13 October 2007

Ghost Story - First meeting

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First meeting with Sara and Amelia to talk about our short film project, temporarily named Ghost Story. Since working with Amelia on the 5 minute drama I’ve wanted to direct her again in a film, and Sara and I have been talking about doing a project together for ages.

So I am taking one of my script ideas from those short films to work out a short film with those two. It’s all pretty busy at the moment with the grad films going on, but we have managed to squeeze in some time on the weekend to have preliminary talks.

There is no script yet, and I am keen to talk through themes and ideas with my actors, rather than presenting them with a finished script. So we sat at Sweet Mama’s, talked about inspiration, made up a reading list:

• Greek Tragedies, specially Electra, Iphigenia and Antigone, stories of sisters
• Ian McEwan’s Atonement for it’s minute description of an afternoon

...and a movie list:
 • Alejandro González Iñárritu, 21 Grams - disjointed story telling, jumping back and forth
• Lukas Moodysson, Lilja 4-ever - a slow and seemingly non-eventful story that builds so gradually that it is unnoticeable, creating character and lives rather than relying on activity to set the scene
• M. Night Shyamalan, The Village - One kind of story turns into another kind, mixing directions and confusing expectations
• David Fincher, Fight Club - how to show a person that is only alive in one person’s head.

Sara and Amelia talked about what it is like to be a sister (since I only have brother-type sibling experiences), we considered the nature of ghosts and possible locations, shot angles and equipment needed. I like the freedom of thinking about the themes and the practicalities all at the same time. I don’t think I’ll be writing a script for a while yet.

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