Pre-production Documentation
Synopsis of Our Whole Film:
Our film is a teen-based comedy, very Americanized and set in a school. We chose to create a comedy genre film as our research showed that comedy was the most popular and most successful genre of film over the last two years. The storyline of our film is about a teenage girl (Casey) who is somewhat socially inept and seen as a stereotypical ‘nerdy’ or ‘geeky’ character. She is continuously being pranked on by the bully in a very comical manor, but eventually sees eye to eye with him and becomes a ‘popular kid’ too. The moral of our film is to not judge a book by its cover.
Synopsis of Our Opening Sequence:
The sequence begins with a black background with digital credits of the ‘studio’ with a voice over of the main character saying goodbye to her mum in a rush. The sequence then fades in to a shot of the main character arriving at the school gates, late, and panicking, pulling up her socks and still trying to desperately sort herself out as she’s walking. The next scene shows the main character in a classroom doodling and unknown to her, having her shoe laces tied together by the bully. She stands up and of course falls over, spilling the contents of her pencil case onto the floor, and arranged into the name of the film; “9th Grade”. The main character is then shown walking through the school, heading towards the toilets, the bully comes up behind her and sticks a ‘KICK ME’ sign to her back. She enters the toilets (credits are displayed on the door) and comes out with toilet roll stuck to the bottom of her foot. She is then shown walking through a corridor, with credits displayed on some lockers, trying to fit in with the ‘popular’ girls, but they notice that she has toilet roll stuck to her foot and walk away, laughing. This leaves the main character embarrassed and once again trying to quickly sort herself out. The final scene involves the main character asleep in class with the bully and his ‘side-kick’ putting stationary in her hair and on her face, the bell rings and she wakes up suddenly, once again looking ridiculous.
VISUAL | AUDIO |
Some digital credits on black screen then Fade in. Start at the beginning of the school day – shot of CASEY stepping out of a car and walking into the school gates, pulling up her socks, almost falling over them. | Narration – dialogue of the main character’s voice. Non-diegetic. |
In classroom, ¾ shot of CASEY sitting bored, writing the ‘to do’ list in her diary. The camera then tilts down to the bully. Actor’s names credits are written on a book held upright against him. The BULLY ties CASEY’S shoe laces together under the table. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
The bell rings, the students are preparing to leave the classroom, with CASEY in the corner. Pan slightly to follow them out of the door, and then pan back to CASEY. The shot will zoom in to show CASEY’S feet/ legs as she is wobbling and about to fall. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
As she falls, camera jumps to a ¾ shot of her seemingly falling towards the camera, throwing the pens/ pencils.
| Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
Credits – Name of Film Reverse camera of pencil arranged letters being spilt onto the floor after main character falling over. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
¾ shot of the character walking. Camera tracks back with CASEY as she walks, facing her. The BULLY approaches with a ‘kick me’ sign, displaying more credits. As the character turns the corner, the camera will stop, and then follow her from behind, filming a Close Up shot of the credits on the sign on her back. CASEY will then enter the building to her right, and on the door will be a poster with more credits on. The camera then zooms out to a MLS to show CASEY walking away from the toilets with toilet tissue stuck to her foot and possibly skirt tucked into pants. Fades out | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
Fades in Credits will be written across the lockers via editing, ¾ shot of CASEY walking behind and trying to blend in with the ‘popular’ kids, but being ignored. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non-diegetic. |
¾ shot cut to a face on shot of the ‘popular kids’ walking away in disgust after noticing CASEY and leaving her embarrassed and looking down. She is then in a frantic embarrassed panic to sort herself out. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background. Non- diegetic. |
MCU panning across the table, following his hand, starting from the BULLY to CASEY, while he is putting items onto her face while she is sleeping. CASEY wakes up startled to the sound of the bell ringing and once again in a panic. | Just a Day – Feeder playing in the background will suddenly stop. Non-diegetic.
At the end will be a school bell.
|
location recce
shot list
| SCENE NO | SHOT NO | DESCRIPTION |
EXT. Outside school gates. | 1
| 1
| ¾ shot of CHARACTER getting out of the car. |
2 | Long shot. Shows CHARACTER pulling up her socks and tripping slightly. |
INT. Classroom.
|
2
| 1 | In classroom, ¾ shot of the CHARACTER sitting bored, writing the ‘to do’ list in her diary. The camera then tilts down to the bully and zooms in.
The BULLY ties the main CHARACTER’S shoe laces together – under the table. MCU.
|
2 | The bell rings, MLS of the class preparing to leave the classroom, with the CHARACTER in the corner. Pan slightly to follow them out of the door, and then pan back to the main CHARACTER. |
3 | MCU of the CHARACTER’S feet/ legs as she is wobbling and about to fall. |
4 | As she falls, camera jumps to a ¾ shot of her seemingly falling towards the camera, throwing the pens/ pencils. |
5 | Name of film displayed. Close up of the pens/ pencils appearing randomly on screen ready to be sped up via editing. |
EXT. Under the cover/ walk way in school.
| 3 | 1 | ¾ shot of the character walking. Camera tracks back with the CHARACTER as she walks, facing her.
The BULLY approaches with a ‘kick me’ sign, displaying more credits. As the character turns the corner, the camera will stop, and then follow her from behind, filming a Close Up shot of the credits on the sign on her back.
The CHARACTER will then enter the building to her right, and on the door will be a poster with more credits on.
The camera then zooms out to a MLS to show the CHARACTER walking away from the toilets with loo roll stuck to her foot and possibly skirt tucked into pants.
Fades out |
INT. Lockers Corridor.
|
4 |
1 | Fades in Credits will be written across the lockers via editing, ¾ shot of the CHARACTER walking behind and trying to blend in with the ‘popular’ kids, but being ignored. |
2 | ¾ shot Cut to a face on shot of the ‘popular kids’ walking away in disgust after noticing the loo-roll ect and leaving the CHARACTER embarrassed and looking down. |
3 | MLS of the CHARACTER in a frantic embarrassed panic to sort herself out. |
INT. Classroom |
5 |
1 | MCU panning across the table, following his hand, starting from the BULLY to the CHARACTER, while he is putting items onto her face while she is sleeping. |
2 | ¾ shot of the CHARACTER waking up startled to the sound of the bell ringing and once again in a panic. |
How the meeting went
Following a meeting with Mrs. Shipp, we realized and discussed that the ‘dream sequence’ probably wouldn’t work, as it would be effectively giving away the ending.
We also agreed that our comical ‘fail’ scene probably isn’t the best way to include the ‘comedy’ element, and instead will include lots of subtle elements of comedy such as the main character walking out of the toilets will loo-roll stuck to her foot, or her skirt tucked into her underwear, or the ‘Bully’ tying up her shoe laces, resulting in her falling over – leading to the name of the film being displayed with the stationary, which we also discussed and found that the better way to do that would be to speed up the shot, as opposed to rewinding it.
We also realized that we needed to establish that this girl WANTS to be like the popular kids, as opposed to simply NOT wanting to be a ‘nerdy’ kid anymore. We thought that we could do this by including a ‘To Do’ list in the back of her diary, or a book/ cassette entitled “How To Become Popular for Dummies”. We also thought that as she was shown leaving the room, she could be trying to blend in with these ‘popular’ kids, but being completely ignored by them. We also decided to scrap canteen scene completely.
From this, we have devised our final pre-production documents, ready to film.
Storyboard
Technical recce
We used four different locations to film our piece in, two of which were outside. Therefore, we must be aware of weather conditions that could potentially affect our filming such as rain or strong winds. We also need to be careful with this because of the risk of the equipment getting damaged due to the weather. There is also a trip hazard as the camera tracks with the character in the outdoor scenes. For both of these scenes, we needed to film it at a quiet time as traffic passing by would ruin the shot in the first scene, and students walking around in uniform would ruin the shot for the third scene.
The tables and chairs in the classroom we used to film needed to be rearranged to make it look like a classroom. The blinds also needed to be closed as the natural light was too bright and drowned out the faces of the actors in the shot.
The locker room shot also needed to be controlled and filmed at a quiet time to avoid students walking through it, and classroom doors also needed to be shut to avoid any unwanted background noise.
Risk Assessment
As our opening sequence will involve a lot of walking around the school, we will need to ensure that the chance of tripping will be reduced; we will do this by checking the floor of the scene prior to every shot. Although in one scene the main character is going to be shown falling over to ensure her safety we will place a mat underneath her cushioning her fall. At points as well we are going to have a lot of people rushing about, we will have to keep the camera away from the action and make sure the actors do not become dangerous by running around, they must stick to their required roles. Another scene is set by lockers, these will have to be checked to ensure they are firmly set to the ground and the chance of them falling over is minimal. In all class room scenes the chairs must be properly tucked in when people are moving to reduce the chance of them falling over.
Crew list
CAST, EQUIPMENT AND PROPS LIST:
Scene | Props | Cast | Costume |
1 | Car Note book
| Casey Goodman | High socks Skirt Big bright bag Plain shirt Glasses Tie Shoes with laces |
2
| Table Chairs Desk Note book Pencil case (including contents)
| Casey Goodman | High socks Skirt Big bright bag Plain neat shirt Glasses Tie Shoes with laces |
Tom Redding | Dark jacket Plain scruffy shirt Black trousers Trainers Over the shoulder bag |
Extras | Wearing a basic uniform |
3 | Note book Loo roll
| Casey Goodman | High socks Skirt Big bright bag Plain neat shirt Glasses
Tie Shoes with laces |
Tom Redding | Dark jacket Plain scruffy shirt Black trousers Trainers Over the shoulder bag |
Extras | Wearing a basic uniform
|
4 | Lockers Notebook | Casey Goodman | High socks Skirt Big bright bag Plain neat shirt Glasses Tie Shoes with laces |
Tom Redding | Dark jacket Plain scruffy shirt Black trousers Trainers Over the shoulder bag |
Extras | Wearing a basic uniform
|
5 | Notebook | Casey Goodman | High socks Skirt Big bright bag Plain neat shirt Glasses Tie Shoes with laces |
Tom Redding | Dark jacket Plain scruffy shirt Black trousers Trainers Over the shoulder bag |
Extras | Wearing a basic uniform
|
