Still from the footage we shot on the weekend; Amalia & Lucas
About a month or two ago I was driving out to Cahill’s parents house and I came up with an idea for a short film.
Normally when I watch films of any type I find myself paying attention only to the choice of soundtrack; the composer, the use of foley effects, the genres/the music choices for different scenes etc..
So thinking of directing my own little film was a bold change.
The drive out there is about 20 minutes through countryside; cows, tall grass, horses… all framed by mountain ranges. Every time I drive there I realize why you would want to live out of the city. The concept of driving home from work, with the sunset in your rear-vision mirror to your own little oasis in the trees has always been something I’ve liked.
The back of Cahill’s property has a creek surrounded by great gums, giant spiders, thick forest and fallen logs. The first time he took me for a walk to the creek down the damp, winding forest path I felt like I had gone through some form of porthole to another land. He pointed out giant spiders, and I collected feathers and seeds and put them in my pockets. We would go down there and make boats out of twigs, vines and papery leaves from the forest floor. We’d race our creative nature boats in the creek with his little brothers. Whenever we’d swim there I’d be the last one in, barely being able to go deeper than my knobbly knees until the boys would drag me into the icy, clear water.
The film idea was around a little boy who lived in these fields and forests… The story line was vague in my head. I only could clearly see the composition of frames of the different scenes. I saw colours, eyes, gestures.. It started that he had a sickness and ran away to be a bird; exploring different lands with no concept of time. Then after planning with a few friends the story evolved into a brother and sister – exploring and collecting feathers, following the birds.
I spoke to a great friend (And incredible photographer) Brad Tenannt about the vision – He found these images to use as inspiration:
I looked at the link he had sent me and smiled like a Cheshire cat.
We set a date.. gathered feathers and went to start filming
Yesterday was the day it all came together. A lovely friend of mine named Amalia and her little brother Lucas were the golden stars. Amalia also makes these magnificent dream catchers so she brought a giant bag of feathers of every hue. My next door neighbour Sam (Age 6) also came along for the ride. We piled into my old car around noon with white clothes, knitted scarfs, old leather belts, cameras & tripods. In the car on the way out, I played brad songs that had floated through my head to accompany the vision.
Artists such as Yann Tiersan, Michael Nyman, When the Clouds, George Winston & Alexandre Desplat accompanied our journey out to the world of trees and mountains.
The footage ended up looking magical. We didn’t think about what we were styling Lucas in so we put together an outfit with the mix matched stuff I had brought along. He ended up wearing a white cotton button up shirt, rolled up at the sleeves with a little yellow/mustard coloured vest over the top. He already had little skinny jeans on, so he rolled them up to just below his knees and tucked the white shirt in. It was strangely perfect – A little peter pan adventure boy! Amalia wore clothes from Stella Moda – A high waisted blue skirt which billowed down to the ground. And a white knit top that hung loosely around her frame. They both wore little crowns that i had kept in my room previous to the filming. One was made out of fake flowers and wire – the other was made of river weeds and coloured wool from a day Cahill and I spent at the river at the start of the year.
The shooting finished at around 5:15. We had to finish up fast in order to return little sam back to his home. He had been a trooper. Entertaining a 6 year old for 5 hours turned out to be a tricky experience. In my periferals I was watching Brad, Amalia and Lucas shooting, but i definitely had my hands full watching over little sam. As draining as it was, it was just too beautiful to watch his eyes light up. We were all once young, idolising the big kids.. What a great day it was for a 6 year old to hang out with 19 year olds. Whilst everyone was filming and acting – finding the perfect composition or way to tell the story – Sam was roaming close with a staff he found by the side of the river and two giant feathers tightly grasped in each hand. He’d flutter his arms and pretend to fly over fallen logs, or over rocks. When he’d sit down he’d turn his single-feather wings behind him like a turkey and would sit on the ground in a proper fashion.
It was like he understood the concept and was running with it – you want a boy to be a bird? Sam’s got it covered. 6 Year olds can be very, very straight forard.
The final scene was in a farmers paddock (Whom we didn’t know) and we shared the panoramic mountain view with a tall white horse.
Amalia was lying down in the tall grass with Lucas laying against her tummy. Brad was finding the perfect angle. I was standing there with Sam, holding spare shoes, a giant bag of feathers and a knitted jumper watching the sun slowly sinking. Sam had my iphone and was yelling into the T-pain app “put your hands in the aaair, shuffle, shuffle!”
And at that moment I realised there is no gate on dreaming.
A single car trip and a few images in my head had manifested into a beautiful day with extremely lovely people.
The movie will be up soon on
www.skaeiou.com
The soundtrack will be a collaboration of me and Mindtree.