Category: Short Films.

This film is titled “Isolation and Connection” because that is what it’s about, namely, the duality of human contact and isolation shown in separate panels. I wanted to show most panels show a character alone on one side and two characters together on the other; the natural assumption is that contact is good and isolation is bad.

This video disagrees, and shows  variation in both ideas: in some clips the isolation is depicted as driving the unnamed character to despair and misery, for example through them rolling on the floor or putting head their head in their hands, while in other clips he is shown calmly reading a book. In some clips where two characters are together they are shown in explicit conflict, for example shoving or grabbing each other . One could say this is a duality of dualities, not all contact with others is good and right nor is all isolation wrong and cruel.

The only matching video clips are the ones at the beginning, where on one side the unnamed character is shown running away and another he is running towards us. The one of him running away shows fear, doubt, anxiety, mistrust of others and aversion to contact while the other panel showing him running at us could be interpreted as an antithesis to the above: curiosity and desire to connect to others, including the audience. Both panels, although they have only figure, imply the presence of others. 

The man running away and towards us where the only clips shot outside, the rest where shot in me and my parents’ apartment on iPads. 

The music was chosen and selected from a film I like from the 90s,  “The Devil’s Advocate”, used in the credits. I don’t care about the lyrics but the beats are ominous and dramatic but alluring and energetic without being annoying or needy.

The lack of colour was inspired by La Jetée, and reflects the contrast of the thematic dynamic of contact vs lack of contact; by the use of just black and white. The use of stills is intended to separate the eyes from the use of moving images. The eyes are intended to give a sense of contact, through the expression of emotion, even though there is only one pair of eyes. 

“Isolation and Connection” is one of my more unusual films, using black and white and still images to explore the contrast of mood and action. It is not intended to be a comfortable experience. In this I took inspiration from the claustrophobic atmosphere of Twelve Monkeys. 

For this project I focused on my personal feelings as a an aspirant writer, taking inspiration from places where I have lived and people I met, as well as from where I live right now. I used objects from my immediate surroundings, and words, to evoke those concepts and aspirations, as well as worries. 

I set the video to black and white with high contrast and had the words slide over the footage, like film credits. I chose a font that I found unusual and cool.

If I had more time I would like to include some special effects, perhaps with some blurring.

You can watch my short here.

This time I wanted to try out the graphics on Premiere Pro. So I decided to keep the concept really simple and just use a combination of soundtrack and graphics. I thought about using political speeches and ended up considering “The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin.

It was made in 1940, a time when the truth about what was really happening in Europe was not out. Nobody knew about the concentration camps or the extent of what was to follow. The US was still attempting to avoid getting involved, and even in the UK the politics were not what we now choose to remember.

In fact, the British government of the time said that it would outlaw this film’s exhibition in the United Kingdom, in keeping with the appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany. (Wikipedia. Friedrich, Otto (1997). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (reprint ed.). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0520209494.)

By the time production of “The Great Dictator” was finished the UK was at war, and all of a sudden, its theme was no longer unwelcome. I edited the speech to keep the relevant parts and keep it down to 60”, and I chose the concepts and words that Come to my mind when I think about politics.

I made an initial try, which turned out a bit messy because I had not really learned how to use the background and the titles. I put that aside and started plan B: same idea but more refined and nuanced, staying with the same colours and font throughout. 

Light made me think about the lack of it: darkness, depression, isolation. I started with the music “Nothing is gonna hurt you baby” by Cigarettes after Sex. I find this pieced music very atmospheric and emotional. Then I filmed my father walking away in a small space, moving away, and light changes occurring. I asked him to stay as emotionally blank as possible, to add an element of distance.

I used some footage of outside sunlight to contrast with the indoors, and chose just black and white to try to have a more homogeneous and cohesive film. I tried to relate to the music whilst editing, trying to create some rhythm to the edit and staying with the mood of the music.

This week’s 60 second film evolved from my initial plans to a quite different result. In the end, I had to rethink and adapt because of cost, time, and technical challenges, which I’m sure happen also in real life film projects.

I focused on the hand as protagonist of a horror narrative, linked to the knife crime crisis in London.

I tried to expand my knowledge of Premiere Pro by using new (to me) effects such as blurring around the edges and colour tints. In the film, we go from a red tint to a cooler, calmer one as the crisis passes.

Thinking about bodies and hands, I looked up how to say “The End” in British axing Language and included it as the last image.

The music I used is a cover version of “Midnight the stars and You” which I found on YouTube. The slightly weird singing makes it creepier, and I liked keeping the reference to ”The Shining”.

These were my initial thoughts:

I want this film to be created though a calculated, balanced mix of stop motion animation and real life.

The underlying theme would be body horror, not unlike the works of David Cronenberg, tough I want to have limits. There will be a narrative, but no narration, as I have seen experimental films work without having to lay every detail out in plain English. I want to film the first scene in the garden near the main campus and the next scene in my bathroom.

It will follow an unnamed flesh-craving zombie and it’s struggle for identity.
This short film is meant to mess with the average viewer on a deeply psychological level, not unlike “The Shinning”, Eraserhead, American Psycho or Shutter Island. Another connection to those films is that some questions they raised, and this one raises, are meant to be left unanswered so the viewer can make their own answer.

Props:
A mask for me to wear, to make me appear near or past death. I could buy and put on special effects make up.
A heart or a lung (bought from a butcher at a cheap price) and stab it while someone films me.
Lychee, which I would eat while being filmed, so it would seem I am eating an eye.
Fake blood to put on the mask or the heart or lung I buy.

The film ends with the zombie choking on meat and dying, hence the title.

Scene 1 – a corpse lies in a garden, pale and unmoving. It turns to healthy person, alive but unconscious. The turn back into a corpse and their eyes open.

Scene 2 – the corpse walks into a bathroom and looks at a mirror. In mirror we, once again, we see a healthy, living body. The reflection raises a hand and we see the corpse raise its own hand. We then see a heart and then the heart is stabbed with a knife. We the corpse stabbing the heart and eating an eye (lychee). The corpse starts gaging and choking. It falls on the floor and writhes before dying. Again.

I will sing “Midnight, the Stars and You” and then add it to the film, in a deliberate and loving homage to the shining. I sing it because “the shining” is a well-known horror film.