Month: December 2019

I made a production deck! Here to see: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Zm-7F0rjfZ3rH8eAIJiOT2qMZPo6jCexyvnSJ8UDckg/edit?usp=sharing

So, the film will be divided into three parts. The idea is she is in her new environment, and here we explore how enclothed cognition influenced her:

Act 1

Sound of drowning at the start signalling a person got into her ‘state of mind’, being drowned in thoughts and pulled into her deepest consciousness. Her circling around illustrates how it is in her mind, it’s wandering in a loop without knowing what to do. But the root of her problem relies on her (in the mirror).

She wears pale makeup and dress, emphasizes the lack of self-esteem. She’s the centre point of the introduction, how her appearance makes her anxious. Then her personal space got invaded when she is surrounded by bright-coloured creatures (I want them to have different shapes and colours) that she thinks more ‘superior’ than she is. She feels intimidated, and it creates havoc inside.

Act 2

She got into her deepest core, trying to seek protection, she goes into her clothes (the idea of clothes as environment). The clothes then get bigger each time, creating a cocoon. The clothes also illustrate the feeling of overwhelmedness that she experienced. It’s somehow a paradox, but in the end, she chose the clothes as her weapon that helps her to find assurance. She’s wearing bold makeup, signing that in spite of the insecurities there’s a self inside her that is confident. This also ‘metaphorically’ shows how the clothes boost her self confidence from inside.

Act 3

She got back from the chaos of her mind, her eyes glistening, her makeup is the same as stage 1, but added bright colour (on her eyes/lips) to illustrate her newfound confidence. She falls repeatedly, but able to stand up in the end. This shows even though life breaks her down so many times, she’ll keep her stance upright. She takes a deep breath, signing a new energy chiming into her body. Despite all the chaos, she decided to move forward.

On the 10th of December, I did lighting and stereoscopic test at the studio in Limegrove with my cousin to make sure that no issue will happen on the shooting day later. We tried studio 4, one of the options if we couldn’t get studio 2 or 5. The most important thing we need is the rig as we’re doing spotlight lighting. A wider studio also needed so ideally studio 2 would suffice. I just hope I can book it since the media store told me they’ll email when the booking opens. They’ll open in the first week but the booking dates won’t out yet.

I started the research by reading journals and watching a lot of review and tutorials on filming technique (use of colours, angle, etc) on Youtube to further enhance the idea.

After reading some journals on enclothed cognition (although there’s only one that formally coined the term and studied it, the rest are extended analysis on enclothed cognition), I understand that the concept is how clothes affect us inwardly. So for the film, I need to create a story that happens inside the mind instead of the outside environment. That is why I ditched the bedroom idea and switched it to just her and a mirror in the middle of empty space.

I tried to create a story:
Overwhelmed by the new environment, Kala (temp name for the character in the movie) keeps on feeling uncomfortable in her space, creating chaos inside her. She resides to her ‘clothes’, embracing her identity, and despite all the inner havoc, she decided to move forward.

Now I just need to make production deck and confirm the dates and availability with the crews involved.

After my first three tutorials, I decided to halt my shoot to further research and prepare the idea. I tried to create a mind map to really search for a theory that could serve as a ground for my outcome. I tried to do mind map but still can’t find anything.

And on the last tutorial with Vicky before the winter holiday, I got quite confused because I was asked where the fashion context is in the idea. I felt very discouraged. Should I ditch the idea again and thinking for a completely new idea? I panicked a lot. I thought of several ideas on how to portray what I’m really trying to say and portray in my film.

Then after a couple days of contemplating, I remember Ellie said to shift the environment from the physical environment to ‘clothes’ as an environment. So I think fashion as therapy is the right keyword for my initial research of the topic. When I searched related topic around fashion as therapy, I stumbled upon the term ‘enclothed cognition’, to put it simply: how your clothes affect you psychologically. It is a part of a bigger cognition theory, embodied cognition. The study said that our bodily experience actually influences our mind.

For me, this is an interesting topic–if you search on the internet, you will find a lot of people talking about clothes to wear to feel more confident or items that provide you support and help you cope with stress (not to forget that shopping is also considered as a therapy!). So although the study has still a lot to prove, I feel this is a good basis to experiment.

I’ll try to dig deeper into enclothed cognition and watch a lot of tutorials, reviews, and read books about angles, colour theory, and techniques to decide how the mise en scène would be.