So my ten minute film is done. Unfortunately it's not he one I wanted to make, I couldn't get the location that I wanted and the actors I wanted weren’t as free as I had hoped. Sure I could have recast and probably found a new location. But the problem was that the film is very dialogue heavy and I don't honestly think that the lines could have been learnt well enough in a short space of time to give a solid performance. I just feel unless your 100% off script you can't give a believable performance because your more worried about getting the lines right than performing them. Then when your on set half the battle is getting a take where nobody stuffs up their lines and you end up settling for something which is less than what you wanted.
That spelt out the whole thing for me. If changed locations actors just so I could get this film made, I would be settling. I wasn't prepared to do that for this film. I'd spent too much time on the script, storyboarding and planning out technicalities of the film to do that. This was the first thing that I’d felt passionate about and also transmitted part of my own beliefs onto the screen.
So I decided, fuck it! I'll wait until I can make it the way I want to make it. So now I had a new problem I needed a film. I came up with an idea in a day, filmed it in two and edited it in two. The film was called Ezekiel's Window. It's basically about a four guys who live together, one of them has gone mentally ill and keeps doing fucked up things around the house. It uses flashbacks as the guys are sitting around talking about all the things he's done to them recently.
I'm not really that pleased with it. It was rushed and it defiantly shows when you watch it. There are some cuts and certain shots that really embarrass me. I've still got a bit of work to on it; I've only edited the uni cut so far. I want to add some music and reshoot certain bits of it. I had to use my own camera to film a few pick-ups. The problem with that is the microphone is so close to the tape you get a horrible constant whir on the audio.
Although, for something that was made in pretty much five days from start to finish, it's not all that bad. I just know I can do so much better. Which is why I've decided to try and make four films over the summer. This way I can make them just as I like them with no restrictions the assignment briefs usually come with. Here's what they are:
Woken - This is a to be a 10 minute short about a guy who keeps waking up at the same time every night. He can't for the life of him figure out why. It goes on for a while with various ways of him trying to break this cycle, his friends think he's mad and he starts getting a little obsessive about it. Until one night when he decides not to go to sleep and he find out the reason for his regimented wake up.
After - This is the film, I should have made for my 10 minute film assignment, It's a good thing really because I wanted it to be about half an hour in length. Jack is an average guy with a fairly average Joe life, until something very inconvenient happens... He dies. Jack finds him self in a sort of limbo/purgatory place. He finds out that most of the morals and designs we lead our lives by are all bullshit. He gets a little more pissed off when he finds that despite leading what he would define as a good wholesome life, he might actually be screwed.
As yet untitled project #1 - This mostly based around my own experiences with a relationship I had not too long ago. I haven't really worked out a structure yet, but it shouldn't be too hard because I lived it! Although I’ll need to add in a few things to spice up the story and give it a bit of an edge so it doesn't turn into another run of the mill chick flick!
As yet untitled project#2 - When I was deprived of sleep for the most part of the other week, I was in one of those surreal states you often get into when you've gone without rest for a long period of time. You know the type of thing, you feel like you’re in a David Lynch film. Well in the short space of time I spent feeling like a character in Eraserhead I thought I might try and make something that was quite Lynchian. Again I haven't really worked out the specifics, I've just got a rough idea of story and mainly a lots of avant-garde editing and camera styles.
Hopefully I’ll be able to make all four but I’m not holding my breath, I'll get them all made at some point though.
That spelt out the whole thing for me. If changed locations actors just so I could get this film made, I would be settling. I wasn't prepared to do that for this film. I'd spent too much time on the script, storyboarding and planning out technicalities of the film to do that. This was the first thing that I’d felt passionate about and also transmitted part of my own beliefs onto the screen.
So I decided, fuck it! I'll wait until I can make it the way I want to make it. So now I had a new problem I needed a film. I came up with an idea in a day, filmed it in two and edited it in two. The film was called Ezekiel's Window. It's basically about a four guys who live together, one of them has gone mentally ill and keeps doing fucked up things around the house. It uses flashbacks as the guys are sitting around talking about all the things he's done to them recently.
I'm not really that pleased with it. It was rushed and it defiantly shows when you watch it. There are some cuts and certain shots that really embarrass me. I've still got a bit of work to on it; I've only edited the uni cut so far. I want to add some music and reshoot certain bits of it. I had to use my own camera to film a few pick-ups. The problem with that is the microphone is so close to the tape you get a horrible constant whir on the audio.
Although, for something that was made in pretty much five days from start to finish, it's not all that bad. I just know I can do so much better. Which is why I've decided to try and make four films over the summer. This way I can make them just as I like them with no restrictions the assignment briefs usually come with. Here's what they are:
Woken - This is a to be a 10 minute short about a guy who keeps waking up at the same time every night. He can't for the life of him figure out why. It goes on for a while with various ways of him trying to break this cycle, his friends think he's mad and he starts getting a little obsessive about it. Until one night when he decides not to go to sleep and he find out the reason for his regimented wake up.
After - This is the film, I should have made for my 10 minute film assignment, It's a good thing really because I wanted it to be about half an hour in length. Jack is an average guy with a fairly average Joe life, until something very inconvenient happens... He dies. Jack finds him self in a sort of limbo/purgatory place. He finds out that most of the morals and designs we lead our lives by are all bullshit. He gets a little more pissed off when he finds that despite leading what he would define as a good wholesome life, he might actually be screwed.
As yet untitled project #1 - This mostly based around my own experiences with a relationship I had not too long ago. I haven't really worked out a structure yet, but it shouldn't be too hard because I lived it! Although I’ll need to add in a few things to spice up the story and give it a bit of an edge so it doesn't turn into another run of the mill chick flick!
As yet untitled project#2 - When I was deprived of sleep for the most part of the other week, I was in one of those surreal states you often get into when you've gone without rest for a long period of time. You know the type of thing, you feel like you’re in a David Lynch film. Well in the short space of time I spent feeling like a character in Eraserhead I thought I might try and make something that was quite Lynchian. Again I haven't really worked out the specifics, I've just got a rough idea of story and mainly a lots of avant-garde editing and camera styles.
Hopefully I’ll be able to make all four but I’m not holding my breath, I'll get them all made at some point though.
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