South Dusk Films film pitch

20/9/12 - Blog Update

In today's lesson we finalised the pitch, adding anything extra we needed, especially on the topics of camerawork and editing.

Blog Update - 18/9/12

Today I researched into shot techniques for our short film - we are at an early stage but it is more efficient if we begin to mentally storyboard the filming techniques.

Illusion - an exploration

Illusion is a short, 3-minute film, which offers an abstract interpretation of the topic of schizophrenia within the mind of a young girl. The film bases itself around a young girl walking through an initially bare forest, whilst a repetitive reverberated loop of a humming voice dominates the soundscape. 

The opening of the film provides an instant sense of unease; before even any form of visuals are visible, the echoed hum dresses a convention of fear, provoking a significant lack of understanding as the further contents of the film. Following, a single title, 'Illusion', blurs out from the screen, emphasises between the contrast of a black frame with white text. 

Illusion's DOP clearly possessed a true confidence in expressing the sense of confusion and fear within the film; especially so within the first few shots: initially we only spot unconventional bodily areas - feet, a hand, a shoulder. In a subtle sense, this intentionally lacks identity, leaving the audience in a state of unease. However, the saturated grading of the shots, which appears to highlight the luscious features of the grass and forest in a bright sense, contrasts with the darkness of the sound and action of the shots.  Perhaps this is a deliberate effect chosen by the director in order to further distort the viewer. 

Illusion's structure appears to lean on two halves - a more upbeat and bright first half, proceeded by a darker, both literally and metaphorically, second half. These halves are cleverly weaved together using a transitional wipe as the camera circles the girl's face and closes in on her hair, before opposing this, rather in a different location: a darker and more autumnal setting of the forest, demonstrated by a dark blue tinted grade and a lack of saturation. Here the focus of the photography seems very much to highlight a prominence of death; the leaves and the bare ground dominate the frames, acting as imagery to symbolise a more serious death - a death of the girl's mind?