India at Chelsea

[indiachelseatwo]

I decided to enter the poster competition for Jen Byrne’s lecture at Chelsea. It was the first time I had entered one, and it got chosen! That was a lovely surprise. The photograph is an old one from a series of experimentations with double exposures I took for the vinyl project at the end of last year.

[indiachelseatwo]

The Fox and the Pound

This is "The Fox and the Pound" by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

This is the final piece for the hand in. I couldn’t figure out in time how to export it without a line-y blur that occurs with movements. This was quite frustrating, but hopefully it isn’t too noticeable.

[indiachelseatwo]

Some behind the scenes photographs from filming.

[indiachelseatwo]

I tried to reshoot the scene of the driver being tipped, this time with a pound to match the new title. This would have been the perfect conclusion to the film, especially with the clearer narrative provided with the voiceover. Unfortunately the actors I had originally used were away and I had to use my neighbours. They were awkward and the actions didn’t seem natural. As well as this, I couldn’t get the settings on my camera to match the ones I originally had. The footage turned out so dark that it was even hard to identify the pound. I had to cut this scene, which is a shame and I would still like to add it to the end when I don’t have the pressure of a deadline and can get the actors together again.

[indiachelseatwo]

Panel Review FMP

Although my feedback wasn’t necessarily bad, I felt a huge sense of disappointment around the day. This was mainly directed towards myself as I could tell my film wasn’t communicating the best it could be. I felt really frustrated at not being able to get the edit how I wanted. There was also a sense of vulnerability around this project as it’s probably the one that I have cared most about and gone out on a limb to create, which is why I wanted it to succeed so badly. Presenting last after six hours of being in the lecture theatre probably didn’t help in terms of pressure and expectation either!

After the review I was in a pretty dark mood for a couple of days, and didn’t want to think or talk about the project as I just felt bitter and let-down by the whole thing. However, on the third day I had a change of heart and thought to follow the advice of my tutor who had encouraged a voiceover. I hadn’t agreed before, simply because I couldn’t think what the voiceover would be. I had the idea of writing a ‘Dr Seuss’ style, simple poem describing the story of ‘The Fox and the Pound’. 

Writing the poem came surprisingly easily and was really cathartic. I really enjoyed getting my head out of my laptop for the day and thinking creatively in a different way. The child-like manner of the poem lent itself really nicely to the film as it juxtaposed the dark humour, yet suited the silliness of it all. I approached my family friend and actress, Samantha Bond to record the voiceover, which she kindly agreed to. Her tone was perfect for it.

[indiachelseatwo]

The Fox and the Pound (2)

This is "The Fox and the Pound (2)" by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

This was the initial version of the film which I showed at the professional panel review.

[indiachelseatwo]

This was the initial treatment for the film.

[indiachelseatwo]

FMP

I knew that I wanted to create a film for my final major project. After reflecting on the way my YCN film went, I felt like it was lacking character and individuality. Although there were moments of humour, it was very reserved and clean-cut. I had a real desire to break away from this and to create something fun, strange and content-driven rather than focused on aesthetic. 

My mum and brother both write comedy so I went to brainstorm with them. My brother works part-time as a Deliveroo driver and has to cycle around with a ridiculously large bag on his back. We decided this could make a funny sketch. The cover name is ‘Foodywoo!’ and the logo has a fox instead of a kangaroo. It would follow the journeys of the customer - a rich, lazy and powerful man - and the delivery boy, who gets caught in a storm on his journey and experiences a surreal, paranoia around the size of his bag growing and turning into the ‘Foodywoo!’ fox. When the two finally meet, the customer orders the delivery boy to wipe the burger on his face. The piece will hopefully be funny in an awkward, surreal, British humour way.

[indiachelseatwo]

I bought some tassels from the pound shop to stick on the handlebars. I wanted to emulate that childhood excitement of conquering the bicycle. This followed through into the documentation of the evening. I created a ‘Dear Diary’ aesthetic using disposable photographs and childish stickers. I’m happy with the way it turned out, though it’s not exactly perfect graphic design, because it’s the kind of thing I would have created as a child to celebrate it.

[indiachelseatwo]

Courage

It took me a long time to think of a response to this brief, until I remembered the fact that I can’t ride a bike! Something which has long brought shame upon the Gillett household. I failed my cycling proficiency in Primary school, and creating a mental block against the activity since. 12 years later at the age of 20, I tackled one of my biggest downfalls. It was surprisingly easy... I guess the saying is true that you never forget how to ride a bike! 

[indiachelseatwo]

Stills from dark room set on Tiggi’s ‘Burn Notice’ music video.

[indiachelseatwo]

I still wanted a highly stylised look for this project, in the same way I had envisioned the last idea. Due to the limited amount of coloramas at university, the best coloured backdrops available were pink and teal. These photographs were new reference points for this project.

[indiachelseatwo]

Join the web’s most supportive community of creators and get high-quality tools for hosting, sharing, and streaming videos in gorgeous HD with no ads.

Link to the campaign film for Royal Opera House. Password is ‘fromROH’.

[indiachelseatwo]

This was my final presentation for the YCN submission. I think it suits the tone of the film well, and the mockups demonstrate how the campaign would be used in real life.

[indiachelseatwo]

For the title card, I thought it would be nice to create a vintage-inspired postcard to the viewer from the Royal Opera House. Here are the stages of evolution towards the final image. I think the final image strikes the right balance between simplicity and vintage-frill. 

[indiachelseatwo]

This was the treatment I created for ‘High Tea’. However it became clear when presenting that if this was going to be a film longer that 10 seconds, there needed to be more happening. We discussed other ever-day climaxes such as toast popping up and confetti being pulled. I knew that this made sense, but there didn’t seem to be any connection between the objects so it became a bit meaningless to me. At this point I had a dip in motivation towards the project, so I knew that something needed to change. 

I started brainstorming for a slightly different concept. After browsing an ‘operatic dictionary’ online, I liked the idea of breaking down words for the everyday viewer. A few visual puns started to present themselves such as ‘Legato’ meaning smooth and gliding. I immediately had the vision of a smooth and sexy leg in front of a colorama. From here my idea changed course to become a message from the Royal Opera House to the viewer breaking down terms in a playful and visually pleasing manner. 

[indiachelseatwo]

YCN - Royal Opera House

I was attracted to this brief because although I had never been to the opera, I was always intrigued by it. The brief wanted to break away from the ROH’s old-fashioned, fusty stereotypes in oder to appeal to ‘culturally aware 20-30 year olds’. This presented an interesting challenge for me, and one which I felt I could engage with as I empathised with the target audience and was guilty of believing the negative stereotypes of opera. 

I had two initial ideas that I wanted to explore, both through the medium of film. One was to use the imagery of ‘the fat lady’ and to have her gagged or with her mouth being shut using the phrase ‘it’s not over’ as a play on ‘it’s not over til the fat lady sings’. The production on this would have been dark and sinister, and kind of sexy. 

The second idea was to have a highly art directed set with a kettle boiling. The film would follow the tension of the kettle boiling in a dramatised way, with operatic music as a substitute only to end up with the glorious mundanity of a cup of tea. The idea was to normalise the extraordinary nature of the opera in a humorous and stylised way. 

During feedback we decided that the second idea had more room to grow so I continued to develop this idea.