Set Design

 Hey everyone, thank you all for keeping up with my blogs so far! Today, I will be breaking down the set design for each scene of our movie opener. 

    Our first scene, the beach memorial scene, takes place on the beach during golden hour/sunset. Our set for this scene was essentially the natural environment itself. It included the sand, the ocean, and the horizon. Key props for the set design in this scene were the glass vase with Jahzara's ashes and the small bouquet of white flowers. We specifically chose Hollywood Beach because we knew it was a beach that mainly locals know. In other words, rather than choosing a popular tourist beach, we chose a beach where we knew there would not be a lot of people. As for the location in general, we chose the beach because the sunset helped us create a natural palette of warm, fading light. Moreover, the beach itself also helped symbolize vastness and change, which is similar to the way we are trying to convey the message of letting go. Limitations that we had in this set design were that it was essentially still a public space. This means we did not have full control over the people in the background and the weather. Although the beach was less crowded compared to most beaches, some people still kept walking back and forth between our shots. Moreover, it was extremely windy that day we went to film at the beach. We had to do several retakes of shots due to hair difficulties from the wind. Our hairstyles kept getting tangled or undone by the wind. For this set design, if we had a greater budget, we would have bought a customized or personalized urn to represent Jahzara's character. 

    Our next scene, the flashback scene, takes place in Jahzara's suburban bedroom. Essentially, the set design included a bedroom with blue-grey and white walls, a bedside table, a book cart, and a tall walk-in closet. On the bedside table and cart, there is a bouquet of vibrant colored flowers. In addition, although it is not shown with the most clarity, you can see in the corner of the set that there are balloons. These balloons say "Get Well Soon" to help portray the sickness of Jahzara. We chose Jahzara's bedroom as our set for this scene because the blue-grey walls establish a somber mood, and the vibrant flowers help symbolize life trying to be brought into a fading situation (Jahzara's death). Limitations we had in this set were that her room was somewhat small and not the most spacious. That means that we had to limit our camera placements in the room. Changes I would make for this set, if we had a bigger budget, would be that I would have dressed the room more extravagantly and expensive-looking to reinforce Jahzara's character of being wealthy.

    For our last scene, the school scene, takes place at our high school, Everglades High School. Key elements of this set were the sickly yellow-white walls, grey-white tiled floors, and the standard classroom desks. Specific small details in the classroom included warm-toned fairy lights and colorful decorations such as plushies and blankets. We chose this specific classroom because it had a balance between the cold, stark environment and a warm, intimate environment. The sterility of the scene would help symbolize the present day, where each character is suffering their own grief, whereas the hints of warmth from the class symbolize the past. Limitations we had with the set were that we could only use it after hours or during very specific free periods. This means we had limited time to film in this set. Moreover, our background actors would have to be our friends and not a diverse cast. If we had a bigger budget for this set, we would have possibly rented out a building that looked like an old-fashioned school with lockers. This would have helped make our set more realistic and authentic to the audience. Moreover, if we had a bigger budget, we could have hired more background actors to be in this scene.