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30 second film

Robert Bresson was a french film director and screenwriter, best known for his ascetic and aesthetic style. His focus was to separate the languages of cinema and theatre and wrote down notes on the differences between the two. Bresson compiled these notes into a book called 'Bresson on Cinematography'.

http://vimeo.com/80843592

The class was given an assignment to pick one of these quotes, and create a 30-second film based around it. Bresson's book consists of over 70 pages, with at least 5 notes on each. I couldn't make my mind up at first, trying to work out the practicalities as well as the creative impact I could achieve. The first few I chose were these:
"Catch instants. Spontaneity. Freshness".
                       "Cinematography, a military art. Prepare for film like a battle". 
"To create is not to deform or invent persons and things. It is to tie new relationships between persons and things that are, and as they are".
I came up with many ideas for these quotes, but then one caught my eye that I really liked:
"The persons and objects in your film must walk at the same pace, as companions".

After reading this quote I drew what I could see in my head - a beginning to a storyboard. Personally I find it useful to write or draw what I imagine - even though the end result often doesn't end up anything like it. The images I imagined were quite romanticised - vivid colours, soft lighting etc... 

The idea I came up with was taken from the literal meaning of 'companions' - people walking side by side, together. At first the plan was to have two people walking, but when it came to filming I had three people rather than two. I kept the time period to daylight, rather than going from day to night.
Here is a slightly longer storyboard:

 

The piece of music I used took me a while to find, but after some web browsing I came across a piece by Citay called 'On the Wings' which I thought suited the mood well. The pace of the film is relatively slow, with cuts on the beat of the music. The camera was hand-held throughout, as it was important to have a free and natural feel to the video - somewhere between a documentary and music-video style. The camera used was a Canon Ixus 140, and edited on Adobe Premier Elements.

Here is the finished film: http://vimeo.com/80843592

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