Location Scouting

We have chosen to shoot our film opening in a cafe, at a park bench, in my bedroom and around the village that I live in, Bloxham.

Cafe: Bread & Milk, Bloxham.

This is the cafe that we will be filming in. We chose for two main reasons: its convenient location and its look. Having visited the cafe many times, I am aware that it is a delightful place that gives a big sense of charm and feels very homely and cute. With its big front window, it lets in a lot of light and it is decorated with trinkets and lots of heart-shaped items, which is everything that we want for a scene in which a teen couple share a hot chocolate after a stroll in the village.

We quickly overcame the obstacle of permission by calling the manager of the cafe and being allowed to film, just as long as it it at a non-busy time of day, so as not to be of an inconvenience to customers. This agreement worked conveniently for both the customers and ourselves, as the interior is rather cosy and so if we were to film-especially with all of our equipment- it would be very difficult. The agreement did, however mean that we would have to ensure we do not leave it too late to set off, as it is a ten to twenty minute walk from my house and the time of year that we are filming means that it turns dark very quickly in the afternoon, and the last thing we want is to not have the light that the cafe boasts at any other time of day.



Park Bench: One of the various around Bloxham

There are many benches around the village that can be of use to us, and we will have to choose on the day which is most suiting. It is very important to keep our options open with locations such as benches, as there are many setbacks that can occur, for example the most obvious being that the bench is occupied by somebody else, the backdrop behind the bench may not be aesthetically pleasing i.e. it may have a bin in it or something to that effect, or the distance from the bench is too great to 'catch' the daylight at.
It is important to ensure we have the right bench in our scene, as this will be the scene in which the framing of the shot will be really noticeable.
We are breaking conventions of typical RomComs with this scene. As most romantic comedies are either set in sun or snow, the fact that autumn leaves will be in the background will be refreshing and vibrant yet warm and cosy; the best of both really! It is also important for the bench scene to make it obvious that the actors are in a countryside setting, in order to tie-in with the rest of the opening and portray a middle to upper-class back-ground that our characters will have, as it would in the TV and film industry.

NEED PICTURES

My Bedroom:

As a teenage girl, conveniently living in amongst the other settings of our film opening, my house and bedroom fits the bill as far as location and look are concerned. We will film the bedroom scene in my room, and if the weather means that we cannot capture all of the footage that we need around the village, we will use the rest of my house to take pictures and/or footage in if we need it. My room lets in a lot of natural light, but I do have a light that mimics daylight should we need it. We will also shoot the turning of the scrapbook pages in my room at my desk, so as not to confuse the audience, should they have noticed a change in location if we were to film that scene at school for example.

NEED PICTURES HERE TOO.