A new Paul

I wrote previously that I had begun to rewrite the Paul section of Tidal Barrier.
I had to begin by thinking what his story is really about.

Paul is in a failed relationship. Claire cannot commit, is not really there.
Paul feels a sense of injustice/unfairness. What were the chances that he would end up with Claire instead of someone else, like...? Well, Sophie.
He decides Sophie is the one, and makes a play for her.
But it seems Sophie is with someone else.
Paul rails against the universe, the unfairness of it all.

Looking back over what I had in the previous versions of he script, the first and last elements were clear by the action of the story. But the middle? 'He decides Sophie is the one, and makes a play for her.' What I had didn't ring true for some reason, and I couldn't think why. This was a fundamental weakness.
I thought if Paul felt that chance was against him in how he ended up with Claire, then he needed to find a way to create a chance with Sophie. I did not mean the stuff of romantic comedy, the protagonist feigning some interest, or fabricating a position or history. This was about simple circumstance, putting himself in a position where he could encounter Sophie.
This suggested he needed to create a chance meeting, so I came up with the idea that one day he discovers where Sophie works, and that approximately the same time each day she goes through street x to street y. Paul needed to create his own path where he could meet her, going from street z to street y. Of course Sophie's time will vary, so to meet her Paul would need to repeat his movements. He needed to game the universe.
So I had the construct, but now I needed to think how I might represent this on film. I thought that we needed to see a good part of this place, so the camera needed to be at a distance. In some ways this position is a view of one part of the universe. Each throw of the die was to be seen from position, at the same time each day. How would we know it was the same time? At first I thought Paul might look at his watch, or come out of the a building somewhere according to a clock on the wall. All of this seemed crude, disconnected from the action. Ideally time would be a part of the scene, so we might see a clock on the corner of a pub, or an unknown actor making their way through this part of the universe at the same time each day. The man in the yellow jacket. The weather may change, but the man in the yellow jacket would go through the edge of the scene at the same time, Paul would go from street z to street y at the same time, and Sophie would go from street x to street y at a slight variation. In some throws Paul would be behind her, some throws ahead of her, but if he repeats it enough times one day he would run into her, and he does, except on this day she is with someone. Despite Paul's attempt to contain the game there are always too many variables.
This breaks him.
While I was away at Christmas I have managed to roughly outline the circumstances of this new version. I will give myself a week or so to finish, and then I can concentrate on the Claire section.

Claire and the park

My friend David, lives close-by the Epping Forest. He actually spends a lot of time running there, so knows it fairly well. So last Sunday advantage of his knowledge and followed along behind him. He ran, I was on a bicycle.
I was looking for locations for Claire, revolving around parks. Come to think of it, Paul's story, which I am rewriting at the same time, has a number of park scenes as well.
There are three scenes in the story to do with parks.

15. Out of focus, at a distance, the coloured lights of people and life. A pub or restaurant at night.
Claire on a park bench. Nearby, Nick. He listens, betraying nothing. He is neutral, or defensive.

So this requires a park close-by a roadway with shops and a bar or pub or restaurant. I was going to say that I couldn't find a location like this on Sunday but actually I never even looked for such a place. It will have to wait until after Christmas.

18. A bed of flowers. Brilliant sunshine. Kew Gardens. A rush of leaves above, a set of trees around a pond.
Claire on her back, eyes closed, taking this in. A weekend of sun is a rarity in London. A great aid to the fabrication.
She looks to her right. Nick is there, a blank expression on his face.

So this scenes requires one location, by the water, and abundant flowers and trees nearby.
I did not have to go far to find something suitable.


















Or something more idyllic?


















The next scene requires something slightly different.

19. Nick in the distance. By the Thames. He turns and smiles at Claire. She forces a smile in return

You can see Claire on a slights rise, looking down towards Nick.
He is close to the water we saw at the edge of the frame in the previous scene.

















So it would not be difficult to create the impression of the best London weekend.

Now a very different scene.

27 She runs across the street and goes into the park.
Once past the trees there is a slight rise and paths go out in three different directions. From this vantage point one can see quite a distance. She looks for him, to confirm he was there, but she can see no one, on any of the paths.

Now imagined something different for this scene. I suppose I thought the park might be more manicured. More paved pathways than these mud paths, but I really don't know why, or if it was important.

Well, this is only the beginning. I need to go back and find that other location. And there a few other things too. More after Christmas.

The pan and the colour of it all

I have already posted about casting for a Claire, but that is not all I have been busy with.
I have also begun writing a new version of the one of the other parts of Tidal Barrier, Paul. I want to post about that latter, when some of the thoughts and ideas are better formed.
I have also been thinking about the visual language. Two weeks ago my friend David, the photographer came over to the flat. He had offered to develop the shooting style. I decided it would be interesting to examine one idea, that of the pan that occurs near the beginning of Claire.

And then the camera pans across what may be a rooftops and then it is black. This is a wipe.

I suppose my question was simply, did it mean anything? I often add something instinctively, then spend a great deal of sweat and tears trying to figure out what it means.
The pan that I described is the only time the camera move in the whole of Claire's story. It seemed important that I understand why. And David was going to help me develop it further.
First David wondered if a pan should not introduce each part, that is Sophie, Claire and Paul, or any significant part, so that it is a part of the language of the film. And also that the pan should be organic to the scene and that we should start by finding potential organic starting points. In my flat, which consists of one long box, and is ideal for home cinema, we have given the space some structure by hanging curtains and dividing the room into three spaces. So we placed the camera near the one set curtains to begin. The curtain material was interesting, as from a distance they were opaque, but close-up, where we set the camera there were fine holes, where light and shadow could be seen. So the camera panned from black, to the macro-view of the curtain, and panned across from complete black, to a close-up of the curtain, which were like stars, with the orange light shining through the fine holes, to the space and Claire then, listening, or rather not listening, as Paul berates her for not truly being there.
From this it seemed important that experiment with other pans in Claire's story, where the camera seems to catch Claire at some activity, by chance. So imagine again the camera in a hallway, panning from black, to a doorways, and walls, into a room, where Claire seems to slip into the frame. Or beginning the same again, but at the end instead capturing the back or Claire as she enters a room, shutting the door behind her.
Is that what the pans meant, catching something unawares, unprepared? Is this distinct to those static shots, which seemed were predetermined to capture all?
There were also some images that I was unsure of, especially in the first scene, where it seems too complicated and confused.

In the background, out there, pinned to a fence or hung on a roof, are those fairly lights? It is hard to tell. Out of focus, seen through a rain soaked window, they are like stars.

I wanted to refer to stars, to tie one of the final images together, where Claire, having sent Nick away, searches for some way out, an answer to that question.

She lies down in the grass and looks from the trees up to the stars. She scans and scans.
But it is overcast and all there is undifferentiated gray. A nothing. No relief anywhere.

So here I have played against the romantic notion of looking up to the stars. If you go up to Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath on a clear night you will couples sitting, holding hands, looking up to the heavens. But Claire is alone, and she sees nothing.
I also played on this idea, in two other scenes in the same park at night, when Claire first meets Nick, and just before the scene above, when she sends Nick away.

Out of focus, at a distance, the coloured lights of people and life.

Here it is some imagined life and relationships that other people seemingly lead, but which is out of reach of Claire.
David began thinking of achieving this image again inside the flat, with reflections and shadows, growing out of the place and the actions.
But looking back on the idea I wonder if it is just confusing because we have Claire seeing stars, being part of a star scape, and then not seeing stars, seeing a blank, a nothing, being a part of a blank, but no clear idea of why the distinction happens except at the end.
What else? Well David was interested in the quality of the light the camera might come across in the pans, or where a practical light burst on. Would there be a colour or colours? Could these colours then form part of a colour mood of the scene we are moving to? The bedside lamp is red so there is a red light in the space and a red mood in the scene. But why red, or green or yellow? So suddenly art direction seemed so much more critical than it has done. Of course the main reason it hasn't been up to this point is the size of the budget and the lack of an art director.
Well, this is just the beginning. I am hoping to meet up with JC soon and continue the experiments, and with David too, who lives close to Epping Forest, where we might be able to shoot the summer weekend scene.

Casting update and more

It has been more than two weeks since I last posted. I think I have spent most of the contacting actors, arranging to meet them, and then rearranging meetings.
But it has been a very good experience. I have overcome my initial apprehensions and found that I have got a lot out of the audition process that I developed.
What is the process? Well, I suppose I need to know two things. What does this person look like on camera? How do they move? How are they still? Can they contain this character when there is no one around to observer them?
And the other thing is how the actor thinks. Do they grasp what I have given them in the script and then can they take it further.
So after speaking to them, explaining how I am developing the story, it's part in the feature, and the shooting process we stand up and we shoot Scene 17. This is a scene where Claire, having moved into her sister Natalie's flat, has essentially taken on Natalie's life.
So far,I have met some really great people, who have already contributed to the development of the story. I won't be able to use all of these people, but I feel like I have expanded my circle of available talent for the future.
And while I am waiting to meet new people I have begun to work on the next part of the feature, Paul's story. More on that to come.