I've had this idea in my head for forever and a half - I thought "you know, I have this story journal, maybe I could post it there", I'm kind of curious what you guys would think.
The idea is a purely director/cinematographer type one, instead of a writing one. I obviously never get to do anything with these ideas as I have never had the pleasure of making actual films. (It's really a pain! If I had a crew and a nice video camera, I'd be all over that!) But... not having the experience, I really don't know where I stand with these types of ideas. I can't imagine a novice is very good. But no more babbeling, let me share my idea!
This is a scene from Crystal Palace 3. In parts 9 and 10, Akira dances to Stronger by Britney Spears and is interrupted by a phone call from Crystallina, who has been worked to exhaustion at the Anus household, where we have sent her to get her out of our hair, and she begs to be brought back.
My idea is when the phone call happens, in terms of camera angles, timing, etc.
I don't know how familiar any of you are with the song Stronger, lol, but mid-song, Akira's just dancing around the bedroom, swishing his hair around, rubbing up against the dresser, like a stripper practically, and then he dances into our walk-in closet and spots my underwear drawer. At 2:08, he emerges from the closet, taking an epic stance in a bra and panties, over his clothes, and the camera is not completely centered on him, and it's even slightly angled, but it zooms in and when it's close enough it starts working around him, still at a slight angle. He seems to be in very mild slow motion, not two times slower, like... .5 times slower. The camera comes behind him and is slightly shadowed by his stature, you're probably mainly focused on the bra hooked around him XD. All the while Britney Spears is breathing deep, and he kind of is too, with his head low. Once the camera reaches his other side, it has sort of worked like a spiral in its turn - it is closer to him on his right side than it was his left, and the focus is on his face. At 2:26 Britney says her last "here we go" and the music ceizes COMPLETELY as the telephone rings, and Akira's eyes shoot open.
The music stopped, it cuts to a sort of split location. The foreground, on the right, is a counter in the kitchen with our telephone. The background is down the hall, left screen, where you can see the doorway and the front of the stairs. Akira comes scurrying down, still in my underwear, his run a little zig-zagged, down the hall, to that phone. He leans into the counter looking annoyed and answers.
(This next part goes against what Kate and I wrote in terms of setting shots, but I think it works better.)
He answers the phone.
It cuts to Crystallina, laying on the rug in her guest room at the Anus'. She looks like a mess. The camera is NOT centered on her in any way - it's sort of low, just observing the whole of the floor, where Crystallina happens to be laying, sort of off to the left, nearer to the shadow of the bed. The idea is to present where she is and what she's doing without giving us the sense that she is of importance. It helps us see that at the moment she feels overlooked and lonely. Anyway, she says "hi, Daddy," and it cuts back to Akira.
"Crystallina, we've told you a million times not to play with the phone."
I try to be sparing how often I cut between telephone calls, but it cuts back to Crystallina, closer to her, by spanning her curled up body, so her face is at the right of the screen. She says "I'm not playing with the fucking phone," in a dead sort of way, and then back to Akira who says "Well w-what do you want? You totally interrupted my song. ...Bitch."
Back to Crystallina, who says "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Akira's voice, through the phone, says "what's wrong with you?"
Crystallina pauses. "If you must know, everything is wrong with me. I'm exhausted, I'm soar, I'm humuliated, I haven't had privacy all day long, and I'm sick of seeing penguins everywhere I go!"
It cuts to Akira, who's standing there darting his eyes around. Crystallina's voice asks if he's there and he says "Yes. But I don't understand why you're calling me."
The conversation continues a bit, right now it wasn't what was of importance to me. Eventually Akira says he needs to get back to Daddy Time and hangs up the phone. He does so very casually and, using the same shot as when he arrived, her walks back down the hall and disappears at the left, up the stairs.
Crystallina, in her room, is shown at sort of a ceiling corner view, to make her look even smaller. You can hear the dialtone before she hangs up the phone and starts blubbering.
At this point, the camera cuts back to Akira and I's bedroom, where it has a perfect symmetrical view of our two front doors, and the space between the entrance and the foot of the bed. It's very wide, but not wide enough where you can see the walls of either side. At 2:26, Stronger starts AGAIN, (as it was the perfect breaking point), and just as the sound hits, Akira slides into center in his socks and starts rocking to the music again. As "stronger than yesterdayyyy!" continues, and his dancing gets more vigorous, it cuts to me driving home. There are alternating shots between him dancing and me pulling into the driveway, fumbling with my purse a bit... Just as the song ends "strongerrr", the garage door opens and it's a sideways view, kind of like I'm crossing the finish line but not in slow motion. Quickly after the shot changes to the POV of the doorframe as I walk away from it. There's silence as I set my stuff down. I mosey over to the sink and begin washing my hands.
Back in the bedroom, Akira's standing in front of our bedroom mirror smearing whore red lipstick on to the beginning of Q. Lazzarus' "Goodbye Horses", and the camera is slowly zooming in through the half-open bathroom door, so at first all we see is his mirror reflection. The camera sort of works its way in, backing a little into the reflection side, for a moment you see both real and reflection Akira, but then it's just him. He leans back from application and says "I'd fuck me," when a second later, he hears the sound of the T.V. being flicked on. It cuts to me leisurely adjusting the untidy living room with the news on. No noteworthy shot. In unrealistically short time, Akira comes down the stairs in the background, the camera's POV sort of to the side of the TV as I watch it on the couch. He looks completely normal.
That's pretty much the end of the idea.
Leave me feedback about the effectiveness, if you do? :D
The idea is a purely director/cinematographer type one, instead of a writing one. I obviously never get to do anything with these ideas as I have never had the pleasure of making actual films. (It's really a pain! If I had a crew and a nice video camera, I'd be all over that!) But... not having the experience, I really don't know where I stand with these types of ideas. I can't imagine a novice is very good. But no more babbeling, let me share my idea!
This is a scene from Crystal Palace 3. In parts 9 and 10, Akira dances to Stronger by Britney Spears and is interrupted by a phone call from Crystallina, who has been worked to exhaustion at the Anus household, where we have sent her to get her out of our hair, and she begs to be brought back.
My idea is when the phone call happens, in terms of camera angles, timing, etc.
I don't know how familiar any of you are with the song Stronger, lol, but mid-song, Akira's just dancing around the bedroom, swishing his hair around, rubbing up against the dresser, like a stripper practically, and then he dances into our walk-in closet and spots my underwear drawer. At 2:08, he emerges from the closet, taking an epic stance in a bra and panties, over his clothes, and the camera is not completely centered on him, and it's even slightly angled, but it zooms in and when it's close enough it starts working around him, still at a slight angle. He seems to be in very mild slow motion, not two times slower, like... .5 times slower. The camera comes behind him and is slightly shadowed by his stature, you're probably mainly focused on the bra hooked around him XD. All the while Britney Spears is breathing deep, and he kind of is too, with his head low. Once the camera reaches his other side, it has sort of worked like a spiral in its turn - it is closer to him on his right side than it was his left, and the focus is on his face. At 2:26 Britney says her last "here we go" and the music ceizes COMPLETELY as the telephone rings, and Akira's eyes shoot open.
The music stopped, it cuts to a sort of split location. The foreground, on the right, is a counter in the kitchen with our telephone. The background is down the hall, left screen, where you can see the doorway and the front of the stairs. Akira comes scurrying down, still in my underwear, his run a little zig-zagged, down the hall, to that phone. He leans into the counter looking annoyed and answers.
(This next part goes against what Kate and I wrote in terms of setting shots, but I think it works better.)
He answers the phone.
It cuts to Crystallina, laying on the rug in her guest room at the Anus'. She looks like a mess. The camera is NOT centered on her in any way - it's sort of low, just observing the whole of the floor, where Crystallina happens to be laying, sort of off to the left, nearer to the shadow of the bed. The idea is to present where she is and what she's doing without giving us the sense that she is of importance. It helps us see that at the moment she feels overlooked and lonely. Anyway, she says "hi, Daddy," and it cuts back to Akira.
"Crystallina, we've told you a million times not to play with the phone."
I try to be sparing how often I cut between telephone calls, but it cuts back to Crystallina, closer to her, by spanning her curled up body, so her face is at the right of the screen. She says "I'm not playing with the fucking phone," in a dead sort of way, and then back to Akira who says "Well w-what do you want? You totally interrupted my song. ...Bitch."
Back to Crystallina, who says "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Akira's voice, through the phone, says "what's wrong with you?"
Crystallina pauses. "If you must know, everything is wrong with me. I'm exhausted, I'm soar, I'm humuliated, I haven't had privacy all day long, and I'm sick of seeing penguins everywhere I go!"
It cuts to Akira, who's standing there darting his eyes around. Crystallina's voice asks if he's there and he says "Yes. But I don't understand why you're calling me."
The conversation continues a bit, right now it wasn't what was of importance to me. Eventually Akira says he needs to get back to Daddy Time and hangs up the phone. He does so very casually and, using the same shot as when he arrived, her walks back down the hall and disappears at the left, up the stairs.
Crystallina, in her room, is shown at sort of a ceiling corner view, to make her look even smaller. You can hear the dialtone before she hangs up the phone and starts blubbering.
At this point, the camera cuts back to Akira and I's bedroom, where it has a perfect symmetrical view of our two front doors, and the space between the entrance and the foot of the bed. It's very wide, but not wide enough where you can see the walls of either side. At 2:26, Stronger starts AGAIN, (as it was the perfect breaking point), and just as the sound hits, Akira slides into center in his socks and starts rocking to the music again. As "stronger than yesterdayyyy!" continues, and his dancing gets more vigorous, it cuts to me driving home. There are alternating shots between him dancing and me pulling into the driveway, fumbling with my purse a bit... Just as the song ends "strongerrr", the garage door opens and it's a sideways view, kind of like I'm crossing the finish line but not in slow motion. Quickly after the shot changes to the POV of the doorframe as I walk away from it. There's silence as I set my stuff down. I mosey over to the sink and begin washing my hands.
Back in the bedroom, Akira's standing in front of our bedroom mirror smearing whore red lipstick on to the beginning of Q. Lazzarus' "Goodbye Horses", and the camera is slowly zooming in through the half-open bathroom door, so at first all we see is his mirror reflection. The camera sort of works its way in, backing a little into the reflection side, for a moment you see both real and reflection Akira, but then it's just him. He leans back from application and says "I'd fuck me," when a second later, he hears the sound of the T.V. being flicked on. It cuts to me leisurely adjusting the untidy living room with the news on. No noteworthy shot. In unrealistically short time, Akira comes down the stairs in the background, the camera's POV sort of to the side of the TV as I watch it on the couch. He looks completely normal.
That's pretty much the end of the idea.
Leave me feedback about the effectiveness, if you do? :D
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