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Pre-Production Blog Post 12/20

After completing my first film during the crazy times we now live in, I decided that focusing on something less character driven could be a good idea for my next project. Over the past year I have begun to reflect on myself as a person and what it is to be myself. This period of growth has definitely helped me grow as a person and the concept of self reflection seems like it could work for a film where I can't have a large amount of actors. Unlike most of my other films, this project will likely be more "artsy" as it will focus more on visuals and narration rather than a plot. The following is a collection of the ideas and pre-production work I have completed for this next film.

Concept

As I stated above, the film will mainly focus on the theme of self reflection. I feel that this way, the film can be told through narration from one character talking to himself rather than having to assemble multiple actors and have them physically act together. The concept of the film is that the narrator will be shown in their normal life before the film transitions to the thoughts and reflections within their head. My biggest inspiration for this film and what I am trying to do would be the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. I have talked about NGE throughout multiple different blog posts and the impact that it's had on me. While the show originally began as a robot fighting action anime, it quickly devolves into an analysis on its characters and how they feel. The final episodes of the show dive deep into this analysis and showcase more reflective dialogue and different visual styles from the rest of the series. When the idea of a self reflective film popped into my head, this sequence from NGE is what first popped into my head. While my idea of what I want to do differs from the sequence, it helps to have an example of what I am trying to emulate.

Technique

The typical filmmaking techniques that I use in all of my projects will be used within this film. However, I want to make use of new techniques that I haven't been able to before. Previously, I have talked about color grading and color theory which I haven't been able to make as much use of as I want to. For this film, I hope to use color theory to supplement the emotions and feelings being portrayed by the narration while also color grading the accompanying footage to further assist with color theory. I also have a few ideas as to other techniques I can use such as practical effects and locational audio. The usage of these techniques and which ones I decide to use will largely depend on what I feel will work best for what part of the film.

Pre-Production Work

With most other films, I try my best to have something that resembles a storyboard and script for both this blog post and for me to begin working. Due to the different direction that I am going for this project, I have not prepared a storyboard. For other projects, having a storyboard was critical as it let me physically show what actors would do, however, with narration being the only form of dialogue for this film I found a storyboard unnecessary. While there still will be a visual element to the film, I feel that choosing what shots I want to use will come best after I record the narration for the film. This way, I feel that the footage will better blend with each other and I will feel less pressured to. I have spoken previously as to how I am not very good at writing dialogue and I feel that this film is no different. For narration, I have decided a few general ideas which I want to talk about, with my goal being to simply talk about these ideas in depth and using that recording as the narration. I feel that with the film being reflective, it makes more sense to speak my mind then it would be to try and write my thoughts out. Lastly, the only locations needed for this film should just be my home and my Nana's garage, both of which I already have permission to use. The garage was where the majority of the indoor scenes in my last film were filmed. My Nana has told me that I am allowed to use the space for whatever film projects I have and I wholeheartedly intend to do so. 
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