DO GEESE SEE GOD

By Phoebe Hewertson, Jaden Arendtsz, and Joey Barclay An experimental film that follows a man who feels disconnected from his reality, going through a backwards world in reverse. He is isolated in public, at parties and even when alone. Life is black and white for him until he finds someone who feels the same.

Phoebe’s reflection:

In the production of this film we relied heavily on the performance abilities of our main actor, Jamie, and his capacity to act and walk backward, everything else seemed to fall into place around him. Our focus was largely on conceptualising how normal day interactions and experiences look in reverse, and how to capture that realistically, so that our vision was successful after reversing the footage in post-production. A lot of trial and error was involved in this process, which allowed us to tweak scenes consistently and adapt along the way. Storyboarding, and more generally sketching, was helpful in the process of visualisation, and it instilled within me the importance of planning when it comes to filmmaking. However, sometimes it is hard to grasp a concept without testing it in real time, and that was a core way that we approached the production of this film; practically. Overall, creating Do Geese See God allowed me to explore new processes, create art I would not have conceptualised alone and further my understanding of the areas in filmmaking I want to focus on in my degree, and into the future; a very valuable project.

Jaden’s reflection: 

The process of making a film backwards is not something that I thought I would ever have to deal with. Planning out each shot perfectly and then choreographing them in backwards just so they would make sense and look ‘natural’ when reversed to be ‘normal’. I learned how much planning and thought really goes into films and I learned how to do that in a way that is efficient. If this wasn’t the case I don’t even think the film would have been able to be made due to the complexity and confusion that is essential to it’s structure. I feel that we really captured the idea of ‘uncomfortable filmmaking’ through our unconventional performance style and the effect it leaves on the film. I think that this studio in a whole has really taught me how breaking conventions that we have been shown as correct can really change the way you connect to audiences through film. You are able to convey themes and feelings in non-linear ways that people do not see everyday – which is think is a very important skill to have when you want to stand out as a filmmaker.

Joey’s reflection:

The process of making our film, ‘Do Geese See God’, was an insightful experience working on an experimental drama that was aimed to make the audience feel ‘uncomfortable’. Our film follows our main character, through a journey of self reflection and discovery amongst his feelings of disconnection in life. The concept was to have our actor, Jamie, perform our scenes in reverse and then reverse these shots again in the edit. With no professional acting experience, Jamie proved to be probably our best feasible option possible as I believe he played a huge part in the successful outcome of our film. There were several referral points we had for this concept however the process obviously didn’t go perfectly from the start as it is such a unique concept, so many takes occurred throughout our different shoots but we were happy with the way the final product came out. The ‘unconventional’ storytelling aspect challenged us to think outside the box, emphasizing that filmmaking is not just about telling stories but also how these stories are told and in which ways we can tell them and evoke a certain emotion from an audience.

 

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