IMAGEWEAVING - A Clockwork Heart

A Clockwork Heart is an idea I created and visualized largely during 2019. Working over a few months I formed the narration and visual concepts then laid them down on paper and formed a Cinematography book (Storyboard) detailing the location ideas, framing and camera movements in order to bring the project to life.

From the concept, the main goal of this project was to try to learn some filmmaking process and to achieve this I attempted to fulfill as many roles as possible from script to story-boarding, location scouting, set building, logistics with a small crew and actors, producing, editing and directing.

I quickly decided that narration rather than script would be a stronger way to start out as so not to overload my first attempt at film making. Feeling stronger as a story teller than a script writer I composed a short fairytale like narrative upon which to build the short film. As it turned out this was not without its challenges, as with a narrative in place it would be difficult to cut and chop sections in the edit without damaging the story. So the filming had to be carefully paced in order to flow and match the narration.

Set building though was a lot of fun, learning how to construct a fake room and maneuver a camera within it. Also fun were the number of small props required to dress the set - something to take note of for next time as I felt this area was something I rather underestimated for a completely credible look. In addition, lighting a set was considerably more complicated than I first thought. With budget constraints this limited very much the lighting available so it was always going to be a hard compromise.

The cine camera was rather more involved than stills photography. The interest was in whether to actually move the camera or not. What would the motivation behind the movement be? How should it be moved and what did that say about the character in the scene? With a slower paced narative I knew I wanted longer camera takes but even that brought its challenges.

One of the more complicated areas was simply the logistics of organizing a very small cast and crew. Fighting for light, as it worked out the exterior daytime shoots would take place early October in the afternoon, much credit has to be given to those who, for the love of film making, booked days or afternoons off work to accommodate a schedule that would allow us to film whilst there was light. Losing light fast at 16:30 the cast and crew worked smart and sharp especially after losing hours in the rain.

Overall the film has been an absolute success in teaching me some fundamental filmmaking aspects. It isn't perfect, but it's a delightful short Fairytale that tells an almost timeless tale. From all those involved - we hope you love it too.

[At present only the Trailers are available to view with versions on Vimeo and YouTube. The full 14 min film is currently only available to our Indiegogo festival backers as of Dec 2021. We currently expect public release early 2022]

The Teaser Trailer

Festival Audience Reactions