As my initial idea was to explore the history and memories connected to places, the location for a potential short film will be an important aspect to consider.
Initially, my go-to instinct was the area of the intersection between Swanston Street and La Trobe Street, near the State Library. This was the inspiration for my idea to explore places, as I pass it almost everyday on my way to uni and it’s full of vastly different people passing by in different stages of their day. I often daydream about the different lives that have crossed paths there while I’m waiting for the lights to turn green at the intersection. However, on further thought, whilst the setting of a bustling city intersection would be interesting as a place, logistically it would be very difficult to film there. The high noise level, amount of people walking by would make it a technical nightmare and there would be potential permits and release forms involved. Therefore it wouldn’t be ideal to shoot at this location.
After realising that a busy place wouldn’t work, I set out to find some quieter spots in the city. I came across some smaller alleyways that I thought could be suitable (an example is below), but still wasn’t completely sold. There wasn’t a specific location where I had a light bulb moment of “yes, this is it”.
It wasn’t until after I had taken photos of these locations that I had another idea that’s completely different – a park bench. Although a seemingly ordinary place, I can already imagine montages of stories, perhaps a romance, happening there. This would also make shooting much easier as aesthetically the backdrop of a park would be naturally pretty, and the environment would be relatively quiet making recording audio easier. A specific place that comes to mind is a bench in Treasury Gardens, near Parliament Station, which I will go and look around soon. I haven’t really thought out this new idea just yet, but more to come in a future blog post.
