Professional Pre-Production: Concept Images

One of the ways that I wanted to bring my miniseries to life and make it appear more realistic was to create concept images using online photos of my actors along with suitable location photos, and then edit them together in Photoshop. Creating a number of images that look like they're screen grabs of a scene from the episodes. This adds to creating realism for the series, gives the package more visuals and gives an insight into what certain scenes would look like.

Lauren & Ethan

The first concept image that I decided to create was a shot of Lauren and Ethan in the streets of London. This image could be perceived as a scene of the pair either newly arriving in London, before or after they find Frank having an affair, or when they're about to leave.

Step 1:

I firstly searched for an image of Tatiana Maslany (Lauren) walking in natural daylight. After searching, I found the following image and chose that.

Step 2:

I then searched for an image of Michael B. Jordan (Ethan) also walking in natural daylight, so that the images would be similar, creating a believable scenario that they're really next to each other in the image. I found the following image.

Step 3:

Following this, before going any further, I wanted to make sure that the images of the characters would work together, so I made a quick cut out of Ethan, and placed him next to Lauren. The rough result proved that the images could be believable beside each other after further editing.

Step 4:

I then made precise cut outs of both characters, to remove them from their scenes without losing the detail around the edges. However, for Lauren, as she's holding food, I used the 'stamp' tool to remove this from her torso, so that I could use more of her without her appearing to be hold food.

Ethan cut out

Lauren cut out before

Lauren cut out after removing food

Lauren cut out after cropping

Step 5:

Once I had my cut outs, I searched for an image of London that would fit with my character images' lighting and camera angles. I found an image of Oxford street, which I then cropped, blurred and slightly recoloured to use as a background/location.

Step 6:

I then added Ethan and Lauren to the location image to test if they work together.

Step 7:

This seemed to look right to me (Ethan very naturally fit in with the background already). I then made numerous changes to Lauren, by recolouring her to match more closely to Ethan and the background, adding matching lighting and shading effects to her face, adding lighting behind her, and removing parts of her hair that didn't look right. I then blurred the edges of both characters to fit in with the backdrop more smoothly, and adding shading and shadowing to make a more realistic look of Lauren standing next to Ethan, and the pair standing on the street.

After Lauren's changes

After both character changes

Step 8:

The final thing that I needed to do was alter the brightness and contrast, and colour tones to the overall image, to give it a cold feel, a more cinematic look, and to make it fit believably into The Identity. Here is the final result.

Amanda & Lauren

The second concept image that I created was Lauren and Amanda in the same room, a shot that is meant to be a specific moment; the scene where just as Lauren's birth parents walk into the house, Amanda is distraught, and Lauren says "you replaced me".

Step 1:

I firstly searched for an online photo of Katie McGrath (Amanda) that could capture an essence of her character as Amanda. While I couldn't find any aggressive photos that fit a modern scene, I found a close resemblance to Amanda's character when distraught or high.

Step 2:

Once realising that McGrath's image was perfect for their first meeting scene, I searched for a new online image of Tatiana Maslany (Lauren) to matched the situation, lighting and shot type. I found an image that perfectly captured her expression and matched Amanda's image.

Step 3:

I then did a test edit of the photos, putting them together to test if the photos would be capable of matching in a scene. My result included the idea of Amanda being blurred from the start. This would need a lot of editing, but I could see potential.

Step 4:

I then made careful cut outs of the two characters.

Step 5:

I then needed a living room location that fits the description of the Porter's house (where the scene takes place), along with matching the lighting of the characters. After finding an image of a bright, modern, one-sided lit living room image, I flipped, cropped, blurred and recoloured the image to make it suitable.

Step 6:

I then added Amanda and Lauren over the background to make sure that all three elements fit together.

Step 7:

As Amanda's appearance was very far from that of Lauren's and the background's, I recoloured her photo to match the rest of the image. I then recoloured the rest of the photo have a more blue tone, and added noticeable eye bags to Amanda for extra character detail.

Step 8:

Following this, I then added lighting and shadows to Amanda's face to match Lauren's face and the lighting of the room. I then added a scruffy look to Amanda's hair by drawing extra parts over it, and softened and blurred the outline of both her and Lauren.

Step 9:

In the final edits, I added lighting and shading to both characters' hair to blend them into the scene more, made Amanda's lips paler and gave her heavier eye make-up for a more unstable look, and added a depth of field effect by creating two images; one where Lauren is blurred, and one where Amanda is blurred. And lastly, I gave the images slightly more vibrancy and a bluer tone to fit with the atmosphere of the scene. Creating two concept images from this work, my final results are below.

Lauren & Helen

The third concept that I decided to create was a more lighthearted one, where Lauren and Helen are stood together, happily smiling at home. This image is suited to one of the first present day scenes, such as Lauren coming home from work or the following morning before Helen feels unwell.

Step 1:

Looking through images of Felicity Huffman (Helen), I found the exact type of photo that I was looking for; her character smiling with her arm around someone.

Step 2:

I then searched for a photo of Tatiana Maslany that would match the positive atmosphere of the above image, along with similar lighting, angles, and colouring. I then found a very suitable image.

Step 3:

After, I tested the images side by side to see if they were believable and the right fit. This gave me the go ahead to use the images.

Step 4:

Knowing that those were the images I wanted to use, I got started on cutting out the characters. After I was done, I had the difficult task of removing the comical earrings from Helen's photo using a number of stamp, paint, and burn tools. The results are below.

Helen cut out

Helen cut out after one removal

Helen cut out after both removals

Lauren cut out

Step 5:

I then searched through a number of background options. Testing images of kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms, a number of images didn't fit with the characters. I then found a large image of a living room and decided that when zoomed in to a certain part, it looked believable as their home and suited the character's lighting. I then cropped and blurred the image.

Step 6:

I then added the characters over the background image, deciding on their positions.

Lauren added

Helen added

Step 7:

I then colourised both characters to make them match more closely to each other, and added a large amount of shading and lighting to Helen's image, to have her photo match the shadowy appearance of Lauren's photo.

Step 8:

Following this, I decided to resize Lauren's image slightly to fit better in the frame, largely changed the colouring and shading on her face to better fit with the scene lighting and Helen's colouring, added lighting to Lauren's hair and Helen's shoulder to give the effect of light from the window behind shining onto them, recoloured slightly green parts of Lauren's hair, and added shading between the two characters to make them look close together.

Step 9:

I then blurred around the edges of both characters to blend them into the scene, cut around elements of their hair in detail for further blending, and added extra touches to the image including drawing extra hair on Lauren for realism, and the addition of lighting and shading on the background image.

Step 10:

Lastly, I simply corrected the window's lighting slightly, and added a small amount of extra yellow/orange colouring to the entire image. The end result has a warm and natural appearance to represent to positive relationship that Lauren had with her mother. It also fits with the framing and colouring themes of the series. Here is the end result.

Lauren Alone

The last image that I created was one of Lauren, stood alone in an alleyway, looking shaken. This image represents the scene after Lauren has killed Amanda and she swiftly escapes down an alleyway, unseen by police.

Step 1:

I firstly searched for an image of Tatiana Maslany (Lauren) looking shady and worried, her image also needed to have colouring and lighting that represented that she was outside at night - as this is where the scene takes place. I found the exact image that I wanted.

Step 2:

I then searched for an image of a London alleyway at night to fit with the scene. I found a photo that had matching angles, colouring and lighting to Lauren's image. I then flipped and cropped the image to use as a backdrop.

Step 3:

After this, I quickly tested if Lauren's image would be suited to this location, and the test proved that the combination worked very well.

Step 4:

I then made a detailed cut out of Lauren to place over the background image. Following this, I slightly altered her colouring and vibrancy to make the alleyway's lighting, and blurred the parts of the alleyway that were further away from Lauren, in order for the image to look like it was filmed through a professional lens.

Step 5:

I then shaded and slightly recoloured Lauren's arm and the top of her head to blend her into her surroundings, along with slightly desaturating her face and blurring the edges of her cut out. Following this, I slightly darkened the further/more central areas of the alleyway to give the location a moodier feel.

Step 6:

Lastly, I made small changes to the overall colourisation of the image, giving the scene contrasting colours of yellows and blues - signifying mixes of hopes in the yellows and fear in blues. The end result is a clear representation of exactly how I would like the shot to look, dark and uncertain, with fear in Lauren's face. Here is the end result.

All Concept Images

I'm very pleased with how my concept images have turned out. It's clear that the first image (Lauren & Ethan) is of slightly lower quality than the other images, due to the original pictures' qualities and it being my first attempt of a concept image. However, I think they all work in their own ways and for the scenes that they're depicting.

I used images from Google searching the actors and their portrayals in a number of roles, gathering good results. But for Maslany (Lauren), I found a website that held a large amount of screenshots of her character Sarah in Orphan Black, giving me hundreds of pictures to search through for each image. The website is below...

Orphan Black Screencaps

I was initially going to create a concept image that included Olivia Williams (Kathleen) and Liam Cunningham (Frank), however due to there not being any suitable images of high enough quality, I was unable to create an image of the pair without it looking unrealistic.

I think that each image represents varying scenes, tones, and cinematography of the series along with character relationships and portrayals. I also feel that by creating these pictures, the types of imagery that I was imagining has been able to come to life.