1. Use these questions as inspiration
and write about your childhood:
What was your childhood
like? Carefree? Painful? Glorious? Mysterious? What specific memories do you
have? Sounds? Smells? Tastes? Faces? What did the world look like to you then?
How did others see you? What scared you? What did creativity feel like to you?
How have things changed for you?
Sadly, I don’t remember
my childhood as vividly as later parts of my life. Instead, I only have bits
and flashes of events, moments, and images. However, a lot of those moments carry
similar emotions. I remember a lot of curiosity. My childhood was pretty
carefree—I remember hardly any fear other than physical, such as if I got hurt.
It was comfortable and safe. I always felt fine when there was an adult I
trusted around, and I didn’t understand the desire to rebel. I have specific
memories of activities I did with my friends and siblings—riding bikes around
our hilly neighborhood in the fall and getting up early on Saturdays to play
video games. I remember diligently practicing the piano. I remember being
obedient to teachers and feeling judged for it. I remember the one time I got
in trouble in school, and hiding the note my teacher sent home from my mom. I
remember not feeling any pain or sadness when my grandpa died. I remember the
feeling of my first blanket and of sitting on the carpet. I don’t remember any tastes,
or faces. I remember the sound of our dialup internet, and the music from the
video games I played. The only smell that’s coming to me is the reek of a full
diaper pail we had in our garage. I think I was seen as something of a nerd,
but I never felt too uncomfortable because of it because I wasn’t openly picked
on, and I had good friends. I remember being scared of getting hurt, such as
crashing into mailboxes on my bike, and of disobeying rules. I also remember
being terrified of being kidnapped. I remember nothing being more fun or
fulfilling than creativity. I loved to draw practical things, such as bike
paths with chalk on the sidewalk. I loved building towers out of wooden blocks
that my friends and I would roll golf balls down. We occasionally would make up
new games. I remember thriving during the times I felt creative in my classes,
such as solving logic problems or figuring out the answers to hard questions.
Now, things have changed
in every way imaginable. I try to distance myself from how much I value the
validation of others. I try to be independent as much as possible, and feel
guilty when I need to ask others for help. I don’t believe in the infallibility
of adults anymore. I remember smells, sounds, and tastes. I am afraid of a lot
more.
2. List 10 or more people, places, or
things that remind you of your childhood. Can any of these be used as symbols
or motifs to communicate meaning and emotion?
Beginner-level piano music
Brown sugar cinnamon pop-tarts
My friends’ mothers
A 90s Plymouth Voyager
Elementary school playgrounds
Bicycle helmets
Thick tan carpet
Bathtubs
Math workbooks
2HB Dixon Ticonderoga pencils
3. Before continuing, consider how can
you subvert our expectations and surprise us? What individual images capture
the essence of your experience? How can you avoid cliché? Can you provide a
hint of story--even if it is not elaborated on? How can you imply rather than
explicitly state? How can you use ellipsis to let the audience fill in gaps?
How can color, or lack thereof, help evoke emotion? What about sound?
I am hoping to subvert
expectations by using an adult subject, as well as centering the tone and
progression of the film through sound, rather than image. Individual images
that capture the essence of experience I am expressing include someone feeling
free while riding a bike, a wide, curious eye, and the comfort of a hug. I hope
that the progression of my story, from dependence to independence, and the
downward shift in tone in that progression, will avoid cliché. I also hope to
avoid it by focusing on an aspect of childhood that is often ignored. I think
several elements of my film must provide a hint of story to function, otherwise
they wouldn’t capture the progression of feelings. I will imply by using no
dialogue, as well as through a combination of events that relate in theme,
rather than that relate through a coherent narrative. There will be plenty of
ellipsis between the first and final parts—changes will happen that will not be
explained, but which will thematically provide contrast, emphasizing the point
of each part. I hope to use bright colors to evoke childhood, because that’s
largely what I remember. Sound will be crucial to capture the structure and the
peace of dependence. I will use a piano played to a metronome to represent
childhood, with a piano played without a metronome to represent moving beyond
that.
4. Describe the progression--the
beginning, middle, and end--of this film in three or four sentences? In other
words, what happens in this scene as it starts, as it progresses, and as it
ends?
The film will open with a child
starting a metronome and playing very basic piano music. It will progress by
showing images of comfort, dependence, and safety. This will suddenly be halted
when the metronome and piano music is stopped, and replaced by the piano
without the metronome. Finally, we will see images that subvert the images of
safety from before by replacing them with similar images that invoke danger,
aloneness, and independence.
5. What, specifically, would you like
the audience to understand? How do you intend to communicate that information?
I would like the audience to understand that childhood is a
time of comfort because of our full-fledged faith and lack of doubt in the
world around us. We trust adults, we trust that no one would tell us wrong, and
we trust that we will be safe and happy always. As we grow, this is lost, as we
begin to realize everyone and everything is fallible. I intend to show this
through images that capture the peace of childhood, as well as chapter the
discomfort of moving out of that mindset.
6. What emotion(s) do you want the
audience to experience about your childhood through this film? How do you intend
to make this happen?
I want the audience to
experience emotions of peace, safety, wonder, and carefreeness, followed by
dread at having those things taken away. I intend to make this happen through
images with bold colors that present no conflict, or conflict being overcome by
the direction of others.
7. What is the first image of the film?
What is the final image of the film? Why are you choosing these specific
images?
The first image of the film is of a
child’s hand starting a metronome. The final image is of a disillusioned man,
folding his arms, in a dull setting. I’m choosing the opening image as a way of
setting up the sound, and the role of the sound and music in the film. The
metronome will serve as a symbol for the comfort of the structure that
apparently exists in the world during childhood. The final image will call back
to the final image of the second act of the film, which will involve the same
man hugging someone and finding comfort in it. This final shot is intended to
cap off the emotional repercussions of moving beyond the metronome stage of
life.
8. Why is this scene personal to you? Ask
yourself, “Why do I need to make this
scene?”
As I prepared for and
thought about what I wanted to make for this project, it took me a while to
figure out what I felt during childhood. I realized that that was because, back
then, when I made the memories of my childhood, I didn’t have anything to
compare it to. I felt emotions, but I didn’t recognize them as such because I
hadn’t felt the other emotions that began to come into my life as I aged. The
emotions I felt then were peace, safety, and trust. I always believed adults. I
respected them. I trusted that they knew what they were doing. There was nothing
to fear as long as my parents or teachers were around. Until doing this
preparatory work, I didn’t realize how much I missed being able to have that
unquestioned belief in the structure and rightness of the world. Now, I am
required to be independent, to make my own choices, to question everything, and
to acknowledge that nothing is simple or objective. I need to make this because
I need to delve deep into the importance of the feelings I had as a child, and
what I can learn from those feelings now.
9. Before
making your shot list, consider: How can you subvert the audience’s
expectations and surprise us? What individual images capture the essence of
your experience? How can you avoid cliché? Can you provide a hint of
story--even if it is not elaborated on? How can you imply rather than
explicitly state? How can you use ellipsis to let the audience fill in gaps?
How can color, or lack thereof, help evoke emotion?
I hope to subvert
audience expectations by using an adult instead of a child for most of the
film. I am only trying to capture one set of emotions from childhood, so the
rest of it doesn’t need to be represented. This will hopefully narrow down the
focus to the emotions I’m trying to emphasize. Individual images that capture
the essence of the experience I’m going for are shots of a man riding a bike, a
man covered with a blanket, and a man embraced in a hug. I hope to avoid cliché
by keeping the colors fairly pure and straightforward. I don’t want to dull
them or enhance them drastically, but keep them fairly normal and comfortable,
because that’s how I remember my childhood. Story will be implied through a few
sequences. However, these sequences will not have any explanation given before
or after them, so it won’t be too elaborated. Implication will occur through
the progression of images, rather than be stated by characters or anything.
Ellipsis will occur as we bounce between sequences then come back to them.
Bright colored objects will be used to show normalcy in the first part. That
color will be very slightly dulled in the second part.
Most importantly: How can you intensify your purpose or intent for each shot? Can you will emotion into your images?
As I prepare my shot list, I will
think about exactly what emotion I am trying to convey with each shot. I will
think about its purpose, and then figure out what elements I can incorporate to
give that purpose as much gusto as possible. I will consider how each shot
should be framed, how its color and lighting should be portrayed, how movement
works, how line is working, as well as what comes before and after it.
10. List two or three potential
obstacles to creating a successful film. How can you be prepared to overcome
these? Be specific!
I am hoping to get a couple tracking shots of a man riding a
bike by shooting from a car. This could be tricky, especially with
stabilization. I intend to get around this obstacle by having two or three
methods/sets of equipment for doing so, so that if one fails, I can try
another. For instance, I will intend to try a tripod in the car, and if that
doesn’t work, a shoulder rig, and if that doesn’t work, perhaps couching it in
blankets.
Another potential obstacle is lighting. I know that I don’t
have a lot of experience in lighting, so to work around this, we will be
shooting many of our scenes in daylight. For the indoor scenes, we will shoot
during the day in well-lit areas, and add lights if needed.
Shot List
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