The Idea:
Originally, the idea was supposed to be about a superstitious character. This character was inspired b Chalayan’s collection Medea which is based on Voodoo and the superstition of the physical effects of voodoo. At our first group meeting (for which only three members, myself included, attended) I take full responsibility for having done little research on our designer myself. I trusted my group members, who said they had done research, to relay their findings. In amongst the themes they picked out was superstition. Superstition immediately appealed to me and I suggested we take the idea from there. However, when I came to do my own research more thoroughly I discovered that the collection has little or nothing to do with superstition and I started having doubts about the idea, which by this point had developed into a romantic story about a recluse who develops a nonverbal relationship with a superstitious girl he sees everyday from his window. The idea, I realised, was now more inspired by films we had watched such as True directed by Tom Tykwer and Me and You and Everyone We Know by Miranda July, than by Hussein Chalayan.
The other problem I found with the idea was that whereas I wanted it to be weird and quite detached from reality, my group are the commercial romantic comedy type so our ideas about the final outcome clashed. Effectively, because of our differences in style and understanding of the idea, the film became a cheesy, obviously homemade product of confusion and lack of interest rather than the quirky weird romance it was supposed to become. The feeling I got from the whole project was that my group would agree to my ideas out of their desire to have the project over as quickly and effortlessly as possible, but once an idea was decided upon (usually by me) they were unwilling to change things because of the workload it would add.
The Name of the film:
In one of the drafts of the set list I used the title of Miranda July’s book Noone Belongs Here More Than You, because I thought those words suited the mood we were going for, and that the words would be inspirational. Coming up to the last week, my group turned to me to come up with a name for the film. I was busy with editing and couldn’t think of anything suitable alone (mostly because the film didn’t represent anything I had hoped it would) but said we couldn’t use it because it was already a book. My group ignored me and used it anyway because they couldn’t be bothered to attempt an idea of their own, which I did not agree on, but by then it was too late.
The look of the film:
If we re-filmed everything I would make sure there were no parked cars visible in the shot. I would have checked the front room before the day of shooting and moved everything that resembled a girl from the room. The problem a lot of the time was that half of the footage had the other half of the room in it which was still covered in the girl’s possessions. It should have been completely cleared. Overall I think being on location was a mistake and we should have changed the idea to the studio idea because it is a controlled environment which could look more professional in a film.
The lack of script:
There was a lot of confusion when it came to the script. At first it was supposed to be my job, but the other girls repeatedly said we should sit as a group to write the script. Of course, this never happened. The film became something that my ideas wouldn’t fit to. I had thought a dark but cute script would be perfect. As the film went on it was clear that it would have to be more light-hearted and I wasn’t on the same page as my group. Eventually it became too late to do anything and Angela and I decided that we would concentrate on music to suit the film.
However, there are certain aspects that I am proud of. I think the editing is as close to perfect as we can get it. There are some moments which flow very smoothly. For example, the last 'meeting' scene where the male model gets up to answer the door. And I love the sequence shots of the models standing outside the house, the interaction is cute, and reminds me of the jerkyness in Amelie at some points, for example the last scene when Amelie and the man are on the bike. I'm particularly pleased with my own side project which I feel represents Chalayan a lot better and is more visually pleasing. If it hadn't been half way through when I wanted to change, and had my group members been more involved and enthusiastic about getting a film we could be proud of, I would have insisted we change the idea completely from the superstition idea to the hope, sin, redemption and salvation idea.
Overall running of the project:
As a group, I think the only time everyone pulled together was on the day of the shoot in that everyone was there and being helpful and interested in what was going on. Saying this, I still feel that the bulk of the work was left to me. The idea, the storyboard, the set-list, the organising, the directing, the editing and half of the shooting.
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