Pre Production
Knowing I had experimented with surrealism and photo manipulation in the previous assignment, I knew for this video assignment it was both a familiar landscape as well as a new experience for me. I knew the bits and pieces of techniques to surrealism and creating impossible dream-like imagery, but at the same time removing my comfort and familiarity of photoshop made certain elements hard to play with. I knew I had to achieve these magical visuals in-camera and being limited in terms of software, I challenged myself to conceptualize some impossible visual trickery.
Pre production was an interesting process. I rarely work with a concept that is not tightly drawn to a narrative. As this was a mise-en-scene video I thought about what visuals were surreal, what colors to use and how I could make it out of the ordinary. I thought about displacement, using unorthodox props and working with the concept of time – reverse, slow-motion and timelapses. I settled on some simple, minimalist and clean visuals, and knowing this is a surreal concept, I knew I had to do a lot of experimenting. I texted a friend whom I felt could effectively convey the mood and who also had a very extensive wardrobe.
Production
DAY ONE
Firstly, shout out to my Dreams team, Amanda, Hannah and Jacob for helping me with the shoot.
The day started with shooting certain visuals I had in mind, I decided to keep it to a simple pastel blue, pink, and yellow color scheme. So I started with simple actions such as expensive milk into a wineglass, raining balloons and stretching balloons. It was good to have so many extra hands helping out cause honestly I don’t think I could’ve pulled it off on my own.
I feel extra hands helped add that little more to the visuals – I could focus exclusively on the outcome of the shots on camera than perfecting the pouring of milk or perfecting where the balloons fell in frame.
behind the scenes of milk pouring
I feel the props and wardrobe helped out a lot to bring out the vibrant and sweet mood of the film. I was very appreciative that my team also suggested some visuals based on the concept of the shoot such as varying the camera angles, reversing certain simple actions and also suggesting how else I can play with colors!
The shoot took about 2 hours before we wrapped and I really liked how the visuals turned out – it really radiated the mood and visuals I imagined.
behind the scenes of other visuals
DAY TWO
The second day, I got Claire and Hannah to help me out with the scenes. It was a little less fulfilling than the first day but I was pleased with the outcome still.
Hannah and I started with spray painting the fruits then while waiting for it to dry, I shot the m&ms scene with Claire. It turned out a lot less “fluid” like I’ve imagined but I thought the image of it was still pretty surreal. I played with the diagonal lines from the yellow art card and considered my color schemes.
We then went back and Hannah helped me with being my hand model and arranging the fruits in a aesthetically pleasing manner. I really liked the whole idea of surrealism at play in this segment as when the banana was peeled it revealed a wonderful tinge of yellow.
behind the scenes
Overall I learnt about how to be imaginative with my films and it was a difficult task imagining how elements would work in both forward, backward, slow motion and at unique angles. But I guess that was the fun with this project – the idea of creating the impossible, the surreal and the unique. I was quite pleased with how the footage turned out!
Post Production
I wanted to die editing this, but low-and-behold, my mac chose to die first.
In post production I painstakingly looked at each and everyone footage forward and backward and had to play around a lot with the sequencing to see what flowed and what didn’t. I unfortunately had to not use a lot of footages as they weren’t surreal enough, lacked imagination, or just plain weren’t aesthetic. It was quite painful considering how I actually planned for some but didn’t turn out well or how they just didn’t fit in the big picture of things.
Such is life.