FICTION ADAPTATION: Experimental Short - Despair

Mike gave us the task of developing a short 2-3 minute experimental film which explored one of the following themes:
- fear
- hope
- despair
- joy

The task was to shoot original footage inspired by the camera movement workshop and the experimental workshop about montage and the illusion of movement. The theme we choose should compliment our chosen sonnet.

As I chose the sonnet: Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep, I decided to explore the theme of despair and how camera movement can convey this feeling.

In order to convey despair I wanted to explore the following camera movements:
- tracking back (tracking away from a subject to make them more isolated within the frame)
- tracking forwards (tracking towards a subject to show emotion)
- close up shots (showing emotion)

As well as exploring these shots I also wanted to play with:
- saturation - this is a technique I am currently considering in order to convey despair / sadness in my project. I want to start my project with low saturation and increase the saturation during the film. I attempted this in my experimental short film, however, I feel I made it so subtle that it didn't come across
- colour - colour plays a big part in my project. I want to focus on contrasting colours such as orange and purple or blues and pinks. I gave a blue tone to my short film about despair.
- opacity - I plan to play with layering different opacities in my project - I wanted to experiment with this in this short experimental film to make sure it works as a technique.

I feel I managed to capture the emotion of despair quite well - here is the short experimental sequence: