Project Overview
We ended up with this outcome because the first two original plans did not work out. The original initial idea was to take a sci-fi scene from a movie that already exists (we were yet to choose, as we were still at the beginning of the second week into the project). By using a green screen we were going to shoot our model in front of the green screen, then import her into the movie clip of our choice. However on presenting our ideas to our tutors we were slightly disappointed that this was not going to be possible to achieve as we were unaware how to use a green screen without the aid of a technician who would not be available for us to use. As well as the fact that the green screen that was available for us to use in Maidstone Campus is far too small for the type of production that we were hoping to capture. Olle also informed us that the lighting is too dark, so we took from this that the clothing we wanted our actress to wear would not be represented to the fullest, so it was onto plan b.
The more we researched into the concept of our film we knew we wanted a futuristic genre, and we knew that in order to save on time and costs and exertion of sourcing garments for the main character as well as extras, we decided on having one lead actor.
This led us to our second idea which was to be based on the concept of fashion junkie. Our model was to be seen taking a dose of a dress, to then which the side effects are a hallucination scene. (Having investigated the effects of a high class drug that is taken by snorting through the nose, I found out that hallucinations of events out of the ordinary can be a part of the high). The hallucination scene was our actress inside the ‘Runway Showroom’, where she would be surrounded by mannequins and the confusion being that they were not real people, although she thinks they’re closing in on her like a real person would have the ability to do. She’d also be quick changing in Fred Butler inspired garments/accessories. Only to wake up in a fright in the last scene, realising that it was all a terrible dream. During the editing process we were considering reversing the order so that the audience would see actress gasp for breath on waking up from the dream, and as the movie crept on all would be revealed by the end.
I learnt that talking to people like Kim Howells who are active roles within the industry as well as her experience at university, we took her styling advice into account, she let us know that we had a choice of two fashion junkie looks. One was a cheap girl who is dressed in high street clothing and low budget make-up, and the other was an expensive, high-end girl who wore smudged make-up with pride, sort of “like the Kate Moss type”.
So finally we used the mannequin warehouse in North London when the Runway Showroom boutique fell through, as the manager had decided at short notice that we were unable to film on our chosen date. We were lucky enough to find a new location in North London that enabled us to stick to the original concept. The film was still based around a fashion junkie who was high on fashion.
I’ve learnt that I need to organise my workload evenly (put time management into practice) as we did shoot quite late into the project. Although I am happy that we did a couple of test shoots early into the project which gave me the skills of operating a HD video camera, as well as seeing how different angled shots can create different moods, whether it be dramatic, or mysterious and even soft.
I’ve enjoyed this project only because it was a challenge, it helped me prove to myself that I’m able to make a short film, which is something I didn’t think I was capable of doing. `for the most part I enjoyed styling for the film, I least enjoyed editing as it can be a long and frustrating process.
