I learned a lot in creating this film. Firstly working with Wren was such a wonderful and useful experience. It was so interesting working with someone who had their own wealth of experience and creative vision. This was my first time ever creating something close to a narrative; having to consider story beats, shots, editing, sound design, set, was already a mammoth task and having someone to collaborate with was incredible helpful and enjoyable.
This film was a great exercise in planning and executing an idea. Wren and I began by talking through and creating a rough storyboard that plotted out the main beats of what we wanted to achieve and then filmed ourselves recreating it so that we would have a live reference.
We then found and created some simple set pieces that we could use to help build our story. We chose to keep the set minimalistic and used using simple materials like cardboard and foam that suited the aesthetic of our puppets. We also used a lighting effect on a phone that mimicked a television set to create more dynamic lighting throughout the scene. We weren’t sure if this would be picked up on camera but it came out well in test shots and even better in the final piece, if we had had more equipment available, we would have preferred to create overall a more atmospheric and directional lighting design, but for this instance we were content with what we were able to achieve, which was a suggestion of the final product.
Working through the storyboard, we quickly found shots that were either too complicated or could be simplified to a far more effective version when done in practice. We quite quickly found easier or at least for practical methods of doing things, close ups of characters, the hammer throw and how the characters interacted physically with each other changed quite dramatically from the story board phase, such as not creating a separate show for the hammer spinning and either waiting to edit specific timings or even cutting close ups altogether. It was a very useful lesson in exactly what is feasible within a time frame and how to make the best use of limited time. Had we had more time available to us, I think it would have been really beneficial to do a second shoot, having learnt so much from the first.
Once we had finished shooting we discussed and planned our editing process. Firstly Wren spent time editing specific stills in which we had rigged the hammer whilst I made a timecode plan for specific timing edits. Based on our original storyboard and decisions we made during filming.
Whilst Wren edited the video file, I spent time collecting and editing appropriate sound FX to enhance the film further, including the creation of a tv track made from different samples and editing sounds.
We specifically chose not to make the sounds completely naturalistic in order to reflect and compliment the slightly surreal and unnatural aesthetic of the film. Using sounds like squeaky toys to mimic laughter and crying and vocal effects pitched very low to create an unnatural effect. There were a lot more sound effects we had intended and wished to use, including more underlying drone effects, atmospheric sounds and more accurately timed laughter, but this is something we would like to to explore again in the future should the opportunity arise.