Entry Five: Location

The location of the filming was decided immediately to be in a house and we used Asher's house as the setting according to our choice of film genre. Her house was chosen because:

• Convenient
• Given permission
• Spacious
  

If Asher's house was unavailable, we would film at Rianna's house as a backup just in case.

These photos were taken as evidence of what the house looks like. We filmed mainly in the living room and kitchen. As you can see from the photos, the rooms are quite spacious as mentioned before and give a perfect view of what the main character's house looks like.

The bathroom photos were taken as a first idea and also to see what it would look like but later decided that we would use the sixth form toilets for the last three shots. At school, it will give a different feeling of the main character than what she is like at home. Since we have to film inside the toilet too, we may use a bigger one since it has a lot of space in it too.

Entry Four: Storyboard & Shotlist

Storyboard

The process of the storyboard is to have an idea of how each scene of our opening will be shot. Rianna who is the protagonist of our filming can also have an idea on how to act out each scene using the storyboard. Each shot has a small description of how the scene should look and how the camera should be positioned.

Shot list
The shot list shows where the filming will take place and follows accordingly to how each shot is going to be filmed with a short description on how to do it similar to the storyboard. We may change some shots depending depending on the location of the filming.

Entry Three: Audience Research

For our audience research, we conducted a survey asking questions that would help us when thinking about an idea for a film, and what we would have to do in order for them to be interested in seeing it.

Below is a picture of our questionnaire.

Entry Two: Target Audience

Our film is targeted at teenagers and young adults. In order for our film to appeal to our target audience, we've made our protagonist a teenage girl aged 17. The film is also set in the modern day, making it relatable to the target audience.

We made a mood board of our film genre with elements of the target audience.

Entry One: Genre

Social Realist

We've decided to a do an opening of the social realist genre. Within this genre, we have decided to focus on mental health, and a person living with autism.

From watching a range of Social Realist films and films that focus on mental health, I've compiled a a list of genre conventions and techniques that are used to convey this effectively.

As social realist films are representatives of real life situations, they have to look believable. This is achieved by:

• Using a lot of long shots with little camera movement. Any movement that does happen whether it be tracking, panning or so forth are usually slow as fast movements draw attention to the camera, destroying the illusion of what you're watching is real.
• Long takes as this allows the actors to semi-improvise their dialogue, creating a more naturalistic performance which looks real.
• Not having flashy editing as this, again, causes the focus to be more on the camera and editing.
• Trying not to use non-diegetic music as it doesn't make the film look real. However, in Half Nelson, a lot of non-diegetic music is used.
• In British social realism, the cast tend to be predominantly British, therefore speaking in strong regional accents. For example, in Paul McGuigan's The Acid House, had to been shown with subtitles in the USA and Canada due to the strong Scottish accents of the actors.

There are many different types of films that focus on mental health with a variation of conditions, settings, locations and characters. Despite this, they use very similar conventions in order to establish this.

• Voiceovers/Internal Monologues are used often in the mind of the protagonist. This is to provide them with narrative agency, and also to establish what is going on in their head and to help the audience understand their condition. Films like Taxi Driver and Girl, Interrupted; have voiceovers from the protagonists.
• Dramatising mental health to make it entertaining. If a true representation of a person with mental health problems was portrayed, it has the potential to be boring. Extreme stereotypes of often used for shocking or comical effect on the audience like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs and Jim Carey in Me, Myself and Irene. This creates stigmatisations of mental illness.