Scene 1
In this scene we see Amelia wake up in bed with make-up smeared across her face. It appears as though she has cried herself to sleep. It was Mise-En Scenes responsibility to make make-up look effective. As you can see if you look to the right this is how Amelia looked. This was done by applying Amelia or actress Charlotte Bakers' usual make up and using water to smear it down her face. Furthermore, Amelia's' r
oom needed to appear as though it was a teenage girls room i.e. posters on the wall. As well as having books clutter the room up to show how Amelia's room revolves around work. The mess in the room also foreshadows the climax of Amelia's breakdown.
The lighting needed to appear as though it was early morning, as Amelia had just woken up. This was created perfectly by using a blue gel in front of a Lowell Pro Light. If the light was placed as to direct at Amelia it would look far too bright and unrealistic. Therefore, I turned the light the opposite way, placed a blue gel folded over with white gel in between and faced it towards the opposite wall. This allowed the light to reflect against the whole room, giving it a much more gentler and natural feel.
The Camera focuses on a close up of Amelia waking up, then changing to a medium long shot of her sitting up in bed. The camera then changes to track Amelia's feet as she gets up out of bed. It follows her as she works her way over the disarray of books on the floor until she reaches the mirror. The Camera Jibs up her body to an over - the - shoulder shot of her looking into the mirror. The audience can see when Amelia looks into the mirror she is not surprised by
what she can see. This shows that Amelia is used to waking up this way.
The Director asked Charlotte (The actress playing Amelia) to get out of bed slowly and almost stumble out of bed. This was just to confirm the audience knew that Amelia has just woken up and is clearly tired by it being so early.
For sound the boom mic was used to follow Amelia around the room to pick up sounds of her feet walking across the room as well as her gentle sighing.
During editing, the scene itself needed no alteration. The only form of editing was to put the shots in order and cutting out unnecessary shots to make the sequence work.
Scene 2
This scene shows Amelia's' mother Hilary (played by a peer Bianca Fuentes for lack of other willing older actresses) making Amelia breakfast. The Mise-en-Scene here dressed our actress up to look as motherly as possible by wearing a fitted long blue dress, perfected make up and her hair clipped up. This was to make Bianca (Hilary) look as old as possible as in real life she is only 18. However, upon watching it played back with others her appearance was approved successfully. The kitchen itself needed no further change as we needed a natural kitchen as you would find in any house. We required it to be clean which represents Hilary as a clean organised person. This contrasts greatly with Amelia's messy bedroom and dull appearance.
The Lighting for this scene was at first set up using the Lowell Pro Lights, however we found this to be too bright as well as noticing if we used the lights shadows would be coming from both the window and lights. Therefore it looked extremely unrealistic. Instead we turned on all the over head lights in the kitchen and used the normal kitchen lighting. This worked well as it looked like a natural early morning.
The Camera follows Hilary as she butters the toast then lays it onto the table and then goes back to the sink. As Amelia comes through the hallway outside the kitchen the Camera pans towards her. The Camera then follows her to walk to the kitchen table pick up the toast which is on top of a pile of work. The Camera shows an extreme close up of her putting the toast back in its place. The Camera then re-focuses to Amelia leaving the kitchen for school.
The Director here had to tell our actress Bianca Fuentes that she needed to appear happy and cheerful. Humming along as she butters the toast and carries it across the room. Amelia then had to enter the room looking quite the opposite, looking sad and withdrawn.
The Sound here was used with the boom overhead of Hilary and Amelia as they worked around the room and briefly speak to each other.
Editing was used once again, to put shots in order but also to help with framing. In one shot the boom mic was visible in the screen. Using editing we were able to conceal the boom by changing the size of the frame.
Scene 3
This is the scene in which Amelia is walking down a corridor at school. As the bell rings all the classes are let out and a mass of children push their way past Amelia to get to their next class not really knowing that she is there. The Mise-En-Scene had Amelia in her black coat and black trousers looking extremely dull. The corridor itself needed no changing as it looked how it needed to already. The other extras ranged from school uniforms to casual sixth-former wear. Which is described as smart dress however, the fact that the other students do not appear extremely smart as Amelia shows how uptight she is about school rules and regulations.
Lighting here was the natural lighting gained by overhead lights in the corridor. To use artificial lighting would have been unnecessary as the lights in which we use would not have been able to illuminate the whole corridor. As Amelia walks towards the camera she would have also of been walking towards the lights which would have got brighter on her as she came closer. This would have looked obvious therefore we kept to normal lighting. Which kept in keeping with the naturalism of the entire film.
The Camera here does a close up of the school bell and zooms out as it rings. The camera then changes to a long shot of Amelia walking down the corridor staying static as she comes closer to it until she goes of screen.
The Director asked all extras to improvise what they would have naturally spoken about as they walk through the school corridors any day. The most noticeable conversation was that of the TV series "Skins" which was running during the time of filming. This became to be a reoccurring topic of conversation later on. The Director also asked Amelia to come towards the camera looking elated and tired. Furthermore, all characters were asked to push past Amelia as if they didn't even notice she was there.
The sound here was used with a boom on a pole overhead the teenagers as they walked down the corridor. The sound of the bell was actually added in later in editing. This was done as we wanted the sound to go on for as long as the zoom out did. If we were to film and zoom out at the same time the times may not have matched up and it can only be filmed once every hour. Therefore it was important that we got it right first time without the sound at all.
In this scene the sound of the bell was added after filming. As we didn't want to have to wait hours at a time to record the sound of a bell whilst filming at the same time.
Scene 4
In this scene it is the same day as scene 3, Amelia is now in her class and is frantically trying to keep up with what the teacher is dictating to her. The Mise-En-Scene here was fairly laid back as there was no need to make the classroom look any different as it was already a classroom.
The lighting however, had to be natural as the windows were very large and could not have been blocked out. If the scene could have been done again perhaps I would choose a different location in which I could control the lighting better. Therefore, all lighting is coming in through windows.
The Camera begins with a long shot of Amelia and then changes to an close up of Amelia. This was done freehand and appears a little shaky. If done again a tri-pod may have been appropriate.
The Director asked Amelia to search frantically through her busy diary as she wrote down yet more homework. We can see in the corner of the screen another classmate isn't doing anything. This shows how seriously Amelia considers her school work compared to other students.
The sound here was first the boom held above the teacher, as you could hear her but not see her. It was important she could be heard clearly so the audience knows why Amelia is panicking.
The sound in this scene was a bit uneven, so during editing we were able to alter sound levels to correct the problem.
Scene 5
This scene is an exterior shot of the field outside of Amelia's classroom window. It reveals what Amelia is missing out on. The scene was extremely naturalistic. The Mise-En-Scene director changed nothing as the set was perfect, the Director had nobody to direct. The Camera pans across the trees. The sound here was used just for the atmosphere. In editing one side of a phone conversation which is Amelia's boyfriend begging for her to have a break. The lighting here is all natural from the sun itself. Editing was also not needed.
Scene 6
This scene is of Amelia in the classroom looking out onto the field seen in scene 5. Mise-En-Scene kept Amelia in the same day clothes.
The Camera here shows a medium long shot of Amelia as she works on the computer, jibs as she looks out the window to what she is missing and then back to her work.
The lighting was left alone and the normal over head classroom lights were used. To use artificial lighting would have been too bright and reflected in the windows deeming it unnecessary.
The Director asked Amelia to look at the computer then to the window and back again.
The sound here was a boom to record the natural hum of the computers. The silence shows how alone Amelia is.
Extra editing was not needed as the scene was perfect.
Scene 7
This scene is of Amelia leaving the school, walking through the gates. It was a simple scene, no extra direction, mise-en-scene or lighting was needed. Sound is recorded for atmosphere.
Scene 8
In this scene, Amelia gets home from school and walks up her stairs and slams the door. The scene continues from the gate scene. The Mise-En-Scene is unaffected, as the scene is very simple.
The camera is static as it follows Amelia up the stairs and gently jibs up to keep Amelia in shot.
Lighting is naturalistic, the reason for this was the space of the stairway was too confining to fit lights, camera and a boom in there. However, the natural lighting worked as it was dark to show how Amelia was feeling but not so dark that the image is grainy.
Direction was simple, Amelia had to walk up the stairs and slam the door.
The slam of the door, was turned down using the sound levels on the editing suite as it was too loud. A transition was also added to make it appear as though it was the end of the day.
Scene 9
This scene showed Amelia leaving her house in the morning before school with toast in her hand.
The Camera tracked Amelia as she came out of her house.
Mise-En-Scene here was simple, Amelia was dressed in her usual dark drab and dreary clothing as this was exterior no extra set design was needed.
The scene was filmed outside so no artificial lighting was needed.
The Direction was that Amelia should walk out of her house, slam the door, take a bite of toast and walk down the steps towards the road.
Sound was recorded with the boom mic to get the sound of Amelia slamming the door and walking down the steps.
No extra editing needed.
Scene 10
This scene follows Amelia as she waits for the bus to school. As she waits she looks across the road and notices a young mother with her baby. Amelia appears jealous as she believes the girl across the roads life would be so much simpler.
Mise-En-Scene was used here to obtain a buggy. However, further set design was unnecessary and was filmed along the road side.
The Camera focuses on Amelia's face, the does a shot reverse shot to the woman and child then back to Amelia's reaction.
The lighting could not be controlled here as it was filmed outside in the middle of the day and was therefore bright enough.
The Director asks Amelia to look miserable while the girl across the road was asked to look cheerful and at ease.
Sound was recorded with the boom mic, however it was extremely difficult as the cars were very loud. Hopefully editing will be able to turn this down.
In editing this whole scene was cut as it did not work with the film and wasn't as we planned. The sound especially was very hard to hear because of the car sounds.
Scene 11
In this scene we see Amelia walking down the stairs at school and seeing two other pupils who ask Amelia if she is free to go to the cinema however, as Amelia is busy working she declines.
The Camera is static as the three girls speak.
The lighting is natural as the glass doors bring enough lighting in to illuminate the scene enough.
The Director asked the girls to welcome Amelia however, as usual Amelia is withdrawn from them and awkward.
The sound here was recorded with the boom mic to record the girls dialogue.
No extra editing was needed.
Scene 12
Here Amelia is working in the library.
Mise-En-Scenes set design could not be altered here. As it is a public library the only thing that could be changed was the work in front of Amelia. The magazine article Amelia is reading had to be made for the shot.
The Camera follows tracks around an article Amelia is reading and the moves to an over the shoulder shot of Amelia's work.
The Lighting here was self admittedly bad. As said before we had permission to film but no permission to turn lights off. This resulted in lighting being very bad and there was no way of changing it. Perhaps something can be done in editing.
The Direction was simple. Amelia must appear concentrated on the article. No extras are allowed to look at the camera.
The sound here was minimal however, sound must always be recorded with the boom for atmosphere.
In this scene there was some continuity errors, therefore we deleted a few shots to cut out the errors.
Scene 13
This scene is simple, Amelia enters her kitchen, walks past her mother and leaves without saying anything.
Mise-En-Scene was used yet again to control actress appearances.
The lighting here was the same as the last kitchen scene as it was filmed on the same day.
Direction was once again simple Amelia was to walk through the kitchen look briefly at her mother and leave without saying a word. Hilary was to keep humming and buttering toast.
Sound was recorded with the boom to create atmosphere.
No extra editing needed.
Scene 14
Amelia is sitting at a desk in the sixth form common room. Her two friends are talking and they get too loud and Amelia leaves in annoyance.
Mise-En-Scene cleared the area and set up the table so that Amelia could be seen clearly.
The Camera is static as the three girls sit together and pans as Amelia leaves.
The lighting wasn't used, as this scene was filmed in a rush and at the time I felt it wasn't needed. However, looking back I believe some artificial lighting would have been beneficial to filming.
The Director asked the other two actresses to improvise a conversation as the script didn't allow the girls to get loud enough. By improvising the girls were able to talk over each other and laugh without it appearing too obvious that the scene was staged. Amelia was told to reject the conversation and get up abruptly and leave.
Sound was important because the dialogue here was important. The girls had to be heard, therefore the boom mic was used on a pole overhead the girls to record the dialogue.
Scene 15
Scene 15 was Amelia walking to find a quiet place to study when she finds the toilet and goes in there to work.
After filming the scene was cut in editing due to difficulties with lighting and the large amount of mirrors on each wall that would have revealed the camera.
Scene 16
This scene depicts Amelia on her bed having a phone conversation which is presumably her boyfriend, as she says "I love you" only to be hung up on as she is saying she is too busy to go out.
The camera is static as it is a simple shot in which Amelia speaks.
Lighting is similar as to what was used in scene 1. A blue gel is used to give a day light look, the effect also makes Amelia appear washed out as the blue gently shows on her face.
Sound was recorded by holding the boom mic away from Amelia's face so that her voice could be recorded as well as the sounds of the traffic outside.
The director was insistent that Amelia was careful to make this scene realistic, this meant leaving appropriate gaps in sentences and reacting to whatever her boyfriend supposedly said. Luckily our actress proved to be very successful.
In editing we added a transition (cross-fade) to signify the end of the day.
Scene 17
This scene sees Amelia's mother Hilary sitting at the kitchen table eating toast, Amelia tries to walk past without saying anything however, Hilary stops to make her have some.
The Mise-En-Scene here was quite simple, the kitchen was unchanged and Amelia was in her usual clothes. Although Hilary looked slightly more dishevelled than usual. This is to show that Amelia is slowly getting up earlier and earlier in the morning in an effort to spend more time at school working.
The Camera here is static for the most part as Amelia walks through her kitchen and out of shot, only a slight jib is used to put Amelia in shot.
The lighting was naturalistic as it came in from windows, lighting the room adequately.
The Director asked that Amelia would once again try and get through the kitchen without any interaction, however, Hilary must be persistent in getting any form of response from her daughter.
The sound was recorded as usual with the boom mic, held overhead to record all dialogue.
Scene 18
In this scene Amelia is in the school canteen trying to buy food but does not have enough money. This scene was very difficult to film as the set was hard to access. We were given permission to film in a short amount of time and a dinner lady agreed to be in the film. However, one of her colleagues unfortunately disrupted the shot which may have affected the overall scene.
The Mise-En-Scene was all natural here, the dinner ladies were real dinner ladies and it was a real canteen therefore, nothing had to be changed.
The Camera was quite difficult because it was manoeuvring around a small space and a few shots had to be cut due to the lack of time we had. From having a MCU of the dinner ladies reaction to Amelia not having enough money it became just one shot of Amelia talking and then leaving as another dinner lady asks her to leave. In fact the dinner lady was asking if the filming would take long, however, we decided that it appeared as though the dinner lady was hurrying Amelia along which was not entirely bad for the scene.
The sound here was horrific, though at the time it appeared okay, upon playback all the outside noise affected the dialogue terribly. The boom was used overhead Amelia and the dinner lady however it managed to record all the extra sound in the room (other dinner ladies moving pots and pans, the radio, general bad atmosphere). In editing it has been very difficult to turn the sound down.
The Director here informed the dinner lady what she must do, however, being an amateur she found it difficult to not look at the camera. Amelia's acting none the less was perfect as usual and fit the scene, undaunted by being rushed. Although it did lead to a continuity error that made it look as though Amelia was stealing the food she was trying to buy.
Lighting here once again could not have been altered due to accessibility of filming. However, the light was not too dim nor to bright due to all the large windows. Therefore, this was not a problem.
This was the most challenging scene in regards to editing. As the sound was too loud in the background and Amelia was too quiet it was extremely difficult to hear. We turned down the background noise however, the sound was still not perfect after spending a large amount of time altering it.
Scene 19
Similar to scene 3 Amelia is seen her walking down the school corridor however. this time she is alone until someone barges past her. Showing that she has no friendly feelings from peers due to her withdrawn nature.
The camera was static as Amelia walked towards it, but jibbed down to see her bag drop to the floor then jibs back up to see her pick it up again in defeat.
The Mise- En- Scene was unaffected, the hallway was untouched as it had been earlier, and as our actor was a student at our school he was already dressed for the part.
Lighting here wasn't artificial as that wouldn't have been necessary as the house lighting was adequate.
Sound was perfect, using the boom mic as always allowed me to record sounds of the footsteps as well as Amelia sigh as she bends down to pick up her bag. Although, when the boy says "watch out" I feel as though he says it too fast and the audience may not understand him. Although camera and director wise the scene appeared perfect and the best Take we had.
Scene 20
This scene is our climax scene and perhaps not the hardest to film, it could make or break the whole production. In this scene Amelia is trying to work on her Textiles coursework but, her phone keeps vibrating which distracts her. It gets louder and louder until she loses her temper and throws everything away from herself and eventually breaks down.
The Mise-En-Scene here had to arrange a pile of books to be thrown, create convincing looking Textiles coursework and allow Amelia a space to work. The Textiles coursework could have looked better however, the fact that the work looks shoddy shows how Amelia is slipping as the work load gets to her.
The Camera work here was the most involved of the whole film as it was the climax it was necessary to be fast paced. It began with panning across the room as Amelia puts her bag on the bed. It then panned to follow her sit down and close ups of her work as she tries to cut into her Textiles work. It then changes to a MCU as Amelia stands back from her work, knocks her chair over and throws her phone. She then falls to the floor. This part somewhat aggravated me as the last two shots mentioned were separate, Amelia's fall looked unconvincing to a point. Although it was the best that could be done and hopefully this can be altered for the better in editing.
The Lighting in this scene was originally planned to have a red gel to connote the anger Amelia is feeling. However, when I used the red gel it was too harsh and looked to unrealistic in contrast to the blue that I normally used. Therefore, I did not use the red and used the blue as usual to re-enforce her depressed state. As usual this worked sufficiently.
The Sound had no faults here, the phone vibrating was enhanced in editing to make it louder but, throughout the whole scene the boom picked up Amelia's movements and screaming as she broke down.
The Director in this scene had to work hard as Amelia's acting had to be convincing in order for the whole film to work. Amelia was directed to scream and throw things uncontrollably. In which she did perfectly and in filming we felt the scene very distressing in which was our aim. Hopefully our audiences will feel the same as we did.
In editing we added the sound of the phone vibrating, this way we could increase the noise and make it louder and louder to the point of frustrating Amelia exteremly.
Scene 21
Was the same as the first scene in which Amelia wakes up and looks at the camera, although the shot ends before she moves.
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