Main Task - 8 - Pre-Production

Synopsis of whole film

Charlotte and Erika, Two polar opposite high school students awaken after an event to find themselves alone in their school.

-When looking at this part of the post, I had to do some research on other comedic films, such as 'Starter for 10', used on a previous post, to figure out how long the synopsis should be. From this, I found that a single lined synopsis worked best for comedic movies.
Synopsis of opening sequence:
The sequence opens with a shot of the two students unconsious on the floor, waking up from whatever happened before. The stand and run, trying to get away from one another and finding that everyone is missing. Going all around the school.The sequence consists of them searching the school in order to find people. When they don't, they pause, rub at their heads and necks, panting, and say 'Well, I guess we're alone then?'

Treatment

Erika and Charlotte, two 17 year old students attending the respectable Terra Institute, lead an average school life. Erika, an ideal good student, being exceptionally hard-working and dedicated to her studies, just as Charlotte works just as hard maintaining a busy social life and french manicure. The two are natural enemies, so when they are sent alone to return a particular heavy collection of text books, a struggle ensues subsequently leading to the duo being knocked unconcious by the stack of reading material.
Erika and Charlotte awake, covered in books littered around the classroom, and proceed to get up, shoving one another out the way as they walk back to their class. They forcefully slam the door open, one trying to get in before the other, and freeze.
An empty classroom meets them; chairs left in random places as though a struggle occurred. Erika walks back out into the corridor and peers cautiously into another room nearby, trying to find her missing class but this one is empty too. After getting over her intial confusion, Charlotte confronts Erika on the situation, asking where their class went, to which Erika has no reply since she is still searching down the corridor, increasing in pace as she begins to worry. Travelling down the hall, Charlotte angrily catches up to her. She overtakes Erika, looking into classrooms as well and becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of people.
They journey through the desolate building, breaking into a faster pace as they cross the eerily silent technology block and find traces of green slime on the door. Erika comments, panic written across her face, that this might be the work of aliens. With nothing more than an eye-roll, Charlotte wipes the slime on her and strides out the building. Now outside, the sense of isolation is heavy on the two, making them run past the buildings almost desperate for a sight of someone else.
After searching through the rest of the school, the girls finally come to rest outside, not wanting to be together yet too afraid to be apart. In a last ditch effort to be rid of Erika, Charlotte tells her she's going to the toilet alone, with the intention to grab her things and leave, but upon arriving at the school gates she sees that they are shut. As she enters the desolate canteen, Erika, knowing of her plans all along, smugly tosses her a drink and they spend the day raiding the food storage.
As the day draws on, they find that they are becoming more amiable towards one another. They wander the school together, drawing on the boards of teachers they dislike and rummaging through the drama costumes all whilst learning more about each other. The light is beginning to fade as the day draws to an end and just before the girls believe they will have to prepare to stay overnight, a group of teachers and staff are heard shouting near the school entrance. They hurry to met with them, relieved for the rescue and are bombarded with questions as to their wherabouts, as they realise they had been forgotten, and an explanation that an earthquake alarm had sent everyone to seek shelter. Erika and Charlotte are rushed out of their school at last, laughing at the misfortune that brought them together.

Location Recce

The sequence will require us to use multiple places in the school, as the characters will be shown trying to look for people in multiple places. In our group, we have looked around parts of the school where outside filming would need to take place, from this, we have decided that there will be long outside shots from next to the staff-room, in order to have a low angle shot of the 'Three-Story Block'. Along with this shot, there will also be shots of the 'quad' and the outside part of the canteen/'PE Block'.

When deciding all the locations, we figured that we needed to chose places in which we would be able to place bags, and make a 'mess' of, which we would clean up after the shooting. Therefore, the outer part of the canteen was perfect, as the PE area has shoes and bags outside, and the wall of the canteen always had bags around after school when we would be filming.

Due to the timing of the filming (after school) the lighting of the shoot will suffer, although, the lighting in the afternoon now lasts longer, therefore the locations were picked with this in mind, such as the outer canteen, as it is under roofing, could be darker than we would like.

Inside the school, we are using nearly all of the buildings, with the exception of the 3 Story Block and the Hall/Music block. Below are some images of the locations we are using, these are as the opening shot location; the canteen; the sixth form common room; the English block (both floors); science and the technology block.

Technology blockScience stairs

 Sixth Form common roomOpening shot

Canteen Science block

English/Maths block (Upper)

Shot list

Below is our shot list, this contains basic information on each shot, regarding camera placement and size. It also provides out actresses awareness of what they are to be doing in each shot.

Script

For our script, we decided that we would come up with a few short snippets of conversation that the two characters would have, however, when these are said we have decided will be done during the filming, as they have no specific context to the action.

Line we have discussed:
'You idiot!'
'Where is everyone?'
'Get out the way!'
'What the hell happened?!'
'Oh bugger.'
'Let's go this way?'
'What is this!?' (Goo)
'No-one's here!'
'Wheeeeoh!'
'You're so stupid!'
'What's wrong with you?'

For the final shot, we discussed that after the two characters run into the middle of the quad, I will say 'Well, it looks like we're alone! I wonder where everyone is.' Promptly smacked on the back of the head by Hannah who says 'Idiot!'

Storyboard

Above is the entirety of our storyboard, this consisted of 7 pages worth of work. In this, we've attempted to show the decided camera angle and size within each drawing, however, we know that this has the possibility to change during the actual filming.
Along with the drawings, we also have the scene number, shot number, and a detailed description for the actors. We will use this and take this around with us when we film.

Cast and Crew List

Cast: Laura O'Brien and Hannah Findlay-Bada
Crew: Sabene Wilkin and Laura O'Brien

Mise-en-scene plans

Through out the opening sequence, there will need to be bags and rubbish littered around the shooting area, as the plot involves the basic fact that everyone has up and left, leaving behind all their things. Some people would be outside, some inside. So during the long shots, bags and things will be placed randomly where people stand, creating the image that everyone had just disappeared from where they were standing.
The costumes of the characters will be generic sixth form clothing, as both characters are sixth formers.
The mis-en-scene of the opening shot will consist of a weighted item laid out between the two characters, indicating it had previously hit them on the head. There will also be items from where the item was on the floor and on top of the two characters.

Risk Assessment

As we are shooting all around the school, we have had to assess the risks involved with running around school, in our film we will be placing bags and possessions around the school as if people have disappeared, therefore we had to assess the chance of the actors falling over and hurting themselves. From this we decided that we would have to practice the running sections of the opening. In one shot, the two actors have to run down some stairs while the camera follows them, this brings about the risk of the camera woman falling down the stairs, this would hurt the camera person

Shooting Schedule

For our shooting schedule, we decided to do all outside shots first, as this was easier for us; we would then go to certain parts of the school and film the parts which were in this area.