Characters, Mise-en-scene and Equipment

The mise-en-scene is very important when filming because it means that the audience is able to tell where the actors are meant to be in the film and often helps the plot to make sense.
For the sleepover scene we made sure that all of us were wearing pyjamas and had sleping bags and sweets. This should make it obvious to the audience that the girls are at a sleepover. We also used fairy lights in the room which you see as there are different shots of the girls talking.

We tried to make the costumes we used as close to the drawn designs as possible:

Each costume represents a different social group, we tried to make each costume as an extreme stereotype as we could so that the audience were aware of what social group each person belonged to and also it does add to the humour aspect of our film. I think that Anisha's younger sister Amina's costume worked well as she represents a "chav" and so we were able to manipulate her style of language in order to emphasise this.

I'm not so sure that the youngest sibling Anita's costume was as good as it could have been, but as Amara looks quite young anyway, it doesn't really matter so much if her costume wasn't as stereotypical as Amina's because again, we tried to make her talk like a younger sister would which adds to the effect that she is even younger than Amina.

Throughout the first two minuets of our film Anisha wears several different outfits, the one displayed in the picture is only one example of the sort of style we were looking for. The character of Anisha isn't really stereotypical, there is the temptation to say that she is "just normal" but you can't really define normal in such a diverse world. Anisha's outfits tend to be within fashion but she doesn't wear any clothes that are a bold fashion statement; she is the sort of girl that fits in nicely within her own group of friends and doesn't really stand out if you were to look at her in a crowd.

Dan's costume is typical of a grungy teenage boy, we wanted to make this apparent as his character was not meant to be someone who stood out in a crowd either.

This is the camera that we have been using to film our footage. We did consider using a tripod, and in some scenes it would have been ideal. However we did not end up using one as we decided that for the majority of our scenes we wouldn't be able to use the tripod as we were walking and filming at the same time whilst following the actors. Sometimes the tripod would have come in handy though as we have a few still shots and the camera movement is slightly shakey. Overall, if there is enough light, this camera provides really good quality and also manages to capture sound just as well, if not a little tinny sometimes, but that was usually down to the acoustics of the room we were shooting in. The zoom was smooth which helped us a lot in some shots as it provides a smooth looking pan that isn't too joggy.

Filming

We filmed our footage at a friend's house who lives locally during the October half term. We chose to film here because it was a quiet area and also provided us with a good section of road to film the "splash scene". Also, the way the windows opened on her house was appropriate for the scene we wanted when Anisha is being embarrassed in front of the boy that she fancies.

We got to her house at about ten in the morning and finished at about three in the afternoon. We had to film the montage section of our film first because Rani (Anisha) had to change outfits for each section so we thought it would be easier if we shot those scenes first. A problem that we've had with the montage scene is that Rani could not walk into a lampost convincingly enough, so we tried to re film this at school, but with her walking into a tree. She couldn't do this either, so we changed the whole thing to her being hit in the back of the head by a bag as someone walked past.

During this filming session we managed to film everything we needed, even the sleep over scene. However, when we got back to school and looked at it during editing, we weren't happy with some of the walking scenes, so we still need to film these scenes again. We were lucky that the "splash scene" went well because otherwise it would have meant that Rani would have to get wet again, and the weather is getting a lot colder now.

During the conversation between Anisha and the love interest, the 180 degree rule was broken because when we filmed them, as they stood up from the floor, the camera was on one side of them and then half way through standing up, we changed the camera angle to the opposite side. This had to happen because otherwise the window would have been on the wrong side of the camera and then Amina would have not been in the shot like she needed to be. We tried to add in some "match-on-action" shots as Anisha was walking up the drive towards her house.

During the sleepover scene we tried to get the mise-en-scene as accurate as possible by bringing in fairy lights, sleeping bags, pillows and sweets as well as all of us wearing our pyjamas.

Anamatics

This is the animatics which shows the basic idea of what we want our film to look like when it is put together.
The quality is not briliant but it allows us to see how well each scene will fit together once we have finished editing.

Inspiration for our film

Our film was originally going to be a comedy, but it was hard for us to think of a plot without turning it into a rom-com, so we just went with it. Our film Oh My Guru is going to be about an asian teenage girl who is very unlucky and clumbsy and falls in love with a white boy.

The three main movies that inspired our plot are:

• Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvmciQ2GG1g
• Bend It Like Beckham http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvcVQYKgtnc
• Bridget Jones's Diary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdy98B1nf0
  
  

We particularly liked the kind of narration that is in Angus Thongs and Bridget Jones as it adds character to a film and we get a better sense of what the main character is thinking or feeling. In particular, we wanted our main character, Anisha, to be able to actually talk to the camera. Inspiration for this came from a few sit coms such as scrubs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HteJSpHjQs and also Malcom in the Middle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOtZDTc6scs&NR=1

Costume Design 2

These are the actual pictures that we decided our characters should look like:This is Anisha's outfit; it helps to express what sort of character she is because it is very normal, and her character is a person that isn't a hugely popular person, she fits in well with a crowd but isn't a born leader, so this choice of costume expresses this well because it isn't a huge new fashion statement, nor is it out of fashion.

This is the boy's outfit, which helps to portray him as someone who is perhaps slightly "too cool" for Anisha - or so she would think- and again, his clothes aren't that special, as he is just an ordinary boy. This is because our film isn't about things that happen out of the ordinary because we want our audience to be able to relate to it.

This is Anisha's younger sister Amina's outfit. She is a "chav" and I think this outfit portrays this well. She has to look the part as well as sound it, and as a stereotypical chav, this outfit will help to portray her as this.

This is their other sister, Anita's outfit. Anita is a cute little sister who is younger than Amina, so she has to look quite innocent and young. This choice of costume helps to show this because it is what you'd expect a young child to wear.

This is to show that the girls at the sleepover scene will be wearing pyjamas. They will be wearing pyjamas as it helps to add to the mis-en-scene because if they were all just wearing normal clothes it would be a bit odd that there was a group of girls just sitting in a room of sleeping bags, and as the narrator in this film is not the same kind as there is in a book, we can't have someone state "they are at a sleep over" so the girls wearing pyjamas adds to the effect and the audience can assume why the girls are dressed this way.