HOWEVER,
I had to come up with a new way to convey my idea, quick. I knew exactly what I wanted to convey with the memory project-it's about nostalgia. I wanted to take memories from my childhood, some thing simple and construct it in a way that's fun to look at and capture on film. My inspiration for the project came from the film Amelie' about Amelie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. There is a sequence that Jeunet shoots in the introduction of the film where he takes the little girl that is to portray the later character, and has her do simple, nostalgic, playful things. I.E. peeling glue off your hand, putting rasberries on your fingertips, etc. So I decided to make up for the lack of access to children for my previous memory/dream idea with having my talent recap on some of their favorite games/ activities they enjoyed as a child. My talent that I used were two close friends who did great. They were patient and focused for both days of the shoot. That may have something to do with taking them to dinner and a movie.The first day we shot outside in natural light for an hour and a half total to film a minute of film! I had them playing cards outside and discussing what they were to do for the summer-I wanted to reference time. This establishing shot was to prelude what was to come. One problem I had was the blaring noise cicadas make. I had to balance that sound against the dialog of my subject. Also, I had them playing Egyptian Rat Screw on a glass table. When they slap the cards, the mic picks up a spike. I had to adjust the levels. Afterwords, I treated my talent to a film, the one night premeir of Cigarette Girl per my current internship at Indie Memphis. The tix were a costly 12 bucks a piece for a film that was less exciting than it's meaning. Whatever.
Day two was more intense, we filmed the remainder of the sequence for the 5 minute segment. A works worth of 5 hours. I filmed indoors, in my parents dining room in Germantown. The dining room has glossy wood flooring and it gives it a yellow nuance. All the rooms in the house are white anyway. I took a total of 6 shoots, they are as follows:
1. playing w/ dominos
2. blowing bubble gum
3. sucking on a spaghetti strand
4. playing with string
5. making shadow puppets on the wall
6. blowing soap bubbles
It can look really shitty when filming indoors if you do not know how to use proper lighting. I did not take time to review the positioning of the lights for set up, I feel that would have saved me some time in pre-production. Instead, I took and hour and a half last Friday night to set up proper lighting. When the talent arrived and I had to change in between shots, that took extra time. My biggest concern is the continuity of the lighting. Shooting in a white room can make things appear flat on camera if you dont know what you're doing. Often times I found myself turning the key light and the fill light up towards the ceiling, other wise they cast glares on my subject. I thinks this was the hardest thing to do on set. I aim to achieve the "Rembrant Patch" for next time.
I aimed to shoot this five minute film in its entirety. I wanted to shoot as it were to be viewed naturally, before editing, so that I would have as little editing as possible to do for later. I dont want to rely on computer effects as much, although I have to admit it's a pretty fun part.
....Storyboards to follow....-X Leni
***Ellen Rogers Photography***
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