Developing the story #7

Friday 13th November

We've had many different discussion across all departments and there are definitely a lot of gaps. We have a strong base but the reason we're a little stuck is because both our beginning and ending are still too open. Our beginning has no real meaning and our ending has no resolution. Therefore, the journey in between has no motivation. We need to dissect and ask questions:

What moment has put him in that place to find the house/ 'his mind'? This will then inform the end. Does he come out feeling like he's discovered something or does he feel like he's grown from a breakdown event? Has it made things worse by going into the house? We can only know this if we know what brought him to the house in the first place.

It might seem quite unsatisfying just seeing a figure appear and then discover this house in the middle of nowhere with no motive. Where did he come from? and why? Is he going through some kind of crisis? 

What kind of mindset do you have to be in to enter your own head; detach yourself from reality? 

Having been through the house, what do we want the conclusion to be? Is he going to come out refreshed and understanding? Is his life flashing before his eyes? Maybe he's in some kind of limbo; between life and death. This will inform the lighting at the end as well. Will it be a moment of euphoria or despair? 

Maybe we see him in a state of crisis at the beginning and his journey through the house is what tells the audience how he got to where he is? 

Out of body experience; flicking through his mind. 

Whatever is on the outside of the house needs to have some relevance.

Roots are an ambiguous versions/ parallels to neurones in the brain.

Once he's done this journey, will he return to where he was before? Will he die? Will he decide to sort himself out?

Still involve the shadowed figure watching over him.

We needed a purpose to this house. A reason why he's exploring his brain.

It makes me think of the spotlight in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Maybe we begin with that effect on the character? 

I think the reason we've been struggling with imagining the set and the lighting is because we still don't know our character or our story well enough. The more we can understand his motives, the easier it will be to visualise what we want the set to look like. 

I found a New Scientist article on out-of-body experiences:

"His conclusion is that our perception of self within the body is tightly bound to how our brains process information from our senses. “I’m not interested in out-of-body experiences,” says Ehrrson. “I’m interested in why I, as myself, am located in my body – why we have ‘in-body’ experiences, if you like.”

"He says the work is important because it de-stigmatises reports of out-of-body experiences by people who are on drugs, or ill with conditions such as migraine or epilepsy. “They don’t have to be mad to experience these things,” he says."

A group of people managed to artificially imitate an out-of-body experience. I like the line "I'm interested in why I, as myself, am located in my body". I feel like this is what our character would be trying to discover. What is his purpose within his own mind and body? The way to figure this out is to go out-of-body and explore his mind for himself.

12:30- Received a poll from Reagan to decide the lighting situation once and for all.

The poll gave the choice between the red and blue lighting or the warm Jeff Wall inspired lighting. Initially it was difficult for me to think about which one i'd prefer but realistically the red and blue would be more beneficial to the story. It came down to strengthening the narrative in the end. Red and blue lighting is very dream-like and also suggests a divide in the room which is what we want. We can still include the lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling but just make sure they emit white light so it doesn't clash with the colours. I will try to push not having the red and blue too strong however, as i want the audience to be able to make out what objects are in the room. There's no point in us spending time on the details of the set if it will get blurred out by the red.

This poll will help to guide the mood of the story as well. Red and blue will be more detached from reality as we don't live within a coloured filter. I think it's important however, to still have the lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling so he can interact with them. 

What needs to be decided is whether we use red and blue LED's to create this lighting or will that be too overpowering? Does it depend where we place the LED's? Do we use gels to create softer tones? Or find a different way to do this? 

Reagan said 'LED lighting with blue and red lighting'. Does that mean that the blue and red will be LED's or that we keep the LED roots idea as now it will go with the theme of the room? 

Meeting with AD and DOP (Victoria and Kaitlan)

Decided that we need a meeting with all the directors, Lili, Andrea and Kaitlan, as they're doing the storyboard.

They agreed that the story needs to change and needs more purpose.

I will write a draft of a story and send it to Vicky by the end of today.

Join call with directors tomorrow to discuss story further.

We will then relay everything we talk about with the other departments so that Lili, Andrea and Kaitlan can finalise the storyboard. 

Narrative development

What is our protagonists crisis? Has he become hopeless about life? Does he have regrets? Is he suicidal? Will he experience the space between life and death? Or is he just not a happy man; wishes he could change his ways? 

I found and ordered the book 'The Midnight Library', by Matt Haig. Recently published, this book follows the character Nora. "She finds herself in the midnight library and has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself."

"Between life and death, there is a library."

I love the concept of a library acting as a limbo-type space for a character to reflect on and re-collect mistakes from their past. Visually, this concept conjures up an extremely strong image in your mind. This book gives a second chance to those people who contemplate and i feel like, whether our protagonists' reason for being at this house (his mind) is suicidal thoughts or not, he is in desperate need of a second chance, whatever.

It's very tempting to just say, let's make our own midnight library, as this is such a lovely concept. However, i feel like we can build from this inspiration and come up with something more solidified than our original narrative. I need to remember that our inspiration for the film originally came from Ralph Eugene Meatyard's photograph and not stray too far from that.

Do we change the projections on the outside if our characters' motive changes? Will we still have roots/ memories or will we have something else to fit specifically with his character? 

Do we change the whereabouts of the window? As we won't be moving it anymore. Does it need to be on the overhang part of the set or can it be on another wall. Just so that when we have the establishing shot, we won't have to make a divider to trap the light into one side of the set so it doesn't spill out the big gap and ruin the illusion of the set. I drew out a plan of where we could move it and why:

Maybe, we show the audience that there is a gap; a metaphor for an incomplete mind in a way. Not show them directly but just not be afraid to have the gap in a camera shot. We could have something fill the gap from a distance? Another object within this world. We need this man to come from somewhere. Maybe we could have a bus stop in the middle of this void as well. Or a bench? And we can place it so that when we're in the house, we can see the bus stop in the distance through the gap. This may be being too ambitious but it's worth the thought. Or, just something as simple as a street lamp. 

Or, just to simplify things, are there black curtains that we can pull around the set to create 'the void'? That way we can contain all the light and not worry about it catching studio equipment. Ask Rosie. 

VISUALISATION

To try and visualise everything properly, i found a small cardboard box, cut it into the set's basic shape and covered my phone torch with tissue paper. This way, I'd be able to see how much light would bleed out from the gap in the set and make sure that the idea to change the positioning of the window was for a reason. Depending on how the camera crew decide to angle their shots, i think having the window on the end of the set instead of on the overhang makes a lot more sense. It makes everything more flexible, especially the establishing shot. Instead of the majority of the shot being filled with light pouring out the side of the set, we have the window light as the main feature and a faint glow in the distance. I will need to run this past lighting and the directors just to see what they think, but the way the set is built will very much effect the lighting.

EXPERIMENTS:

I experimented with predominantly blue light, as we want a moonlight effect to pour out of the window. I found a little doll to use as a figure to see how he would interact with the set. I created this miniature to get around the logistics of the window regarding the light and to just try and imagine the narrative and visualise the journey he will take. It really did help and i will continue to use it to develop a story.

The poll results came through and it has been decided that we will not be using red and blue lighting. We will instead work to create a warm tone instead. I'm not sure how i feel about this as i feel like people's concerns about this lighting should have been voiced more clearly. I knew that people were worried about too much lighting going on at the same time (which was never going to be the case) but it's clear from the polls that people weren't keen on the red and blue from the get go. I feel like it's natural for miscommunication to happen with such a large group of people, especially with so many strong ideas. However, from this moment on i hope things can become more coherent. I also realise we are on a tight schedule but a lot of experiments need to be able to take place before we can set anything in stone and ideas need time and space to develop. There will be a meeting tomorrow with the directors and I. We will try and come up with a story in that time. I take into account and hear people's votes however, we will have to adapt the lighting to whatever story we come to create.