PRE-PRODUCTION DAY 3

Today we finally got our walls/window looking how we wanted it. I mixed water with coffee granules and with a damp paintbrush washed over certain parts of the wall to make it look damp/smoke ridden. I also followed down some of the wallpaper creases with a dark brown to try and simulate cracks in the wall.

COFFEE STAINED WALLS AND CRACK

We also burnt the curtains that we had bought previously and I put coffee all over these as well to give them an old look.

BURNT AND STAINED CURTAINS

Dalena attached the shelf and Chris painted it. Brock added the 'anarchy symbol'. We felt that this symbol fitted with the character profile we had created for the boy (who will be played by chris).

ANARCHY SYMBOL

We had all tried really hard to get an arm chair over the past 2 weeks but no matter how much bargaining we did we still couldn't get one for under £30 (and our budget was £25...). It was then that Susannah suggested we make an arm chair. She got lots of materials out and hung them over boxes, it actually looked really good and was exactly the look we were going for. We will probably re-do the chair on the day of the shoot but this is the general look we are going for.

DIY CHAIR

                               This is how our set looked after the third session of pre-production.

PERSONAL PROJECT

Since the first session working with and creating mood boards I started to develop my personal project idea. When playing around with photoshop and creating my mood board (seen in older post) I started to think about different textures and those textures would interlock. I then thought about the 'SANEX' advert -

This advert uses human bodies woven together to represent a persons skin span. This also reminded me a lot of the film we were shown in an earlier session 

SOLIPSIST VIMEO - CLICK HERE

I really like the use of textures woven together to create a larger mass. I then started thinking about 'body suits' and how they can be made using a variety of materials. 

I will next be drawing up and creating a costume for my personal project.

PRE-PRODCTION DAY 2

Today myself, Delena and Chris went into the studio to finish off wallpapering and painting it all white. It took a lot longer than we originally thought but we got there in the end. We purposefully left some cracks (to be painted over) to add to the dishevelled feel of the room. There will also be curtains and a shelf added so the walls won't be so bare. We are also mixing coffee granules with paint to give it an unclean look (this will be sone tomorrow).

THE FLATS ALL WALLPAPERED AND THE 1ST COAT OF PLAIN WHITE PAINT APPLIED 

Personal project research - INFINITY WALL

"An infinity cyclorama (found particularly in television and in film stills studios) is a cyc which curves smoothly at the bottom to meet the studio floor, so that with careful lighting and the corner-less joint, the illusion that the studio floor continues to infinity can be achieved. Cycloramas or "cycs" also refer to photography curving backdrops which are white to create no background, or green-screen to create a masking backdrop." - (October 2007). cyclorama (theatre). Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclorama_(theater). Last accessed 17th April 2014.

The reasoning for wanting to use/build an infinity wall for the backdrop to my personal CPR project is that I want to create an illusion of a 'never ending space'. I want to have the subject in the centre of the screen in a limitless space and I think an infinity backdrop would be the best way to achieve this. Although I will not be physically realising this project I have looked into how to build one. I found a lot of helpful videos online. 

HOW TO: infinity wall   - < VIDEO

GUIDED RESEARCH - ED FRENCH

I really enjoyed reading this! I had never heard of French until now and I really like his work. The pictures really inspire me and I really want to use costume/makeup in my personal project. I want to create a full costume/suit out of wool/string which would blow around when wind is blown around it.

GUIDED RESEARCH - DIGITAL STORY TELLING

DIGITAL STORYTELLING
THE NARRATIVE POWER OF VISUAL EFFECTS IN FILM
SHILO T. MCCLEAN
MIT PRESS 2007
ISBN - 12: 978-0-262-134654-1

This exert from a book is part of the guided research list.

After reading this I have been reminded why Digital Visual Effects are so important. They allow you to see a world, that until quite recently in modern times, could have only been imagined. Digital effects go one step further that on set effects in the sense that the objects/scenarios been conjured up cannot be done physically in this world. Although I am not planning to have a lot of Digital effects in my personal project proposal I do want to play with 'light/shadow' and this has given me some ideas of how to computer generate some of my ideas instead of just physically making them all. These may include composition of projection images overlaid with the actual footage.

   

  

(SHILO T. MCCLEAN (2007). Digital Storytelling -THE NARRATIVE POWER OF VISUAL EFFECTS IN FILM: MIT PRESS.)