Connie and Blyde

In my group’s film Connie and Blyde, I took on the role of writer and producer, which was my first time doing either role. Due to the brief being a film that does not include any dialogue, we decided collectively that we wanted to do a film inspired by slapstick comedy, and looked at Buster Keaton for inspiration, specifically One Week and The High Sign. Cian came up with the idea of a gangster film, so we decided on a gangster film and slapstick comedy hybrid. Our intention was to create a comedic convincing gangster film, and I believe that we did this successfully. We knew we wanted a Bonnie and Clyde dynamic between our characters, so created a spoof of Bonnie and Clyde, hence the name Connie and Blyde. As a team, we all loved the idea and stuck with it, only making minor changes based on feedback from the prototype screening.

One of my major worries during this sprint was the fact I had an intensive driving course and driving test back home for week 4 of the sprint, which meant I would miss the prototype screening and the actual filming date. This led me to deciding to take on the role of writer for Connie and Blyde. I made sure the script was as detailed as possible, and if I had a specific vision for a shot (for example the shot of leaving the guns on the table), I added it into the script and made the team aware of this. In order to get my visions across, I also took it upon myself to direct and edit the prototype, to show Kai (who would then direct and edit the real thing) the feel I wanted the film to have. The team’s ideas and additions to the script were added after the feedback from the prototype screening about the story needing to be more clear, and the feedback definitely helped us improve the narrative. 

In order to make my ideas clear, we shot a detailed prototype. The intentions of this prototype were mostly so I would feel more comfortable about not being there for the shoot day, so it was done in depth and exactly how I envisioned it but simpler. On the day of shooting the prototype, we had an actor drop out. Whilst this was unfortunate, I believe that we managed to work around it. It meant that the majority of the time the camera had to be stationary, however we did still execute the idea correctly and in a way that the team could massively improve on it during the actual shoot. 

Despite not actually being there on the shoot day, I received feedback saying that the shoot day went smoothly and as planned. We had actors as the two main characters, which worked very well as their performance was brilliant and exactly what I wanted. When booking out the rooms in which we were to film in, our original choice was booked by another group. Instead of rescheduling the shoot day, we decided to use a different room, which arguably worked better as we could dress the room better and make it seem more convincing to the crime and gangster genre. The locations were chosen and looked very convincing in the final product. I believe that the props looked conventional to a gangster film. The concept was still humorous and comedic, which is something I definitely wanted to come through from the script onto the screen. The edit was paced very well, and the colour fit the genre. Overall, I was very happy with the film and edit despite not being able to be there on the shoot day.

During the final screening, we got feedback about our genre conventions being very strong, which reinforced our intention of creating a convincing gangster film. The characters looked convincing, especially the Arms Dealer, which again helped establish the genre. However, some feedback that we got was that some of the narrative was still a bit blurry, which was definitely one of our weaknesses - people were unsure why the hostage was in the boot or why they left their guns on the table. Next time, to improve on this, I would perhaps add a flashback scene or a scene beforehand of them taking the hostage, or in the guns on the table scenario, I would add a shot of a clock or something to show time passing and that they are in a rush. We also did use on screen words, which was against the brief. However, the feedback on this was good as it worked with the genre well. I do believe though that the on screen words could have been removed and the story still would have worked as well as it did. The rest of the feedback was mostly positive; people really liked the way it was shot, the world was really well established and the dark colour grading really worked with the feel of the film.

We had many strengths in our group. We achieved our intention of creating a gangster film well, as everyone who the film was screened to instantly understood the genre. We had very good communication as a group, and were very clear on the ideas and what we wanted to gain in terms of skills from the film. I am very proud of this project as a first time writer, and it has really reassured my confidence in writing, as I always used to steer away from it because I believed I was not good at it. However, we did have a couple of weaknesses. With me not being there for week 4, it caused me more stress than it should have. Again, with me being a first time writer as well the story was still slightly blurry. However, after the prototype, Kai amended the story and made it a little more clear. After the feedback we received, I definitely want to try this again and make it better than before!