Auditions

To find suitable actors for the Id and the Superego, we had to advertise the roles and use any contacts we might have to get people in to audition. We found a few actors who were interested and asked them to come in and run through some of the ideas we had for the roles with us. As my main role was storyboarding, once that was mostly done I decided to throw myself in to lots of other aspects of the shoot. I knew that this would be a useful experience and I would be able to think about how the camera angles that I had drawn would work for the camera team, whilst thinking about how each individual would work best for which role.

Molly and Gabby were our first choice for our film, and all we had to decide was which one of them would work best for which role. They both had very unique styles of acting and were clearly very good at what they did, so we had several group meetings to decide who was going to play who.

In the end we decided that Gabby, whilst she showed a lot of really intricate emotion and played off of the idea of the mirror really well, would probably be best as the Id as her facial expressions showed a really interesting childlike aspect when she was playing around with the idea of the animalistic alter ego. We liked this because the Id is supposed to be instinctual and selfish, acting on behalf of it's own survival, and very small children have that sort of vibe, as they are still in that vital development stage, where in fact, the Superego hasn't fully developed yet and so they are unaware of how not to behave socially and if they become hungry then they wont take into account that other people might need something else more.
Because of these connotations in her performance, we decided she would definitely be the best fit for the Id.
Molly showed a much more vulnerable side in her audition, and the fear came through a lot more in her movements and breath. This was a vital part of the Superego, as the discovery of her alter ego trying to escape the prison of the mirror was a terrifying one, and so Molly brought a lot of susceptibility to her performance.
Both actors had worked together in the past, and they fact that they were already comfortable together worked in our advantage, as when they were acting jointly their acting had a really nice tone to it that was perfect for our film.

In addition to myself being there, we also had the director, the assistant director, our producer, assistant producer, the DOP and camera operator. Our DOP and camera operator were able to film the auditions so that we could show them to the crew members who weren't at the auditions and we could discuss the matter as a group. We were all making notes throughout the auditions to refer back to later on. We drew a line on the floor in tape so that when we gave the candidates various exercises to complete they could imagine that was a mirror. We also provided them with a real mirror for another one of the exercises, and we provided them with some music as well.

Storyboard Final Draft

As this is the final draft of the storyboard, I spent more time on the drawings for this one and there are also a lot more frames in total. For this storyboard there was a total of 28 frames for the film, and I tried to make sure to cover every scene as fully as I could, without being excessive. When doing the drawings, I did sometimes struggle with making things like the mirror look more real, like it wasn't just an empty doorway or something, and often had to make small adjustments to what I was doing such as adding lines across the glass to show that it's there, and using different tones within the mirror.

I was able to reuse some of the drawings from my other draft as some of the shots were the same, which meant I had some additional time to be able to re do some of them to improve the quality of the drawings. I also had to re do some of them because I hadn't had the final shot list, and so they had to be changed to match what the camera was going to be doing and how the DOP wanted to frame the shot. I also tried to include the direction the camera was going to be moving in the shots to make it easier for the director and AD to know what was going on, and wrote about what the camera was meant to be doing and whether it would be using a dolly, slider or shoulder rig and anything like that.

To improve the accuracy of my drawings, I often took photos of my own hands or arms so that I could draw them to look more realistic. I also asked people to help me with the photos so that I could have more than one arm in the photos at a time. I also had to keep up the same style of drawing throughout which required a lot of referring back to the sketches I had already done, and in addition to this I had to be observant about continuity and making sure if I had drawn something one way in a frame, that in follow up frames it would have to be the same, which was sometimes hard to keep track of. The angles in mirrors are tricky as well, as when I first began drawing I had to ensure that if in one shot the character was moving her arm in one direction, then the reflection would go in the same way but with the opposite arm to what you would think... if that makes sense.

Making the Storyboard

I made the storyboard on photoshop as it is the adobe software I am most familiar with for drawing, and did multiple practice attempts before actually starting the storyboard.

I began with the first scene, which was described to me as the Superego/main character walking down a hallway into a room. I began by drawing the anatomical circles I usually use for drawing a body, and roughly joining them together before adding more detail.

I used layers to separate different parts of the drawing process, such as 'sketches' 'background' and 'ink'. This helped me to keep the parts of the drawing in order and enabled me to edit parts of it without changing any other aspect of the piece, making my work a lot simpler and keeping everything more organised.

I made the choice to keep it in black and white before I realised that that was the norm for storyboards anyway, and I also made the decision to have a faint off white background so that I could emphasise any highlighting work that I did. 

Once I had completed an image, I would merge the layers together and copy and paste it into my rough storyboard template.

When beginning the drawings, I would always do multiple sketches, just to give myself a rough outline for each layer so that I can build up a more detailed figure.

I also did more research and found some examples of storyboards so that I could do a more accurate template for my own storyboard, as the first one I attempted wasn't very accurate.

This is one of the examples I found that I used as reference, I
noticed that there was a much neater set up for the text boxes
 and the outlines of the drawings themselves which I tried
 to incorporate into my next set of draft of the storyboard. 

This is another source drew inspiration from.
I like the drawing style a lot more on this one, and I think the
shading is don really well. I don't like how the layout is done
as much though, so I think I'll keep to my three by three theme,
as I feel you can see what's going on much easier.

I found that it gave me a better idea of where I was aiming for when I had a clear end to the storyboard that I could see. It also made the template look more professional and gave it a sense of completion. I also added text boxes underneath each frame with more detailed notes about what the camera is doing in each frame and what is supposed to be happening. I used arrows to show the direction of the storyboard, and to show the snake pattern that the story followed across the page.

Storyboard First Draft

I was assigned the role of storyboard artist and grip, and so once the first draft of the script had been written, I began to plan the storyboard. 

Initially, there was no script but I knew I was going to be storyboarding and so I did a few practice drawings to show the assistant director the sort of style of drawing I had in mind, as while I knew I had okay drawing capabilities I had never done a storyboard before and was unsure how detailed to go or what sort of framing to use. 

At first I played around with using a light source and using different angles, just as it had been a while since I'd drawn anything that wasn't just doodling and needed to be a relatively accurate representation of what was supposed to be onscreen. I am also not that familiar with drawing on photoshop and so I was experimenting with different opacities and brush styles and sizes to see what gave the best effect for the work. I knew also that I was going to have to draw quite a lot of frames and so I'd have to draw them so that they didn't take up too much time but also looked detailed enough to give an accurate picture of what was taking place at that particular time in the film.

Once the first draft of the script had been written I began my first draft of the storyboard. At this point we didn't have a shot list so I was going on what we had discussed in our group meetings, but of course although the camera team and director described what they had in mind, I could only draw what I imagined they meant and couldn't read their minds. 

I began with a very rough outline of a storyboard as I wasn't at this point very familiar with what they were supposed to look like. 

I also made sure that I numbered each frame so that I could keep track of the order, and made sure I was adding the drawings into the right place.

Each drawing I did on a full size photoshop document so that I could get more detail in the drawings, and them added them to a general template I had made earlier. Once I had done that, I wrote some notes on each one to describe what was supposed to be happening in each frame.

To tell apart the Id and the Superego, I coloured the Id in black and kept the Superego in white, to show the darker side to the instinctual nature of the Id and as they were supposed to be reflections of one another, this helped me to tell apart which one I was drawing and also to the rest of the crew when I showed them. For the draft a lot of the angles weren't very accurate, it was more of just a visual representation of what the script was telling.

I knew that I was going to have to do more frames, and also re do some of my drawings as the script developed and the shot list changed, especially as this was a 5-10 minute film and I had only done 16 frames. But to do a more detailed storyboard I was going to need a shot list and the next draft of the script.

Dance videos research

I chose this film as the lighting and atmosphere were really intense, and both work to enhance the turbulent relationship between the two individuals. The smoke effects work really well to display what the woman's emotions are doing, and the removal of layers of clothing shows how this relationship is figuratively tearing her apart. The fact that she has smoke coming off of her combined with the name of the film 'Abaddon' make me think of her being linked to Hell and demons, as Abaddon is the name of either a high ranking demon from Hell or a place of destruction and devastation. This is confirmed by the woman disappearing into ash at the end of the sequence.




This film I picked because I loved how the dancer chose really specific movements to portray each element. The introduction of each physical element into the dance added a really nice accent to the piece and further improved the quality. In the video the editing played a vital part of making each segment more accurately reflect the element it was currently representing.
The film is comprised of quite simple components, with a plain background and a single dancer, and just a few props throughout and yet all the dancer moves in such a way that you can really tell what element he is supposed to be representing, and the addition of the physical elements doesn't take away from the dance as it might have done if it was a less well made film, but rather increases the quality of the film. The music is very important with this piece, as each section matches up to the element it is portraying.

Studio Shoot Synopsis

Synopsis:

We are taking inspiration from the photo ‘Untitled’ by Hannah Starkey (1997) looking at self-identity and mental health. The way the girl in this photo is holding the moth reflecting on it has inspired us to look into animal instincts, therefore bringing to mind the Freudian theory of the Id, Ego and Super Ego. We will start by having our actor/actress walk into the set which will have two sides to it. One evidentially good and one bad and the element that splits the two in half is the Mirror centered in the set about the size of a doorway. The character enters the good side seeming distressed for an unspecified reason. They walk past the mirror which is represented by an empty frame, at first it is just a reflection of the space and them. Then as they go to walk away they see a figure out the corner of their eye in the mirror. They will double back and go examine this figure which will be actor/actress 2. This figure is the Id but it begins calmly with them reflecting the movements of the character as if still a mirror. Then the Id will slowly get more distressed and begin to act out not exactly copying what the character is doing anymore. Then the character begins to realize this is no longer a reflection of their true self and will begin to fight back with the Id and control it. Things around the set slowly get more broken as the reality of the piece becomes broken. The fight is broken up by the two characters moving away from the mirror into their own space. Eventually the main good character decides to solve this problem by turning the mirror around so that they can be alone for a moment. When calm and alone they go back to the mirror and turn it back round again but just as they do this the Id lashes out and pulls them through the mirror to the broken side of the set. The Id then moves to the good side and walks away out of shot. The piece ends with what initially started as the good character in a heap on the floor in the broken side of the set.

Studio Shoot Initial Photos and Idea

We were given these photos to serve as a source of inspiration for our idea, and we spent a lot of time drawing different aspects from each of them that we liked before we narrowed it down to final one that we decided to use.

'Blind Twins' Jane Evelyn Atwood

This piece we really liked because of the duality of it. The relationship between the two women is that of twins, and they seem to be taking some kind of comfort from one another and the contact they're sharing. Their costumes also seem to be mirroring each others.

'Kind and Queen' 1970 Diane Arbus

We found this one the least inspirational, although we liked the framing and both the subjects have an interesting vibe - they're both wearing clothes consistent with royalty on top of normal every day outfits which is an interesting contrast.

Untitled' 1962 by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Most of all on this on we enjoyed the lighting of the photo. We thought it was really clever, and the way one child, older than the other one is looking into the room while the other hides in a dark corner, could be representative of the mind. Like an older version of yourself looking back at your childishness of previous years. But from this one we mostly drew the idea of using windows and doors as more dynamic ways of creating light.

'Untitled' 1997 by Hannah Starkey 

This was the image we chose as our main source of inspiration. We loved the woman's interaction with her reflection. We also found it really interesting how you view most of her environment through the mirror. There is a weird sort of connection between the woman and her reflection, like she's gazing through some kind of window, as if they're two separate people.

We used this photo as our primary source whilst stilling drawing on different aspects of the others. We thought about using 'identity' as our main theme, and wanted to incorporate mirrors into our film. We briefly thought about looking into mental health but that's quite an overdone theme (although still important) and we decided to look at it a bit differently. Of course, mirrors are often scene as vain or narcissistic and as a sign of obsession with physical appearance but we wanted to stay away from that, as it is a bit of an overused cliché.

From the other images we used as reference for our lighting ideas, as they used quite dramatic lighting and the misé en scene in the framing was also something that we wanted to incorporate into our piece.

With our idea of identity, we began to look into the idea of animal instincts, and the sort of base urges that most people suppress. Using Freud's psychological theory of the Id, Ego and Superego, we began to explore this idea.

The Superego is the higher level of our minds, and is based on morals and judgements, and our sense of right and wrong. The ego is the middle level where you recognise more primal urges and find civilised ways to achieve them - such as the need to eat, drink, reproduce, or respond to situations with violence. The Id is the level of our mind that represents the most basic part of our personality and thinks only of what we need and that we need it now. It is more primal and is purely thinking of survival, and functions on instinct. 

We had already decided we wanted to use mirrors in our piece, but the idea of the Id, Ego and Superego led to the notion of us using the reflection as a sort of alter-ego. Which is to say that we came up with the plan of having someone looking into a mirror and seeing the Id looking back at them. Like there is an alternate version of themselves inside the mirror being reflected back. We decided it would overcomplicate matters if we tried to incorporate all three parts of the Id, Ego and Superego, and narrowed it down to just the opposite two, and developed it from there.