Why is the room so light?

An award-winning post production house has generously offered to fit our spot in for color correction. While we wait to hear back on possible days and times, I've been going through the lighting references I collected during pre-production. We shared a lot of options with our DP, Sandra Valde, but what they all had in common was a flood of light. The goal was to create an ethereal feel to the environment. (I almost used "surreal" but that word is used so much...)

We wanted viewers to know that, while the characters are at a house party, it's not supposed to be realistic. The set design is highly stylized. The sofa and pillows tell us it's a living room, but it doesn't look like anyone's living room that we know. In order to suspend viewers' disbelief, we used an exaggerated amount of light so they know that the world is not real, so they know that it is a representation of real life.

This way audiences will hopefully not take the game and the card reveal at the end literally, but instead will recognize it as a visual metaphor. The game, the card and the blindfolds are all symbols. The game represents sexual encounters that we may have throughout our life. The card represents our health status. If we're wearing a blindfold by not getting tested, how can we know what we're passing around?

Can you tell which reference inspired our look?

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The sound of "Sharing"

We were initially considering something dark and edgy. The term, "dubstep," was tossed around. We wanted something that would appeal to our target age group: 18 to 35 year olds

Our editor (John Carey) introduced us to composer Keith Kenniff's catalog and selected "Rituals" as our temp music. Temp music is a film term for the temporary soundtrack used during the edit until licensed music becomes available. "Rituals" is a playful indie pop track and the polar opposite from what we initially had in mind. We fell in love with it!

HIV/AIDS is a serious condition, but we are attempting to distance the diagnosis from the stigma. We want women to be happy and in control of their reproductive health, not distrustful or in fear, so we thought the playfulness of "Rituals" would be the perfect juxtaposition to lift the somber tone that our PSA might otherwise have.

We finally decided to make it official and contacted composer Keith Kenniff for permission to license his song! And he said, "Yes." We couldn't be happier with our music selection for the PSA!

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Things change...Being Flexible with Your Vision

Some of you may have noticed that several things from the production still are different than in the original inspiration boards. For one thing, everyone in the cast is wearing black instead of white. Secondly, the blindfolds are white in the final production instead of black. This color switch isn't a mistake. In the time between development, when an idea is first shaped, and final production...things can change.

It was all very well thought out (See Friday's post). So what happened? Why switch the wardrobe to black and the blindfold to white. It was a lighting issue. Even though 35mm film is more sensitive than video, an all white set design with actors dressed all in white would be too much. The scene would look, "blown out," which is a film term for when an image appears overexposed to light, and therefore hard to see.

We didn't want to blind viewers, so we switched the colors. We were still able to keep the red + white + black color scheme, though, which still helps the PSA stand out.

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Using Color to Create Symbolism

In our inspiration boards, we pictured the actors wearing all white shirts so that everything but their faces blended into the background set design, which would also be mostly white. The idea was to create a cool, clean neutral environment without any distracting colors. This way the viewer's attention would be focused on the actor's faces and what they were doing. The card they're passing is small and we didn't want audiences to miss it.

The signature red represents compassion for those living with AIDS. The black blindfolds were supposed to represent the absence of light or knowledge. When the actor removes her blindfold at the end, it represents getting tested and knowing her status, because now she can see.

Another important reason why we choose such a stylized color scheme is because we really wanted the PSA to stand out. We want to grab audiences' attention before they tune out or change the channel during a commercial break. Choosing bold colors like Red + White + Black will hopefully intrigue viewers long enough to wonder what the actors are doing and why they're blindfolded. If we keep them watching, hopefully they'll pay attention long enough to get our message!

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Creating Visual Metaphor...with Playing Cards

We didn't want audiences to pass judgement on any of the actors, so they all needed to be dressed the same. In the real world, you can't tell someone's HIV status just by looking at them.  We didn't want viewers trying to guess which character might be infected. The card is just a normal card when they start playing, but by the end its status has changed.

This is a visual metaphor for the fact that if you're not getting tested between partners, if you were to contract the virus, you may not know which partner you contracted it from. The message stresses the importance of getting tested, especially when entering new relationships.

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Inspiration Boards for "Sharing"

These are the visual references used to communicate the look and feel of the PSA to our creative team. The Director of Photography, Production Designer and Wardrobe Stylist drew from these images to create the set design. You can tell that some things changed from the time they were conceived to the time we went into production in June...

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"Suck and Blow" Reference Video

The concept for our PSA, "Sharing," is based on a kissing game called, "Suck and Blow." When we presented the script at a Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF) PSA Program meeting, many of the members were not familiar with the game. I put together this video as a visual reference:)

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Original PSA Storyboards

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It All Starts Here...the Script

After we received a creative brief from the non-profit, Whittier Rio Hondo AIDS Project (WRHAP) in October of last year, we sat down with them to learn more about the organization and what they were hoping to achieve. They also allowed us to conduct informal focus groups with some of their clients to learn more about our target audience: latina women of child bearing age.

Their personal stories were incredible and we were honored to have them share with us. We collected all the information we could about their backgrounds, their interests, their fears, and their hopes and did our best to create a message that would resonate.

One piece of information that we learned from WRHAP that really floored us was the following statistic: 80% of women diagnosed with HIV are in a relationship

No one in that meeting had heard that number before and we were sure not many other women had either. We decided to make that the focus of the PSA. Our goal was to create a visual metaphor to represent multiple sexual encounters and the risk of not knowing your status. The PSA is intended to encourage women to be aware of their HIV status, especially when entering a new relationship.

Here's the script we wrote:

 

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WRHAP Donates Swag to the Fundraiser

Elizabeth Mendia, Executive Director of WRHAP, was kind enough to donate the following swag items* to our campaign fundraiser that starts tonight. For a $100 donation, this could be yours, along with a DVD of the "Sharing" public service announcement and a mini-poster from the campaign:)

*Swag items are from the Strong Women Series, a program that builds HIV prevention awareness and empowerment skills for ALL young women. Participants can sign up with WRHAP for a 5-week workshop in their area.

Support the campaign at: INDIEGOGO.COM/WRHAP