Final Major Project - The Start

Since 2006 I have had this title bumping around in my head, first as a feature, now as a documentary. For the last few weeks I have been doing research and today I met with Lauren Woodfall to discuss our plans for The Final Major Project.

Premise:

I want to make a stylistic documentary, that explores the lives of bipolar disorder, through heartfelt discussion and beautiful images. The initial building blocks of the documentary will be conventional, i.e. souring contributors, interviewing, filming sequences. We then want to build an artistic piece around that, because the disorder is so fundamentally about the mind of the person, therefore I feel “Finding serenity” will be about visualizing their state of mind, and working towards finding a calm and natural balance, if that is achievable.  I hope therefore that our final film will see a sample of all our styles of work, from Poppy, Lauren’s Burning or the leaves, my Listeners and our documentaries, to really establish our own artistic conventions.

The goal of this piece will be to help viewers better understand the disorder, help sufferers better investigate their illness through others stories, to find hope and to go some way in shredding the stigma attached to such a disorder. We will also be looking to collaborate with one of the three major charities dealing with this illness, Signpost, Mind and Bipolar UK, in hope of making something they could perhaps use for one of their campaigns.

Partnership
Since the beginning of my three year degree at UCA I have worked with Lauren Woodfall. On our first day we made a short film “That’s life”, which I directed and Lauren filmed. We then helped each other on the direction Unit, Lauren was my DOP for “SHERLOCK”, as I for her “Dexter”. For the As Live project, Lauren produced and I directed, and most recently we produced a short experimental film “Poppy” together, which I am still very proud of. A wise person once said to me “Don’t fix was isn’t broken”, and I have no intention of doing so.  Myself and Lauren work, we are both opposites, opposites in how we work and communicate. Yet we have developed a partnership that has produced some great work.  I think we bring out the best in each other, motivate one another and if ever their is creative friction it always seems to work for the good.

Therefore of course, myself and Lauren will be making “Finding Serenity” together.  We have found or roles naturally over time, I write and direct, Lauren is a great DOP and designer. We both have the ability to be good producers and editors, and this is how we intend to work on this project.

My responsibilities for the next coming weeks will be to develop the idea, get hold of our contributors, work on the narrative/voice over and gain some structure.