After mind mapping my favourite techniques, shots and colours, I then tried to focus on a few of the locations I had at my disposal that fit in with these. I did this step next because I thought that knowing where I could film would eliminate a lot of ideas which I couldn't create - but it would also allow me to think of non-conventional plots to contrast the locations. Below is a picture of the mind map I created, including reasons why I thought those locations would fit in with my filming preferences.
It was around this point I came up with a few focuses I thought could develop into potentially interesting story lines. The first focus I thought of was the idea of breaking the norms of everyday life - since all my locations are features of everyday life, it would be easy to incorporate all of them into it. The colour scheme, editing technique and camera angles/shots that I like would also fit well with this - since they aren't what you see in typical, everyday films, having jump cuts, darker colours and non-conventional angles fit well with the theme. The locations symbolise the ordinary, and the way it's filmed and the plot both would symbolise breaking that norm. From this first focus, I came up with a few plot ideas. The first one I thought of was someone on their way to work, but half way through their journey, they decide to call in sick and go somewhere else. I thought this would be a good film opening, as if you introduce the character at the very start as being boring and overly ordinary, and end it with them beginning to stray off that path, it leads to a lot of questions - like, what are they going to do that day? or, why did they decide to do it? The second idea I had involving this concept was someone who is different in society - either, they are different from the start, or they begin to discover their differences. I thought this would be really interesting to do in terms of colour, as I could potentially plan it so everyone is dressed in dull, monotonous colours (as is the background/location), while the main character is either already dressed in bright clothing, or throughout the opening they begin to be. Finally, my third idea was a bit different to that of my others. I thought of doing a romance-type opening, with two characters, with contrasting personalities. I thought this could be vert interesting as it could be shot from both character's POV's - one bright, one dull, but at the end of the opening, when they meet, the dull POV could see something in colour for the first time. It would be very interesting to experiment with symbolism within this, as it could be a metaphor for a type of mental illness. It would also be interesting to experiment with shot speeds, and cut lengths, as they could easily be seen to reflect the character's state of mind. The mind map below shows these ideas, with other small variations.
The second focus I came up with was the concept of finding something somewhere where it's out of place. I thought this was a very interesting concept to look into, as again, it can very easily incorporate the tediousness of everyday locations, as well as the abnormality of the out of place object. When coming up with potential plots for this, I decided to take two routes - the first being, finding an ordinary item in an ordinary place, but the location and the item don't match up - e.g. a bed in the middle of a field, or clothes hanging from trees in a forest. I thought this would make for a very engaging film opening, especially if you end the opening with the character(s) finding the object - it leads to a lot of questions, like, where did the object come from? who's is it, and why did they put it/leave it in such an obscure place? - meaning they'd be eager to watch the entire film to find out the answers. The second way I could develop a plot from this was an obscure item in a normal place. This could be anything from finding an object which looks like it's from the future, to finding an object that looked like it was created a very long time ago. I thought this would potentially be interesting as unknown objects that look like they are from very different time periods could develop into an intriguing story line as to how the object came to be there. The mind map below details these ideas, plus a few more I came up with.
No comments:
Post a Comment