PLANNING - Set Text
Set Text
By Set Text I've gone specifically for poems. As I'm producing a short film a short poem would be perfect. I think if I were to do a poem I would style the film more like The Ellington Kid [1] (2012 By Dan Sully) This way I wouldn't have to stress so much about mise-en-scene such as location. If I choose a gripping poem with a witty ending then I could write it as a conversation about the events. I could cut to a few scenes and just have the voiceover of the storyteller speaking.
Like with adapting a story I would have to ensure Copyright issues were sorted. I would probably have to again to choose a poem from the Public Domain. There are probably other ways to present a set text as a film but I think purely acting it out would be rather boring. Something great about the way Dan Sully does it is that he keeps you engaged with just the one voice. It is assisted by visuals but if you sit and close your eyes you still get a feel for the events going on. This is fantastic because, then when you start adding visuals you are able to enhance the tale to such a great extent. I would aim to do this too!
As always I had a search around [2] and found two Poems that I could see as films (I am not certain if they are Public Domain films but for brainstorming that's not an issue):
1- My Father Told Us Stories by Eula Biss [3] - This is a nice short Poem maybe too short for a short film. IDEA: I could work with it, maybe the person has lost their father. They don't want to speak much this would elongate the text. I could work on close ups of the persons trembling hands. When they speak I could focus on the eyes or mouth. Maybe it could be set in a really busy café but this table as an eerie sense of silence to it. The person hasn't come to terms with the loss and doesn't have much more to say but reminisce on vivid moments they'd shared with their father.
2- Tissue By Imtiaz Dharker [4] - I got to study this poem at GCSE and immediately fell in love! The whole metaphor of this poem is something I've always wanted to turn into a film. I feel that many people don't understand it in all of it's glory - and perhaps visual representation would help to improve this poem. IDEA: It could possibly be a scene of a working business person who is overly stressed. They could have come to meet a friend and they start to recite this poem. It would prove they have gone mad and really don't see the point of work anymore. Filming would be good fun I could work with textures and a variety of camera angles maybe even the Dutch angle. I would have to cast an actor with a great voice to ensure that nothing is lost with the sound and it can work nicely along the visuals I create. I would be able to do slightly more abstract filming on this one and I think that would be good fun!
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