Preproduction (Preliminary Task)
- Feb 25, 2024
- 3 min read
The preproduction of this preliminary task or the coming up with an idea and developing was done in a pretty much procrastinated way. Being an efficient group (just for the first few couple of days), consisting of Zara (me), Rija and Fatima Javed, we sat down together in the common room the same week Sir Zia informed us about this daunting task. The 10 minute complete silence proved that this first task we'd received wasn't going to be an easy one.
After each of us individually racked our brains, we started throwing different ideas around to one another until an idea that we all thought of together really hit the mark for us. The first major thing we decided on was that we just HAD to have a glitch during the opening scene to have that dramatic effect we all wanted. Thinking more on those lines, we finally decided to lean more towards the cultural side and capture our ethnicity in the opening sequence. This idea had to be something that was close and relatable to us so as many emotions as possible could be portrayed through this task. During this first sitting, we had come up with a basic idea which involved a girl in a dreamscape, first happy, then something starts going wrong, then glitch then wake up. Pretty satisfied with the first, basic idea the three of up wrapped up our first 'official' meeting. This video was taken right after our meetup where Rija and Zara are headed to another class, discussing with excitement the plan we'd just thought of.
An overall summary of the meeting showed by the following screenshot of a message from Fatima Javed:
Believe it or not after this meeting we just had one more, which was 3 days before our actual task submission (yikes). During this time is where a lot of procrastination can be found plus the fact that a group member (Fatima Javed) dropped media, replaced by ANOTHER Fatima, this time Asad. Kudos to her for adapting so well to our ideas and doing everything on time (unlike rija and me).
Just as the clock for submission started ticking, with increasing stress, is when we held our second meeting, this time finalizing our idea as we had to go and shoot the following day. A close friend of ours, Tuhaira, sat with us, also pitching in with some ideas of our own regarding the location of the shoot. First we were thinking about shooting at different locations such as a park or some unoccupied area where we could perform different activities such as running. The road outside of our school was also up for discussion at some point as it'd be a good spot for showing the dark, lonely side (right before the glitch) of our opening sequence.
Because of mise en scene, I personally wanted the shooting to be in Androon Lahore because it would provide a great aesthetic with the vintage feel and amazing architecture. Fatima Asad fully supported me on this, but Rija was a bit skeptical as going to a place like that, logistically speaking, would be hard. Asad and I, however, convinced her and we had finally finalized our location.
A time lapse of our second (and yes, final) meeting:
Following this, we had multiple discussion on text regarding what to wear for the shoot and how to act. Rija decided on the approach of trying out everyone for acting and then choosing on the one matching the aesthetic the most. Then finally, came the day of the shoot, on which waking up at 6 to reach Rija's house AND missing a media class was definitely worth it.
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