Group meeting 3

After a meeting with Lee we have found out that we can have access to a room at a nursing home in Sheffield and Lee knows the manager well and she is completely fine with us filming there and using a room as there are no residents on the ground floor. We have been and visited the room to see if it will work well as it's only about 10 minutes away in the taxi and we have all agreed that this room works a lot better than travelling to Halifax and having 6 of us staying at Oliver's house. We can be there as many days of the week as we want which is really good to know and less stressful than trying to get everything filmed in little time. 

Meeting Jonathan

Louise put a notice out on a website called StarNow which is a site for actors to put their profiles on for acting jobs. We were successful and had a response from Jonathan who is in his early 40's and lived about 40 mins away from Sheffield and has had a lot of experience working on student films which made us all feel more comfortable. He came to the uni for a meeting with us so we could show him the script and get to know him. Another thing he told Louise about was that he actually used to suffer from panic attacks, which he didn't mind talking to us about and using his experiences for the film. When we met him we didn't want to bring up the fact he used to suffer from them himself as we weren't sure if it would be rude or not, however it was one of the first things Jonathan talked to us about which was good as he is clearly comfortable about it to talk to us about. He was also able to help out with a lot of the props we needed and was available at the times we preferably want to film which was great. He will be supplying his own food but would like travel expenses to be paid which is completely fair as he does have a while to travel here. Overall we are looking forward to working with him. 

Drama students in lesson

In this weeks lesson 3 drama students were there to read through our scripts and act out a scene. When reading our script they were really helpful in how to structure it correctly and gave us a lot of tips on this. They also gave us some positive comments on the script as there was a lot of in depth direction which is really helpful for the actor. When it came to acting out a scene we had the male student act it out since we were looking for a male actor anyway, and we decided to get him to do the panic attack scene as this is going to be the most important part of our film. He was actually really good and again gave us some ideas on how to film the panic attack. Overall I think that this exercise was a good thing to have us do and having an actor read through the script really helped us a lot. We also took the students contact details and considered using him for the film if we were unsuccessful with finding a more mature actor. 

Group meeting 2

To be ready for the pitch tomorrow we had another group meeting today to build more on the idea. We discussed what sort of actor would be ideal and although Louise will be putting a post on the facebook group for the drama students just in case, we do want to try and get an older male preferably in their 30's. This is because we think it would work better with the film as it could look more professional, it would also mean we can add more to the script as he would have more life experience and Oli likes the idea of him being a former solider, which will be hinted at in the film. The fact he used to be a solider also makes the audience think that it could be something that happened when he was out fighting that caused him to be scared of the outside. But we won't actually reveal to the audience what caused his Agoraphobia. A problem we're going to have to try and get around is that we a bedroom but aren't allowed to film in student accommodation. Oli had the idea of filming in his bedroom at home at Halifax, which is our only option at the moment so we're having to work the script around his room layout. This also means it would be preferable to get an actor who lives nearer to Halifax as it is going to be expensive travelling there and finding accommodation.  

Research into Agoraphobia

After discussing that our film was going to be about someone suffering from Agoraphobia I have decided to do some research into this condition to see if there is any help on what to build our character like and their surroundings. I found that the definition of Agoraphobia is that it is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, or help wouldn't be available if things go wrong. A person with Agoraphobia might be scared of: 

• travelling on public transport
• visiting a shopping centre
• leaving home (which is what our character is going to be dealing with)

To help with our panic attack scene I have also been looking into what people who suffer from Agoraphobia do when they find themselves in a stressful situation and they usually experience symptoms of a panic attack such as:

• rapid heartbeat
• rapid breathing (hyperventilating) 
• feeling hot and sweaty
• feeling sick

Drama Group Meeting 1

For the drama project it was a requirement to work with people you didn't work with on the previous project 'Documentary'. I am in a group with Oliver Guy, Hannah Grencis, Rose Ryk, Adam Young and Louise Bailey. Earlier today we had our first group meeting where we discussed any ideas we had to create a drama with the theme 'journey'. Oliver had an idea of doing a film on someone who suffered from Agoraphobia, it would all be filmed in one room which would be this persons bedroom that he/she would never leave, and the journey would be a journey in their mind on how far they have come with their fear and whether or not they would eventually leave the room. At first it was difficult to get the concept of journey to make sense that that was what the theme was, but we all agreed that it worked as a journey through the mind and we have chosen this idea to build on for the film. We also delegated roles to the group and Oli is director, Louise is producer, Rose is cinematographer, Hannah is sound recordist, Adam in sound editor and I will be the visual editor.