Introducing Comfort Zone.

Over the Summer, I decided to team up with Amy Long, Caity Kerr, Cloe Malard, and Josh Graham for my Major Project. We met several times before the first day of the Semester, so this has given us a bit of a headstart in terms of picking a group.

Initially, I had my eyes set on a cinematography-led project for my final year work. I found this to be a real highlight in my Placement, completing a lot of photography and video work and really galvanising those skills. After discussing with lecturers, it makes sense to go in a group to allow this to be a focus area for me, so that’s exactly what I did!

This was an early idea, which explored the idea of a watch tower. I can imagine a swooping hero’s journey story about a character that must cross uncharted land to get to a distant city. Something that feels sharp, simple and concise, which it’ll need to be due to budget and time constraints. I believe this approach will allow for lots of environment exploration, and also create a profound short story.

Following all of our early visual development work, we met again in early Week 2. Chatting with Henry, we came up with the idea of focusing the story on an artist. This excited us particularly, as it gave newfound meaning to the project’s intention, in that it could reflect ourselves and our peers…

I saw the Central St. Martin’s Degree Show in London this Summer as a prerequisite for my own final year. My main takeaway? The best projects cleverly took meta elements of their own student stories (be it cost of living, pandemic, or anxiety) and made outcomes that were provocative and unashamedly relevant. One of the projects did this particularly brilliantly. They’re called Knife Knife, and their degree work boldly called out their university for what they felt was a universally challenging financial experience. Check out their work below!

So, I kept asking myself. What’s my version of this? I wrote into Discord:

“It makes sense to echo something very topical to our class… a lack of wanting to break out of one’s comfort zone. Being on the precipice of excitement, but having the familiar hold you back.”

Post-pandemic, I have witnessed first-hand the struggles of people my age, whether it be social anxiety or dealing with overconsumption on social media and digital platforms. Having just moved up to Belfast myself, the concept felt relevant and meaningful to me.

Like Knife Knife and the cost of living crisis, this widespread social anxiety struggle we are seeing was my hook for making a deeply personal story. 

Hero’s Journey 

The first challenge: a screenplay. Working part-time at the start of the year (carrying on from Placement) meant I wasn’t available a couple of days in the working week. Resutantly, an early ideation meeting to finalise the story was scheduled for when I was away. I found this to be challenging, as the story was something I was interested in.

In consideration of this, I took the notes from that meeting (see here), and worked on adding my own touch to it, making it feel like a solid short in terms of format. It initially felt quite long and convoluted for a 5 minute short, so I grounded it in the hero’s journey (the focus of my Second Year dissertation), feeding in my original thoughts and taking account of the team’s thoughts and ideas.

A key aspect of the hero’s journey is the mentor. In our film, the abstract sequence (i.e. the city functions) as this element, teaching our character something essential that pushes them to forward. And if the city’s a mentor, the comfort zone is our antagonist. We discussed:

“The comfort zone, or the safe space, effectively being the antagonist… only pushes that further.”

By the end, though, that relationship softens. The space’s antagonism wasn’t necessarily evil, just protective. She outgrows it, and the film ends with reconciliation rather than rejection.

I proposed the monomyth application as follows:

• Call to Adventure / Meeting the Mentor: Charli’s journey begins in her apartment, gazing out at the city — the external pull that represents her fear of stepping out.

  

• Crossing the Threshold: She steps outside into the city, symbolising her transition into the unknown, with a key shot of her literally “falling” into the city.
• Trials: As Charli walks through the city, she faces trials represented by signage and people, reflecting her internal struggle with anxiety.

  

  

• Death: The city collapses around her, symbolizing the overwhelming nature of her fear, with a chaotic, disintegrating cityscape.
• Revelation: Charli discovers the sketchbook, which helps her reframe her journey and regain control.
• Atonement: The road behind her appears as she revisits her path with a new approach, more confident and aware.
• Return: The sunlight of the next morning symbolizes her readiness to face the world, with Charli stepping out confidently for her first day.

I have attached the scripts, including earlier drafts, here. After a lot of discussions, the team got on board and was excited about this new screenplay.

We presented it in our pitch keynote, and included some additional early concept art.

Charli character design exploration

Storyboard and Animatic (October/November)

At the same time as Amy, I have also drawn some rough versions of the opening scene.

I’ve been reviewing Alec’s notes and have a few adjustments to make in the next couple of days based off of our pitch pressentation feedback and also feedback on the board:

• Start with “Hi Charli” to make the greeting more specific.
• When Charli enters the abstract world, build up to the café door appearing with signage leading her there (maybe a “Behind you” sign).
• Add a shot when Charli leaves the café to clarify why she’s running.
• He likes the brutalist buildings and the oppressive atmosphere of The Road closing in on Charli.
• The abstract sequence needs clearer progression. Consider traffic lights and one-way signs to guide Charli’s path, with traffic lights warping or stopping her as she tries to escape the road.
• Charli’s fall into the one-way sign can have a moment of reflection where it says something new.
• At the end, the art gallery reads as a café. Alec suggests referencing The Wizard of Oz as Charli’s way back to reality.

We brainstormed an idea where Charli’s sketchbook held the key: the road she walks is the one she’s drawn. But, the ending of that road is blank. To move forward, she has to draw the university into it — literally writing her next step (Campbell’s monomyth ultimately centres around agency). I summarised it as:

“The only way out is through.” I boarded the following to convey my idea:

Pre-Vis

Amy began working on the pre-vis, based on the storyboards and script we put together. This was a collaborative process, and I joined in to create the pre-vis for the void section, and help on directional ideas for the street section.

Alec’s earlier points: what if the challenges on the road were physical? The road cracks, tilts, becomes dangerous, reflecting her inner panic. That gave us some great visual opportunities for animation, and it grounded the abstract in something tangible.

I referenced the abstract forest scene in Snow White quite a bit – a textbook example of mise-en-scène referencing psychology. Disney uses subjective camera techniques, such as fast pans, canted angles and aggressive close-ups all to convey what Jungian Archetypes, a study by philosopher Carl Jung into the innate patterns of human behaviour during a state of unconscious (which Charli is, as it’s a dream).

I also watched Inception as inspiration, analysing its use of trippy, optical illusions involving buildings. Shot in 35mm widescreen, the film walks a line between naturalistic lighting for the real world, and stylised for the dream world. It demonstrates an unreliable narrative, where the mystery to the audience is when and whether it’s a dream. The film is packed with bizarre angles, gravity shifts, and architecturally surreal environments.

Incorporating such ideas could elevate the cinematic nature of our short, and create a unique, feature film aesthetic for the film’s climax. Watching that film makes me dizzy, and it would be cool to achieve that effect for the climax of our abstract journey. I storyboarded this for Amy’s reference in making the pre-vis:

The final pre-vis can be seen here.