Anatomy of a Scene - Bespoke
The setting of this scene from my short film “Bespoke” is a dystopian city, but the conflict is in wealth disparity. The lead character, Ana (Nancy Mitchell), a pregnant mother, has recently acquired a lottery ticket that may hold the future to her unborn son's survival. In this breakdown I discuss how this opening introduces the setting, characters and the inciting incident that heightens the stakes.
What I’ll be doing here is focusing on ACT 1 or the setup. The following scenes will show our main character, the world they live in, and how things will change. We’ll see the supporting characters, their strengths and weaknesses and why the viewer should be interested in them.
In our opening wide shot we see Ana and Mateo in a bleak, dystopian city. This is actually the Blake Transit Bus Station in downtown Ann Arbor. We filmed this scene very early in the morning to avoid pedestrians and commuters and give the city a very empty feeling. Our protagonists are an interracial couple, waiting for the bus in a derelict part of town and dressed in all black. Ana sees an advertisement for BioNatel, a corporation that specializes in creating designer babies. If you look carefully, this scene establishes a few things - the setting which is a city that’s undergone an environmental disaster that accelerated income or race disparity, Ana and Mateo are of a lower class in this world, and Ana is drawn to the idea of starting a family.
Next we open on a lottery ticket being scratched. This is important as research shows that the lottery is targeted mainly towards the poor, largely minorities and sometimes addicts. Also those in financial trouble think its the only way to accumulate money. Mateo’s line about having better chances at getting struck by lightning is true. The look that Charlie - a pastel dressed, white wealthy guy - gives them is one of superiority. Statistically, people in wealthy neighborhoods don’t buy lottery tickets. Also if you look carefully, you’ll notice the BioNatel sign playing in the background. So in this shot, we can conclude that the conflict is Ana needs money for some kind of medical need that only the wealthy can afford. This is part of the inciting incident that will draw Ana into the story.
So in the next shot we Charlie, his pregnant wife Josie and the Doctor. Their conversation revolves around Josie’s pregnancy and what they should be expecting. But it begins to dive into elements of genetic editing such as the doctor predicting the physical attributes of their baby. In the background we see Ana and Mateo listening with a mixture of indifference and a bit of envy. Here is where we establish the characters and the class disparity between the have and have nots. Their wardrobe are the obvious visual cues - pastel colors means wealth and black/monotone colors mean poor. There is also some hints of flirtation between Josie and the Doctor which alludes to some kind of shortcomings within Charlie. We can conclude that Josie’s decision to have a child with him is heavily influenced by Charlie’s wealth and the ability to alter their child’s DNA. This is what we’ll call the debate. This sets up the rest of the film where Ana and Mateo must fight the cards they are dealt. In the next scene they will have to choose to alter their son’s DNA or let nature take its course. A man of science vs man of God conflict.
Thank you guys for reading this anatomy of a scene and if you’d like to watch the rest of Bespoke, click the Amazon Prime link below and please leave us a review!
