Conversation with my Tutor
My intitial idea was to create a short film with live actors composited into a CGi world. However, over the past year I have been having bad problems with my arms and hands, making using my computer very painful, and so I have begun writing and thinking of narratives stories instead of computer graphics based visuals. To my suprise, writing follows a similar creative process for me as computer graphics: I have an initial idea which deforms and develops and comes alive as I work and refine and iterate through it. As such, for my final project, I want to make several short films that use no CGi and instead rely entirely on the script and direction for their successess.
After explaining this to my tutor, Anna, she explained that the final project must be just that: a final project and not a portfolio of work, and as such I should focus on one film and do it really well. After considering this I have decided I want to shoot 3 seperate films, all of which can be viewed in sequential order and the narrative and themes will continue and be expanded on with each film. My hesitation to make one single film is: the idea I have for the last of the 3 films is very complicated and ambitious and if I got into it without having tested the ideas on a smaller scale first I will make innevitable mistakes. Therefore, the first two films will test visual ideas from the final film and will set up the characters, world, themes, and context of the last film. This means any mistakes will be made in the first two lower stakes/smaller scale films and the final one will be as good as I can make it.
Themes
The purpose of these films is art. The ideas do not stem from specific issues but rather they are ideas that have come to me and I want to create. This being said, working backwards, there are some themes central to the narratives that are very clear and important. The films will use Artificial Intelligence based technology and ideas to explore what it means to be alive: is it enough just to be breathing or is there more to life.
Film 1 – Waves of Sorrow
The first film will be the most simple: a husband, Lewis, and a wife, Katy, will have a confrontation in their living room. It will be revealed that some terribe accident has happend to their daughter, and they are terrified for her. Throughout the film ocean waves will be projected across the room, creating a sense of the collosal weight of the tragedy for the parents, and will represent the waves of grief that relentlessly rush through them.
This film establishes characters and contexts.
Film 2 – The Briefcase
The film will be shot entirely in outdoors locations. Everything will be shot at night and use car headlights to light it. The sets will be created with a table and chairs and a lamp. The film opens on an evil and powerful man with a strange contraption on his head sitting at his table in an ancient forest at night. The wife, Katy from the first film, will arrive and he will explain to her she must retrieve a stolen briefcase for him and kill the thief, but will not reveal its content. It is implied Katy has worked for him for a long time, and that she kills for money. Katy accepts and leaves with half her money, the rest to be collected after completion of the job. As she is leaving the man mentions her daughters accident, and there is sub-context that he was involved. After she has left, the man makes a call and tells the receiver to follow Katy as she will lead them to the briefcase, before killing her and the thief and retrieving the briefcase. The assasin, who also wears a contraption on his head, hangs up the phone and follows Katy to her home on a huge moor, covered in grass that moves in waves as the wind passses. In her home is her husband, Lewis from the first film, who holds the briefcase. Katy explains to him she is being followed, and when the assassin arrives, they disarm him. The assassin appolagises, and reveals it was he that is responsible for their daughters accident as revenge for the briefcase. Katy removes his contraption and he dies. Katy returns to the man with his briefcase. He feigns happiness at his return, but she kills him and removes his headpiece and uses it to open the computer in the briefcase.
This film alludes to the use of AI technology and reveals Katy’s abilities and raises the stakes
Film 3 – TraceCorp