Start a scene from the scene

[Alessandro]

Hi,

please, if you can, help me out here.

The scene:

"He bends down to pick up the broken doll while recall the day he received as gift, in that same room. That memory is only interrupted by the girl reentering the room."

The idea is to make a continuous scene.

When he is crouched, the lights get brighter and suddenly the family is in the room, he is part of the same scene.

As I'm thinking of him crouched "looking at the wall" the scene happen behind him, so the camera turns to reveal the room.

I know that the explanation is probably not the best one, but...

Someone has any ideas of how to make this?

Thanks

 

[Will Vincent]

Someone has any ideas of how to make this?

I'm assuming since you posted this in the cinematography & lighting section you're looking for ideas on how to achieve this look/effect in camera and/or post production, not how to write the scene, but that wasn't immediately clear from your post.

The easy answer would be to shoot it literally as you explained it. Single light on him, as he crouches down to pick up the object. The other people are in the room, but start in shadow so they're unseen. At the right moment, fade up lights on the rest of the room and have those people moving about acting out their past events.

That's a little stagy though.. It would be quite effective on stage in a play, but may be a little too cheap for what you're looking for.

You might consider doing this as a visual effect. Shoot the room full of people in the background, then shoot your main character separately. In post mask your character, and composite the two shots. Depending on camera moves that could be tough to achieve, especially on a low budget. To really knock it out of the park you'd probably want a motion control camera. Shooting your main character on a greenscreen might be a good option, again probably with the motion control camera, as it could be easier to pull a key instead of having to manually rotoscope around him for the composite.

On the cheap, the first option is probably your best bet.. you can leverage sound and maybe add a bit of glow in post to really sell it as sort of reflections of the past, rather than "this is happening right now"

 

[Alessandro]

Thanks Will,
your explanation was inspiring.
Don't want to look cheap.