The Equipment for the Journey

 

I have already explained between all my (in)finite posts about the Mise en Scéne that we have used to create the opening sequence and the budget that we had. But just to put it bluntly and re-elaborate to myself the effort placed into the film, I want to state what has been used. I have placed this all below. Play 'Guess' to guess what they were used for.

Film Preparation - Gothika, The Shining and Jennifer's Body

Throughout my journey there have been many things that have been able to inspire me to create my masterpiece. In this case, I had an excuse to continuously watch films, and analyse what made them a success - of which I would imitate.

One of these films was Jennifer's Body, what inspired me from the film was where her friend, Needy, is placed in a mental institution. Seen in the video below at 0.27 seconds to 0.32 seconds. I thought that the cold and emptiness of the room was effective to show how alone she is and how bad her mental state is. Something that my team and I wanted to come across in our opening. Hopefully making the intended audience feel sorry for Ralivia and aware of her capabilities.

What influenced the interview for our opening scene was the interview Halle Berry had for her own 'mental illness' in Gothika (2003). Watch the clip below from 1 minute 30 seconds, from the beginning the close-ups on the character's faces and dimmed lighting making the atmosphere very tense, where the audience expects a big climax (or revelation) to end the interview. We wanted our opening to have the same affect on our audience, through making them feel anticipation rise therefore they would continue to watch the opening until the end.

I personally liked the use of lighting and camera work in general, not due to the effect of it but the diversity. Pierre Charpentier was the dolly grip in the film, and his 360 track behind both the characters in the shot. I thought that this was an interesting and bizarre method of showing the characters liaising. Especially so due to a fence being seen in the foreground, which disorientated my view on the shot during that time. If that was the desired effect it meant that it definitely achieved making the audience question the subject of their interview. Also, the lighting was very drowning and daunting. It hid the characters even more, making me feel as though the woman being interviewed held something sinister. As the only pure light (white light) that was seen was transmitted through the window it created a spotlight effect on the woman being interviewed. If I were to analyse it, it showed innocence and a hand to be laid out - which can foreshadow the remainder of the film (it being on her).

Gothika was also able to inspire me when I needed to write our screenplay. The hall scene - where Ralivia is escorted to her room - the distance of the walkway, the minimal lighting and the infinite amount of rooms for the patients made the mental institution seem like an inescapable and controlling environment. This is the exact feeling and look that my team-mates and I wanted to seek for.

Below is a photo from the Gothika clip that inspired our initial idea for the hallway. There is also a trailer for the videogame Asylum which fully shows 'the look' we were after.

Gothika: The Hallway

Asylum (Kickstarter Videogame)

The lighting, long distanced hallways and sinister tone to The Shining was able to influence me when it came to Paramnesia. The use of bright lighting with under shots of the protagonist - Johnny - was able encode to the audience that there is something hidden about the character. Where the audience would be able to decode Johnny as an evil character to be wary of. This is the effect that we wanted for our opening sequence, for our target audience to suspect that there's something wrong with the Doctor. Alike The Shinning, this was done by the use of lighting and close-ups, on the characters and various objects; such as the ring and clipboard.

 

Production Stages - Rough Video Cut Feedback

I would write about the feedback given verbally and physically (ie. their reactions/ emotions) by the audience who watched our 'rough cut' of Paramnesia, but the proof is better from their own eyes.

The video they gave feedback on:

Romina created a questionnaire on Scribd on the video above and placed the link in the video's description for their feedback - below.

The audience's feedback:

(Feedback on the Opening Sequence 2 by RominaNoli)
I believe the age for the majority of the audience were of school age. My reasons being that our group had to ask people that we knew to watch it - being adolescents - and we asked quite a lot of people during school - opportunity sampling (school-aged peers).

Therefore, I am able to reason that the video appeals to the young-adult/ teenage audience. Additionally, the methods in which we would try to get to them would be websites such as Youtube that younger generation tend to go onto more than the older generation.

Film Preparation - Wall Scene 2

When we did find a place to put our 'wall papers' what we had was too minimal, and what I made that showed details wasn't enough to do close ups on for the audience to see. Meaning that more needed to be made. Natalia created new newspapers using photoshop that had the photos of the family placed within them. They looked more realistic and it was able to hide the empty gaps that are seen then the newspapers are put up. The newspapers that Natalia photshopped are seen below:

I think that they were really well made, it was useful to use as it made the scene come to life better. Enabling the audience realise the meaning behind the flashbacks, placing the pieces together.

This is the wall scene put together in a location that Natalia was able to find within our school, Chelsea Academy, luckily the room was there and available for the amount of time we needed it for. As it was used as a hospital room, for students to rest if they felt ill, there was a bed and the wall were white. It was the perfect setting for how it was envisioned in the script, there was even a bathroom; where a toilet and sink were seen.

From this you may be able to tell that what you may see in the opening is just a small scale snippet of the location that we actually used. Towards the other side of the door is a toilet, that we didn't actually need for the scene also the room is so much brighter than how Romina edited it to be, more of a clinical white rather than an eerie brown. Which is both good and bad as we wanted the feeling to originally be 'cleansed' but then we had an epiphany to make the ending tenser and scarier, allowing Romina's editing to be highlighted.

As you are able to tell the eight sheets of 'wall paper' that I created wasn't enough to fill near the amount of space on the wall like I wished. Not only was there extra space towards the left of the wall scene (camera work is able to generate the illusion of the wall scene being bigger than it is), there was also space at the bottom of it. Which a camera isn't able to change.

Especially so when we needed close-ups of Ralivia/Romina where the bare wall is seen around her head. I think that it can be interpreted in two ways; one - Ralivia is at peace with herself when she is left with her dreams, two - she's not actually that crazy and deranged as she is shown to be at the beginning. Both allocating the audience to empathise with her as we intended.