Camera Tests

Before shooting, I wanted to do a camera test to decide definitely on which aspect ratio to chose, as well as to see if the lens choice is the best for this story.

So, I shot one using a 2.39:1 aspect ratio and one using a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. See aspect ratio tests below.

2.39:1

1.85:1

After seeing both, I decided that I want to use a widescreen aspect ratio when presenting my short film. I think it suits the film aesthetically the best.

Also, this camera test showed how incredible these lenses look. The blooming from the light on the left is absolutely beautiful and exactly what I wanted for this film. I didn’t end up using the tights over the rear of the lens as I thought the amount of blooming was suitable without them.

I wanted to see how the lens would work when shooting an extreme closeup. The fall off into the out of focus areas is nice and gradual. Also, in the first frame, there is some really stunning flaring coming from the top of the frame. Things like these are exactly what I pictured for this film.

I also wanted to see the texture of the lens, specifically the bokeh. I think the bokeh you achieve with this lens is beautifully sharp around the edges and works well with its transparency, especially when overlapping.

Location Scout

For the protagonist’s house I will use my house as it is where I live and will allow me to shoot whenever I want; so I will not need to use a shooting schedule to adhere to the owner’s whereabouts. I will have unlimited time and resources. For the opening if the film I will be using my bedroom for Evelyn’s bedroom. Both day and night.

Here is the location of the birthday party near the beginning of the film, and the following conversation between her and her best friend Johnathan.

I will use a different part of my house for the older version of Evelyn’s house. See below.

The abandoned building that represents the main theme of the short film will be this one. I decided to include this abandoned building in my screenplay because of this building. I always really liked the look of it, also how it is surrounded by modern day suburban houses. The juxtaposition helps to push the metaphor further.

For the funeral scene, I will use my back garden. While my back garden does not look anything like a graveyard, I will use cinematography to shoot it as if it were. I will use a low angle shot and a fake gravestone prop out of focus in the foreground of the frame. The location I will shoot in will mainly just need to be outside, it will not really be shown.

At one point we see Evelyn working in an office. I will use a room in my house for this location. I will decorate it using desks and desktop monitors. I will use a soft focus so that the surroundings look more like an office and not a room in a house. The grey painted walls will help to show the dull and mundane existence she is experiencing.

Equipment/camera/lens research

The camera I will be using is the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. This is because it produces a high quality image with high dynamic range. High dynamic range is something I’ve never been able to shoot with before, so I’m looking forward to being able to shoot without the highlights being completely washed out or the overall image being underexposed. It also has the ability to shoot in RAW, which means I will have much more control over the colour grading process, and it will be able to retain much more detail in the highlights and shadows.

In addition to this, I decided to get the Canon FD prime lenses as they fitted the aesthetic of the film perfectly. I ended up getting a 50mm lens and an 28mm lens. The 28mm lens is quite fast, opening up to 1.9 f-stop, which will be brilliant for low light shooting, which I’ve struggled with in the past. The 50mm lens will probably be used more for shooting intimate conversations, as they will make the characters feel closer together.

I also will be using tights on the rear of the lens to get even more blooming in the highlights to achieve the dreamlike and vintage look.

I don’t mind what type of lights I use to shoot this film with. I think I will use a lot of natural light; but, I will also use a few LED lights, as they are most functional, and occasionally a tungsten light. I think the texture of the light from the tungsten is better than the LEDs, but because it’s tungsten it gets quite hot. So, when possible I will use tungsten, but when it becomes a safety hazard I will use LEDs. I will occasionally mix them to create different lighting set-ups, as I only have one tungsten lights and two LEDs.

Research into Cinematography

I think for this film I want to use a lot of soft and natural light. This is because of the dreamy but also realistic look I want the film to have. I want to achieve a ‘heightened realism’ look in my cinematography, meaning that I don’t want it to have a specifically unrealistic look.

I will be taking inspiration from such films as Synecdoche New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008) and the cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema, mainly the films Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) and Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014).

I am taking inspiration from Synecdoche New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008) because it is similar in tone to what I want my film to have. Also, I’m going to inspiration from Synecdoche New York‘s change in lighting when reflecting tone. At first it is brighter using a slight teal and orange look, but as his outlook on life, and as his life decays, it shifts to using more cold grey tones.

I am taking inspiration from Hoytema’s cinematography as he is my favourite cinematographer and his style of cinematography is beautiful and I think would work well with this film. I think the naturalistic camera movement and cinematographic style of Her and Interstellar work really well. I think Her and Interstellar‘s use of a shallow depth of field is really stunning and focuses the audience on the characters, which is something I would like to do in my film.

I am going to shoot the film in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, because I believe it suits the film the best. The only other aspect ratio I think this film could be is 1.85:1, but I don’t think that would work very well with the film. Wider than 2.39:1 is too wide and any less than 1.85:1 is too narrow, I think. So, I’ve decided 2.39:1 is the best for my film and its story.

I want the main lighting style in this film to be quite soft. I want to use this film as an opportunity to use a three-point lighting set-up; using a key light, a fill light (I might not use this one that much though, as I like a slightly higher contrast look when lighting someone), and a backlight.

Also, I really like the blooming in the highlights in Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. They achieved this by stretching tights over the rear of the lens, in between the lens and body of the camera.

This creates a more dreamlike and vintage look to the image. See examples below.

Research into Storyboarding Conventions

Storyboards consist of multiple pictures, usually hand drawn, but occasionally photographed. Then underneath, or to the side, a description of the type of shot and camera movement if necessary. Sometimes a description of what is happening in the scene is included. Below is an example of the storyboards from Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017), and a less conventional looking storyboard from Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010).

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Research into Scripting Conventions

Below is a page from the screenplay for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. I have used this page to explain and show examples of scripting conventions.

Action Points and Preparation Possibilities

For my short film, I will need to know how to use makeup to make actors look elderly. I don’t want to change the actors playing the characters throughout the film because I want there to be a strong connection between the viewer and the character, and feel that a change of actor would hinder this.

I don’t want the film to look clinical or overly sharp, so I think I will use vintage lenses when shooting my film, as modern lenses tend to add too much contrast to the image. At the moment I’m looking at the Canon FD lenses which were a series of lenses produced from the 1970s-80s. The FD lenses acted as a more budget friendly/domestic option to the Canon K35 lenses; which are another series of vintage lenses created by Canon, used on such films as Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) which I really like the look of. They don’t add too much contrast and let the highlights bloom more than modern day lenses. I think I will get the FD lenses with the coating on. Often a lot of people have the coating removed to increase lens flaring, but I want more of a dreamy look for my film. I think the Canon FD lenses will work really well with the story of my film as the film is about the passage of time and memories, so using vintage glass will help to convey this ‘look back at the past’ to the audience.

Pitch Reflection

My pitch was well received; however, the day after I performed my pitch, I had to re-explain my short film idea due to its complicated plot. Only a few people didn’t understand it though, but I explained it again for the few people who didn’t. I think this was because of the way I was explaining it; in writing, and in its eventual short film form, it will be much easier to understand.

I believe that after the two times of explaining the plot, I successfully explained the themes and storyline of my short film.

One of the questions that was asked was if Evelyn likes Johnathan back. She does, and I believe this will be much more apparent in the screenplay once their dialogue has been added.

My film studies teacher said that he could “certainly visualise this as a short film”, but that I need to “make sure there are sufficient opportunities for extended dialogue”; which there will be, I just didn’t talk about every dialogue scene during my pitch.

Short Film Pitch

Treatment

An Uncertain Woman In An Unclear World.

Evelyn turns 18 today. She is sad. Sad that she is already 18 years old, and worried about how much time she has left. The 18 years of her life have gone so quickly, as will the rest, she thinks.

She is so worried about the future, how much time she has left, if she will accomplish her goals, that her life is passing by in front of her. After opening presents and blowing out birthday candles, she sits next to her best friend Johnathan. Johnathan gifts her a necklace with a forget-me-not flower pendant, there is chemistry. She thanks him for the present, her favourite present. There is a moment of silence. Evelyn takes this chance to talk about how life is so unimportant and quick that she doesn’t know how to spend each moment (occasionally she will trip on her words or stutter). Throughout this scene, in the background (never fully shown) is an old woman watching Evelyn. Johnathan asks if Evelyn wants to go on a date this weekend, but Evelyn declines as she needs to study.

Evelyn now attends University and sees Johnathan one day walking down the street. Johnathan suggests they catch up this weekend as they have not seen each other in a while. She declines, worrying about the work she has to do. She is saddened by this.

On one of her commutes, she stops to look at an abandoned building. It is forgotten and a waste of space. She hopes not to be this building. She hopes that she does not regret her decision to not meet up with Johnathan. Evelyn notices an old woman standing by the building (the old woman we have been seeing in the background of Evelyn’s life). She asks the elderly woman if she is alright. The woman does not respond but looks as if she is trying to say something. Evelyn looks at a necklace the woman is wearing, it is the same as the one Johnathan gave her for her 18th birthday; the forget-me-not. “I’m scared and confused,” she says to the old woman. It is her.

Elderly Evelyn takes young Evelyn to her house. It is small and broken. She is saddened that this is where she ends up. “We didn’t make it?” young Evelyn asks. Old Evelyn shakes her head but seems more worried about something else. Young Evelyn leaves in disappointment in elderly Evelyn and herself.

Later we receive news that Old Evelyn has died. Young Evelyn attends her older self’s funeral. She delivers a short, poetic and bleak eulogy.
Evelyn receives the news that she didn’t get the job as a writer and gets a tedious office job that she finds boring. She grows old. Johnathan is now married and has 3 children.

On her way to and from work every day, she starts seeing her younger self. She becomes mute and is now old Evelyn. She looks on in regret at her younger self worrying about her future rather than living in the present. One day she gets news that Johnathan has died.

She sees Young Evelyn talking with Johnathan, she cries seeing him; a person whom she never got to live her life with alive and well. She stands by the abandoned building, which she now is, watching Evelyn walk towards her. Old Evelyn wants to warn young Evelyn that she shouldn’t spend her life worrying about the future and live in the moment and live with Johnathan. But can’t due to being mute.

Old Evelyn then lives out the rest of her days in loneliness and repetitiveness until she dies, unfulfilled having lived a wasted life. Before she dies she looks at a photograph of Johnathan, the man she chose not to be with and the life she chose not to live. A life of happiness surrounded by the people she loves. She is forgotten.