22/08
I think my idea would be for the scene/sequence to be set in a futuristic world, it doesn’t really matter what kind of story it is.
Here’s a scene that I wrote last semester, it is set in a futuristic dystopia.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10kBknzmSgpot3bC8ZsOMrtUO0V-xxHmq/view?usp=sharing
And the two line script that I did a few weeks ago is also a sci-fi story. As you can probably see, I’m into sci-fi but not the classical type like Star Trek or Star Wars. I’m more into the Blade Runner 2049 kind of stories and aesthetics.
I try to think about what films I’ve watched in the past half a year that I really enjoyed and was inspired by but I can’t recall any good one. 2018 seems like a really floppy year for the film industry. All the long-awaited ones like Pacific Rim Uprising, Black Panther, A Quiet place, Isle of Dogs, Tomb Raider all came off a bit disappointing. Ready Player One seems not too bad only if you compare it to the rest of the films that are definitely below-average.
Since I’ve done 2 sci-fi kind of short films/sequences, I feel like I should try some new stuff in this studio. I’m not sure what it is yet. But I’m going to start with the listing that we did in class.
Locations
- Dental clinic
- Futuristic laboratory
- Bedroom in a motel
- Crossroads
- Corridor
- Hallway in a hospital
- Concert arena
Sounds
- Vinyl record playing
- Fighting
- Whispering
- Kissing
- Silence
- Buzzing of current on and off
- Someone singing w/ a guitar
Persons
- Artificial Intelligence
- A.I technician/scientist
- Spy
- Drummer
- Hacker
Actions
- Taking a shower
- Reading lips
- Falling to the ground
- Body twisting in misery
I’m not sure what these are going to lead me to but for now they’re all I can think of. As I said before, I really want to try something new this semester so I’d like to keep my mind open and listen to other people’s ideas and look at more materials to get inspired.
20/09
Due to my internship in a short film production crew, I wasn’t able to meet up with the new group and have proper conversations on ideas. But at least I got to do the lighting, which is not too bad.
We decided to go with Jack’s two line script. I think it’s pretty good that it’s a short scene and the story is ambiguous on the relationship between the two characters. So that we’d have enough time to work on other aspects of the scene like mise-en-scene and soundtrack.
there’s only one line in the script, which makes sound recording very easy and leaves lots of space for post-production sound design.
After our presentation, we discussed further on the script. I had this idea of making the only line muted. I thought since the whole scene is very vague on the story, with the only line being inaudible, the performance, details, all the rest in the scene would stand out so much more.
The less information there is in the telling, the more information hidden in the showing.
I imagined the inaudible line goes with an extreme close-up of Sam’s mouth to Micheal’s ear. It cold be in a slo-mo.
For the soundtrack, if we were to come up with an original one, I imagine it’d be great if we adopt the style of Mother!’s soundtrack. The film has got very minimum conversations and barely any music. But the diegetic sounds are polished to the extremes so the audience would pay attention to every single sound in the film in order to gather information.
27/09
We casted two actors and booked the equipment today.
For lighting, I suggested that for Michael’s scene, the lighting from the window is cloudy and gloomy and when Sam walks out of the door, the lighting from outside resembles very sunny weather. The change in lighting helps emphasize the mental status of the two characters.