Kitchen Sink Drink: Mop-up

For editing, I decided to make the cutting quite slow paced. I wanted it to feel as if there was tension building with each shot that lingered. There was a bit of trouble that I had in editing; shots not flowing from one to the other as I had wanted. However, rearranging audio and cutting at the right time seemed to make it unnoticeable.

To demonstrate the effects of the poison to the viewer, I used sound effects and visual effects. Once the character takes a sip of the poisoned drink, I added a sound effect that Final Cut Pro offers called ‘underwater’. This makes it sound as if it were coming from underwater; very muffled and quiet. Also I added an echo sound effect to all of the audio; this is probably most apparent when the character is coughing. I thought these were good effects for the audio, because it sounds like his senses are being dulled, or slowly turned off. Visually, I added a Final Cut Pro effect called ‘visual echo’, which gives the video a staggered and dizzy look. This helped to visually show the poison effecting the character. To further show the poison affecting the character I decided to accentuate some parts of the audio. This can be heard when the character puts his drink down, I added an impact sound effect with an echo effect on top of that. Also, when the camera rotates with the characters head, I added a ‘rise’sound effect, also with an echo effect, to focus the viewer’s attention on the turn of the camera and the character’s head, and the character passing out. In the background of all of this, from when he drinks the poison to the end, I added a rumble sound effect. I thought this would help suggest the poison affecting the character, and create tension. I made the volume of this quite low, but apparent, in the background.

For colour correction I did not really have to do much, as i correctly exposed the camera for most of the shots while filming. But, there were a few shots that I thought looked a bit light and flat; so, I went in and lowered the exposure, which looked as if it added more contrast anyway.

For colour grading, I wanted to replicate the style of a film that also used teal and orange lighting on set, like I had. So I decided to chose the 2016 film ‘Arrival’ directed by Denis Villeneuve. This film tended to leave the image as saturated as it was shot, except for the blues. In post it would desaturate the blues in frame, while leaving everything else. In addition to this, I noticed that it added orange to the mid tones, which would create a gradient-like effect from the highlights to the shadows. Below are some before and afters of my colour grading process.

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The Final Film

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Strengths and Weaknesses

I think the the cinematography is quite good, especially for such a simple lighting setup. Also, this film has some shots that I am very proud of; specifically the bird’s-eye view shot and the final rotating shot. Also the colour grading; I enjoyed picking apart the style of ‘Arrival’ and translating it over to my own work.

To improve, I think the blocking of the scenes could be better. Where the characters go in the scene is very good, but it was where their lines were said that is not so good. Specifically when one character asks a question, and the other doesn’t answer it until two shots later, leaving an awkward pause between lines of dialogue. To fix this, I would direct the character to walk to the cupboard while the other character’s asking the question. This would mean the character who’s asking the question’s head would lead into the next shot. The character’s head would turn, implying that the other character is already making their way to the cupboard. Overall, making a much smoother transition between shots and between the question and its response .

Kitchen Sink Drink: Filming

To begin the production process, I first lit the set. Over on the far side of the kitchen, I placed a tungsten light on full brightness. This gave the room some ambiance, as well as a rim light for the characters when positioned correctly.

I also added an LED light in the opposite side of the kitchen. I then placed a blue gel over this, to give a ‘teal and orange’ look; the teal from the blue gelled LED, and the orange from the tungsten. I then threw some diffusion over this, because I thought that the light was coming off too hard. In addition to it softening the light, it also dimmed it a bit, which was good as I thought it was a bit too bright compared to the tungsten light before.

At first I was not too fond of this lighting set up, mainly because I thought in places the lighting looked a bit flat; but, when I framed the camera where I wanted, I thought that it gave it just the right amount of contrast.

The lighting for the opening shot was different to the rest, as I only used one light. I used the blue gelled LED and positioned it in another room. I placed it on the floor, so that the light would be coming from quite a low angle. I thought this suited the scene well, because it looks unnatural and has quite an uneasy feel to it, which is good because the character is planning to poison someone. I then again added a layer of diffusion over this, as before the diffusion it was not creating a very good look. Then to soften it even more, I added a bit of haze to the room using my fog machine. This made it look as if the light was radiating or glowing from the room, rather than just shining directly from it.

Going into filming, I had two shots that I definitely wanted to film. One was a bird’s-eye view shot of the character preparing the drinks, and the other was the final shot of the film which tracks the character’s head as it falls back. For this shot, I took inspiration from ‘Doctor Sleep’ directed by Mike Flanagan, in which the camera rotates with the character’s head. See below.

I knew that I wanted to use a 2.39:1 aspect ratio for this film, so when filming I often moved the camera back so that the frame would still include everything that I wanted, with the chosen aspect ratio in mind. I chose this aspect ratio, because I wanted a bit of an anamorphic look to it. This was different for me, as I usually use the thinner anamorphic aspect ratio, 2.55:1, or just 1.85:1, so this was a nice change of pace.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Location Scout and Storyboarding

As part of the pre-production process I did a location scout to see if the setting would fit the ideas that the screenplay put forward. As I was writing the screenplay with the location in mind, it fit perfectly. Below is a photograph of the location.

This can aid me in storyboarding; now I can accurately compose shots on paper. See the storyboard below.

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To help for when it comes to filming, I shall put each shot where it would be in the kitchen. See below.

Also, I did some early planning for what song I wanted to play on the record in the background. I wanted the song to resemble that of ‘Midnight, the Stars and You’ featured in ‘The Shining’, or ‘That’s Life’ by Frank Sinatra. But, I couldn’t find anything that I thought really fit the scene, so I do not think that I am going to film the shot of the record at the beginning.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Screenplay

Kitchen Sink Drink: Treatment

We open on a record spinning, the needle goes down and a song commences. A person, Ryan, walks down the stairs and turns to look to the kitchen. In the kitchen a person, Ben, sits at the table. Ryan walks in to the kitchen and offers Ben a drink; “Do you still drink water?” he asks. “Do you still poison it?” he jokes. “I only poisoned the one”, Ryan replies.

Ryan goes over to the cupboard and gets out two glasses, which he then places down on the counter. He puts three ice cubes into them, and then fills it with water. Without Ben seeing, he puts a couple drops of dark liquid in his drink. He stirs the drink which then dilutes the poison, making it invisible.

Ryan brings the drink over to Ben, which he then takes a sip of. His pupils dilate, and his vision blurs, as he looks down to the drink and back to Ryan. His head falls back. Cut to black.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Introduction

We have been tasked to plan, film, edit and upload a sequence featuring two characters in a kitchen, during which a drink is offered and accepted but secretly has something added to it.

For the first step of pre-production I will have to write a treatment. A treatment is like a short story version of your planned idea, told in the present tense, and can contain details of the directorial style. This is almost like a screenplay in the form of a short story.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Representation

The narrative of The Grand Budapest Hotel contributes to a surprising amount of representation of cultures and societies. This is possibly most apparent when Zero and Gustave breaks out of prison and Zero awaits. Zero then talks about how he had to flee his country due to war and destruction, and that all of his family is dead.

The film portrays the world to the spectator by using very wealthy imagery. Reds and purples are royal colours, and are the colours of the interior of the hotel. This is then contrasted with the browns and greys, that are seen in the poorer areas of the world of the film; such as the prison.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Aesthetics

The aesthetic of this film is probably more apparent than the actual story line. The film has a very picturesque look, which is accomplished by the colourful hotel and cast of characters. In addition to this, the constant use of whip-pans, quick-zooms, pastel colours and centre-framing helps establish the aesthetic for this very stylised film.

Perhaps the most prominent stylistic aspect of this film is the use of aspect ratios. This film has four different aspect ratios in it, a minimised 16×9, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, and 4:3. This is done to evoke a periodic feel, depending on which aspect ratio is used. The aspect ratios that have been used for certain times that the film is set, is because those aspect ratios were popular at the time.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Spotlight – Performance

When looking at performance, it’s best to analyse the introduction to the character of M. Gustave. The specific scene is Chapter 4: M. Gustave – 00:09:21-00:10:50.

We first see Gustave as he overlooks the mountains from the balcony of a room. Here, the audience can tell he is taking in the peace while he can. Once he hears a knock at the door, he leans into his walk and gracefully moves off to answer the call. He walks with purpose and very precise movement, as if his walk has been choreographed.

We see that he is a very organised character because as soon as the staff enter the room, he immediately instructs everyone of them to do a specific job; this also shows that he is in control.

When it next cuts we see a close up of him smiling; he seems very joyful. The person he is smiling at seems very nervous. Gustave reassures her which shows his affections and care for her. The less formal dialogue with her character also shows this. However, he demonstrates a brutally honest side to his personality as he comments on her nail colour, and that it is ‘diabolical’. This shows that he can’t always control himself, and has high standards.

Once his guest is about to leave, he tries to hurry her up, showing that he is quite impatient.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Spotlight – Mise En Scène

The mise en scène of this film includes production design, which is one of the best aspects of this film. To analyse the mise en scène of this film I will be looking at a specific scene; Chapter 5: Lobby – 00:11:33-00:13:32.

As soon as this scene starts we are greeted with the iconic purple hotel suits. Everyone is dressed in purple suits with gold and red accents, much like the colour scheme of the interior of the hotel. Everyone except the protagonist, the concierge, who has a purple jacket with grey trousers. This difference to all other employees helps distinguish that he is an important member of staff for the hotel, the concierge. In addition to this, he also has to badges on either side of his lapel, in the shape of two crossed keys, which is a narrative element that comes into play later on in the film. This is also the first time we see that Zero draws on his mustache, unlike Gustave’s very neat and real mustache.

On the exterior of the hotel, we get to see the extravagant decorative elements of pinks and golds, which help show how posh the hotel is. In contrast to this, the crippled shoe-shine boy is presented using browns and greys, and is quite dirty.

The light dusting of snow around the floor of the outside of the hotel establish the time at which the film is set, winter.

Once we enter the hotel, we see how every staff member’s costume relates to their specific job. Also, Gustave pulls out a notebook, which shows he is a very organised character. The multitude of staff shows that is a very successful and luxurious location. In addition to this, the fountain, flowers, and amount of lights support the previous statement. All of the staff report to him and stand to attention which is shown in this sequence; this shows his importance. Also, almost all of the guests visiting the hotel are wearing fur coats, showing that they are very wealthy.

Once Gustave and Zero are in the elevator, Gustave is the only one sat down. This shows he has higher importance than the other two employees of the hotel.