Behind the Scenes: Location, Location, Dislocation! Pt I

Hamish and I had talked about how it would be good to stage our scenes of mystery at different locations.  We had been regularly 'exercising' various rooms in our our homes to create settings, and fancied some more variation, in order to keep everyone's interest engaged.  As we moved into 2013, we started to work with projections.  Initially, these were textures projected onto surfaces, but they seemed to work well enough.

We used a digital projector and this also enhanced the lighting arrangement.  Above, is our desperate pilot, with the venetian- blind shadow falling over him, and below, sees another protagonist about to enter the scene.

The angles and shapes around the doorway allowed for interesting patterns to form around and across our positions.  This shoot took place in a kitchen, a location used for a number of our episodes.  It features here, below, where the floor was the focus for a projection referencing the detectives' office in The Maltese Falcon.

 
    

We reversed the text of our name for the projection.  This became a small arena in which The Hat could operate.  The kitchen featured again in a shoot, this one referencing 'time':

We were interacting with the projections at this stage, and have continued to do so when it suits the visual idea we happen to be working with.  However, we still sought to have more of a sense of location as a background setting.  We found some city images and tried them out.  Working in a small studio space, we discovered that there was a limited area in which we could stand, beyond which we would have cast shadow on the projection, or lighting would have interfered with the image.  There were some effective results, though.  Laurel and Marty were very satisfied with their odyssey on Osbourne Boulevard. (Political reference, here.)

In another shoot, we used a downstairs room and projected an interior image onto the wall.  Whilst on holiday in Italy, I had taken some shots of the apartment block lobby, which seemed to offer potential.  In Shadow Laughter, one is never off duty.

  

There is a curious mixture here, of projection, actual wall and real shadow.  Just enough visual information to create a believable setting, in our opinion.

The use of projected images developed more during 2013, but more of that in another posting...

Remember to catch our weekly schedule; Thursday, Saturday and Monday, with the trailer on a Tuesday and this blog on Sunday.

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