I D E A S
10/11/2020
When watching the different cinematographs, I noticed that the most effective ones are ones where the moving element is a small part of the image, especially in shots that are detailed. This made me think back to my childhood when I thought I’d see things move at the corner of my eyes and believed that the objects in my house were alive. I’d notice, especially in rooms with a lot of objects, that one small thing like a doll or the vase of flowers would move. I thought that this idea would make for interesting cinematographs.
I began to dig deeper in my childhood fear and possible things in my life that could have influenced it. I knew that growing up in Thailand, a country that’s saturated in Buddhist and Chinese culture, I’ve seen from a very young age the significance and meaning projected onto different objects such as dolls and sculptures and necklaces. Even in Thai media, objects such as necklaces with monk pendants were shown to ward of ghosts and spirits. Every big company and establishment would have a small resting place for the guardian spirit who owns the land and they’d be given food and drinks.
Growing up in this culture had instilled this thinking in me that inanimate objects had thoughts and were alive. This made me worried whenever I mishandled my toys or abandoned them for new ones, thinking that they were crossed with me. Perhaps that was why I kept thinking I could see them move.
I made a mind map on padlet breaking down my ideas and expanding them.
E X P E R I M E N T I N G W I T H P H O T O G R A P H Y
23/11/2020
Though I’ve dabbled in photography every once in a while, I never went past using the auto settings in my father’s DSLR.
My father’s camera is a Canon PowerShot SX620 HS
Although we were told how the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO affect light and the final image, I felt like I had to make that clear for myself.
I went around my house to dark bedrooms and bright balconies while testing out the different settings to see how it affects the image in different lightings.
I made a little chart for myself on a padlet to compare the different lighting and settings.
B A C K G R O U N D S T U D I E S
24/11/2020
With my theme in mind, I had a look at all the little decorative objects in my house that I was either scared of as a child or new ones that I feel would have scared me as a child.
I’ve found that a lot of the objects I was scared of were human-like vintage ones made of porcelain or wood, especially if it had been worn out by time or had parts of it chipped off. When making observational sketches, I noticed how the objects were often positioned on a difficult place for a child to access, be it the top shelf or amongst expensive tea sets we had to be careful around. It added to the fear somehow, as though the objects were looking at me from above as a child and I couldn’t control them since they were out of reach.
I took photos of the objects around the house. My mother was considerate in putting them where their colours match the setting, although making them blend into their surroundings would’ve probably made me paranoid as a child since I wouldn’t be able to notice them at first, making their first movement at the corner of my eye very jarring.
S T O R Y B O A R D
30/11/2020
Exploring the different dolls and objects in my house, I took into consideration its location as well as the material they were made of and what they were designed for. I animated them simply with minimal colour to map out the composition as well as see how affective the movement would be.
As the storyboard progresses, the more animated the objects become, starting with a garden statue that has a fern leaf waving over it, then two garden statutes of children on rocking horses, then a doll whose hair is flowing from the wind outside, then a porcelain doll that reflects flickering light, then a nutcracker that moves it mouth by itself, then two drawing mannequins shaking their heads.
I tried to keep the movements very subtle in order to create that ambiguous feeling of whether the object is actually alive or not.