Restaurant Scene - Scene 3

On Monday the 5th we set out to film the restaurant scene of our film noir, we decided to use one of our local pubs situated on the outskirts of Baldock called 'George the fourth' - we chose this because it has a very homely archaic atmosphere and we believed we could use props to make it look like a classy restaurant from that era of time. We also chose to use three extras in this scene (Gemma Inglis, Shiv Handa and Beth Robson) to create the atmosphere of a date in a popular restaurant, we didn't want the tables around to be empty because we would have lost the illusion of the date - we also didn't want to fill the restaurant because firstly, we didn't want to make to much noise for the owners of the George because they were being very kind to let us film there in the first place, but also we didn't want to lose the audience's attention towards the main characters.

The pub allowed us to film the scene in a section of the restaurant after ten o'clock (meaning we were up late and didn't finish til around half eleven/quarter to 12) - by half ten we had set up the camera and the scene using all the props, the actors had got into costume and we were ready to film. We had asked the extras to come in costume of that era so they matched the characters (Bonnie and Carter) so not to look out of place. Bonnie Kensington (me) was wearing a short yellow dress, red heels and a fur coat (when outside) with Detective Carter in a smart suit, he is also not wearing his hat signifying his loss of control of the situation as he falls for Bonnie. We filmed a variety of angles, for example using the femme fatale convention of red lipstick, which we decided to highlight with a close up of her drinking from the glasses - the glasses and most of the props were given by me as i had some that would look right in this era of film. The old furniture gave our scene an antique feel, while the soft lighting gave it a romantic edge that we wanted for this section.
Outside the restaurant we chose a well lit section so we could see the actors in the darkness (of eleven o'clock at night) - Antonia filmed different shots so we had a selection when it came to the editing stage. Unfortunately the one problem we had was that there were cars going past as the pub is next to a busy road, we overcame this by using a voice over on the original filming so we could hear the script. We did this because many of the lines are crucial to the films plot - for example "Is there any way i can repay you?" "Anything for you" this show the detective feelings for Bonnie, and after the night the audience realises why Carter has fallen for Miss Kensington. I really like the way this scene has come together, even if we were one film maker down.