DALE
INITIAL CONCEPT
I started the process by writing a script; this was inspired by a painting I saw whilst away on my summer holidays. I did not write it as a full piece but instead as a narrative breakdown as I was not sure if the idea would work. I then sent this to the director of Film Academy and received his feedback verbally (he granted me permission to film this).
With this film I wanted to do something different from my usual naturalistic style; I chose a darker comedy to allow myself to touch upon gritty, relatable emotions whilst still making people laugh as a challenge - the animal masks were a metaphorical message for this, as I find that the majority of people project certain archetypes (animals) in one way or another to succeed in the expectations of life (in this case, in a romantic setting). I felt strongly about having Dale take off his mask at the end as I wanted this to be the final message and to highlight the detrimental impact his failure has on him.
CHOOSING THE CAMERA
I chose this script to pair with an Arri SR3 as I wanted a huge emphasis on the symmetry and aesthetic to fit the contemporary tones. The texture of 16mm film would provide a more artistic and gentle touch to the overall piece; perfect for these aesthetics
CASTING / COSTUME / LOCATION
With this shoot, we wanted maximum ease in terms of casting as it did not matter due to the masks. We chose the housemaster of one of the boarding houses we would be shooting in as he had the perfect physique and would be at the location anyways. We asked Chris to act as one of the animals as he was assisting us with our shoot. With the rest of the characters, the 3 of us in the crew I put together took on the waiter, sheep and rabbit.
The masculine actors sourced their own costume for the shoot as it consisted of suits. I brought in 2 dresses and a pair of heels for myself and the sheep; for the rabbit, I chose a red theme (with red nail polish) to communicate her overly feminine character as we had no options to portray this facially.
I ordered the masks and name tags off of Amazon and tried them on. The horse mask was too flimsy so the production designer stuffed it with tissue.
I sourced the chairs and wine bottles from the theatre department, and the tables from the common room. This involved a lot of heavy lifting as I had to set them all in the studio. The table cloths, plant, cutlery, and condiments were from the canteen (I organised this verbally). The candles, wine glasses, chopping board, vape and small plants were from my own home to save money.
All food on the shoot day was real, apart from the wine which we substituted with Ribena I brought in. I cooked the lamb chops in the morning of the shoot. This was to ensure that there was a sense of gritty realism.
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I brought in 0% nicotine vapes so that we could achieve the visual effect of vaping without our actor having to use one. Me and another crew member blew the smoke into frame and ducked so that we could create the illusion that Dale was smoking.
STORYBOARD
We planned out our shots with a photography-based 52-frame storyboard as we did not have enough time to draw one out. This was to ensure that we would be shooting economically on the day and offered a structure to our narrative/shot types.
8 OUT OF 52 FRAMES FROM THE STORYBOARD
