Over the summer I went on plenty of adventures that gave me a few ideas for my final film. So instead of bragging on what a good holiday I had I will just get straight stuck in:
What I want from my film:
- First of all I want my film to be entertaining, I do not want my audience nodding off 30 seconds into it.
- MEANING, one of the main things the uni has been ingraining into my brain the last two years is everything you product has to have a meaning or what's the point?
- And from meaning: the film has to be personal to me. My final film should represent me and what I'm all about and have to offer.
- INTERESTING: not for the audience... although of course important, more I have to chose a subject/character/whatever that I will enjoy creating for just under a year, if I don't have a passion for what I'm doing, again, what is the point.
The Rainbow and Cloud
One idea I have had for ages now was this little story of a Rainbow and a Cloud ... that basically fall in love... but now that I think of it, it's PAINFULLY cliché. Not only that I dropped all hope for this film when last year a 3rd year Eva Wagner produced a film about the Sun and Moon, although not the same still humanized versions of things that don't even have a beating heart. I was then thinking Mother nature but thanks to Fantasia 2000, I am staying well away from that.... also a pain there was a phoenix.
Dance
Over the summer I downloaded the Fiddler and the Roof soundtrack and I absolutely adore the fiddler and instrumental pieces'. Every time I listened I could just image a gorgeous group dance sequence. I then wondered if it would work with traditional Welsh Folk dance. But then I looked it up and the music is awful, and the dancing is slow and now half as fast paced and exciting as the Jewish dancing from Fiddler on the Roof. Again with my beautiful cliché mind I imaged a young teen girl who attended a dance class and had her eye on one of the boy dancers but never got partnered up with, then as time goes by and her dancing improves in a montage of danceography and finally is partnered up with him. In my defense it looked very pretty in my mind.
Festival
Over the summer I went to Beach Break festival and I adore festivals, the scene, the music, the camping. But did not know how to make a 3 min film about it? Minus documentary style. I couldn't think of any interesting situations that would entertaining to watch. I didn't really look much into the idea. Considering music would have been a big factor plus if I wanted the capture the true festival experience I'd have to animate crowds... no... so I just decided to leave it.
Winter Mother
My mum kept saying to me "make a film that everyone can relate to"... which is a lot easier said than done. Thinking about it, I was trying to think of something that everyone has and cares about. A Mother, grated this is not the case for EVERYONE but I would say a decent majority of people do love their mummies. Looking at this I trying to think how to put an interesting twist on the mother/child relationship. If it was a film about the relationship between a mother and her child I wanted it to be a sweet film, something that plucks the heart strings. I can't quite think where I got the idea from (possibly Game of Thrones, as they say Winter is Coming almost every episode) but I came up with the story that a child's mother was the embodied spirit of Winter. Meaning it is her job to welcome winter into the land, make it snow, touch things with frost etc. So if this human child's mother was the spirit of Winter, they would only get to see her once a year. So upon this, the film would have a montage of the annual reunion and separation of the mother and child and look at how they deal with it.
The Four Seasons
Sticking with the theme of spirits and seasons I then thought of all four seasons and if that would work? I came up with the plot of the four seasons that never meet each other but all four fall in love with a man that walks his dog through the woods. Each season tries to impress him with their season: Summer makes it too hot and the man hides in the shade, Autumn creates fast winds that twirls all the colourful leaves and makes the man run back home, Winter creates a never ending fall of snow and the man slips on the ice, and Spring blooms all the plants and wakes all the animals and the park is completely consumed by growth and wild animals and the man cannot pass the path. Basically each one fails to impress the man... and I wasn't sure how to end it and if it was a bit pointless... So far the meaning seems to be try your best and fail.
Autumn
A different approach to Four Seasons, instead of all four seasons just one, Autumn. Again similar to the last one she sees a man every year walking his dog in the park but every year is too shy to approach him. With years of just waiting and observing, one year something is different, he isn't walking alone, a young woman walks beside him. The next year the woman is pregnant and the year after that the man, woman and a pram are walking along the park and the Autumn spirit remains alone... like nothing ever happened. i guess the simple message of this is do nothing and expect nothing, but I didn't thinking I would enjoy making such a weak character and it does seem a bit boring... as literally nothing happens.
Ring
Over the summer I lost my most precious jewelery that I had had for years and has even dented my thumb as it has been there so long, I wore it every day but when I was swimming in the sea I held on to the safety rope and it graved across my hand and with it catching my ring and off it slid, I can still perfectly picture the shine of the last glimpses as it sunk to the bottom of the deep clear ocean. I was distort, one woman swimming by made her husband try to swim down and find it has he had goggles. No luck... no ring. My thumb is still indented where it used to be. Thinking of this as influence for a film, I was wondering if it would be a good concept for one? Everyone must have lost something valuable to them? I also think of what became of my ring? Is it still in the ocean? did a fish eat it? Wondering is anyone has found it? The journey of my lost ring? However I was adamant that my film will include and revolve around characters, so a story/journey of a lost object, although personal to me I don't think I would enjoy making that film.
Pond
Two sisters go for a walk in the forest and come across a swamp girl creature (not human). After a few visits the creature seems friendly enough until they discover the creature's favorite food is fresh young meat... human meat. The problem I seem to endless meet is how to end it? I came up with numerous endings from a giant chance scene to a fight scene to covering up the swamp entrance with a log. Nothing seemed to fit but I did look up all over the internet and couldn't find any swamp/lake/pond creature that was female. All were either animal like, gender-less or male.
Life Drawing
This was a simple little story of a young woman that on her lunch break went to the park and did some life drawing on a bench. She leads a simple life and mostly keeps to herself. Then at the end of the year all her drawings fall out of her bag that she had done, so while cleaning them up she notices she sees the same person on the same bench and sees she has kept a drawn life line of this person's year. As she looks through she sees that this person's life has deteriorated and with this knowledge doesn't know what to do with it? The next week she returns to the park and there as always is the person on the bench looking miserable, the young woman decides to approach the person with a open mind and a warm cup of tea.
From looking at all my film ideas I can see that there is a trend forming:
- It is character based, the story is about the characters rather than a situation.
- More than once I've come up with the trend of spirits or creatures, going along with a sort of mother nature theme
- Some ideas have no clear or any moral or message... need to work on that
- Originality - I knew when I was even a first year, coming up with an completely original idea was going to be tough
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