I’ve come to enjoy the ambience and quiet of the footpaths and roads surrounding my house in the northern suburbs of Melbourne during the night time. (Living the true university student life) I’ve become accustomed to walking home during the dark and peaceful early hours of the morning. There’s something about that time of night that I find truly amazing – I think it’s a combination of the car-less, minimal soundscapes and the type of light that spills from the street lights. Walking (and even riding a bike) at this time is definitely a relaxing, interesting (and sometimes 2 spooky) activity.
Anyways, this interest of mine formed the basis of an idea I had during our Friday writing class. I think that if I could capture the essence of the peacefulness and ambience of the night I could be on my way to creating a really beautiful and relaxing experimental short film.
I think the most important aspect of this project would be the soundscapes I create – the other night I was walking with a friend and we reached a major intersection – I noticed the ticking sounds of a chorus of crossing buttons – and the rhythm they created was actually really fascinating: I would definitely use this as a location if I choose to explore this idea.
I would have to use a fast lens for this project (with a low f-stop) to properly expose my footage, however I think the shallow depth of field this would result in would only benefit my project – I would probably experiment with some bokeh effects too – deliberately capturing out of focus images.
Lastly, I think I would need to shoot a variety of footage to ensure that viewers wouldn’t lose interest in the piece – maybe use some interesting camera moves and shoot some shots of cars/people moving through the frame. A GoPro mounted to the bottom of a car could yield some interesting ‘David Lynch-esque’ perspectives.
In the next few days I might try to get out and shoot some sample footage to test out this idea.
*update: here are a few photos I took the other night to test how street lights are captured on film*
