Characters Audience Feedback

We spoke to the same Male & Female pair that we had for narrative feedback so that they understood the development of the film, we asked them this time about our choice of actors and tips they had.
They thought that;

"the choice of mother and daughter is apt, it should work well I guess, using an actual family"

"I think having a young child will be hard but if you spend some time working on their relationship and explaining what the child has to do, should be good"

"The best thing to do is rehearse as much as possible, it's the only way you'll get the effect you want, it's great but using kids is hard"

"I can't wait to see it! Both the actors are so pretty, hope it goes well"

From their feedback it's clear that we need to rehearse 'as much as possible' and focus everything on the child, something we definitely plan to do! 

Actor's Relationships

By using a mother and daughter to play the leads in our short film we hope to capture that relationship with greater ease. Rachael & Amelie hopefully will be able to create the tense relationship that we need on screen, by having Amelie's mother there, there will be a responsible parent to discipline her if needed and help explain to her what we need her to do.

We feel they are an appropriate pair because they are both blonde and attractive, we want the audience to see beauty within the situation as well as upset and sympathy, Amelie isn't a bad child just a sad result of her disability. You can see a clear resemblance between them and because of their relationship there are many photos of them documenting times when both were younger so in the photos around the house and on the windowsill we can see the progression of time and a far younger Emma.

Deciding Actors

We've chosen to switch the script to a combination of Amelie & Rachael. The pair are already mother/daughter so they know each other well and we don't have to try and establish that relationship on screen, it's simply there. It also means they will be more comfortable working with each other. Unfortunately although Adam looked the part he was too tall to play a young child and also had never met Rachael so we would have had to spend time working on their relationship during the filming period.

The choice to change characters from boy to girl makes little difference to the story or how we film, the activities we've chosen and way we're filming should be very androgynous and therefore this change in character hopefully won't complicate things too much. 

We are both happy with our choices of actors and look forward to filming in the next weeks. 

HH

4 | So Far

So far, we've decided to change the character of the young boy to a young girl. Rachael, the actress playing our mother has a daughter age 5 who would play the part perfectly and who I know well so would be able to work with easily. Also their mother-daughter relationship is there so it wouldn't take a lot of work at all to get them to the relationship we want to see on camera. It also gives Theo & I the freedom of good actors, we don't need to worry about covering up bad acting with clever camera-work we can simply film very good acting.
HH

Script : First Draft

Here we've consolidated our Short Film narrative into a finalised script that details everything happening in our short film. We have separated the sections into dialogue and acting direction. Whilst also trying to provide an idea of what's happening around them. It should read as much as a story as it does a piece of direction. 

Script 1 (stageplay) from Harry Hancock
HH

Actress: Rachael Watkins: Emma

Rachael Watkins

37yrs

5"6

Large, Blue Eyes 

Tanned,  White Skin

Looks Younger Than She Is

Medium Length, Blonde Hair

Rachael is a working mother of one 5 year old. She's worked as an actress for a large part of her life, working in plays mainly but has taken lead parts in plays such as 'The Deep Blue Sea' by Terence Rattigan.

She has experience with children and has worked for a children's music company that puts on classes for children under 5 around local schools. She has lots of smart work outfits, as well as casual clothes so can will have suitable costume for the film.

 

HH

Actress: Amelie Stanijic: Girl

Amelie Stanijic

5yrs

3"8

Large, Brown Eyes

Long, Blonde Hair

Fair Skin

Amelie is a young girl, in yr1 at school. Her mother is Rachael Watkins, the actress playing Emma. She enjoys dressing up, playing with Lego & Toy Story and watching Shrek. She is very bright and can clearly take instruction.

I have no doubt she'll be able to act well for the film, especially as the mother and daughter relationship on screen is real. She has lots of clothes, girly and not-girly. She also has dressing up outfits that would give us the option of having her dressed in some more exciting clothes that an autistic/OCD child might like to wear.  

HH

Actor: Adam Finn: Jack

Adam Finn

14yrs

5"4

Slim Build 

Large, Brown Eyes

Dark Brown, Long Hair

Pale White Skin

Young Looking Features 

Well Defined Facial Structure & Cheekbones

Adam looks slightly younger than he is and so would be a good playing age for someone age 12. He has experience with autistic children from volunteering with the group Fun Fizzical, a thursday evening playgroup for young disabled children.

Hopefully this experience will aid him in being able to play the role of Jack although we do actually plan to leave almost all of the acting down to camerawork.

He has very clear eyes which as a character makes him more innocent and believable. His messy hair also works for the OCD nature of the child, he hasn't allowed his mother to cut his hair in a long time.

3| So Far

So far, we've collated ideas and now come up with a clear storyline and ideas of how we want the film to look. We've done summaries of both characters and described their backgrounds in detail so we can brief the actors and give a clear idea of what we're trying to create and where our characters have come from. We've explored mood & tone and are thinking carefully

This week we are finishing our location ideas, filming a recce, finding our actors and screen-testing them then at the end of the week, deciding our actors. At the end of the week we will start the shot list and have several meetings about how we both see the film shot by shot.

Character Backgrounds

Emma's background is slightly troubled, she grew up on a nice council estate in Kent, however it wasn't a privileged upbringing, certainly nothing compared to her wealth now. She worked hard and relentlessly through her late teens and twenties, now age 36 she holds a top position in a central London   management company. She's head of international communications and speaks several languages, this is how she initially got the job.

Aged 24 she became pregnant with a boy, Jack who is now 12. The pregnancy was an accident but as the baby grew she became very attached and couldn't abort or give up the baby, so decided to keep it with a lot of help from her parents. The father was an old work colleague who she didn't want the boy to see, he was to immature for the child's own good. 

Somehow Emma managed to continue working and evolving, thanks to the help of her parents with childcare. Aged 5, Jack was diagnosed with mild-high autism, a form that means he is highly intellectual in some areas but in others has a mind of someone several years younger than him.

Now they live together in a substantial suburban house in Greater London, the house is a large, typically middle class house. The house is modern, newly designed and a statement of Emma's wealth and success.


Jack attends a local school, getting Jack settled here was one of the hardest things Emma's had to do, she had to stay with him in the classroom well into the first few lessons, every morning for nearly 6 months.

Now Jack is relatively settled but cannot really be left alone, Emma often has to deal with fits or outbursts that he has. She struggles greatly trying to balance him and work now that he is older, her parents are frailer and less able to help with looking after him. She employs a nanny but Jack doesn't like her very much. There's little connection between them and she has a lot to learn about Jack's habits, likes and dislikes.

Outbursts and situations like the one we experience in our Short Film occur weekly and are testing Emma to her limit.

HH