Brainstorming

Took Ryan's advice and had a bit of a brainstorming session with a friend to see what input they could give me and just to help shape up my project and make it a bit clearer.

So had a bit of a chat with Lorna and hashed out some ideas.
Came to the conclusion that the "states of mind" project idea will need a story behind it to act as an emotional catalyst to put the rooms into context, instead of just being a visual representation of a generalised idea of "depression" or "paranoia" etc. Also that the rooms are supposed to be relatable and provoke an audience reaction, even if it is just recognition of what has potentially happened.

Some examples of powerful relatable life "stories" that could act as catalysts are; Death, Breakup, Marriage, Birth, Alcoholism, Marriage, illness -Cancer.

Another idea was to take a single room and go through the story using 3 or 4 different processes, looking at the intro to UP for inspiration. The things the people within the house are going through is very evident in the house itself. The colour scripts for UP do a particularly good job of representing this emotional journey.

The nursery room in particular, redecorated to the travel room, is a very powerful scene.

Also, after his wife's death, the house becomes more like a museum and her picture stays out on display, and he still keeps her empty chair beside his.

In terms of conceptualising a room to fit a story and show a state of mind, we started thinking about a scene which has a certain degree of dissonance. For example; a calendar which shows the wrong month for the season outside - indicative that something is wrong i.e death or depression (the inhabitant(s) couldn't be bothered to change it.)

Also thinking about how something would look when folk are happy - clean, tidy, everything looks really fresh. flowers/plants etc. This would actually be more difficult than showcasing a depressing atmosphere.

Take something like a nursey, how would that look progressively over time if something bad, like stillbirth,  happened?

1st version of the room would show boxes everywhere, half painted walls and a crib in construction. screws all over the floor etc.
2nd room version would show progressively more baby stuff, maybe even some daffodills, painted fully and brightly lit - springtime - happy.
3rd version would be  darkly lit, empty, jumpers and baby toys etc put away in boxes - the baby was never born - sadness, grief, death.

I'm going to start putting this scene together to show at the presentation next week and illustrate how a room can change over time and showcase the state of mind of the character in relation to the events they are currently going through.