No Dialogue in this short film
shots need to be uncomfortable, audience can’t get the resolution it wants by seeing what it wants, i aim to keep interest by making them wait for that resolution, but it needs to be subtle so that it is a subconscious reaction.
starts with 1 sitting on end of bed,
shot idea – upper chest in the bottom of the frame and upper nose top of frame, eyes are not in view and lips are the focus which makes it uncomfortable for the viewer, as if they are this close to a strangers face.
Camera following protagonist at high angle, establishing the protagonist as a victim
additionally birds eye view helps to establish the protagonist as a victim however is difficult to set up true birds eye view.
The money shot – set up with the camera fixed to a bicycle wheel, the shot is of a person in the bath, it is a very flat, 2D shot, the lip of the bath lines up with the middle of the shot so you cannot see inside the bath at all (although this will depend on the height of the bath and wheel and whether or not i can get the camera low enough without the wheel touching the ground) the person falls back into the bath and camera follows trying to keep person in focus, once it rotates 180 degrees from the top to the bottom, the shot will be cut, the person will move to the other end of the bath and rise up with the camera, as if they had fully rotated in the bath with the camera in the new shot, i’m hoping that the blur during the middle of the spin will mask the transition and make it smooth.
I’m using this shot to show what the world is like from the character’s view, it will be less focused on Mise-En-Scene and more on how his mental illness’s are distorting his mind, visually i will represent this with uncomfortable camera techniques such as dutch angles (canted angles) close up shot lengths, bringing the audience very close to a character that they haven’t had time to empathise or connect with and contrast between low and high angles.
For example, at the start of the scene, i don’t want to show the full character in shot so as to not let the audience recognise or associate the character at all, its still a mystery to them, so close ups will make up most of the first few shots. Additionally the shots will be quite flat angles to start off with, for example – eye level. This helps keep the mood a little more neutral, therefore leaving me space to build discomfort. later on in the scene i will slowly start to pan out further from the character when following it, this is like giving the audience a break from the presence of this unknown character, so that when i bring my turning point in the scene, it will be abrupt and uncomfortable. I could also use angles like a birds eye view if possible or high angles to establish the character as a victim of his own mind. The character seems far less intimidating when the audience is above it.
Finally, in the turning point of my scene, the shot i discussed before is used and now the camera is brought right back up to the characters face / body, the angles are low, the audience feels discomfort since this character that seemed mysterious yet docile is suddenly in their face. Dutch angles will reflect the confusion that the character is experiencing, and the idea of how nauseating it is to be in their mind.
Since there is no diegetic dialogue in the scene, i am going to use non-diegetic voices to represent the voices in the characters head, for example – a multitude of people arguing.
