Animatic

I have finished producing my animatic. I am not completely happy with it because I feel that it was slightly rushed. 

I am not the best at drawing and so animatics have never been my favourite thing to do but I did the best I could and I am fairly pleased with the way the pictures look as I think that they represent the shots quite well. Whilst thinking of what shots to show I tried to think about different editing techniques. I have tried to use lots of continuity editing within my animatic as this is what I will be using in my opening sequence. 

The first editing technique I had used is match-on-action:

I have also used match-on-action a bit further into my animatic as Grace opens the fridge door. This enables me to show the same thing happening without it having to last too long as one shot making it boring for the viewer. 

I would also like to use jump cuts as Bethany's tablets are shown. This will make the shot of her tablets less boring and it will be changing quite quickly but it will also still be the same shot!

I have decided not to use music in my opening sequence as I think it will be more effective if I use diegetic sound. I am using the sound of Grace scrubbing the door over the titles too as I think this will be effective and I think that it adds more tension to them. The rest of the sound I have will also be diegetic sound. The sounds will be things like the toaster, the fridge door and the sound of Grace pouring the milk. These everyday sounds and shots will allow the audience to connect to the characters life and so will make the story more hard hitting.

This is the final animatic. I'm not as pleased with it as I would have liked but I know when I'm filming how I want everything to look and I know what I do and don't like about my animatic so when it comes to editing my opening sequence I can refer to this and it will still help me.

Location

I am using three locations for my opening sequence. The first location is at the front of my house. I am using this because I need a front door which can have spastic sprayed across it. Also, social realist films do not need to be shot in really nice locations. In fact, they need the opposite. The front of my house can be made to look quite grotty and so this will work for the genre. 


Another scene will show a young girls room. This room is girly and so show's that it is a girls room. The room is not run down and grubby like a conventional room for a social realist film however I have decided that because my story line can effect anyone and isn't quite so stereotypical my locations don't need to be too conventional. 


There will also be some shots in the kitchen. The kitchen also isn't too conventional however I am going to make it look more conventional by having different dirty dishes and things around. This will also show that the mother doesn't really have much time to do anything because Bethany takes up a lot of her time. 

Props

I will need various props in my opening sequence. 

The first two props that will be seen will be a scrubbing brush and a bucket. These props are simple yet very important as they are needed so that Grace can scrub spastic off of her front door. 

I will also need a board to place over the windows on my front door so they look like they have been smashed and then I can spray spastic over the board on my front door. 

I will also need lots of different tablets. I am showing these to show that Bethany has to take many tablets every day, this would also raise questions within the audiences minds as they will wonder who's tablets they are and why they have to take them.

Costume

In my opening sequence I am only showing one character. Because of this I will only need one costume. The character shown is Grace. She is a young 12 year old girl so I would like her clothes to show this. Obviously as this is a social realist film her clothes cannot be top of the range and branded as expensive. I would like Grace to be wearing dark jeans. This is a simple item of clothing and so it cannot make Grace look rich or poor. 
For her shoes I would like her to wear simple welly boots. These are also an item that cannot make her look rich or poor and they are fairly common so they will not stand out too much. She will also be wearing a sweatshirt which has stripes on. This sweatshirt is girly and quite pretty so Grace will look feminine and her clothing will not make her look rich or extremely poor. 

Back to the original idea

I went to see Mrs Young again today with a letter to give to Brendan's parents. She had spoken to Brendan and unfortunately he does not like talking about his disability. Obviously I understand and it's absolutely fine. My original idea is fine and hopefully will work well I just think that my opening sequence would be far more effective if Brendan had been able to be in my opening sequence.

A change in my idea. Again.

Yet again I have changed my idea...

After speaking to my teacher about my idea we both felt it would be far more effective if I could actually show someone in my opening sequence who has Cerebral Palsy.

Mr Gower and I discussed some possibilities and we thought that I could either study Cerebral Palsy very carefully and have someone act as Bethany or I could find someone with Cerebral Palsy who would be willing to be in my opening sequence. 

We decided that to have someone act as Bethany would be very difficult. I do not want my opening sequence to be insensitive and I don not want any confusion over what the aim of my opening is. So, I do not think that using an actor would be suitable. 

There is a young boy in year 9 who has Cerebral Palsy. This could be a possibility but obviously I will need to speak to him and his parents to ask for their permission. 

I have been into one of Brendan's lessons just so that I can see the way he behaves and I will be writing a letter to his parents tomorrow. 

Storyboarding

Finally I have decided on, what I hope is the beginning of my final idea.

Shots

Obviously the first few shots will be distribution logo's because my film is a British film and so would need lots of funding. Next I will have a medium close-up of Gracie scrubbing the front door. This shot wont last too long but it will be shown for long enough for the audience to see that the word spastic is written on the door. This shot will be cut up and in between the shot there will be the opening titles displayed on a black background. I would then like three shots to be shown of Gracie putting her brush into the bucket. Match-on-action could be used. After this the title of the film could be shown. I am unsure as to how I would like the rest of my opening sequence to look like however I am sure that as I get further into the storyboarding process I will think of new things.

Sound

The sound throughout the majority of these shots will be the scrubbing of the door and the sound of Gracie putting her hand into the bucket of water. I think I would also like to use a voice over. Although I don't want to give too much away I do want the audience to know that Bethany, Gracie's older sister, has Cerebral Palsy.

Editing

At this moment in time I haven't thought much about editing. I think that many of my edits will be straight cuts as I feel that my story needs to be clear and clean which I think will be made better by straight cuts.