1. What is the story--the beginning, middle, and
end--of this film in three or four sentences? In other words, what happens in
this scene as it starts, as it progresses, and as it ends?
A group of people is hiding around the living
room and kitchen of an apartment. Somewhere else, our main character is walking
home, and as soon as he’s about to walk in the door, he gets an alert – “don’t
forget to grab the mail” – that causes him to pause. He turns around and
leaves, but for the people in the apartment, all they’ve heard is footsteps and
they’re nervous. From inside they hear a new set of footsteps – running toward
them. A girl bursts in the door, and she’s quickly ushered to a hiding spot by
all the other people in the apartment. One of them realizes they’ve forgot to
light candles on a birthday cake, and as they get up to do it, the main
character walks in the door and everyone yells “Surprise!” – turns out the
whole scene has been leading up to a surprise birthday party.
2. What is the backstory of this scene? Why is
this happening to these characters? What does each person want? Why do they
want it?
The main character is unsuspecting of his
friends’ plan to throw him a surprise birthday party. We enter the scene as
three or four of them are already waiting in the main character’s apartment,
hiding behind couches and curtains. They know what’s happening, but they’re
still nervous because they don’t know when the main character is coming home
and they have to stay quiet because they don’t want him to suspect anything.
3. Assume that this scene is from a larger story.
What is the theme of that larger story?
I think if this were part of a larger story,
the theme would be learning how to truly value friendship. I feel like this
scene is a conclusive sort of scene, because clearly these people are all
friends with the main character, but the main character isn’t expecting
anything even though it’s his birthday. Maybe they’ve been struggling as
friends and this is how they make it up to each other.
4. What, specifically, must the audience
understand to engage in the story? How do you intend to communicate that
narrative (not emotional) information?
Actually, I think what’s important about this
story is what the audience doesn’t understand.
I’m going to be showing the people hiding exclusively in close-ups and mediums
so the audience can’t see any of the birthday decorations around the
house/apartment. The audience can see that the characters are trying to be as
quiet and inconspicuous as possible, but they don’t know why. The tension is
increased by the character outside walking – we don’t know who he is, but we
know the characters inside can hear him and seem to be nervous. I’m going to
make the situation tense but ambiguous until the very end, when we see the
birthday cake and decorations. Until then, the audience will feel anxious but
won’t know why, which I hope will play well on screen.
5. In mainstream media, some scenes are simply
chase scenes or scenes of suspense. However, for the goals of this class, there
should be more going on than that. Assuming that this scene is from a larger
film, explain the narrative, emotional and thematic purpose of this scene in
the larger story.
Going along with what I said in the second
question, I think if I were making a larger film I would want it to be about friendships.
The narrative of the film would deal with expectation and when it goes too far –
I can see my main character expecting too much of his friends before the
surprise party, perhaps to the degree that he begins to think they don’t like
him because they aren’t fulfilling his expectations. It would be an analysis of
not respecting other peoples’ priorities, livelihoods, and commitments – I
imagine my main character having to learn about sympathy and selflessness. When
he does, it’ll be less of him leaving his friends alone and more of his friends
treating him better because of the respect he has for them. That’s what leads
into their decision to throw him a surprise birthday party.
6. What emotions do you want the audience to experience as
they watch this scene? How do you intend make this happen?
I want them to feel anxious, because the
characters are feeling anxious. I intend to make that happen by keeping the
real nature of the situation ambiguous. We don’t know what these characters are
hiding from, and we don’t know if the character walking outside has anything to
do with them at first. As I was saying in the fourth question, I’m going to use
primarily closeups and mediums in the beginning of the film so that the space
feels ambiguous but the characters feel familiar and close from the get-go. We
don’t exactly know where they are or what their situation is, but we know they’re
hiding and we know they’re at least acquainted with each other. In this film I
want it to be more important to see who the characters are rather than where
they are.
7. What is the first image of the scene? What is
the final image of the scene? Why are you choosing these specific images?
For the first image, I want a closeup of
someone peeking over the back of a couch. For the last image, a wide of the
main character with all his friends surrounding him – one of them is holding a
birthday cake with lit candles. The first image will immediately establish that
character(s) are hiding without telling the audience too much about the
geography of the space, or the nature of the situation. The last image will be
in stark contrast with the first because the audience now knows what the
situation is, the space is visible, and all the characters are visible as well.
It’s a more comfortable and familiar shot than the first, because I want the
audience to lose that sense of initial anxiety by the end of the film.
8. Why is this scene personal to you? (Please
don’t answer, “Because I’ve always wanted to make a chase scene!”) What
personal experience(s) does this scene remind you of? Ask yourself, “Why do I need to make this scene?”
I’m super into gift-giving, but weirdly
enough, I get super anxious about it as well. I’m always worried that the
recipient won’t like the gift – or worse, they’ll pretend to like it. in that
same vein, I’d like to play with the element of surprise in this short film.
What does it take to create a convincing surprise? I thought a lot about
whether it would be better to surprise the audience or surprise the characters,
and what I came up with surprises the main character but the suspends the
audience, who don’t know what is going on but has been offered a better
understanding of the characters than the situation itself. I like to think of
this film as evoking the same kind of anxiousness that comes with gift-giving –
it’s there, but not overwhelming, because the result of gift-giving is so
unpredictable. The outcome of this film, too, should feel unpredictable to the
audience.
9. Review the 11 subcomponents of space. What are the
overall rules for how you will use space in your film? (For example, will one
character exist primarily in flat space while the other exists in deep space?)
How will use contrast and affinity within shots and from shot to shot? For each
rule, articulate why will you use space in this way. Be specific.
Our main character, the one who spends most
of the film outside, will exist in deep space because I want it to feel as
though he’s free to move wherever he wants. Maybe it’ll even make him seem
intimidating when compared to the hiding friend characters, who will exist in
flat space because close-up flatness will make it more difficult to determine
what is happening and where they are. I’m planning on using practical lighting
to create stark contrast on the character’s faces, make it obvious that the
lights are off in the house, and overall up the anxiety of the audience. Distinct,
purposeful shadows will help a lot in this piece, I think. I want the approach of
the main character to feel looming, maybe threatening – so I’ll make sure he is
lit in high-contrast, low lighting as well. I want there to be an overall sense
of dread that will be upped by the constricting nature of flat space and low
lighting.
10. What focal lengths will you use? Why?
I’d like to use longer lenses for everything
except the last few shots, which is when I’ll widen out to establish the space
and situation and overall make everything feel more calm and approachable. My
DP and I discussed shooting on a 5D III, which is a full-frame sensor, so I’m
going to stick to lens lengths 35mm and over for my close-ups and mediums. For
those last final wide shots, I think a 14mm or 24mm would be sufficient,
although I’m leaning more towards favoring a 14mm because it’ll be able to
capture the whole space in one go.
11. In a bulleted list, articulate two or three
potential obstacles to creating a successful film. How can you be prepared to
overcome these? Be specific!
I’ve already talked to a couple people about
acting in this piece, but I think one of the biggest struggles I can foresee is
finding cast. My dream is to use middle-aged people, not college-age kids, but
I don’t know if that will happen. I think it would be more charming overall
with a middle-aged cast and I’m going to try my best to make it happen.
Lighting outside is going to be difficult! I’m
not as worried about the lighting inside, because I’ll be using a lot of
practical lights and hopefully Kinos, but outside I don’t have any power
sources and it’ll be especially difficult because the main character is walking
and moving. I’ll probably end up using street lights and no cinema lights – I’m
just worried about how that will look.
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