The idea of the film was to show the relationship that communities, especially neighbours had during the lockdown. Neighbours were essentially the only physical contact you could have with people outside your home. It was this reason that I wanted to show the subtle, small connections people made with their neighbours.
The characters portrayed were based upon myself, Waka James, and my neighbour, Koia Cook. The roles were the opposite from real life, Koia was the character in the red blanket, reserved and calm and the outward-going, funny person was myself.
I felt that the role change would be more fun and more accessible for Koia as acting isn't natural to him.
The film starts with a news bulletin of the Coronavirus lockdown in the background. We then follow Waka outside, the reveal of the quiet morning being a relief, almost that its an escape from the doom and gloom of the news. I wanted clean, simple shots to show the calm nature of the morning.
The appearance of Koia is a change in rhythm, Koia being the first thing in centre frame. I did this because it was partially supposed to be a POV, Waka looking straight at Koia but also to make it more jarring, the quick cut to Koia, centre frame, makes it more sudden. With Koia leaving and coming back, I wanted to show how friendship can arise. Koia appearing brings levity and calm to the situation and concludes the film with Waka's line.
The use of foley sound, the nature sound effects was used to create a calm feeling to the outdoors, to show how peaceful the world has become.
I wanted Koia to come across as naive and I was really happy with his performance, even though I was directing by shouting from balcony to balcony. His pouting and use of the fence that obstructs most of his body to show nosiness, almost like a nosy neighbour, made his role so more authentic and funny.
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