Just did some grueling set desgin

Exhausted:

3/18/2022 : 12:30am

    I just expected to do some set design and get some shots in about an hour. 5 hours later, I am sitting here now exhausted after what I just did. At around 7PM I wanted to get the shots in the abandoned house. The shots of the character are planned indoors. I did some research for around 30 minutes trying to find some inspiration for the abandoned theme. I saw rugged images like the one to the right. 

    I wouldn't be able to pull off the destroyed walls and all that obviously. My parents wouldn't be too happy if I just started putting holes in the wall. But what I can do is make the scene look messy. There are various things in my garage I can take and use to do this. My job also has this street sign they gave me that I can implement. The windows I want to have been covered in wood. This will indicate the danger in the world the character is living inside of.

Set Design:

    I started by gathering everything from the garage. I got an assortment of random things like screwdrivers, bags, bolts, spray paint, gloves, and even a small case. One small detail I did was unscrew the socket cover on my wall. It just did not look right with the socket cover there. What really took the longest was the rearrangement of everything. This took forever to figure out. Small things like keeping the wood up in the window frame were also really annoying. The shot setup was also really tricky. It was hard to keep everything in my room out of frame. I had to move my whole entire desk so I could have more space in the shot. You can see all this craziness in the video below

    

    I am happy with how it turned out despite all the hassle. It was really annoying at first since I thought it would not take too long. Once I got everything positioned exactly how I wanted, I began getting the shots. I wanted to have several close-up shots of the papers he was writing. I also wanted a shot from up above and straight on. For both of these shots, it was hard to frame the shot perfectly. This is where I experienced the most trial and error. Especially with the overhead shot. There wasn't enough space on the platform I had my tripod on. To counteract this, I used the wooden board I put on the window still. You can also see this in the video above

A couple of Shots:

    

    You can see an example of the overhead shot here. You can also see one of the close-ups here. There will be a lot of readjusting the focus for the overhead shot. I am pretty satisfied with how the closeup shots are looking though. I am overall happy with what I accomplished today. That was my first set design that and I really tried to get it right. There are some things I didn't like, specifically the lighting. It was hard for me to get the right dark vibe I wanted. Despite that, it was such a good experience for me. This project is really coming to an end soon!