For Researching and Planning my partner and I organised to research different things. For example, my partner had looked up where the local hospital is to ask if we can borrow and use their room to film (as we had scenes which had to be done in a hospital). Ofcourse, this was a no no, so I had came up with a solution of using a room and buy hospital props such as the canuala pipe and wires to make it look like a patients room in a hospital. So after coming up with this idea, I decided to research the props on Amazon and eBay to buy the cheapest and see if they are any packs or sets. I found this amazing set which would have been perfect for our film, in the set, there was a canuala pipe, a green hospital gown, an oxygen mask and a blood bag. However, as it was being shipped from China, the shipping would take 30 days or longer, and we could not wait that long to start filming, so instead we have just bought a canuala pipe on its own from a British company and tried to use our own belongings to set up a patient looking room.
I've also researched how the patient looks when they are in the hospital. Of course with our own knowledge, a patient wouldn't be dressed in a glittery dress with heels, or have the perfect hair. But, to build our confidence and also to adjust the skin color and perhaps dark circles, we have watched some episodes from a British drama programme "Casualty". I received some good examples of patients appearance, which we have used in our film. For example: the patient looks very pale and has not make up on whatsoever and messy, and also very tired looking, drowsy eyes and quite slow movements, so we have done the same in Nostalgia also.
It was very hard to set up the room to look like a hospital room and we only had 1hr to set it all up, (due to lack of organisatioin) and also as my partner was acting in this scene, I found it quite hard to handle everything on my own with getting the right lighting, attaching all of the props, making sure the camera setting was correct and the shots to use when when, where and which scene. Another problem I faced was my partners acting skills, of course I wasn't expecting the best performance to win an Oscar however it took very long and we had to shot the same scene again and again because I felt like there was something missing. However, after about and hour, I saw some improvements and was able to film amazing footages. When we have finished filming, while my partner and other actors involved were tiding up the room, I quickerly went downstairs to upload the clip and chose the best scenes I've captured.
This was not planned so I feared that while I'm not there, they wouldn't know what to do and where to put back the school properties we've used. However, thanks to my partner as she has explained it to them, it all went smoothly.
For other researched I've made was the
To plan for our film, we had to have particular weather and time of the day.
To film the footage of the couple holding hands, I had looked up the weather forecast to make sure its a sunny day and not raining, if it was raining we wouldn't be able to film as they are on a date and the camera we are using will eventually break because of the rain drops. So we decided to film there footage on the sunniest/warmest day of the week and managed to organise for everyone to be free on that day who are in the film.
I've also made a calendar and coloured in the dates when we are filming and editing.
The colour conventions:
Green - Filming inside (school)
Pink - Filming outside
Blue - Editing
By using this calendar it made it easier for us to organise when to film and when to edit and also have the avidity to plan ahead so the cast f the film can also be prepared and know beforehand.
Also, it was important to have the calendar sheet with you at all times as if you forget it on the day of filming of editing, you'd forget what you had to do and waste a day out of your filming or editing.
