Lewis Heath – Experimental Film Blog

When I first came up with the concept for my experimental film, I had multiple working titles which had different meanings the first of which was; To me 80 years ago – As the movie ends with a ‘loop’ this is a subtle nod to the average life span of a person and how the main character is trying to communicate himself, but it is too late. Secondly, Petitio Principii – This title means ‘To beg the question’ which is what I want the audience to think about afterwards and wonder what the purpose of life if not ‘death and taxes’. Thirdly, I’ll see you in Five – This title is a reference to the 5 tally marks on the man’s hand and a reference to how we gain consciousness and realise we exist at five years old. Fourthly, Perpetual – This means ‘never ending or changing’ which is again a reference to the main character having no control of his life unless he refuses to conform to something other then what is presented to him and lastly, eleven twenty nine – this was the time of my Grandads death which was one of the inspirations when creating this film originally as that time stuck with me for a long while. The title also appears over the apple when it is just a core and no longer what it once was which is how I felt in that moment.

When I began planning my experimental film, I came up with a few different ideas one of which was a play in which the two actors start off happy, but the scene keeps randomly changing and their mental state progressively worsens as they become helpless and are unable to stop the scenes from changing. This was intended to be a reflection on how the theatre industry can be incredibly demanding often pushing actors to breaking point leaving them with no way out. After playing around with ideas I eventually stuck with my current one in which a man wakes up with a marking on his hand and consumes ‘the fruit of life’ and meets a familiar looking ghost shortly before his world ends right back where it started.

When planning this project, I mainly used the notes app in my phone to log any details I wished to include when I got around to shooting as well as using my notepad to make rough sketches and short storyboards.

Filming was very tough as there were two actors on screen (myself and my friend Josh who volunteered to play ‘the ghost’) I had to find people with short notice to help me film but I also didn’t want to take up much of their time so shooting day was fairly quick so I was unhappy with a few of the shots I ended up getting, but in terms of pre-production everything went smooth, I found a bed sheet to use as a ghost costume after looking on Pintrest for reference, I got some string and sticks to create a ‘makeshift’ grave too and a few other bits such as apples and staples for the ‘corpse’ scene.

When filming wrapped, I was finally able to edit but had a few issues as I hadn’t used premier pro to much during my time at university but after a few hours of online tutorials and research I managed to edit together my experimental film to a standard I was happy with, I added filters to my footage as well as colour balanced it and added transitions and cuts to make it flow better. When I finished the edit and had the final cut of my film, I was able to identify what I needed to do to improve if I ever came back to it in the future.

‘eleven twenty nine’s’ key themes are greed and death, this theme runs throughout the entirety of the film and begins with the death aspect in the form of the apple, The apple is a representation of ‘the fruit of life’ having biblical ties and also ironically dying as soon as it has a bite taken out of it, the Apple decays quickly much like ourselves as we grow older then stapled back together much like a dead body when it dies, when the apple is placed onto the grave a coin appears as a representation of inheritance and that’s the apple will be remembered as – a number. Before burying the apple, I walk out of frame then back into frame from the other side to show that I am trapped and cannot escape the cycle or ‘time loop’. Touching the coin gives us a glimpse into this dream-like sequence in which we see the ghost and Lewis as projections flicker across their face as they almost break the fourth wall and escape the loop it’s worth noting in the edit the sound when I have the projector on my face is a film reel spinning whereas the ghost has a money counting machine sound instead.

Many different forms of media have influenced the creation of this film one of which is the film ‘Palm Springs’ which is a ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario in which the characters are stuck reliving the same day until they break the cycle to escape except in this scenario my characters do not. Music videos have also had an influence on the edit of my experimental film in which after the ‘song’ is over they have a clip in silence to show what could have been in the case of ‘eleven twenty nine’ it is the ghost and myself sat on a bench in silence with a quiet wind flowing in the background as this is what the world could be if the inner conflicts stopped ‘battling’ each other and thought about themselves instead of going straight for what’s in front of them. I edited the film to all be in black and white for aesthetic reasons and practical, it shows how bleak and dull the world is from my characters perspective but gets a glimpse into how bright it could be if he stopped worrying about the smaller things in life like consuming goods even if he does not need them.

Throughout ‘eleven : twenty-nine’ I encoded a few different small details that symbolise things of importance to the story however, some are a little convoluted and are there to ‘serve the story’.

The 5 Tally Marks – The 5 Tally marks on my hand are there to symbolise the age in which people often gain consciousness for the first time and become self-aware of their own existence in the world reflecting myself at the beginning of my experimental film which I gain consciousness for the first time in this dream-like world.

The 6 Tally Marks at the end – After passing the coin to the ghost I have 6 tally marks instead of 5 showing that the cycle is once again repeating itself, in numerology the number 6 has emotional meanings specifically empathy allowing me to let my guard down and be honest which is why I thank the ghost afterwards.

The Apple – An Apple is complex symbol with a variety of meanings. It can mean love, knowledge wisdom, joy, death and/or luxury. In the case of my film, it represents the process of death and how short life is. This is shows after I take a bite out of the apple that was laying on top of the grave showing how people capitalize on the dead, the next shot of the apple it is already a core and then when it’s placed back onto the grave, the apple is stitched back together with staples showing how bodies are handled after death.

The Coin – The coin in my film that appears after the apple is buried is a literal representation of money and capitalism and how we just consume goods even if we don’t need them (this is also the reason why ‘EAT’ is written on my hand)

The Sunglasses – The sunglasses are a sign for my soul which is transferred when I hand them to the ghost

‘eleven : twenty-nine’ was influenced by my Grandads death last summer as when he passed all we had was our memories together, items of clothing and inheritance. When I was younger, he used to go away for months at a time to sea to provide for his family but, he had to stop when he got ill, watching him go from this tall strong guy to being smaller than myself made me feel a type of pain I can’t put into words because its indescribable. It made me realise that in the end money cannot provide happiness and it really hurt watching those events unfold right in front of my eyes.

I often find myself getting into a headspace in which I wish I could go back in time and spend more time with him before he passed since I hadn’t seen him for a while, it happened so fast that I wasn’t prepared and this film follows my current and past consciousness battling themselves in not being able to change things but only grow and re-live those past events over-and-over again ironically like movie stuck on repeat in my head and unless I change that it will continue to play out exactly the same.

A man wakes up on with a strange marking on his hand and finds himself stuck in a time loop in which he encounters a familiar looking ghost that shows him money will not provide you happiness and those who seek it will be doomed to be a part of the never-ending cycle of sadness and pain in this world.