The Lighting

During all shooting day we had a well-prepared studio lighting set up. On a scene of Detective Office we had a semidarkness light which gave an additional mystery to this absolutely silent scene filled only by Marilyn songs, creepy music and this light. So this scene should really look as we are became an eyewitnesses of a try to solve one of the most confusing puzzles in American history. So this lighting also gave us the perception of thriller.
Regarding the next scene of 50’s stage the lighting was in opposite to previous scene very powerful and spotlights on the studio roof were covered by red plate to give a bit blurred red light on a scene as it was in a video clip. Then, after Director’s shout ‘Cut!’ plates removed and another spotlight behind the Director and Producer turned on to make a bright contrast between ‘shooting’ scene in 50’s with shadowed red light and very bright light after to show a viewer that the game is over and all actors and Marilyn are going to normal life by the time the filming crew collecting hearts, carry elements of studio interior and so on.

Preparation and Shooting days. My role

During the preparation work our group managed to generate few key features of our film and I tried to do my best so I generated some ideas mostly linked with a sound background of the film and I managed to make a shooting script of the film and write few posts as what our target audience or which kind of institution is going to distribute our film.
In the process of development of ‘Monroe’ film concept I got a role of a sound director, however we didn’t have much scenes where my direct role would necessary in the shooting day so my main work is still wait for me when we will start to edit our project and there I should work with a background of our film and fill it by Marilyn songs, broadcaster voice, thrilling music, etc.
However I’m participated directly in a shooting day as well because I tried myself as a cameraman in the first scene where we needed to track the camera on a tripod moved through tracked to provide a smooth move. So I tried several times to film this scene with all aspects of the mis-en-scene to give a full picture to our viewer where we are and slightly release Marilyn pictures, newspapers, suspect board and TV monitors with a laptop one after another and it seems to be that I succeeded in it a little bit so in editing room there will be a need to place necessary sounds only.

The team-work of our group on my opinion was very effective and our group consist of two sub-groups: Gaby and Heather who were leaders during all time of the shooting day and had most clear picture in their mind how our project should looked like. And me and Tatiana were mostly supportive characters who helped with decorating studio for appropriate scenes and made some support work.
So I think our team was great balanced and everyone knew what exactly that should do so there weren’t any conflicts or any misunderstandings and we succeeded in filming our project on 100% I think. Now we are ready to cut our film and edit it and fill with appropriate sound background to make a really good opening of the film

Shooting day. Part 2. Location.

As I mentioned in part 1 in describing the practical part of our group we had two different made-up locations in a studio. Fist one was Detective’s office where walls were covered by posters, posters of Marilyn Monroe and newspapers about her. On Detective’s desk was a laptop which actually was the only one item which remind a viewer that this modern days with an investigation of 50 year age. One of the key items which shows us that we are in Detective office but not in a room one of fans of Marilyn was a Suspect board with lots of links of famous public people as John Kennedy and his brother Robert with 50’s unknown gangsters pictures who might kill a famous superstar.
The second scene in which we transformed Hurtwood studio was a 50’s studio with appropriate equipment as old-fashioned fake video camera, filming crew chairs and the scene itself which was a miniature copy of the same stage in the clip ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’ so we made a real identical copy of 50’s environment in the studio. In addition we owned such items as speaking trumpet, small old-fashioned camera for producer, red hearts for every dancer in a scene and lots of secondary items which were handed by member of 50’s filming crew in the film.
So the only one location in our film was the Hurtwood studio, however we managed to transform it in two different environments (one of present days and one of 50’s film studio) so we made exactly what we wanted to show to potential viewer.

Finally, here is a comparison between our drafts of the two scenes and how we managed to recreate them in real studio.

Detective Office

50's Film Set

Detective office with loads of Monroe' photos and film posters with her. Old monitors, a laptop and lots of newspapers represent an extreme interest of such sort of person in Marilyn Monroe and a suspect board which we placed later give us a perception that this accomodation belongs either to crazy fan of 1950's pop-star or to Detective.

This is a final scene of our opening sequence where Joanne as Monroe was surrounded by gentlemen and an old-fashioned camera give us a clue that, firstly, all this is filming of video clip and that it takes place in sixties because of the hugу size of this camera.

The role of lightining and elements of mis-en-scene are very important here. The lightning was coloured by red thanks to studio facilities and the key light was a bit darkened in order to create a bit intimate and mysterious atmosphere. Props and costumes were picked very carefully as well. We managed to get the exact copy of Monroe dress and some black suits for actors. Finally, studio was coloured red and there were some stairs in order to create the same backstage as it was in 60's video clip so our viewer would be convinced that he is watching a real film but not a rough student work.

The work on ‘Monroe’ opening sequence. Start of the shooting day. Preparation.

The shooting day began from the preparation of studio territory because we need to transform this place in Detectives office so we covered the walls by Monroe posters, photos and pictures. Then we prepared all monitors to show particular videos, for example one of three monitors played an iconic Monroe performance ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’, then the laptop on Detective’s desk played ‘Some like it’s hot’ to show one of the bright examples of Monroe’s career and the final monitor played ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’ in which we zoom in after and transport directly to 50’s.

Then the area of the studio expanded according to the next scene, office fake walls were removed and transformed studio into one big stage with a special territory with red walls and stairs and Monroe and dancers actors on it to make the exact copy of performance that we saw moments before.
The surrounding environment was exactly what we need from office to 50’s dance scene. We met several difficulties when decorated office walls because the office territory was too big so we changed the position of posters few times to fill the space which camera is going to film by more pictures and less blank spaces in a wall. Regarding a Ball scene, a studio crew made red stairs and painted to the red the floor.

Our film sequence was concentrated more on pan and tracking techniques and less on frames which were shot from different angles. However we used a zoom at once to show the viewer his immediate journey from present day to 50’s and TV monitor which was zoomed had a role of streak between these two times. Tracking was used mostly in Office scene with a similar idea as ‘Sahara’ movie had just by showing pictures and photos in a room to tell a viewer what kind of room it is, what person can live there and what he is doing. So we panned the camera from box full of film magazines of past century to the wall, firstly, with Monroe photos where she is a small girl and photos which show her way to fame, then camera moves further to the iconic image of Monroe in white dress, to the posters of films where Marilyn Monroe starred in a main role, pan continues showing then Monroe’s worst days to suspect board of gangsters who had links with JFK, RFK and lots of public people who might willing to kill Marilyn by someone’s hands. Such shots as a TV monitor in a centre of the frame with Marilyn ‘Happy Birthday’ were very important to show the 50’s superstar not only on pictures but on videos as well. The frame with Monroe ‘Diamonds are a girls best friends’ was a key frame in office scene as middleware link between two sets of the sequence.