Location Scouting - Public bathroom

Location scouting

We have decided to put some shots in our film opening of the homeless girl washing herself in the sink of a public bathroom to show how she does not have anything and must deal with whatever she can use.

The toilets we planned to use are the public toilets next to the café in Mote Park these were ideal because they were run down and not very well looked after. They also had things like a needle bin which show they are not used just for the toilets.

The sinks were ideal for what we wanted however they were quite closed in which means you could not really see what the girl was doing also the sinks were sensor based so the movement sensors detected hands and did soap followed by water just after it so we had to be careful to make sure we just got the water and if we decide to use these shots we will have to cut off the beginning with the soap.

Another problem is we were going to use some over the shoulder shots showing her face in the mirror, however the toilets in mote park do not have mirrors. This means we will need to take more shots in a different public bathroom with mirrors.

Audience feedback

Audience feedback

When we showed our storyboard to the rest of our class we got some feedback from them. They said that our title ideas seemed angsty so we will have to look at that, we thought after this we could use the name of the character. They also mentioned the locations and how we are going to make it look urban for an urban drama. We are looking at churches with graveyards that are on a road side so we have cars going past to show the urban environment. When locations were mentioned we also had a conversation about the use of a public toilet and how we would have to be careful filming these scenes as we have a boy in our group and we would have to use a girls toilet as there are three girls. In addition there should be more shots in London as it is an urban location that is well known drawing attention from people wo know these locations, Somebody suggested we film the shot where the stranger on the street calls the homeless person scum twice, once with and once without to see what works in case the dialogue is not a good quality. There was also talk about the sound we use would have to not be copyrighted as that is illegal so we will have to further research the music/sound we use.

Storyboard first draft

Storyboard

This is the story board I have made to plan our coursework.

Shot 1

The first shot will be a black screen with just the sounds of a busy road. The shot after this will show the homeless girl asleep in a doorway as it does a 2 second fade form black. We would then like to see the focus change from the hand to the girls face as her eyes twitch/flutter to show her waking up. The shot will pan backwards out from her face.

Shots 2-4

The second shot will be a long/mid shot showing her starting to sit up as people walk past this starts a match on action sequence of her sitting up. The first shot long/mid the second a mid/close up of her coming to sitting and a third of her sat up with people walking past her and simply ignoring her.

Shots 5-10

This is another sequence of match on action:

1.       Tracking close up as the girl puts her hand into her pocket and pulls out something wrapped in dirty white material.

2.       Over the shoulder shot of the girl unwrapping the object

3.       Low angle of her reaction

4.       Mid shot to show her expression

5.       Low angle as she starts to close the locket

6.       Point of view shot as the locket snaps shut

7.       Black screen

Shot 11

The black screen will have the title on it and we have not decided on one yet but we have some ideas including,

·       Numbing

·       Bleak

·       Cold

·       Loneliness.

Shots 12-13

These shots show the girl begging which would be long shots possibly from different angles and close ups of the cup she has for people to put money in with some change being dropped in there.

Shot 14

The girl is sitting on a park bench alone in the cold with nothing to do this will be a long shot. This location could be difficult as we will have to film during the holidays and it will probably be really busy but we cannot control what the general public are doing.

Shot 15

A mid shot from behind the girl of her walking so you can see people’s reactions as they walk towards her. Again we cannot control the public so we may have to ask people to be extras in our film so we can get the expression that we require for our storyline.

Shot 16

The girl is in a public bathroom showing how she has to make do with as much as she can. This will be an over the shoulder shot as she looks in the mirror.

Shot 17

The montage continues with a close up shot of a make shift sign to show her begging people for money. The risk with this is that people might actually think she is begging for money and drop some in the cup so we would have to give it back to them.

Shot 18

A long shot showing her sat alone propped up against the wall of a subway. This shot should be fairly easy to get.

Shot 19

We switch back to the public bathroom as she splashes her face with a mid shot as she tries to clean herself. This location could be difficult as people will actually need to use the public bathrooms for what they were intended.

Shot 20

A person gives her a hot drink to show that some people really do care and not everyone over looks homeless people.

Shot 21

 Back to the park we see only the homeless girl but we can hear families and groups f friends playing in the park. As mentioned previously we cannot control what the public do and the sound may not be a very good quality so we might have to add this in after filming when we edit our film opening.

Shot 22

 Close up side view of her hand, as she begs people for money/food/help.

Shot 23

Long shot side view showing the homeless girl walking down the street. Depending on where we film this we may need to find a quite place so there are not many other people.

Shot 24

 Back in the public bathroom we see her washing her arms. Again this could be difficult and we will have to take a towel in case we have to take this shot more than once.

Shot 25

Flash back to the begging sign to show her begging for most of a standard day. For this we may be able to reuse the same shot as previously if we cannot film it twice.

Shot 26

This shot will show the homeless girl in the background and a group of families playing in the foreground which will be blurred. This will be difficult as we will need to find a family that is willing to be filmed for our coursework.

Shot 27

A mid shot showing her drop her head as she is defeated by life and the general public. Again we will have to be careful about who we can see in the background as some people may not want to be filmed or there may be young children so we will have to check with their parents.

Shot 28

We see her putting a coat on in the public bathroom in the mirror via an over the shoulder shot as she prepares to go back out on to the street. Once again the public bathroom could be a problem while filming this shot.

Shot 29

As we are in England we are hoping for rain so that we can show her taking shelter from the bad weather under a bus stop. If we cannot get rain it doesn't matter but it would be convenient if it did rain so we will have to check the weather forecast.

Shot 30

Long/mid shot of the girl lying on the floor as she starts to give up and stop trying.

Shot 31

We see her begging once again and someone kicks the cup over to show the disrespect the homeless community receive.

Shot 32

A tracking shot shows the girl sigh and walk out of the public bathroom. This demonstrates how she is fed up and is building up courage to face the general public.

Shots 33-34

The homeless girl is walking down the road and we see someone walk into her and as he turns around we see him call the homeless girl “scum”.

Shot 35

This shot will be a black screen as the business stops and the quiet contrasts the montage that has been before.

Shot 36

The camera pans round from behind a gravestone to reveal the homeless girl stood over the grave.

Shot 37

Close up shot of her feet which then shows her legs buckle underneath her in a moment of grief and sadness.

Shot 38

High angle shot from over the grave shows the girl pull the locket out of her pocket and throw the white material out to the side of her.

Shot 39

Close up of the locket in her hand as she clasps her hands around it and clutches the treasured possession.

AS Media Time Lapse Inspiration

Time Lapse Inspiration

Research and Planning

Below are some time lapses of urban landscapes, which will inspire are social realism set in urban areas like Maidstone Town Centre and London:

In our film opening we would include a time lapse of pedestrians walking past the homeless protagonist. For inspiration I found the following clip to see whether we should use this technique:

In the above video of pedestrians crossing, it is so fast paced that you cannot make out each individual pedestrian. In our film opening we would like to see feet walking past the homeless character rather than a blur or ghost trail seen in time lapses. Consequently, we will most likely alter the speed of the clip to make it seem like a time lapse but without the confusion of the ghost trials.

Genre

Editing in social realism films is minimal, in order to create realism. However, we would like to include montages and post-production techniques like changing the clip's pace.

AS Media Storyboard Practical

Storyboard First Draft Practical

Genre

We have chosen to create an urban drama/social realism film opening. This genre usually presents and educates about issues in urban areas. We have chosen the theme of homelessness, as we believe it is quite original. Normally, urban dramas like "Adulthood" revolve around gangs, which can be fairly offensive.

As it is an urban drama, the majority of locations will be of urban areas. We will use locations considered as 'rough' to show the harsh conditions our protagonist lives in. Some locations we have scouted include parts of London, Maidstone, and more specifically Tovil, which are predominately weathered settings or identifiable ones, as they add realism and are conventional.

Plot

As our theme is homelessness we have chosen to use a young homeless person as our main character. This character will be played by Emma, as she is within our group of the age bracket we found suitable when conducting our survey. As it is an urban drama, the story won't be plot driven, but instead character driven, as this is conventional for the genre.

We aim to create sympathy for a moving piece despite the lack of a plot. This was done by making the character young and a girl, who are stereotypically seen as vulnerable. Hence, we conform to the common representation of girls. To add to this pity, we decided to play with the idea that the protagonist has lost her parents, which would also offer an implication of a plot revolving around the character and her family if this was a full-length film.

Because of this, we will refer to the loss through a locket. We initially planned on having the sentimental item stolen from them, however, we instead decided that instead some shots in our montage have a similar impact and won't be too complex and plot driven. This includes the character's money being kicked over and their shoulder being pushed before being called a "scum". Within this montage we aim to include busy non diegetic and diegetic sounds to further develop the harsh and horrific conditions. This would contrast the scene where the character visits their parent's grave.

Production

As we wish to create pity through the loss of parents, we chose to, therefore, include a sentimental prop of a locket.

We also aim to use locations like a graveyard and a family park in the montage to further develop this. Some of the locations will be filmed at night to make the character seem more vulnerable. Due to safety, we can film some locations early morning so it still looks dark like in my location scouting blog. This would also mean if it is too dark, we can wait until it lightens up slightly and we can find the perfect lighting, where as if you film at night and decide it is too dark it is impossible to make the setting lighter without artificial lighting, which sometimes create a cinematic look we don't which to achieve for a realistic drama.

Outcome

Below is the first draft of our storyboard:

The above video shows the corresponding timings for the below shots.

In shot one, we are planning to use a fade from black to a close up shot of Emma out of focus sleeping to start the narrative. Although, this is not conventional to our genre, we felt it would reflect the homeless protagonist waking up and would ease the audience into the film. This would create a juxtaposition compare to the other shots which are brutal and use fast paced crosscutting. This contrast would emphasis the isolation of Emma in the waking up match on action and the harshness of society.

In shot two a focus pull will be used between her twitching hand and her waking up. Although this is again not conventional, we felt this technique too would elongate her waking up, allowing the audience enough time to notice that she is sleeping on the street, as emphasised with diegetic traffic sounds. This would set up expectations for the film by the audience as it is a social realism film about homelessness.

The camera will then move to the side of Emma as she sits up. The change in camera movement to a long shot to the side will reflect her own change in movement. Then we will cut to a sped up longshot of Emma in the background with people walking past out of focus in the foreground. Unlike, the personal close up shots in the beginning, the long shots will portray the isolation of the character, especially with the people walking past. As seen in my attempts, we will not use a time lapse as we thought it was incredibly jumpy and unprofessional.

Emma in this sped up longshot would start reaching into her pocket. This will be shown by an extreme close up tracking her hand. Choosing an extreme close up will enforce the ambiguity surrounding what she is reaching for.

A high angle over the shoulder shot will show that it is a locket, whereby the high angle shows her vulnerability on the streets. But the camera will then move in front of the hand in a slight low angle mid shot to gauge her reaction to the locket when she opens it. This camera angle will also mean we won't see what is in the locket, to add to its curiosity. 

A reaction close up shot that is within the hand and the locket will enforce the idea that the locket is personal. This will cut quickly to the last shot as she begins to close it and then again to the over the shoulder shot, whereby we can see the locket shut. Hopefully if we see her beginning to shut the locket in the mid shot we can still hide the photo in the locket but still be able to create a sudden closure of the locket in the over the shoulder shot.

These three shots in the match on action could be filmed continuously to prevent continuity errors if we constantly move the camera. We can then cut them and edit them later. Having the cut more fast paced in the last few seconds can build up tension to emphasise the sudden title and the fast paced montage.

A montage is not exactly conventional and may be mistaken as title credits, but my group thought it will quickly show the fast and harsh lifestyle of urban areas. These include the following shots in chronological order:

• A long shot of Emma with a sign begging.
• An extreme close up of money being put in a cup.
• A long shot of Emma on a park bench.
• A handheld mid tracking shot from behind Emma walking down a street.
• A side mid shot of Emma looking in a public bathroom mirror.
• An extreme close up shot of a sign.
• An extreme long shot at a high angle of Emma in a subway.
• A slow paced side close up shot of Emma splashing water on her face.
• A mid shot of Emma drinking coffee.
• Another long shot of Emma on a park bench.
• An extreme close up shot of Emma's hands begging.
• A long shot of Emma walking from the side.
• Another side mid shot of Emma in the bathroom.
• A long shot of Emma in sleeping bag begging again.
• Out of focus kid swinging on swing with a long shot of Emma on the park bench behind.
• A high angle mid shot of Emma looking down in sadness on bench.
• Long shot of Emma at a bus stop in the rain.
• Over the shoulder shot of Emma looking in mirror.
• Long shot of Emma sleeping on street.
• Close up shot of her sleeping rough.
• An extreme close up of someone's foot knocking over the money cup.
• An over the shoulder shot of Emma opening the public bathroom door and high key lighting enforces discomfort also felt with the previous and next shots, where the public and surroundings are harsh and intimidating.
• Long shot tracking shot of Emma walking and coming into contact with stranger.
• Close up shot of Emma's reaction to getting pushed by stranger that says "scum". They can be seen behind Emma in the background.

After this we will include another match on action of a graveyard scene. My group are planning to use the one I found in my location scouting blog, despite, the incredibly old graves. We thought doing this would convey vulnerability especially after the confrontation of the stranger played by Angel. It would also provide a reasoning of why she is homeless and shows who is in the locket. I felt that this was unnecessary and provide answers already that would make it seem like a short film. Though, my group felt it would enforce her vulnerability and even came up with ideas like the locket being stolen to provide an implication of a plot if this was a real film. Regardless the next shots were planned.

A pan from behind a grave to a long shot of Emma would produce a transition from the black screen used suddenly to emphasise the insult "scum". Again this is not conventional but we thought it would again ease the audience into the isolated match on action like the waking up scene.

We will cut to a close up shot of Emma's knees buckling. The camera will be to the side of her to present the knees buckling more easily. A high angle mid shot from behind the grave to Emma will be used to make her seem small and weak. Doing this will mean the audience positioning will make us feel pity and sympathy for her. An extreme close up of the locket with photos of supposed parents would become personal and, hence, emphasise pity we feel as we guess she has lost her parents.

A basic and rough storyboard is seen below to create a more summarise storyboard we can use for shooting.