A concept to a larger film, these two scenes spectate the conflicts and guilts of a fading relationship. In the first scene, Audra (Amelia Hadjiloizou) learns that Francis (Joshua Sanders) has resurrected someone he killed: Klaus (Patrick Sullivan). In the second, Francis confronts Audra and the man she’s been hiding away with: Dom (Samuel Arandez). This excerpt provides an alternate take to the romantic comedy narrative; instead of coming together, the two contrasting protagonists fall apart.

As a storyteller, I’m deeply interested in how the character is understood and connected to by the audience. This has led me to explore ways of creating immersion in film. This ongoing ambition overlapped well with the criteria of the studio’s final assignment: to create a short video piece that investigates and experiments with a concept of our choice.

While others seemed to make new scripts and storyboards specifically for this studio, I chose to adapt part of a pre-existing personal work. The story, Dyad, is about the many differences between two polar personalities; Audra is a cautious, empathetic gardener who is learning magic; Francis is a methodical, unemotional scientist who practises Frankenstein-like alchemy.

In a sense, developing this project was an advantage, since I was already informed of what I’d need to visualise it. At the same time, my attachment to the story and other production areas sometimes distracted me from the potential of the experiment. There were points during filming where I would overanalyse narrative concerns, costing time that could have been spent improving camera coverage. In post-production, I criticised myself for overlooking the value of cutaway shots, variety between takes, but most importantly my abilities with depth of field.

The contrast between each scene’s protagonist was supposed to be reflected in cinematography; closeups and shallow depth of field (blurriness) would reflect Audra’s sensitivity, whereas wide shots and deep depth of field (clarity) would reflect Francis’s objectivity. The sizes of each shot weren’t problematic, but since I didn’t practise with shallow depth of field for Audra’s scene, I was shocked that I couldn’t reproduce the effect that I wanted.

While there were undoubtedly areas that I wasn’t happy with, there’s some confidence in knowing the goal was to experiment, not succeed. As I plan on continuing this project in my own time, I’m better advised on what it’ll take to immerse the audience in these styles.