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Anne Lisbeth part 1

Hi!

The first instalment of The Scandinavian Project is complete!

You can watch 'Anne Lisbeth Part 1' on 'YouTube' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViQzZrRr5oU

The first theme for the Scandinavian project was simply 'Experimental,' and I decided to approach that as a narration of a lesser-known, more disturbing Hans Christian Andersen story. However, it is only a 'part 1' at the moment, as I decided it had more impact as a short, snappy film rather than a longer one. The second part is coming.

'Anne Lisbeth' was also part of a challenge to produce a film in 2 weeks. I would have rather it taken even less time, ideally a week - but fitting in around actors meant the time period had to be increased. The storyboard only took 3 days, and so did editing - the rest was filming or waiting for actors to be free. This was totally fine though since none of them were being paid!

Further, I didn't have access to any kind of boat or ship, so I simulated a boat's movements in the way I shot the boy and the skipper, and always shot from a low-angle.

Since the story itself is not mine, I put lots of effort into the production - not just to create a dutiful dedication to Andersen, but also to make sure my abilities as a filmmaker were being shown to the fullest.

I've dabbled in narration as a technique in 'Jeremy Wren,' but it wasn't originally going to be a feature.. I did it to increase the duration as the film had to be a certain length. In a 'Directors cut' there would have been a lot cut! All jokes aside though, I did end up really loving getting to do a freeze-frame and then have the character snap back into a worrying reality. Contrastingly, I knew from the get-go that this would be a narrated piece, and Emily did a beautiful, haunting job! Her podcast experience came in handy here, and here is a shameless plug for her podcast: http://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-bpf9z-679ce1

Sound played a major role in 'Anne Lisbeth.' The 's' on 'stunted' is amplified by the 's' sound of the scissors cutting a plant, the plant representing the boy, and how Anne Lisbeth (spoiler) cut his life short with her decisions. The spitting, fizzing sound as the candle went out was also to amplify, but only this time it was in relation to the son's spirit being extinguished. The lack of sound on the shot where a girl says "b*tch" is just as significant as the shots where sound is amplified though, as instead the idea of Anne Lisbeth's distance from distasteful language/situations is being amplified - further contrasting her son's situation.

Contrasts and mirror images were also a theme I wanted to show through the mirror-style shots of Anne and the Son's eyes. I made the son be closer as the audience should be closer to the boy, and have sympathy for him. Speaking of shots of the boy, I never had his face or body in full shot, as I wanted an element of the character's 'ugliness' to be in the audience's mind. Plus, the actor is actually very handsome!

I gave Anne lots of warm colours in shots of her in the editing process, showing her comfort and 'cosiness' in her life, and contrastingly gave her son cold blue/grey tones to show his discomfort. On a less artistic note, I also increased the redness of the blood that I splashed on the narrator in the editing process, as the water/golden syrup/flour/food colouring cocktail didn't really give the colour required.

As Emily will concur, the most fun part was splashing 'blood' on the narrator.

As for the general feel of the film, the majority of the shots aren't moving (apart from the fact that some are shakey-cam), and this was because I wanted a slightly play-like feeling to the props and actors. Additionally, the disturbing vibe that was supposed to be virtually instantaneous is inspired by David Lynch's work.

Thank you so much for reading, and I really hope you enjoy the film,

Blink.Whiskers


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