Monday 8 April 2013

The Excellent Elevated View

Only one hour ago, I was thinking what an interesting distraction it was, filming 'The Elevated View' with James Harris and Laura Degnan, as downloading the file slowed my laptop down to a crawl and caused it to crash twice... But now, having watched it half a dozen times, I'm happy to say that I think it's one of the best pieces of work I've been involved in..!

The story, about a man who takes a drug to enable him to see what his wife is thinking, fearing she is having an affair, was conceived, shot and edited in exactly 48 hours for the London Sci-Fi Film Festival Challenge: http://www.sci-fi-london.com/48-hour-film-challenge

Judges include Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy, Pan's Labrynth and Blade 2 (my favourite!).

I've worked on a few 48 hour challenges with Writer's Block in the past, onoe of which, 'The Woman Who Loved a Tree' swept the board at Newcastle in 2011 and 'Distraction Jackson' made it to the last 15 in the world, neither feat is to be sniffed at, but I genuinely feel that this film is something else, on a different level altogether. While the other two took a mockumentary approach, this one tells a 'straight' story, although it manages to fit in a flashback and a 'trip' sequence, plus it's bookended by 'Rod Sterling' - fantastically played by James Harris.

Props to Jayne Elwell for once again playing a long-suffering wife and bringing such a warm heart to the film - while spending the majority of her time tied to a sofa with coloured wool... It makes sense in the film!

Laura and James have shown what can be achieved with determination, willpower and creativity alone and have restored hope to me that I can finish my film with a lot more than 48 hours to go!

Here's some screen grabs from the film, and a behind the scenes photo too...

A man suspects his wife of cheating on him...

So he buys the latest street drug...

'Elevator'!

The drug is taken like eye drops...

And lets you see what other people are thinking

'Everythign is connected' is the message of the film...

And we spent a long time connecting everythign with wool... and just look at the position Laura found herself in on camera!
 
 
I wish this film the best of luck in the competition and I hope it gets the respect it deserves.