The brief we were given was to produce a one minute animation or film that featured two opposing emotions, the emotions I chose being anticipation and disappointment. I have always had a fascination with fireworks and felt like they embodied these two emotions perfectly; the building excitement as the fuse burns down to the rocket, waiting expectantly for the bright lights and loud sounds, and the disappointment that would inevitably follow if the rocket were to just fizzle out.
I decided almost immediately that I wanted the film to have music playing in the background; for as long as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with the relationship between moving image and its accompanying soundtrack in film sequences, and was determined to create a piece of film where the images and sound were in tune with one another. After searching long and hard for a suitable backing track, I accidentally stumbled across ‘Shipwreck’, a song by Modeselektor featuring Thom Yorke . It was fast paced, slowly built to a climatic ending and seemed to fit perfectly with the mood I was trying to achieve, so the sound in the film is an edited version which I cut down to one-minute.
Filmed on a Canon 550D at my house in London, I used my dad as the slightly ‘eccentric’ fireworks display designer. He had to sit at the desk for over an hour whilst I captured the time lapse scene where the sun is setting!
This is my first attempt at any kind of film making, and definitely not my last; as soon as I get my hands on filming equipment of my own I intend to create many more short films, and hopefully one day be involved in the film industry in some shape or form.
