Filming #4

Today we filmed the 1920s scene. We went to Grace's grandmother's house because she had decor we felt was representative/we could dress up to be representative of the age. We used break time and one of our free periods to go down into New Malden and shoot, taking many many bags of clothes and equipment with us.

In general it went well, also I didn't feel like we got enough close ups nor that the scene was storyboarded to the right depth. However, looking back over the footage I think it looks suitably authentic and the shoot generally went well.

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COSTUME:For our 1920s scene we had put so much care into the costumes of the era. The four of us having previously studied 'The Great Gatsby', a novel set in this era, meant we were all knowledgeable about the fashion at the time and we had some great conversations about the best way to represent this. We wanted to dress up as high end 1920s women, as not only would this be a lot easier and more fun, but we could bring together the mise en scene for it much better aswell. I was also lucky in the fact that my family had kept an extremely old, handstitched velvet coat from the 1920s which belonged to my great-grandmother, which we also used in the scene.

MISE EN SCENE:
To properly connote that this was the 1920s, mise-en-scene was also imperative. Luckily, Ellen's grandparents owned a silver service from the era, which was the centerpiece of the table in our scene and really brought the whole shoot together.

During the 1920s the Prohibition was also in place: alcohol was illegal and only the higher classes with connections to gangsters could get alcholic drinks. We had dressed like the upper class, so it only made sense we followed this through, using the silver martini goblets and a cleverly placed Champagne box in the background to connote this.

Filming #3/Meeting #11

Our influence: Jane Fonda's aerobics

For our third set of filming, we did a 1980s scene. Because we weren't outright telling the audience of the different eras in our video, we needed to make it as stereotypical and obvious as possible. This led to the idea of doing an aerobics scene, as it allowed us to do bright make up and wear leggings and leg warmers. We were influenced by some of the aerobics scenes in 1980s videos, such as Jane Fonda, and tried to replicate this to the best of our ability.

I felt that our shoot went fairly well, but I'm worried that we got too distracted by the fun of doing aerobics and may not have got the shots we needed. We also encountered the problem of time: as this was done during the school day (which was necessary to secure so many extras), we had to prep for, film, and change back from our shoot within 55 minutes. We did quite well with keeping in this time band, but I feel we focused too much on this and getting our extras to look good and feel comfortable, and this may have then worsened the overall shoot. Thankfully, the shoot was done in school with people that attend Coombe with us, meaning that if necessary reshoots are possible.

 

 

COSTUME:
Again, costumes were absolutely essential in order to ensure the scene looked it's best. We looked at aerobics videos, such as those of Jane Fonda (above), given that she was iconic of the time. It was this that showed us legwarmers, coloured tights, leotards, bright eyeshadow and lipstick as well as denim jackets were a necessity. I think overall we did look very 1980s-esque, and I am proud of the costume.  



MISE EN SCENE:
The mise-en-scene for our scene was also very good. Our school gym was the most obvious place to film, and we were really lucky that it also had mirrors along the entire length of one wall, which would have been perfect for an aerobics studio back in the 1980s.

We also used some trampolines in our video, as we felt this just livened things up and are also a really useful exercise tool. As well as this, the trampolines also helped to motivate our cast as they provided a bit of fun.