I actually was somewhat inspired by the video game Unpacking, in which the player learns about the main character indirectly, through unpacking their boxes as they move between different stages of life. However, that connection didn't occur to me until later. I decided to name my project Unpacking because I think the main part of what everyone remembers about moving is not the actual moving day, but the long and exhausting process of unpacking all of one's belongings- of trying to fit your home into a new space that isn't quite shaped right for it yet. In addition, it's commonly used to mean talking about something at length; to unpack an issue or a trauma is to explore it with another person and understand it through communication. Finally, most of the genre research I did, primarily with the teen drama films Lady Bird (2017) and The Half of It (2020), but also into other teen genres, revealed to me that most teen drama films have titles that represent major issues or conflicts within the film. Specifically, I wanted Unpacking to be, at first glance, about moving and changing physical location; just as Lady Bird is, at first glance, about a young girl who prefers to be called Lady Bird, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) is about a "wallflower" who finds friendship. But without further ado, here is one of my major difficulties that I anticipate in planning and executing the production of my project.
The sets of my film opening are the car in which the initial shots take place, which is parked outside a house; the exterior of said house; and the interior of said house, in the entryway and in a bedroom. The exterior/street scene was initially supposed to be my current house pre-move, but I may change that. I anticipate shooting some shots (more on that tomorrow) on my own this Sunday, March 5th, as I plan to play Charlie (also, I plan to play Charlie. Is that news? It's certainly important, but also- I thought- fairly expected.). However, I know that the house I'm moving to will not be completely finished, since it was recently renovated. All this leads me to believe that not only will I have to shoot things out of order, I may have to split my filming locations for the interior and exterior shots.
I really wanted to shoot the entryway shots in my current home, since I really like the look of the big double doors with a high window. I really want the entryway shot to look as though Charlie is being dwarfed by the entrance to the home before a more intimate and personal close-up. I also wanted a shot of Charlie and Christine going up a flight of stairs, because the excerpt as I have planned it so far is fairly quiet and intimate, and I thought the physical movement would not only provide more visual interest, but also establish that the bond between the two characters is deeply related to Christine's literal and figurative leading Charlie into new and possibly better places. The actor playing Christine, my peer and friend Beatriz/Bia, is out of town at the moment, though; which is another difficulty that I'll go over in the rest of the week as I discuss the character design and casting choices I made for Christine and Charlie more in depth, as well as a full overview of my shotlist and production schedule. I anticipate being able to shoot these two shots on different days, as long as I'm careful about my continuity with Charlie's costume design, which again, I'll discuss more in my post about character design and casting choice (myself) for Charlie.
However, the exterior shots are a different story, as is the interior shot of the room that Charlie is to inhabit for the rest of the film. (Well, the audience doesn't really know that, but one of the key questions I'd like them to be asking is whether this situation is temporary or not; my opening doesn't really give them a whole lot of exposition, and that's kind of the point. I want it to feel very sudden.) I initially thought that I might be able to shoot the scene within the room in my room as it's prepared for moving, or in my older sister's room as it's prepared for moving. I know that in my personal experience, the bedroom that I stayed in while undergoing the real-life situation that Unpacking is inspired by was actually very heavily decorated in a Parisian theme, because it was a room dedicated to my host family's grandmother. While I considered trying to decorate a set for Charlie's room to an extremely personal degree- just for a different person than Charlie- to convey the feeling of being an outsider to a tight-knit family, I decided that would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to construct for 20 seconds' worth of footage. So, I decided I'd go the opposite route: the room set aside for Charlie in Christine's house would be very, very simple, almost impersonal, a generic guest room devoid of Charlie's personality or any real character. Thematically, I realized that this served multiple purposes: it would highlight the lack of personality, yes, but it would also provide visual contrast to Charlie's multiple bags and messy demeanor if the room were to be very, very clean and neat, as though it had been kept tidy for a long time out of decorum and had stayed tidy for a long time out of disuse. Practically, I also wanted almost no decoration, and I knew that my room (which already doesn't have a lot of decoration) would become even more sparse as my things were gradually packed up. I believe that my current room will be the best location to shoot that in.
As for the exterior shots, the possible second and third days of filming are after I move; so the primary difficulty in that is going to be getting good shots of the car scene so that I have lots of options when I edit, as well as getting different variations on the shot of the car parked outside the house. I think that, if possible, I will shoot those shots at my new house. However, since it's still under renovation, I'm unsure if workers will be present, or if the exterior of the home will look finished enough. So I'm also contacting some of my friends and peers to see if I can use their driveways as possible shooting locations. However, my car will be the set of the scenes in the car, so I'm not worried about having access to it- I'm the only one who drives it, and I drive it every day.
Finally, filming in the car was one of the main things I met with my instructor on, and created some pretty major changes to my storyboard- more on that tomorrow. But logistically, she gave me some guidelines for my shots: not only to keep them tight, but also to get all the shots of the backseat from the perspective of the passenger seat. Since I will probably be alone for the initial shot of Charlie sitting alone in the backseat, I realized that I will also need a tripod. The logistics of shooting the car scene in practice will probably deserve their own blog post.
Reader, I think that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I plan to finish my storyboard, and meet with my instructor a second and final time this week; and as I wrap up the first week of the pre-production process, you'll get all the juicy details, I promise.
Yours always,
Clover Fields
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