Notes on Childhood Wonder

     The next set of content I took notes on were videos and films that pertained to my interests in cyberpunk and childhood storytelling.

    If Beale Street Could Talk gave me some good takeaways as well. I took from this video and this video. I liked the use of a handheld shot when filming the kids, as it makes the clips feel more familiar. The colors in these shots were also beautifully used and didn't require, I don't know, owning a giant pink castle or something, which I appreciated. I thought that I should use plenty of closeups in my film after watching this because they build intimacy, can work to develop details of my character. As a bonus, my zero budget production and editing techniques would probably look better and less obviously zero budget if I focus on small, realistic shots rather than full bodies or wides. I also was reminded of how nice it can be to use lighting to your advantage, not just in terms of color, but also in type, when I saw shots that took advantage of high key lighting and flares, although I'm not sure if I would be able to create those types of lighting.

    Forrest Gump's scene matched my idea of factoring character perspective into shot composition. Low angles showed Forrest speaking to the bus driver, high angles showed the driver, handheld footage produced a shakiness while walking through the bus. The moment it cut to adult Forrest on his bench made me think that a flashback could be a good way for me to include childhood in my story without keeping the main character a child for the entire duration of the film. Growing up could be part of the film rather than its main focus.

    I also watched this video about the Grand Budapest Hotel, from which I gathered the storytelling technique. I liked the idea of an older narrator, not necessarily the main character or a character at all within the confines of the story, and I liked when it was told quite literally like reading a book, with the "he said," and all.