Over the past few years, I have had a growing interesting in film making. Although I still focus on photography as my medium of choice, I would love to direct a film or two at some point in my career.
I recently heard of a competition (called "The Shoot") to win a film masterclass with Baz Luhrmann. I assumed that others with more experience specific to film would be entering and I didn't really expect to win, but I wanted to enter into the Director category anyway.
The prize for the Director category went to a very deserving winner who appears to have a lot of experience in film making, and I'll be interested to follow the progress of the masterclass.
Still, I am quite proud of my entry, and wanted to share it, especially since I made this small body of work in a very short amount of time. The entry requirement was to tell a story in 8 images along with a half page explanation of the story (see below).
Untitled Film Stills
"While living within the confines of her peculiarly strict and isolated upbringing, a young woman explores her true identity and attempts to reconcile this with the values which have been instilled in her from a young age.
The woman’s exploration is frowned upon by her close-knit, conservative community. Sheltered from the outside world, the young woman is faced with the conflict between exploring her identity and losing all that she has ever known or conforming to her family’s values and losing her individuality.
This personal story plays out against the backdrop of a farm which has not seen rain in months and is at risk of becoming unsustainable. This risk threatens the tightly wound fabric of the self-sustaining community and would force all of its members to re-integrate with the “world” at large, and risk having their tightly held values become diluted.
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The story explores the impact of isolation on personal identity and the creation of artificial authority by self appointed community leaders.
There are also deeper allegorical aspects to this tale, which ask the viewer to consider how communities find their values and how personal identity is formed, especially in a feminine context."
I like to think that I might be able to use this as the basis for a short film in the future. With a bit of work, of course...