Setting Inspiration - Being John Malcovich

Setting Inspiration - Being John Malcovich

Another film with a setting similar to one we are wanting is the psychological drama Being John Malcovich.

An important setting in this film is the office setting. Again this setting is largely open and even has a waiting area, but we are still considering elements of office environments to create inspiration for things such as props.

Of course there are things about this setting that I think we should be completely dismissing such as the flower pot. This is a prop that has largely emotionally sensitive connotations and wouldn't be something completely obvious to find in the environment that we are wanting to create for the Employer. I feel that this is perhaps something too feminine for our antagonist and could show him in a less powerful way. There are also a lot of props on the desk that could indicate being in a lesser state of power. These are things like, again, the papers. I feel these could be a large indicator of being in a lesser state of power so these will not be included for our setting.
Something else that should be ignored are, again, the windows. The windows let in too much light and create the idea that there is always a way out. This isn't the concept of the scene we are wanting to make so I believe that we need an environment without windows to make Kyle, and the audience, feel confined.
The phone is also a good idea to have on a desk as it could indicate that this is a character who will be widely needed and needs a direct way of being contacted. Again, this shows that this character may have a lot of connections and puts them in a higher state of power and dominance in comparison to Kyle.
Another positive aspect of this setting is the fact that the roof is so small. This could represent the claustrophobic setting and could impact an audience in the confined way that we are wanting to in our film. Obviously we couldn't construct this kind of setting ourselves due to lack of resources and time but I believe that a way of creating this confined and escapeless setting could come from us simply finding an environment without any source of natural light.