Research | FMP

All Research

Don Hertzfeldt

Don Hertzfeldt is an American animator, writer and independent filmmaker. He first gained wide spread appeal when his bizarre animated short film "Rejected" which earned him and Oscar nomination at the 2001 Academy Awards. He went on to earn further critical acclaim with his trilogy of animated shorts Everything Will Be Ok (2006) I'm So Proud of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011) and he gained his second Academy Award nomination for his 2015 short film World Of Tomorrow. 1](Bradshaw, 2021) In 2014 his work aired on the famous animated TV show The Simpsons and 8 of Don's short films have gone on to compete at Sundance Film Festival, a festival record. Even more impressively, he's the only person ever to win the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Short Film twice. 2](Don Hertzfeldt, 2021) In 2020, GQ magazine described his work as "simultaneously tragic and hilarious and philosophical and crude and deeply sad and fatalist and yet stubbornly, resolutely hopeful." 3](Don Hertzfeldt Is Making Animated Films to Last Forever, 2021)

Hertzfeldt is known for being almost an entirely independent filmmaker. He completes his films entirely from scratch and animates, writes and directs every single one of them himself. Creating a film entirely by yourself is nearly an impossible feat however Don is as close as you can get to a purely independent filmmaker. Stephen Cavalier wrote in his book The World History Of Animation that "Hertzfeldt is either a unique phenomenon or perhaps an example of a new way forward for individual animators surviving independently on their own terms... he attracts the kind of fanatical support from the student and alternative crowds usually associated with indie rock bands"4] (Cavalier, 2011) Hertzfeldt primarily supports his work through self-distribution such as ticket sales from theatrical tours, DVDs, VOD, and television broadcasts and he has declined ALL advertising work.

It's no secret that Don's minimalistic animation style, combined with his startlingly dark and estranged, yet stubbornly hopeful and philosophical narratives are the reason that so many like myself adore his work. He's a true auteur and a rarity in today's film industry. The dark humour that lends itself to truly saddening and shudderingly real stories about people and the world resonate with many younger, alternative audiences such as myself and are why we are so drawn to and impacted by films like Rejected (2000) and It's Such A Beautiful Day. (2012)

His most recent success has come from his recent series of animated shorts "World of Tomorrow" (2015), "World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts" (2017) and "World of Tomorrow Episode 3: The Absent Destinations of David Prime" (2020) Despite it's short 17m length, in 2016, Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow (2015) #10 on their "40 Greatest Animated Movies Ever" list. 5](Adams et al., 2021) The most recent instalment of the World of Tomorrow series "Episode 3: The Absent Destinations of David Prime" (2020) has seen even more success than the first two. It currently sits as the highest rated short film on Letterboxd and The Film Stage noted "Hertzfeldt has crafted what might be the crowning achievement of modern science fiction." 6](Roan, 2021)

Don's distinct technique comes from traditional pen and pencil drawings with as little digital input as possible. He uses old 16 mm or 35 mm–film cameras to capture his drawings and often employs old-fashioned special effect techniques such as multiple exposures, in-camera mattes, and experimental photography. While some of these techniques are as established as an occasional stop-motion animation sequence or a universe of moving stars created by back-lit pin holes, other effects are new innovations on classical methods, as seen with the in-camera compositing of multiple, split-screen windows of action in It's Such A Beautiful Day.

Hertzfeldt used this technique right from his first major student film Genre (1996) and all the way to It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012). His recent World of Tomorrow franchise is the first time that Hertzfeldt used computer animation for one of his films. The film was still hand drawn however on Clintiq tablet instead of paper. 7](Don Hertzfeldt Biography, 2021)

It's Such A Beautiful Day

In 2012, Don effortlessly edited together the three separate chapters of his animated short trilogy into one seamless 62 minute long animated film. It is his first and only feature film today, consisting of the shorts Everything Will Be Ok (2006) I'm So Proud of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011) The feature film adopted the title of the third chapter and the film was an instant success among nearly all who viewed it during it's limited cinema release in Autumn of 2012. The film was then released on DVD, as well as on demand in HD on Vimeo, iTunes and Netflix. 8](Hertzfeldt, 2021) The film was received very well with critics making multiple top films of the year lists as well as giving Don the spotlight for his masterful direction. The film currently sits at a perfect 100% score on RottenTomatoes 9](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021), a score of 8.3 on IMDb 10](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021) and 4.3/5 on Letterboxd 11](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021), making it the 77th highest rated feature film on the website, higher than legendary films such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Fight Club (1999), Taxi Driver (1976), Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and many many more.

The reason I love the film so much is due to it's utterly absurd direction and storytelling. It's easy to say that the film is unlike any that exists in almost every aspect. From the fact that it was made almost entirely by Don himself, who wrote, directed, animated, narrated, edited, sound mixed and composed the film, to the startlingly bleak but ever so impactful minimalist art style of the film. To me this film is the definition of the famous saying "less is more". The film is compiled together of basically stick figures with one or two objects in their surroundings. The film's minimalist style is actually crucial to the film and perfectly lends itself to the themes of the story. The film is about a lot of things and tackles a lot of themes, however, one of the most prominent themes discussed and presented in the film is that of death.

Death is prevalent throughout the film, whether it be family members dying off, or animals dying in the street, the reminder of death is everywhere. However the film's theme of death isn't necessarily what the focus is on. The focus of the film is about what comes before death: life. In one of the most emotional and memorable scenes of the film, the main character Bill talks about how he had wasted so much time of his life worrying about death and fearing it.

Another incredibly clever and poignant scene about life and death is the film's final scene, often referred to as the "Immortal Bill scene" The scene shows us Don's take on what immortal life actually looks like. It not only subverts the popular Hollywood convention of the hero always making it out alive at the end, but also undermines the common fear of death. Don cleverly gives us a look at how empty and strange eternal life would be and suggests that perhaps, mortality is what actually gives life meaning. Not in the sense of doing meaningful things like Bill creating enormous sculptures and reading every book, but in the seemingly indifferent and smaller things such as eating ice-cream bars with your friend. This is something I find deeply fascinating and poignant and something that I really want to take the chance to discuss in my film. That some of life's greatest pleasures come from the little smaller details, the experiences that stay with you forever even though you're not exactly sure why. These small, inconsequential things that you so often take for granted in life and never fully appreciate until you lose them, just as Bill loses the meaning of his life with his immortality. In my film's case, it'll come in the form of losing these things due to the pandemic and lockdown. I want to show just how much we miss these little, smaller details in life and offer solutions of to make the most of every day, and to never take anything for granted.

Another fantastic scene in the film about life that I also want to point out in my film, especially given how well it translates to the lockdown, is where Bill realises that the inconsequential routine of actions he conducts every single day actually take up the bulk of his life, and that the unusual part he initially thinks are his normal, are actually the abnormal. This particularly applies to the lockdown experience given that how routine reliant I've found myself becoming. Not only because every single day follows the same old routine, but because there is almost nothing else outside of the routine we all currently have.

It's something that fascinates and depresses me and I think that a film about lockdown needs to address this issue. This feeling of Groundhog Day where every day pans out the exact same, where you complete the exact same chores and rituals, where nothing out of the ordinary happens. And as much as we wait and hope for something abnormal to pleasantly surprise us it never happens. Because in my case, unlike Bill's everything in between being the unusual part of his life, there's nothing in between. There is nothing but the routine. I want to capture the feeling of this imprisonment of our daily routines that we've all faced during the lockdown and this scene in It's Such A Beautiful Day gives me great inspiration. The main character coming to a realisation that his life is not really a life any more, and that every single day he does the same thing.

Another thing I find fascinating about the film is that it's non-linear narrative style is actually due to the fact that the main character suffers from an unspecified mental illness that causes memory loss. Don's representation of memories comes in the most natural way possible. While mainstream media often uses memory sequences as linear flashback sequences that are easy to see where they fit into the overarching story, Don's approach is a lot less simple, but a lot more realistic. When we as people recount an event, say telling it to a group of friends, we create a beginning, middle and end to make the memory into a comprehensible story. However, our actual memory of the event is a lot more messy. We often recall random details and moments during our experiences with strange vividness, and these moments may not even have any overall meaning to us. They make almost zero contribution to our experience yet for some reason we remember them. We remember them more vividly than some of the more important and eventful moments of a certain experience yet it's impossible to pin point as to why.

Don perfectly shows this in his film. It's filled to the brim with seemingly random events that's meaning is almost impossible to make sense of upon first glance. In fact, no matter how much you look into it and analyse it, you will never find any hidden meaning or metaphor in some of them. And that's because in this film, it doesn't need to. Take the moment in the beginning where Bill watches a person in a store hold up an onion and say "big onion". This moment contributes nothing to the film or to Bill's life but it's in there. You could argue that it is there for comedy however I'd argue that it's purpose in the film is to show that in amongst Bill's memories are scattered, utterly random details like this that he can remember but isn't really sure why, thus putting onto film this very human experience of being able to remember insignificant details without explanation.

Putting these almost inexplicable human experiences into the film and as part of the character makes Bill, in a way, one of the most relatable characters ever. We don't know the specifics of Bill's life at all. We don't know his last name, or why he and his girlfriend split up, or what he does for a living because none of that actually matters. What Don communicates is that this information doesn't define Bill as an individual. In order to know and understand Bill, all of this information that's usually important in a narrative becomes irrelevant. It's Bill's relatable experiences and natural actions that make us fall in love with him.

I want to try and incorporate this concept into my film. I want my main character Joe to be as relatable as possible. Given that we all have been through the lockdown and have all had our own experiences with it I want Joe's experiences to be a mixture of my own and experiences I've spoken about with other people. Joe is the audience in a way so making him relatable is essential. So to make him relatable, like how Don does it in It's Such A Beautiful Day, I'll make Joe experience and recall seemingly random and pointless events that we've all gone through during lockdown, and then these events will continually contribute to Joe's mental deterioration.

Due to the fact that I obviously cannot animate due to my own skills and time constraints, the visual look of my film will be very very different to that of It's Such A Beautiful Day. This film has a one of a kind spotlight effect in which Don shows multiple details at once during a scene whilst having the rest of the background entirely black. These small points of focus in the film really enhance this feeling of limitations that is prevalent throughout the entire film. We aren't just limited in our mortality (as explained when talking about the theme of life and death) but also our limitation in our human perception. It's human to be unable to constantly be picking up on everything in our environment as it is way too much information for us humans to comprehend and process. Instead we only focus on the things that are interesting to us, such as the task at hand or a strange disturbing detail about someone, perfectly captured by Bill looking at the child's deformed foot.

We spend a lot of our time as humans processing information, whether it be the world around us or trying to understand our emotions for the benefit of ourselves and other people. It's impossible to experience the real world without the filter of our subconsciousness. This filter is the spotlight effect used in the film, and Bill's subconsciousness is of course, the narrator. The narrator speaks in third person rather than the conventional first person tense of narration. Why is this used? Well, it's because we usually perceive the world around us as objective. The whole story is Bill's point of view and no one else's. The narrator never thinks to comment on the thoughts and feelings of other people, only Bill's. It's not possible for Bill to perceive how what everyone in his life is thinking or feeling. Bill can obviously understand and perceive what they're doing, seeing and hearing, and we know that because his subconscious, the narrator, comments on it.

The only time that we hear a voice other than Bill's subconscious is about two thirds of the way in where the left side of Bill's brain is put down and we get to hear the real world without the filter of Bill's subconscious. And towards the end of the film, Bill gets to experience the world free of the limitations of focus. The black and white, stick drawings we've been seeing for nearly an hour are suddenly replaced with bright and vibrant colours from live action photos. The spotlight effect is temporarily removed and these images fill the entire screen. The bias of focus has, for a blissful second, disappeared. It isn't ideal to constantly live like this at all and Bill's filter swiftly returns to him, but in this small scene in Bill's life, he's able to appreciate everything around him that he never really picked up on. The texture of his bathmats, the pattern of his wooden cabinets, the feeling of the air and the mesmerising nature of the stars are all things that Bill briefly comes to appreciate and love and this scene ends with "He wants to stop people in the street and say "isn't this amazing?" "Isn't everything amazing?" Bill is momentarily freed from the trap of his own subconsciousness, and instead of trying to analyse his life, he is able to experience it.

Loneliness and Cinematography

Coming back to the visuals of the film, it's impossible to adopt the same style and look for my film given that I don't have access to old school cameras and I also can't animate. So in order to retain an impactful and striking visual look to my film I have to make sure that the cinematography is as good as it can be. That means that it really needs to emphasise the core tones and themes of the movie I want to make, those being loneliness. There are a lot of great films about loneliness out there, and these are the best ones that I've seen that were answers in a poll I conducted on my Instagram asking for my followers to name 3 great films about loneliness:

The Lighthouse (2019)

Joker (2019)

Moon (2009)

The Martian (2015)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Anomalisa (2015)

Ikiru (1954)

Cast Away (2000)

The Machinist (2004)

All of these films communicate various different themes as well as loneliness. For example, The Lighthouse (2019), Taxi Driver (1976), Joker (2019), Moon (2009) and The Machinist (2004) are all films about people going insane and losing track of their reality in disturbing and horrifying ways that result in violence. While on the other hand, films like Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Ikiru (1954) are both films that associate loneliness with age, with loneliness being the grief of not having people to share life with. Instead of loneliness causing the characters in the films to become violent and mentally sick, loneliness causes them to become depressed and anxious. However, these films' depiction of loneliness aren't quite what I'm looking for. The feeling of loneliness in this film comes from the lack of human contact and warmth, causing the main character to become depressed but also cause his mental health to deteriorate. Therefore, my film is a mixture of both of these kinds of films about loneliness. However, there is one film about loneliness that I personally love and actually think is the exact type of film to take inspiration from. That film is Spike Jonze's her (2013).

her (2013) is a sci-fi romance film written and directed by Spike Jonze about a lonely letter writer in the near future who falls in love with a human like operating system. The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards in 2014 for Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Picture and went on to win Best Original Screenplay. 12](The 86th Academy Awards | 2014, 2021) The film has received enormous critical and audience acclaim sitting at 8/10 on IMDb 13](Her (2013), 2021), 94% on RottenTomatoes 14](Her (2013), 2021) and 4.1/5 on Letterboxd. 15](Her (2013), 2021)

What separates her from being yet another sci-fi romance is the marvelous attention to detail in every shot, as well as a tragically human story to accompany it. The film is definitely about loneliness and the human dependency on social and sexual interaction, however the film hammers home these very clear themes with almost every single technical aspect possible. Joaquin Phoenix's fantastic performance certainly will always be extremely effective at communicating these emotions, however the way that this is communicated through production design, music, direction and even costume design are all incredibly effective at conveying what the main character is feeling. But the most effective of all is the cinematography and blocking.

The film's cinematography is by Hoyte Van Hoytema, an Oscar nominated cinematographer best known for his works on Dunkirk (2017), Interstellar (2014), Spectre (2015), Tenet (2020), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Ad Astra (2019) and The Fighter (2010). 16](Hoyte Van Hoytema, 2021)

A great example of a shot that conveys the emotions of loneliness is this one:

The first thing to look at here is the shot's composition and framing. The shot is at an odd angle that cuts the main character off near to his mid waist so that the Shang-Hai city skyline is visible as a dramatic, large backdrop. Featuring these huge skyscrapers in a wide shot with the main character Theodore beneath them symbolises how small and insignificant Theodore feels at this given moment. Theodore is a small spec in an enormously vast world and this shot perfectly tells you that.

The next thing to look at is the colour pallet. The shot is extremely grey and lifeless. Even the bright colour on Theodore's clothing seems saturated down to be just a sort of beige. This gloomy dull atmosphere created with the colour pallet further solidifies the feeling of depression or loneliness. It's clearly a very unhappy and unenthusiastic atmosphere and this is done because of how the main character is currently feeling.

This isn't done with only the sadder moments in the film. In the film's happier moments there's a beautiful soft wash of colours. Like in this shot:

These beautiful, inviting colours leap off the screen and radiate a far more comforting and romantic atmosphere in contrast to the greyness of the city skyline. The production design offers a perfect look at how the character is feeling, whether it be sad, or happy. This film demonstrates just how impactful and important production design and colour pallet is at communicating emotion, something that I need to accomplish in my film. Yet another way that the atmosphere and feeling is communicated in this film is through the costume choices. Theodore wears almost exclusively a choice of 5 different coloured shirts throughout the film, all of which symbolise different moods. The maroon shirt that he wears looks very red, and red in film is commonly associated with love and passion. Theodore primarily wears this shirt when he's feeling love and embracing it, like the scene where he first meets Samantha. On the other hand the pastel blue shirt is very cold and plain looking. Blue is often in films associated with cold, isolation and melancholy. This is utilised in the film as Theodore wears this shirt mainly during the sadder sequences.

He wears this maroon shirt 11 times.

He wears this checked maroon and grey shirt 6 times.

He wears this pastel blue shirt 7 times.

He wears this salmon coloured shirt 5 times.

And he wears this yellow shirt 3 times.

The different shirts are clear indicators for different moods. For example, the yellow shirt he wears when he is happy and enjoying himself, the times he's wearing the pastel blue shirt is usually when he's sad and miserable so that the shirt blends in with the already beige and boring colour pallet.

So to summarize, her (2013) uses different colours in it's costume and production design to clearly and effectively communicate the mood of the scene. It also uses wide shots at odd angles to show the character in a vast, open environment where they look insignificant in comparison to everything else.

Sound of Metal (2020) Ending Scene

Sound of Metal (2020) is a drama film starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci about a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing and struggles to come to terms with his deafness. The film has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, (Riz Ahmed) Best Actor in a Supporting Role, (Paul Raci) Best Original Screenplay, (Darius Marder), Best Film Editing (Mikkel E.G Nielsen) and Best Sound. 17](Sound of Metal (2019), 2021)

Sound of Metal is a fantastic film that I've recently watched and there's a lot of unique filmmaking aspects about the film that I find very inspiring. Mainly, the film's sound design immerses you fully in the life and perspective of that of a deaf person. It distorts sound, uses high pitched ringing and silences to allow the audience to get a somewhat understanding of what a deaf person experiences on a day to day basis.

In the final scene of the film, the main character Ruben goes outside not long after having surgery to have augmented audio receptors to help him hear again. The sounds are slightly distorted and muffled and can frustrate him. He sits on a park bench and takes in his surroundings. The constant noise from people and a nearby bell tower. Ruben decides to take his audio receptors where the entire world around him becomes silent. Ruben sits there taking slow breaths, embracing the world around him. He slowly but surely sprouts a slight smile on his face proving that he's come to terms with his deafness finally. The film then suddenly ends.

What I find so amazing about this final scene is how it says so much without saying any words. When thinking of an appropriate and impactful way to end my film this scene came to mind and it's editing and sound design are what comes to mind. This final scene uses multiple cutaways to show us the different things Ruben is looking at and getting annoyed by. What I mainly want to take away from this scene is how it gradually shows us the character coming to terms with who he is and his unfortunate state in life.

For my final scene, I want my main character Joe to find a remote, peaceful place where he can sit down and take in a beautiful view. There will be a few cutaways to show what he's looking at and the peacefulness of the area around him. Then the final shot will have very similar framing to the final shot of Sound of Metal, where Joe is sat down, and slowly coming to terms with the world around him, gradually sprouting a smile.

Aspect Ratio Changes In It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012) and Mommy (2014)

I briefly mentioned previously how during Bill's scene where he is temporarily freed from the restrictions of focus and can appreciate everything about the world that the spotlight effect that had been used the entire film is replaced with vivid colourful images that fill the entire screen. The screen's change in size is the choice of changing aspect ratios mid scene, a technique used in various films and TV programs. The reasons for this can be various. It is often when a different camera is used to film different scenes, and therefore the aspect ratio can slightly or drastically change. For example, during the climactic helicopter chase in Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018), there are shots that are taken from special cameras attached to the helicopters and drones that were used to film the sequence. The screen is completely filled by the picture, however, when the film cuts back to a brutal fist fight between 2 of the film's side characters and the villain, the aspect ratio slightly changes. There are clear unused black sections of the screen on the top and bottom due to the change in camera and the camera's changing aspect ratio.

While this still is a deliberate choice made by the filmmakers to make the climactic chase look all the more spectacular and real, it was mainly done due to the fact that different cameras HAD to be used. In terms of serving the narrative, this change doesn't entirely do much. However, there are a few examples that are for stylistic choices that are imperative to the narrative being told.

More recently, Marvel Studios' WandaVision (2020) showcased multiple different aspect ratio changes throughout the show, but most notably in Episode 7 when Wanda enters her neighbour Agnes' basement, where it's revealed that Agnes is a powerful witch by the name of Agatha Harkness. As she travels further into the basement, the aspect ratio changes, and the screen gets tighter at the top and bottom similar as to how it does in Mission Impossible. However unlike suddenly cutting, the ratio gradually and very noticeably transitions, even with a faint sound effect, to make it more obvious that this is deliberate.

This is due to the fact that Wanda travels from her fake reality that she has created, to the real world in Agatha's basement. In the show Wanda creates a sitcom world for herself to live in. The aspect ratio of the episode before that is 16:9, the most common aspect ratio used in 2010s sitcoms. However, it transitions into a 16:9 cropped to show that the difference between the two worlds that she is in.

And technique is effective in this context, it wouldn't work in a way that I would want it to. I really like the effect that changing the aspect ratio has and there is a film that uses this technique in an incredibly impactful and creative way, similarly to how I want to use an aspect ratio change in my film. That film is Mommy (2014).

Mommy (2014) is a French-Canadian drama directed by Xavier Dolan and starring Antoine Olivier Pilon, Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement about an unpredictable and, sometimes violent teenager who's single mother struggles to raise him. Matters are further complicated when their new neighbor Kyla inserts herself into the family dynamic in an attempt to help the situation. The film was well received by critics and audiences alike and the film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. 18](Mommy (2014), 2021)

One of the most famous and acclaimed scenes in the film is the montage where Oasis' "Wonderwall" plays and the family reach a high point in the film, filled with joy and happiness and enjoying the world around them. Most of the film is shot in a box 1:1 aspect ratio, leaving a good portion of the screen unused for most of the film's runtime. However, at the ultimate high point of this montage, the teenager Steve makes a hand gesture to the camera as if to pull the screen himself. As he does this, the aspect ratio changes to a 1:85:1 ratio.

The effect of this is enormous. It's almost as if the audience and the characters are allowed to stretch out themselves. It symbolises the freedom that the characters feel in this moment and that's further emphasised by the fact that Steve takes a big, deep breath and relaxes his body language after changing the aspect ratio. The claustrophobic feeling the 1:1 aspect ratio is a temporarily removed and the audience are allowed to the view the film more freely and vividly, just like the characters do. After the montage ends too, where Steve's mother receives a letter containing terrible news about Steve, she stares at the letter for a while in a darker corridor, almost in disbelief. As she stares at the letter, the aspect ratio gradually shrinks back in on itself, once again trapping us in the claustrophobic 1:1 box ratio. It's a choice made to show the feeling of being trapped and no longer being free. The characters are once again compacted into a much smaller area of viewing creating the same feeling for the audience.

I think that I could very well edit my film to look like it is in the 1:1 aspect ratio to create a similar effect that Mommy (2014) does. And then in the final scene where Joe finally accepts who he is and comes to terms with himself and his situation, the aspect ratio could slowly open up as it does in Mommy to finally free the audience of the claustrophobic feeling the box ratio causes and, just like Joe, they can finally feel free and relaxed.

Due to limitations, I cannot film with a camera that has a 1:1 aspect ratio, and therefore I will have to achieve this effect myself in post production. This is how I will achieve the look:

This technique works very well however, for my film, I want the edges of the ratio to be blurred and faded, similar to the effect that Don creates using his antique cameras in his film It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012). In order to achieve this effect I wouldn't be able to use an actual 1:1 aspect ratio because to blur the edges would create an even smaller area of screen which isn't something that I want to do. The 1:1 aspect ratio limits the screen size to a great extent, and I fear that covering any more image would be damaging to the film as I wouldn't able to fit enough in each shot.

So, what I can do instead is keep the standard 1:85:1 aspect ratio in the edit, and then crop each clip making it black to create the illusion that the film is in a 1:1 aspect ratio. With the crop effect, I can then edit the lines of where the video is cropped to appear blurry so that it creates the distorted effect around the edge that I want so that you feel like the full vision is actually being blocked by a physical barrier, and that barrier is only lifted at the end of the film. Using the crop tool to adjust the aspect ratio also makes it easier to edit the moment at the end of the film where the aspect ratio changes and opens up.

In Premiere Pro I have used this technique to crop 20% of each horizontal side of my previous short film titled "Butterfly" (2020) and feathered the edge of the crop to give the blur effect. The result is the video below on the right. The video below on the left is another test on the butterfly short film for the ending where the aspect ratio finally expands to the full view. I achieved this by simply adding key frames on the amount cropped in premiere pro.

Filming Locations

Given the nature of my film and the tone that I am going for, having suitable filming locations available to me is something that is very important for my film. The film needs to feature locations from forests, suburban towns and streets, mountains, busy town streets and peaceful country lanes. Luckily the area in which I live features all of these locations within a relatively comfortable walking distance. However, I wrote the script with the limitations of locations available to me in mind, so finding suitable locations for the film will not be a problem because as I was writing a scene, I would always be considering if there were available locations that I could film at.

What usually happens in feature films is that the screenwriter will do their job in writing a script, then the location scouts and the director are tasked with finding suitable and available locations that are within budget. However, there can often be problems with this due to availability of locations, remoteness of locations and especially now with travel restrictions. Fortunately, most of the locations for my film are in parks or on roads or mainly inside a house, particularly a bedroom, which I am willing to use my own for the film. How location scouts usually work is that once the directors, producers and screenwriters have decided a general kind of scenery that they need that must be shot outside the studio, the search for a suitable location will begin. Location scouts often look for generally spectacular or interesting locations prior to this so that they have a database of locations in case of requests.

The location department will usually be close to the production department during this process as they need to discuss the requirements of the location and need to know the specifics of what the location needs to be able to offer before they can begin their research. The goal of the location scouts is to provide as many possible locations for review by production; often the Assistant Director, Production Manager and subsequently, the Director or even the Executive Producer in the case of narrative filmmaking. Once a consensus on locations with the most potential is reached, arrangements are normally made for some of the heads of the other Production Departments to tour those location/locations to confirm suitability. This tour is commonly called a "tech scout" or a "go-see" During this time the Locations Department will contact and begun negotiations with internal and external parties that may affect the ability to film at the location. This is known as "cleaning the location" and involves investigating and confirming availability and fees to be paid to a location owner or agent, obtaining a certificate of insurance and obtaining any needed film permits.

Thankfully, given that I am a student and the choice of locations I have picked, I will not need to go through the process of "cleaning the location" as all the locations are free to film and available and there are no restrictions and a filming permit is not required.

It's important to get the scenery and locations right because they can play a crucial role in establishing the mood of the scene, something that my film will rely very heavily upon. For the film we'll be shooting in my local village of Bassaleg and the surrounding areas. This gives easy access to all kinds of locations where filming permission is aloud without permits. It also helps due to the fact that the cast and crew members that have volunteered to be in my film live in the same place so filming will be easy for everyone.

Before filming begins of course I will need to take risk assessments of each locations to ensure that the cast and crew and myself of course can remain safe during the filming process. Luckily the locations I have chosen are all very safe, none of which boast any out of the ordinary threats to the crew. And of course it will be my responsibility to make sure that everyone follows government guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone will be social distancing and wearing masks as much as possible, with me providing plenty of hand sanitizer for people to use to make the experience as safe as possible.

About Joe

Joe is the main and only named character of my film. He is the central focus of the film and there will barely be a frame that Joe isn't in. The film is all about him. Not necessarily his life or his background. In actual fact you barely know anything about him. You don't know his full name, what he does for education, his hobbies or even his age. And the point of all of this is that you actually don't need to know. This is because it's Joe's experiences that drive the story forward. We experience things from the filter of HIS subconsciousness, and his subconsciousness' commentary filling in the gaps by narrating over what we see. It's the same premise as the character of Bill in It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012).

The point of the film is that Joe is an every-man. He has no stand out feature about him. He's not talented at anything in particular. He has a regular family, lives in a regular sized house, has a regular sized circle of friends, and wears regular clothing. There's nothing particularly special or unique about him. Even the choice of his name "Joe" is possibly one of the most common and simple male names in the UK, to further emphasise the fact that he is simply just another guy. In a way, Joe is actually the audience, and thanks to the fact that I've based his experiences on that of myself and dozens of other people from lots of different countries who have all been through lockdown and experienced it's hardships in their own ways. This allows Joe's experiences to be startlingly familiar to the audience, and hopefully, they will almost immediately relate to him and therefore feel an emotional connection to him.

I want Joe to be as much like Bill in It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012) who has nothing to distinguish himself from all of the other stick drawings other than a basic hat. The point is supposed to be that Joe sees himself as insignificant and indifferent, just like how Bill does. The character of Joe doesn't beliece that he is relevant at all in anyway which makes him such an interesting character. He isn't gifted at anything particular and he isn't a "chosen one" like character either. The only struggle he goes through is the basic day to day struggles that we all go through, and having us witness all this from his perspective allows us to better understand the world and different points of views.

Basics:

Name - Joe

Age - Unknown (18-21)

Date of Birth - Unknown

Physical Appearance:

Hair - Black, medium length, frizzy

Height - 5,8ft

Size - medium weight, relatively slim

Skin tone - tanned

Dress code - bland, wash of beiges and browns, mainly t-shirt and shorts

Personality Traits:

- Introverted

- Shy

- Easily made uncomfortable

- Unwilling to step out of comfort zone

Health Overview:

- In decent shape

- Depression and anxiety gets worse as film progresses

Interests:

Unknown

Family Background:

- Relatively loving family

- Relationship with them mostly unknown

Role in Story:

Joe is the driving force of the story. In a way, he is the story. We see the world from Joe's eyes as he struggles to navigate his way through the seemingly endless lockdown, and we see how his mental health begins to gradually deteriorate as he struggles to find happiness in his life.

Animatics

The definition of an animatic is "a series of images played in a sequence, often with a soundtrack." In essence, it's an animated storyboard. The purpose of an animatic to get a sense of how the film will flow and how it will sound. To create one you need to play a series of images in order and changing the timing of each frame to create a sense of pace. Animatics can be created by simply creating images on then putting them into editing software's such as Adobe Premiere Pro.

Animatics are crucial to the pre-production process of making a film. They allow you to really get a feeling of the film and identify what works and what doesn't, before you even start filming. Knowing when to make an animatic is also important as if you make one too early on it'll end up being really bad and not accurate to what you make, but you also need to make sure you don't leave it too long as they take a while to make and their importance in the process is vital. What differentiates a story board and an animatic is that animatics have subtitles instead of descriptions underneath them. They also have varying frame length and sound effects / music.

Animatics are however low resolution, images put in a sequence to give a sense of pace rather than look like a final product. It is more of a pre-cursor to the final cut. Animatics are good as they can be made quickly if done right, they can be used as a good reference point, they allow you to make quick but important changes to the film and they can save you time and money.

Camera Test

On Thursday 29th of March, I tested the Black Magic Pocket Cams in the studio in college, and I also tested out the 20mm and the 18-35mm lenses along with the camera, to experiment with how the camera works and how the different lenses achieve different image qualities. I placed the camera on a tri-pod and filmed some footage of my friend standing around and moving. I found that the camera was incredibly high quality and offered 6k footage in very high frame rates which is great for slow motion shots however, due to the complexity of the camera, we found out that formatting on the SD card and transferring the footage over to the computer was incredibly difficult and time consuming. It's for this reason that I do not have the test footage I captured. So instead, I have decided to use the Canon D90 camera which is a lot more simplistic and user friendly whilst still providing very good quality footage that I'll be needing. It also comes with the 20mm lens that I would prefer to use for my film.

Positives of Black Magic

- High Quality Picture

- Frame Rate Options

- Interface is fairly simple

- Comes with good variety of lens options

- Easily Portable

Negatives of Black Magic

- Extracting files is difficult

- Formatting is time consuming

- Very expensive (any damage would cost me lots)

Background - Why It's Such A Beautiful Day?

The main inspiration for my short film is the 2012 animated film It's Such A Beautiful Day directed by Don Hertzfeldt. I first saw the film back in late October of 2020 after it had been recommended to me time and time again by film accounts that I know and trust on Instagram. I purchased the film on Vimeo, the site where Don Hertzfeldt exclusively released the film and I was staggered by the originality of the film and the themes that it covered and the style in which it covered them. For an Instagram review I went on to write the following:

"It’s Such A Beautiful Day is a 2012 animated film written, directed and produced by Don Hertzfeldt that follows Bill, a man trying to navigate his shattered psyche.

There is simply nothing even remotely like It’s Such A Beautiful Day. It’s an experimental piece of art that on surface glance, looking at the bare stick images that we have to tell the story, looks almost laughable. Heck, if I hadn’t heard of this film before and how positive it’s reception was, and somebody told me that I’d be sat totally encapsulated by a film with nothing but stick drawings and narration, I’d probably laugh in your face. However, It’s Such A Beautiful Day took me by storm even with the high expectations I had for it. After the film had ended I sat and just stared at the screen for a full 20 seconds maybe even more, with a feeling I can’t even begin to describe. It was as if I was dreaming. It didn’t feel real. And then I awoke and saw the credits, and an urge to cry brushed over me that I had to try pretty hard to overcome.

What I’m trying to say is that this movie is such a surreal experience in every way. It isn’t for everyone; there’s a lot of stylistic choices that just won’t do it for some people. It can get very chaotic and it’s VERY emotional. But for just 60 minutes of your life, it’s so worth the watch. The writing feels so random, and the scenes are seemingly jumbled together accidentally, but it’s so carefully and delicately written. It’s genius without seemingly being aware of it. It’s simple, yet so complex and intricately woven together. It’s funny, without being excessive or forced or out of place. It’s emotionally challenging and sad, without being melodramatic or sensationalised. Don Hertzfeldt makes creating such a genius and affecting and unique piece of cinema seem so effortless. The images are so simplistic yet so striking. The sound and music is so calm, but can be so chaotic and difficult at times to perfectly put into perspective Bill’s point of view.

I very much enjoy seeing subjectivity in films, and I’m not on about people’s opinions on films. I'm on about when a filmmaker uses different unusual techniques to put into perspective the experiences that a character or characters are going through. (e.g shell shock during the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan) But doing that for a full hour, dealing with such a delicate and sensitive issue about mental conditions as serious as Alzheimer's and amnesia, is something extraordinary. This is a very rare and clever film that really should be more widely viewed by mainstream audiences. It’s a one of a kind piece of art and an experience that is second to none, which is something not enough films can do these days. Overall, It’s Such A Beautiful Day is one of the best films I’ve ever seen in my life and I couldn’t recommend it enough."

Towards the beginning of February I decided to re-watch the film, looking to find inspiration for this project and try to generate ideas on what I could make a film about given that I was so immediately fond of the film's creativity. As I was watching the film a second time I began to make notes of some impactful and memorable quotes that I found inspiring and felt like I could generate ideas from. These are the quotes:

"The passing of time is just an illusion. All of eternity is taking place at once. The past never vanishes away and the future has already happened. All of history is fixed and laid out, like an infinite landscape of simultaneous events that we all happen to travel through in one straight line."

"One day soon, we’ll finally have our day."

"Whilst on a walk Bill smiled and for once thought “Everything will be oka....”

"His ex-girlfriend had been visiting a lot lately. It’s the happiest he had been… in a long time"

"He had an awkward conversation with his ex-girlfriend. Bill found it hard to stay on a subject for more than just a few moments and found himself getting easily frustrated… at everything."

"It’s sort of a really nice day. Bill takes a walk along the sidewalk. He sees a woman’s tennis shoes filled with leaves and it fills him with inexplicable sadness."

"He pictures himself having trouble breathing and waking to a room full of concerned faces. He'd been terrified of dying his entire life, and as much as he tried not to think about it, death was always in the back of his head, around every corner, and hovering on each horizon. He’d brushed shoulders with death on a few occasions, but in his care free youth it had all seemed like an abstract impossible thing to ever happen to him, but with each passing decade he began to gauge the time he probably had left, and by his forties he had come to know just one thing: you will only get older. The next thing you know, you're looking back instead of forwards, and now, at the climax of all those years of worry, sleepless nights and denials, bill finally finds himself staring his death in the face surrounded by people he no longer recognises, and feel no closer attachment to than the thousands of relatives that came before. And as the sun continues to set, he finally comes to realise the dumb irony in how he'd been waiting for this moment his entire life. This stupid, awkward moment of death, that had invaded and distracted so many days with stress, and wasted time. If only he could travel back and impart some wisdom to his younger self, if only he could at least tell the young people in this room, he lifts an arm as if he's about to speak, but inexplicably says, 'it smells like dust and moonlight'

"Bill dropped his keys on the counter and stood there staring at them, suddenly thinking about all the times he had thrown his keys there before. He then thought about all the time he had spent completing the same tasks and rituals in his apartment over and over again. He then wondered if, realistically, this was his life, and the unusual part was his time spent doing other things."

"That morning while Bill was looking at the patterns in the carpet, his mother noticed a loose thread in his jumper. (He swipes the scissors out of her hands) How could you think I would ever hurt you she said, before crumpling to the floor. In that moment, Bill thought she looked really old."

"The next day felt pretty good. The next day he felt even better. Then he felt a lot worse. The next day he felt fine."

"He decides to make toast… but then changes his mind. He’s been having trouble sleeping again. He finds himself lying in the dark with his eyes open."

"Scattered throughout the box were photos of himself when he was a boy. He’d read once that each cell in the body replaces itself and dies as the years pass. How everyone is slowly reconstructed, out of continually changing pieces. It depressed him how foreign the pictures seemed to him now. How his ridiculous in grown cells had long ago stolen this happy dead kid’s identity, and with his own life, made a complete mess of it."

"So many years of faces and moments, are just a vague feeling now. The years are slipping… out of his head."

"It’s kind of a really nice day. He decides to walk around the block. On the side of the road he sees a woman’s tennis shoe filled with leaves and fills him with inexplicable sadness. He walks down his side street and see’s striking colours in the faces of the people around him. Details in these beautiful brick walls and weeds that he must have passed by everyday but never noticed. The air smells different. Brighter somehow and the currents are vivid. And the sun is warming his face. And the world is clumsy and beautiful and new. And it’s as if he’s been sleep walking. For god knows how long. Something has violently shaken him awake. His bath mats… are gorgeous. The grains in his cheap wood cabinet vibrate something deep within him. He’s fascinated by the way his paper towels drink water. He’s never appreciated these things. All this detail he’s never noticed. He’s alive. The stars rattle him to the core. All these lights have travelled for tens of millions of years to reach him at this moment. Our sun looks just like them. How many of these stars no longer exist, but’s ancient light is just reaching him now? They’re like a ghost. An amazing ancient time machine above his head that he’s ignored for most of his life. He wants to stop people in the street and say isn’t this amazing. Isn’t everything amazing? "

These quotes were the ones I found to be the most thought-provoking and deep. After a while of reflecting on what I had just seen and all of the quotes that I had written down, I finally came up with the concept of my film. To tell a story similar to the one of Bill, but in this case, link it to how the lockdown over the past year affects mental health instead of age and pre existing mental illness. I remember being told by my teacher after finishing my short film "Butterfly" that I should focus on telling stories that I WANT TO TELL rather than trying to copy something that someone else has made. In the past year there has been a lot of talk about how the global pandemic has mentally damaged nearly everyone, and though I know that many people will want to tell the story of that, I want to tell it in a way that no one would expect. That's why I want to adopt a similar style of narration and narrative constructs from Don Herzfeldt's film and make it my own. I've personally really struggled with mental health over the past year, and I know that all of my friends have too. The goal of my film is to make people feel less alone in their experiences of mental health deterioration. I want to show people that they aren't the only ones feeling the things that they are. I want the audience to relate to the main character more so than they'd want to. I want to pull at the heart strings and raise awareness of mental health.

Further Development and Pre- Project Research

After assuring myself and developing more ideas of the concept of my film and briefly discussing it with some friends, I decided to re-watch It's Such A Beautiful Day again and really take some good notes. I wanted to write down notes and come up with scene ideas as I was watching the film. The following is what I noted down:

Memories are becoming more and more like lucid dreams. Events that feel blurry and you can’t remember exactly what happens.

Repeat time lapse looking at the sky. Black screen. Title of film.

Public annoyances of others (return back to it in psycho sequence)

Ask someone how they are. No response. Feel used

Watching a paper bag whilst picking a scab

Reading something pointless (procrastinating) then looking at ants in the sink

Dream sequence

Waking up tired even though had had a full uninterrupted night’s sleep

Watching random stuff on YouTube. Been watching a lot lately but not sure why

Next morning feel even worse

Meet with someone - every time asks how she’s doing she just looks away at something with a tight lipped smile as if everything were okay but clearly not. Made Bill even more worried and confused and angry

A friend trying to be helpful corners him about something going on. He daydreams suddenly realising that this might be what he was like to her and feels really awkward and sad. Only catches the end of what the friend was trying to say which was “I had a weird dream where he hit his shin on the pedal of his bike and it scraped all the skin off his shin. He felt that.

That night one of his posters fell down while he was sleeping.

Messed up dream

Goes for walk sees some nice graffiti

Scrolls through the internet and begins to wonder about all of these people with no lives posting things that no one cares about (society scene from Mr. Robot) All of our heroes are counterfeit and that the world is just one big hoax. Spamming each other with our running commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight, our social media faking as intimacy. We want to be sedated. Because it’s painful not to pretend. Because we’re cowards.

Starts losing his mind (echo of routine realisation and everything else)

Bus ride

He sees a social media post that says they’re proud of everyone for making it this far and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This didn’t make him proud of himself at all. Instead he just sat there staring at the patterns on his ceiling he had never really realised were there, thinking about how much he has changed since his first few months in the lockdown.

He takes a walk to the park to get outside but doesn’t really know what to do when he gets there

Whilst doing work that was overdue, the sound of a tree cutter next door distracted him, irritating him for a long period of time (not narration)

*at new years eve* He celebrates with his friends and wishes them all a happy new year. Later on as they began sobering up all lay outside staring at the stars. It was such a beautiful moment. They then began to talk about all of the wonderful things that they will do that year.

Memories become faded.

He starts getting in a routine of watching movies with his friends. Sometimes they play games and get drunk afterwards. It’s the happiest he’s been in a long time

On one of his more lonely feeling days, he decides to call a friend. He sits in the voice chat with them not really knowing what to say. He finds it hard to stay on one topic for more than just a few moments without getting bored or repeating himself. After a few hours of awkwardness and many pointless minutes scrolling through Instagram at accounts he didn;t even know he followed, he says goodbye to his friend and leaves the call. *he sits there in silence for a while afterwards in complete silence looking guilty and upset*

The next morning he can’t remember the last time he talked to his best friend. *he lies in bed thinking* He looks at his phone and to his surprise it’s been over a week since he messaged her. That’s odd. Didn’t he talk to her just the other day.

He realises he’s been staring at his phone without actually doing anything on it. He gets surprised by messages he received hours ago. Why couldn’t he remember receiving them?

Repeat scene

Wasn’t he supposed to call somebody? Doesn’t remember his dreams at all.

Now he finds himself looking back instead of forwards. The future no longer holds any excitement, and every spark of hope is quickly snuffed out by yet more unfortunate news. Without realising it, he’s staring at photos of better times, wishing how he could relive them, wishing that he never took anything for granted. He wishes he could travel back in time and impart some wisdom upon his younger self warning him that things will change and that every day is precious. He closes his eyes trying to relive these memories in his head before they wither with time, fading into nothing but a vague feeling. Faces… seem to slip…. away. The memories… are fading… out of his head.

From this, I spent over a week developing more detailed scene ideas for the film, outlining why the scene should happen, what I want to communicate to the audience and everything in the scene. I developed first draft ideas of 11 different scenes detailing all of the narration and outlining everything in the scene (almost like a script draft) The following is what I came up with:

Opening - *Time lapses looking up at the sky from the streets below. The time lapses repeat about 4 times before suddenly cutting to a bedroom in the morning. A young man’s small, cramped bedroom that’s messy and could probably do with a good clean and declutter. The screen cuts to black and the title appears on screen in small white text in the bottom left corner.*

Then,

First Idea

“On his daily walk Joe passed by a park where a group of similar aged boys were standing around chatting. He stopped for a brief moment to look at them. Joe felt angry and frustrated. He clenches his fist in pure rage. He prepares to yell aggressively at them however he stops when one of the boys notices him. Joe immediately continues walking hoping that the boys never saw him in, now confident that he wasn’t brave enough to shout at them even though they were breaking the law.”

Scene 2 - Features an awkward interaction where we learn about Joe as a character. This scene needs to prove the point that he is socially awkward and is just like everyone else. Joe is an everyman and people need to be able to feel like they can relate to this experience after the scene has finished

First Idea

“Later that day Joe saw someone he knew in the street. He waved at them to get their attention, but then realised it was a complete stranger. Words got stuck in Joe’s throat as he tried to figure out what to say. The stranger looked at Joe confused and scared. Joe panics as the two approach each other. He eventually says sorry and then runs away, too ashamed of at himself to do anything else”

Then,

In this next part. Joe will watch a random object (probably a paper bag) blowing in the wind. Something random but beautiful, a detail he would normally miss. Whilst he does this he anxiously does something. This could be sucking on an ulcer in his mouth, picking at a scab on his arm, scratching an itch for a little too long. The point of this moment is to further show Joe being anxious but taking a little moment out of his day to be distracted by something utterly random. This says a lot about Joe without saying anything specifically. It gives people a chance to catch a break from the chaotic 2 moments we just experienced. The scene will linger on a static shot of Joe as he watches the bag, and music will blast fairly loudly.

First idea

“Joe came across a paper bag blowing in the wind and watched it dance in the air as he anxiously picked a scab on his arm”

Scene 3 - This is the scene where Joe gets home and completes his daily routine. This is where he realises and thinks about how many times he’s repeated these same tasks and rituals in his life and how repetitive and sedated his life has gotten in lockdown. How he has been sucked into a time loop where each day is the same with little to no change. Then he begins to wonder if, realistically, this is his life, and the unusual part is his time spent doing other things. Like this scene in It’s Such a Beautiful Day “Bill dropped his keys on the counter and stood there staring at them, suddenly thinking about all the times he had thrown his keys there before. He then thought about all the time he had spent completing the same tasks and rituals in his apartment over and over again. He then wondered if, realistically, this was his life, and the unusual part was his time spent doing other things.”

First Idea

“When Joe got home he took his shoes off and stared at the TV that was playing in the other room, suddenly thinking about all the times he had repeated this same exact process before, how he always puts his shoes in the same place, and sees his mum watching the same terrible reality show. He then thought about all the time he had spent completing the same tasks and chores each day over and over again. But then the thought came to him that maybe, realistically, this IS his life, and that his time spent doing other things is the irregular part.

Then,

This next part showcases Joe procrastinating by reading something he doesn’t care about for no reason. This will show the audience that Joe is bored and doesn’t really know what to do with himself. He’s killing the time because he’s got nothing and no one to spend it with. I want the audience to be able to relate to this moment and easily identify what is going on and what the problem is here. This bit only needs to be short but it needs to be impactful.

First Idea

“That night Joe read an article about a celebrity he’d never heard of moving house. *long pause of Joe thinking looking confused* Wasn’t he supposed to text someone?”

Scene 4 - This next scene follows a disturbing dream that Joe has followed by him waking up multiple days in a row. He then watches something random on YouTube and then suddenly wakes up and asks what he is doing. The purpose of this scene is for Joe to wake himself up suddenly and plant the seeds that he needs to change. He needs to find change in his life and start “living” again. The purpose of the dream is to show that Joe is quite disturbed and is designed to make people uncomfortable but also find amusement in the dark humour.

First Idea

“He had a dream about being caught in the crossfire of a police shootout carrying around a load of severed feet”

“When Joe woke up he felt really tired even though he’d had a full night’s sleep.”

“Whilst he had breakfast he watched a YouTube video of people finding old cars in woods and rescuing them. He’d been watching a lot of videos about cars lately.

*eventually* What is he doing? *he looks to the side at nothing in particular looking confused and disgusted in himself*

Scene 5 - This next scene I want to show that Joe’s mental state fluctuates throughout different days for no apparent reason. This is something that I’ve experienced throughout lockdown and that I know a lot of other people like friends have experienced and I think that it’s important to briefly show this in the film to somewhat comfort people who have also experienced and remind them that they aren’t alone in feeling this way. The next part of the scene also needs to have an interaction with Joe and a friend. He’ll get frustrated and the conversation will be a little awkward. Joe doesn’t really have much to say and finds it tricky staying on a subject for more than a few moments which is something that mentally exhausted people have and experience frequently during lockdown. She’ll ask him if he’s okay and he’ll say he’s fine and then she’ll ask him if he’s done anything nice this week and this will be the moment that Joe realises he hasn’t been doing anything with his life lately and that change needs to happen. He’ll ask how she is and she will not really give a proper answer and keep a tight lipped smile on her face as if subtly trying to tell him she’s not okay but masking it. The reason this scene needs to happen is that Joe now needs to make change. I’ve hammered home the point of this repetitive, boring cycle Joe is stuck in and now it’s time for him to try and properly break through and try and change so that the film doesn’t begin to get repetitive.

First Idea

“The next day Joe felt pretty good. The day after he felt even better. Than he felt a lot worse. Then he felt way worse. The day after he felt just fine. Then he felt great again”

Then,

“Joe video called his friend. He explained how he wasn’t really sure why he feels so different each day. The conversation suddenly became a lot more awkward.*pause* Joe didn’t really know what to say, and found it hard staying on a topic for more than a few moments without getting frustrated. She paused for a second and then asked “are you alright?” Joe said he was fine. *there’s a pause* “How are you?” he asks. She kept this tight lipped smile on her face and dodged the question. Joe felt used. He kept trying to get an answer out of her but she calmly refused to open up. “Have you done anything nice this week?” she asked. *Joe sits there deep in thought* As hard as he tries he can’t seem to think of a single thing that he’s done in the past week… in the past month actually. It’s as if he’s been on autopilot, for god knows how long. As if his mind has been in a sort of half hibernation, waiting for something unusual and exciting to happen.”

Scene 6 - This scene will start with Joe trying to make a difference in his life to make him feel better, it starts going well but then falls flat. He also gets cornered by a friend trying to help him but it just makes him feel bad. He daydreams and realises that this is how his friend must’ve felt before. It’s an important character moment for Joe and helps him realise how he needs to improve as a person but whether he’ll remember to do so is another question. To improve his life he’ll wake up and do exercise. Some simple push ups and sit ups and ab exercises. He tries to eat a healthier breakfast and get up early to make the most of his day. He then goes for a walk on a different route that he’s never gone on before.

First Idea

“That night Joe set alarms to wake up earlier to make the most of his day and try to do something with his life. He tried doing exercises he hadn’t done in a while and made himself a healthy breakfast. He went out for a walk on a different route than he usually does. He got cornered by a friend who was trying to be helpful by continually asking how he was. He suddenly thought about if this is how his friend felt last night when he was trying to comfort her. Joe felt… awful. *pause* He wasn’t paying attention to his friend but catches the last part of what he was saying where he explains that he scraped the skin off his shin with his bike pedal and that it really hurt.”

Scene 7 - This scene really needs to start to set Joe off down the spiral of insanity and how his mental health becomes more and more unstable and damaged. This scene can have like a filter or something that somewhat distorts the view and makes things slightly blurrier. This scene needs to show Joe waking up the next morning to his alarms but feeling no motivation to do exercise or continue to improve his life. From then on it’s downhill. It rains for a week and he can’t go for a walk or get outside. We follow a montage of him once again carrying out the same tasks and rituals everyday like we did before to once again solidify this feeling of a time loop. I also want to have multiple shots of him looking outside hoping that the weather gets better. He looks more and more tired and depressed each day. He less energetically completes his chores as the days go by and the feeling of imprisonment is further hammered home. I think that this is something important that needs to happen in the film. It’s something I’ve heavily struggled with during lockdown and I know lots of other people have struggled with it. After the relative high of the previous scene I think that this scene is important to bring the character back down to earth so that it doesn’t feel like that there is nothing happening in the film.

First Idea

“When Joe woke up his legs hurt and he felt more tired than usual. *staring at his alarm going off. He reaches over, turns off the alarm. He sits there for a second rubbing his eyes debating whether he should get out of bed. He ultimately decides not to and goes back to sleep*

Then,

*Walking around his house in his dressing gown looking tired.* “Why am I so tired? He thought”

Then,

“At about 3pm Joe was ready to start his day. He’d debated going for a walk but it was raining so decided against it.” *The montage begins. We see Joe watching TV, eating lunch, looking out the window again, playing video games, calling his friends and then going to bed. He wakes up the next morning to the alarms again, more annoyed this time. He brushes his teeth, watches TV, goes to the toilet, has a shower, watching TV again, eats lunch, looks out the window, plays video games, calling his friends but looks less and less enthusiastic each time and then going to bed. This cycle repeats at least 3 times with the editing accelerating and his energy slowly depleting. At one point when he’s looking out the window his mother asks “why don’t you go for a walk anyways?” *Joe just looks at her confused as if she’s gone insane” “What would be the point in that? He says”

*The montage comes to a grinding halt as we see Joe lying in his bed clearly awake, his alarm going off, but not getting up to do anything about it. His look says everything. The imagery becomes even more blurry and distorted. The bags under Joe’s eyes are enormous. He’s clearly in pain. Not necessarily physical pain but emotional pain. Joe takes a deep breath. Cut to black*

Scene 8 - After the really dark and depressing nature I want the next scene to be a little more uplifting and humorous but in a way that’s dark and still fitting for Joe’s current state. He won’t suddenly be all cheerful and happy but he won’t just be drowning in his own misery and making everyone watching feeling sad and bored. I also want to take this scene as an opportunity to make a brief but impactful somewhat commentary about social media. It’s something I myself have grown more and more aware of recently and it’s something that I want to address in this film given that the film is about the feeling of lockdown and it’s experience and social media has made a huge change and had an enormous impact on all of our lives since the pandemic happened. We all knew that social media sort of controls us before the pandemic but since then it’s grip on us has tightened significantly and I want Joe to end up acknowledging this. I’ve used the f*** society scene from Mr. Robot as well as my experiences and information from the documentary The Social Dilemma as inspiration for this. He starts to question himself and his existence. Why does he do the things that he does every day? Why does he scroll through social media so much. Does it really have that much of a control over him or is it just something that people always over exaggerate about?

First Idea

“That night Joe masturbated to something very strange. He regretted it immediately and had trouble sleeping that night, drowning in his guilt, the thought of someone somehow finding out about this seemed like an inevitability for no reason. He completely forgot about this the next morning”

Then,

*whilst on his walk* “His head felt strange. It felt fuzzy… and numb. The world seemed silent and unlived in somehow. It was quiet, but in a sad and empty way rather than being peaceful and tranquil. There were so many goddamn groups of people acting as if everything was back to normal.

Then,

“When he got home Joe said hello to his parents who were both sitting in the lounge on their phones. They did a sort of “ehh” sound to acknowledge him. Then they carried on scrolling and typing. *Joe sort of hangs around the door for a little bit staring at them blankly, clearly underwhelmed with their reaction.* “At that moment Joe’s parents looked like robots. The way they’re sat there glued to their phones reminded him of what he used to see on a daily basis. People being somehow controlled by their screens, faking social media as intimacy, spamming each other with their endless commentaries of garbage. It’s as if people want to be sedated. He’s a victim of this too. Constantly allowing his phone to suck the life out of him. He craves clicks and likes to get that sweet dopamine boost that everyone else does, hoping to get the brief high off of it that never feels as good as you think it will.” *Joe snaps out of this daydream* “Seemingly out of the blue his mum says “isn’t it crazy to think how bad this would all be without social media” *there is a silence. His dad doesn’t even look away from his phone. His mum takes a moment to think and then smiles, before proceeding to look back down at her phone. Joe, deep in thought, slowly leaves the room*

Scene 9 - This next scene I want to show a flashback to when Joe was happy and hopeful at the future before the pandemic happened. I think that this scene has a lot of potential to be extremely emotional and relatable so I really want to get it right. I want it to be pretty simple but also really impactful. I want it to feel like a gut punching reminder to the audience of how the world used to look so hopeful. I want to also recapture this feeling of happy hopefulness and unity and youth that I know I experienced around this period and so many other people did. We planned and talked about all the amazing things we’d do in 2020 and how exciting it would be to grow up more with each other. I also want the next scene to show a small upside during the pandemic where he starts getting into the routine of doing something he loves and it actually makes him happy. It’s important to show that it’s not all doom and gloom and that happiness in the little smaller things can be found even at the most grim of times. Lot’s of the film has been incredibly negative and pessimistic so a scene like this. There needs to be a scene towards the end where he hits rock bottom and really struggles, and then i want to end it on a bittersweet, glimmer of hope that perhaps everything will be okay.

First Idea:

*on new years Eve. Joe and his friend are clearly at some sort of celebration with his friends all drinking and having a good time. The year 2020 finally begins and him and his friends all cheer.* “Joe remembers celebrating New Years Eve with his friends, and how one of his friends got so drunk he vomited out of the bathroom window. *brief pause*

“Later on that evening, as he and his friends began sobering up, they all discussed their future whilst star gazing. *Joe and his friends are laying down on grass in a circle looking up and pointing at the sky whilst talking* “Joe took a deep breath and looked around him. Is it because he’s still a little drunk, or is this one of the most beautiful moments of his life? He tells his friends about all of the wonderful things that they are going to do this year”

Then,

*Joe is sat in his room on a video call with his friends watching something with them, we see him laughing and clearly having a nice time* “Joe had recently gotten into the routine of watching movies over video calls with a couple of friends. For some reason, it’s the happiest he’s been…. In a long time”

Scene 10 - After a pleasant little segment I think this scene needs to draw Joe to rock bottom just before the end of the film. This scene will almost be like a montage of Joe’s memories becoming fractured, him losing his sense of reality and him feeling caught in this endless loop, where he feels that there is no future, and that now he only looks back at his life instead of looking forward to what is to come. The end of this scene I want to be the most emotional and hard hitting of the entire film. I want people to relate to it, and I want it to really hit home hard. The scene will have a montage of Joe losing track of reality and showcasing less obvious but clear signs of his mental health deteriorating rapidly. He’ll get bored and awkward during conversations with friends and find it hard to stay on more than one subject for more than a few moments, his friends recount experiences with him that he for some reason can’t remember, he loses track of time and can’t remember when he last spoke to certain people, he realises he spends too much time on his phone not actually doing anything and forgets to respond to messages without meaning to. After this mini-montage / quick combination of very short scenes, Joe will find himself sat on his own, looking at old photos of him and his friends, almost in tears, wishing that he could go back to the time where he was hopeful and care-free, wishing he could let himself know that soon things will change and that he needs to make the most of every single day, and to not take anything for granted. He tries to relive the memories in his head, but now they feel like nothing but a vague feeling that’s meaning and impact is slipping out of his head.

First Idea:

“The next day Joe felt lonely so called one of his friends. He didn’t really know what to say. He found it hard to stay on a certain topic for more than just a few moments before getting frustrated. He spent most of the call looking at terrible memes from pages he didn’t even know he followed. Eventually his friend had to go do something and left rather abruptly.” *Joe sits there in silence looking at his blank computer screen for a brief while after his friend leaves. He looks guilty and upset.*

Then,

*Joe is out in the park and is talking to a friend whilst socially distancing.* “His friend recounts a time that they spent together just before everything changed that Joe doesn’t actually remember… Actually, come to think of it, Joe can’t remember much before. All these memories and experiences that he knows he’s had, feel blurry… and distant…”

Then,

*whilst sat in his room* “Joe suddenly can’t quite remember how long it’s been since he contacted one of his friends” *Joe scrolls through his phone and looks. We see highlighted that it’s been two weeks since he messaged them. Joe looks shocked and confused, then a little worried. “That’s odd. He could’ve sworn it was only a couple of days.”

Then,

*Joe is sitting on the floor against his bed looking at his phone.* “He pictures himself playing board games and watching movies. He pictures himself wandering along a path carrying huge sticks, that they will then throw into the river. He pictures himself drunkenly walking around at night, blasting music that he feels nostalgia to. He pictures himself showing the amazing views that you can see from the small mountains near where he lives. And as much as he loves to recreate memories in his head, he finds it harder and harder with each passing day to stay optimistic. To remind himself that things will get better. As each day passes the horizon looks bleaker… and bleaker… and bleaker… and now, the only way left to look is back. The future no longer holds any excitement, and every spark of hope is quickly snuffed out by the weekly dose of unfortunate news. He wishes he could somehow travel back in time to impart some wisdom upon his younger self. To tell himself that soon everything will change, and that everyday counts. That every opportunity should be taken and that every moment should be lived to the fullest. It’s sadly ironic how he never appreciated the present, until it became the past, and that you never know just how much you love something, until it is taken from you.”

Scene 11 - This is the final scene. I want this final scene to be quiet in comparison to the narration heavy scene that just comes before it. After delving deep into his own mind and coming to some tough but important realisations, I feel that it is time for Joe to quietly re-evaluate his life, and take a new approach. I want Joe’s character and story to come full circle and come to peace with his life in the pandemic. I want him to come to peace with the fact that he can’t go back. I want to show that Joe realises that the world will keep spinning, and that he can’t control the world. All that he can do is make the most of what time he has and what he still has left. There will be no narration to disrupt the tranquil atmosphere of the scene as I feel that it would distract the viewer from what I’m trying to say. This scene is a moment of reflection not just for Joe but for the audience. This moment will allow them to sit back and think about all that they have just seen and consider that.

First Idea:

*During the late afternoon Joe walks up a rural country road surrounded by fields and hills. He walks through a bush to emerge in a field where before him lies a pond with a tree just in front of it. Taking in the beautiful tranquillity of the location, he sits down against the tree looking out at the hills and mountains before him. He takes a moment of reflection, taking deep breaths and slowly looking around him, deep in thought. His at first blank and painful expression slowly but surely turns into a look of reassurance and hope. He subtly smiles and slightly nods to himself. Cut to white. END*

In addition to all of this, before the project had officially started, I already began to do some primary research in the form of creating a Google forms questionnaire that asks people about their experiences of lockdown to try and get a better initial understanding of what people I know are going through and feeling. I shared this on my Snapchat story to my friends. I used this information as well as information I've gotten through just talking with my friends on social media to really broaden my understanding of what people are thinking and feeling and how a number of different people have struggled during the past year. 19] (Lockdown Experiences, 2021)

Furthermore, before the project started I hiked up a nearby mountain to try and get a time lapse of the sun setting (something I want to have for the opening shots) The first time I hiked up the mountain I was a little too late and couldn't capture a great time lapse on my phone.

So I went up a second time a few days later and captured these fantastic time lapses of the sun setting. I just want to say it was one of the most incredible sun sets I've ever seen.

A few days after this I posted on my Snapchat story the pitch for my film and asking my close friends who live in my area if they would want to help me make the film. Among the people who said they would help was Iwan Ellis who has a lot of experience in music and developing melodic soundtracks and instrumentals. He is an artist with multiple songs on iTunes and Spotify by the name of Bands God and asked if I wanted him to develop music for the film in which I answered yes to.

He needed context and wanted more information about the film and the main inspirations for it so given that I can't send him the entire film It's Such A Beautiful Day, the first part of the film (the first of the 3 short films that make up It's Such A Beautiful Day) Everything Will Be Okay which us available to view for free on Don's official YouTube channel. After he watched the film he was stunned by the insanity and tragic beauty of it's communication of mental illness. The next day he sent me a quick draft of a piece of music he had created for the film and wanted to show me to see if I liked it, which I did. 22](god, 2021)

Positives of Canon D90

- High Quality Picture

- Frame Rate Options

- Interface is very simple

- Comes with good variety of lens options

- Easily Portable

- Easy to format

- Extracting footage is very easy

Negatives of Canon D90

- Expensive (any damage would cost me lots)

Questionnaires For Friends

In order to ensure the authenticity of my interpretation of the experience I needed evidence and examples from other people to back myself up. The whole point of the film is for it to be relatable and for people to take comfort in knowing that they aren't alone in feeling these things. By simply using just my own experiences and taking random inspiration from conversations with friends I wouldn't be able to make the film fully relatable to anyone other than myself, which isn't what I want. So, before I started the project, I conducted a short and unplanned out survey on Google Forms and shared it to about 80 people on Snapchat where I received 8 responses.

The first two questions of the survey were asking about how people have spent their time during lockdown on social media. I included this because I knew that I wanted to include a tangent in my film making a commentary on social media and I wanted to see if my theory of people using social media way more frequently since the pandemic was correct, which it was.

The next few questions in the survey were mainly about mental health and different things related health such as quality of sleep and how people pass their time during lockdown. I think that struggling to sleep is a great way of showing mental deterioration in my film and I wanted to see if people's sleep schedule has deteriorated so that I could prove my theory and fully incorporate this into my film. Another one of the questions was asking about a strange dream that people have had. This is because in my film I want Joe to have an incredibly dark and utterly random dream, just like how dreams often are. It's hard to make up dreams because they're usually so random that you couldn't make them up on the spot, so I wanted to use examples from different people and combine them together to create an authentically. The other question was asking about if people if they feel that they have changed during the lockdown and if so for better or worse. I know that my own mental health has gotten a lot worse during the pandemic and I know from talking to friends that there's has too, however I wanted concrete evidence and multiple responses from different people to gain a better understanding. 19](Lockdown Experiences, 2021)

The Second Survey:

The second survey was conducted later in the project towards mid-April. The reason I made this survey is because I had a better understanding of what I wanted to ask people and I wanted to reach a lot more people so that I could have a broader range of answers. To get more responses I shared the link to the Google Forms onto my Snapchat story, and both my private Instagram story and my main Instagram story. I ended up receiving 32 responses in total.

The point of the first few questions was to get an understanding of how people have been spending their time during lockdown. I asked them about whether they feel that they have changed as a person over the course of the lockdown as the main character in my film changes quite a bit as the film goes on and his mental health declines. I knew that most people would have become more depressed and isolated over the course of the lockdown just like Joe in my film so having this physical evidence to back up Joe's experience as a very real thing that has commonly happened is good to have.

I wanted the questions towards the end to be quite personal because I need to understand the personal experiences from as many people as I possibly can in order to get the best understanding of the common experiences of lockdown and incorporate that into my script so I gave the optional questions about people's biggest regrets during lockdown and about whether they find themselves looking through old photos of before the lockdown wishing they could go back. I asked this because I originally wanted there to be a scene where my main character does this and I wanted to see if it was a thing that people normally do. 20](Lockdown Experiences, 2021)

Survey 3

To guarantee that I would be able to get an audience for my film, I conducted yet another survey on Google Forms that I shared to an even larger audience of people. The main questions in this survey asked if people were interested in the idea of the film, where they would want to see it, and if there would be an audience interested in the unconventional way of telling the story I'm going for. I ended up receiving 102 responses on the survey however 77 of which were adults of ages 30+.

Thanks to this survey I can now be sure that I definitely will have an audience, because in the question that asked "Would you be interested in seeing a fictional short film centering around mental health during quarantine?" 84 out of 102 people responded with "yes", and only 3 people replying with "no".

The following question asked the participant why or why not they wouldn't want to see the film. Most of the responses said that it would be interesting to see a film about somebody's deteriorating mental health in lockdown and that a lot of people would find it helpful and comforting. Many responses aid that it was an important topic to address given how difficult the past year has been for people and the rise in mental health issues amongst people of all ages.

It's become clear to me after completing this survey that I need to make sure that the film does address mental health at the forefront and provide comfort and create a therapeutic atmosphere so that people will enjoy it and be emotionally affected by it.

The next question asked was where people would most likely be willing to watch the film. I asked this so that I could get an understanding of the best way to distribute my film where I can get the most amount of people watching it as possible. The majority of the responses said on social media sitrs and streaming services like Netflix. Unfortunately I would not be able to get my film on Netflix due to it being a student film. Social Media is something that can easily be done, and the majority of the responses mentioned YouTube specifically, as well as Instagram and Facebook getting frequent mentions.

The responses have shown me that the best way to share and distribute film is on social media. This will get me the biggest audience possible and it also allows people to share and comment leaving feedback on the film, which is essential to me moving forward and progressing.

The next question asked if people were intrigued in the film being told in an unconventional style. Asking this question is important because the way in which my film will be told isn't something linear that mainstream audiences will be used to seeing, so being able to know their thoughts on this and whether it will deter them from watching the film is important. Thankfully, the majority of the responses were all for the idea of the film being unconventional, with only 1 person responding with "no". There were quite a few responses of "not sure" and "maybe" which is understandable however it hopefully means that they would be willing to give the film a go.

The responses have luckily solidified the fact that my film being slightly experimental and unconventional will not deter a large portion of my audience as I feared it would.

In the next question I attached a picture of the pitch of my film and asked if people were interested about the film based just off reading the pitch that I wrote.

Asking this question was important because it would allow me to see if people liked the pitch I had written and would still be interested in watching the film after reading it. This allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of how interested my audience are in my project. 82 people answered the poll with "yes" meaning that I have still retained my audiences attention and won over the vast majority of them. Only 2 people responded with "no" the rest responded with "maybe" and "not sure" which is still good and better than a no.

From this question and the following question which asked why they responded the way they did, I've gained an understanding of what I need to do and provide to my audience in my film to satisfy them. 21](Audience Research, 2021)

All Research

It's Such A Beautiful Day

Loneliness and Cinematography

Sound of Metal (2020) Ending Scene

Aspect Ratio Changes In It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012) and Mommy (2014)

Filming Locations

​

​

Thankfully, given that I am a student and the choice of locations I have picked, I will not need to go through the process of "cleaning the location" as all the locations are free to film and available and there are no restrictions and a filming permit is not required.

About Joe

Animatics

Camera Test

Questionnaires For Friends

Survey 3