First Draft

This is the first draft of our title sequence.

Sound Design

Making a final decision on our non diegetic title music was an extraordinarily difficult and tedious task, as we wanted to follow teen film conventions whilst also representing the surfing aspect of our film. We searched lots of copyright free music sites including bensound.com and eventually agreed upon a song called Where I Am From that we found on youtube audio library This site was very useful as you could filter your results based on things such as genre and mood. Our final choice on music we felt ticked all of the boxes and create the perfect chill atmosphere.

We also decided upon using diegetic ambient sounds as they're a convention of teen films due to the fact they create a realistic effect. For us, the beach ambient sounds also help attract our target audience of people living in coastal areas as it'll make them feel at home. Most of our audio was created on set but we used Foley for the phone ringing and we recorded it during the editing stage of our film opening, due to the fact it was hard to hear if attempting to record it whilst shooting.

Film Shoot Reflection

We went prepared with our storyboard and shot list, but on the day we had to improvise some features we did not consider beforehand. We had watched video footage of the walk down to the beach and been shown an image of the inside of the shop as preparation, but hadn't actually been to see the location in person until the actual day (a major planning flaw). We had been unable to get our hands on one of our props, the open/close door sign, but resolved this by deciding to settle for having the graphics show up on the small circular window on the door. For our actors name we planned to have them show up on surfboards as the actor flicked through them. Instead, we had them look up at different surfboards placed around a part of the shop we weren't aware of initially. We also had an issue with the radio, as it wasn't brought on the day. Instead, we figured it was more common for teenagers to listen to music via a mobile device, so used my iPhone as the prop for the "music by" title to be displayed on. The rest went according to plan until we were filming the part where a car was meant to drive past, and realised it was a quiet road. We improvised by filming the scene anyway and agreeing that that the car wasn't necessary to the shot. We also found filming the actors feet difficult as it needed to be a point of view shot, so we got our actress to temporarily hold the camera whilst I pulled focus.
During the editing process which Sam is working on with my help, we discovered that we couldn't use a long take of the shop as it lasted too long, so instead changed it to loads of short shots with straight cuts in between to make the transitions as smooth as possible and practically unnoticeable so as not to distract attention away from the credits being shown on the screen.

Film Shoot Evidence

Writing one of the titles

Photo credit: Sam Scott

The first shot is of me writing the credits for Production Designer with chalk as me and Sam made a joint decision to not have it edited on afterwards. I attempted to copy the font used for the other graphics as much as possible, which took a few attempts.

The other shots are of me using the steadicam and filming the outside shots of our character walking down to the beach. 

Equipment List

• Canon 5D
• Filming lens
• Steadicam
• Tripod (just in case)
• Zoom mic

Cast and Crew List

Cast

• Jessica Jenkins - Brooklyn Ash
• Callum Rickard - Harry Bloomer
• Lizzie Gibbon - Sasha
• Pete Abell - as himself
• Pete - Richy
• Nigel Semmens - surfboard shaper

Crew

• Director and Cinematographer - Katie Price (me)
• Sound Recordist and Editor - Samuel Scott

Locations List

• ·      Kings Surf (Surf School)
• ·      Watergate Bay
• ·      Mawgan Porth
• ·      Towan Beach
• ·      Ocean Magic Surfboard Factory
• ·      The Escape Surf Shop

All of our locations are based in and around a coastal town called Newquay. We made the joint decision to shoot here as it’s nearby, picturesque and is well known around here for its good surf. There are surf shops littered around the town and more surf schools than I could count on both hands. This location also has the advantage of us being very familiar with it, and therefore being able to accurately plan our shots for each shooting day.

We aim to use the surf school to interview two surf teachers for an interesting yet relevant and effective narration over the top of our opening. Rather than using actors for this we felt real surfers would work a lot better as they have a particular sort of lingo and can speak more naturally. We are more fussed about the interviews than the actual location, although upon googling the school we were relived to find there was at least a suitable background for the interviews. However had this not been the case, we would have just filmed down at the beach instead to keep it relevant to our genre. The Surfboard Factory is for our surfboard shaping footage, chosen as it’s close to the beaches we also want to film at. We are unfamiliar with this location but we are only aiming to get some close ups and focus on the shaping of the surfboard, rather than the background. We want to film at the Escape Surf Shop as this suits our beach theme and the mise-en-scene appropriately fits in with the genre. One on our teachers is friends with the shop owner therefore granting us hours to film there, and our teacher was able to photograph the shop before we arrived at the location. Watergate Bay, Towan Beach and Mawgan Porth were chosen due to their excellent surf and general aesthetically pleasing scenery. With the beaches our aim is to travel over whenever there’s good weather or when we go to the surf school and shaper shop to ensure we get as much good surfing footage as possible. At Towan and Watergate Bay we will also film shots of our actors/actresses walking down to the beach as the walks down to them again suit the beach theme, as you can see the sea. Watergate Bay is even better for this as we can film along the cliff face.

We felt that these locations could be justified as they better represent our Cornish/British target audience by linking to Higson’s theory of regional identity as we follow the stereotypes of Cornwall being an area of outstanding natural beauty where young people live a beach lifestyle that is, ‘Trouble and fun,’ which also links into Osgerby’s 1998 theory to represent our target audience. 

In other words, we're deciding to use a well-known Cornish beaches and show the route down to those popular surfing spots which makes the film feel personal to our target audience who will buy into the world we are creating as it is familiar to them which fits into Barthe’s theory as it allows the audience to enjoy the film as we have made it a believable setting.

Watergate Bay

King Surf School

Mawgan Porth

Inside of the Escape Surf Shop

Walk to Towan

Town Beach