With all of our planning complete, we were ready to start filming for Frame. We created a video to summarise our decisions for the film so far.
Planning
Developing ideas, story, and, shooting.
Casting
The main cast of this film will be two actors – the protagonist, and his borther-in-law. There will also be the supporting role of – Lily, and two other extras – a father in the park, and his daughter.
Protagonist – Nimesh Serma
Nimesh was the initial choice for this role as he has had an on-going interest in architecture throughout his schooling life with hopes of studying interior architecture at university. I told Nimesh to take this passion and turn it into an obsession in order to carry out this role. Nimesh has also studied Drama for a year which will help him to provide and effective performance.
Brother-in-law – Tofiel Choudhury
I decided to take on the role of the mentor in this story which requires me to carry the most dialogue. The most important part of my acting skills will be the central monologue which works to change the ways of the protagonist. With experience in studying acting as well as being a confident speaker, I have taken it upon myself to carry out this role.
Wife – Sagun Pun
Choosing a female lead for this part was initially difficult as we struggled to find an actress who would be able to work within our given conditions. It then came to use that we could ask a friend with no acting experience and train her for the role in order to make her performance as effective as possible. An avid fan of films and television dramas, Sagun was determined to provide a good performance.
Father and Daughter (extras) – Jamie Smith and Grace Smith
These parts required the least amount of emotive acting. Jamie’s relationship with his real-life sister was easily protrayed in the film as that between a father and daughter.
Shooting Locations
The script features four seperate locations in the film and me and my team set ourselves the geographical boundary of London in order to research suitable settings to shoot our scenes.
Urban Environment
Our initial focus is providing a visual for our architectural theme. For this, we know that we require an urban area with a high density of tall buildings and skyscrapers. Living in London, we ofcourse came to the conclusion of Canary Wharf which has a total of 16 completed buildings which stand at over 60 metres high with One Canda Square, 8 Canada Square, and 25 Canada Square being the most prominent skyscrapers in the area.
We also strongly appreciate the corporate tone of the design of the general area of Canary Wharf. There is a very modern and minimalist sense of the area with reflection being a major element. This tied in perfectly to the script of our film.
Relaxed Conversation Area
The centre-point of the film is a conversation between the protagonist and his brother-in-law. This is where the audience learn of the protagonist’s struggle for change. The brother-in-law character provides that change therefore, we decided to make this area his home. Rather than using an angular or rigid setting, we decided to juxtapose this setting with our first setting in the film. In order to provide a contrast on deep cityscape and very solid colours, we decided that a very basic and modern kitchen would make an ideal place for the protagonist to be outside of his comfort zone.
Traditional Bedroom
The climax of the film features the reveal of the specifics of the protagonist’s troubles – his wife wishes to have a child. This then leads to the argument sequence. The key aspect of this scene is for the lack of intimacy between these two characters. I envisioned the protagonist to be standing and staring out of a window as she speaks to his back.
Final Scene
In order to show a clear change in the protagonist, we decided to completely downscale the shots seen previously by using an urban area with no skyscrapers at all. As a newly developed and still developing area, we felt that Stratford would be a suitable option.
Shooting Schedule
Myself and my production team worked to create a shooting schedule to fit the availability of not only ourselves but also other cast members outside of the team. In order to be efficient with our time and resources, we filmed different scenes on the same day if they took place in the same location.
Storyboarding
In order to better visualise each scene with regards to the use of location and props, we created storyboards to use during each shoot.
Scene Plan
Scene 1
We see our protagonist making his journy home from work. Audience is able to gain an idea of his clean cut character through his attire.
Scene 2
We join our protagonist in his kitchen with his brother-in-law. He works on his interior building designs as he talks over his problem.
Scene 3
Flashback to a fight which took place between our protagonist and his wife – she wants to have a child despite having agreed with him before the marriage to never have one.
Scene 4
We’re back to present time with our protagonist as he is completely frustrated and does not know what to do. His brother-in-law advises him on his dilemma.
Scene 5
Our protagonist is not looking his best on his journey home, and through this- finds some liberation.
Script
Frame – by Tofiel Choudhury
(CUT)
EXT. CANARY WHARF, LONDON – DAY
We see HIS clean cut character as he begins his journey home from work. Here, he is seen impeccably well-dressed but with a completely emotionless expression.
(CUT)
INT. DINING ROOM – EVENING
He and his BROTHER-IN-LAW (BIL) are seated. He is sketching and is facing the table. His brother-in-law is facing him.
HIM:
There was a plan. We set out how to live our lives in the best way possible. She wanted that too.
BIL:
And now she doesn’t?
He stops sketching.
HIM:
What she wants now isn’t the same plan.
A short pause.
HIM:
Tomorrow’s our one year anniversary. One year since we made the agreement to be free to live our lives for ourselves and for each other. No one else.
BIL:
Yeah, one year since I watched you vow to do anything to make my sister happy.
He turns to face BIL. After a short but slow glance, he turns back to his sketch. He completes the final line of the room of the blueprint of a house and looks down intently at that specific room.
(ZOOM into the sketched room and DISSOLVE)
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Zoom is continuous as we see a bird’s eye view of LILY. We see him with his back turned to her looking out of a window.
LILY:
I’m sorry I don’t feel the same way as you anymore. I’m sorry I changed my mind on this whole thing. I wish I could stop wanting this so much but I can’t.
A short pause in the place of his response.
LILY:
…I want to be a mother.
Montage of short clips which show an argument between the couple. She is seen crying as he screams at her.
(CUT)
INT. DINING ROOM – EVENING
He abruptly awakens from his daydream.
Him:
We drew this entire marriage out together. She agreed – no children. Nothing that could disarray our straightforward lives.
He looks around at the sketch paper in front of him in desperation.
Him:
That was the plan.
BIL looks at his friend with compassion. A feeling of sorrow is clearly seen on his face as he looks away.
BIL:
Look…you spend all of your time drawing out designs for these skyscrapers because you love creating. But you can’t make a blue-print for your life. Or hers.
(CUT)
[Only the audio of this segment of this speech is heard. BIL’s voice plays over external shots from protagonist’s journey home from work as he admires the buildings around him.]
BIL:
You love the power you hold. You love the control you have. But not everything in this life can be carefully measured. Not every mistake can be erased.
(CUT)
We’re back in the dining room.
BIL:
You say you’ve drawn out everything but what about meeting Lily? Was that something you designed? Was that one of your creations coming to life?
A short pause as we see him contemplate what his brother-in-law just said.
BIL:
You love her.
His brother-in-law takes away his pencil.
(CUT)
EXT. STRATFORD, LONDON – DAY
He is seated at a bench looking less impeccable than when we first saw him. His shirt is untucked, his top button is undone, and his tie is loose.
A child’s laugh is heard. He turns his head to see a father playing with his daughter in the distance. They are both laughing as the father lifts up his daughter and kisses her.
While walking away, He sees his reflection on the side of a building. He stops and looks at himself, noticing his untidy appearance. He begins to tuck his shirt.
(CUT)
[A montage of shots of Lily smiling and laughing]
(CUT)
He continues adjusting his shirt but this time more slower as he focuses on his reflection.
[Lily montage]
He begins to untuck his shirt. He loosens his tie, removes his jacket, and walks away from the building.
Pitch
Frame follows the sudden loose screw in an architect’s carefully structured world when his wife of one year suddenly wants to have a child – something she agreed prior to the marriage of never wanting. Forced to face the reality of the situation instead of the blue-print, our architect finds himself in not only a dillemma within his relationship, but that of his entire approach to life. With the help of his brother-in-law, we see our protagonist in his journey of contemplating a life where he may not always be able to control what will happen next.
Developing Ideas
The original conception of Frame came from the idea of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder applied on a wider scale. This is the idea that someone can create an entire framework for their life to follow as they live it. To create a story from this idea, we decided to explore the consequences of the disruption of a person’s strictly structured life.
Based on our previous experience with characters from films and television shows, we realised that people with a routine and structured lifestyle are usually very narcissistic. Famous examples of this include Patrick Bateman, Dorian Gray (in the earlier part of Oscar Wilde’s novel), the lead unnamed character of Gangster No. 1, and the infamous Gordon Gekko of Wall Street. Although we wanted to see this sense of metrosexuality in our protagonist, we did not want him to be an immoral character. We only used these characters’ clean cut images to build our main character for our short film as opposed to their narcissistic personalities.
To create an extended metaphor throughout our film, we decided to have the main character as an architect – someone who designs structures for a living. This would allow us to create a very specific aesthetic and style for our film.
This short film will follow a 26 year old architect and the way he deals with his wife of one year suddenly changing her mind and wanting a child – something they promised that they would never do in order to follow an easy and structured life.
Frame 