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Evaluation – Unnatural Selection

Synopsis

‘For one contestant in the retreat camp, the secret is becoming clear. With their suspicions manifesting in the present, they must fight to survive elimination and keep their psychological sanity afloat.’

Plot

This film is about a mental wellbeing camp where everything is not as it seems. We see the camps methods and rituals as observers, we also see how some of the young people seem to support the methods used, and others fight against the camp’s regime. The ‘retreat’ is run by a strange motivational speaker and self-proclaimed expert, ‘Boyson’ and his advisor. We witness the two strongest characters, who are not conforming to Boyson’s ideal, suffer a less than happy fate. The film was, according to both the writer and director, meant to be quite sinister in its feel and the locations and mise-en-scene were intended to reflect this.

My role in the production – props

I was aware of the importance of the role of props in creating the right feel and tone for a scene, however, I had little practical knowledge of making or sourcing them.

“Sets and props can make or break a scene. Without a proper set and props to work with, actors can have a pretty difficult time getting into their character. This is because they would essentially be standing in an empty room with nothing to hold or use. Props and sets play a key role in setting the time, place, and atmosphere of a scene.”  LP T

I met with the producer, director and writer to discuss how they envisaged the various sets that were going to be used in the film.  I also met with the location people to assess the practicality of set dressing and the restrictions that we might face.  Budgetary restrictions and budget allocation also affected the purchase and selection of props, luckily, I was able to source quite a lot of stuff from home, which helped overcome this hurdle.  For example, we wanted to give an indication of how Boyson wanted the residents to view him when they first met with him in his office, so, after discussions with the director, we decided to give his desk a slightly ‘new age, hippy’ feeling, and I was able to source some items from home to dress the room.

“By purposely selecting and exploiting props, a film’s scene can be given an added layer of meaning.”UK Essays 2018.

The protagonist, or lead character, in the film was Alex, and the antagonist was Boyson. The dorm room was the main centre for the inmates’ character development in the film, because this was the area where all the characters would be seen talking to each other, whereas, Boyson’s main space was his office.  A stumbling block that we faced was sourcing a suitable office space, so we built a makeshift office in a basement. I covered the washing machine with clothes and I added some books and quirky props to reflect the personality he was portraying, as mentioned above, leaving a minimalist but interesting set up. On reflection, for the character that the writer and director created, I think I could have used more props and interesting items here, to further emphasise Boyson’s personality.

How to tell a story with scenery.

Telling a story with scenery is important, Mise en scene refers to the usage of props and set, their placement and how it affects the story and how it makes the viewer feel, that is why props and location is important, the wide shots in scenes and the establishing shots give you a feel for the style and tone of the film. For example, in the forest scene, the shot of the nooses on the trees instantly shows threat in the scene, and in the cold empty cultivation suite scenes the emptiness can create uneasiness.

Mise en scène encompasses the most recognizable attributes of a film – the setting and the actors; it includes costumes and make-up, props, and all the other natural and artificial details that characterize the spaces filmed.  The term is borrowed from a French theatrical expression, meaning roughly “put into the scene”.  In other words, mise-en-scène describes the stuff in the frame and the way it is shown and arranged.

Taking the above into consideration it is important to mention the way in which we had to overcome the hurdles that we faced and how we tried to overcome them.

Working with “imperfect locations”

The ‘woods’

The forest scene was filmed on a patch of grass behind the University, bordering Peel Park.  The original choice of location that the team wanted to film in was   Heaton Park, but Michelle pointed out that she did not think this was a good idea due to the topics and themes in the film. The space that we did use was not remote or sinister in its appearance, however using the nooses and chains that I had sourced and adapting the camera angles made the location look like a somewhat believable forest.  The unbelievable aspect of the location, and something that we could do very little about were the thin trees with branches that kept snapping when we were attaching the chains, it would be fairly obvious to a viewer that they could not hold a teenager/twenty something’s body weight. This was a shame.

Boyson’s office

Another imperfect location which was improved by the use of props was Boyson’s office set. Location were let down at the last minute by Islington Mill, so this was filmed in our makeup artist’s basement. This location was used for various scenes so the props that I sourced were the only way of differentiating between scenes, and making it look as though the action took place in different rooms.  For example, the tapestry covering the washer and the items dressing the desk helped to make the basement into more of an office set.

The dorm room, on the other hand, was a perfect location; the hostel looked exactly how the director intended. It did not need much dressing, but I added small spotlights, and the cast brought in their photos and personal belongings. There was not much décor needed as the camp was intended to be very minimalist and have a bare bones approach to décor in the areas used by the contestants. The dorm room however served as a hub for us to see the characters in an environment where Boyson and the adviser were not present.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think the props helped the short film come to life and helped tell the story. However, I think with more access to the budget it could have been done a lot better.

Word Count – 1,028

LP Tony, https://propmoviemoney.com/the-important-role-of-set-and-prop-designers/

Essays, UK (November 2018). Visual storytelling in films. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/visual-storytelling-in-films.php?vref=1

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Attached is a list I used to keep track of my early progress in finding props. Some things like a rusty tannoy and a stool proved hard to find for free.

During filming my job was to bring props and set them up in a way that dressed a room, see photos Boyson's office and woods above. The bedroom in the hostel was dressed with spotlights and the actors photos from home. And the scene where Boyson read out the vote results, required an envelope. I also helped with anything extra the producer requested such as carrying equipment and going on lunch runs for cast and crew.

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For the film, Unnatural Selection, I was given the role of ‘props’, Props (formerly theatrical property means any objects in a film) I found a quote describing this role;

‘Propmasters on a film set are responsible for creating props or bringing them to set, and keeping them organized on set’ C Perkins, 2016

Once again after the script read through I made a props list; see below. For the rest of the week I went to Costuming, who kindly made the blindfolds, I spent a day looking in my garage which is essentially a big storage unit of my families old belongings, I shopped online and I went to B and Q in Cheetham Hill Fort, and Poundland in the city centre. I made sure I cleared everything with the writer, producer and director. The only thing I had trouble with is finding stools; see correspondence below- We had no budget to buy them from charity stores, and nobody had any, I did call many different places about loaning some. The other thing I did not find was an old fashioned speaker.