Storyboarding 2

Throughout this week, I have been editing the drawings from my storyboard on Adobe Photoshop so that we can have a more realistic and helpful storyboarding to help us with our filming. This will give us an idea of how it should look when piecing the actual filming together. However, I also spent a considerable amount of time colouring the drawings and putting hues on them to distinguish the mood and atmosphere of the shots. I put an 'Old Style' hue on the majority of my shots as they are part of the downfall of the relationship. This gives us a clear idea of how we should film and edit these particular shots to make them look mundane and depressing. I also coloured in certain objects in the shot to highlight the dark colours and add to the gloominess of the shots. Currently, I am placing the drawings in Final Cut Pro to create a timeline that looks similar to what our final project should come out as.

W.H.

Symbolism

• As well as using colour to create a depressive mood in the office for Grace, we want to show that she feels isolated and locked into her own world. For this, we want to create the separators they sometimes use in offices to make her look cramped and boxed in.

• To show that Grace is becoming overloaded with the jobs at home by herself, we will be including a shot of her looking very busy and trying to handle cooking, being on the phone etc. all at the same time. This will also apply to look like the typical stereotype of a domestic mother, so this will suggest to the audience that she is getting ready or at least wanting to settle down. This will also emphasise the downfall of Grace in comparison when she sinks into depression and unhappiness.
• For the shot of Grace collapsing against the door, we want to film it from the inside of the house to suggest that she is shutting herself out of the world, like the office booths, and hiding herself away from everyone.
• For the shot of the hands intertwining, we would like this to be ECU to create a sense of claustrophobia and over-whelming closeness in the argument, suggesting to the audience that this might be one of the reasons for Grace's downfall and the downfall of their relationship.

W.H.

Recce Filming

Today we went down to Brighton to film our recce and plan out our locations. Unfortunately, we had problems with the weather due to the storm so we worked our way round the house instead planning how we could film each shot inside the house.

First we made a note of all the shots inside the house and then started to do a recce of each of the shot. For this we had to take it in turns to be the subject of the shot whilst the other played with the lighting to see what it looked like on camera and made note of the best lighting for each shot. One problem that we  faced was that it was very difficult to make it the lighting look natural as when we used the overhead lighting there was too much light and when we didn't, it looked too much like an artificial spotlight.

On the second day it was still raining, so we began to test out a couple of shots with the real actress so that me and Bea could properly have a look at the lighting together without having to switch in and out of the camera. We also continued to recce lighting in other parts of the house.

W.H.

Storyboarding

After finishing our shotlist, we decided it would be better to have a mapped out visual plan of what we are going to accomplish in the trailer. We therefore split up the shots to start drawing the storyboard. After we have drawn this, we plan to scan them in and animate them to create a basic idea of what the trailer will turn out like.

W.H

Colour, Mood & Tone

We would like to show a clear divide in moods throughout the trailer of when Grace and Isaac are happy together to when their relationship faces problems and inevitably deteriorates to the end. One of the main ways we will show this is through colour.

For the beginning of the relationship and therefore the trailer, our shots need to reflect a happier time and we will show this with brightly coloured settings (for example the coloured houses in Brighton and the lanes.) This will also be reflected in the brighter costumes that Grace and Isaac will be wearing at the beginning of the trailer.  Although I really like the colour scheme that director Wes Anderson uses in his films like ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, this would be too bold to replicate in our trailer as later we need to create a more depressing feel and this would be too unrealistic and noticeable to change from this obvious a colour scheme. However, we will be taking influence from this but just creating a more subtle colour scheme.

 

For later scenes in Grace's office etc. we want her to seem really unhappy and bored with her life so we want her shots to look grey and flat to reflect her mood. A lot of this depends on lighting and location, so we will choose a very monochrome office and light it really brightly so it looks flat and ugly.

W.H.

Trailer Analysis: Number of Shots

When writing our shotlist, we will aim to have around 60 shots for our trailer. Some trailers such as those for horror or action films use a much larger amount of shots (closer to 100), but in most of the romance trailers we have studied, the amount of shots is around 40-60. This is probably for a number of reasons. Firstly, because in romance trailers there is usually a montage or two, but rather than a fast paced action filled montage like there might be in some trailers, it would be slow paced and contain longer but fewer shots.

The trailer for 'Blue Valentine' only has 24 shots, whilst the trailer for 'Revolutionary Road' has 67 shots. This is an example of how the number of shots can range so much. Some of the differences between these trailers is that the one for Blue Valentine does not use a voice over and has a slower montage whereas Revolutionary Road has a voice over and a much faster, action filled montage, as well as being longer. The trailer for 'Dear John' has 100 shots and the trailer for 'Like Crazy' has 48 shots.

We would like our film trailer to be more like the trailers for 'Like Crazy' and 'Blue Valentine' than those for 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Dear John', because we want it to have a softer and more romantic feel rather than being fast and cheesy.

B.M

Influential Shots

When composing our shot list, we rewatched a number of trailers to look at shots that we found powerful and worked well for defining the genre and the characters. We found some shots that we thought worked so well that we wanted to recreate them and work them into our own trailer. The ones we found worked best were generally from 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Like Crazy.'

Shot 13/14 - we wanted to make it clear that Grace and Isaac lived in Brighton as the pier and the sea are interesting shots to use. We noticed that in 'Like Crazy' they also have a shot of Jacob and Anna on a beach and decided we could use this shot as an inspiration for our shot in the trailer.

Shot 16 - we wanted to show the intimacy between the couple, without revealing too much. We thought the shot of Anna and Jacob under the sheets worked well in conveying this.

Shot 20 - when showing the new flat, we liked the openness and the distance that Sam Mendes used in showing the new house in 'Revolutionary Road.'

Shot 35/39 - In the trailer for 'Blue Valentine', we felt that it managed to create a realistic and truthful portrayal of the depressive character of Cindy.

Shot 50 - For when the montage heightens, we need to show dramatic shots. This also happens in the trailer for 'Revolutionary Road'. We really liked the shot of Kate Winslet screaming as this could also really relate and link into the character of Grace.

W.H.

Shotlist

W.H. B.M.

Brighton Location

B.M.

Basic Location Planning

This is a simple mindmap to work out where we will need to film the shots that we have already planned out.




W.H.