Script development #2

 

Sunday 8th November

Alya was assigned as the Art Departments' producer. She got straight to it which was brilliant and arranged for us all to have a zoom call, exclusively art dept. She made it so that it was just green team 2-2:30 and then the red team's art department would join the call after 2:30 so that we could compromise on a set design; as we will both need to have a similar vision to make it work for two very different films. 

We started by discussing with Alya any ideas we'd had since the whole team last talked. I went first and brought up my most recent blog with a lot of visual aids to help get my visions across.  I discussed with them inspiration i had gained from the 'Stranger Things' scene where Winona Ryder communicates to her son through the lights. We all agreed that this would be a visually pleasing element to the film and would also help guide the narrative as our character will be interacting with the lights. We thought that they could glow when he touches them or flicker when he's near them to suggest to the audience that there's some kind of connection there; hopefully getting them closer to realising he's in his own mind and everything is connected. 

I then showed them what inspiration i had found for how we could execute the condensation effect on the window. The artist Nick Turpin was in the forefront of my mind as his photographs of unsuspecting people on buses are stunning. The combination of the coloured lights and the condensation make each photo look as though it's been painted; the strokes of moisture on the window let out pockets of light and create different textures on the window. Also, his photo's are an observation; we are looking into these people's lives and have no idea where they've been or where they're going. This just adds mystery and intrigue to his photography which is exactly what we want to achieve in our film. If you didn't know the context of his images, you could really be anywhere. The condensation blurs out any real detail and leaves colours, shapes and the faint outline of people. It's dream-like almost and they transport you because of this. They give a whole new meaning to the city bus and we want to give a whole new meaning to our protagonists mind.

I moved on to a photo of a quirky antiques shop that i had found as inspiration for what objects we could hang from the walls and what things we could have around the room. 

Everyone liked this image as it was close to what we had been discussing previously. I just needed to be able to find an image to properly visualise it. I feel like we were all on the same page which was brilliant.

We spent the rest of the meeting mainly discussing the costume and make-up, as we hadn't given that too much thought yet. I brought up an image of a character from the film 'The Hole'; John Dante's 2009 horror. This character looks around the age of 70 but we all agreed that our protagonist should be around the middle age mark; preferably 40's. It was his clothing that we mainly focused on; a rather rough, old oversized jacket, scruffy white T-shirts layered over one another. We agreed that he should not really give too much thought into what he wears as he's quite an isolated character. He dresses in what's comfortable for him. The oversized jacket is probably as sophisticated as he will get. We also agreed that his make-up should be kept to a minimal so that the actor will be able to do it himself, as we won't be able to due to covid-19. We thought that we'd just create bags under his eyes and make him seem rather tired and defeated in a way. 

I also showed the team stills from the film 'City of Ember' as the set is blanketed in strange and quirky lights. 

We started to brainstorm ideas:

Annie's mood board:

-Keys on the wall.

-Paintbrushes.

-Hanging bells.

-Fake bookshelf (2D to show the divide between reality and what he's conjured up in his mind)

Further ideas:

-Mixture of hanging lights and quirky lamps.

-Warm, natural light.

-Organise the mess like a museum? Compartmentalise different objects?

-We will need to collect together a lot of strange objects.

-Worn and old glass bottles.

-Copper/brown tone.

-Use cardboard to paint the bookshelf on so we don'd affect the other team's set.

We arranged for the Red Team to join our call and this was their feedback:

-They plan to have wallpaper which we don't.

-They are happy with a U shape which is the shape we are going for at the moment.

-Their set will end up in quite a mess so we need to take this into consideration as i feel like the layout of ours is very important.

We need to try and keep dialogue open with the red team as this will benefit us in the long run.

Towards the end of the call, Alya mentioned that Reagan has decided to designate the script writing and story development to Vicky, Rodrigo and I. I will be working alongside the two directors as the initial set design was inspired by an artist that i presented to the team, so Reagan feels that i have a clearer idea in my mind of where the story should go. I'm very grateful that I've been asked to assist with the narrative as story telling to me is extremely important and i have a lot of fun doing it. I believe that coming up with stories is one of my strengths so hopefully i can bring something interesting to the table. I will still have to make sure that i manage my time and my priorities however, as i will need to keep Mariah and Annie updated on the script so we can start to develop the set further.

ZOOM WITH VICKY AND RODRIGO (1st AD and Director)

As i live with Victoria, i told her immediately that we had been asked to start developing initial ideas for a script. We were both very excited and also a little daunted, but we got straight to it. We first created a 'script writing' google doc and began to brainstorm ideas. I relayed inspiration that the art department had come up with, such as certain objects to have within the room. We got onto discussing the nervous system. So far, the narrative is a man looking in on himself. We started talking about different parts of the brain and how our mind is compartmentalised; the left side of the brain is the logical and analytical side, whereas the right side is more creative. There's also a part of the brain called the Amygdala, which controls fear. This was all really interesting and exciting to research, as we started envisioning it having an impact on the narrative. We wanted our protagonist to react to objects in the room but we weren't sure exactly what objects we should have to show some meaning. Mariah, Annie, Alya and I (the art department) had been discussing really interesting objects we could include but there still wasn't a specific motive behind each one. Vicky and I thought about how interesting it would be to make the room a metaphor for his mind. We can have the left side of the room signify the left side of the brain (and therefore hold logical objects) and the right side signify the right side of the brain (hold more creative objects). We kept thinking about how we could really show the audience that he was basically in his own brain, as we didn't think just having themed objects on either side would be enough.  I came up with the idea that, when the sounds of each object he touches gets too chaotic and he gets fearful, the room can blackout and we can be in complete silence; he will be silent within his own mind. This would give the audience time to breath as well. I then thought that there could be a pulsating glow appear in the background, on the walls, that resembles the nervous system. We could use white LED's to show this. So, in that moment, he is completely surrounded by his own network. I feel like, visually, that would give the audience an indication about where he is. Vicky contacted Rodrigo to arrange a zoom call together. We sent him the docs we had created so that he could go over it prior to the call. Vicky, Rodrigo and I then had the meeting. He really liked the ideas we had come up with so we all started bouncing ideas off one another immediately which was extremely helpful. We realised that we all had very similar ideas as to where the narrative could develop so it was definitely a positive first script meeting! 

Link to google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H5IjXJtAx74Fh4W_9Z9dT08mElLCtyyrE5rXTo5BJ_8/edit?fbclid=IwAR0-dcUlZks0_VOOJk0MCCv_aowPkGhR2heqvxfiunbeX7sPfJeJyd6Q1-s

Nervous system picture that inspired the idea about having the network arranged on the walls.

Initial diagrams inspired by our discussion about the nervous system: