Short Film

Freshly risen, crisp and cool: a Sunday morning a few weeks back came as the perfect backdrop to my first ever short film: Reverie.

The air whispered a soft, slightly raspy hello to the day as it weaved between the trees and through the nature reserve, (which is so wonderfully dotted with random exotic elements - including bamboo and Gunnera Manicata, (Giant Rhubarb)). A chorus of tweets bounded about but aside from that everything was still. Perfect, untouchable. Mine and Lucy's crunching sound trails and elated voices were the only disturbance to the serenity. Sleepy-eyes stunned by the sunlight, we were in as much a daze as the character in my short film is intended to be - discovering nature and their surroundings for the first time, (or at least feeling this way, with the sequence intentionally taking a surreal, dream style). 

I almost didn't shoot the film. I was scared when the task of a two minute short film glared up at me in one of my film studies AS classes and didn't know where to start. It was a new adventure and I had no idea what to do. It was the location that prompted my appetite for a dream-sequence and connection with nature, combined with a lucky time crunch of a mere 2 hours to shoot, before jumping on a coach to work.  

                       

With the intention of creating a sense of freedom and tranquillity for the audience, my film is intended to peel back the complexities of modern life and provoke looking introspectively instead. Influenced by directors, Angela & Ithyle's short film, "Journeys" for Louis Vuitton: I used a dream-sequence style, with a montage of shots being amalgamated to form a fluid progression of obscure events which form the skeleton of the narrative. 

Lucy's ethereal, sheer Topshop dress teamed with the chunky Dr Martin boots I hope conveys the absurdities of dreaming: inspired by an Alice in Wonderland-esque character. I love how there's a discordant feeling between these tough, urban boots and a pure white, lace-detailed dress which Lucy wears so beautifully.

I'm fairly pleased with what we managed to do in a mere two hours, (as well as the editing hours cutting together exactly the right parts), but it would be amazing to create something on a bigger scale too, with more locations and costume changes. It's made me excited to begin more projects using the beautiful rolling hills and nature of Devon, or perhaps, the red-rock sand and sea nearby. I can't wait.

See the short film here: