My Philosophy

Before beginning the A2 course, I wasn't particularly interested in short films, and struggled to find any point of them. However, I have come to appreciate the extent of the work involved in creating one, and after watching examples of some extremly well done professionaly ones - they can be actually be rather effective. Perhaps the short film that resonated with me the most was 'The Smiling Man', this is because it was the first short horror that I had watched that expreiments with unsual camera angles, the polt line was also incredibly gripping, as well as strangly terrifying and uncomfotable. Due to this, it gave me ideas of how I wanted to shoot my film - my main aim was to not create a film that was full of gore and violence (like a slasher or splatter), but to make it gripping my using interesting angles and strange editing techniques that would make someone want to watch it because of this, rather than evoking a significant amount of fear. 

After extensively researching horror, it's history, it's sub-genres, it's effects on the audience, and watching many clips or whole films, I came to to the conclusion that I admire Alfred Hitchcock's autuer most. This is because his style is so significantly different, and when watching other horror, it is easy to spot how much the director has been influenced by Hitchcock. Also, I love the way he used the camera and utalised post - production editing techniques to make the film more interesting to watch (my favourite example being in 'Psycho' with the graphic match of eye and the plug after the 'shower scene') and to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in film at the time.

Goals and Rules

An example of a well known set of goals and rules would bethat of Dogme 95, a filmaking movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. The goal of the Dogme collective is to purify filmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post - production modificaions and other techinical gimmicks - to concentrate on the story and the actors' performance. It was an attempt to take back power for the director as artist, as opposed to the studio.They believe this approach may better engage the audience, as they are not alienated or distracted by overproduction. To this end, von Trier and Vinterbuerg produced 10 rules to which and Dogme film must conform. These rules, referred to as the "Vow of Chasity" are;

1. Filming must be done on location, props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, then a location must be chosen where this prop is to found.
   
2. The sound muct never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. MUsic must not be used unless it occurs within a scene being filmes (diegetic).
3.  The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene muct be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, ect. must not occur).
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbbiden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.  

These particular rules are extremly specific, and in this day and age, with how massive post - production is, it seems hard that many fims would be able to apply themselves to every single rule set. 

How does this apply to my work?

I will not be setting any rules that are anything like the Dogme collective - this is simple because each rule conflict which what I visualise my film being. I wish to use different types of sound, different types of effects, different types of camera angles, ect. so it would be impossible to apply such rules to what I would like to create. Yet, I do wish to create some guidelines or self - imposed rules for my work. This is beacuse ideally, I would still like it to turn out how I visulise it. Thus, I want to be able to keep it in a setting that is as natural as possible, as well as make aspecs of it as realistic and relatable as possible. This is, of course, not always possible - but I would like it to be as close as to what I want. However, saying that - much of my film will be a working progress, as I want it to be natural, so it may seem slighlty monotonous at parts. Therefore, because of this, and the ideas of it playing with the inside of the characters mind and dreams, I want to experiment with ways I can make the narrative interesting, as opposed to the story. 

With regards to the question of modelling my work on anyones else's approach, I have taken a few ideas from other directors/short films that I have seen. As previosuly mentioned, I liked the way the short film 'The Smiling Man' experimented with different camera angles and sounds. As well as this, in the film 'A Field in England' by Ben Wheatley, there is a certain aspect of the film that I enjoyed - this was a strobe/ 'trip' type section that was a montage of many shots and clips, giving an almost psychedelic feel. This is because my film focuses on the characters mind, and how dreams can, to an extent, seem like a bad 'trip'. Additionally, as previosuly noted above, I like Hitchcock's work. However, I am not sure I will be able to incooperate any of his style into my own work, but it was partly his work than influenced me to make a psychological horror rather than a gore or apocalyptic one.