Equipment

The equipment we will be using this year is the same as last yeah which is good because we are familiar with it and wont have to spend time getting used to it. We will be using an Apple Mac laptop for editing, a sony HDD Handycam for filming and a variety of tripods.


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Types of CCTV

At first, we wanted to use a real CCTV camera to capture the footage but after finding this too difficult we have decided to start researching into different types of CCTV to see how we could make a camera shot on a tripod look like genuine CCTV.

The first thing we noticed was that the shot would have to be taken from a high angle as most CCTV cameras are rigged high up walls. A second thing we noticed was that many CCTV cameras have a timer in the corner counting up in seconds with a date and sometimes a couple of letters to differentiate if there are lots of cameras e.g. C7, C8, C9...

Another thing we noticed was that the quality wasn't very good on a lot of the footage, which we can easily change once we have the shot by altering the exposure, brightness, contrast and saturation.

Lastly, we noticed that on many pictures of CCTV footage there are rings around what the viewer is meant to notice just incase they don't notice. We want to do this so we're all going to try and find way to do it because there is not an option to do it on the Mac's we are working on. 

Permission

We had to get permission to take the cameras and tripods away from school for filming so my mum signed it and we were free to film to our hearts content

Casting

After planning all our shots and different camera angles we have been able to cut this list down as obviously finding 6 students who are all free at the same time in the middle of their A-Levels could have been a problem. In the interview with the female victim, we are going to try and make an effect using lights so that you cannot see her face, only her silhouette like this (leaving her to remain anonymous):

(picture from http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.45-volumetric-light.png)

We actually thought of this before thinking of the amount of actors we would need but we then realised it had more than one advantage. It shows our camera skills but also means that we can use the same girl for the reconstruction and the interview. The name of the actress is Lydia Whittle. We knew we would be able to trust her as we used her last year in our media coursework and her GCSE and A-Level drama experience clearly shows in the filming. (Picture of Lydia below)

We couldn't find another girl who was free to film on the day we want to so I said I would act as the female friend as it it just a tripod shot. (Myself pictured below)

We had already decided we wanted to use Elliot Williamson for our attacker as he also acted in out media coursework last year and was very good. We decided that he should be used for the reconstruction and not the 'real footage' as the CCTV footage which we were going to shoot was only taken from ahead and as he was the best male actor we had we thought it would be best to use him to his full advantage. (Picture of Elliot below)

Matt Burge said that he would act out the CCTV footage as it is just going to be a walk around the carpark so although he is in our filming group, he wont be missing out on much as it is just going to be a tripod shot. (Picture of Matt below)

The final two people we needed to cast was the person who will intervene in the attack and talk about it in an interview, and the person who will intervene in the reconstruction. Because we have already planned our shots we know that the rescuers face wont be seen and also it will be dark so we will be using the same person for both. Anish Godwin Patel is the actor we chose. (Picture of Anish below)

Deciding on Casting

After properly deciding on our them of a Crime Documentary we realized that the topic we wanted to do it on was very personal so it was difficult to find somebody who wanted to share their story. So instead, we looked at various attempted rape stories and made our own, not in an attempt to miss-portray events but to raise awareness of what can happen to young girls.
These are the actors we are going to need:

1. A female actress playing the victim in the interview
2. A female actress for the reconstruction
3. A female acress playing the friend in the interview
4. A male actor to play the attacker in the CCTV footage
5. A male actor to play the attacker in the reconstruction
6. A male actor playing the rescuer in the reconstruction
7. A male actor playing the rescuer in the interview