Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Cast Considerations
For the main character of my key frames, I chose a child actor who was a similar age to the child actor in 'The Shining'. He is also quite small which helps in the positioning of my frames since he will be in the middle for lots of them, allowing more room for the upper sections of the frames. He also looks quite innocent which is a aspect of Danny in 'The Shining'.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Risk Assessment
In my shoot, there will be minimal risk for me or any of my actors. All the locations are indoors and there is no immediate dangers to anyone or anything.
My first location will be a care home. We need to be quiet during our shoot there and to not disturb the occupants there since they live there. There are no immediate risks at all but if any freak accidents did occur, the care home helpers would help us.
My second location is a house, using a child's bedroom and a bathroom. There are no immediate risks whatsoever inside the child's bedroom. However for the bathroom sequence, the child actor would have to wear a protective glove or plastic bag over their arm when putting their hand in the toilet. This would be from a long shot, so the arm would only have to be slightly in the toilet and only for a few seconds. If we did not this, it would be harmful to the child.
If any accidents happen, the child's parent would be there and a phone number with an ambulance is always there, however any scenario like this is extremely unlikely due to the low risk of the shoot.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Layout For 20 Key Frames
Layout For 20 Key Frames
Frame 1- An exterior shot of the boy and his mother walking to the entrance of the nursing home. It is a medium shot from behind them and they are positioned in the middle of the path walking towards the door.
Frame 2- An medium shot of the boy sitting in a long hallway, we see the legs of his mother and her hand placing a white toy car in front of him. The frame is positioned so that we see behind him in a medium shot, with the boy positioned in the middle with his mother to the left of him. This frame is similar to the first shot.
Frame 3- A medium shot, the frame is a one point perspective from a high angle. We see a long hallway, and at the bottom, just before the corner of the hallway turns , a single white balloon hovers mid air as if it were bouncing. The use of one point perspective links to my research because Kubrick used this technique in lots of his films so it was one of his motifs.
Frame 4- A medium shot facing the boy walking forward towards the balloon away from his white toy car, behind him is a open door which we assume his mother has entered to see someone. The boy is positioned in the middle of the frame again and he looks puzzled.
Frame 7- The next frame continues from the same shot type as frame 5 except the suit man's foot is raised to stamp and pop the white balloon below him. Using the three frames for one small part shows Kubrick's attention to detail and his preference for slow long takes to build atmosphere.
Frame 13- The next frame is the same side-shot as frame 12, but the old man has taken a big step forward so he is now in the middle of the frame, level with the boy's closet. The boy has tightened his grip on his toybox, frightened.
Frame 18- It is the same frame as 16, the same positioning of the frame and the camera, except the boy has his hand in the toilet bowl, fishing for the bow tie. The old man is standing in the left of the bathroom, overlooking the boy.
Frame 1- An exterior shot of the boy and his mother walking to the entrance of the nursing home. It is a medium shot from behind them and they are positioned in the middle of the path walking towards the door.
Frame 2- An medium shot of the boy sitting in a long hallway, we see the legs of his mother and her hand placing a white toy car in front of him. The frame is positioned so that we see behind him in a medium shot, with the boy positioned in the middle with his mother to the left of him. This frame is similar to the first shot.
Frame 3- A medium shot, the frame is a one point perspective from a high angle. We see a long hallway, and at the bottom, just before the corner of the hallway turns , a single white balloon hovers mid air as if it were bouncing. The use of one point perspective links to my research because Kubrick used this technique in lots of his films so it was one of his motifs.
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| Frame 3 would look like this, with the same framing and attempt to capture the mood of the film. |
Frame 4- A medium shot facing the boy walking forward towards the balloon away from his white toy car, behind him is a open door which we assume his mother has entered to see someone. The boy is positioned in the middle of the frame again and he looks puzzled.
Frame 5- The camera is now at a low angle to simulate the boy's short stature- it is a POV (personal own view) from the perspective of the boy. The right of the frame is cut off by the corner of the wall but we can see the left of the screen, around the corner of the wall. In the middle of the long symmetrical corridor is a man dressed in a suit, holding a glass of water. The man is looking straight ahead and we can see the white balloon bouncing around below his feet.
Frame 6- This frame is split into three different sections to illustrate a zoom in. The first section is still the POV shot of the wall and the suit man, but now the suit mans eyes are looking directly at the boy, which is at the viewer. The second section is a closer shot of the man, with motion blur around the edges of the screen to illustrate that it is a quick zoom in. The third section is a extreme close up of the suit man's eyes looking straight at the viewer/boy. This zoom in is a reference to the fast zooms in used in The Shining.
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| The POV would be like this scene in ''The Shining''. A long tracking shot with a heartbeat in the background. |
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| An example of the fast zoom in, usually accompanied by a loud noise in The Shining. The motion blur around the edges is visible mid zoom. |
Frame 8- A medium shot from behind the boy, his mother taking him by the hand as the boy looks up at her, they are not positioned in the middle of the frame but are instead towards the right of the hallway and frame. The shot of the boy and the mother from behind is used lots of time in 'The Shining' with Wendy and Danny.
Frame 9- This frame is again split into three sections again, the first section is a birds eye view of the remnants of the white balloon contrasting with the red carpet. The second section is a dissolve of he previous frame with the next frame slightly visible. The third section (the largest) is a establishing shot of the boy and his mum entering their home. It is a long shot, with the camera being positioned from across the street. Kubrick used the dissolve in a lot of his films and it was one of his motifs, a stylistic cut he used in all his films.
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| An example of the mother-son tracking shots in The Shining. |
Frame 10- An medium shot with the boy entering his bedroom, an medium shot which captures the whole room. To the right of the frame is the boy's bed, in the middle of his pillow is a black bow tie, visible from long distance.
Frame 11- A close up side shot of the boy sitting on his bed, holding the black bow tie, studying it. The boy is positioned in the middle of the frame, although he is not sitting in the middle of the bed.
Frame 12- The next frame is a side shot of the boy standing in front of his toy box to the left of the frame , it is open indicating he has been playing with it. In front of him is a old man dressed in 1940's esque outfit, he is at the end of the bedroom to the right of the frame, essentially the boy and the old man are at opposite ends of the room.
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| This sort of tracking shot, with the threatening figure positioned in the middle of the frame in a side shot. From Eyes Wide Shut |
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| Eventually he stops walking straight in the viewers direction and looks straight at them in another side shot. The use of ''Stop'' says all he needs to say. |
Frame 14- We see again the child's POV, it is the old man opening the doors of his closet and walking in, he is staring at the boy and thus, because we are seeing the frame from the boy's perspective, at the viewer.
Frame 15- A medium shot from inside the closet, showing the boy's clothes but also the boy looking blankly into an empty closet.
Frame 16- The next frame is the boy in his bathroom, a sickly green colour scheme and lots of mirrors, it is a long shot from behind him, we see a toilet and a bathroom indicating he is in his bathroom. We can see from a distance that the boy is about to drop the bow tie into the toilet. It is another one point perspective shot.
Frame 17- The next frame is the boy turning round and looking shocked, he sees the old man Baker giving him the Kubrick stare in anger and pointing at the toilet, with the bow tie in it. This is a low angle shot from the boy's perspective, making the old man look taller and more foreboding.
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| The bathroom of Room 237 in The Shining. Sickly green colour scheme and reflective surfaces/mirrors. |
Frame 17- The next frame is the boy turning round and looking shocked, he sees the old man Baker giving him the Kubrick stare in anger and pointing at the toilet, with the bow tie in it. This is a low angle shot from the boy's perspective, making the old man look taller and more foreboding.
| The Kubrick Stare- a reoccuring motif in his films. Featured is Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Pvt Pyle from Full Metal Jacket Jack Torrance from The Shining and Redmond Barry from Barry Lyndon. |
Frame 19- A medium shot from in front of the boy, his mother walks in whilst his hand is down the toilet, he looks back in panic, the old man is gone. Low angle. Kubrick also used low angles regularly in his films.
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| The low angles of Kubrick's films. |
Frame 20- A close up of the boy's face looking into a mirror, terrified as his mum scrubs his arm by the sink, she is not looking in the mirror. In the reflection of the mirror,through the open bathroom door, we can see the suited man from earlier standing there, a evil smile on his face holding the bow tie.
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Recce Report
For my coursework, one of my locations is a care home. My script is heavily influenced by 'The Shining' and I used this care home because it is reminiscent of the long symmetrical hallways I am using in my script.
Below are some photos of the Care home, showing the setting I wanted.
Below are some photos of the Care home, showing the setting I wanted.
This is the exterior of the location at the front door, even though
it is outside of the care home, the path is still quite symmetrical
creating a sense of foreboding for what exists inside.
it is outside of the care home, the path is still quite symmetrical
creating a sense of foreboding for what exists inside.
My two other locations are the boy's bedroom and the bathroom in his house. These are locations in my grandmother's house and so I have permission to use them as much as I need. The boy's bedroom is appropriate because it contains a closet in it which is used in my script and is big enough for a reverse shot that is used in one of my key frames. The window is also similar to the window's seen in The Shining, where you can't really see out of them. It also has a symmetrical look to the room.
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| The windows are similar, with white balance being so high you can't see out of the window illustrating the isolation of the interiors. |
The front view of the bedroom has a child's bed and door visible with quite banal and
grey wallpaper, reflecting the mood of the original film.
The bathroom scenes will be shot near the door from a one point perspective. I will make
the bathroom look more green through Photoshop after the frames are shot. I will also
utilize mirrors in the bathroom to reflect The Shining's use of them.
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