We have now managed to source our main item for the footage, a baby doll (Found in a charity store based in penryn).
Another was a book called ‘Stop The Insanity’ by Susan Powter, the book title was what appealed about the prop.
A notebook with a similar colour scale to whats in mind has also been added to be used as the ‘Baby Diary’.
Clothes are slowly being assessed as to what colour tones will be suitable and beneficial to the short films dynamics. 
More to follow as these ideas are developed.
Further content to consider when photographing and angles for production.
We aim to shoot our piece in black and white and are yet to decide what look would best.
Given the nature of our scenario – dark, clinical and psychological and the atmosphere we wish to create,
we dont want to much of a heavy contrast and given the white space we hope to use lighting to our advantage.
Below are examples from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Clerks, Frank Miller, Psyco and Raging Bull.
Our short has a very dark and psychotic feel about it, making it more of a thriller than a drama, which it originally is, the piece is set to be filmed in the photography suite directly below the basement as it is a completely white room which we feel we can use to our advantage to create the genre we have assigned ourselves. By using a white room we can play with the ideas of simple stills photography and film to create a good short. We can take advantage of the shadows that will be created and use a lack of clutter in shots to show that the characters are of main importance as appose to the scene.
We plan to use a few props such as a child’s mobile, a bed and maybe a cot and a few chairs to show how simple there lives off and how this completely correlates to Amy’s mental problems. The final shot is going to be of Amy repeatedly dropping the baby and picking it up as well as repeating her last line at which point it becomes apparent to a possible audience that Amy and Tom are one person, it is both sides to Amy’s conscience in a way, Tom becomes the voice of reason in Amy’s head as appose to a tangible, physical character.
“Hans Peter Feldmann’s cushion on a pedestal, this photograph, art piece uses a beige cushion as the only colour, which still manages to stand out against the most neutral of grey and white backgrounds.”
Taken from the institute of modern arts page, I feel that this picture shows so much emotion compared to how simplistic the picture is, we cannot even see a small percentage of the women’s face however we feel a lot through the picture.
“Gordon Matta-Clark (June 22, 1943– August 27, 1978) was an American Artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his “building cuts,” a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.” I feel like this photo has incredibly good use of lighting and the colour white.
The film ‘pyscho’ (Alfred Hitchcock) uses black and white in the similar eery manor we are looking at for our short. The way Hitchcock creates the mysterious crazy eyes and features of Norman Bates without any form of colour or interest is Boggling.
White Washed Window in Paris – Cecil Touchon Photograph – 8 x 10 inches
For the Stills photography of our short film, we could look at sillhouetting as well as maybe using this for the film aspect as well, as I feel it would work well with the eery simplistic style we are trying to create.
Lucinda Devlins Omega series highlights the exact style I would like to take influence from when creating our short from citizenship.
Uta Barth Also has a similar style and feels relevant to what we are trying to achieve in our short piece.
Location,
Probably one of the most influential parts of our short film sequence. We had two initial ideas, which after time have slowly been more focused on the stronger of the two. Below are small screens of our ideas and why we feel they would work well with our script.
White room, we felt that given the nature of the Schizophrenia, this space would act well as a neutral ground to have both characters appear in one place without concentrating to much on the realism of it. We have even discussed a monochrome effect with this to separate whats real and what is in our character Amy’s head. This idea is still be discussed, but is our favorite.
The idea of using a doctors room, surgery set up would help us describe the mental and medical condition of Amy more suggestively than being metaphorical when using white space. The only issues we have had with this concept is finding a room or replicating something on such a low budget. Having said that the idea appeals still as its a good space to get a clinical feel.
The idea for the white room is definitely our stronger point of focus as we can use objects and signifiers to engage the audience and create subtle gestures within our production to help strengthen parts of the script or make shots more dynamic.
The second phase to our story boards was looking at locations to put our groups idea in too.
The original storyboards are scanned below and contain the original concepts and ideas.
With the idea and locations being introduced we were now ready to start planning how we would go about making this an effective final product. Actors, location, ways of shooting, our structure and getting across the dynamics of the Schizophrenia.
These ideas are sure to change and develop over time, for now they are a great starting place.
We have now been looking into our roles more independently and approaching various ways of how we can each bring a more stronger level of production to our remediation project.
Our group came together and created storyboards paired up in twos,
This task was implemented before our previous slideshow and research into Mark Ravenhills work. The paids came up with different situations of which we would have the best idea chosen and then further developed. The pairs and themes are listed below,
Josh and Jessica – Schizophrenia.
Max and Alex – Broken Reality
James and Gwithyen – Surreal Humour.
After the storyboards were discussed and analysed the idea that gave most room for development was the Schizophrenic idea, which Josh and Jessica had produced. We then all looked at the storyboard and gave input so we could strengthen the story and make it more visual as a final short sequence.
Our group researched the works and productions of Mark Ravenhill, including personal bio’s and current projects.
Below is the information presented in our slideshow illustrating our understanding of his influences, work ethos and what drives him.
MARK RAVENHILL (1966-)
STYLE
WORK
Fist (1995)
Shopping and Fucking (1996)
Faust Is Dead (1997)
Sleeping Around (1998)
Handbag (1998)
Some Explicit Polaroids (1999)
Mother Clap’s Molly House (2000)
Feed Me (Radio Play) (2000)
Totally Over You (2003)
Education (2004)
Citizenship (2005)
Product (2005)
The Cut (2006)
Pool (No Water) (2006)
Ravenhill For Breakfast (2007)
Scenes From Family Life (2007)
Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (2008)
Over There (2009)
The Experiment (2009)
Ten Plagues (2011)
FURTHER WORK INCLUDES
OPERA TRANSLATIONS
The Coronation of Poppea Monteverdi (2011)
WRITER
Black Cab (TV Series, 2000)
Al cuore (short, 2002)
National Theatre Live (TV series, 2010)
Playhouse: Live “Ghost Story” (TV Series, 2010)
Vicious (TV Series, 2013)
FUTURE WORK
Bette Bourne (a project for the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival)
Mark Ravenhill is now in his second year of residence at the RSC, Royal Shakespeare Company (BBC News).
Ravenhill did a remediation of Terry Pratchett’s novel Nation, in 2010.
He also adapted and translated Bertolt Brecht’s play, A Life of Galileo, in 2013.
INFLUENCES
Bertolt Brecht (Brechtian theatre)
Caryl Churchill’s
Post-Modernism
William Shakespeare
Amy carries a baby
Tom You got the baby
Amy She made me. Said I’d have detention for a week
Tom That’s harsh
Amy Totally harsh. I told her I’m not fit to be a mother, look at my arms.
You can’t be a mother when you’ve got cuts all over your arms.
Tom And what did she say ?
Amy Said it would take me out of myself ‐ think about another life
Tom Bit of plastic
Amy And now I have to write down all my thoughts and feelings in my baby diary
Tom What you written ?
Amy Nothing. Don’t feel anything. It doesn’t do anything. Just sits there. It’s heavy.
Tom Let me feel
Amy Go on then
Amy gives Tom the baby
Tom Yeah. Really heavy
He drops the baby
Tom Whoops
Amy You did that on purpose
Tom Maybe
Amy You’re trouble
Tom That’s right. Do you reckon it’s damaged ?
Amy Shut up
Tom picks up the baby
Tom No ‐ it’s fine
Amy Don’t tell her ‐ she’ll go mental
Tom (to baby) You’re alright, aren’t you ? Aren’t you ? Yes
Tom throws the baby up in the air lets it fall on the floor
Amy You’re mad
Tom I’m rubbish at catching. Catch it !
Tom throws the baby to Amy. She catches it
Amy I’ll be bollocked if it’s damaged
Tom Throw it to me. Come on
Amy throws the baby. He lets it fall to the floor again
Tom Why can’t I catch it ?
Amy You’re not trying. Give it here
She goes to pick up the baby. Tom stops her
Tom No ‐ leave it
Amy Why ?
Tom Cos I’m here. You can hold the baby later
Amy What am I gonna write in my baby diary ?
Tom Make it up
This module is based on the theory of remediation from one media type/art form to another. The remediation of content goes on all around us in the sphere of media. We may not always notice this, for example the software interfaces we spend so much time “in” are built on profoundly narrative theories of human computer interaction.
Our brief is simple, use an extract from Mark Ravenhills play The Citizenship analysis and create a short film derived from it.
There are no limits as to how the scene is portrayed, but the script must relate to its scene. As a group we have been broken down into individual roles.
Alex Harrison – Production Manager
Gwithyen Strongman – Designer
James Ward – Location Sound Recordist
Jessica Webberly – Director
Josh Boon – Lighting & Camera Man
Max Plant – Stills Photographer
DM Remediation 