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FILM POEM – BRAINSTORM – INTIAL IDEAS

Story Concept

- Illness

- anxiety, stress, depression - themes

Art Dept

-  Pure, simple, elegant dress

Locations

- Mansion

- Stately Home

- Library

- Forest, open nature, lavender field.

Throughout this page you will see the my development and finalised structure for this project.

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Directors Vision

This year, my best friend has suffered what could have been life changing health disease, and we had one of the toughest years together getting through this. I had wanted to create a film that reflects how mentally draining and anxiety filled it can be to get through the process of finding out about current health situations. This was intended to be made in the perceptive of my best friend and the emotional rollercoaster she went through, figuring out her current health situations. Fed through this how I reacted with the consistent updates over the phone, every step of the way. This was her story, however, I intended to also portray how loved ones who are also part of this journey. Seeing loved ones sick or potentially becoming sick is never easy but you are told to put up a front and stay hopeful and positive in the situation that you are faced with.

The Main Message / Takeaway

I want audience to be able to relate weather you are the person unwell or you’re the loved receiving the news about it. I intend for audiences to connect with one self and realise that life is very much worth living no matter what it throws at you – and learning the importance of being grateful for freedom and any opportunities that you are presented in this lifetime. As you never know, when it could be your last moment in life. I also think my chosen poem (Lights Out, by Edward Thomas) fits appropriately with this in that its meaning is to cherish every passing second you have in this lifetime. As you never know what life will throw at you (within seconds).

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Logline

We visually follow the young female character named Rose, who is battling an intensive Cancer scare. Throughout her journey the audience encounters her emotional rollercoaster of her finding out about her health progress, whilst she writes a poem (that turns into a letter) expressing her feelings to her best friend

Synopsis

The story visually follows the main character, Rose who is currently battling an intensive Cancer scare. In this story, we visually see her anxiety, nervousness and stress though moving image shots as she is isolated in the library awaiting to find out her test results. The main character is smart and intelligent and as an audience we encounter her frustration and annoyance over not having any control for waiting for her test results. It’s difficult for her to wait for the results, as she usually knows the answer to any given question (because of how intelligent she is) but in this case she cannot know what the result will be. Thus, her frustrations and anxiety bubble up in the the first act of the film. I intend to portray her nervousness and anxiety, visually, like for example: shaking hands, feeling isolated, quickly pacing and more. As we reach the second half of the film the audience encounters her recovering her result and receiving good news. She suddenly and quickly realise she that life is short. And it is important to embrace feeling free and the longing of freedom is finally reached and achieved after she receives good news. She leaves the library out in into nature where her body and mind are at ease. She can enjoy and fulfil the nature and world around now that she is going to be healthy and well.

The aim of the story and message is to embrace and cherish every passing second of life. Because you never know what life will throw at you – and this story for me is to allow audiences to feel something and to embrace the feeling of freedom in life.

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Introduction: Setting the scene, phone call opening to establish story and her current health situation

Inciting Incident: Writing Letters to loved ones to help through the consistent anxiety and stress she is under at this time.

Climax: Finally receiving good news about her health. Feeling relief and achieving freedom again.

Ending: Her mind and body at peace in nature - feeling free and regaining her life back!

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Draft 1 | Script for voiceover phone call conversation

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Draft 1 | Script for voiceover phone call conversation

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Script Breakdown – Option 5

Lights Out by Edward Thomas

I have come to the borders of sleep,

The unfathomable deep

Forest where all must lose

Their way, however straight,

Or winding, soon or late;

They cannot choose

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Here, you may see my detailed breakdown of the poem - unpacking the meaning behind my the poem, my resonance interaction and how I intend to incorporate this with the rest of my film.

Chosen Poem from Brief:

Lights Out by Edward Thomas

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Final research outcomes of the authors interpretation of the poem

Overall Tone analysis:

Dark, mysterious

Melancholic, nostalgic

Personal interpretation of tone:

Melancholic and nostalgic

Freeing

Lightness and darkness

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Bridgerton (Shonda Rimes, 2020 to present)

Letter writing and leets are an important aspect in TV series named Bridgerton (Shonda Rimes, 2020 to present). the letters in Bridgerton (Shonda Rimes, 2020 to present) were used with where the characters were locked indoors for a long amount of time waiting for news of something important.

According to research (MyBilletDoux, n.d.) I was inspired by this in my application for my film. I wanted the main character to receive her good news about her health through a letter from the hospital, marked as important. As well as this the set poem turns into a letter that she intelligently writes with her calligraphy pen to her best friend. This was an important aspect of the film to showcase the poem in a creative way. I thought that by turning the poem into the letter she could send it to her friend and receive a new letter about the news of her health.

In addition to the letter writing inspiration, I took inspiration from some of the cinematic style as well. One shot in particular from season 1 - where the characters Eloise and Penelope are lying on the gras filled with daisies. I took inspriaton from this for my own project - when the main character in my film is happy and elated she lays down joyfully on the grass filled with daisies (see image). It felt freeing to watch, and I wished to achieve a tripod Birds Eye view shot of the main character, inspired from Bridgerton.

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Jane Austen and the Art of Letter Writing, 2014 - Inspiration

According to research, (Jane Austen and the Art of Letter Writing, 2014)The image below was from The Complete Letter Writer, published in 1840, after Jane Austin’s death. Her letter writing manuals were popular throughout Jane Austen’s lifetime. The letters from her contained “family letters on the most common occasion in life.”

According to research (Jane Austen and the Art of Letter Writing, 2014) before she wrote books, she wrote letters to loved ones such as her sister. She is believed to have written some 3,000 letters, only about 160 of which survived, majority of them addressed to her sister. The first letter she wrote apparently read awkward. It had little to no opening formula, contained flat adverbs as well. For me I was influenced after this research that the purpose and the intent of the main character writing letters to her best friend – was to be able to express her feelings by putting pen to paper and writing letters to a supportive network of people. People who support and love her unconditionally and will read the letters with joy and love (no matter the context of the letter). People, like her best friend.

https://blog.oup.com/2014/03/jane-austen-letter-writing/

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No, the image to the left is not a newly discovered picture of Jane Austen. The image was taken from my copy of , published in 1840, well after Jane Austen's death in 1817. But letter writing manuals were popular throughout Jane Austen's lifetime, and the text of my copy is very similar to that of much earlier editions of the book, published from the mid-1750s on. It is possible then that Jane Austen might have had access to one. Letter writing manuals contained "familiar letters on the most common occasions in life", and showed examples of what a letter might look like to people who needed to learn the art of letter writing. The Complete Letter Writer also contains an English grammar, with rules of spelling, a list of punctuation marks and an account of the eight parts of speech. If Jane Austen had possessed a copy, she might have had access to this feature as well.

But I doubt if she did. Her father owned an extensive library, and Austen was an avid reader. But in genteel families such as hers letter writing skills were usually handed down within the family. "I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper what one would say to the same person by word of mouth," Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra on 3 January 1801, adding, "I have been talking to you almost as fast as I could the whole of this letter." But I don't think George Austen's library contained any English grammars either. He did teach boys at home, to prepare them for further education, but he taught them Latin, not English.

So Jane Austen didn't learn to write from a book; she learnt to write just by practicing, from a very early age on. Her , a fascinating collection of stories and tales she wrote from around the age of twelve onward, have survived, in her own hand, as evidence of how she developed into an author. Her letters, too, illustrate this. She is believed to have written some 3,000 letters, only about 160 of which have survived, most of them addressed to Cassandra. The first letter that has come down to us reads a little awkwardly: it has no opening formula, contains flat adverbs - "We were so terrible good as to take James in our carriage", which she would later employ to characterize her so-called "vulgar" characters - and even has an unusual conclusion: "yours ever J.A.". Could this have been her first letter?

Cassandra wasn't the only one she corresponded with. There are letters to her brothers, to friends, to her nieces and nephews as well as to her publishers and some of her literary admirers, with whom she slowly developed a slightly more intimate relationship. There is even a letter to Charles Haden, the handsome apothecary who she is believed to have been in love with. Her unusual ending, "Good bye", suggests a kind of flirting on paper. The language of the letters shows how she varied her style depending on who she was writing to. She would use the word fun, considered a "low" word at the time, only to the younger generation of Austens. Jane Austen loved linguistic jokes, as shown by the reverse letter to her niece Cassandra Esten: "Ym raed Yssac, I hsiw uoy a yppah wen raey", and she recorded her little nephew George's inability to pronounce his own name: "I flatter myself that itty Dordy will not forget me at least under a week".

It's easy to see how the letters are a linguistic goldmine. They show us how she loved to talk to relatives and friends and how much she missed her sister when they were apart. They show us how she, like most people in those days, depended on the post for news about friends and family, how a new day wasn't complete without the arrival of a letter. At a linguistic level, the letters show us a careful speller, even if she had different spelling preferences from what was general practice at the time, and someone who was able to adapt her language, word use and grammar alike, to the addressee.

All her writing, letters as well as her fiction, was done at a writing desk, just like the one on the table on the image from the Complete Letter Writer,and just like my own. A present from her father on her nineteenth birthday, the desk, along with the letters written upon it, is on display as one of the "Treasures of the British Library". The portable desk traveled with her wherever she went. "It was discovered that my writing and dressing boxes had been by accident put into a chaise which was just packing off as we came in," she wrote on 24 October 1798. A near disaster, for "in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth, 7 l ".

Image credits: (1) Image of Jane Austen from The Complete Letter Writer, public domain via Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (2) Photo of writing desk, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade.

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Jane Austen and the art of letter writing

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Letter writing manuals were popular throughout Jane Austen's lifetime, and it's possible then that Jane Austen might have had access to one. Letter writing manuals contained "familiar letters on the most common occasions in life", and showed examples of what a letter might look like to people who needed to learn the art of letter writing.

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I used Pinterest to gather and help achieve my intent for my cinematic style and overall aesthetic of the film. It helped greatly with lighting and camera movement options.

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Cinematic and Aesthetic Influences | Interior

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Cinematic and Aesthetic Influences | Interior

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Props List:

Calligraphy pen to write letters

Ink

Scotch - handmade, fake scotch

Gold tray

Letters

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Jewellery - gold rings to match gold tray and aesthetic

White Dress, representing pure and innocence in the situation

HMU

Simple, elegant makeup - natural

Hair - curled ringlets. Bold curls to match her what was she is known as her bold and confident personality.

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This also acted as a edit script - for interior shoot section for editor

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Reflection:

On day 2 shoot day, I had to change/adjust the ending of the film. Initially my intention was to have her blow a dandelion into the screen as the ending of the film. However, it proved difficult to find a dandelion for shooting - so I changed the shot to a close up of her placing the flower to her chest/heart as the ending to my film. I felt it still allowed me to create that sense her mind and body are at peace in nature and she now feels free from restriction and health concerns.

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Test shoot took place a week before shooting to practice and perfect shots with my 1st AC (who also acted as a stand in the studio shoot).

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Final recced shots - using Magnifier on IPhone app

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Finalised Locations used in film

1. Hinton Ampner, Alresford SO24 0LA

2. Portsmouth Grammar School, 1 High St, Portsmouth PO1 2LN

Portsmouth Grammar - specifically allowed permission for The Memorial Library within the school (permitted by school Librarian).

I was very pleased with my locations choices - after ample research and emails I was permitted what I believe were the perfect locations to bring this film to life.

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After Production, my actor and I went straight to the recording studio to record the voiceover conversation between the two best friends.

Please find description of studio session on image

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The editor of this project was Lucy Kelaher. She and I worked very closely together to create my vision in the edit. She and i worked very well together as we spent session in the edit assembling this project.

Please find my notes from rough cuts in the edit

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I used Audio Network (2001, Audio Network) to source my music tracks.

I searched for two tracks that reflected the mood of both interior and exterior locations.

The First Track:

- For the first track I intended it to reflect her anxiety, sadness, depression and distraction of her current health situation.

- I wanted the music for the first half of the film to create the depressing and anxiety filled mood – as if she were trapped in the library not knowing what will happen next. Not being able now to predict the future.

- The music for this half of the film took time to find on Audio Network – many of the tracks I felt were too dramatic for this scene and I wanted tracks more subtle as to not take away from the actions and cinematography too much on screen. However, after ample amount of listening I found two/three options I was happy to play around with in the edit.

-  These can be found below:

Hushed Secret:

Slow mournful violin instrument builds with a reflective piano, strings and percussion mixed together.

https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/hushed-secret_1060969

Weeping Willow:

Sad, slow moving orchestra piece

https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/weeping-willow_37660

Great expectation:

Final option to potentially use

https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/great-expectation_19146

Final Choice and Reasons for choosing it:

After playing around with the different options I had chosen according to pacing and overall atmosphere the tracks created I decided to choose Hushed Secret. This is becuase many of the other tracks I really felt were too duration pieces to work with the shots and feel of the film. This had more subtlety with the instrumental and still allowed audiences to focus on the cinematography and actions on screen. As well as listening to the violin orchestral track behind it. I did find it difficult to find the track and felt that many of the tracks were too dramatic and over the top for this piece of filmmaking I created. However, I felt this was a good comprise to use.

The Second Track / Second Half of the Film

- The second track I found easier to search for on Audio Network.

- This track intended to be the happier, more freeing mood. I wanted the audience to feel that sene of relief and gratitude when they receive good news. In doing this, I searched for positive, inspirational and uplifting music tracks that would reflect the change in mood for the second half of the film.

Options included:

1. Call of Ocean – Nathan Freddo and Henry White

2. Flight Over Waves – Nathan Freddo and Henry White

https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/album/high-seas_4021

Final Choice and Reasons for choosing it:

I decided to go with Call Of Ocean. I loved the beat change to transition from the sad, dark song to the upbeat and happier choice. It helped change and elevates the mood immensely. Whilst dramatic, I believe it adds to her happiness and relief that she will be happy and healthy for a long time. I used Audio Network (2001, Audio Network) to source my music tracks.

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I choose to work by self on this project to allow myself to have the opportunity to make all creative decisions myself. This very quickly became passion project of mine.

The library in Portsmouth Grammar quickly became the perfect location for filming. This redirection of a second location allowed me to show the characters personality for her love of books. As well as showing that all she wanted to think about was her future and her passion for reading, but instead major life changing health issues stood in her way. This for me was a really important aspect of showing how easily an unexpected event can change your life so quickly and the plans you had set in place can change over night.

I was happy with my ability to work with the camera and actor on set. The actor and I had a few rehearsals in prep before hand which made it easier for us when it came to filming on set. Overall, I am proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone is sharing this story and I happy with the final project outcome.

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Baldwin, E. (2020, June 11). Lights Out by Edward Thomas. Poem Analysis. https://poemanalysis.com/edward-thomas/lights-out/#:~:text=%27Lights%20Out%27%20by%20Edward%20Thomas%20is%20a%20haunting%20poem%20that

Rhimes, S.R, 2020-present, Bridgerton

Jane Austen and the art of letter writing. (2014, March 9). OUPblog. https://blog.oup.com/2014/03/jane-austen-letter-writing/

MyBilletDoux. (n.d.). How to write a letter “Bridgerton style.” MyBilletDoux. https://mybilletdoux.com/blogs/blog/bring-back-the-hand-written-letter-bridgerton-style-this-valentineMyBilletDoux.

Audio Network. (2019). Audio Network - Quality Production Music for TV, Film, Video & Advertising. Audio Network. https://www.audionetwork.com/

Pinterest. (2012, August 10). Pinterest (United Kingdom). Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/

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THE LONGING OF FREEDOM | Final Film Project 

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THE LONGING OF FREEDOM | Final Film Project 

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Please find my final film project as an MP4 submission

I have also provided an MP4 link via a pdf document on my submission page.

Submission Details:

Title: The Longing of Freedom

Assessed Group/Crew: Preesha Patel

UP: UP2107263