'Locked' | Leah Hawkins

This project meandered from a light, humorous short film to a personal exploration of how film can convey tone and meaning. My initial test shoots focused on how to practically communicate to an audience the story in the script – for example, the fractious relationship between the two characters, and the box being empty in scene 3. However, the ability to prioritise experimentation over completion became more and more tempting and I chose not to complete the original script.

The result is a series of 8 experiments, with 11 total edits. It’s a mosaic of my playing with the relationship between characters, learning the tools of film, and my own grappling with my lack of technical expertise and the limitations of the camera. Specifically, I explore lighting, motion, location, and framing. From these experiments, I learned how each element creates an atmospheric experience, and how they can be deliberately constructed to support a subtextual narrative. From the process, I learned to keep my eyes open.

> ‘Locked’ Script

Since I didn’t complete the film, here is a brief summary of the original script:

• Scene 1: Horry is packing up his bedroom. He finds a locked box under his bed.
• Scene 2: Emily drives into Horry’s driveway. She and Horry have an awkward conversation. She asks him if he has opened the box, which he declines doing. This is intercut with montages of Horry having opened the box and read the diary inside.
• Scene 3: Emily gets into her car and opens the box, finding that it is empty.

> Experiment Compilation

> Photography Compilation

Part of my experiments with lighting involved photography (in particular, low shutter-speed photography) because it gave me a lot more freedom to play with camera settings (click to enlarge).

> Reflection

Here’s my reflection on the project.