No really let’s all be friends, that way world terror would come to a stand still, there will be no more violence and we can all sit in a field and drop acid while explaining our love for each other just because you can play the ukulele. A depressing reminder that this probably wont happen, but fear not for it is not all doom and gloom!
While slashing my way through assignment after assignment, I was faced by the next big chunk. However for this ‘level’ it required 2 players. After Dan told us that we had to work in groups the usual staring of eyes began to happen like a synchronized eye orchestra, looking for the right partner to pair up with, a lot like finding a girl to pull in the nightclub just without the crushing rejection. As for my self I found myself looking down, down into the abyss and the realization that I didn’t have an idea. Not that I couldn’t decided between a couple I mean no idea at all, none. This for a film maker is a problem, specially when a film makers being asked to produce a piece of work.
Scampering back to my computer I started to slowly put the assignment to one side and looked towards other assignment I had to finish off. I then happened to bump into Chris, both looking a little bedazzled we got talking, and then the magic moment happened. Chris asked for my hand, or more my brain (I hope that’s all.) As quick as you can say “Chris the deadline day is tomorrow and we have no film” we were working together, yes!
I had never worked with Chris before but for some reason it sure did feel like it, I think this was down to the working relationship we have as we are always keen on criticizing not just the films each other have watched but the films we make ourselves. Normally the same pattern occurs when we hate our own films but adore each others, so already it felt like we didn’t have to go through the bullshit of ‘getting to know each other’. Or so that’s what he thought.
We both decided that it may be a good decision to drink a beer together, by we I mean me and by a beer I mean plenty. Chris looked a little uneasy as first, I could almost hear the voice in his head asking “why?”, and it was a perfectly reasonable question. It takes me back when I was putting together my super-8 project with Jake, we live in the same flat so we hanged out for a lot of our time, resulting in many a drunk night both in and out on the town. However it became so clear to the both of us that these valuable moments were the building blocks of our project and final film.
Often finding ourselves talking about what we wanted to show, and more importantly why we wanted to show it. Sometimes I would mention an idea and Jake would question it, if it didn’t fit it was never brought up again, however if it was a keeper down it would go, badly written in my little brown book. From this we managed to create quite a beautiful bit of work even if I do say so my self, which I do, so back off!
We owe a lot to beer and to stop that now would be insane, Chris agreed to this and the date was set. Arriving back with my new film buddy we started talking about this and that, mainly consisting of the general music, film, games and both our times living in Cornwall. It’s funny, I don’t live that far away from Cornwall but it is always nice to talk to someone who can visualise the surroundings just as well as I can.
We got the pizza on the go and basically kicked back and had a laugh, this in its self was much-needed as I hadn’t ‘kicked back’ in a while, I could feel my stress levels gradually depleting. Then the usual happened, on went YouTube and we started swapping videos trying to show each other something they had never seen before.
Now it would be easy to skip this part but I have come to realise just how vital this was.
From what started as each other showing funny, nonsensical videos slowly started turning into showing our passions or more so our influences. I blurted out that I had a real true love for the old series of The Twilight Zone, Chris liked this, he countered this influence with Hitchcock presents. Luckily I countered this with agreement as I too was a great fan of his work.
It was clear to see that something happened at this time, before we got along fine but now we had common ground. The man from Devon and the Boy from Cornwall had a place where they could mutually stand and agree. This is the foundation of our film, this is the foundation when working together.
We now knew how to attack our project, we wanted to tell a story that could resemble either one of these. I feel that at this time nothing else would be truly achievable as like me Chris will only work on a project that he can connect to. I have to respect this as I am the same.
After we wrote down some of our fears, we worked out what messages we wanted to send, manipulation, being alone and guilt all cropped up. They have gone into my notepad now and will be released at a closer date to the shoot.
I paced around thinking of a narrative idea that we could follow, we have decided on what at the moment is a very linear idea, but it only gets better from here.
So what seemed as an almost wacky idea of getting together and having a drink just proves. Film is the portrayal of your inner self, if your going to work with someone and produce something that is remarkable, you have to be ready to let the walls down and share your influences and fears.
The rest is history as they say.
A CoS Film 