bête noire

My first project for DXARTS 453, the final video class in the series. This project took a grand total of 7 weeks to plan, shoot, and edit with the largest cast and crew that I have ever worked with.

This project was different from the previous ones because my professor designed each prompt specifically for each student, so no one had the same project. The one he gave to me was Less is more. Based on my previous work, one of the main problems that I have is that I fall in love with my footage too much, or try to explain too much to the audience. The challenge for me was to have a story editor go through my project and remove half of whatever I had written during pre-production. That job was given to a fellow classmate, Ashley, who showed no mercy and removed 6 of my 12 original scenes. The other members of my crew were Kerri my sound designer who wrote an original guitar piece for the film and also designed the sound effects and Rebecca who helped with make-up and costume design. Just adding these few key roles enhanced my production value tenfold and I could not have completed this project without them.

The title bête noire is a French term meaning something disliked or something that gives a feeling of dread. For this composition I sought to make a series of abstract vignettes to emulate the feeling. The rhythm of the cuts is enhanced by the extremely dissonant music written by Kerri. As the film begins, an eye stares at the viewer with whispers swelling in the background. Once the music starts, a tear is shed and the vignettes commence. Each of the scenes is an exploration of inner turmoil that remains unspoken. The words and frustrations may struggle to break free and when they nearly do, they become hidden again.

This film is very personal and features a bit of my artistic struggle to cope with the abstract work which aggravates me. I never enjoyed creating abstract work and some of the more frantic and disturbing vignettes silently emulate my frustration.

I really feel that this short film is one of my best works and I hope that you enjoy it!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• bete
• noire
• abstract
• short
• film
• dxarts
• dread
• guitar
• sound
• design
• creepy
• disturbing
• introverted
• alone
• loneliness
• vignette

[dano25655]

The brunette with the guitar is pretty <3