Unobserved
3 min | Beauty film
A treatment by Steven Phillips
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Contents
Introduction
The Idea
Our Approach
The Characters
Visuals
The Product
Cinematography
Art department
Audio
The Story
Storyboards
Post Production
Introduction
Hi there, I’m Steven. I’m stepping out from anonymously art directing in-house creative teams for the last 20 years to present some film ideas that I’ve had in mind for months, maybe years now.
This treatment is for an animated short that could also be pitched as a spec commercial for an unnamed beauty brand.
While it will still have the production values of an marketing piece, I think it will be stronger if we can free it up from the need for product placement or casting for a specific demographic.
To achieve commercial quality on an independent’s budget, we’ll need to establish a clear creative framework. This treatment steps out the key requirements so a plan of attack can be structured with whomever comes on board.
If it goes to plan then the resulting film should be pleasant to watch, but also appeal to brands as an example of how new approaches can make 3D rendered content not seem cold and technical.
The Idea
This film is a non-narrative piece derived from my curiosity about the unobserved lives of my female-identifying friends.
A film that shows that the reality of just being a human with a daily routine is as worthwhile for artistic inspiration as the composed, curated and conscious moments we are getting used to seeing portrayed in film and social media.
Those moments where the characters are truly relaxed, introspective and safe. Where they prepare to face the world, and then retreat from it in the evening.
I hope to avoid the usual performative gaze of advertising and cinema, instead finding the beauty in the mundane. I don't think it should be aligned with any particular brand, it will be more of a technical exploration to inspire future work.
The Mood
Shown here are a handful of images from my initial mood boards.
They were used to inform the attitudes, clothing, locations and actions of the characters as I used AI and 3D rendering to develop the film’s look and feel.
Our Approach
Firstly, I’ll concede there’s an irony in trying to make a film about characters who are doing things “unobserved”... so rather than intruding on those personal and private moments with a film crew we will use animation to keep the sanctity of that space intact.
The storyboards and pre production will identify a set of scenarios, and work can start on character development, lighting, scenes and environments in advance as these will all be art directed from references.
The actual movements, pacing, motion and attitude of the characters will be references and animated. Some will come from found footage, still photos and selfies.
The goal is something that feels familiar, but has a dream like illustrative quality to it that keeps us more in the realm of fairy tales and imagination.
The Characters
For this film we will need to create an ensemble cast of diverse, unique, natural and confident women. The following list can serve as a starting point for the type of demographic I have in mind, reference images on the next page should help set the tone visually.
Female identifying, independent, modern, confident.
They really could live anywhere, but their living spaces will lean towards inner city apartments.
20-40yo.
Diverse ethnic backgrounds and gender expression.A mixture of body shapes, hair length, fitness and attitudes.
Steering away from augmented, eccentric and extreme looks.
The type of character that might not stand out from a crowd in the outside world, but is beautiful and intriguing nonetheless when seen in these at-home scenarios.
I would like at least one to be pregnant, not all have to be able bodied.
Visuals
Our scenes are all indoors, we see these women passively as they go about their day in their own private space. We will mostly see bathrooms, bedrooms and a few living rooms.
The shots will be either early morning or evening, if we see outside it’s likely golden hour, and the view is of a major city from a high rise apartment.The look is somewhere between a selfie and a candid shot captured by a loved one. The camera is mostly static and off axis at times, the lenses wide. DOF is shallow.
As this will all be animated, we have more freedom to create a unique and interesting world, colors are harmonious, the characters are cleanly illustrated, spaces can appear dark or bright without the usual complications of lenses and exposure settings.
Cinematography
To maintain a feeling of these being unobserved moments, the scenes will need to seem like they have either been captured unknowingly, ie. a camera behind a mirror or a long lens zoomed from across the room …or by the character themself through selfies and mirror snaps from a phone.
I like the idea of a shot from inside an elevator in the mirror where we see the character’s phone in hand for a found footage look.
We will steer away from the creepy side of voyeurism, and instead try to just ‘be’ in the spaces with these characters as they go about their day, oblivious to being part of this film.
The Product
Any products being used wont be shown in an overt way, but for the sake of this being a spec reference later on we will keep to a fictional unnamed brand.
Whenever a beauty product is shown we’ll use a generic but consistent style, a pink bottle, a gold detail, that sort of thing.
Art Department
Seeing as this film is animated, the art department becomes the 3D asset team. We will explore this as the project develops, as the Art Director I will lead the process here and explore some ways to get maximum impact for minimal effort.
An initial idea is that we simply do 3D scans of a series of apartments and lean into any artefacts or glitches that come from that process.
By scanning a room in relatively neutral lighting (actual technique tbc) we would then relight the space with 3D lights, opening up windows and adding sheer curtains.
The rooms then would have all of the visual complexity of a lived in environment, without the need to completely design and construct each space.
Audio
I feel like it might be quite beautiful and more impactful to just use ambient sound and foley than one driving musical element.
At some points we hear music being played in the background of the character we see, and through this could gain some further context into their mood and personality.
For example, someone in a bath with classical music, another brushing their teeth to a real bop of a pop tune heard echoing in from the next room. In other scenes we hear sirens from a city street or birds chirping outdoors.
There is also the option to start peaceful, almost silent, ramp up the intensity of the sound design towards the middle as we approach and leave their ‘work day’ and end back on something serene, the sound of a fan or white noise signifying rest.
The initial concept came to me from some scientific reading about how particles are inherently changed by simply observing them, so that might work as an overarching piece of voice over.
The Story
While this film is decidedly non-narrative, I can’t seem to escape my background in narrative film (yet) and so I see this as still having a structure and logic to the passage of time.
The scenes early on are morning, waking scenes. Breakfast, yoga.
We then move through some bathroom shots, makeup, showering, brushing, perhaps some annoyance, worry and self doubt.
Outfit selection and makeup is next, hairstyling and final prep before we leave home. I would like to show someone in an elevator or a car, a final moment of solitude before they become ‘observed’ by society and we leave their side as they walk out of shot.
A match cut from morning to night brings us back home in the evening, shoes are kicked off, a bra unclasped, the cat needs a hug.
As evening arrives we see showering, baths, preening, trimming, stretches and yawns. Someone heads out again for a night of action, others are in bed tucked up under the covers.
Devices illuminate faces in final scenes as we end the day silent and serene.
Storyboards
The storyboards here show an indication of the flow, from waking up and a morning routine, through the evening and late into the night.
Post Production
The majority of the technical hurdles for this project lie in the post production realm.
Previsualisation will be important to explore the concept and art direction as a whole, and there will be some logistical and technical requirements for capturing any video observations or realistic environmental sound.
With all of those assets gathered there will need to be a strong guiding presence to the post production pipeline as all of the elements are brought together. Currently I’m assuming that will be my role, but if an animator is brought on who is happy to work with unconventional techniques then two heads are better than one.
I am assuming Blender will be the primary piece of software used. Editing would be done in After Effects if I am personally doing the compositing, but I am open to using DaVinci or other tools if someone is committed to the project and more comfortable in those environments.