Final Group Edit of 'DOG'

DOG LIFE from Gush Sembhi on Vimeo.

On Set Still Shots

Here's some shots we took while we were out filming

Music Decisions

Right, I've been sifting through music tracks on youtube and just any other sounds in general for ages, in search of appropriate audio to use for my short film. Because there's no actual talking, apart from one scene (the cafe) which i decided not to use as it didn't tie in with our adaptation of the script; so the audio is pretty importnt.Here it is:

Shot 1



Shot 2

Noises of scraping and slamming cupboard doors

Shot 3(montage)



Shot 4



or



Shot 5

No music, sounds of birds in the background, sniffing as he smells the dog shit and growl

Shot 6

No music, lapping water sound

Shot 7

I haven't been able to find the actual noise yet but i have a clear idea in my head. I want a deep sinister sounding bass drum beat do depict the fact that although it is clearly funny that a man has starting acting fully like a dog there is a dark, sad side to it too; hence the genre of film: black comedy.

I have compiled this choice of music using my story boards as a reference for the shots, as we filmed them out of sequence its hard to remember it in order. But i know that while filming we developed the scenes from the story boards so there may be some tweaking needed when we come to edit tomorrow.

Ed Sheeran Interview

I received a bit of a surprise phone call yesterday from an old friend and MC turned internet television channel, Champagne Bubblee TV owner, Quinton, or ‘Champagne Bubblee’ as he’s more commonly known. When I asked about how things were for him he told me about the interviews he’s been doing recently for his television channel, the likes of Giggs, Gyptian, Ed Sheeran(all fairly high profile new artists) among them. Here are some of the links:





This conversation got me thinking of how I could incorporate this into the film side of my course and what I want to do in the future. I knew this was something I could reference in my visual essay as a way of illustrating why my chosen pathway will be moving image, through my love for real life documentaries. So in that sense this type of work is something I could definitely see myself doing after I graduate. However, I’d like to differ from this in that I believe it would be interesting delve into the individuals life experiences as opposed to purely what direction they are going in with their music.

This is very similar though, to a project I plan to start following the Easter holidays, a series of short documentaries about people I have met, or know who I believe have a fairly interesting story to tell. At the minute I have two musicians whose lives I aim to film an insight into. I also plan to include another character from a different field.

Opening scene music

After a couple of hours sifting through music on youtube i think i've found a track i want to use for the opening scene, and yes its the Beatles!



Our first idea was to use something along the lines of this



or this



but after some deliberation i think it would be wrong to include either of these just because it is about cannabis and our main character is also smoking cannabis when the frame opens, pretty basic stuff! Instead i think it would be more effective to use a sad, reflective more introverted song to emphasise the characters state of mind, depression over his dog dieing. As opposed to glee at the fact he happens to be smoking cannabis, something he is actually doing as a means to remedy his depression.

Moving image shot idea

Here is an idea i thought of after watching Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.



The part i gained inspiration from in particular strats from 4 mins 20 seconds in where he looses the poker game and the realisation that he now owes £250,000 to some very bad people.

It looks like the camera man uses the zoom to focus in on the characters face while moving away from him to illustrate his dismay at the situation(also used in goodfellas in the cafe scene between Jimmy and Henry). He the films the characters face from below but still using a close up face shot.

I have interpreted this and applied it to our short film. We could use a wobbly, low but close up shot to reflect our main characters mind state when on drugs, and also loosing his insanity. My idea is to film this around three or four times, getting the actor to wobble from alternate sides. We could then use after effects to vary the opacity on the shots and layer each take to create a variety of shadows all in the same shot.

Back to adaptation 1

Following the changing of our adaptation of the script we have been to Phil's seminar. He liked the original script and thought it would be be more realistic to shoot in the time we've been given. So just as a reminder here it is:

Shot 1 opens to smoke floating across the frame. As the camera follows the smoke it pans past a framed picture of a dog to a depressed looking man smoking a spliff. There is rubbish littered around the room and the man is dressed in just boxers socks and a vest, he looks scruffy and un washed.
The second shot opens to complete darkness, all the audience can hear is scraping of cupboards and opening and shutting of doors. The shot will be filmed from inside the cupboard and the door of the cupboard will be opened to reveal the man’s face. He is shown to be looking at piled up tins of dog food, the only things in the cupboard.
He then sits down at the table with a plate and cutlery and empties his tin of dog food onto the plate and starts to eat it.
This is then followed by a montage of different bowls of dog food being eaten by the man and more drugs being consumed as he plunges himself deeper into depression. The camera angle could be pointed up at him and made deliberately wobbly(see lock stock for an example of this, it’s just after the main character looses to Harry the Hatchet in a card game). This would reflect the mans mind state under the influence of the drugs.
Contained within this montage I visualised the scene where he is walking down the street with a ‘distinct pronounced spring in his step’ having just bought some drugs from a dealer and clearly happy that he is going home to consume them.
As he is taking more drugs he begins to act more and more like a dog we see him get down on the ground to sniff some dog shit. The shot opens with a piece of dog shit on the floor and the man lowers himself into the frame before sniffing it and leaving the frame again the same way he came into it.
The next shot it of the man in his living room he goes to drink the water out of a glass but stops just before it reaches his mouth. He then puts the glass down on the floor before lapping the water up out of the glass with his tongue. It is clear he is sad at the thought of doing this.
The final shot shows the man running around in circles as if chasing his tale before laying on the floor rubbing his back on the carpet as a dog would do.
Credits