Cambridge Portfolio Week 3 2/28, Detritus Sequence

 Shots, Lighting

 Last blog, I strayed a bit away from my production, but I am now resuming my planning. I will be discussing the scene in the greatest detail I have ever done before I do my storyboard. Before I begin, I would like to go over the design, lighting, etc. The film will be edited in iMovie on my laptop, which comes with a number of filters to choose from. I would like for my opening to have an yellowish hue, with a bit more saturation and warmth. The lighting would start off darker, in the house, and when the character steps outside, the yellow color is a lot more pronounced.

By starting with the interior of the house being dark, the sudden increase in light is a big contrast and gives the lighting a greater effect than it would have before. The reason I have chosen a yellowish and orangeish color is because I believe it emphasizes the post-apocalyptic feeling. They're the warm colors of the desert, which are huge and barren, like the middle of nowhere. Despite it being in a suburb, I'm trying to achieve this desolate feeling by using the colors.

Rough Concept for Ruined Home

I have come up with a name for the film; Detritus. The title will appear at the end of the opening sequence.

Sequence

Complete darkness for a few seconds. Extreme close up shot of the character with eyes closed. Eyes open, jolts up a bit, looks around, slowly rises up. Close up of character standing up, covering background, looks to left, suddenly takes steps back revealing the ruined room. Medium shot of character still stepping back. Extreme close up of eyes, eyes turn left, split second of character starting to move. Cut to tracking shot of character moving down stairs, looking at surroundings. Long shot of windows. Establishing shot of door from slightly low angle, character comes into frame in front of door, opens door, gets shrouded in light. Cut to close up (of character) now outside the building, character squinting and reacting to light, character starts walking forward, camera pans to surroundings. Extreme long shot of character stepping onto the sidewalk, zooming out slightly.

Tracking shot behind character walking down street. As character turns head towards buildings, pan over to buildings, once right, then left, as character is looking left, cut in front of character as he's looking to same direction. Character looks forward again, then down, then stops moving. Close up of characters face, character bends down. Cut to character still moving down to a squat behind character, with finger on ground in sight (over shoulder shot). Close up of finger. Extreme close up of character's worried eyes. Cut to character right outside door of another house, medium shot. Character knocks on door, attempts to open door, sees it's open, takes hand off door handle. Medium shot outside another house, character knocks, opens door completely. Pan over to behind character, with view of house interior visible. Medium shot with a slightly low angle of character as they enter the house. Character knocks loudly, no answer. Long shot of kitchen table with utensils spilled, slight high angle to view floor, character enters shot and views floor. Close up of character's face viewing ground, slight zoom, cut to slight zoom of circular object on ground, contra zoom on character, extreme close up of eye on floor. Medium shot of character backing up and running out. 

Medium shot, low angle of character running into frame, looking around. Wide long shot of many strange objects on floor, look like body parts, same medium shot low angle as before, character steps back and looks down. Close up of tooth on ground, extreme close up of character's eyes, slow zoom. Pov shot of mysterious entity, character visible in frame, character squats down, still looking at tooth. Camera goes forward, character turns toward camera, camera jolts up to face of scared character. Character yelps, drone shot of area. Close up zoom of ear on ground with tooth barely visible in frame. Shot blurs, fades to black. Title card, Detritus shows, with credits.

This is my plan for the sequencing of my opening. A few things are subject to change, but this is what I plan to translate into a storyboard.