FILM: The Disturbance
ROLE: Writer and Director.
This weeks film was to do with sound scape, so our restrictions had us not being able to use the sound captured through the camera, how we would normally do it with a boom pole and also no dialogue was aloud. The sound design had to be captured externally or added in post production after the all the scenes are filmed. This was a very interesting task as really we had to tell story through visualisation and also audio/sound design the give the audience a feel of whats going on.
Since the very beginning of my journey with this module, I’ve been craving the opportunity to actually do something more artistic behind the camera, especially in relation to formulating an idea from the ground up. So I put myself forward for the role of Writer/Director. The group were okay with that and the rest of the group were assigned to their own roles.
After we got the full rundown of our task. We location scouted in a beautiful area with a woodland environment that had a fast flowing river and also a bridge. I was already starting to piece together the idea in my head, whilst also beginning my partnership with the Cinematographer so I told him a brief outline of the idea I was thinking of so he could draw up some rough story boards.
Once back from location scouting, I immediately began my preparation by coming up with a story treatment, like a brief outline of what I had thought of earlier on in the day at the location. The first thing that came to my mind was of someone escaping from unknown captors or entities of some sort. This would fall in line with the no dialogue restrictions, as the one and only character would only have to be shown escaping through the woods trying to escape while the sound design would be focused in the distance giving chase to the escapee.
I arranged a meeting with the Cinematographer to sit down a realise it on paper whilst also providing a rough first draft of a script. He then took the script home and prepared the story boards for the film, whilst I prepared myself in the direction of the lead actor during the shoot.
The day of the shoot finally came, with the weather predictably terrible, it was wet, damp and even some of the surrounding areas we would have to film were partially flooded. I knew this would be my biggest challenge yet during the course of this module. But I actually thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, I worked very closely with Tayjib(Cinematographer) and Pettrus(Lead actor). Mainly to make sure I was happy with the shots and to get as much coverage on the day for comfort in editing. We stuck to our initial story board but also came up with some extra ideas on the day of the shoot which enabled us to capture some interesting shots of the surrounding areas. I learned a hell of a lot from Directing by my approach to dealing with actors and trying to get the best possible performance out of them for the camera, but whilst also listening to their own ideas to really try and make the character as authentic as possible.
The Editing process came next, this was putting the jigsaw together and making it as cohesive as possible. There were a few hick ups along the way with editing with disagreements within the group in regards to how a scene were the main character falls into a large puddle and we realised that there was a lack of coverage for this sequence so we had to improvise and ultimately had to use footage we didn’t want to but we blurred it out in editing to make it look like the character was dazed from the fall.
On reflection I fell like I done the best I could have done with this task as Writer and Director. I do feel though that of course there is lots of room for improvement especially in my ability to make sure I get all the shots I need. I ‘m definitely sure I will take a lot away from this and this has only improved my skills.
Diet Coke Productions 