Studio Shoot #4: Zoom Idea Development

 After the first zoom call it was decided that the Direction team and Ellie would work on the script, so before the next zoom call it was arranged that they would have come up with a rough first draft before our next zoom call. This was because with out a script draft, there was not much each department could achieve as we did not know the whole story. This was particularly applicable to the camera crew as we can only create rough mood boards and put general ideas together until this was done. 

Whole Crew Zoom Call - Tuesday 10th Nov. '20

To start the meeting off, the overall script idea was explained to the crew. There were some unresolved aspects of the script that needed solving, but during this discussion we were able to ask and answer a lot of questions about the protagonist, his motives, and what he was searching for.                                           

Narrative Development: After going over the script, we were left with a few questions that needed clarifying:

What did the mirror represent? 

Does the mirror meaning have to be so literal or can this be explored more?

Turning point: There would be a black out accompanied with silence

The character needs a back story - Why is he in this room all of a sudden, why did he need to discover more about himself?

Why is he in such a state of stress and confusion

Set Design Aspects Discussed:

- We discussed that the objects in the room had to have some sort of meaning as the set was a metaphor for his mind/brain and that we wanted the room some what cluttered like some ones mind, we needed some form of organisation, so the idea of organising the room in to the left (logical, linear thinking) and right (creative side) of the brain came about. 

- The objects in the room represent different memories as we are in his mind. So it would be objects from the past, maybe way in to his childhood.

- *There will be photos and polaroid around the room with people in it but in every photo there will be the same individual who has pin holes in their face so you can not tell who it is. 

- Have rug patch work floors to emphasis the mind being made up of many things

Camera and Lighting Aspects Discussed:

- We discussed possibly getting a fog machine to emphasise the idea that this space is not reality but more a void that can sometimes get clouded - his mind. 

-* With the pin-holed photos, the idea of having light behind it so it could be streaming through the photo on to his face as he looks at it, this would probably work best with the fog machine. This would foreshadow that he was in search of himself. Also light in films is often portrayed as hope and this is something he would be drawn to. This is inspired by the artist Amy Friend:

- we decided on a colour palette of a cyan(ish) -moonlight blue from the exterior, flooding the room from the window. And then having the actual room lit with a red (not discussed how harsh we want the red tone to be) as this would reinforce the idea of the set being inside the protagonists brain. It would emphasise the frustration he feels when trying to figure out what the room is, what the objects are and why he is in search. It also will create a fantasy type feeling which we discussed to indicate that he is in some sort of void or unworldly place.

- The lighting would turn  in response to his presence. e.g. At the beginning he is drawn to this place and it starts to illuminate as he gets closer to show he has a direct connection with the place - lights begin to flicker on and of. We also talked about the idea that when he is near a light source, it turns on and when he moves away, it turns off (interior)    

-There was a lot of talk about different types of lighting used on set such as using LED's, fairy lights, hanging bulbs, lamps, all practical lighting as well as having Red and Blue tints. Laura and I brought up the idea that it may become a lot of lighting to work with and wont be very pleasant to look at, as well as being a bit of an electrical hazard. Rodrigo also mentioned that all the different colour lights (yellow or white lights with fairy lights) would mess with the colouring, giving us a disadvantage as we have less control.  So to combat this we had to compromise and focus on what really would work with our story and set versus what would look good.

POST ZOOM CALL THOUGHTS:

- Whilst doing research on the role of a DP I looked in to one of my favourite films, Suspiria (1997) and thought that the cinematography was incredibly similar to what we had discussed with the use of red and blue tones. Although I had briefly delved in to the DP's work on this film I felt that because it was very much the style we had discussed, it was worth looking more in to. 

- After the zoom call I realised that we had so many different ideas on just the lighting. The set wasn't really discussed either. I think this was because there was quite a few questions that needed answering as stated above, which prevented us from further developing.