Pre-Production: Roles and Idea Generation

After being given the brief and forming our group we met up to discuss roles and start idea generation.

Alex Potter - Director

Chris Lowe - Producer

Victor Mihaylov - Cinematographer

Chelsie Reed - Sound Recordist

Jake Richardson - Editor

Taking the four main elements of the brief into consideration (POV, lighting change, sequence shot and colour), I brought several film idea synopses to the meeting. The specific elements had been useful in starting the ideas process, and for each film idea I shared I had made sure that there was scope for using each element creatively whilst keeping a strong story as well.

Idea 1 - Fraudulent Psychic Medium

In this film, an apathetic psychic medium is surprised when he believes he is experiencing a real connection to the dead, listening to a voice speak to him in his head. He is fooled into following the voice's commands taking him to Grindleford, where he is embarrassingly exposed by a group of non-believers who had tricked him and filmed him.

This film would have a strong cinematographic focus, using camera angles to convey the medium's descent into paranoia and madness, (shallow DOF, hand-held, canted angles, wide-angle close-ups for distortion). It would make use of POV to suggest another person watching him and also as he is led to the woods at the end. The film would start as the medium is with a client, deep into his act, using a sequence tracking shot towards him to build suspense and tension. As the client's paid hour times out, the low key lighting changes instantly to lit the medium's front room in a flat, naturalistic style, where he asks them to pay.

Colour would also be of particular importance and prominence in this film. As described by several colour theorists, purple is the colour of the 'corporeal' and so this would be used with elements of mise-en-scene such as costume and set design to convey the supernatural themes. 

Idea 2 - Bigfoot Hoax

In this film, two men decide to make up a fake Bigfoot-esque creature to film and make into a viral video. In doing so, they are captured by a cultist who references their creature from ancient scripture, and warns them not to pursue it. The twist comes as the interrogator is revealed to be a young teenage boy, who is called downstairs by his parents.

With this story, the key scene would be the reveal of the interrogator as a child, which would be achieved predominantly via lighting and sound change. Initially the captor would be sat opposite his victim, with the cliché harsh light shining on to his face. The background of the room would be entirely masked in shadow, until the room light is switched on by his parents - revealing brightly coloured posters, toys and other items indicative of the boy's age.

The POV sequence in this film would come as the protagonists are being stalked by the boy in the woods, utilising handheld to suggest a human presence and also high-angled shots to convey the sense of predator and prey.

Idea 3 - Following

In this idea, two characters walking parallel to each other both believe they are being followed by the other. Through interior monologue they express their paranoia and building fear as they mis-read and exaggerate the others' actions completely, believing by the end they are about to be murdered.

With this idea we can make strong use of POV of each character and play around with subjective POV to create tension. However, we initially decided against this idea as it ultimately restricted our ideas for using strong mise-en-scene, set design, colour and creating a controlled lighting change.

Choosing the Idea

Of the ideas I brought we decided that the group favourite was the Bigfoot Hoax as, with the four cinematographic elements in mind, we felt it gave us the most creative scope for developing and controlling how these devices would be used in the film. It also incorporated the other details of the brief involving the two characters' backgrounds and their move to Grindleford, and we immediately had influences in mind to reference for lighting setups and blocking.

In the next week we will meet again after doing more research into stylistic choices that may be appropriate for the story, and which are also relevant to our individual roles. 

Seminar: Introduction to Colour

Today we were introduced to colour in film as a symbolic and narrative device. Using examples and excerpts from Patti Bellantoni's book 'If Its Purple, Someone's Gonna Die', a study of colour in film, we looked at the varying connotations of colours when used in different contexts. For example, a bright red colour can be a symbol of passion, love, danger or power, whereas green can be interpreted negatively as a sign of jealousy or toxicity, or positively as fresh or invigorating. 

These different connotations and effects on the audience come through changing the three main values associated with colour: hue (where the colour sits on the spectrum), chroma (how saturated or dense the colour is) and value, (how much white is in the colour). For example, a dark red has symbolic connotations of maturity, regalia  and elegance, whereas a warmer red with higher value and chroma is more sensual or lusty. 

For each colour we discussed the range of examples provided, including the use of bright primary colours in The Wizard of Oz and the symbolic use of red featured in Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) and 'The Sixth Sense' (M.Night Shyamalan, 1999). We looked at the site 'Movies in Colour' which features a large range of directors, films and cinematographers - analyzing the composition of colours within a select frame. Whilst it is not designed as a learning tool, it is useful for analyzing the particular styles of famous cinematographers, and looking at how colour can establish the mood, tone and genre of the film in a still frame.

I will continue my research into colour theory and colour in films by first reading books on theory, and then analysing several films as case studies for how these theories can be applied in practice -  for emotional, symbolic and narrative effect.