Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Discourse/Art Direction and reference images




The setting is a Californian house in a post-apocalyptic 1970’s. The story seems like a story about a racing prodigy miraculously recovering from a wreck. Just as the story begins taking a lighter turn, the racer recovering, it takes an abrupt turn telling about the racers being eaten by his bed and most of humanity being exterminated by rampaging, blood thirsty furniture and buildings.
To enhance the gloomy feel, most of the short is going to be lit and desaturated to look almost black and white. In the garage scene, the main source of light will be coming from two small, dusty side windows and a window on the garage door. It will be fairly dim. Whatever part of the car the camera is focusing on will be lit by strategically placing the camera so light bounces off just that part, leaving the area around it dark. The only “artificial” light in the scene will come from a small, warm incandescent light over the workbench. This will light the trophies and things on the bench with a yellowish glow. This will be to help add a happier, cozier feel to these objects which are supposed to represent better days that are long gone. To help enhance the “old” feel portrayed by the 70’s era car and “horse race” style of announcer voice over, there will be a slight film-grain effect added. The walls inside the house will either have wood paneling or awful, green, retro wallpaper. Colors will be fairly desaturated, much like in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. The lack of bright, super saturated colors will hopefully add to the older feel and add a bit of gloominess. It is basically to help show that the “good” days are truly long gone.
The stairs are going to be dark with just enough light to actually see the stairs. The doorway at the top of the stairs will be lit more brightly with a welcoming yellow glow. Since this is the point in the story where the main character seems to be making a turn for the best, the dark stairway will act to represent the character coming out of the darkness and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel which represents hope. Right as the camera is finally entering the sunny doorway and stepping out of the darkness and into the light, the voices make a sudden turn for the worst. This is when it is revealed that the “sunny” glow is actually just a fallen lamp. The lamp represents the hope that everything was going to turn out for the best and how it quickly changed to a sign of the horrors that are waiting just around the corner. The closer the camera gets to the end of the hallway, the more tattered and decayed the walls look. This is to introduce a post-apocalyptic feel. In the room, there is a welcoming glow provided by the fallen lamp as well as one on the wall. The light in the half of the room with the couch, coming from the windows, is a cool grey.
The close up camera shots in the garage scene and once in the upstairs room are so just right amount of info is revealed to the viewer at a time and to keep them wanting to see more. It also adds a more dramatic feel. The camera turns to an almost 1st person POV on the stairs to give a feeling of seeing things from the main character’s point of view as he is seemingly coming out of this dark time.


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