Filming Tomorrow! [and now Wednesday]

Tomorrow is Monday 29th October and my first day of filming! I have everything organised and ready to go so am now just praying that everything goes to plan. 10:30am tomorrow, I will be filming my first scene, the park scene, so I have had a look at the predicted weather forecast to see how the weather is going to be. By the looks of it it's going to be 9c, quite cold, but as I was expecting for this time of year. It's not too windy and no rain is currently predicted. My actors will be dressed in relatively summery clothes - so I am hoping that the setting will not look too autumnal. If however, I get to the location and realise this is the case - I will build the fact it is cold into the story, and add a couple of shots whereby the characters are seen shivering. This may actually work quite well, going along with the theme of the boy trying to impress the girl but failing (spilling the toast and accidently splashing her with water), so could be interpreted as him trying to be sweet through organising a romantic picnic, but the audience will be able to see that he has not thought it all through correctly through planning it on a cold day.

The plan for tomorrow:

• Pick up my second actor, Katie
• Get both my characters into their costumes
• Go to Nowton Park to film
• Come back home for a second costume change
• Film the living room scene
• Change costume
• Film kitchen scene

I have told my actors that we are starting at 10:30am and filming until it is done! This is why I have purposely chosen to film in this order, as I don't want to leave the park scene until last to find out it has turned dark. If it is dark for the kitchen scene, it does not matter too much as we will be indoors, and washing up is often completed in the evening anyway. 

I spent today getting a few things organised. Firstly, I visited my grandad, who has provided me with a picnic blanket that I needed as a prop, as well as a tripod. I have used this tripod before and have always found it relatively easy to navigate. There are sharp points at the bottom of each stand which are provided to be stuck into any uneven ground (such as the grass during filming the park scene). The stands can also be adjusted to a good height which will be useful for the many Arial view shots I have planned. The top part is attached to the camera and can be tilted, for different angle shots, and used to smoothly move the camera left and right, which are useful for panning camera movements. 

I also went shopping today to get some last minute props. This included, a glass vintage-looking bottle of lemonade and strawberries for the picnic scene, as well as alphabet spaghetti for the living room scene, which will be put with toast (bread of which I made sure my mum had enough of). I also found a white wicker basket in the attic which I will be able to use as a picnic basket. I then put all my props and costumes together to make sure I had everything - which I now do. All props, costumes and filming equipment is now ordered in the same place, organised and ready for tomorrow.

Strawberries and Lemonade     Alphabet spaghetti        All props        Ed's costume for Wednesday filming

Originally, I had planned two days of intense filming, which is still the case. However, I have recently decided to move my second filming day from Tuesday (the day after), to Wednesday. The main reason for this is simply that it is easier for my cast to commit to, and after thinking it through, it gives me a chance to reflect on the filming I have already done, as well as giving me more time to plan the filming yet to do. If I had not moved the date, I would have only had an evening to do this, but now, I have a day in-between which I think is a lot more practical. In terms of filming, tomorrow gets the main bulk of it out of the way, but Wednesday will probably take just as long as I will need to sort out all the technical parts. On Wednesday, I will not be needing Katie, but will need Edward for around 1.5hours just to film the simple shots of him in his office (the present day part). For the rest of the day however, I will be sat with Rhys, the 'hand-double', not only filming, but working out how it is all going to work technically. I will need to work out what size and to what scale the drawings will need to be to look like they have turned into the filmed memories, prior to Rhys drawing them. I am hoping all this will go to plan with my idea of uploading the already filmed footage onto the computer and screen shotting the parts that will turn into (or were originally) sketches. I will not need any props on Wednesday, except from a rubber, pencil and paper, which Rhys kindly said he would provide on the day. Apart from that all will be needed is Ed's costume.