Behold, The Collective.

My latest film-making feat, known in its triology as 'The Collective'. Enjoy, and please post feedback.

'The Choice'

'The Chase'

'The Charity'

Justification

My idea for the DepicT project is to create a series of short films, each with independent issues but all holistically similar. The general theme, if I had to give the series one, would be that it is a crime drama, seen from the victim’s perspective, as well as that of the alleged perpetrator and the individual investigating the crime, something that I’m not entirely has been done before, at least not in the way I plan on creating it.

            In the beginning the series began as the final film on its own, being orbited by other, separate ideas to include in my pitch, and the advice I got for making that film, ‘The Chase’, was to cut the familial connection as my tutor believed that there would not be enough time to make it clear that the murdered girl was his daughter. I, myself, thought that this wouldn’t be a struggle, so, against my tutor’s recommendation, I began rewriting the story to strengthen the fact that the girl was his daughter, while at the same time fixing my other ideas to be pitched. I later realised that one of my ideas had a similar vibe, as if it was another chapter in this story. Once I realised this, the third, but chronologically first, film came to me.

            I like to think that the series possesses a contextual relevance as crime is a daily occurrence in any city on the planet, everyone will at some point be affected by crime, and everyone will at some point be accused of a crime. Anyone who does not believe this is either in denial of the  national and international crime rates or lives in a closely guarded bubble. For this series the crime is murder, which reduces the scope, as far less people will be affected by murder in their lifetime. However, as a species, we are fascinated by death; This observation is strengthened by various multicultural occurrences, hence the number of “CSI” and “Law & Order” type shows, not to mention Professor Gunther von Hagens’ frequent televised autopsies. Death is such a common occurrence that Mexico celebrates it annually as the Día de los Muertos or, “Day of the Dead”. Therefore contextually speaking, I believe that creating this series would draw an interest from various demographics.

            In terms of available resources, this shoot will be extremely low budget, as the only necessary props, such as a knife and fake blood, are already available to me at no cost, with the only foreseeable spending being that of the taxi fare between locations, which is unlikely to exceed £10. The actors will be informed of this, under the pretence that the series will  provide them with good exposure and will be a beneficial move in their career

            The expertise necessary to produce the series is something I already possess, as I am more than familiar with using both the Panasonic 151 and the Edirol R-09 having used both various times in the past. I will also be prepared for the post-production treatment in Adobe Premiere Pro, having experimented with the majority of Audio/Visual effects in the previous, ‘Projected Visual’, project. In terms of sound, I have thought of three tracks that would work well with each of the films. A jazz number, Nicholas Payton’s cover of Chinatown,  to accompany ‘The Choice’ which will give it a film noir feel. I’d like Hans Zimmer’s Mombasa, from the film Inception, to play alongside ‘The Chase’ and as for ‘The Charity’ I wanted to use something ethereal. I originally thought that Clair de Lune would be good but will probably use Max Richter’ Autumn Music instead. I have requested permission from all of the artists and am awaiting a response.

            In relation to time, I’d like to mention that this entire series could all be shot on the same day, permitting roof access for ‘The Chase’, and I imagine that editing will take, at maximum, one day per film, however I can see it being drastically less time than that. Therefore production time is estimated at between four and five days, which seems like an especially short time to create three short films, but I have no doubt that these predictions are feasible.

More Depict Ideas

Treatment for 90 second Depict entry - “The Chase”

Plot- The film begins in black, with a voiceover [ ”How did I get into this”]. The shot is wide, in the centre is a man, running, towards the camera. When he reaches the position of the camera he jumps over it, and the camera follows him continuing to run. There are multiple shots of him running, none are more than 2 seconds. {A shot following him running up forest road filmed from a car would work well here}The shots take place in a vast variety of locations, from an urban city to a forest. Eventually he jumps over a wall, runs into a back door and sprints up stairs. He reaches the roof, the camera pans around him panicking with nowhere to go. He stops, walks towards the edge of the building. There is a POV shot of the ground below. Then a noise while the camera is extremely focused on his eyes growing wide. The next shot is of the roof door’s handle turning.

Need to work on voiceover so long weekend in store

Depict Ideas

Treatment for 90 second Depict entry - “The Cop”

Plot-      The film begins with an extreme close-up of a man’s face, half of his face is outside of the shot. The other half of the frame displays heavy rain. [VOICEOVER BEGINS]The man is smoking a cigarette and appears not to have slept in days. He throws the cigarette down and stomps it out. The camera is behind him on the floor as he does this, and follows him walking off. The shot changes to an establishing shot. We can see him from across a canal. The next shot is over the shoulder, then stops following him to observe a newspaper in the water, the headline reads “Teen Murder” or something similar. [Until now the voiceover has been focused on the corruption in the city. Now the man speaks of a young girl forced into prostitution and killed for disobeying her handler]. The camera focuses on the man’s pensive face, and then moves to a photo in his hand. The photo is of a young girl, there is a bloody finger print on it. The shot fades into a flashback. It is all one shot, filmed over the man’s shoulder, following him getting out of his car, walking into a crime scene, seeing the girl, falling to his knees and vomiting violently. [It is now clear that he is addressing someone in his narrative] The next shot is a silhouette of the back of a man’s head. The camera pans to show the full body of our protagonist. He is holding a gun In his right hand. There is a police badge in the other. The scene fades to black.

[“Which do I use?”]

A Start on The Context 2 Coursework

Today has been a productive day, filmed all our MALac scenes, did research into my network and kept the momentum long enough to research the moving image presence of the Midlands. I had heard about the Bang! short film festival last year but hadn't paid enough attention to it, and may be something I'll be interested in next year.

Another film festival I'd been told about last year was Mayhem. I was really interested in this festival but couldn't make the dates. This year I definately plan on going, if not for the entire event then at least a day or two. It seems like a great way of meeting people in the industry as well as seeing some great work from the horror genre.

Its a shame that the deadline date for the LSFF (London Short Film Festival) happens to be today, but such is life. However, planning for the final project is under way, with an actress showing interest and an actor very keen to make an appearance. I have high hopes for this year.