mise en scene, props and lighting

when thinking about the mise en scene for our opening , we thought about the two spaces we would be using. the first space that we were to use was the old mans room. for this , we used Lindsay(the person who which i was working on this project with)'s grandma's house. This was convenient as the actor who played the vold man was Lindsay's grandad , so this was easier for him and us. we decided to use his bedroom as the decor in the room matched the effect we wanted the old man to have in his room.when filming in here , we decided to have a dog on the old mans lap ,to represent that this was his only companion , as he had lost his wife. we also used a picture of me and my girlfriend vicky , also lindsays sister, on the side , for the old man to look at .this was because i would be playing a younger version of him and vicky his wife , in the flashback , which stems off from him looking at the picture. we decide to have the lighting , during the filming of this scene , to be very dull , to represent the light in his life disapearing ,due to losing his wife.

when looking at the flashback scene , we decided that we would want this to show a contrast and had used natural lighting of the day , which was sunny , which we wanted to represent the happiness of the couple. the idea of using a public lawn which had a pond , was one we had from the outset as we felt that this would create a very romantic feel as you may see lots of couples in these places. the fact that there was lots of trees and a pond gave us natural props to incorporate into the back ground , as these could be connoted as romantic setting factors. For one of the flashback scenes , the young man and woman are having a picnic. We used an old fashioned picnic basket for this as we felt that this would fit with the time as well as the contents in the basket , which consisted of fruit. The blanket we used also fited with the time as it was handmade , like many blankets were in those days.









   
  

planning of soundtrack

When thinking about the type of soundtrack for our piece , we realised that we would have to use music that didnt have a copyright on it , as this would make the piece be more independant and gives for a more original effect, as we did not have the money to pay an artist for the use of their music. Therefore , in the light of all of this , we decided to look on websites in which had royalty free music , in which we would be able to use without any hassle. Websites in which we looked at included :  http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/categories/soundtracks.html,
http://freesoundtrackmusic.com/, http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Soundtrack/, and http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ .

On these websites , we were able to browse through many genres of music , and we finally settled upon the song easy lemon. we felt that this song went along with the mellow feel that we wanted and would fit perfectly into the background. whilst we were editing , we also decided to put the sound of an old movie reel for the flashbacks and we recorded a voice over in order to set the scene.

moodboard

These are the types of things in which gave us inspiration for our idea :

 

animatic storyboard

experimentation with camera and software

In order to understand how the project was going to work . i first had to experiment with the camera and different software. I spent time taking test shots with the camera and making sure that i would be able to film on it and understood how it works.

 when the footage was filmed , i was talking to a friend who also did media , who suggested that i should transfer all the footage onto the computer , and convert it into a wma format as this would make it easier to edit on adobe.

 After i had done this , i put all the files on adobe premiere. I was shown how to use this program by the same friend who had suggested that i should convert all the files. I then played around with the editing tools on the program for a while , and started to fix the shots in some kind of order.

weather forcasts

when preparing for filming , we decided to look at the weather forcasts for the week ahead and looked at when would be the best day to proceed with filming the flashback scenes as the old man scene could be filmed any time as this would take place indoors. we decided that saturday of that week would work best as it looked to be the best weather conditions for filming to take place in.

sounds and music

when looking at music and sounds from rom coms , we are mostly able to hear quite cheery songs playing , in order to keepy with a happy atmosphere. One film in which this can be seen is in the film  Angus , thongs and perfect snogging. in this film ,we are able to hear cheery songs like boys and girls in love by The Rumble Strips . These types of songs usually relate to some kind of reference to romance , and keep the cheery mood with the audience.
 Another song in which features in this film is she got you high by the mumm-ra. This is not the only film this is used in , as it appears in the ending credits of the film 500 days of summer. These types of songs mainly come from the pop and indie genres as these are very positive types of music , therefore make good for this genre of film as well.