Tag: assignment films

A4: Sound Spaces – ‘We are all figures (in a landscape)’

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‘We are all figures (in a landscape)’ (2019)
Running time: 3′ 00″

 

Brief: To make a film that explores sonic atmospheres and perspectives

  • The goal is to create a strong sense of place, to capture the visual and sonic character of a location.
  • Write a story that is simple and requires several locations.
  • Use a variety of sound ideas in your script – a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds: voice over, music, subjective sound, objective sound.
  • The story must explore different perspectives – things happening in the foreground and the mid-ground as well as distant events in the background.

Summary

The concept behind this moving image is the idea that we are all figures in a landscape – we exist, live our lives in a variety of different ‘landscapes’; both external physical landscapes through which we move, and internal conscious/subconscious landscapes within our mind.

I decided to explore this idea through a very simple narrative – a man wakes up from a dream, which leaves an impression on him as he travels to work the following day.

In keeping with the assignment brief to create a moving image with a strong sense of place that explores the sonic atmospheres and perspectives of several different locations, I set out to make something in which the story is also expressed within the film’s soundscape.

I drafted a script with five locations, each with a different a sense of place.

I then defined the sense of ‘space’ that was unique to each of the five locations:

  1. The Hellfire Club – a dark, shadowy space
  2. Bedroom – a silent, restful space
  3. Wilderness – a mystic, beautiful space
  4. Tram – a solitary, introvert space
  5. City – a busy corporate space

Having defined the sound spaces I would be using within the moving image, I then began experimenting with various ways of representing the visual landscapes and sonic landscapes.

 

 

List of references

 

 

A3: Conflict – ‘Mother and Daughter’

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Password: PeterS

‘Mother and Daughter’ (2018)
Running time: 10′ 51″

Format: DCI 4K
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Camera: Sony PXW-FS7
Lenses: Samyang Cine Primes 24mm, 35mm, 85mm

Brief: Write and shoot a short narrative film.

  • Write the script. Begin by making it very clear what the conflict is and developing the story by showing the main protagonist attempting to overcome or solve the problem.
  • Use a variety of locations to give the film some scope.
  • Storyboard the film, making detailed notes on eye-lines, screen direction and the action-axis.
  • Your narrative must apply the rules of continuity editing.
  • You must show a clear understanding of and extensive use of editing techniques in this film: empty frame, match-on-screen, movement wipe, POV etc.
  • Be sure to shoot to a high standard. Aim for perfection.

The idea for this story was inspired by an anecdote on the Humans of New York website, in which a mother told how, on discovering a letter saying her daughter had missed the application deadline for university, served the letter up for dessert after dinner, and they had started arguing.

Please see my detailed discussions on how I found and developed this story in my blog posts ‘Assignment 3 – finding and developing the story’ (Salisbury, 2018) and ‘Assignment 3 – screenplay’ (Salisbury, 2018), including how I gathered potential ideas, developed the story for ‘Mother and Daughter’ through log-line and step outline, and drafted several versions of the script.

There are two glaring errors in the film.

The first error occurs towards the end of the car sequence (01:44 – 02:02) in which the daughter gets out of the car and crosses the road to the school gate. This was filmed as a single master shot. I cut this part of the car sequence to show the daughter getting out of the car and crossing the road, an angle on the mother watching her daughter cross the road through the car window, then back to the daughter entering the school gate.

In hindsight, I now realise that I should also have filmed a POV shot from the mother’s perspective inside the car looking out, back at the daughter as she walks through the school gate. This would have put the viewer directly into the moment, through the mother’s subjective perspective. It would also have created a far more cinematic sequence of edits than simply cutting back to a very weak end segment of the master shot.

The second error occurs in scene 5 (05:31 – 06:12), in which the mother tells the daughter her father will be calling by to collect some things. This was the first dialogue scene we shot for the film and I was still finding my feet directing the actors. I had begun the day by filming non-dialogue scenes so as to help the actors settle in to the location and feel at ease with their roles. Lydia, who plays the mother, has both stage and TV acting experience. Leila had no experience acting for camera before making this film, other than a single class as part of her performing arts course last year.

Visually, this scene feels too static and a little awkward. In hindsight, I should have given Leila something to ‘do’ while delivering her lines, such as pouring herself a glass of water. Also, the framing feels too tight. A wider shot would have worked better here, with a slightly lower camera position to reduce the amount of kitchen counter in the foreground, and placing more emphasis on the actors’ performances rather than on the chopping of the vegetables. Maybe using this as the establishing shot and then cutting to medium shots as the conversation develops would have given the scene more life.

Fig. 1

Both of these errors could have been avoided. Adding the POV shot in scene 2 and giving the actor some screen business in scene 6 would have improved the overall feel and flow of the film.

Several shots in ‘Mother and Daughter’ where designed in response to films I have seen recently. For example, I was particularly interested in the way Kurosawa had framed characters in two separate rooms within a single shot in The Bad Sleep Well (1960). This gave me the idea of using a similar composition in scene 5, to show the daughter arriving home and seeing her mother in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Using a composition like this enabled me to show the two characters in separate rooms simultaneously. It also enabled me to draw the viewer’s attention to the daughter’s expression. I closed the scene with a push focus, from daughter to mother, drawing the viewer through to the next room, preempting the next scene in the kitchen.

     

Fig. 2 & 3

When storyboarding the film, I was continually thinking about how I would edit shots together.

For example, in the final shot of scene 7 and the first shot of scene 8 I designed a very specific cut between two shots of the daughter, where she sits up on the bed and where she is sitting at the dining table (06:30 – 06:52).

   

Fig. 4 & 5

In the first shot, she starts from a lying down position and moves into a sitting position, ending up in the right third of the frame. In the following shot in which the two characters are at the dinner table, she is still positioned in the right third of the frame.

This has the effect of holding the viewer’s gaze on Leila from the bedroom scene and into the following scene with her mother. Therefore maintaining the viewer’s attention on the daughter’s expression, out of one scene and into the next. So as we cut of one scene and into the next, our attention is already on the daughter.

This has demonstrated to me how easily you can manipulate the viewer’s attention within frame and drive the emotional emphasis of a scene forward in a particular way.

I also looked at ways of introducing visual motifs into the film. One idea I had was through the use of glass. Something which the Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, for instance, uses to great effect in Decalogue (1989) and Three Colours (1993-4).

I decided to place the mother behind glass twice, alone with her thoughts. The first in scene 2, after dropping her daughter off at school, and the second time in scene 3, after she discovers the letter in her daughter’s pocket.

     

Fig. 6 & 7

Both shots use window glass in similar ways to help add emotional depth to the respective scenes. The glass signifies a transparent barrier between the mother and daughter. In both cases, the mother is on the inside, with the outside world superimposed in reflection on the glass. It’s as if she is trapped inside her own world, while her daughter is on the outside, about to fly the nest.

With only one and a half days available for filming, I was conscious of the need to be fully prepared and to keep things moving on set.

Storyboarding was a key part of the process. I used A4 sheets of paper with five 16:9 shaped boxes down the right side and lines for notes on the left side. Each shot was sketched out and annotated with details on how that shot would be executed – e.g. shot types, pans, key lines of dialogue that occur in the shot, etc. A simple, but very effective visual road map of the film. The pages were inserted into a ring binder alongside the shooting script. Each shot was ticked off once it had been filmed. Shots that were omitted were given a cross.

Fig. 8

I also made copious notes in a large, soft covered journal bought specifically for this project.

Fig. 9

The journal was the first stage in planning the film shoot. On one double page per scene, I used it to plan blocking, camera positions and moves, to make rough sketches for the storyboards and for gathering reference images from other films to give a sense of how the scene will look.

I also used the journal for making notes on how I would light each scene.

 

Fig. 10

The journal was always kept close to hand when preparing each camera set up. Not only did this save time throughout the day, but it was also a great way of communicating how I was going to film each scene to my fellow crew member, who helped set up lights and operate the boom.

Interestingly, having already prepared and made notes on each shot in advance meant I could think quickly on my feet when things did not work out as planned and required a different camera position or lighting setup than expected.

Not only did I feel confident on set with my notes to hand, but the cast and crew seemed confident that things were organised and running smoothly.

The most complicated scene to shoot was Scene 8, in which the mother serves up the pavlova to her daughter and they argue. Although blocking the actors was very straightforward, finding the best camera positions for telling this part of the story was difficult.

The opening shot of Scene 8 was inspired by the dinner scene in Delicatessen (1991), which gave a nicely framed two shot of the characters at the table.

     

Fig. 11 & 12

From there I panned right, following the mother as she moves to the sink. This created an interesting composition, in which we see the two characters physically at odds with each other – the daughter in the lower left corner of the frame, with her back to her mother.

   

Fig. 13 & 14

Building up the scene in this way enabled me to use the kitchen counter as a metaphorical ‘obstacle’ between the two characters, across which they argue.

My choice of lenses for the film was based on a tip the Irish film director Ronan O’Leary gave me a few weeks ago while attending a filmmaking course in Dublin. He said, when using 35mm movie cameras you only need to use three lenses: 35mm for wide shots, 50mm for two shots and 85mm for close ups.

Transposing these focal lengths to the sensor size inside my Sony FS7 camera, this equated to the Samyang 24mm and 35mm lenses for the wide shots and two shot/medium shots respectively, and either a 50mm or an 85mm for the close ups. For close ups I decided on the longer of the two, as it gave a more intimate feel to the close up shots and threw more of the background out of focus.

This was very helpful advice when it came to selecting which lenses I would use in the film. Using three primes lenses for specific shot sizes seems to have resulted in consistent results visually and helped to give ‘Mother and Daughter’ an overall filmic style. A style that is appropriate to the film’s genre and content.

Most of the interior scenes required additional lighting. For this I used two Astra 1×1 LEDs, one as key light the other as fill, to help enhance the ambient lighting in the room in which we were filming.

In Scene 5, for example, we used two LED lights to help enhance the available daylight within the hallway. The first LED was placed in a room off the hallway to throw light into the far end of the corridor in order to light Leila as she entered the house and took off her jacket. The second LED was placed in the kitchen pointing back at the hallway, providing key light on Leila’s face when she stands in the doorway.

     

Fig. 15, behind the scenes Scene 5, and Fig. 16, behind the scenes Scene 8.

In Scene 8, we used two LEDs to enhance the available light coming from the practical lights in the dining area. Lighting this was fairly straightforward. First I exposed the camera for the practical light in the corner of the room, so as not to overexpose the light bulbs. I then added a key light, positioned near the practical light, to raise the exposure a little on the actors faces. Finally, I positioned the second LED on the other side of the camera and added some fill light to reduce the shadow area in the actors faces. This combination of practice lights and LEDs resulted in a natural looking interior night shot.

One thing that struck me about making this film was how wonderfully fruitful collaboration can be. Once I had written the script I decided to step back and give the actors room to make the characters their own. Rather than dictate a rigid vision of how I thought they should be on screen, I wanted to let the characters take on a life of their own. Trusting the actors with the characters has resulted in very authentic performances.

Also, on my suggestion at the script read through, Lydia and Leila created backstories for their characters, which generated some very interesting discussion during rehearsals on who the characters were, what they were like and, more importantly, what the dynamic between them was like.

One of the unexpected outcomes of allowing the actors enough room to build their own characters was the music I have used at the beginning and end of the film. It was great to discover that Leila was also a musician and that she wrote her own songs. While filming her scene in the daughter’s bedroom, she sang one of her songs on camera for us. When it came to editing the film, I was delighted to find that the song’s lyrics and style were a perfect fit for the story. So I decided to include Leila’s own composition rather than use generic music from a stock library. This has added greatly to the overall feel and authenticity of the film.

 

List of references

Salisbury, P. (2018) ‘Assignment 3, finding and developing the story’. Peter Salisbury Moving Image 1 Setting the Scene, August 25, 2018 [blog] At:  http://petersalisbury.com/movingimage/settingthescene/assignment-3-finding-and-developing-the-story/

Salisbury, P. (2018) ‘Assignment 3 – screenplay’. Peter Salisbury Moving Image 1 Setting the Scene, September 4, 2018 [blog] At: http://petersalisbury.com/movingimage/settingthescene/assignment-3-screenplay/

 

List of illustrations

Fig. 1 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 6.

Fig. 2 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 5.

Fig. 3 – Screenshot, The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Dir. Akira Kurosawa.

Fig. 4 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 7.

Fig. 5 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 8.

Fig. 6 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene

Fig. 7 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene

Fig. 8 – Storyboards for scenes 6 and 8.

Fig. 9 – Journal, notes for scene 2.

Fig. 10 – Journal, lighting notes for scene 5.

Fig. 11 – ‘Delicatessen’ (1991).

Fig. 12 -Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 8.

Fig. 13 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 8.

Fig. 14 – Screenshot ‘Mother and Daughter’, scene 8.

Fig. 15 – Behind the scenes, scene 5.

Fig. 16 – Behind the scenes, scene 8.

A2: Creating atmosphere – ‘Ataraxis’

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‘Ataraxis‘ (2017)
Running Time: 2’ 14″

Camera:  Sony PXW-FS7
Lens:       Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8

Brief:  Create a short film with a strong sense of atmosphere and feelings.

  • Choose an everyday scenario and an atmosphere or mood in which to represent it.
  • Storyboard a short sequence.
  • Include diegetic sound and music or any non-diegetic sound.

For this assignment I decided to take the everyday scenario of someone taking the dog for a walk and the mood of tranquility in which to represent it. My initial response to the assignment brief was to create a straightforward linear narrative showing a character leaving the house with her dog, walking along the pavement to the park, where she plays with the dog, before returning home again.

I started out by looking back at the work of two moving image practitioners whose work I had been inspired by on the course so far, Jonas Mekas and Doug Aitken. I particularly liked the way in which Jonas Mekas captures everyday situations in his film ‘As I was moving ahead occasionally I saw brief glimpses of beauty’ (2000), a film diary spanning thirty years, in a blur of images, shifts of thought and bits of music. Combined with his gentle, meditative narration, the film has a very poetic feel.

By contrast, Doug Aitken adopts a more cinematic approach in his films, which are often designed for multi-screen installations in galleries. What I particularly liked about ‘Black Mirror’ (2011), for instance, was the way in which Aitken explores the alienation of people in non-stop motion, through the fragmented stages of the character’s journey.

As a result of looking back at these two films, I decided to adopt a more poetic approach to my assignment film rather than follow a straightforward narrative.

I began brainstorming ideas based on tranquility. First by recalling places where I felt tranquil, such as lakes, cathedrals, libraries and beaches, which provided me with a range of possible locations for the film. Then by playing with the idea of solitude and its various manifestations.

During my research I discovered a recent article in the online edition of The Atlantic magazine by Brent Crane about the virtues of solitude, which offered an interesting view on the benefits of solitude in today’s hyper-connected world.

Logbook 2, pages 169-170

 

Logbook 2, pages 171-172

I also liked the look and sound of the word ‘ataraxis’ (meaning ‘to be free from stress; serene’), which I discovered while brainstorming ideas around the mood of ‘tranquility’. It was a word I had never heard of before and thought it might make a good title for the assignment film. So I decided to re-imagine what I had found so far with the word ‘ataraxis’ in mind.

Logbook 2, pages 175-176

As a result of this research, I decided to make a film that depicted a character’s journey from the distractions of everyday life to the tranquility of the beach where she finds refuge.

This gave me a vague sense of how the story might flow. So I went on to make a preliminary list of shots for the film. My aim at this point was to create a sense of the character leaving the urban world behind and seeking refuge in the natural world. So I decided to start the film with the character driving on the motorway and then cut to her arriving at the beach and playing with the dog.

   
   
‘Black Mirror’ (2011), Doug Aitken

An early sequence in Doug Aitken’s ‘Black Mirror’, in which the Chloe Sevigny travels by car through the desert, provided me with a template for the opening sequence of my film. In particular, the close up shot of the character profiled against the side window of her car and the shot with her reflection in the rear view mirror.

Part way through preparing for this assignment I went to an exhibition of Vivienne Dick’s films at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. What I found particularly interesting about her work is the way in which she uses the spoken word, often constructed out of extracts from texts by writers and philosophers. I was fascinated by this additional layer of sound, particularly in her most recent film ‘Augenblick’ (2017) and thought I would try this for myself. Drawing from a number of quotations by several writers and musicians talking about the importance of silence I had found on Austin Kleon’s blog, I constructed a short piece of text and recorded it.

Although I decided not to use it in the film, it was an interesting part of the process and is something I may return to again in the future.

The final stage in preparing this assignment was the storyboard. In preparing the storyboard I considered such things as shot type (ELS, LS, MS, CU), what should be included in each shot and what should be excluded, the composition of each frame in accordance with the rule of thirds, and the juxtaposition of shot types.

 

Logbook 2, pages 203-204

As part of my pre-production planning I checked out the high and low tide times for Dublin Bay. As I was looking for a vast expanse of beach, I decided to shoot the beach scene at low tide on Sandymount Strand, which is located on the south side of the bay overlooking the Poolbeg power station chimneys. I knew this location would provide a wide expansive landscape looking out across Dublin Bay.

 

Evaluation

I think the film partially achieves my aim of creating a mood of tranquility and depicting the character’s journey, mainly through the contrast that is established between the busy urban landscape and the open space of the beach.

The cross-cutting between the motorway and the empty beach, the noise of the engine and the silence of the landscape works well. As does the shot through the windscreen as the car moves onto the slip-road which suggest the transition from urban to natural landscape. The range of shots and their juxtaposition with each other also works quite well.

For example, the medium long shot of the character standing on the beach succeeds in showing the visual relationship between person and landscape.

I also managed to successfully isolate the actor within the landscape, as the beach became increasingly busy as the morning progressed. Finding angles in which people, children and other dogs were not in shot was important and required moving the camera to achieve the shots wanted. The character in profile in close up on the beach was lit with the sun to one side of her, giving her a rim light around her face and hair. Adding the sound effect of a curlew calling makes the shot of the bay feel more three-dimensional.

However, I don’t think the film works as well as I would have hoped. Although the tranquil mood is seems fairly clear, there are a number of things that did not work as well as I would have hoped. The opening shot of the motorway through the windscreen, for instance, does not have as much visual impact as I would have liked. Driving in the inside lane creates a visually weaker image compared to driving in the middle lane. Neither does it match with the third interior car shot, in which we are in the middle lane. The opening would also have been stronger if it had been filmed during rush hour, with the higher volume of traffic, the constant stop-starting and red break lights creating a greater sense of stress at the start of the film.

I also think the second part of the film is too static, compared to the movement in the motorway sequence. In retrospect, I think it would have been better to show the character walking the dog along the beach. This would have been an ideal opportunity to employ the subjective POV technique.

    

Cutting the shot of the character walking on the beach in half and inserting a handheld subjective POV shot of the dog and her view of the beach between the two new segments would have helped draw the viewer into the mind of the character.

A major technical failing was the inability to achieve a shallow depth of field in the close ups and medium shots. I was unable to achieve a shallow focus due to brightness of the direct sunlight on the beach. Even though the camera’s inbuilt ND filters were applied at their full 1/64 setting, this was still not enough to get the aperture down to f4 and below to achieve the effect I was looking for. Purchasing a set of ND filters for use in a matte box will prevent this occurring again in the future.

Several things did not make it into the final film. None of the initial ideas relating to tranquility, such as the lake, the library or the cathedral were used, as they did not seem relevant once I had decided on using the beach as the setting.

I had also planned to use music in the opening scene on the motorway and over the final closing shot. But in the end, I thought it interfered with the diegetic sound and the silence. In the final edit the contrast between natural sound and silence worked better.

Influenced by Vivienne Dick’s ‘Felis Catus’ (2016), which starts and finishes with shots of a cat sleeping and washing itself, I had intended to include a shot of a sleeping dog at the start of the film. But when editing, I did not feel it was necessary to preface the film with this image.

I was also considering adding a voice-over constructed out of quotes by various writers, similar to Vivienne Dick’s approach in her latest film ‘Augenblick’ (2017). Again, I decided against using this as I wasn’t happy with the resulting text and recording.

Although the finished moving image does not fully realise my vision for this assignment, working on this film has been a fascinating and rewarding experience. It has shown me that getting it right in pre-production is key to a film’s success, and that visual storytelling begins with a story I believe in. I’ve also discovered how easy and effective it is to add sound effects to a sequence, but also that using silence (no audio) can be effective too.  I learned how to look for ways to use colour in a moving image and that the different shot types perform specific functions and can be used to manipulate audience engagement. I also learned the importance of using tide tables and sun direction when planning a exterior shots.

There are a number of things I will do differently next time, such as spending more time generating alternative storyboard images and ideas, however odd they may first appear, and not stopping when I think I have finished exploring. I will also be prepared to be more playful in the early stages of developing ideas for moving images, and doodling with ideas as I’m drafting and re-drafting sequences of images for the storyboard. Also, if making a poetic film, I will try to follow a more association of ideas approach in much the same way as a poet works, rather than being too literal.

A1: Clothes film – ‘Blue Jacket’

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‘Blue Jacket‘ (2017)
Running Time: 1’ 42″

Camera:  Sony PXW-FS7
Lens:       Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8

Assignment 1: The clothes film

Brief: To make a short film (1 – 3 minutes) about the identity that is expressed in the clothes that people wear.

  • choose a variety of clothes
  • find a way to express something about the role or purpose associated with the clothes
  • use sound creatively and thoughtfully, both sound originating in the scene, and sound effects and music added later
  • the film can be narrative or non-narrative (poetic or experimental)

The idea of making a moving image that in some way related to a sense of ‘identity’ – qualities, beliefs, personality, looks, expression – that make a person (self-identity) was a daunting prospect. Although the topic of clothes provided an accessible way into the theme of identity, the challenge was to find an idea through which this theme could be expressed cinematically.

The aim behind ‘Blue Jacket’ was to explore the relationship between ‘identity and place’. Using this idea enabled me to express the role and purpose behind specific clothes and a particular environment in which they might be worn. In ‘Blue Jacket’ I wanted to show how human identity often pales into insignificance when seen in comparison to the magnificence of the planet upon which we walk. A solitary figure in a blue fleece jacket walks through a forest, dwarfed by trees. Even the upturned roots of a fallen tree are taller than the passing figure. The environment, a forest, puts human presence into perspective on the planet.

 

Poetic Form

I decided to turn the camera on myself and attempt to shoot the film in a non-narrative style. I hoped to achieve this through the use of colour, composition and movement (both camera movement and movement through the frame). For example, I was particularly drawn by the contrast in colour between the vivid blue jacket and the muted forest colours through which the jacket moves. I also wanted to juxtapose handheld shots from the viewpoint of the figure alongside static shots of the figure moving through the landscape. Although there is a vague beginning, middle and ending in the sequence of shots, implied in the figure fading-in and fading-out, the overall aim was to produce a poetic feel to film’s movement. Rather than telling a narrative story, the film was designed to capture a non-narrative, poetic moment.

 

Image

I realised early on that turning the camera on myself would constrain the way in which I would shoot the film. The most obvious constraint being that in order to capture shots of me moving through frame the camera would have to be on a tripod. So I decided to juxtapose two viewpoints within the film, one handheld from the figure’s POV and a second, more static viewpoint of the figure moving within and through frame.

As the weather was changeable and the ground muddy, I decided to take one lens, a Sigma Art 18 – 35mm f1.8 telephoto, rather than carry several cine prime lenses. Therefore eliminating the need to change lenses between shots in the forest. Using this particular Sigma lens is like carrying two prime lenses, 18mm and 35mm, plus you have the benefit of all focal lengths between.

Except for the opening two shots and closing shot, I used a shallow depth of field throughout the film. Most shots were exposed with an aperture of f2.8. Using a shallow depth of field in this way enabled me to direct the viewer’s eye to specific areas within the frame.

For example, in shot six, in which the camera looks down the length of a fallen tree and the figure moves across frame in the background, I focused on the green moss on the tree trunk in the foreground rather than on the moving figure. Placing the figure and the colour blue out of focus in the background in this way creates a more impressionistic shot. It also, though not intentionally, recalls the mysterious, out-of-focus images of ‘bigfoot’ seen walking through a forest in North America.

 

Sound

There are three layers of sound within the film: (1) the original audio recorded with the picture; (2) the birdsong; (3) the music.

The first layer of sound provides the audio originating in the scene, such as footsteps, sporadic bird call and other general sounds within the forest. This track was left in-situ to provide the natural synch sound for the film.

The second layer of sound consists of a louder, more emphatic level of birdsong. On hearing a cacophony of birdsong from a nearby group of trees, I turned on the camera and recorded a 60 second wild track, knowing this would be perfect for a bed of ‘natural’ sound running through the full length of the film. This track was layered above the first to enhance the overall audio environment portrayed within the film. I decided to fade this track in just before the picture and music to give a sense of things to come. I also decided to fade this track out a few seconds before the end of the film, just as the picture fades to black, to reveal a single birdcall on the first layer of sound.

The third layer of sound is the music. For this I selected a smooth, flowing, ethereal piece of music, to create a sense of mystery and awe within the film. The music track used is ‘Open Water’ produced by Sirus Music.

 

Editing

I began the editing process by assembling a rough cut using more shots than I knew I would actually need. The initial edit was sequenced roughly in accordance with my original notes and storyboard. I also overlaid the video timeline with a matte layer, giving the film a widescreen aspect ratio.

Then, much like a sculptor works away at a block of wood or stone to reveal their carving, I started to shape the film by removing unwanted shots, and trimming and moving the remaining clips into the final sequence.

The opening and closing shots in which the figure fades-in and fades-out of the forest was created by overlapping two clips on two separate video layers.

          

In the opening, for example, a shot of the empty forest was placed on video layer 1. Over this, on video layer 2, I placed a shot of the walking figure. A head-fade was applied to the clip with the walking figure, creating the effect of the figure fading into shot.