TREATMENT BY
DYLAN MARANDA
and
SEQUOIA
So excited to get to work on this together. I think we have a dream team forming.
Know that none of this is set in stone — just a starting point for discussion. Looking forward to continuing the conversation.
I am a big fan of creative channels starting quickly, so let’s make sure we can all get on a feed together after we kick things off. I want to toss things back and forth ASAP!
Let’s dive in…
My process with anything I direct is spending as long as I can to distill an idea down to its essence. How are we using a written script and the medium of film to best tell a story, or convey a message.
With a script like this that’s already so refined, it raises the stakes on every decision that we make together — make no mistake, there’s nowhere to hide in this one. No flashy cuts to distract, no high paced edit to hold meagre attention spans.
That’s a good thing.
Know that every idea and suggestion here is in support of that approach, one rooted in a quiet confidence. We don’t have to push for emotion — it’s already waiting for us. Our job is to build the conditions and approach the script in a way where it’s allowed to come through naturally, not forced.
Let’s have each others backs in this process to explore how far we can push the subtlety while still delivering a memorable, beautifully crafted piece. One that shows how small shift contribute to the big idea of Healing Better.
THE SPOTLIGHT
This focused, hard spotlight that we use in the scenes before our shift keeps our focus on the patient in the opening sequences. It also mirrors the experience of being on the spot to self-advocate in the public health health system all while hightening the drama.
A logistic issue this also solves is allowing the art direction of the space to fall off in the darkness, so we can still be shooting in St. Paul’s while making it seems as thought it’s a different location entirely. I know that the spotlight approach might lean us a little hard into darkness or drama, but it’s important to have a distinctive difference between the opening visual language and our shift so it is clear that there is a big change.
THE INTERRUPTION
Having a strong audio cue that establishes a pattern for our “interrupted” patients creates a rhythm to the first half of the spot and makes it clear that they are being interrupted by someone else in the room we can’t see. A build-up of a tone or “off” note into a sort of chord-pull audio moment where everything drops off but we still hear the muffled sounds of the doctor talking to them. This also reinforces the feeling of isolation and tension in the moments before our shift.
SOUND OF METAL
SONIC REFERENCE
specifically around 30 seconds in, I love how muffled the sounds are,
but you can still understand its someone talking!
🔈
THE SHIFT
This is where we get our amazing visual payoff. Once our final patient is allowed to finish their line, we witness a dynamic change in visuals. A lighting shift combined with a dolly move is going to be most effective — with the lighting moving to that warm inviting feeling that reprisents our patient being listened to, and the dolly move revealing the other doctors in the room around them.
here is how I see the spot playing out...
To open the film, we use a striking visual choice and sonic language that reflects what it feels like to self advocate in a system that doesn’t listen. Each patient will start sitting in a dim, undefined medical space, lit by a single spotlight.
Their sentences are interrupted mid-thought by unseen doctors using a distinctive approach to the sound design, a punctuating and recurring audio motif that makes it clear that they are being cutoff by another person in the room.
It’s a subtle, tonal build that cuts out sharply as the doctor’s muffled voice takes over. This creates rhythm, tension, and establishes a recognizable pattern that guides us into breaking it for our shift.
On our final patient, we open with the same approach. The spotlight and strained tone, building up for what we are anticipating as another interuption —
Until they finish their sentence.
A hold of breath — we are still on the patient. Perhaps they are looking down. They haven’t been interrupted, but there’s been no response yet.
The super comes up — an absolute gut punch of a stat.
Just then, they look up to the doctor. We don’t even need to see or hear the doctor yet — just in the way our patient relaxes… we can tell: they are being listened to. We can see it in their face as we hold on that shot and their expression changes on screen.
Still on the patient’s face, that feeling of warmth, safety, and positivity is then reflected in a lighting change — not a hard cut. We get to witness and stay with our subject as they have an emotional event right before our eyes.