Godspell Movie

My vision for this film project is to create compelling cinema for an international festival audience. My background is short video and animation, often experimental and highly personal in nature. I’ve been looking for the fundamental components for a feature film for some time and fortunate to meet Shane Hollands, with whom now I have a strong creative relationship. He is a mature performer, naturally charismatic and great with language. Add this to my talents as filmmaker and integration with the local artist community I feel confident in moving forward on a project of this scope.

Medium: I am a proponent of the digital medium and look forward to harnessing it’s unique attributes – portability, low cost; multi-camera potential, cheap tape stock and readily available editing systems.

Visual : On an aesthetic basis, I enjoy the high contrast, ease of macro photography, also mis en scene approaches possible with the digital format. I’m looking for every shot to be a work of art, that is lots to do with lighting, and the relationship of camera/subject. Being expressionistic without being obscure.

Themes : Being creative people, what happens if we don’t create, when our hearts tell us to ? Frustration. The more it bottles up, the worse it gets. What happens when a creative act is too far ‘out there’ for the general consensus? Accusations of madness. What defines madness? These are questions I’d like to explore in the telling of a cinematic story.

Characterisation: I value a silent film approach – to me, cinema is firstly visual, creating mood, a space in time, which we the audience participate. I will be looking for creative ways to tell story and develop character with as little dialogue as possible. I want an improvisational film, where the acting talent create the nuance within a scripted framework.

More than anything, I want the team that we assemble to enjoy the process of creating film, seeing that result affecting audiences, and finally take on a life of it’s own.

Darcy Gladwin