After allowing time for my pitch idea to settle, my intentions are much clearer. I hope to explore the audience’s ability to connect the dots and create meaning. Or in short, test how we interpret what we see on screen.

Films that need our participation always give me a buzz, the sort of stories that need some energy and attention to ‘figure out’ (Don’t get me wrong, we all occasionally need a sit back and glaze over kind of movie/tv to fry our brains). It’s crazy that we can produce multiple interpretations from the same image and I wonder what power this gives us a filmmakers. When an audience watches a film, what do they actually notice on screen? What goes unnoticed?

My exploration has eventually lead me to the question, “How far can we push the audience until they stop connecting the dots?” So I suppose this is the ultimate purpose of my ‘project’ this semester.

So far the plan is to take two approaches, a practical and a research both geared towards producing a final piece. Ideally, the final piece will have a narrative that is conveyed symbolically and abstractedly that may or may not be clear to the audience – that will be the whole point!

Practical

• Series of test shoots that begin to explore the influences of mis-en-scene, lighting, etc. e.g. EVA and colour
• Test shoot at 60fps (regardless of smaller Frame Size 720p) on the 5DMiii
• Test shoot milk and ink reaction in studio set up and possibly explore other liquid combinations. Research how to light this situation.
• Test shoot white and red washing in front loader at 60fps

Research

• How particular forms influence an audience interpretation: colour, character definition, mis-en-scene, lighting, composition, setting, camera movement
• Kuleshov effect
• The DIEM project that monitors how audience eyes track across a film frame and where the masses linger
• Experiment if our state of mind influences our response to a film one day to the next.
• Consider directors and previous bodies of work that require audience participation, eg. David Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Maya Deren

Pre-production plan

• Loose script
• Storyboard
• Scout for locations and book with owner/operator
• Audition/screen actors