Experimental Film Pitch

Our theme for our experimental films is 'Memory' and 'Reflection'

'Anonymous'

Synopsis

For my film I am going to use all the different documents people gather through their life, such as birth certificates, letters from school, drivers license, passport, deed to house, university application, CV etc. I am going to photocopy them, so that I can edit them and cut parts out as well as editing out any vital personal information such as full name, address and phone numbers. They will be montaged together on screen, and there may be specific words taken from the documents that seem interesting that flash across the whole screen.

I am intending to use different people as subjects, so that I get a broad variety of documents to use, and also planning on filming each person’s silhouette to overlay over the top of the segment their documents are in to promote the idea of anonymity, and how we are often seen as just paperwork by the government and they don’t see the people behind the documents.

Treatment

The film is going to tell the story's of a couple of different people, as I felt that just one person may not necessarily have a big range of documents personally, and this way I could have a broader choice to show.

I want the film to have a slightly psychedelic undertone to it, with interesting lights and patterns across the documents when they're filmed, to give a hint of the messy undertones of a persons life and how these papers that are supposed to represent our lives are a poor indicator to the reality of those peoples lives.

I also want to show a link to the people to whom the documents belong, so I'm going to film each of the participants with dramatic lighting behind then to create a silhouette, which I will then layer over the top of the section of the film with their documents in it. I will do this using 'redheads' from the lighting workshop I took part in, and positioning one behind the subject and that will be the only light on in the room, which will create a silhouette.

I intend to show my audience that people are more than the documents that represent them in files, and that every piece of identification and documentation has a past, and as systems get more updated and outdated we still remain just numbers and statistics and pieces of paper to the people who deal with organising everything.

The effect that I'm going to be attempt is that of some sort of montage, with the documents flashing up on the screen relatively quickly, and at the same time as some of the other documents if I get enough. If I don't I can always repeat some which would add some bulk to the piece.

The participants would ideally be relatively diverse in age and background etc. to make for a more interesting piece, so I will talk to family members and family friends about taking part, and also people at university. 

It would most likely be all filmed in a studio where I can control the lighting and and environment, but I will consider going outside for it if the weather is working in my favour and the light is suitable.