Frame x Frame: Constructing A Scene

As I continue on with my short film series, #VideoDictionary, I come across many challenges and learn some things about being a director. For my next short film, I've come across the challenge of making a space look like something completely different; to some, this is known as set design. 

For my next short film, I require an apartment setting. The problem is that I don't have access to an actual apartment. I've asked some friends if they know of some places to keep in mind, when I was suggested that I should use my own house to create the scene. Now, I've used areas in my house for many of my previous videos, and worked with what I had, but for this particular situation, my home doesn't exactly resemble a one bedroom space. I decided that the only way to know for sure would be to experiment and do some furniture moving to try and create a believable apartment scene.

First, I moved the main couch from the shot, just to free up some space...

Then, looking at the wall, I didn't like the decor, so I removed everything within the shot.

With the empty space available, I needed to include the main focus of the scene, a laptop on a table. I also played around with the furniture again to see what would make more sense.

Noticing the moved furniture in the background, I needed to find a way to dismiss it, considering it couldn't move anywhere else. Solution: change angle of shot.

After some more changes and shooting from another angle, I think I managed to design something not perfect, but reasonable.

It wasn't easy, but I may just use my house for the apartment scene yet, but just in case my space isn't available (due to sound issues and the fact that may parents would be moving around the house), I'm still keeping my friends in mind to have an eye out for potential apartment spaces. I also considered an office-like space instead to use in the story just to have a "Plan B." I just wanted to share my video making process with you all and hopefully, I can get started with shooting soon.

-Video Vix[o]n