Making the Film: The Basement

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So I have begun working on my next set of short films, and I thought that this time I would document the process, as well as have a process.

The first 3 that I put together were very much seat of my pants, in the moment kind of deals, and while that was fun and all, I wanted to take a stab at doing something different with this go round. As it says on the tin, this first film will be focused on a location, namely a basement, specifically my basement. It's hella spooky.

The first step of my new process is location scouting, since I already have the story pinned down (more on that at a later date!). Since I already had the location secured, I needed to get a feel for what the space could offer, and start to discover the mood and tone of the film. Since I have the most severe form of Aphantasia, this turned out to be more critical than I was anticipating.

For those who are unfamiliar with this condition, which is most people I find, it means I don't have a minds eye or inner voice. I can't see or hear anything in my head. It's just a yawning black void. As you can imagine it makes things like filmmaking, art and writing particularly difficult. All things I am gifted at or enjoy doing.

The universe seems to have a sense of humor.

So I hit the basement with my trusty FujiFilm XE-3 and took some photos that felt right when thinking of the mood and feeling I want to evoke with this particular work. I thought I would share the photos here so you can see how my brain works and what I hope to create with this film. I have color graded them to be more inline with what I want.

Here are the "location scout photos" in no particular order.