R&P post 15: Our planned filming location/set design/props

Our planned filming locations

For the house scenes, we plan to shoot in Alex's house, which is located in East Finchley. For the nature scenes, we plan to shoot at Bowyer's Water, located in Hertfordshire outside of London.

Georgina took photographs of the area surrounding the lake and shared it with our group so that we all could visualise the setting and could, therefore, come up with ideas to suit a location. I made a gif of the photos that she took, which can be viewed below:

While planning our opening sequence, one of the first decisions that we made was that we would film at Bowyer's Water as it is located near Georgina and we all agreed that the lake and the forest offered extremely aesthetic scenery. We also decided to film in Alex's house as we needed interior shots to establish Craig's character in his daily routine and his living space. Despite being closer to the lake, Georgina's house would be too small to film in, which would affect the positioning and movement of the camera. It would also be hard to bring props and dress Georgina's room to look like one of a teenage boy's as we had a limited amount of time. In general, it would have been impractical to film in her house. Alex's house was large enough to film in and his room was already a typical teenage boy's room, meaning that we could easily bring props to enhance Craig's character.

Our set design and props list

Props - Craig's notebook

As a group, we decided on the props that we would use to bring out Craig's quirks and explore his interests. After establishing that Craig was introverted, we brought about the idea of the notebook, which Craig would carry around with him throughout the opening sequence. The notebook allows him to reflect and express himself in a way that he can't do with other people. We got vintage film posters and used a vinyl record player that Alex already owned to show Craig's artistic creativity. I think that the props that we used really reinforced Craig's personality and brought his character to life.

Using our group ideas, Georgina constructed a set list which incorporated props. It is organised in terms of location with a picture and description of the set. The props are identified in the last column, which we circulated around the group so that we could bring the props to the shoot.

Overall the locations, set and props that we used worked well for the aesthetics of our shoot. I think that a negative point is that we chose to film at the lake early in the morning so that we could catch the sunrise and have the optimum aesthetics for our shoot with the sun over the lake. We didn't take into account the temperature at that time of day so our group members and actors were freezing cold during the shoot. Despite this, we kept our morale up and had fun during the shoot.