PRE-PRODUCTION DAY 1

Today was the firs day we were allowed into the studio to pick our flats, build the walls, remove existing wallpaper and start to create our ideas! The flats we used were thick with wallpaper and so the removal of it took quite a while but we got there in the end. We started to wallpaper but have did not get chance to finish as the studio time was over and people had other commitments after these hours. Next week we will no doubt finish most of the set!

MID WAY THROUGH WALLPAPER REMOVAL

AFTER DAY 1 (PART WALLPAPERED)

SHOT LIST

SHOT LIST 

STORYBOARD

PROPOSAL FOR THE GROUP PROJECT

Tag line: Sometimes smoke can play tricks on your mind.
Log line: Chris is half-zoned out in a smokey room. He finds himself confused to why the TV spontaneously turns on. The walls vibrate and objects fall; smoke fills the room.

Scene synopsis

On an average night, strange things happen when you are intoxicated. Swirls of cloudy smoke particles are gathered around the room. A young blonde guy sits in his dull themed armchair in the centre. In front is a small flat TV screen, a brown shelf and a window with floral burnt curtains. The room is cluttered with rubbish across the floor and the walls are covered in posters. The walls are also dirty and stained. Suddenly the TV flicks onto static. Then blonde guy is looking confused and very intoxicated to why this may be. He searches around him for the remote control and turns the TV off. The TV flicks on again, this time a train appears on screen. As the train draws closer and closer towards the TV, the same TV image is portrayed in his window. He looks puzzled to why this may be and switches off the TV. Again, the TV flicks on and the train is on the TV as while as in his window, it draws closer and closer. He attempts really hard to turn the TV off by constantly pushing the off switch on the remote in a rapid manner. The walls start to vibrate from a steady pace and increases rapidly. The lights start to flicker as the train comes even closer. The curtains blow and smoke particles swirl around the room. Leaves and litter fly across the floor and we see the blonde guy confused and scared within the centre of the room on his armchair. He covers himself with his arms and tucks his head into his legs as resort of what feels like his only protection; giving up from turning the TV off. The pace at which the wind, vibration and lights flicker increases as the train is now near the window as if it will go through the walls. Fade to black.

MOODBOARD FOR THE SET

This mood board depicts the type of things/props that will be in our set. 

SET DESIGN INSPIRATION

In the first ever lesson we had in CPR Chris (member of my group) came up with an idea which everyone liked instantly. The idea was to have a man watching TV, a classic black and white, damsel in distress, tied to train tracks, sort of thing would be playing but the man cannot turn off the TV. This is when a train (the train from the TV) starts coming towards the mans house (visible through a window). As the train gets closer everything starts to shake as if it were actually speeding towards the mans house. As this idea has developed with group in put, the man is now to be a teen and his house (room) is to resemble something of a drug den. The boy is clearly using and high on something and so the piece is left open to interpretation in regards to its reality. Is the boy hallucinating? Is the train really there? Why, if it's not real, is the room shaking/are lights flickering? We think this lends itself well to the initial thoughts of the 'uncanny' and poses questions about the conscious and the subconscious.

For the living room/den we decided to go for a neutral colour pallet, nothing too posing. Grey/off white walls, a plain (but tatty carpet) and distressed curtains. We are also thinking of using an old (retro looking) TV and a 'grandma' style broken armchair. We feel this gives the set an 'old age' kind of feel, lived in once but now just used as this persons den. The floor will also be littered with cigarette buts and dirty clothes. We think we will be putting up a shelf with some sort of drug paraphernalia displayed. The reasons for this are to add to the whole life-style of the character but also when we start shaking the set and blowing the curtains we think things falling to the floor will make it more dramatic.

'TRAINSPOTTING' - film
This aptly named filmed has become a starting point of inspiration for our set.

PHOTOSHOP MOOD BOARD TEST

THE UNCANNY

'The Uncanny' is generally known a Freudian term for the explanation of something that is 'closely recognisable' or 'familiar yet strange'. In previous modules I have come across this term but not in a lot of detail. In particular the experimental modules often refer to the concept of 'The Uncanny' as it is a common theme within experimental filmmaking. I studied the experimental film 'Un Chien Andalou' which i feel plays with the term. In one part of the film there is a hand with ants crawling out of it. Although it has many connotations of the Spanish bourgouis society at the time it also tricks the audiences minds, the hand looks real but the ants exuding out of a small hole in it is physically impossible and so it makes the audience question.
In this weeks session I was given some examples of the uncanny used in art. One example was from artist Ron Mueck and his sculptures that are made with such precision and detail that they appear very realistic (the familiar) however the scales of the sculptures are played with, making a young girl appear as a towering 9ft culture or a fully grown man on a dwarf scale (the strange).
Another example of how the uncanny concept is used in art could be it's use in horror films. Often the scary characters are often the ones that are slightly un-human, walking disjointedly or their faces looking more mannequin-like than human. Films such as 'The Ring' that features the 'dead yet un-dead' girl who walks with broken bones and who's face we never see as it is covered by her hair. As a human when we are presented with something that physically resembles a familiar object we assume it is real and constantly look for it's flaws, the flaws are often interpreted as 'strange' and therefor we become cautious of it's authenticity. This creates a distance with the object even though we feel we can closely relate to it. The unease of the uncanny makes an audience unsettled and constantly on edge. This concept is to be the driving force of our CPR set designs.