Reflections – Synopsis

“Reflections” tells the story of Francesca, a beautiful but unhappy trophy wife. When she meets the teenage boy Cornelius at an indoor swimming pool an unusual friendship unfolds.

 

Green Screen shot

When we were shooting Reflections, we were really behind schedule and I had to sacrifice a couple of shots I really wanted to get. That’s normal and as a director it’s important t make quick decisions, which shots are more important or necessary. There was a particular reaction shot of george/cornelius I thought I could, worst case, live without. But I couldn’t. In the post production it turned out, that the shot was pretty important, so we had to get it.

Green Screen experience:

Luckily, my awesome supervisor came up with the idea to use the green screen room. I had never used the green screen room before and I was really really excited about it! Since we only needed lights and camera for this, we kept the crew really small. And George, our actor, was such a good sport to come in so early on a saturday morning to reshoot the clip!

We were a bit in a hurry to get the shot, but uni was closed for a couple of days over easter. But David Heinemann, being awesome as he is, helped us to organise the room and the equipment! Thanks again David for always going the extra mile for your students!

Trying to find the right background to go with the shot:

Lessons learned:

– Drinks are not allowed in the green screen room and John Cox WILL kill you

– The right lighting is essential in front of the Green Screen

– The right angle is just as important / Compare the angles from different shots!

– Size matters! Make sure your object and background match!

Reflection – Presentation Report

1) Introduction

This report provides a closer look into my BA Film dissertation project, a short film called “Reflections”, based on the presentation I held about it on the 26th March 2014. I’ll start with a summery of the story and the decisions that lead to the making of the film. Next I will look at the stylistic choices and themes of the film, as well as comparing it with my older work. Furthermore I will talk about the production part of the film before I will finally briefly discuss the psychoanalytical background of the story.

2) The Birth of Reflection

As I mentioned in my presentation, my first choice for my dissertation project was to write a feature film script. Over the summer I spent a lot of time developing a story and managed to write about 30 minutes of the script. However, as I returned to Middlesex after the summer, writing a feature film script was not an option anymore and I had to quickly develop a new idea.

I started to play around with script ideas that were suitable for a short film, since I have had issues in the past to write stories fitting into a ten to fifteen minutes format. When the Idea of “Reflections” was born I first thought of the setting; the indoor swimming pool. I imagined this would be lovely setting for a short film and the story sort of developed from there.

Unfortunately, the process of writing a completely new script from scratch so late in the year threw me back in my production schedule. The scriptwriting process in particular took up a lot of time and I only finished the script in late February, just in time to shoot the film. Nevertheless, at some point of the production I seemed to manage to catch up and be on track with the schedule again.

3) Synopsis

“Reflections” tells the story of the young, married woman Francesca. Caught in an unhappy marriage she begins to feel like a trophy wife. During a party, she sneaks out to find some peace and quiet at the indoor swimming pool to reflect on her life. Here she meets the fifteen-year-old son of the party hosts and an unusual friendship unfolds.

4) Production

During the Pre- production and Production we had two face several problems. My main concern was finding the right location, as I knew it would be hard to find a pool that would be accessible (and affordable) for us and suitable at the same time.

In the production itself the main problem were the underwater images. None of us had ever done an underwater shoot before and so I looked into underwater cameras and camera cases. I decided to use a waterproof case with the Blackmagic camera, in order to achieve a very similar look to the rest of the movie that was shot with the blackmagic. This however turned out to be a mistake as the images turned out rather blurry. Using a “Go – Pro “ would have been a much better choice in the end. The composition of the shots was quite difficult as well, since it was nearly impossible to hold the camera still. We managed to achieve an at least halfway steady look by using weights to keep the camera (and the cinematographer) down.

5) Style

In terms of style I wanted to emphasize a lot on the ripples on the surface of the water and the reflections on the wall and ceiling. The reflections were meant to be a repetitive theme in the movie. In order to achieve this look, we experimented a lot with different lights and lighting techniques, as well as blue gels and reflectors. The overall colour scheme of the movie is quite melancholic and blue. Baz Luhrmanns “Romeo & Juliet” (1996) was a big inspiration for the colour scheme.

In preparation of my presentation I also went through my previous films to see if there were any stylistic choices that could be found in all my projects.

I realized that there are in fact certain shots that are similar. First of all I like to use very high angle shots, the camera tilted straight down.

Furthermore I found a lot of very symmetrically composed shots. This is something that can also be found in Wes Anderson movies, who is famous for his very symmetrical shot composition and who has always been a big influence and inspiration. Those “andersian” shots can be found in my current work and several old films.

Going through my older projects, I also realized that there are certain themes I always seem to write about. One thing all of my scripts seem to have in common, is that they are stories about woman in their early to mid thirties, going through rough patches of their lives.

6) Psychoanalysis

Seeing my film in a context of film theory I have to mention that the script shows many psychoanalytical trades. This is mainly because of the dreamy look and style the film has to it that makes it appear like a dream sequence. Furthermore the film gives the audience the feeling of a therapy session, in which the boys character Cornelius acts as the therapist.

Another aspect of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis is the interpretation of dreams and the meaning of symbolism in dreams. According to Freud, “dreams have a meaning” and so do the symbols and objects we see in our dreams.

I’ve been thinking about the main symbol in the movie – the water, and what it might stand for. According to Freud, childbirth is always represented through water; even drowning or rescuing someone from drowning, as well as being rescued themselves.

The water also plays a big role in religion, as it stands for baptism or “washing away sins”. The whole movie has a rather spiritual feeling to it, as the scenes in the water nearly seem like a confession.

7. Conclusion

This report has gathered together some of the theoretical background of my dissertation film, as well as giving some insights of the production process. The film is still in editing process and the story of “Reflection” is not quite finished. But for now, I am left with some beautiful images that will hopefully lead to a beautiful end product, that will be worth all the problems we had to face in the pre production and production.

Shooting day three and underwater shots

During day three the main problem were the underwater images. None of us had ever done an underwater shoot before and so I looked into underwater cameras and camera cases. I was really happy to get Mayang on board, cause I remembered that she had a bit of experience with underwater photography, which isn’t too far off, so I asked her if she would like to join the team. Mayang did an amazing job with the underwater camera!!

After discussing it several times with my cinematographer, I decided to use a waterproof case with the Black magic camera, in order to achieve a very similar look to the rest of the movie that was shot with the black magic. This however turned out to be a mistake as the images turned out rather blurry. Using a “Go – Pro “ would have been a much better choice in the end. The composition of the shots was quite difficult as well, since it was nearly impossible to hold the camera still. We managed to achieve an at least halfway steady look by using weights to keep the camera (and the cinematographer) down.

Waterprrof camera case

Mayang being awesome

DOP puts the blackmagic in camera case

Unfortunately there was no time to reshoot the underwater bits, since we were so behind schedule already, and my actress was freezing in the pool. I didn’t want to keep her in any longer then necessary, so Joe agreed to stand in for her as a double ( he is the sweetest producer).

Underwater test shots with Joe:

Sneak Peak:

Behind the scenes:

 

We had to rush a lot on the last day, since we were so much behind schedule and in the end I had to give up the crane shot that I wanted to badly. I am rather upset I didn’t get it but I had to think of what’s best for crew (who was tired) and actress (who was cold) so I left it, since other shots were more important.

Lessons learned:

– Mayang is awesome and can stay underwater for a very long time

– Go Pro is better than Black Magic in Camera Case

– underwater shoots are tough!

Camp Januela

Due to the scheduled night shoots we decided to rent out an apartment for three days, so we could store the equipment and crew and cast could all stay together overnight. The pool we were filming at was part of a holiday rental called Harefield Holiday Apartments, owned by an elderly couple, Fred and Chris. It is in South East London near Catford Bridge station. The couple owns the holiday house which has six apartments – the one we rented out had three bedrooms and we were 12 people, so the trip had a bit of a big sleepover feeling to it, or more like a camp. Camp Januela, as Pauliina called it.

I was looking forward to this experience both scared and excited, since it would mean very little privacy for everyone involved, but could also be a good bonding experience. I was hoping the environment would help to build a good relationship, especially between me, the director and the actors  since we would have enough time to practice and discuss the script during the day. While I found the “Camp experience” exciting, it was also slightly overwhelming. Often, I felt as if I had to be at several places at the same time, since everyone, the D.O.P, the actors, the AD needed my attention or asking me to make decisions. Being constantly on set put a lot of pressure on me as a writer and director. On the last shooting day the mother of our underage actor demanded a script change and I had to improvise as I went in order to not fall behind schedule. Therefore I experienced the three days of shooting as extraordinary exhausting.

However, we all had a really good. time. During and after the shoot, the crew members kept coming up to me, telling me how much they enjoyed the shoot and Camp Januela. In fact, we were all suffering from post camp depression after! I experienced this Camp as very bonding, but I was glad to have a crew that mainly contained my good friends from the course.

After Camp Januela, I do think that staying at the location together is a very good experience for the whole crew, even on professional film sets. It was the first time that I did something like that, but I can imagine that it is really helpful in order for all the crew members to bond and work together successfully.

Shooting day two – “Baby it’s cold inside”

After the nightmare of the night before, things went much better on the second shooting day. Even though everyone must have been completely drained, I woke up at 6.30 in the morning, probably cause I am not used to sleeping in the same room with three other people, one of them a boy (No way I could ever get used to that), but also I was nervous and excited to start the new shooting day.

We only had three days of shooting, and cause we started so late the night before we had a lot to catch up on. So I looked at the footage from the night before to make some notes, and a new shotlist for the day, to get us back on track. Luckily Joe the hero went already went shopping as soon as the supermarket opened (cause I cannot function without coffee. Just can’t. can’t.) and Mama Leyla made Somalian Pancakes for everyone. Somalian Pancakes are basically like pancakes but made with Almond Milk – therefore they are automatically awesome. Georgy however, wanted Oreos for breakfast and he shall have Oreos, since he did a great job here and can ask for whatever he wants!

We decided to shoot after sunset only, so no one would interfere with the shoot and neither would we bother the other house guests. Shooting exclusively at nighttime was a completely new experience for me and I learned a lot from it. Even though I knew shooting under those circumstances would be hard, I underestimated the impact the late hours would have on the crew and actors. I was mainly concerned about our Georgy, the male lead actor who was only fourteen years old. However, of the whole crew and cast he seemed to be bothered the least with the late shooting hours. The late hours in combination with the lack of oxygen in the pool area made it hard for everyone to concentrate. To make things more difficult, we also had to deal with the very cold temperature of the water in the pool. We were forced to turn the heating of in order to record sound and the two actors had to spend countless hours in the cold water. While we were considering that this might be a health risk we completely underestimated what this might do to the mood of the actors. Mainly our main actress suffered a lot in the cold water and I do believe it influenced her mood on set as well as her performance. We tried to counteract by having hot water bottles, tea and robes on set. Joe and Leyla were constantly busy making tea and Georges mum was a big help, too! I really need to make sure we put Louise Morley in the special thanks section, cause she was such a big help (and a bit like a mum to all of us). But even with the tea and robes and hot water bottles… our poor actors were FREEZING! I felt really bad for them but there wasn’t much I could do, except for making sure to ONLY SEND THEN INTO THE WATER WHEN IT WAS REALLY NECESSARY!  I even asked Joe and Mayang to stand in for them a couple of times, which they did, cause they are awesome.

The second day turned out to be much much better then the day before and we managed to catch up on a lot of shots we couldn’t get the night before. We’re not quite back on schedule yet, but getting there.

At the end of day two at Camp Januela everyone was super tired but wouldn’t really wanna go to sleep, so we all just sat in the Kitchen for a while, chatting. The actors were so groggy, they went straight to bed, which is good since, the last shooting day is gonna be a looong day again.

Lessons learned today:

– Never underestimate the power of a good cup of tea

– if you’re planning a nightshoot, let your actors sleep in the next morning

– if a fourteen year-old wants oreos for breakfast, you give it to him no matter what.

Shooting Day One

On the first day of filming, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong!

We were planning on meeting early at uni, getting the equipment out and, leave by 2 pm and are in south London not later than 4pm. Then we would all have Dinner, set up, start filming by eight, since it was night shoot only. So we meet at uni to get the equipment out and here is how it started… When Joe was booking the equipment out a couple of says ago, he booked it under our AD Pauliina. (Pauliina with double ‘i’) .But the loan store guy just took the name and booked izt. When we tried to collect the equipment, there was nothing booked under Pauliina. And it happened that the equipment we wanted are all under the other Paulina! But loan store, doing their job, has to clarify that it was actually us booking the equipment. We all tried calling the other Paulina, who lives in Poland these days! So everyone, Me, Joe, Loan store Guy, Elvina, Leyla… calls and texts to Poland but the girl is unreachable.. After a long time convincing, they finally gave in and gave us the equipment.

Paulina with one “i”

Pauliina with two “i”

So we could finally pack everything up and it was A LOT!!! Of equipment. Luckily our soundman Carl owns a guy and drove most of it to the location, while we others took the train. Leyla and I went first, so I would be there in time to welcome the actors, since Joe still had to wait for the Red heads.
The location was quite far away, but I did the train journey twice before and knew the way.So, Leyla and I went to the right Platform, at the right time… and still got on the wrong train! Yes, this was my own stupidity and shouldn’t happen, but to be fair, they changed the platform of the train last minute … So instead, Leyla and I want to Kent. I was beating myself up over it. It was soo unprofessional and just shouldn’t happen. What a nightmare.

When we arrived at location, we kept apologizing to everyone. But everyone is so forgiving and cool about it! The Crew and cast were amazing!!

So we could finally set up. Everyone was starving and my awesome producer made everyone Pizza to lighten the mood.

 

I would like to point out, that even though we were late, everyone was hungry and some of the crew had been at another shoot all day, everyone was quite relaxed and did their job without complaining. Especially Anne, who is a really good gaffer!

 

I honestly gotta say, I was never happier with a crew before!

Obviously we couldn’t get all the shots done we needed according to the schedule, but we will have two more nights to make up for it.

 

Lessons learned today:

–       If you’re location is in Catford bridge, don’t take the train to Kent

–       Our teachers and technicians are amazing and super helpful

–       If the crew are your friends, work goes much easier

 

 

Camera and Sound

We knew from the beginning that our crew had to be very small. This is mainly because, we would all stay at the location and simply don’t have enough room for everyone. But also, cause shooting at a (slippery) pool area is already dangerous enough as it is and you don’t want to have more feet in the way as really necessary (This is a german saying, but I guess you know what I mean).

However, it appeared as if a lot of people were shooting around the same time as we did and so it was quite hard to find enough people. In the end, the crew basically contained mainly my good friend of the course, lovely and talented people, which I loved, cause that would make the atmosphere on set more relaxed and I know they are reliable.

It seemed though as if all the good cinematographers and sound people were already taken (having said that, we’re quite short on sound people in the course anyway).

So we just tried our luck by putting an ad up on Starnow, Mandy and Skillpages.

It was out of question that it had to be unpaid. I do believe, people should get paid for their work, but this is a student prodcution and the location already ate all of our budget.

And we got lucky!!!

Ruaraid Archilleos-Sarll, our cinematographer just showed up and wanted to work on our shoot.I looked at this Portfolio which is incredibly impressive and met with him in advance to discuss everything and get to know each other. He is a very nice and really talented guy and on top of it really professional. He immediately understood my vision and while he had his own opinions, he never interfered with my directorial vision.

“Reflections” was the first project I worked on with crewmembers from outside university. I had learned from previous projects how important it is for a director to work close with the director of photography. Working with a “new” D.O.P was a whole new experience for me. I was concerned if he would understand and share my vision of the project. I was extraordinary lucky with my cinematographer, who did not only share my vision of the film but was also not afraid of a challenge.

Carl Harries, our sound recordist  is a graduate from SAE Oxford for sound. He looks a bit like Eddie ( Mc Caffrey ). Even though he came from far away, he was willing to travel all the way and since he has a car, drive the equipment down to the location on top of it!! We were SO lucky to get him!!

 

 

 

Rehearsal photos

We went to the location several times before the shoot. Luckily we were also able to hold the rehearsals there, which was super handy. I took Anne who is the Gaffer with me and my first AD Pauliina.

the purpose of the rehearsals were:

• getting familiar with the location
• getting familiar with the lights there in order to figure out the lighting
• for the actors to get comfortable with each other
• give the actors an opportunity to ask questions/ get familiar with the story and their characters
• see if the script works / needs changes
• try out directing and get an idea of camera angles and shots

We brought different lights and also some blue gel in order to experiment with the lights. We also managed to go through the script 4 times and filmed it, so I could get an idea of how I want to stage it.

Final Cast

After a long search and seeing about 30, but felt like 100 actresses we decided on our Francesca! The actress that we cast is the very lovely Ashley Bryant! She blew us away during the casting, but furthermore, she has the right age and looks for the role. However, we had yet to decide the part for Cornelius. So we held a recall for the shortlisted boys to come and read the lines with Ashley.

Ashley Bryant

 

 

And the boy who fit the best with her was the lovely and incredible George Morley. This boy has a great career ahead for sure!

George Morley