Cinematography & Editing

We started our film opening with a long panning shot as it identifies the setting straight away. We then go into a high angle because it identifies the character and what shes doing. We then go into a medium shot of her so that the audience can see shes reading and see her facial expressions which is important because her expression changes when see sees somone at the gate. At this point we were going to have a low angle of her getting up but it made her look powerful and to strong which wouldn't fit with the look of vulnerability that we wanted. We had to re shot the medium shot because it was shaky and cut off the top of her head so the second time we used the tripod to steady it.

The shot is of her standing up, at this point she drops the book and this signifies that there is something wrong and also makes this shot dramatic. It then goes to a shot of the army officer with a letter in his hand, this is a medium close up shot because we wanted to show his expression but we were going to have a long shot showing him and the gate but we unfortunately couldn't find any 1940s army style trousers so we could only film him from the waist up. We then go to an over the shoulder shot which shows the army badge on his shoulder (Webster corps 23) this signifies that this character is from the army or works for the army and gives anchorage to our wartime genre. This shot also shows the women walking into shot to greet the man at the gate. Then a quick medium close-up of of the women walking down the path, showing her moving the tree branches out of the way. We choose to include this close up shot because while filming our actress had to walk round the tree branches before which meant she walked slightly out of the frame. It is also included because it's supposed to be from the man's perspective. We then have a medium close-up shot behind women showing its her story as if from her eyes. It then goes into a close-up of the passing of the letter, this signifies that this is an important item in this scene and in the plot. We then go into an over the shoulder shot of the women receiving the letter, this is key because it sets the mood for this scene and the film.
We then go into a medium long shot of our main character walking back up the path to the doorstep. we added this shot in to show a match on action because before we just had her already at the top of the path sitting on the doorstep. Then we have a medium shot of her sitting on the doorstep and then an over the shoulder shot of her opening the wallet that the officer gave her at the gate. We added this in while filming because Lorna came across this picture while looking through old family photos and we thought it would be perfect to signify the attachment they had to each other. We then go into a close up shot of the photo to show the audience what she is looking at. We then have her stroking the photo which signifies that this photo and the person in it means something to this character and that its not just any old photo. The next shot is a medium close-up, this is further away to show what the women is opening which is the letter. Then to a close panning shot of the letter, this is 'shaky' because we wanted it to look as if its from the women's eyes/point of view. We then added in a voice over of a women reading the letter. This is to help the audience understand the contents of the letter and we wanted it to sound like the main character re reading the letter after a few years and we wanted to add dialogue to the beginning of our film.
It then goes into a close-up of the main characters face, this is to show her facial expression at the news she's just received and to signify that this is bad news for the main character. It then goes into a medium long shot of the women standing up, holding the letter and walking out of the shot. It then fades out into black with text at the bottom of the screen saying "Spotlighted productions present" then into another black shot "Brooke Shipley" this is to signify the start of the rest of the film.
If we were to film the whole film this beginning would be a flash back for our main character and we would have after the black screens the main character about 10 years older, so in her 30s sitting on the same doorstep alone, to signify that that day has effected her whole life.
To make the beginning of this film to look like it was filmed in the 1940s we added details to the mise-en-scene which would signify the timer period. A few of these items where the location, which was built in the 1800s and has 1940s features about it, we also thought with it having that un-kept look about it it signified that it was in the war because in the war it was hard to pay for things like cleaners and gardeners etc. The letter,wallet and photo are also very important to show the timer period that we wanted. The wallet was an old WW2 wallet and the photo was of one of Lornas relatives wedding in the 1940s. The letter Lorna made and she researched war letters on google. We then stained to with tea bags to give it a weathered effect.