silhouette you'd use back lights - no key or fill light.

4. If the sun was used as an ambient light source it would be a key light, which is the brightest source of light.