A Love Letter to The Florida Project.

I will never get over how beautiful this key art is.

The Florida Project (2017) is one of my favorite films. I fell in love with the story of Moonee, a little girl always looking for fun and adventure despite her circumstances with a single mother who struggles for money. Despite having been to Orlando at least once every year since I was 6, it was still eye-opening to see a new perspective of the people who actually live in Orlando, people who stay in there for more than just a vacation.

We wanted our story to have an adolescent protagonist, and this idea was actually largely inspired by the love Joey and I have for The Florida Project. However, what I wanted to specifically look into this beautiful motion picture is the mise-en-scene. 

Like Moonee, our protagonist is to struggle financially, and should, therefore, be shown living in conditions that reflect that. We never want the financial situation our protagonist is in to be stated explicitly; there are so many visual elements we could utilize and actions that could implicitly show it instead, including the mise-en-scene.

✐ SET DESIGN ✐

Regarding the exterior of the buildings the children frequent, they were often a little run-down. As you could see in the picture, the walls and walkways were often stained. However, all the buildings and such were always really colorful to reflect the bright innocence of the children's perspective on the world, when in reality there was not much childish fun going on behind the scenes.

Moonee's Room

The interior set design is what I think would be most useful in our project. Moonee and her friend's hotel rooms were usually on the messier side. They often had an assortment of blankets and pillows with different patterns on them on the beds. There were typically little toys and such scattered around the rooms, as well as clothes. Jancey's room had photos and drawings on their walls and the fridge (pictured below). The most evident thing one could tell from the mise-en-scene is the space is occupied by a child. I mean, there are even stickers on the light switches.

Scootey's Room

Jancey's Room


✐ COSTUME DESIGN ✐

Another important aspect of the mise-en-scene, of course, is the costume design. 

Moonee's mother, Halley, is not shown as the most mature or responsible person in the film, and her appearance reflects that. Tattoos (as cool as they are) are often associated with unprofessionalism. Halley is often shown wearing revealing and baggy casual clothing that one would not typically expect a mom to be wearing. Additionally, as the cherry on top, she has that trademark faded blue hair that shows she is truly young at heart.

The children had a fashion sense of their own as well. The girls often wore shirts and tank tops with cutesy cartoon graphics and patterns, as well as patterned or plain colored leggings and pants as well (with the occasional exception of jeans). The boys wore shorts or jeans, with buttoned-up shirts, tank-tops, or t-shirts with generic patterns like plaid and stripes. The children's hair was often messy.

Although their clothes at first glance seem like that of a normal child, what stands out about their attire was how most of their clothes never seemed to fit them quite well. Their pants or shirts were typically overly baggy on them. I'm not sure if the children just enjoyed wearing clothes a size or two larger, but their clothes not fitting them perfectly implies that they are old, stretched out, or possibly second-hand items of clothing.

✐ CONCLUSION ✐

The interior home we will film in should be a compact space that is not very organized. Obviously, with two young people living in it, it would not be the cleanest and neat place. On top of that, as the sibling will often be busy with work and I do not know of a single child or even a person my age that particularly loves cleaning, that would also be the reasoning for a fairly messy household. And, there should be props like toys and such that imply our protagonist's age. Any shots with the exterior should show some distress on the walls, sidewalks, and such.

Concerning costume design, our protagonist will definitely not be wearing any name-brand clothes; More likely baggier, generic clothing.

We want the sibling of our protagonist to be and appear more responsible than Halley is, showing how poverty can force someone to grow up faster than what is typically expected of a person the sibling's age. We will take Halley's costume design as a not-to-do guide and we're thinking that we could show them always in uniform, showing how busy and enveloped they are by work.