Influences

Before generating our initial ideas for our short film, I had watched many other short films which gave me inspiration for our film. We took inspiration for the tracking shots in the film mainly from the Short film ‘About a Girl’ by Brian Percival, which featured long tracking shots of the girl walking and talking as if directly to the audience. This is something I think we replicated well within our short film for the characters monologues. I think the main reason I wanted to replicate this technique, was because I was so impressed by the impact that ‘About a Girl’ creates. It really makes the audience feel as if the character is talking straight to them and also not holding back. Telling the audience what they are really feeling.
To see how tracking shots were used in a similar environment tot he one we were going to be filming in I looked at the music video ‘Bitterweet Symphony’ by the The Verve which was shot in a similar street to the streets we were filming in. Althoutgh for this music video the area was completely controlled, we felt we could achieve something similar on a smaller scale.

I also took took inspiration from documentaries I have watched personally, such as various Louis Theroux documentaries where the interviewer can be heard durning the interview, which is something we replicated. I was also influenced by the short film 10 Minutes by Ahmed Imanovic, which, in my opinion, presented the effectiveness of tracking shots more than any other film I have seen, and the use of the camera as a presence, as a person.

10 Minutes also shows the death of a boys parents, which may have sparked thinking about the role of parents and ultimately fathers, in a childs life.

Both 'About a Girl' and '10 Minutes' are posted below.

Bittersweet Video on Youtube cannot be embeded but the video can be seen here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3m4e45bTo