Organising our Actors

These are the direction to Great Leighs. As the picture isn't clear it says:

• Left out of school
• 2nd exit on the roundabout past the Hospital
• Carry on past Lt Waltham and to Essex Regiment Way roundabout and take the 2nd exit towards Great and Little Leighs
• At the next roundabout, take the 3rd exit into Great Leighs
• Brickbarns is the first road on your left and St Annes is on your right.

This is a drawn map from school to the location. The blue is the route they need to take.


Again, the picture isn't clear so here is what it says:

"Hi guys.
For the next two weeks we have media off timetable to film you lot for our piece! Sooo if you could all let me/any of us know what times you are available during the day and after schools too. If there's a time max as well for after school just pop that down too :)

If you could get back to this message asap too that would be great. Thanks so much :)
Xxx"

Final Cast

These are the people who we originally auditioned and decided to fill our roles:

• Helen - Jasmine Lee
• Deano - Tamer Saleh
• Courtney - Hannah Cullen
• Stephanie - Stephanie Hadlow
• Richard - Nicholas Crouch
• JJ - Tom Le Gresly
• Aaron - Lewis Spaul
  

The people we lost were;

• Nicholas Crouch - Had other subjects to study for
• Tom Le Gresly - Had other engagements
• Jennifer Pike - Unable to film at the same time due to prior arrangements with work and school
• Lewis Spaul - Illness
  

We filled Jennifer roles with Jo Peplow-Revell as she is of the same slim build with dark hair and with the innocent look we imagined Danielle to have.

Myself and Jo Peplow-Revell filled the roles of JJ and Aaron with Lewis Montague and Tim Bousfield. We also had another male space so as we wanted to always have a back-up incase we lost another actor so we were able to do this with James Hancock and James Garrod.

In our last filming session, we had to change Tamer Saleh with our original actor for Aaron, Lewis Spaul. This was so we could get everyone together, due to timetables, and finish our filming so we could move on to other pieces of work and spend no more time planning and organising other days.

Here are the pictures of our final cast:

Helen - Jasmine Lee

This is Jasmine. The middle and end picture was the costume we had for her. We have the red shoes, which are connotations of lust and romance and also the red lipstick to back it up. She is wearing a black dress, which connotes secrets and also danger which would lead to more interesting storylines from her character.

Deano - Lewis Spaul

We had to make the decision to swap Tamer with Lewis, as again, timetables clashed and this was the only day we could get our final cast together. We originally wanted Deano to be dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a white polo shirt, but with our time being limit and our decision to change actors quick, there was no costume for him. Although, as the focus isn't on his costume, the clothes he is dressed in still work well. His black coat follows the same connotations of secrecy as his Mother's black dress, and his curly hair connotes his messy personality which we can link to his behaviour in Helen Howe.

Danielle - Jo Peplow-Revell

Danielle's costume is tracksuit bottoms connoting her lack of money for the branded clothes that the other characters wear, but also following the "chav" stereotype. The heart on her t-shirt connotes her flirtatious manner and this can allude to the reason she falls pregnant, and as the heart is surrounded by black, it connotes the mischief she intends to cause with the males in Helen Howe.

Courtney - Hannah Cullen

Courtney is in fashionable clothing and this denotes how she fits in within Helen Howe. She is wearing clothes that are long and warm and this shows the visual contrast between her and her Mother, Helen. The colour green on her jumper connotes how she feels envy towards Danielle, not that she is pregnant, just because of the attention she recieves and her bubbly personality.

Richard - Matthew Bigg

Richard's costume is predominantly black, and this is to connote his hidden personality and the secrecy to his character. He is wearing a cardigan and skinny jeans which are the more commonly known clothes for a male to wear. The purple shirt he is wearing connotes the love Stephanie, his wife, feels for him and how the secrecy to his personality covers it up to the outside world.

JJ, Paul, Nathan and Aaron - Lewis Montague, James Garrod, James Hancock and Tim Bousfield

These are our four 'lads'. The first 3 are all dressed in jeans, jumpers and trainers. These denote style and fashion. They are all in similar costume connoting how they are all typical characters and all of the same personality. The colours for the lads are grey mainly, for the jumpers, and this connotes no real spark of personality. The use of the black for these connote the secrecy within them, especially in Aaron who is entirely in black and this connotes secrecy which would be unravelled through other episodes. Aaron is seen as the "tag along" and this is why is costume differs to the others, to create the illusion he hasn't quite achieved the "cool" look JJ and the others have achieved.

Filming Day 3 22/11/10

Today we had planned to do finish our filming with the Helen Howe local shots and the final shot. However, due to the fog on Friday we had to cancel our filming and therefore had to film these shots today also. We planned to get the cast together at St Ann's pub in Great Leigh's at 1.30pm this is so we knew we would have plenty of time to film before it starts getting dark. The first shot we did today was the pub scene where Helen's shoes are tracked in a low angle close up shot where Helen is then revealed the camera then pans into a point of view shot where she looks at the 'lad's' cheering outside of the pub. We took this shot a few times so that we can choose the best one when it comes to editing. We made sure we asked for permission to film outside the pub before filming and we checked again when we got to the location. The road was not very busy so this made the shot a lot easier to capture and therefore we kept to schedule. We then filmed Helen turning the corner where we used shot reverse shot to get a shot of Helen turning the corner in a long shot of her back to then a long shot of her frontwards walking towards the camera when she had turned the corner. This shot was simple and the continuity is good as shot reverse shot maintained Helen's positioning. After this shot we used Jade and Sophie like we had stated to be the Helen Howe locals who stop what they are doing and watch Helen walk past. These shots both went well and we used the over the shoulder and panning shots that are stated on the storyboard. We then filmed the shot where Stephanie slaps Richard we got 3 points of view on the cameras so we will have a good flowing scene in our trailer when it comes to editing.
Overall this day has been successful as we managed to get all of the necessary cast to Gt Leigh's despite the actor issue and also we filmed a lot of the trailer in detail to prevent mistakes and little errors. We now only have 3 shots left to film which we have agreed to film on a date we have set.

Filming Day 2, 19/11/2010

Today we were meant to be filming the scene with the three boys outside the pub and the reaction Helen causes. We were also going the film the parts with Helen walking down the road herself. However, due to the weather conditions being very heavy fog, we were unable to film because the conditions were too different to that of yesterday. We will now have to try and fit in these shots in our whole cast session tomorrow, or reschedule for Tuesday the 23rd of November.

Filming Day 1, 18/11/2010

Yesterday we had our first day of filming in Great Leighs, and for this we had Tamer, Jasmine and Hannah. We were filming the reveal shots at the end of our trailer where Helen's children are seen for the first time. We also filmed the part where Deano realises Danielle is pregnant. Because of conflicts with Jenni's tiemtable, she was unable to take part in our trailer, and so we have replaced her with Jo, because it is a minor part in the trailer and so not much acting is actually required. Jo has similar looks to Jenni, who we casted originally because of the fact she looked right for the part, and so we will get the over all look we want for our trailer. We did have time contraints because of the light, and so had about 40 minutes in which to film these scenes; however, we filmed each part several times and from several different cameras and so I think that we have all the footage we need. We tried to make use of a variety of different shots, including shot reverse shot and a reveal shot, but we were also keeping in mind that in soap operas, the majority of the time they use midshots or two shots, so that characters expressions and reactions can be seen clearly.

Filming Schedule

I have produced a filming schedule showing which cast members are required on what days and at what times. This is good because it shows that we have carefully organised our time and have also left ourselves enough time for editing and any necessary re-filming.

Filming Schedule

Final Costume

Helen

We could not find anyone who owned a red dress that would fit Jasmine therefore we thought of other relevant colours. A black dress was our second choice, black has connotations to mystery and secrecy which complies with Helen's character as in the trailer the audience do not learn anything about her and have to wait and watch the soap to find out. Jasmine made the dress so it fit well and it was quite short also, which is what we were aiming for to comply with the male gaze theory. However, we didn't want to make the dress too revealing as Jasmine may have felt uncomfortable and we had to take into consideration the weather which would have made her freezing.

The red shoes were the most important element of Helen's costume, we could not find a pair of red shoes in Helen's size to borrow so we bought the shoes from Newlook. We only bought these because they were the main element of costume in our trailer.

Deano

This is Deano's costume, we had difficulty finding costume which was similar to the research costume. This was due to not knowing anyone that owned a tracksuit. This made us then change our decision on Deano's costume because if we didn't know anyone with a tracksuit it must mean that not many people wear them and therefore would not be a costume that the audience can relate to. Instead we used skinny jeans as they are very modern and fashionable, with a black coat and black coat. Although the jeans do not connote his 'Chav' stereotype and confident sleazy character, his shoes and coat do as black has connotations to slyness and hidden secrets.

Courtney

We kept to the colour scheme for Courtney's costume and we borrowed the jumper from a friend. The jumper is relevant as it has white which connotes innocence and green which connotes envy which is outlined in the costume research. We got Hannah to wear her own jeans as long as they were skinny dark denim jeans which she already had so we did not need to borrow or buy them. Also the boots were in the costume research post which Hannah already had so that helped us out.

Stephanie

The costume for Stephanie is similar to the one researched. However, she is wearing a black leather jacket, we had to use this because of the weather and it would have been unfair on the actor to put them in just a dress. The jacket is black connoting secrets therefore it displays her and Richards relationship to be full of secrets. Also it is fashionable and modern so the audience members will be able to relate to this which is important as the Uses and Gratifications theory (Denis McQuail) states. The jacket was borrowed from a friend.

We wanted to stick to using a pink dress but we could not get hold of a pale pink dress but we found a friend who had a hot pink dress. This was even more appropriate as the hot pink makes Stephanie look even more vibrant and girly. These have connotations to her character and career as a beauty therapist.

Richard

Richard's costume was originally a black shirt and black jeans. The shirt was to connote maturity as he is an older character but we could not find a black shirt that was fashionable and modern that we could borrow so we thought of other costume that could have connotations to his older mature character.

We asked the males in our cast what they would wear to a party or to a reasonably formal event they suggested a cardigan or checked shirt. We used their feedback and decided on a black cardigan which was borrowed with a purple polo shirt. The purple connotes his 'womaniser' traits as purple can relate to females. Also the black cardigan and coat make him look more mature and the colour black has connotations to his sleazy, secretive personality.

Danielle

Originally we wanted a pink velor tracksuit but we could not find one that we could borrow and we did not want to spend money and buy one because it would never be used again. Instead we used a group members brothers old clothes which were relevant to her character. For example, the green baggy hoody complies with the 'chav' stereotype and also because it is a large and males they will wonder who it belongs to. Also, the baggy tracksuit trousers are grey which connotes dullness which implies she is sad she doesn't know who the dad is.

However, the t-shirt is from h&m and belongs to a group member this t-shirt is relevant as the bright pink heart complies with her flirtatious attitude.

Aaron, JJ, Maxwell and Paul

We originally wanted JJ and Aaron to wear polo shirts with colours that reflected their personalities. However, we changed this idea as we wanted the boys to look as realistic and believable as possible so instead we told the 4 actors a colour scheme of black, grey, brown and denim, and we told them that we wanted them to wear clothes that thought were appropriate to a 'jack the lad' stereotype. This worked well as they wore clothes that are relevant to them and therefore this would give the best picture of verisimilitude.

Final Costumes

Today in our meetings we discussed and finalised our costume ideas. We tried to do this in accordance with the verilasimilatude used in soap operas so that the costumes represent the type of characters we have. We have written out letters to each of the members of our cast telling them dates they are required for filming and what they need to wear, which is here on the group blog.The costumes are as follows;
Helen
-Black Dress
-Red Shoes
-Red lipstick, full makeup
(prop: red suitcase provided)

Deano
-Grey Tracksuit Trousers
-White poloshirt
-White cardigan
-Trainers

Courtney
-Skinny blue jeans
-Ugg Boots
-Green/white striped jumper

Danielle
-Tracksuit trousers
-Coloured vest
-Large oversized hoodie

Stephanie
-Tunic top
-Black leggings
-Full makeup, natural looking

Richard
-Smart Jeans
-Dark poloshirt/shirt
-Smart shoes

JJ
-Blue jeans
-Coloured poloshirt
-Plimsolls

Aaron
-Checked shirt
-Jeans
-Plimsolls

Maxwell
-Coloured poloshirt
-Jeans
-Plimsoll

Letters to our actors

Letters to Actors