Whimperings
My final for Film Production, an abstract narrative originally conceived by my friend Sean and executed as a group project with myself and Adam. Some director's commentary about its conception should prove helpful: At the beginning of the semester everyone made short films out of found footage (Whatever previous students had left in the editing trim bins). It was a great creative exercise, and in a way what we set ourselves up to do with this project was replicate that experience by creating our own supply of disassociated images we could seek narratives in. The footage would relate to one of the three themes in Sean's original treatment: the campus with and without people, a man with a gas mask, and a vase. We did a lot of location scouting, scheduled as much shooting time as we were allowed (About 12 hours) and ended up with 15 minutes worth of 16mm footage (Not cheap, even before you consider the shipping or processing fees). Then we all split off and did separate editing jobs to submit for a final grade.
Now me, I was sick for a good third of the semester. The sort of sick where you lie awake at night imagining you can hear flagellants scourging themselves outside in the dirt, gasping in pain and ecstatic grief and praying in grit-toothed silence that their suffering might bring back those they have lost, while you cough and whimper and wish for a silence that may only come when both they and you are black and dead.
But I digress… Only, not too much do you see? I was too sick to help on the second day of location scouting and the first day of shooting, and so my creative focus meandered off, snagging on the post-apocalyptic imagery of the man in the gas mask which we shot on our second day, and on the hacking cough which wouldn't leave me then and has yet to fully even now. What I ended up with by the time I needed to turn something in was this piece, which I really like the shape of but which isn't properly done. (If you haven't already go watch the film and then come back and read what I think needs work)
There are three or four cuts that need serious tightening (Not the first one, maybe the last two). It needs a proper soundscape and maybe a touch of music, though I tried a few ambient pieces and found that nothing wanted to work. And lastly it does need to make just a faint bit more sense. Because it made perfect sense to me while I was editing it, and while I'm not about to take a functional abstract narrative and fuck it up with title cards or a voice-over I'd like to keep tweaking the visuals and sound until the sense of the story is a little more evident. So love it or hate it you should leave me some impressions or questions or whatsoever you wish in comments so that I can focus group the nurturing of my expensive little film baby.
(Anticipating the obvious question: What's it about Chris? It's about the wind, the peace it seems to lend to the reclaimed ground of the campus, and the fitful death with which it scoured the place long ago. It's about exploration; picking through the ruins to find the old memorial to the victims, and imagining what it must have been like to watch the beginning of the end.)