Looking back + more references

Back during the production of my A-Level film 'Aphelion' I was very inspired by the photography of Cindy Sherman and I ended up setting up my shots in ways that were reminiscent of her most iconic images and a few from the Untitled series. I've been inspired to frame some of my shots after her work again for this production and I feel like I can relate the style and themes of her work to my piece.

'Aphelion'

Cindy Sherman 'Untitled'

Projection scene visual references

I've arranged to shoot the projector scene in the TV studio this Friday so I've decided to get together some examples of the 'look' I'm looking to achieve in this scene. I loved this shoot by photographer Dennis Auburn, titled 'Aura'.
I'm very inspired by the framing of the subject and how the projector turns her into something akin to a blank canvas. This brings me back to a point I made in an earlier post about the idea behind this scene. I want Lucy's physical body to be acting as the canvas and the images shown on the projector become the paint to tell the story.

Shooting Day 1 + new ideas

Apologies for lack of posting, inspiration has been dry lately but today I wrapped my first day of shooting and with that came a bunch of new ideas.

A couple of stills from the day. Initially I thought the shoot would be a disaster since it started to absolutely pour down with rain when I left to go meet my actress, but luckily that passed within the hour and we were able to get on with shooting. What I shot is going to be a part of the series of cutaways that make up the bulk of my film, showing Lucy in various locations or situations that depict her state of mind. I shot around the Lagan toe path and Botanic Gardens so I got a good range of urban and natural locations which looked really good on film.

One of the new ideas I had was to have the monologue read in Spanish and have English subtitles. I thought this would be interesting and unexpected (unless you've read this blog of course) and I've never done anything like this before. My actress is bilingual and speaks perfect fluent Spanish so she's agreed to translate the monologue for me.

All in all a successful day. My next step will be shooting in the studio for the projection scene which I've gathered a fair amount of footage for and a few reference images to acquaint myself with how it can be done effectively.

The Cast

Elena Kohanoff in the role of Lucy

Height: 5’4”

Age: 20

Classically trained singer and dancer, amateur actress.

The Pitch

So last week I pitched 'Cherries at Noon' to my tutor, and overall I think I did well and I'm pleased with how I performed. I started off by explaining the story of the film and then went on to discuss specific scenes I was excited to shoot and the various styles I wanted to incorporate.

I saw my preparation for the film to be a decent selling point, having prepared two mood boards for my piece and brought a profile of my actress and a fully developed script. Aside from the positives, there were concerns that maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew with this production, and I can see why that can be said. It's my first solo project in over 2 years so I myself also had concerns myself about whether or not this would work out. Having weighed up the pros and cons and the size of the production, I'm confident that I can make this happen.

Another concern was the continuity between the scenes. I had brought up how I wanted no two scenes to be similar, so there were concerns over the continuity, but I reassured that there would be a core-like line running through each scene, so while many would be in various styles, they would still connect and compliment each other.

Photos of my mood boards to come!

Dogme 95

The Dogme 95 rules 
1 Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in 
2 Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed 
3 The camera must be hand-held; filming must take place where the action takes place 
4 The film must be in colour. No special lighting 
5 Optical work and filters are forbidden 
6 No superficial action (No murders, weapons, etc.) 
7 No temporal or geographical alienation. 
8 No genre movies 
9 The aspect ratio must be 4:3, not widescreen. 
10 The director must not be credited

The main idea + what I need to do now

Okay so I've settled on a final idea for my final film... Finally. Having gone through various films ranging from fantasy, psychological horror to post-apocalyptic zombies, I've decided on the recovery of depression. My film follows a young woman's reflection on her recovery, discussing her hopes and dreams and the difficulties she has in reaching out to people. It is a poetic, visual piece inspired by arthouse filmmaker Lars Von Trier, with a big focus on imagery and juxtaposition. 

Now that I have a script and most things mapped out including an actress, I need to do a read-through of my script with said actress, which I am organizing as I type this. By doing a read-through I'll have a better idea of how the monologue sounds on film and I can decide what to cut or to add in anything else for a better flow.