Pre Production: Director's Statement
What is a Director's Statement?
A Directors Statement is usually asked for by producers in order to get a general overview for the film before investment. The Statement is ever changed and is updated along with almost every script draft which means that it is something that is constantly being tweaked until the final script is written.
It's purpose is to function as a written proposal for the visions the director has of how the final film will look. It's function as a proposal, allows the director to have an overall view of how he/she intends the film to look and acts as a guide for the rest of the production crew. While visions can change over the production's duration it acts as a general guideline to the director which allows him/her to retain that vision.
Visual Style
'Control' will be focused and visually modeled around realism as to link to the story and narrative progression within the film. There will be two main visual styles which will help to enhance the story of control. The first is a colour rich and vibrant world which will help to symbolise moments of Emily's life in which she is in control along with her happiness and contempt emotions toward it. The second symbolises the moment's of Emily's loss of control along with feelings her feeling of worry and panic. This will be done through low saturation for a drained and cold effect. The difference will be subtle between the two as not to signpost the developments within the film however the overall colour will act as a indicator to Emily's control of her world.
Colour
When looking at the colour contrasting moments within the film, will be reflective of the style within the Video Game, We Happy Few [Compulsion Games, 2016]. It's hyper-realistic world contrasted to a dark and dull one is an interesting yet visually reflective form of scene setting which is something we will be looking to replicate in out film. The main difference however is within our film we will be exploring this in a less obvious way, more subtle and only used when needed.
The degree of the colour reflects the mood of the film and the ability of Emily's control. Colours when she is in control are warmer when out of control they are colder. These differences will be a tell that will show the degree of Emily's control throughout the film.
Another source that does this effectively is within the final stages of the 'The Entire History of You' episode of Black Mirror (2011). The final stages in which the protagonist played by Toby Kebbell, recounts his steps after his wife leaves. The sudden changes from warm happy memories to cold reality are done brilliantly simply through the same shot coloured differently with the absence of one character. This scene is emotive and effective as it is able to quickly distinguish mood, something that we will be looking to replicate.
Shots and Framing
The shots that we will be using within the film will be: Extreme CU, CU, MCU, LS, WS and Establishing Shot. The reason for these shots being selected as they each serve a specific focus within the film and each reflect a mood or perspective to represent the film and characters. The Extreme CU, CU and MCU will be invasive shots. Their purpose is to get in close and invade the characters personal space. This will reflect Emily's loss of control and just when she wants everyone to go away and things to be normal we move in close to see her tearing at the seams.
The LS, WS and Establishing Shots are used to impose a sense of perspective. By making her small within the frame we see even her world which she tries to control can at times be huge and by being so large, it becomes harder and harder to maintain, which represents the magnitude of her task as she struggles to come to terms with her 'small' role within the world.
The Framing of Emily will differ within different parts of the narrative as another reflection of her mental and emotional state. Emily's calm state is reflective of Wez Anderson in which everything is symmetrical, organized and correct.
The framing of Dan also differs as his character progresses in the film as the beginning he will be framed as essentially part of the furniture as he 'fits in' with Emily's perfect world. While later in the film he is more prominent and disruptive to Emily's world. As so his framing is closer and mobile.
Lighting and Contrast
Lighting and contrast will differ, along with colour and framing, within different parts of the story. As a tool to reflect mood and emotion along with time of day, Contrast will be high with boosted lighting within when Emily's mood is good during the day. The Contrast will be lower along with saturation and subdued lighting when her mood is bad. This overall will add to the genre of psychological drama as the lighting and contrast continues to reflect her mental state.
Cinematography
Drone
The grand opening establishing shot will be done through the use of a Drone. The purpose of this is to not only establish he world in which the story is set but to also give perspective to the story. The majority of the story consists within one home. The geographical scale of the home is minuscule to the magnitude of world outside it. Set in a rural area it provides a visual reference that in all this world we focus on the smaller world of this specific home and the characters that reside within. The purpose of using almost the same shot to open the film then see again later provides the audience with two views of the house. The first is the establishing of location and the story of which this home is the stage and the second reflects how much can go on within one house along with the broader perspective of life outside of the home and how scary it can seem to a control freak.
Fixed and Handheld
Fixed and smooth tracking shots will used to simulate the smooth and flowing nature of her controlled world. These symmetrically framed, fixed shots will be used during conversation and no dialogue sequences. These shots will be a tool for us to emphasis her positive mind set further and add to the layer of storytelling allowing the audience to further understand her moods.
Handheld shots will also be used for moments to reflect a negative mindset, also reflecting a real world in which things are not so perfectly flowing and calm. Handheld shots will be used in moments of confrontation, panic and running to emphasis a loss of control and also a touch of realism. The contrast between realism and the unrealistic will allow the audience to determine at the end of the film what was real and what was not. This not only adds to the storytelling but enables the audience to further understand Emily as a character.
Long Takes
The use of long takes when filming allows us to keep disruptions to actors as minimal as possible. Within the film we have a number of different deeply emotional moments which, if we keep calling cut on, could disrupt our actors emotional flow for the character. For this reason when dealing with emotional and deep scenes we will be looking to make the takes as long as possible to avoid any disruptions in their performance.
Also we are aware that Control is a short film, so we will need to focus our long takes on scenes were it is only absolutely required for a long take. This is because if we focus too much of the film on long shots it could end up taking up the majority of our films duration which is something to recognize early so that we do no get to this point in the edit and have to begin cutting scenes too short.
Performance
Smaller Crew
When shooting we will be looking to keep the set to as small numbers as possible during emotional scenes. The reason for this is so that there are as little distractions to the actors performance as possible. It is important to understand for actors that when performing deep emotive scenes that even the smallest details can be distracting. By addressing these things early on we can ensure that the actors are as comfortable as possible when filming said scenes. By keeping the crew on set to absolute essential numbers and having longer takes, we are able to make filming an intimate process that is true to the emotive tone of the film.
Character's Performances
One of the performances which would encapsulate Emily's character would be Rosamund Pike as Amy in Gone Girl (2014).
This is due to the way in which Pike portrays an unnerving emotion changing character, for scenes in which Emily is trying to regain control of her life, I felt that Pike's performance summed up the uncomfortable, unnerving way in which Emily should appear to the audience. This performance is also the one of which I imagined during the scene in which Emily and Dan have sex, the change in emotion like a light switch is one that I want the actress playing Emily to be able to emulate.
The contrast of how the character 'Amy' is from the beginning to the end and the perception the audience have of her is something I wish to emulate and explore within my film.
Another performance is the in The Stepford Wives (2004) during the supermarket scene.
This performance within a specific scene sums up how I want my actress to portray Emily within scenes in which she is described as automatic and emotionless. This 'brave face' and false perception is the performance that sums up Emily when she is trying to continue with life as normal, when it is indeed not.
Another performance referencing her emotions turning and her mindset would be within the performance of Psycho (1960) in which Anthony Perkins' character changes into the character of his mother when detained by the police at the end of the film.
This disturbing but fantastically acted scene is one I want to replicate not for its ability to disturb or its inner monologue but the subtle facial expressions Perkins is able to perform. This facial acting is something that I want to focus on with Emily as there are periods of this film with little or no dialogue and part of her character is one that is able to tell a story, just with her expressions.
Dan as a character is very different from Emily, in the beginning and at the very end he is warm and loving but during the middle he is confrontational, yet rebellious to Emily's control. He acts not only as her conscience but also as her love. For this reason I believe the performance of Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939) in the famous scene of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".
This performance captures how Dan begins to rebel against Emily, as his role at this point as her conscience, he acts as the thing that fights Emily, that ultimately like Rhett, results in his departure with her forever. By Dan being this reflection of Emily's fears, the fact that she cannot control him and yet she still tries is her undoing by removing the one thing she wanted most. Dan is and must be portrayed as, during his rebellious and confrontational points, as a man that has had enough and one that can't be controlled, shedding light on his girlfriends life.
Editing
One of the most important areas of this film is the pacing of the editing. The pace of the film should be reflective of the mood of which Emily is in at the time. When she is calm the edit pacing should be slow, rhythmic and like a flowing piece of art, however when she is not it should be fast paced, to match with the manic and disrupted control mood.
When creating a psychological thriller, it is important to reflect the main characters psychological mindset. The editing phase is the last in which it goes out to the audience so it is important for the pace to be correct so that the audience are fully and correctly immersed within Emily's mindset to ensure the story not only makes sense but is reflective in the right part of her psychological state.
Mood and Tone
The overall mood of the film will be reflected through colour, framing, cinematography, editing and many others finer touches. The mood of the film changes throughout, the beginning we begin with a lighter happy mood in which Emily returns home. At this point the emphasis is on a real, happy world. This takes a quick dive when she finds Steph in her room naked which drops the mood of the film. Following this it becomes confused and a complicated as the mood lifts then drops and further becomes confused, especially within Emily's 'automatic' phase. This is done to show Emily's conflicted emotions and psychological issues dealing with her lack of control for her environment and her overall decline.
The overall tone of Control is that of struggle, rebellion, love and loss.
Audio
Within the film we will be looking to explore as an audio tool. The scene in which Emily runs out to find Dan in the shed, we go from a loud argument between Emily and Dan then a short conversation between Emily and Steph to total silence. The Art of silence is interesting as anyone can cut audio to make a scene silent but to make it work and become effective is a totally different task.
Martin Scorsese's use of silence within his films is something of an example of the art of silence. within the film Raging Bull (1981) the silence is used fantastically in the scene in which Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta taunts Sugar Ray Robinson in their final fight of the film.
Films/TV/Games/Music
The films/television programmes/video games of which I want my production crew and cast to view and explore are as below. Each with a specific function or reason for viewing to help boost production for reference and example to enable our film to be properly researched in all areas.
A Directors Statement is usually asked for by producers in order to get a general overview for the film before investment. The Statement is ever changed and is updated along with almost every script draft which means that it is something that is constantly being tweaked until the final script is written.
It's purpose is to function as a written proposal for the visions the director has of how the final film will look. It's function as a proposal, allows the director to have an overall view of how he/she intends the film to look and acts as a guide for the rest of the production crew. While visions can change over the production's duration it acts as a general guideline to the director which allows him/her to retain that vision.
Visual Style
'Control' will be focused and visually modeled around realism as to link to the story and narrative progression within the film. There will be two main visual styles which will help to enhance the story of control. The first is a colour rich and vibrant world which will help to symbolise moments of Emily's life in which she is in control along with her happiness and contempt emotions toward it. The second symbolises the moment's of Emily's loss of control along with feelings her feeling of worry and panic. This will be done through low saturation for a drained and cold effect. The difference will be subtle between the two as not to signpost the developments within the film however the overall colour will act as a indicator to Emily's control of her world.
Colour
When looking at the colour contrasting moments within the film, will be reflective of the style within the Video Game, We Happy Few [Compulsion Games, 2016]. It's hyper-realistic world contrasted to a dark and dull one is an interesting yet visually reflective form of scene setting which is something we will be looking to replicate in out film. The main difference however is within our film we will be exploring this in a less obvious way, more subtle and only used when needed.
[Compulsion Games, 2016]
The degree of the colour reflects the mood of the film and the ability of Emily's control. Colours when she is in control are warmer when out of control they are colder. These differences will be a tell that will show the degree of Emily's control throughout the film.
Another source that does this effectively is within the final stages of the 'The Entire History of You' episode of Black Mirror (2011). The final stages in which the protagonist played by Toby Kebbell, recounts his steps after his wife leaves. The sudden changes from warm happy memories to cold reality are done brilliantly simply through the same shot coloured differently with the absence of one character. This scene is emotive and effective as it is able to quickly distinguish mood, something that we will be looking to replicate.
[Black Mirror, 2011]
Shots and Framing
The shots that we will be using within the film will be: Extreme CU, CU, MCU, LS, WS and Establishing Shot. The reason for these shots being selected as they each serve a specific focus within the film and each reflect a mood or perspective to represent the film and characters. The Extreme CU, CU and MCU will be invasive shots. Their purpose is to get in close and invade the characters personal space. This will reflect Emily's loss of control and just when she wants everyone to go away and things to be normal we move in close to see her tearing at the seams.
The LS, WS and Establishing Shots are used to impose a sense of perspective. By making her small within the frame we see even her world which she tries to control can at times be huge and by being so large, it becomes harder and harder to maintain, which represents the magnitude of her task as she struggles to come to terms with her 'small' role within the world.
The Framing of Emily will differ within different parts of the narrative as another reflection of her mental and emotional state. Emily's calm state is reflective of Wez Anderson in which everything is symmetrical, organized and correct.
[Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014)
The framing of Dan also differs as his character progresses in the film as the beginning he will be framed as essentially part of the furniture as he 'fits in' with Emily's perfect world. While later in the film he is more prominent and disruptive to Emily's world. As so his framing is closer and mobile.
Lighting and Contrast
Lighting and contrast will differ, along with colour and framing, within different parts of the story. As a tool to reflect mood and emotion along with time of day, Contrast will be high with boosted lighting within when Emily's mood is good during the day. The Contrast will be lower along with saturation and subdued lighting when her mood is bad. This overall will add to the genre of psychological drama as the lighting and contrast continues to reflect her mental state.
Cinematography
Drone
The grand opening establishing shot will be done through the use of a Drone. The purpose of this is to not only establish he world in which the story is set but to also give perspective to the story. The majority of the story consists within one home. The geographical scale of the home is minuscule to the magnitude of world outside it. Set in a rural area it provides a visual reference that in all this world we focus on the smaller world of this specific home and the characters that reside within. The purpose of using almost the same shot to open the film then see again later provides the audience with two views of the house. The first is the establishing of location and the story of which this home is the stage and the second reflects how much can go on within one house along with the broader perspective of life outside of the home and how scary it can seem to a control freak.
Fixed and Handheld
Fixed and smooth tracking shots will used to simulate the smooth and flowing nature of her controlled world. These symmetrically framed, fixed shots will be used during conversation and no dialogue sequences. These shots will be a tool for us to emphasis her positive mind set further and add to the layer of storytelling allowing the audience to further understand her moods.
Handheld shots will also be used for moments to reflect a negative mindset, also reflecting a real world in which things are not so perfectly flowing and calm. Handheld shots will be used in moments of confrontation, panic and running to emphasis a loss of control and also a touch of realism. The contrast between realism and the unrealistic will allow the audience to determine at the end of the film what was real and what was not. This not only adds to the storytelling but enables the audience to further understand Emily as a character.
Long Takes
The use of long takes when filming allows us to keep disruptions to actors as minimal as possible. Within the film we have a number of different deeply emotional moments which, if we keep calling cut on, could disrupt our actors emotional flow for the character. For this reason when dealing with emotional and deep scenes we will be looking to make the takes as long as possible to avoid any disruptions in their performance.
Also we are aware that Control is a short film, so we will need to focus our long takes on scenes were it is only absolutely required for a long take. This is because if we focus too much of the film on long shots it could end up taking up the majority of our films duration which is something to recognize early so that we do no get to this point in the edit and have to begin cutting scenes too short.
Performance
Smaller Crew
When shooting we will be looking to keep the set to as small numbers as possible during emotional scenes. The reason for this is so that there are as little distractions to the actors performance as possible. It is important to understand for actors that when performing deep emotive scenes that even the smallest details can be distracting. By addressing these things early on we can ensure that the actors are as comfortable as possible when filming said scenes. By keeping the crew on set to absolute essential numbers and having longer takes, we are able to make filming an intimate process that is true to the emotive tone of the film.
Character's Performances
One of the performances which would encapsulate Emily's character would be Rosamund Pike as Amy in Gone Girl (2014).
[Gone Girl, 2016]
This is due to the way in which Pike portrays an unnerving emotion changing character, for scenes in which Emily is trying to regain control of her life, I felt that Pike's performance summed up the uncomfortable, unnerving way in which Emily should appear to the audience. This performance is also the one of which I imagined during the scene in which Emily and Dan have sex, the change in emotion like a light switch is one that I want the actress playing Emily to be able to emulate.
The contrast of how the character 'Amy' is from the beginning to the end and the perception the audience have of her is something I wish to emulate and explore within my film.
Another performance is the in The Stepford Wives (2004) during the supermarket scene.
[The Stepford Wives, 2004]
Another performance referencing her emotions turning and her mindset would be within the performance of Psycho (1960) in which Anthony Perkins' character changes into the character of his mother when detained by the police at the end of the film.
[Psycho, 1960]
This disturbing but fantastically acted scene is one I want to replicate not for its ability to disturb or its inner monologue but the subtle facial expressions Perkins is able to perform. This facial acting is something that I want to focus on with Emily as there are periods of this film with little or no dialogue and part of her character is one that is able to tell a story, just with her expressions.
Dan as a character is very different from Emily, in the beginning and at the very end he is warm and loving but during the middle he is confrontational, yet rebellious to Emily's control. He acts not only as her conscience but also as her love. For this reason I believe the performance of Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939) in the famous scene of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".
[Gone with the Wind, 1939]
This performance captures how Dan begins to rebel against Emily, as his role at this point as her conscience, he acts as the thing that fights Emily, that ultimately like Rhett, results in his departure with her forever. By Dan being this reflection of Emily's fears, the fact that she cannot control him and yet she still tries is her undoing by removing the one thing she wanted most. Dan is and must be portrayed as, during his rebellious and confrontational points, as a man that has had enough and one that can't be controlled, shedding light on his girlfriends life.
Editing
One of the most important areas of this film is the pacing of the editing. The pace of the film should be reflective of the mood of which Emily is in at the time. When she is calm the edit pacing should be slow, rhythmic and like a flowing piece of art, however when she is not it should be fast paced, to match with the manic and disrupted control mood.
When creating a psychological thriller, it is important to reflect the main characters psychological mindset. The editing phase is the last in which it goes out to the audience so it is important for the pace to be correct so that the audience are fully and correctly immersed within Emily's mindset to ensure the story not only makes sense but is reflective in the right part of her psychological state.
Mood and Tone
The overall mood of the film will be reflected through colour, framing, cinematography, editing and many others finer touches. The mood of the film changes throughout, the beginning we begin with a lighter happy mood in which Emily returns home. At this point the emphasis is on a real, happy world. This takes a quick dive when she finds Steph in her room naked which drops the mood of the film. Following this it becomes confused and a complicated as the mood lifts then drops and further becomes confused, especially within Emily's 'automatic' phase. This is done to show Emily's conflicted emotions and psychological issues dealing with her lack of control for her environment and her overall decline.
The overall tone of Control is that of struggle, rebellion, love and loss.
Audio
Within the film we will be looking to explore as an audio tool. The scene in which Emily runs out to find Dan in the shed, we go from a loud argument between Emily and Dan then a short conversation between Emily and Steph to total silence. The Art of silence is interesting as anyone can cut audio to make a scene silent but to make it work and become effective is a totally different task.
Martin Scorsese's use of silence within his films is something of an example of the art of silence. within the film Raging Bull (1981) the silence is used fantastically in the scene in which Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta taunts Sugar Ray Robinson in their final fight of the film.
[Raging Bull, 1981]
This use of silence is extremely effective, something that I want to introduce within the film. It is a fantastic tool, if done correctly, to produce moments within films that create a connection between the characters and the audience. It is important to do this so this way the silence becomes a reflection of the character's emotion. Silence for the sake of silence is something that will not be an effective tool, but by using it to convey sadness, tension, anger, acceptance or even loss, it becomes more powerful of a tool and overall scene.
Further with the idea of silence is the use of dialogue. It is important within a film for characters to only talk and be overly descriptive if it in their character. If it isn't it can appear lazy and be a credit to poor writing. For this reason, we there are parts of the film that are completely without dialogue. This is because we want to explore the emotions of the characters, conveying these to one another it should be felt rather than said. This means that through gestures, expressions and looks the characters will be telling a story without saying a word.
An example of this is within the classic film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1968) in which a 6 minute long scene is played out with no dialogue but manages to create a gripping and tense atmosphere. Done through great editing, direction, acting and music the scene is a statement that sometimes no dialogue is the way forward.
[The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, 1968]
Another powerful and famous example of this is within The Graduate (1968). Combined with one of the most famous and most refrences lines in film, we have another equally famous scene. The Simon and Garfunkel song combined with the characters individual realisation of what they have just done, while they question thier furute is one of the best examples of no dialogue storytelling in cinema. The effectiveness of this scene makes it all the more interesting as the audiences watch as the actors expressions tell exactly how they are feeling.
[The Graduate, 1968]
While my film will reflect a different tone and series of emotions, focusing more on love and then into dismay. The scene within these films is a clear example of the effectiveness a scene can have with little or no dialogue.
Films/TV/Games/Music
The films/television programmes/video games of which I want my production crew and cast to view and explore are as below. Each with a specific function or reason for viewing to help boost production for reference and example to enable our film to be properly researched in all areas.
- Psycho - Emily Performance
- Gone Girl - Emily Performance
- Black Mirror - Colour
- Gone with the Wind - Dan Performance
- Raging Bull - Silence
- The Graduate - No Dialogue
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - No Dialogue
- Grand Budapest Hotel - Symmetry
- Stepford Wives - Emily Performance
- We Happy Few - Colour
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