- Outline, briefly, how your approach to your current production work differs from your experience of pre-production at AS.
I have matured vastly in terms of my approach to this years production work, developing and experimenting with a variety of styles and focusing specifically on the subject of Surrealism. I feel that in the previous year I was not as organised, knowing that I was going to produce a thriller - yet was slightly confused about the narrative structure and overall plot. I produced a stylised, art-house piece which I feel will benefit me in terms of capturing an artistically driven piece, which is heavily influenced by Salvador Dali - I am definitely more focused in my A2 production in terms of researching well into my desired subject, themes, and character developments - with interesting use of symbolism which will feature in my short film.
- What decisions have you made about the narrative structure of your short film. How has your thinking about narrative moved on since Year 12?
In terms of the narrative structure, due to my short film piece being influenced heavily by Surrealist motives - I will have to depict a disjointed image, therefore there will not necessarily be any specific narrative. The piece will be influenced by films such as Dali and Bunuel's Un Chien Andalous, they emphasise the tenuously related images which have underlying sub-conscious meanings. The narrative aspect perhaps could be emphasised by my using of The Persistence of Memory by Dali as the main inspiration; it features a male who is heavily obsessed with the concept of time - yet when is taken to a dream state we see that memories overpower these obsessive feelings. The narrative is therefore disjointed, we are aware of perhaps flashbacks which are inspired by the dream - or are they a reality? We cannot tell. I want to emphasise the irrelevance of time by showing clocks, yet one second later these clocks will have melted - in the space of a few seconds, a difference of shots. This is then up to interpretations of the viewer. It is relevant that my previous thriller film opening also represented the use of disjointed scenes, which emphasised the unsettling horror of the characters past, with alternating flashbacks as the narrative changes from present to past. I would like to develop upon this, confusing the audience - we see the character asleep; is this dream state a future or is it a previous memory? The elements of Surrealist cinema are creative, with no rules or guidelines as to how it should be created. This is how I feel that my short film will be heavily artistic and not necessarily concerned with following a certain narrative; which is similar to my thinking in Room Mate created at AS.
- To what extent could the short film form be considered a discrete genre?
Surrealism is what heavily spurs my creations and my short film this year - audiences will be able to discover the depths of surrealist cinema and motives, which I will depict with the inspiration taken from the famous painting by Dali. This is an genre of it's own, a movement, perhaps even a political view. The genre of my film will not be particularly a thriller, a comedy or a RomCom - it perhaps could be a combination of everything. This 'genre' will be the basis of my short film, and I will make sure to manipulate audiences with artistic and challenging use of mise-en-scene and shots.
