Project Research

When researching for my project the first element that I considered was colour, this was because it effects props, costume, lighting and set. After creating my Directors Statement and having my colour chart I had a rough idea for what colours I wanted to include and after developing my ideas and script I also knew what themes I wanted to include; love, Christmas, family, fear, warmth and isolation. I researched these themes and found the images that I though best represented them and then placed them together in my mood board. Something that I was worried about was drowning out the film with Christmas, it can be a big distraction therefore I did not want to go too over the top so I decided that I would not have too many Christmas props around the set; I needed a tree set up for a scene but I did not want to add too many other props and decided that I would carry through the Christmas theme through use of music.



Something that was very important to me was following Curtis' idea of having red featured in every scene due to it being such a powerful colour, representing love, hate, anger, danger and passion. I knew that I wanted to use this technique therefore when finding props and costumes I always was thinking about how I was going to incorporate red into them. However I only wanted to do it subtly so that it was not everywhere as I worried that would take away the significance, so when considering costumes I decided only one item of clothing would be red for the characters, and when looking at props it would just be one prop per room such as having a red cushion on the bed in the bedroom scene as it will symbolise both love and anger in Karen and Harry's bed and therefore in their relationship.

Then I thought about music and how I was going to incorporate it into my project. Music can make or break a moment. I already knew that I wanted to use Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' as it is a very powerful dream- like song that features lyrics such as "I've looked at love from both sides now" and "I really don't know love at all", they match the moment perfectly when Karen finds out her husband is having an affair and this is the song that Curtis used in the original film but I still thought it was perfect for my version. I chose the song "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues as it is a classic Christmas song but has a very mellow tone to it so I thought this too would fit with my project. Finally I decided to use the song "All Alone for Christmas" by Darlene Love as it is happy and upbeat and creates adds an exciting feel however the lyrics and even the title completely juxtapose the melody and this is similar to the action in the scene and is foreshadowing what is to come for the characters.

When researching to find locations I knew I needed somewhere in a quiet road as I did not want lots of road noise n the quieter scenes. I also wanted somewhere where the living room was next to the bedroom for the scene where Karen is stood in the bedroom and can hear her children chatting next door playing in the living room. I also wanted somewhere that felt very homely and had quite neutrals colours to it so that I could add my pops of red about so I decided to go with the bungalow shown in the still images below as that fit all of the criteria.


Finally I needed to consider props to add to the set. As I have already discussed I needed to add red to scenes so I purchased a red cushion for the bedroom and some red present boxes to add under the tree just to reinforce that colour symbolism. I also wanted to portray the family values through the props and how important the children were in keeping the family together so I framed pictures of the children that were acing as Bernie and Daisy to place on Karens dressing table and I also got my five year old cousin to draw my a picture of a family from a child's perspective that I could also put on Karens dressing table. Finally I added a few other touches to the set such as a mothers day card saying 'Best Mummy' just to reinforce that family importance as the dressing table is somewhere that would be Karen's space in the house so I thought if I placed lots of links to the children on it it would show what her biggest passion is.