Now that Emelia and I have narrowed down our choices to York and/or Lincoln, we need to start to think about our specific locations so that we can ask for permission and get the process underway. At first, Emelia and I planned to have a different location to represent each section of the basis of our film – the saying “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.” However, we were struggling to find locations that were both possible to film at and also clear representations of each section. Therefore, Emelia and I changed our idea to have five or six aesthetically pleasing locations that would have an object relating to the saying hidden somewhere within. By doing so, Emelia and I opened up our choses of areas to film hugely. Rather than simply having our film based in one of our houses and gardens, similarly to what we have stuck to in the past, Emelia and I chose to challenge ourselves when it came to our final project within the Media Studies A Level Course. We therefore wanted to film in as many locations as possible (without making the film seem too cluttered!). Here are our first thoughts. When discussing the various possible locations with Emelia, I created this mind map in order to show what we were discussing…
Firstly Emelia and I had to think about a location where the protagonist could find the note in the bottle. At first Emelia and I were almost certain that we wanted her to find this on the beach when walking her dog; this is because we have seen this in Romance films before and we think that it would set up the tone and ethos for our short film perfectly. However, other people then explained how this may make the whole storyline seem too far fetched and implausible. Therefore, Emelia and I came up with our second idea of having the bottle delivered to her home. We thought that maybe the main character could be going about her everyday routine and then open her front door to the message and map in a bottle on her doorstep! After a brief discussion, Emelia and I decided that we preferred the idea of our main protagonist character stumbling across the bottle on the beach. Although we are aware that this is fairly far fetched, we have decided that this does not matter because it is a Romance film and so therefore strange and unconventional circumstances are made plausible!
We then had to think about a place for the protagonist character to find the “Something Old” object. Although Emelia and I have decided to have the objects representing the wedding tradition rather than the location, we discussed having locations that vaguely suggest the part of the saying. We thought about doing this as we feel as though this will emphasise the relation to the traditional saying more to the audience, therefore hopefully making it easier to understand! Going along these lines, Emelia and I first came up with the idea of having a Museum as our “Something Old” location. This directly relates to the “Old” part of the riddle and so would hopefully emphasise the nature of the chosen object! We then spoke further and came up with the idea of filming in either a Church or Cathedral. We preferred this decision to the previous one as we feel as though using an aesthetic location such as a Church will give us more opportunity to create some beautiful shots.
Emelia and I then began to discuss ideas for the location hiding the “Something New” object. We found this decision the hardest out of all of them! At first we envisaged having an all white, fresh, clean, simple, chic location made of entirely glass… a location with a pure feng shui feel. Although this would have been extremely aesthetically pleasing in our shots, Emelia and I could not think of such a building near to us that would happily allow us to film! Therefore, we moved onto a more realistic idea! We then thought about filming in a cinema. Although cinemas have been around for years and years, Emelia and I feel as though the relation to technology could help emphasise the idea of the “Something New” object being “NEW”!. Also, there is a cinema in my local village that I did work experience at in the Summer. If we ask nicely, I am almost certain that they will be happy to help!
We then had to discuss a location for the “Something Borrowed” object. Our immediate thought was filming in a library! This is because libraries are literally made for people to be able to borrow books! Therefore, the object could be a specific book that the protagonist character is borrowing from the library. However, in order to make this aesthetically pleasing, Emelia and I would have to find a fairly grand library and ask for their permission to film! As we continued to discuss possible locations, Emelia and I then came up with the idea of using a park or commons area to film in. Although this does not directly link to the area being known for borrowing, we feel as though we would be able to capture some pretty shots! Finally, we thought about filming the third scene in the protagonist character’s home. Once again this does not directly relate to the idea of something being borrowed, unless the idea of a mortgage is related to borrowing (!), however we feel as though by using one of our houses we could be fairly creative with our shots. This is because we would have freedom with our time and so could spend a lot of time and effort into improving all of our shots until they are perfect! Out of the three given ideas, Emelia and I prefer the first idea as this will hopefully directly relate to the object and will emphasise the basis of the storyline being on the wedding tradition to the audience.
Emelia and I then had to discuss the final placing of an object to do with our rhyme. When thinking of locations to do with “Something Blue” we firstly came up with the idea of filming at an aquarium. We thought about this because in aquariums everything is coloured blue in order to represent the sea! As well as this, we feel as though we could film some really pleasing to the eye shots with the fish swimming in the background! Also, we could travel to the Deep in Hull as this is a huge aquarium that is reasonably close to us. Before getting too excited about the idea, Emelia and I then thought about the practical problems to filming in an aquarium. Firstly, it would be hard to find an area of the aquarium with no there people around. Secondly, it would be extremely difficult to control the continuity of shots with fish swimming around in the background. Finally, aquariums are fairly dark most of the time and so it would be difficult to see what is happening as we highly doubt we would be allowed to use the lights as they would be too bright for the fish and would ruin the experience for other paying customers. Therefore Emelia and I moved onto our second idea. We then thought about filming at the beach as the sea is blue and we could capture some pretty shots. However, we would not be happy to do this if the very first location that we would be using would be the beach as we do not want to repeat a location! Therefore, Emelia and I came up with a third idea. Our third, and final, idea was to film in a blue shop. For example, if this were to be a blue clothing shop then the item could be “Something Blue” from the window display! We have decided to go with this idea as we feel it is most practical and would represent the idea of the object being “Something Blue”.
Finally, Emelia and I had to discuss ideas for a location for our final scene. We want this scene to come across as romantic as possible. We came up with one idea for this but are really happy with this idea and will take this forward into our filming. Our final idea for a possible location is to film at a restaurant. In this restaurant, Emelia and I would set up a table for two with a mass of rose petals and tea lights. In the centre of the table would be an engagement box and two glasses of red wine! We feel as though this will look beautiful to the eye and also we feel as though we could really go heavy on using stereotypical mise en scene aspects for a Romance film.
Our next task is to look for potential locations to film in before deciding on our final six and asking for permission!
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