Final Casting Choices

After considerations about who would be best to play each character as well as who is available. These are the people whom we have decided would be best. 

Young man - Eliot Nash

Personally i felt that this role was the hardest to cast because all of the possible actors would have been great. We chose Eliot because he lives rather nearby, as well as having good acting experience I think that his appearance matches what we are looking for. These are the main reasons that we chose Eliot over any of the other possible candidates. He cannot play guitar however this isn't important as we wanted to try to show the character teaching himself how to play guitar. 

Old man - Roger Alcock

The old man role was mostly optional however I did really want to get him into the final product as i think it would be a very effective piece of film to put in the video. Roger is my granddad. The reason that I feel he is perfect for the part is because he can play guitar.  

Abusive Parent - Nicki Sanders

While the smallest role in the film, it is still important. Plot wise the character is vital in making the boy understandable and relate-able. I chose my mother because she is readily available and also suits the role (she doesn't abuse me, promise) 

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The Golden Hour

The golden hour (sometimes called the magic hour) is a specific name for the hour of sunlight just before dusk and dawn. Lighting tends to be softer, with a more golden hue. Due to the low angle of the sun, more blue light is scattered. This causes the reddish colouring of the sky. 

Filming during the golden hour would yield excellent results due to the yellow lighting that would be cast, however, location is everything. The light can be easily blocked by buildings and trees, whereas on top of a hill the light wouldn't be at all obstructed. This is why I think that filming at Corfe castle during the golden hour is such a good idea because we can get wide, beautiful shots of red light dancing along the ruined walls as the boy wanders aimlessly. 

The main downside with the golden hour is that it only lasts for 2 hours every day, giving us a very limited window to get to a location and film all the shots we want before it gets either too light or dark. 

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Location ideas

After considering the plot the next step when thinking about filmed was where are we going to actually film? This was a very important part for us as last year we used the school building because of how we weren't allowed to take the camera equipment off site. We found this rather restricting at the time and wanted to avoid this this year. 

Luckily we were informed that we could get insurance of a single camera to take off site. This opened up a world of opportunities as it allowed us the freedom of being able to film wherever, within reason. 

These are the locations that we thought of:

Balston Road – Road where Brad lives on, Long Street with a few street lamps. Dark ambiance at night time, rather creepy. Easy to get too apart from Sam due to him living in Wareham.

18 Balston Road – Brad’s house, has some good rooms and corridors for nice camera work. Would work well for the boy’s house.

Norden railway (abandoned, hopefully) – Would provide fantastic long shots. Filming during the golden hours would be difficult due to larger trees around the edge of parts of the railway preventing shots of the sky and light would be awkward. Has some old, rickety abandoned train cars, these could be used as accommodation for the boy and would be great.

Corfe Castle – Old castle, in ruins. Available to the public, however filming may be restricted. The public can get in the way. Filming during golden hours would yield fantastic results due to the castle being on the top of the hill.

Swanage Countryside – Wide open spaces with large, rolling hills. Could be rather difficult to gain entrance when laden with heavy, and expensive, equipment. 

Being able to film anywhere has its problems however. Legally we aren't able to turn up to a place with a camera and film whenever. Members of the public may not want to be filmed and as such would be a problem for us. We also have to think about safety of both the team as well as the equipment. I'm sure all of us would rather get ourselves hurt instead of the expensive camera however, priorities. 

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Crew and potential Cast

We have now assembled a team of possible cast members, this was mostly a brainstorm of people that I knew acted and/or were likely willing to help us out. We have not actually asked most of these candidates to be in the cast. These are merely people that i feel i could call upon should we need them. I have included a few sentences about each person and what they would be doing as well as a bit of background on each of them.

Production Team
Sam Yip - Editor, Cameraman
Enthusiastic member of the group who is a talented editor. Has lots of previous experience with Sony Vegas Pro at home, even though this isn't the software we will use the experience and skills will still prove very useful. As well as this he is good at camera work and has done some acting, notably in last years AS project.
Jack Wilson - Cameraman, Production Manager
The responsible member of the team, he is able to push people (especially me) to get the work that is needed done. Has some experience with editing and filming since he was on the team last year. 
Brad Sanders - Director,Cameraman
Myself. Since my idea was picked I have had to take the role of director of the project. I have ideas for a lot of the piece however there are still areas that i need help with from my fellow production team. 

Possible Cast
We do need people to act for us, while award winning performances are not necessary, we are only marked on the filming and editing aspects of the video. These are a list of people who we think would be good candidates however we will only need 2 or 3 actors for the entire film. These are currently ideas and no one has actually been asked to act yet. 

James Knight – Long friends, great actor and studies Drama at A level.
Alex Pilchowski – Same as James.
Eliot Nash - Has acted in previous films, eager to help and has an appearance that I believe fits the role well. 
Nicki Sanders (Brads Mother) – Need an abusive parent figure to cause for the boy to run away from home. Not the my mother is an abusive parent figure (help me) If she disagrees my father (Jim Sanders) is a good substitute. 
Roger Alcock (Brads Granddad) – He lives far north however will be coming to Poole for my birthday on the 18th December. He has a thick northern accent however since there is not dialogue this will not be an issue. He has long white hair and glasses. We all liked the idea of ending the film on a slightly happier note so we wanted an elderly man playing a guitar to signify how the boy had achieved his goals. My granddad happens to play bass guitar in a band as well and a small amount of classical guitar, making him an ideal choice for the role. The only issue being that he will only be available for 3 days. 

Abi Cutler – Talented actress, singer. Has experience with stage production.

Haley Foy – Has acted in media stuff before, old friend. 

I do not think that any female cast members would be needed outside of the parent, however i feel it is good to keep a few candidate ideas in case the plot changes in such a way that one is needed. 

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Current Plot

At this point we have a plot that I feel we are all happy with, some changes are likely to be made however I think that this is a good idea to work around. 

These are the working notes that we have been using. It includes a lot of ideas about camera angles as well as areas that will need input from the entire team to figure out.

Night, a young boy walking up a dark, dimly lit street and entering his house. – costume would be a thick coat. Looking at floor as he walks. Camera shot can be handheld and slightly shaky to match with him walking. Cut to a still establishing shot of the entire house. To begin with no one is on screen, boy will then walk up the street into shot and enter the house. This part should be filmed on tripod.

Boy enters house and is shouted at by mother – Match on action for when we cut from the wide shot of the entire house and the boy opening the front door to the corridor on the inside of the house. The door will be opened, boy walks in and instantly will be berated by off-screen parent. (Perhaps only the hands of the parent shouting will be shown, letting the audience know the boy is being screamed at, yet not showing the actual character.) After he is shouted at the boy will storm off towards his room. Camera changes to a wider shot of the sliding window door that leads into room. He enters the room before slamming the sliding door shut (Concerns about glass shattering can be handled by either speeding up the slam in post, or being very careful)

The boy will decide to run away, shots of him packing a bag with clothes followed by the same shot used earlier when he enters the house, however we show the boy exiting from the house with his bag. From here we will inter-lay shots of corfe castle and the other places he wanders once he has escaped. Any input from here would be excellent.

Towards the end of the film we wanted to try and include my granddad. He will be down from Newcastle for a few days in December and can play guitar.

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