Synopsis : On a cold winter night, a young woman is in charge of a mission before daybreak.
About The Film
My last post featured a short film that I made, with close collaborators, about a mysterious character, in charge of getting a teddy bear and bringing it back to it’s rightful owner, a child.
Where The Idea Came From
A friend of mine, Jean-François Gauthier, had composed and recorded a few musical pieces. Three of them stuck with me and demanded to be used in a three part silent film. I couldn’t go against that even though I didn’t know how to make it happen. It was just obvious and all I had to do was expose myself to inspiration and wait for an idea to come in, accompanied by that special feeling that says : «This is a good one».
Not long after that, while sleeping, I had a dream about one of my friends and actress, Mariana Tayler, dressed in badass mode, bouncing around the snowy streets of a city. Kind of reminded me of RZA in Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog.
From that point, ideas started pouring in, and the element of giving back childhood to a kid who had been stripped from it, came into context. I have a pretty clear understanding of what this means to me, but when I can, I prefer to let the viewer decide what the details are all about.
Fantastic Elements
For this film, I felt like playing around with some elements that where not quite real, but symbolized reality. For example, instead of having the blood splattering everywhere, I chose to use a red light. Or instead of having a gun, she kills the man with some kind of special glove. As I am not much of a fan of presenting big violence in cinema, these ideas came from a desire to do violence differently.
Context Of The Shoot
And so I got a very small budget together, found the locations, rented some set decorations with the set decorator and got some friends to join. This was a small and ambitious shoot, on which we learned a lot.
Our battery powered equipment, including the drone, had a hard time during the outdoor portion of the shoot, as the temperature was pretty much fucking freezing. Thinking clearly and being focused on the creative and narrative elements of a movie can be affected when I have to wear many hats on a set.
My Final Thoughts
Once again, this was a beautiful example of friends coming together under tough conditions to make cinema. I obviously don’t want to repeat mistakes, but instead learn from them. Ambitious projects need a lot of resources. When you don’t have those resources, then the final product can’t fully honor the initial vision. I am not saying one can’t shoot until he gets the big bucks. What I’m saying is give yourself the chance to go all the way with your idea. So, if your funds are low, prioritize the realization of your low budget projects. That is my way of seeing it at the moment. I might also be totally wrong.
Thank you for reading. Merci de m'avoir lu.
Alexandre
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