During the 2020 lockdown I made a short experimental film titled 'Mask'. I wanted to document my process when making the film and my inspiration behind it.
The Mask Poster
Research and Concept
The idea for ‘Mask’ originally stemmed from conversations I had with people in my life . I have often found myself in a conversation where Ive been confided in about those around me masking their unhappiness from the world, giving off the impression that they are feeling the opposite of their actual emotions. Ive often done this and I felt the juxtaposition of masking methods would be interesting to creatively explore with my experimental film, resonating with a large audience of all ages.
When going through the development of the film, I watched several experimental films which influenced the metaphors and visuals I included in my own film, such as ‘Un Chien Andalou’ (1929) directed by Luis Bunuel, ‘Meshes of the afternoon’ (1943) directed by Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied. ‘The Game Echo and the Bunnymen’ music video directed by Anton Corbijn (1988) and his experimentation with saturation also heavily influenced my experimental film visually.
Pre-Production
Mood board
This mood board represents my inspiration for the film in multiple different departments of production including costume, production design, editing, sound, the visual and storyline of the film.
The ‘Labyrinth’ (1986) had a large impact on the music and visuals of 'Mask', I liked the high saturation and colours of the film. The eerie environment and feel of the visuals in ‘Labyrinth’ appealed to me when choosing the locations of my shoot, I felt that the woodland river added to the cold image hoped to achieve in the internal struggle scenes. Due to the lack of dialogue in the film it was especially important to convey the message and concept I was experimenting with in the film visually and through sound. Thereby having locations that have rooted in natural environments but are drastically different and contrast well was important to me and my vision of the film.
Storyboard of Mask
Editing
During my creative editing process I played around with concepts for posters for the experimental film, these are some examples of that.
Throughout the editing process I experimented with the saturation and colouring of the images, the pace of the artefact and how to visually increase and decrease tension through a build tension. The tonal palette of the edit and overall visuals had the theme of conveying a paradise of warm tones with the persona scenes and then a harsher more icier tones with the struggling scenes. The use of overlaying the close-up shots of the actor screaming into the camera with harsh saturation and large contrasts between the two overlaid frames build up suspense and represent the supressed emotion trapped within until its finally released and shown with the scream at the end, to create the ending visual effect of the black and white scream was to first film it on my old camera I found around the house and then I played it on my laptop and filmed it playing with the same camera in an attempt to experiment slightly with physical manipulation with digital cameras within this artefact and give the artefact layers using a less conventional technique.
Sound
Music had a large influence on this experimental project. Lyrics in the song ‘Creep’ by Radiohead, were some of the original inspirations for the artefact, some of these lyrics include ‘you float like a feather in a beautiful world’ ‘I wish I was special’ ‘I’m a creep, Im a weirdo, what hell am I doing here oh I don’t belong’ ‘she’s running out again’. David Bowie’s song ‘As the world falls down’ from the Labyrinth also resonated with me during the development and creative process of making this experimental film.
I enjoyed the creative process of making the music of ‘Mask’ myself, I was inspired by the Labyrinth soundtrack while creating the music to portray the conflict of emotion in the experimental film. Labyrinth showed me how to use an upbeat sound to create juxtaposition and uneasiness amongst viewers when the upbeat music is put along some sad, serious, or cold visuals.
I experimented with different rhythms during the creative process using BandLab.com when making the music to this artefact, the original music I produced on BandLab helped me along my creative journey to the final music choice which I wrote and played on the guitar myself. I used the same track throughout the film which was not part of the original plan. I believe the new music conveyed more of a narrative linking the two selves for the viewer. To create the jarring experience of emotions in the perfect world I overlaid the same part of the song over one another mixing up the chords played to create a juxtaposition for the listener as it contrasts with the smooth music of river scenes.
Given more time to further experiment I would play around further with the music and sound of the artefact. I would overlay bird song or a heartbeat during one of the contrasting settings to try build the suspense and overall juxtaposition further. I would also practice and increase the quality of guitar playing within the soundtrack used on the film if given more time.
December 2022
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