Planning of my short film

Most of my short film is going to be film during school time during frees and media lessons. I have chosen to film to film during school time rather than after school as I want the setting to look as natural as possible, which means that as I film while going past lessons the classrooms aren't going to be empty and the scenes will look more natural and realistic.

Characters:
I am going to have 5 different characters in my film. At first it was going to be seven however the typical conventions of short films is to have as few characters as possible as you don't have enough time in order to introduce them all. When selecting my characters I've had to keep in mind the times in which they are going to be free in order to film as I am going to be using lots of their time. Due to my film being filmed in school I also had to consider the times in which they have frees and if they are going to be able to film while I'm in media lessons. I also had to ensure they are happy with what I'm asking them to do during my filming and they are going to have the confidence to want to be in the film.
Megan is going to be the victim of the bulling.
Hannah, Lilly and Emily are going to be the bullies, at first I was going to have five bullies however after thinking about it I didn't need that many and was going to be unable to find more people that are going to be in free at all the times in which I am going to want to film.
Aaron is going to be the mystery killer.

Locations:
My film is going to be filmed in two different locations school and the woods. The main part of my film is going to be filmed in school, this causes me to have to think about many different things and how events around school may cause me to not be able to film when and where I want to. When filming in the corridors I'm going to have to ensure that we aren't being too loud and this is going to cause disruption to the lessons that are occurring around us which the teachers wont be happy with. I will also have to ensure that there aren't going to be lost of students walking around and being noisy in the background as they are more than likely to be having loud conversations with each other or will stop and start watching what is occurring. My actors also will be unable to just stop mid scene once they see someone walking down the corridor or get distracted by things around them.

When filming in the common room I will have tidy up the areas that are going to be shown as this will be shown in the background, meaning that all of the rubbish that is often left on tables and mugs that are left around will all have to be cleared away. As the common room is used by the whole of sixth form I will have to ensure that the students in the common room as the filming is taking place aren't going to be a distraction or start to disrupt the scene, my actors will still have to carry on with the scenes that they are filming regardless if there is a few people in there as there isn't going to be a time during school time that it will be free. However if this does become a major problem then filming in the common room will have to take place after school one day when it will be empty however the actors will have to agree to stay after school in order to do so.


The first and last scenes of my short film are going to take place in the woods, these are the woods that I took my pictures for my music magazine during AS media so I am familiar with the areas in which the filming is going to take place. These scenes are going to have to take place out of school hours as the lighting of the scene is going to have to be in darker meaning the scene will have to take place during the evening. This may have to take over two different nights depending on how long it takes as I am going to be using natural lighting and wont be able to film past a certain time due to it being too light. While editing I will be able to make the scene lighter however I don't want it to be too obvious they I have over edited the scene a lot and made it a lot lighter.

In order to make sure that all of the locations that I have chosen to film are going to be safe I am going to be doing risk assessments of the locations before filming takes place.

Costume:
The only characters that needs a set costume during my film is Aaron and Megan. Aaron is going to be wearing all black, with his hood up on the hoodie, Megan is going to be wearing a very plain outfit like black jeans and a grey top or jumper.  The three characters are going to be wearing their everyday clothing however they need to ensure they are going to be wearing the same outfit every time that filming takes place so once I have created my filming schedule and all of the times that I have included are okay will them they will known what they are going to be doing and when.