Directions: Self-Portrait- Ideas

When I think about what best describes me and my view of the world I think about my bedroom. Out of any room in the world, it is the only room that shows someone what kind of person I am. I believe a person's bedroom can tell you a lot. It's their own private space and they keep all their secrets locked away in there. So for my self-portrait I want to use my bedroom as the main location, because it represents me perfectly. I decide what goes in my room, I decide how it looks, I decide where things go, so that makes it my vision.

As I look around my room I see items that represent my past, things that have made their way into my life and I felt they were significant enough to get a space on my shelf. For example, by my desk I have a teddy bear. This teddy bear was the star of my first proper short film called "A Forgotten Friend". It means something to me and that's why I still have it. On my shelf I have a lego ambulance which I built and used in the first video I ever made as a child, which was a stop frame animation. Again, I have it there because it tells people something about my past. The way I position things in my room shows you the kind of life I live. Everything is neatly put in it's place. I like things to stay where they are and I know if someone moves them. So what I'm saying is my bedroom is the perfect location for my self-portrait.

The teddy bear

THE PLAN

To really tell a story I need to add more to my room. I am going to hang old photos up on strings and hang them around my room like an old photo development lab. I will use these, and effective sound design for each photo, to tell the story of my childhood. Each photo will represent a different stage in my life and how it made me who I am today. I will also hang up some blank photos so I can add clips from my first ever films. Along with this I will use the multiple screens in my room to also show clips from home videos and my first films; films that mean something to me. I will also get some shots of the items already in my room and build them into the film, again using effective sound design to give each item a story. I will appear in this film, looking at the photos and reflecting on my life, it'll be quite a fun experience. When I started making films I made stop frame animation films with Lego so I will re-build some of the sets and place them around my room and recreate scenes from the films. Finally I will also use the screens to project some images/videos of the area I live in because I feel that where I live has also played a big part in making me the person I am today.

STYLE/FRAMING

For this film I will be using my brother as the camera operator because he helped me make every single film I made as a child and he really understands my style. I will stick to the handheld look as it is one I favour. I will also use a lot of close ups and a shallow depth of field to help tell my story. Hopefully if it is a sunny day I will try and block up my window so only a few streaks of light come through. I will fill the room with a slight haze so the light streaks stand out on camera. I will use practical lights to dimly light the room up (e.g. table lamps). In terms of colour I will be using a lot of blue, however I will desaturate the footage slightly. I am attempting to mix the colour schemes from Super 8 and Jurassic Park together as they are my favourite films, whilst also mixing in the red from the lights in a photo development lab.

Hopefully if all goes ok the film will come out just as I want it too and will represent me and my style perfectly.

Colour scheme from Super 8 (http://moviesincolor.com/)

Colour Scheme from Jurassic Park (http://moviesincolor.com/)