Update

Yesterday when we went location scouting, we came back disappointed, finding out that we won't be able to continue with our original plan and will need to use our back up for which we did manage to get the locations sorted.

After yesterday's incident, we as a group had a discussion on how we plan on executing our back up idea for which we came to the solutions that we would leave the characters as they are; still keep a voice over which would present the comedic side of our female character, and then have her painting in the art room. The image she will be painting will hint the romantic genre and side of her to the audience. Furthermore we want her to portray her clumsiness as well for which we plan on her maybe dropping a few equipments or knocking them over.

Another idea which we had later on was that we should keep the environment around her empty. Meaning that no eye catching objects should be there nor any sign of life, because this sole point would emphasise the fact that she likes to be in her own world, and is not much of an interactive kind even though she has friends.

Copyright Permission

 Here is a a small letter which I wrote to the 'Royal Pirates', requesting to use their song track, 'Drawing the Line', for our opening scene. This is a very important step to do as we do not own any copyrights for this track even if it is being only used for educational purposes.

Due to me not being able to gain their email address, I had to send a message through YouTube, to their official channel.

Evidence that I have actually sent my message off to the 'Royal Pirates':

Location Scouting

For the location scouting, we as a group visited the various locations we had in mind for our opening sequence. Finding the right location is a very important tasks due to it being linked with the mise-en-scene. Not only does a location set the setting but it tells the audience a lot about the character itself. For example, if a establishing shot is presented to the audience of London then the audience would automatically link that the character might be struggling, very modern, maybe rich and posh. Also from this shot they can also foretell that the story would happen in many different locations in London which suggests that it is a grand film.

Morden Underground Station

The locations which we had decided on were; Morden Underground station; Morden Library and a Room. We decided on going to Morden first, in order to talk with someone who would be able to grant us permission to film. However we had to return disappointed as we needed the officials to give us certificates to film both at the Library and the Underground station. We did try to contact those officials but the film department at 'TFL' would not receive our calls, therefore we wrote them an email hoping that they will get back to us in time. At the library we were granted permission but we had to wait for at least two weeks to get a certificate to do so,
which would be too late for us.

Morden Library

Because we can not confirm that we would be able to film at those locations, we decided to get our back-up idea locations sorted. For that we would just need a library and an art room, which we could easily access at school. However we still needed to be 100% sure that the school would allow us to film there. Once we spoke to the care taker, who would be at school on the Tuesday during half-term, if he could open doors for us, we received a positive answer.

Pitch & Pitch Feedback

In class, we presented our Pitch, where we had to present our idea to the class who would then give us feedback on the overall plot and also our research.

Whilst starting off our presentation, we presented the log line of our film. This was a brief overview of our film, left with unanswered questions at the end so that we were able to get the pupils interested to keep listening.

Having everyone paying attention, we offered our plot. The plot however was again just an overview; not a very detailed but enough to make everyone understand the story. Moving on from the plot, we explained our Lead Characters, Jenna and Ryan, to them in more detail so that they knew what kind of personality, likes and dislikes and from what class they belonged from.

With the ideas of the film and their characters done, we needed to talk about more of the researching side we had done, starting with the audience. We explained that we had chosen females between 16-25 years for our target audience, due to them growing up with watching romantic movies and also being more soft hearted. Furthermore we had to inform them of the females we would be targeting would mainly be in the working class or under.

Whilst researching for the budget of our whole film, we came to a conclusion that we would roughly need about 9 million U.S. Dollars, which would roughly equal 6 million British Pounds. Further on we presented our 'Unique Selling point', the 'Language' and setting of our film, including the equilibrium of this story. Also we presented our inspirations for the film through the Productions and Industry.

When we finished we were asked a few questions by the class and our teacher, one being that why we were risking of breaking conventions as it could be risky with the audience accepting it or not. The answer to this was very simple. We want to present something new and exciting to our audience which they would not be used to however due to it being different to other Rom-Com's this film would not easily leave their mind.

Another question which we were asked, was why were targetting that specific audience of ours, and not the higher social standing people as they have more money. The answer to this was that those higher standing people have jobs which take up most of their time and also they would rather enjoy film's or show's related to their profession. For examples, Lawyers would enjoy watching the show called 'Suits' rather than a teen drama. However the group which we are targetting is the working class who have weekends and evenings off, leaving them enough time and freedom to watch and enjoy a film. Also they seem more of the 'casual' type who would talk about recent movies with their friends.

Props/ Costume / Make Up

As our planning is coming to it's last stages now, we as a group needed to start thinking about the props we would need to create the setting, the costume our actor would need to wear so that she our character is more believable and also her make-up/appearance.

One immediately thinks of thick black framed glasses when they would read the character description of Jenna. Thick framed glasses connote to the audience that they are to be worn by nerds and bookworms which would perfectly describes our character, Jenna. Furthermore  we also needed to make sure that thick framed glasses suit our actor, as we still want her to look attractive rather than comic; so we did a look test of her with glasses.

For her clothes we first thought of having her wear a black cardigan, over a white T-shirt and blue jeans. We thought of this because it would give her a classy appearance, and also would look very appealing to eyes. However as we got more thinking, we realised that that look would make our character look very mature and someone who is in her 20s rather than her teenage years. Furthermore it wouldn't really go with her characterisation.

So as a second thought on clothes we came up with her wearing a baggy grey hoodie, over blue jeans and converse shoes. The reason of why we decided on this is because, the whole look suits a teenager more. The cause of us choosing a baggy hoodie is due to it being more comfortable. Jenna's character is such that she likes being comfortable with what she does and does not really care about what people think of her as long as she is happy and satisfied with herself. We choose converse shoes as she is artist as well and it would give her more of a casual feel.

Overall, we based her appearance very similar to Rachel McAdams who played the character of Paige Collins in the Romantic-Drama film, The Vow (2012). Paige also is an artist, who likes to be messy and comfortable but due to her having a memory loss in an accident, she finds herself to become the old her which was glamorous. However, we really liked her appearance in a scene after she returns home with her husband, Leo, and states that she is comfortable in that baggy hoodie, which perfectly linked to our character. Additionally we also plan on having our actor tie up her hair just like Rachel had.

Also we want our character to wear a backpack due to her being a studious girl, so a backpack is almost essential for us. Furthermore it is also on our props list as we would need it for our 'Crab shot' in the first scene.

Lead Character Discription

Jenna Lin - Female Lead (Asian)

Jenna, being an only child, has always been a reserved type of person who does not interact much with many people, however she is very clumsy; falling, dropping, walking into things which now just defines her. And every time she would get up, push her nerdy glasses back, collect her items and again walk on. She isn't someone who gives up easily as she likes to be on top of everything, be it studies or retort back to people's words about her nerdy character.

This 17 year old character belongs to the Upper Middle Class and lives with her parents in South West London. With Jenna we are going along with the dominant ideology of females in Rom-Com's. They also are presented as clumsy, shy and unpopular characters.

Ryan Walker - Male Lead (White British)

Ryan, is a confident personality, but does not like to interact much with people. He is not much of an outgoing person as he likes to keep to himself. He might be confident however does not know how to express himself through the correct words, which could lead to him taking the wrong actions.

He is 18 years old and lives with his parents and older brother. They also belong to the Upper Middle Class. With this character we are going against the dominant ideology as usually the male lead is a popular guy, who is very outgoing and constantly is in a relationship.