Pre Production Revisions and improvements

I read the class's input in response to my original preproduction package, so i've decided to make a new storyboard and include some details about my movie that may make the concept stronger.

Terrain:

I included a park area within my movie, but overlooked the potential for a range in textures and objects the camera can come in contact with.  There are so many different surfaces and objects in a park that i could exploit.

wooden walkways

cold plastic surfaces

stepping stones *shoe could jump from one to the other*

tiling inside park bathrooms

Goal of the movie: Having some sort of destination in mind would aid in giving the movie a specific direction to take with out detracting too much from my original concept.  I also included moments where the camera does not move as much. There were concerns that my movie could cause motion sickness if the pace moves too fast for too long.  I still want my music to play as the shoes walk, but I have included moments where the sound is temporarily replaced with another sound effect or music track.

Revised breakdown:

The dirty sneaker belongs to an individual whose free time is spent playing recreational soccer.  The movie opens up with a shot of the soccer ball next to one of the two shoes.  The individual picks these objects up (one of which is the camera) and sets them down elsewhere.  We see the hands of the individual tying one shoe, then picking up the shoe that serves as the viewer's point of view.  A foot comes towards the screen, indicating that we are the other shoe.

Two people are needed to play soccer, so the first destination of the shoe is to the house of a friend.  I still want to include many different areas to travel between.  I'm thinking of having 3 for this segment:  From walkway of front lawn, to concrete sidewalk, to asphalt of street.  

From here the camera sits for a moment, and the sound of an ice cream truck can be heard.  The wheels of the truck are in the shot confirming the shoes' location.  Suddenly, a blob of ice cream falls onto "our" shoe, and ice cream covers the frame.  

As it is wiped off, the camera transitions to the house of the other individual.  The individual rings the doorbell once.  Then the individual rings the doorbell again.  Our view of the shoe moves up and down in rapid succession, denoting impatience.  The door finally opens and the camera sees another set of shoes and soccer ball.  The shoe turns, and takes its first step, which cuts to the park area. 

 The pace of the shoes slows a bit as they step across wooden surfaces, through sand, mulch, and grass.  (This is the area i can include most of my gritty textures.)  Dirt and mud accumulates on the shoe.  The dirt fills up the frame, darkening the view considerably.  The next shot opens as the soccer ball is kicked.  (the sound of the kick can be heard.) Dirt tracks from the shoe can be seen on the ball after it is kicked.

From there, I have two ideas.  I can end the movie there, or i can transition back to the closet from the first shot, where the individual takes the shoes off, puts them back into the closet, and closes the door.  One gives a definite ending whereas the other emphasizes the cyclic nature of wearing shoes each day.  I can film both, but which one would be a better fit for my movie?

Revised storyboards will be completed soon.

Preproduction Package for next movie:

The world is conveyed from the perspective of a dirty sneaker.  It's mostly about the rhythmic journey of a shoe from point a to b.  As it is worn by a "seasoned" pedestrian.  Through puddles, dirt, and mud; across asphalt and concrete. From location to location in rapid succession.  You see the shoes get pulled out the closet and have feet stuck in them. Movie cuts to a shot where a door in front of them opens to the outside world.

You see the shoe walk from the front lawn, all across memphis.

If you've ever seen one of those old school film movies, they have those transitions where the camera moves from side to side really fast in a blur to get to the next scene.

I also want to create a rhythm in the shots themselves. Maybe even do the entire movie to music. People walk with a distinctive pace in mind, and i can mirror that with music, and the times at which the camera will cut to the next shot.

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1: Shot list and Storyboard:

*my ideas are location dependent, so i included images that show the overall area of each shot. each shot is done in the style of this indoor test video*

EXAMPLE. When looped, appears as if walking in endless hallway. (creates smooth transitions.)

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1.  low angle  shot of shoes in closet. picked up. taken out of closet and sat on floor.   View from below of feet of person (face not seen) moving feet toward camera. (cut to black)

2.  cut to shot of door opening from shoe's perspective.  Room that was once dark becomes filled with light.  View of the outside world in detail contrasts a room that was once pitch black. (front yard)

3.  time slows as shoe takes first step. serves as the beginning of the long trek to the destination that the individual is walking to. Once first step is made, time of steps goes back to normal, establishing the pace of the walk throughout the movie.

....Each of the next shots are done with 3 steps a piece, in rapid succession.  The transitions between them visually convey covering a very large distance in a short amount of time on film.  Each location emphasizes the distance traveled, and the constance pace of the walk itself.  Depending on the area traveled the rhythm will slow or speed up.  (for example:  slower walks for uphill climbs, faster walks for downhill movements.)

4.  walk from the front yard.

5. walk to the sidewalk outside the house.

6. transition to sidewalk of shopping center parking lot

7. gas station, step in car oil (splashes on screen? small traces left in the following shots)

8. walk through field of grass

9. uphill walk through dirt and mud (mud accumulates on screen as pace slows down, stops at top of hill. small traces left in following shots)

10. shoe is cleaned off with stick. pace quickens as foot begins to speed up, walking faster.

Faster pace is denoted by the more frequent passing of environments.

shots 11 - 14.  neighborhood, sidewalk of street, park area, set of stairs (going up).

15. denotes the trek back to point a.  The shoe goes back down the stairs. As each step is taken, a shot of a previous location is shown again, cut in-between each step taken down the stairs.

16. the shoes are back home, and are thrown down, inside the closet, where the door closes.

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2: Additional Notes:

Although the focus of my movie has shifted away from an emphasis on closeup visuals, the variety in locations is important.  I am still scouting more areas (including a few shots on cooper st)  i add in this movie, as i feel that the greater diversity in environments and surfaces to walk on, the better.

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3: Q and A

a. The shoe's objective is to carry the individual from point a to point b, regardless of terrain, distance, or hazards.

b.  The major obstacles the shoe has in moving from area to area is the terrain itself. Different areas require different rhythms of walking, from trots to sprints.

c. The only action that the shoe uses to overcome these obstacles is a constant move forward.  The shoe serves as an extension of the wearer's body.

d. Different areas require different rhythms of locomotion, from slow trots to fast sprints.

e.  The shoe, when it can no longer fulfill its objective is entirely dictated by the user.  Fulfillment and failure work in a cycle that is repeated each day.  The shoe is laid aside to be worn once again when it is given a new objective.

f.  The main realistic doing that the shoe is engaged in is walking, although it is being portrayed from an unrealistic angle.

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4.  Breakdown

a.  2 actors. The individual who wears the shoe, and the implied presence of the shoe itself.

b. the shoe will be in all scenes, where as specific shots of the wearer will only be seen at the beginning, end, and the one shot where the shoe is cleaned off.

c. All locations are outdoors and located within a block of each other, up and down central avenue, due to the variety of locations and scenery in that area. Outdoor outlets are few and far in between, so it is imperative to use batteries when filming.  

d. Special effects(2):  simulating the look of a shoe walking through different areas and the look of mud and dirt getting on the camera.

e. No special costumes or makeup.

f.  Props?  No props, other than a pair of dirty shoes.

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5. Location Snapshots:

...included with storyboards.

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7. Days to shoot (2 or 3):

This friday, 4/17 for rehearsals, then next friday, 4/24 for the final shooting.  Saturday, 2/25 is needed in case something goes wrong.

Expanded film Idea

Idea of some of the shots I want:

Beginning:
Opening shot of shoe in closet. Frame is dark. Closet opens, and the "wearer" picks up the shoes, prepared to wear them.

Body of movie:
Mass amounts of dirt and other substances that the shoe comes in contact with serve as the transitions from area to area. As the movie progresses, the cuts and shots become quicker depending on where the shoe is going and what is stepping in.

I want a sequence where the shoe interacts with the world around it, kicking objects that may be painful to kick if it was not worn. (Rocks, metal, etc.)

The movie is about the shoe, but the wearer can be seen from time to time depending on the angle of the foot, just to indicate the correlation between the shoe's actions and the wearer's actions.

End:
Ending shot of shoes being thrown to the side, in the closet, covered in dirt. The door of the closet closes, ending the way the movie began, denoting the cyclic nature of the shoe's function.

Revised Movie Idea

Subject:  Document 24 hours of time from the perspective of a dirty sneaker.

Shortened to fit within a timeframe of 3 to 5 minutes.

Each day we spend most of our time wearing shoes of some sort to protect our feet from the ground.  It lets us walk where we otherwise would not be able to.  I want my film to document the trek through a number of dirty, gritty locations, some of which could even be hazardous.  There are a lot of surfaces and textures I could document to fully realize the setting.  I want a lot of close up shots so the viewer could get an extensive view of what we have under our shoes.

I'm still thinking of ways to portray this, but at different points in the movie I want to portray the up and down motion that shoes have as the individual who wears them walks.  The camera will become the shoe's eyes, and like my sandwich video, the eye's focus will change depending on what the shoe is doing, or it's current status (tied, or untied).

Right now, the only sequence I envision for my movie is to have it start in the morning before the person wearing the shoe goes off for his activities, and at the end of the day when the shoe is put back in the closet.  (I want a shot of a dark closet opening and the shoes being taken out, and then the shoes being put back in the closet as it closes.)

3 Ideas for Next Video:

#1: A continuation from first experimental idea, documenting life from the perspective of an inanimate object or multiple objects.

I really want to try to execute this video from the perspective of a shoe. My first video allowed the viewer to see such interesting textures when jelly came so close to the lens. Since shoes walk everywhere, I could create a visually rich movie that documents a shoe's trek through a large number of dirty, gritty environments.

#2: I am thinking about combination of stop motion light painting photography and full motion video to produce a film. I have seen a couple videos based on this concept in the past, and I think I could create an interesting narrative or documentation of a nighttime space using this technique.

#3: My favorite shot from Maya Deren's "Meshes in the Afternoon" is the one where she takes a few steps, yet appears as if she has traveled a great distance. I want to make a movie based around this concept that has the character move from one space to another by , exiting the frame of the shot in different directions by different means. I want to force continuity, and make the character travel where they would not be able to travel otherwise.

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Edit:  I just had another idea... where i could create a narrative that would be a combination of animation and video based around the interactions between living tattoos on a person's body.

Rehearsal Notes:

We were able to rehearse just about every scene in the movie this weekend. I went over the planned way of filming each shot and recording sound for the movie while leaving room open to suggestions and new ideas. Everything seemed to work out well. Although i wanted to pick up sounds of the wind as well as the streets below my filming location, I did have to be careful of the levels I set my equipment to. Little children in the distance could be heard if not too careful. Such is one of the issues with filming in a public place.

Rehearsal sparked many ideas as to how I would visually portray the fall from the building. I had my own ideas, and the crew had theirs. We decided to put them together and film them all to decide which methods were the most effective. The final fall in the movie will be depicted with a combination of these techniques.

There is no dialogue, but there is an emphasis on sound effects.  We experimented with recording sound specific distances away from the camera and actor to create the sounds we want.  I have recorded extra sounds during rehearsal that I may be able to use over my footage from this week's shooting to create a more fully realized environment for my movie.

I do have a couple of worries about filming the actual movie based on rehearsals. Things went so well during rehearsal because I had the sunlight and clear sky I wanted all day. The 5-day forecast for this week predicted rain, which would be a big problem. There was some earlier reports this week that the weekend should be sunny, so I am hoping for the sunlight to return.  I am currently working on backup plans just in case it does rain this weekend.

Additional Pre-production Information

Actors:
The only actor I have is in all scenes of the movie. He plays two different parts, his present self, and his past self.

Locations:

The Peabody Hotel roof, and a bathroom floor. The bathroom floor is more or less used for a few shots towards the end, to document the space. The Peabody Hotel roof is where most of my movie is shot, and there are plenty of ways to take advantage of the space.


Wide open space, with many outlets to use if any electrical equipment is needed.




There are a number of establishment shots I can get from this elevation. With the aid of a step ladder, I can get the shot I originally wanted for my movie. Here is the example again.




With a cheap digital camera, I filmed an example shot of the view I want of the city. (disregard my finger in the shot, won’t happen in the final movie.) Using the sound of rushing wind and car horns in these first person perspective shots, I want the viewer to become as immersed in the environment as the main character himself. At that elevation, the slightest wind blowing can be very loud, not to mention the sounds from the other buildings in the area. It may be a good idea to record my movie silently, and record sounds over it.


Lighting Quality:
Will be fine as long as it does not rain. I am checking the weather channel constantly, insuring that the day I shoot is a bright and sunny one. Bounce cards should suffice, but there are plenty of outlets I can take advantage of for other lights if necessary.

Conceptual drawing of the basic colors of the environment and how they contrast with the wardrobe of the main character.  The red cape helps the character stand out from the background, while creating a backlight with bounce cards, will help the rest of my character stand out from his surroundings.

Stunts and Special Effects:
Most of the major effects are camera based. No bumps, or falls, just specific camera angles to convey the environment and the character in specific ways.

Special costumes, makeup?
I want the character to appear child-like in appearance, so his current wardrobe consists of wearing clothes that are a smaller fit than what would be considered normal. Currently I have him wearing pajamas.

Conceptually, I like the idea of conveying a memory by having the memory’s subject appear as it does in reality physically, but with the mentality of that time. Any other ideas on making an adult appear as a child would be appreciated.


Props:
A bright red towel. I have a portable fan I plan to use to simulate wind if necessary.

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Planning went well for my movie. I have a clear distinct idea on how I will get my shots. By using the Peabody Roof, I can get the camera angles I originally envisioned when pitching my movie before spring break.

The weather is not a problem at the moment. Friday appears to be a bright sunny day, so I will try to shoot everything then. Currently I am redrawing my storyboard, blocking my shots, and trying to plan out every detail to limit the amount of time it takes to record footage.