STUDIO SHOOT: The Brief

To gather my thoughts, ideas and plans I decided to include all the brief for the studio shoot in this post. Our two main groups were decided today for the studio shoot.

My Group:
Evie G
Ben
Carrie
Katie
Hazel
Alex
Richard
Majd
Dani
Terrell
Cristina
Nathan
Suriñe
Evie M

My initial thoughts have been that I have wanted a role in directing or cinematography. The roles in the group are:

Producer
Production Designer
Director
1st AD
- With this role, I'm aware the person will take on jobs such as assisting the director, coordinating all production activity and supervising the cast and crew. Core responsibility is to keep filming on schedule by driving it forward, so they frequently make announcements and give directions to coordinate the cast and crew.

They are also in charge of a department of other assistant directors and runners. Overall, they provide the key link between the director, the cast and the crew, while also liaising with the production office, and providing regular progress reports about the shoot.

- create filming schedule

2nd AD
DoP
Camera Operator
Digital Imaging Technician
Set Design
Costume Design
Props
Sound Recordist
Boom Operator

So far, we have placed a few people in roles such as
Producer: Hazel
DoP: Katie
Boom Operator: Richard
Sound Recordist: Alex
Production Designer: Cristina

I am now interested in the role of 1st AD or even Director.

Photo by Gregory Crewdson – Untitled (Dylan On The Floor)

We decided to split into small groups within our group, each group was designated a photo to research and look into more for pitch ideas. From this image I see a loss of self control, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, stress, crime, trauma.

notes:
man cant cope with his self loathing
man cant cope with inner pain from trauma or self
man cant cope with something he did, a crime maybe such as murder - the lights suggest fear/hallucinations of police coming and sirens.
man cant cope with stress, anxiety, having no purpose in life, depression - his work being too much to handle, he can't deal with the stress of it.
man's privacy being breached by others
house setting, all not perfect on the inside uncovered, but looks perfect from outside even though is not. - Melanie Martinez album of crybaby, song called 'Dollhouse' (creates same vibes as that song and music video)
brings in Riverdale vibes of perfect town and houses, but with hidden secrets and underlying or hidden spooky crimes
in terms of cinematography and design, there is darkness, coldness, pale colours, browns, blues and retro style. I also love how there is such a high amount of saturation but at the same time, low exposure and brightness. I definitely want to be able to use that style in our film.
could take a stance of following a male/or female following a traumatic event, lives alone (bring in Unbelievable - Netflix - those vibes)

Unbelievable (Netflix TV Series)

I really like the shots used in this series, the whole vibe of the show is created through the choice of colours throughout, colour grading and close up shots. It links to the Crewdson image from how he is alone in his home, he may be going through something traumatic in his mind, trying to deal with the pain. That is what this girl is trying to do in this series, even more so she is trying to hide from it, ignore it, try to pretend it never happened. I definitely like the idea of taking the route of there having
been a crime, therefore taking the route of crime genre.

Here is a shot from the series of the room where the trauma happened, it portrays a cold, chilling, psychologically disturbing eerie vibe.

I like how the man is in the shot on the back left behind the closed doors, it portrays he is potentially somewhat villainous, sick or disturbing. It portrays exactly what it needs to portray through the framing and positioning of the character. All again, was reminded for me by seeing the Crewdson image.

To link to this, another film that springs to mind when it comes to these sort of vibes and colour scheme is Gone Girl.






As you can also tell from all these photos, that there is low exposure and darkness in them. It is also low key lighting. I like how there is still saturation in them though, that brings out the fresh colours such as the yellows of the back curtain and greens of the grass. I've noticed all the psychological crime genre style films/series take these same signifiers and elements throughout.

Another one to mind is 'The Sinner'. This shot sums entirely my point, the setting is a room, with a lot of browns, yellows, beiges, greys and warm but pale colours. Also again the exposure and brightness is low. It portrays the cold but warm at the same time psychologically disturbing vibes.




Another one with great cold, but saturated colour schemes is The Mist (another Netflix TV series). It also has some really nice shallow depth of fields,

Carrie, who is in the same small group as me for researching more into the Crewdson image, took an interesting view on the image which is slightly different to mine. She took bright colours of clothing from it and historic, traditional, antique buildings and rooms. She made a moodboard to illustrate the vibe and themes she took from the image:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/carinaboult/crewdson-image/?fbclid=IwAR1iPdbUCs4M9yxEZyljalLvmfnis4RsNlR-GpKgCaJDJl6Wkdl9CNtYelg

I do agree and really like the idea of using pale colours such as browns, beiges, greens, whites, greys, yellows and also blacks in the production, costume and set design and also within the shots and colour grading process in post.

In terms of narrative, we could be thinking of, as mentioned before, a crime based narrative. Maybe revolving around one person or more about crimes been committed and how these one or more people are linked either by being victims of a crime that has caused suffering and trauma or been the ones who have caused the suffering and are now dealing with that guilt. The crime narrative of the show 'Unbelievable' is following a selection of women who live alone who have been raped by a mysterious serial rapist, broken into their homes while they are sleeping and then raped for hours on and off. 'The sinner' (in both seasons) follows individuals who have been illustratively set up to look like they are the committer of a crime that they actually are the victims of. First season was a woman in her 30s, 2nd season was a young boy aged about 13. The show untangles the truth of what really happened in the situation, how the individuals got easily presumably blamed for the crime but when actually there is a way bigger picture of the amount of individuals who committed these entangled crimes.

2001 Photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard – Untitled 1962 

Photo by Diane Arbus – King and Queen 1970

Photograph by Hannah Starkey – Untitled 1997

Meeting 23rd of October
Diane Arbus photo:
notes:
cuts to the shot of strategy map
empires come and go
king and queen have prosperous empire.
turning point when it crumbles
As their empire grows they become even less happy, finding a coping mechanism
become selfish, money can't buy you happiness theme
being drunk
set can become peasantry
strategy board - objects moving

Hannah Starkey:
notes:
individual isolation
mimicks a film narrative style
her work has 3 emotional aims
anxiety, doubt or desire
being trapped in present
composition quite strange
being trapped
morphe trapped inside it, see another woman from a different background
women relationship, what it means
traditional womens roles keep coming in
all around her trapped in a world
bus shelter - starkey works with ordinary environments
setting of prison, not very challenging, exciting or creative
colourful and floral
narrative allows all departments to see womens repression
strong narrative, magazine acts as mirror
handmaid's tail, in a modern society
society has created a metaphorical lab rat environment
internal mind as a prison
sat at bus stop, reading through magazine, quite isolated place, waiting and waiting
reading it going through it, being absorbed in it, then in the waiting room, background is waiting room
magazine triggers her to
womens magazine
blatantly trying to be sexist
almost suggests them to be in a submissive role
oppressing women magazines
one woman is trying to break out
ends with two women at bus stop.
moth being trapped
people who relate and people who don't relate to it, e.g. males instead
outdoor set - inside - everything has to be in the studio - bus shelter
woman puts really ugly make up on, make up starts to rot, starts rotting her face
end of times apocalyptic
woman will get pretty to go out right now on a night out, wants to relive that, wants to reminisce
she's trapped inside
cosmopolitan is a new form of government
magazine is a relic from the past
woman at the end thinks its the new magazine
self reflection of herself as a woman
being in a different world, being in present looking forward, being in future looking back,

future is a smarthouse
undergone some sort of surgery
can't speak
his struggle to access this smart house
smart house doesnt speak, just produces words, having wall of holes, LED panel, combine cinematography and set design
man could interact with these holes without speaking to it
smart house could register him as an intruder
struggle just to turn this alarm off