MAJOR PROJECT: DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Backbone

What is a Director's statement?

Passion:

As somebody who lived abroad for much of their life, coming back to Britain was daunting. Despite being British myself I was brought up in Latvia living permanently there until I was 12 years old. Especially when I first arrived I found the people very different to those in Latvia. Even hearing everyone around me speak English was a slightly foreign thing to me. A lot of my life so far has been moving schools I studied at 6 in total which made for a lot of new experiences coming in as an outsider. 

I also speak Latvian fluently which I think gives a different perspective on things, being able to communicate in another language altogether. Essentially this is where I looked for ideas for my story COMMUNICATION was the word I thought of. I desperately wanted to experiment with the use of different forms of communication in my film. So I came up with several variations on the theme which included people who couldn't speak in the same language trying to communicate as well as versions of a translator being involved. 

I eventually landed on this story because of a radio call in I heard which involved a man calling in distraught about his decision to vote leave in the UK EU vote in JUNE 2016. The passion from this man about his decision and how that will effect his 13 year old son as well as his life in general moved me profoundly. So I knew I had to use this as a starting point and work in other elements around him including a pair of immigrant brothers.

Inspiration

• LBC (Leading Britain's Conversations) Radio call in between host James O'Brien and caller Richard. The call in happened on the 13th October some time after the 28th of June Referendum date. Richards sincerity and regret about his decision to vote leave caused an outpouring of emotions from him.
• 'Locke' (Directed by Steven Knight) (2013) Tom Hardy plays a man whose life collapses because of a one time mistake. He has to try and resolve the issue as his life collapses during a succession of phone calls made whilst driving along the motorway.

Tom Hardy in 'Locke' (2013)

• Denis Villeneuve's films 'Prisoners' (2013), 'Sicario' (2015) and 'Arrival' (2016). For the way he depicts suspense in with his direction keeping them human and grounded even Arrival which involves an Alien arrival to earth.
• 'Utopia' Channel 4 (2013-14) (created by Dennis Kelly)     

Genre

The film is a DRAMA. It will cover some pretty harrowing topics in straight up way. Dealing with death, the current immigration crisis, family loss and regret.

Cinematography

Lighting

Three separate sections of the film that will have different styles of lighting to represent where they are. 

• LORRY CABIN INTERIOR - Lighting dark blues, greys taking inspiration from the films of David Fincher, but not going as dark as 'Fight Club' (1999) instead aiming more for the interior lighting from 'Gone Girl' (2014) also a Fincher film. 

• Exteriors natural lighting using a reflector to light people faces. 
• Inside the lorry TRAILER will be lit with very little, using spotlights only in these scenes. This will show the darkness and claustrophobia of the TRAILER and how difficult a situation this is for the two brothers, travelling for days in these conditions. Chiaroscuro painting a big inspiration for this style of lighting, Chiaroscuro being light to dark paintings exactly the kind of look I am searching for for the scene taking place inside the LORRY TRAILER.

Painting by Joseph Wright of Derby 'An experiment on a bird in the air pump' 1768

Editing and Camera Dynamics

The Editing style of Backbone will be slow paced compared to the quick cuts of action films. There will be moments that will require holding shots longer on the emotion of the main character RICK as his feelings change throughout. 

The story begins with a bang in a person being run over, but from then on it will focus primarily on RICK and his performance. However towards the end I would like the editing to increase in pace as more characters get involved and especially when the authority figure of the police arrive on the scene. This will immediately add tension and a need to increase the cuts to show how each character is reacting to the Mexican standoff moment at the end of Backbone. 

This clip from Channel 4's 'Utopia' (2013-14) has a nice pace of editing, there is some tension but it held back to allow for the conversations to take place comfortably without any need to rush or take things too slowly. 

The film will take place in primarily one location so won't need many trumped up exotic editing techniques as the story will progress in real time throughout. 

In terms of dynamics of the camera, it will change as a story I would like to use the tripod for the beginning as well as track & dolly but as things begin to take a twist I will shoot some of the last moment with handheld camera (Fig Rig).