See You Soon (WT)

(Notorious, 1946)

When it came to approach the film “see you soon (working title)”, I really wanted to pack this film with feeling, and It is really important for me to make the audience work and reach a certain feeing themselves without enforcing a sad scenario straight away. I really want the audience to be there with the character, I want the audience to immerse themselves into the story and through the image. I want to be able to give the audience the sense of loss before it becomes obvious in the film. Directing the film successfully is to make sure I can make all elements of the film work; The mis-en-scene, the mood, the sound, the movement, the pace, and etc.

Preparing for the preproduction of the film, I thought it was important if I can define the characters, and make sure I can understand how they interact in real life situations. I needed to know how the mother is like on her own versus what she’s like with her daughter and visa versa. Knowing the characters inside out allows a more and fluid performance for the actors to work on leading to a believable staging.

I would like to have a long day with the actors who get casted for the role, were I am able to get the actors to know each other and get confident with working with each other. I’m tempted to set some exercises to get the actors confident with each other. By creating some improve situations where they’re free to get to play the character with no cuts. Maybe they can bring something to the character that I didn’t see before. It also allows us to know what the capabilities of the actors are, so we can see what we can adjust in the script to perfect the characters.

Character development is very important in the film, what really would make the film more credible are all the hidden techniques. since this is a short that occurs in one place, it will be difficult for us to get supporting actors. To character develop in situations like this it is best to do it through objects, and physical gestures.

It is important that the surrounding tell a story too. What does a big house say? Does it invoke wealth and well being, or can it be medium to symbolize something else?  What does a really small house say? Does it say scream the financial and class situation of the character (does that make us more sympathetic)?

The power of light is as important as the colour aspect, the human eye can see shades, the brain interprets that subliminally, and this allows another dimension to be explored. Early black and white did not allow a major palette to explore; making the Film Noir Era “masters of light”, where does the shadow fall? Why does it fall there? How hard or soft is the shadow? What does the shadow add to the story? The questions go deeper, but they harmoniously work together if they came together right? Great case studies for me look at are films like Hitchcock’s “Notorious (1946),” Spielberg’s “Schindler’s list (1993),” “Nebraska (2013)” “The Third Man (1949).”

Colour is as important as film as light is. I need to understand how important it is to have a colour pallet in place, and what how important it is to have one. More questions to raise and explore is, what’s the difference between warm and cold colours? What thoughts do they invoke? Films to that have dramatic colour to explore are “Drive (2011),” “Only God Forgives (2013),” “The Place Beyond the Pines (2102).” Films to look at who have a certain evoking pallet to work with is “The God Father Part I (1972),” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind (2004)”

(note* Décor in the godfather trilogy has an important role as it differentiates the classes and the cultures, I will also be looking at “La Regle du Jeu (1939)”

Spacing in the film plays a huge element, and while working with Jacob to compose frames that help tell the story, we need to think about where we place the actors, and where do we want “dead space” if we need it?

All these elements and more should come together at the end, and finding that balance is the difficult aspect of it all, trying to find a consistency where even when all these elements come together it would seem invisible to the audience and would only affect them to engage with the story.