Initial issues that we faced when casting for the opening titles was a lack of availability of people on the course or people that the DOP and I know for filming. After failed attempts of casting other year members or family members who were not available for the filming day for the teacher role, we decided to use Jordan Parker from our year and dress him up to look older. This was a sensible decision as his availability matched ours and he has experience in acting in other UCA projects.
Prior to filming, the sound technician of the studio production helped us in casting her sibling for the role of the student, however due to complications on the morning of filming, they were unable to make it to the shoot. As we had four student extra roles, we decided to cast Adele Faldetta in our year as the student, due to her experience and realistically young appearance.
Our four remaining extras consisted of two course members of our year and a member of the third year to create a classroom environment and to ensure no empty space on set.
Set Dressing & Props
Dressing the lecture room as a classroom consisted of...
- Clearing the room of all furniture aside from one chair
- Placing four chairs with desks and one large desk table
- Placing a whiteboard
- Putting up rules posters and Teach 'Em A Lesson posters
- Placing a clock rested on the wall
- Placing teacher desk décor such a globe, stationary and books
- Placing student décor on the chair desks consisting of exercise sheets, notepads and stationary
Props that were used in filming were...
- Horrid Histories books
- Homework sheets
- A teacher's cane
- A notepad covered in doodles
- A lollipop
- A Werther's Original sweet
Costume
The detail that went into the teacher's costume consisted of detailed make-up to make the teacher character appear to be older, a fake moustache to also add to that effect and an old fashioned suit, tie, robe and cane.
The costume for all students consisted of a typical school uniform including a white shirt, navy tie, black trousers and hair in plaits or pigtails for girls.
The DOP and I felt that there wasn't a need for either of the costumes to be overly dramatic or comical
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| An example of the aged make-up appearance and costume |
Script & Shooting
The lengthiest part of shooting was setting up due to allowing a lot of time for set dressing, applying make-up to the teacher and for everyone to be in costume, familiar with the script and shoot to be held and to be ready on set. While I wrote the official script, the DOP had created a shot list for filming which allowed the process to go smoothly and get the exact shots needed for each part of the script.
A new technique that was used was using a green screen light ring camera attachment with a reflective green screen instead of setting up a green screen set. This was a new piece of equipment that I wanted to try using and was also a very big time saver on set for one singular shot, with great results. I found testing this piece of kit to be a great learning experience and gave a great end result.
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| Light Ring camera attachment |
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| Original clip using the light ring and reflective screen |
What worked...
- Our actors proved to be fantastic in their roles, especially as a last minute situation
- The shots were well organised, connected well with the style of the script and consisted of a variety of shots
- The use of a green screen reflector and light ring was a great learning experience and had an effective result
What I would have done differently...
- If we'd had more time and accessibility I would have used a real school classroom with a hired young actress for the student role and a hired middle aged teacher
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