Once the core idea became clearer, I started organising the film into a sequence of narrative beats.
Beat sheet translates to:
What does the handkerchief do? How does the world respond? What does the camera know what does the viewer discover?
- Origin:
- The handkerchief has come out of the pocket blank, not knowing what to do For now, nothing — or the world doesn’t know what’s coming
- Nothing… unsettling, waiting to see what happens
- Something is going to happen, but it doesn’t know what
- Awakening / First Reaction:
- The handkerchief floats — or it’s when it passes through an object/obstacle/wall…
- The world’s first reaction: things start to move (there could be a change in light/color).
- The camera catches things moving The viewer knows something has been triggered, but not what.
- Discovery:
- The handkerchief can pass through something circular, spiral-shaped… (crossed-out text before this)
- The elements come together… “the world blooms” (metaphor since there aren’t flowers or plants like that? in some parts of the world, not everywhere)
- A big change is happening and it’s being seen from a POV shot or in details The world starts to truly take shape
- Complexity
- The handkerchief goes through a “challenge”? even if it’s something easy — circular, spiral, passing through a narrow space
- The world helps the handkerchief by reshaping itself and “opening up” a path
- Resolution
- The handkerchief starts to spread out more and ends up resting on a surface
- The world could end up dissolving, but opening up or leaving a gap — the handkerchief?
- The handkerchief has reached its destination
- The viewer understands that the handkerchief is part of something bigger
The scarf begins in a relatively inactive world. Once it crosses the first threshold, the environment begins to respond.
Rather than constantly following the scarf, I wanted the film to move between different scales and viewpoints. Some shots would follow the scarf directly, while others would focus entirely on the environment reacting.
This was important because I did not want the film to feel like a continuous chase camera following an object.
I also started developing the camera and the environment at the same time. I realised that the camera could not simply be added after the world had been designed, because the spatial design needed to support specific reveals and transitions.
The camera language started to develop as:
- Origin — lateral views
- Awakening — lateral, frontal and close-up details
- Discovery — frontal, POV and detail shots
- Complexity — rear, orbital and low aerial shots
- Resolution — top-down reveal
The final top-down shot became especially important because it would reveal that the world the audience had been travelling through was actually the complete scarf pattern.
Early storyboard-origin/awakening
After doing this, still didn’t know where the scarf would be going so I retrieved and started thinking con the final scarf pattern.