Classification

Planning and Development: Classification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was set up in 1912 as a non-governmental body for classifying cinema films. All classification decisions are based on the BBFC's guidelines which are regularly updated based on current views on film.

We have decided that we want to make our film a 12A because we want the widest target audience as possible. Also teenagers of all ages will be at the age of aspiring to be motor-sport drivers so will be interested in watching the film. There is no reason to make our film rated 15 as it would not add anything to the film and would only make our target audience smaller.

Test shots

Planning and Development: Test shots

Shot 2
 This shot will be part of our short montage; it could also be called an establishing shot. This will be quite a long take to signify that nothing much is happening. There is the conventional iconography here of the race track and the red and white stripes which denotes that this is a serious racing circuit.

Shot 3

Unfortunately, we cannot get a test shot of the angle we will use in our film; we are planning to get a shot tracking up from the track to a LA shot of the lights. This again will be a long take as it is also signifying that there are no events on and we are trying to create a sad and emotional atmosphere. Again, we have conventional iconography here of the lights which denote the professionalism of the location.

Shot 7/8/9
This is the location where we will shoot the shots of the driver getting ready for the race. They will be short, close ups which create a frantic, fast paced atmosphere. I think this a good location as it is a simple workshop which connotes a professional place. All of these shots being CUs, there will not be much visual iconography

Shot 1/6
Not the most attractive picture! But with a bruised face, bandage and a better camera, this will look like it is set in a hospital. We have gone for hard lighting in these shots because hospitals have very hard lighting. Also this creates a serious tone to the film from the first shot which is the preferred reading of our opening.











Shot 4
Simply an establishing shot. This is one of the shots that is filmed outside so usually we would have to think of background noise from wind, but we have decided to have a soundtrack so this wont be an issue.

Shot 5
This will be a long, over the shoulder shot showing the argument between the protagonist and the girlfriend. The dark lighting represents the stress that the girlfriend is in. The reason this is being shot in a kitchen is that this is where most work is done in the house, again, representing the stress the girlfriend is going through.

During filming we found some locations that we had not realized would be available to us, one being the stands. This shot means we can get the iconography of the race suit and the track in. It fits well with our story line so we decided to add it in.

For the shot of the tire we took this as a test shot, however looking at it afterwards we thought it needed to be more of a CU so in the filming we decided to film slightly closer to the tire. The tire is an example of conventional iconography surrounding this genre of film.

Make up

Planning and Development: Make-up(Amelia wrote this post)

Another element of the opening I given to look at was the make-up of the characters. Below is what I came up with:

Girlfriend:

When deciding on the idea for the opening of the film we decided on the idea of the girlfriend having an argument with the racer. We wanted the idea of her being stressed to be showcased to the audience, from this we want them to read that she is stressed because of the dangers in his career. I will be acting the girlfriend in the film opening and her make will be messy, so her makeup will be smudged to show she's upset and her hair will be messy, we don't want her character to seem that she is too interested in her appearance at this stressful time for her.

Racer getting ready:

The character has a professional career so his hair will be neat and he will look very clean and well presented. The audience will hopefully read his character as a professional racer that is passionate about his career.

Racer in hospital:

In the opening we are aiming to hint that a crash has occurred and it could be career ending and so we have decided to film a scene in a hospital where the character will have bandages and bruises on his face. The bruises will be created with face paint, I have done a practice on my hand with the face paint to see how realistic it looks and as a group we have decided that we do want to use the face paint to create these special FX. We have also decided that the bruises will be on the actors cheekbones to signify pain and trauma.

 Below is a picture of the practice:

Storyboard

Planning and Development: Storyboard

Access to locations

Research and Planning: Access to locations

(This was written by Amelia)

When we were delegating jobs I was given the role of assessing the accessibility we have to the areas we are planning to shoot at. Below is what I concluded.


On the Track:

We are lucky to be attending a school in such a fortunate place which allows us to use the Silverstone race track for filming, however due to the popularity of the track we have only been given access to the track for one school day (9am-5pm), which means that we will need to get a lot filmed in that day for us to have choice when we are editing. This also means that we won't have access before hand to do the test shots so we will to do those on the day and constantly be checking our shots because we won't be able to re shoot if anything goes wrong.


School premises:

As we will be filming in the school for some of the scenes we will need to do some test shots and we might also need to re film some shots after if they go wrong or we need to focus more on different elements. These decisions will be made after we have filmed the shots. We will have access to film in the school from 9am until 5pm on weekdays, this allows us to take test shots before the filming days so that we can look at the options of the angles before the actual filming.

Harry's house and street:

We will be filming quite a lot in this location as we will be filming inside and outside the house, we will have access to this location after 5pm every weekday and then weekends, this is good as it allows to film at this location whenever we need to as there are any restrictions.

Risk assessment and legality

Planning and Development: Risk assessment and legality

(Dan wrote this post)

Risk	Level of risk	How to avoid it
Someone could receive an illness from the cold	Medium	Wear appropriate clothing when filming on the track
Getting hit by the car we are filming in whilst it is going round the track	Low	Be conscious of the car going round the track at all times
Our main actor could have an allergic reaction to the make-up we put on his face	Low	Make sure we plan ahead and try this out before the day of filming
Our driver could crash the car whilst filming	Low	Don’t drive too quickly
Falling over whilst carrying equipment	Medium	Be sensible

Legality

For our filming we are probably going to take most of our shots on the Silverstone track, the head of the school has arranged with the leaders of Silverstone about letting us use the track for filming so we don’t need direct permission from Silverstone themselves.

For one of our shots we will use a residential area, this will involve capturing shots of people’s housing. To ensure that they don’t think anything suspicious is going on we will inform the neighbours beforehand. 

Props, Costume, Casting and Lighting

Planning and Development: Props, Costume, Casting and Lighting

Casting

We have decided that we will cast members of our group. There are a number of reasons why we did this.

1.      People who are not in our group will be less motivated and committed to filming on weekends

2.      Also people not in our group may not be able to get out of lessons

3.      Amelia took drama at GCSE so she should be good at acting
s-   For the voice over, we will probably use Dan. We will try and find some online software or an app which changes your voice so he sounds more like an F1 commentator. This will make our film feel much more professional.

So we thought it would be a much more reliable way of doing it if we just acted it ourselves.
Out of the two male members of our team, we have chosen the taller of the two, which will represent that character as being powerful and important. 

Props

1.      Bandage- easily sourced, Amelia has this at home.

2.      Car- The car is being sourced for us by the school, unfortunately this means that we don’t know exactly what car we will be using.

Costumes

1.      Smart-casual clothing- This is for the protagonist when his girlfriend is telling him not to race, representing him as respectable. We looked into what real race drivers wear when not in a race suit and most would wear a shirt and jeans so that is what we will go for

2








  -        Scruffy casual- For the girlfriend, this will represent her as being stressed. The preferred reading here is that the audience will feel sorry for her. Amelia has track-suits and baggy clothes that she can wear.

3.      Full race suit- Protagonist on race day. Preferred reading here is that this is a serious race. We need to be careful with the CU shots of the helmet as to not get a reflection of the camera. A friend from outside the group has a race suit, so sourcing this is not an issue.

We don’t need a costume for the hospital scene because we only have an XCU of protagonists face.

Lighting

1.      We need hard, bright lighting on the protagonists face in the two hospital scenes because hospitals are generally well lit environments so it will look more realistic.

2.      When we are filming the deserted track, hopefully it will be a dull grey day, because we want this to be a sad opening, but if it is a sunny, bright day then we may have to put a dark filter on in post-production editing.

We are not filming any scenes at night, so lighting shouldn’t be too much of an issue for us.