Lynch Research

Since the script has been changed from a more crime based drama to something more in tune with a psychological thriller type deal, my 'inspirations' and places I am drawing technique from have changed, mostly gone have the noir and crime film ideas and in there place stand one mans body of work, David Lynch.

Because the film now concerns someone experiencing (or dreaming, or hallucinating even) a terrible event from his past, the films impact will mainly derive from how real we, as a collective film crew, can make this man's suffering and torment feel.\

David Lynch's films, specifically Mulholland Drive (2001) and Lost Highway (1997), have an extreme dream like (or, even, nightmarish) quality that is at once very cerebral and of the subconscious as well as terifying and unnerving. Lynch achieves this through eery camera movement and placement, an impeccably designed sound plan and situations within the script that seem both real, scary and nightmarish. 

Because the shot plan is the thing that I am directly responsible for, I will look at Lynch's use of camera in his films.

The scene in which Fred describes his dream to Renee, although different in story is quite similar in effect to the direction I want to take the film. The sequence uses a collection of shots that naturally fit together and create a disorientating effect. There is also a very warped sense of space in the sequence that would be perfect for the room in which we are to shoot, as it more or less resembles the character Michael's headspace.

The sequence also, through static close-ups using harsh lighting creates a severe angst in the character which would wonderfully with the pain that Michael is feeling in the script. The lighting, deep, dark and moody using very soft filler and strong harsh cross lighting is almost exactly what I had imagined from the first moments of receiving this script.

Storyboards: Extra Detail

This first frame is a perfect example of what we wanted to achieve in the planning of the film. This board contains almost all of the information a cinematographer, as well as a producer, would need to schedule, organise and know to be able to get the shot captured in an effective and efficient manner.
Included is:

• Scene and shot numbers
• a shot description
• blocking diagram
• lightings notes
• grip/jib notes
• estimated lens
• general f-stop range guide

 This one above includes two boards as the shot pans. This shot, at the start of the film was chosen to shoot the male character upside down to create a certain mysterious and strange atmosphere, to let the audience know that 'something is not right'/.

 The one above here includes two boards as although there is no camera movement, there is a significant change in frame composition due to an actor entering frame.

 This one included a more detailed sequence with it (from the initial board ideas, this was so that the shot could be understood in the context of the sequence it was in, as all the shots in the sequence were not be shot together.

 The board shows a particularly high angle shot. This board was done with just the idea of the shot on it, when it came to shooting it, many adjustments needed to be made to the blocking to achieve the desired effect.

 This board included sequence and blocking/jib notes as an attachment.

 This board referred to small sequence so that the context of each individual shot may be better understood.

Throughout the storyboarding process a lot of shots that were more 'sequence shots' than key ones were added to the boards of more important shots of the sequence they were in. This helped speed up storyboarding as well as making shooting easier due to be able to have just one board with us during the time we were shooting the relevant sequence.

Marked Script: More Detail

The way in which I went through the script was to to have several copies and 'improve' my marking each time. I marked in  all the imagined shots whee they would take place in the edit, on the script. If a shot was to last a long time or be re-used then a line would continue from its start point and continue until it was supposed to finish.

The type of shot would be added also, as would any sketch of the shot was quite particular.

Extra notes such a lighting and jib would be added if the impression of the shot required them.

After this, a list of all potential shots was made. Shot numbers were created at this point and were then added back onto the script to create a more complete understanding for the three of us who were working on it.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding took three main stages in developing. As I like to have things thought through and planned before a shoot, so that no artistic decisions are being made on set, nearly all of what is seen visually in the final film is the result of this planning.
There are a number of reasons why in this instance the planning was done in this way, but it should be noted the decision to do so was never taken formally, it is just the way I wanted and everyone else was happy to work. For a start, I feel most comfortable working in an a way that allows me the time to be able to explore and fully develop artistic ideas outside of the high place pressure of the film set. I think that trying to make big decisions that will ultimately define the course of the final piece will result in under developed or even misleading meanings within the piece and trying to use some sort of inner meaning is just hopelessly romantic.
Perhaps the most important reason for completely pre-planning, though, was that we had an extremely small time budget with which to work and that trying to think through how we were going to shoot things mid shoot would have been fatal to completing of the film.

The initial stages of the shot and storyboard planning, once the script was finished, was to read through and mark it up with ideas for where shots would go and what they would look like etc.

Marking up basically involved writing on the script the impression of the shot imagined with an arrow pointing to its starting point in the script. Even at this stage as much description as possible was included, (i.e. shot distance, lighting scheme, lens angle etc).

*For extra detail, see post Marked script: extra detail

The next stage was sit down with Ben (director) and to talk through each others ideas from our own marked scripts. Then following a third marked scripted I went away to produce a rough storyboard of what we had talked about, this would serve as a base for the final boards and would also enable to work in more swift manner.

These boards included further detail to the marked script but also included details such as how they might be shoot logistically, minor blocking details and any lighting notes that were above ordinary.

When the final boards were drawn up, in three or four different meetings, Ben, Henry (editor) and myself all sat down to do them. I had wanted them both there for a number of reasons. Firstly so that, specifically between Ben and I, there could be no mis-communication by working apart and that instead of going back of fourth with ideas, just to sit down and discuss them and design them together, for times sake as well as communications. Also, having an editor there in Henry, helped me design a better shot flow. I generally tend to focus a lot on still frames and can often overlook the structure of a sequence as a whole, so having someone whose job it is to create sequences was very helpful. Also, Henry would be serving as something of a camera assistant to me and so it made sense that he should be present during the creation of the shots so that hey may better understand their purpose, but also not have to learn from scratch what they mean while setting them up with me.

These final storyboards included all the necessary information relating to the production of the shot, including a storyboard, blocking, lighting set up, estimation of lens to be used, jib notes, grip notes and anything else that might assist during production.

More details on the nature of the storyboards in post: Storyboard: extra detail