We thought a lot about clothing, mise-en-scene and semiotics within our 3-minute drama and how they would create meaning for the audience, to help establish Sid and Owen at the start and then later on the change in character of Owen.
The names, Sid and Owen
These names were chose to connote a meaning and draw a parrelel with their famous namesakes, to make it easier for the audience to realise what has happened in their life in terms of drug taking up until now. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols famously died from an overdose, our Sid was also the one to die from an overdose. Owen Wilson allegedly tried to overdose, however survived and is now continuing with his life and working again.
Clothing
We watched Train Spotting to see how a film representing the same drug dressed its stars. We didn't want to be seen to copy them though and so left the trademark skinny jeans out. Instead we decided to go for a pale green/grey tracksuit bottoms combo for Sid and a small beige jumper/black trousers for Owen. We wanted to make them seem worn and old, as if the two rarely leave their house and aren't at all bothered by their look, having had the same clothes for years. Therefore, we covered them in staines, holes and cigarette ash. Later, when we had Owen sitting in the park waiting for his job interview, we had him trying to look smart. His hair was gelled, he was wearing a shirt, tie and trousers. However, we tried to make it so that, to the audience, they can see that although he's trying to get his life back on track, he's not 100% comfortable in the situation and is still out-of-touch with this way of life. His clothes AREN'T ironed and his shirt and tie don't match, but from this it can be seen that he is trying.
Bed and bottles, plates etc
For this piece we thought about Tracey Emin's "My Bed", and how it displayed her whole life with the scattered rubbish. We however, didn't want to make it the whole focus like Tracey's, we just wanted it to reinforce steretypes around the acting of Keiran (Sid) and Tom (Owen). Therefore we framed the shot in two ways, one where the 2 characters heads fall on the bottom Rule of Thirds, so the bed is further down and there's more space above for the projections and the second, closer in slightly from the side so that it was mid-shots of the characters.
Camera Angles
We filmed from higher up than the actors' eyelines and looked down on them, so that the audience would look down on the actions and life's of the 2. Later, when Owen was trying to get his life back on track by waiting for his job interview, we had the camera at his eyeline, so that the audience would then feel that he was at their level now, just trying to get on with his life and willing to work hard for it.
Lighting
We lit the room so that it was dark and intimate with the 2 brothers. Also so that it looks dark and dingy, as if they have neglected their house, which in turn, with the lack of lighting, would make the shots look grainy, fitting in with the theme of drug taking.
Owen's walk away from the camera
We had Owen walk away from the camera (it was placed at his back and so therefore was pitch black) towards the light of the door so that it would be seen as him leaving the dark of his life behind him.
Owen's Job Interview letter
The letter that Owen looks at is from a local council offering him a job to work in their food sector, so that could be the staff canteen or something like Meals on Wheels. This suggests that the kind of jobs he can go for have been affected by the past, but he's still trying and just wants to get to a sense of normality through working again.