The daughter is a young girl who is pining for the attention of her parents. I started off by creating costume for the 11 year old daughter which consisted of leggings, a skirt and a short sleeved top. I decided that her top and skirt would be an expensive brand make, which will represent the wealthiness of her parents.
Her leggings will demonstrate her youth, and how the younger generation are often pictured in leggings. Leggings are also a modern piece of clothing, which have only recently been around in today's modern society. I thought that this will also show how our film is modern and we will be shooting in today's contemporary society. Isabel's shoes are small dolly shoes, which again represents her youth and how the younger generation in today's society are growing up fast.
I added in jewelery which may/may not be necessary in shots, however it shows how much wealth her parents have.
Simon is a stressed character whose life revolves around work. In the shots Simon has just returned home from work, tired, frustrated, and he devotes alot of time to his case.
Simon is a dominant character which is shown in the short film. The way he dresses, shows his importance to the storyline which gives off representations of a wealthy respected character to the target audience.
I decided to dress him according to his occupation (being a lawyer). obviously lawyers are smartly dressed and are often seen wearing business wear.
I designed Simon to have his top button of his shirt undone, which connotes the fact that he is tired and is in desperate need of relaxation. The suit represents this character to be a hard working and wealthy man.
As he is wearing no tie, and we see it thrown over a chair in the office, it shows that he is tired, very hot and extremely busy, therefore has no time to play and pay attention to his daughter.
The blazer Simon has, will also be shown on the chair in a messy state. Again showing his tiredness and dedication to his case. He is also hot and flushed, meaning he will refuse to wear his Blazer.
I thought that as Simon is wealthy it would be necessary to show him wearing expensive shiny shoes, patient leather.
Lisa, the mother is just like Simon Lisa has just come home from work, tired and flustered.
I have shown Lisa wearing her blazer, but in certain shots her blazer will not be on, again representing how hot she is which is normal for when people arrive home from work, their first instinct is to undress, or dress down.
Lisa will be shown wearing a baggy shirt, showing she is tired. Lisa is more laid back then Simon, and is well a well respected character who looks after herself and her appearance. This can be shown through her cleanliness and the quality of the shirt she is wearing.
Lisa will be shot wearing a short skirt. This shows that she is comfortable in her appearance, and the environment she is in, which is her own home. Therefore, she can relax more and shit down comfortably whilst her husband is the complete opposite.
I decided to have Lisa wearing high heels due to her job, and the fact that she is an overall smart person, and being a lawyer you need to be smart in your appearance.
I also created a mood board for the mother and father characters, of different sorts of suits that lawyers generally wear. I gathered pictures and created a collage, i then based my costume designs around the mood board, and what type of things the lawyers would wear. In the end i decided upon putting the mother in a suit, and skirt, and the father in a pin striped suit, which can be seen above.
For the young girl, i also created a similar mood boars, and gathered together pictures of the younger generation, and the sort of things they usually wear. When i typed in young girls clothes, the majority of pictures that came up were leggings and jeans. I came to the decision that i would put the young girl in leggings, purely because her parents are a wealthy family, which will also represent more of a modern society.
Character Profiles:
As production designer i also needed to create character profiles, to show what each of the characters would look like, and a description of what sort of character they are. I started off with the young girl Isabel, who is a delicate and lonely character. The image i added was a lonely girl who is sitting on the stairs. The minute you look at the picture it is clear to see what sort of a character this child is.
Simon's character is a dominant character, and i included a picture of a male lawyer, stating his importance, and wealth. He looks like a professional person wearing an expensive suit. On screen, Simon will be shown in a particularly negative way, as he neglects his daughter and focuses too much on his work.
Lisa, the mother is very similar to Simon's character, which can be shown in the scenes. However, Lisa is more of a laid back character, who is hard working, professional (which is shown in her appearance and the way she looks after herself). Unlike Simon she is not aggressive, nevertheless she doesn't take much notice of her child.
I wanted to find out what sort of things you would find in a lawyers office and i came across a website which stated how an office like this is usually decorated.
I then came across a picture which illustrated directly what i needed to create.
As you can see lawyers usually have certificates of achievement up on their walls, which i need to make sure i can create something that looks similar to these achievements. A leather chair is also something i would need to think about, however it would be difficult for me to get a leather chair into the house without Anton having one spare in his house. To make the office look more realistic i am going to need to place a lamp to create a calm atmosphere of a wealthy lawyers office.Laptops and computers are something else i need to make sure i have a sufficient supply of. A computer flat screen (apple Mac) will need to be placed in the room which will be easy accessible as there is one available in the house we are filming in. Laptops will also be bought into the office to make it look more formal, which will again represent the wealthiness of the family.
Other factors i need to consider is how i am going to get a glass frame table into the room, as the only table available is a soft wooden one, it may be an option for us tom play with different lighting techniques to get a soft glow off the table.
However, something interesting i found in my research was the picture above, (the lawyers office) was originally inspired by this picture from Harry Potter. I also found an interesting quote in which i will need to consider when designing and thinking about managing the props when filming. Krin Eldor of AskMen.com noted, ”the key to decorating your office is maintaining that perfect blend of professional and personal. Always keep in mind that this is still your office, and you want it to look like a place of full concentration, especially when clients or higher-ups pay you a visit. So i will need to include both personal and professional belongings, such as a picture of their child (maybe not in our film's case as the parents do not seem to care much about their child), and professional belongings such as graduate certificates.
Location Reccee.
The location reccee consisted of pictures which were taken in the locations we are filming, and putting them together to create a picture of what each room would look like. Tim, who is in charge of the camera, took these photo's in a house, in which all of our production will take place. Each separate room where we will be filming have been displayed in the photo's, for example, the shed, office, and living room.
The director added the notes beside the pictures which illustrates the power, permission and lighting. The power will give us information which will be around the house during production. The permission will need to come from he house holder's in our case, Anton's mother and father, the permission will need to be written down and signed by the owners of our location. (Anton's house). Lighting is for where the different light sources are within the house. Natural light will be used with gel's and occasionally an 85 filter, this will all need to be written down and recorded.
Below are our group's location Reccee photographs.
Final script
The final script will be shown below, after a number of drafts the script as finally edited to our needs. The teacher, the director and all of our group were happy and satisfied with the overall script. We read through it a number of times to familiarise ourselves with the scenes and shots, and creating an image in our heads of what we are filming and how we are going to go about it. Reading the script a number of times ensured we all knew what we want to achieve.
Storyboard
The storyboard was the longest and most difficult task. All of the 4 members of the group needed to take part and do at least 2 scenes of drawing, in which we all did. Considering most of us are not the best drawers our storyboards needed to be edited a number of times in order for it to be effective when scanning. The director, Anton did the first 2 scenes, Ryan did the next 2 scenes, Tim did the other 2 scenes, and i did the last 2 scenes, so overall we all had an equal amount of work to do. After we had all done our drawings, we found that some were missing, and we needed to go over them in darker pencil. Some of our drawings did not match the correct shot size, so we then had to re-do some of the drawings, finally after all of our changed were made it was time to be scanned.
Anton (the director) drew and developed the images for the first four scenes. Tim the camera operator did the next four scenes, Ryan the lighting operator did the other four, and i completed the last 4 scenes of the storyboard, and added in the missing imags for the ones that were missing at the end.
The storyboard will be shown below.
Lighting Plans
0ur lighting operator had produced some lighting plans which would illustrate the layout of each location (room) from a birds eye view, and where abouts the different lights will be situated in the room. The images show where each light will be and what we hope to achieve with the different positions of the lighting. For example: a blue gel positioned over the camera will naturalise the filming environment and make everything more naturalised. However, if a 85 filter, was placed over the camera, the filming environment would be a much warmer picture and create more warmth for the filming environment. Below is the lighting Plans for the living room area in which we will be filming.
In scene 5 we will also be using a 3/4 blue gel which will be placed over the spotlights. This will decrease the orange effect in which we don't want this to happen, an 85 filter will also be used to be placed over the camera, to block out most of the natural lighting and give a much warmer look to the atmosphere. Again, a full diffuser, and pro light will also be used.
The shot list is used for us to accurately calculate each shots that will be in each scene. It is cut down from the script and is divided into different parts, Location, scenes, shots and a description of each shot. This will help us to become more organised and accurate when filming, so that when we are on set we know each shot in detail, and are ready to film.
The costume and props list was created by myself, being production designer purely for organisation purposes. We needed a detailed idea in a clear format of what we wanted out characters to look like, and what props they would need for each scene. In the table shown below, i have identified scene by scene what each character will look like (Clothes, shoes, make up etc..) and the props that will be shown with them in the scene. The teddy bear will b e shown in every scene, due to Isabel becoming attached to the teddy bear and it being a significant object in the film.
