I began researching Seamus Heaney's poems by reading each of his poems on Google. One by one I began to write down which poems caught my attention and I slowly made up a list of poems that I would consider basing my project on. 

-Midterm Break

-Lovers on Aran

-Digging

-Limbo

-My Passport is Green

The first poem I considered was Midterm Break as I was already familiar with it from studying the poem in secondary school. Although Lovers on Aran had caught my attention also, for the obvious reason of being from Arranmore Island, I could relate to the poem and this inspired me.

I decided that I needed to decided whether I was going to focus on film or animation/graphics. I done some research into previous projects by repeatedly watching over winners of the Allingham Arts Festival entries. I then began brainstorming ideas as to which poem would suit film or which would suit animation.

The more I thought about what I would like to do, two poems in particular stuck out in my head. These were Midterm Break and Lovers On Aran. 

-Filming Arranmore Island.

-Land & Sea

-Experiment with different cameras/equipment/DSLRs/SLRs/Go-Pro?/Drone?

-Have characters - male/female actors or both

-"Back in the day"? 

-Emigration

-Experiment with Double Exposure

-Woman longing on the beach after broken relationship

-Recite poem 

-Illustrations on Photoshop & Illustrator

-Style_ Silhouette 

-Tell story as in an animation

-Create motion in After Effects

I chose Lovers on Aran as my poem. I wanted to improve my filming and editing. I chose this poem because I feel like I can relate to it. Picking a poem that you can personally relate to will make it easier to create an idea for my project if I am passionate about it.

Here is the poem:

-Nature: The land and sea. Their differences but how they collide and come together.

Something awful like "broken glass" - "Came dazzling around"

-A broken relationship - they collided like land and sea..

"with a soft crash?" Suggesting love still exists.

-"Did sea define the land or land the sea?"

-Couple met & fell in love on Aran.

-Long distance relationship? "Came 

I wanted colours that represented the sea, land, nature and sorrow. 

The poem is about a broken relationship and also the relationship between the land and sea. I plan on filming the sea, waves, cliffs, beach (which in contrary to popular belief is grey not yellow this time of the year). 

So I think colours of along the lines of these would work well and gives you a taste of the mood and tone of the short film and poem.

https://vimeo.com/199147195 

https://contrastly.com/tips-tricks-for-creating-double-exposures-that-rock/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePizm3Nyw7k - Double Exposure AE tutorial

I booked out a camera and tripod to not only practice my filming techniques (Rule of thirds, composition, variety of shots etc). I wanted to practice on a Cannon 1300D DSLR camera but as they were high in demand there were none left in the college. Therefore, I booked out a JVC and a tripod. 

I wanted to take shots to practice Double Exposure. Mainly to see if it was possible. So I booked out the Photography studio and asked my friend Nicole to act for me. I done a rough storyboard of the shots I wanted to take of Nicole (which you'll see below). I wanted Nicole against a contrasting white background because I think it looks best and I would like to use this in my short film, if possible. I wanted her hair to blow in the wind so I planned on bringing a hairdryer to college but forgot, we soon improvised and Molly (my helping hand) used a reflector from the studio to fan her hair while I filmed. 

The lighting in the studio could severely be improved as we couldn't quite get it as bright as I wanted it to be. Also in a couple of the shots we were aware of Nicole's shadow. This was due to the poor lighting. 

Some of the shots were blurry. This proved that I was a bit rusty on the filming side so I will have to watch out for that while filming the actual film or I will have to re-shoot some shots. 

I was happy that I took some practice shots in the studio because it showed me what I need to improve on and what to look out for next time when I film the real thing.

To create the Double Exposure effect I had to film a few external shots also. The place seen here in my practice shots is a lake out the Errigal road. I went with a similar colour scheme as my planned Mood Board to see how it would look.

(Below) Here is a video of Nicole in the studio. As you can see the background has a purple tint and is not as white as I hoped it would be, due to the lighting. You can also here that we had difficult fanning Nicole's hair. 

After watching and re-watching many examples of work from past pupils/winners of the Allingham festival I came across the work of past pupil Sabina Blaszczok. Her Making of the Seamus Heaney poem 'The Otter' included edits of Double Exposure that were very well done. Here is her Making Of video and final piece which I hope to take inspiration from.

'The Otter' by Sabina Blaszczok 

https://vimeo.com/199134625

Making Of 'The Otter' by Sabina Blaszczok

https://vimeo.com/199147195

After Effects - Attempts(Practice)​​​​​​​

I booked out a JVC and tripod (as there were no Canons available again, which I would have preferred). I travelled home to Arranmore Island to practice filming landscapes. So I asked my sister Amanda if she would drive me up to the Lighthouse Cliffs so that I could take a few shots of the sea crashing against the cliffs. There was a heavy swell in the sea that day so I knew I could get some good footage of the rough sea. 

I went up around 3 o'clock which was my mistake. It starts getting dark around 3-4 o'clock now and this makes it really difficult to film. You can see that it is getting darker if you compare some of my first shots to my last and this is a major problem because I want to keep the same colour tone throughout the film. The first shots having nice blue tones but as it got darker the shots appeared to be more of a purple tone. 

The weather is also going to be tough to work around. I plan on bringing an actress to Arranmore but it will be difficult to film if it is raining/dull one day and not the next, it will not look right when you put the shots together. A solution to this would be to film all of the shots in one day but that will also be quite difficult to do as we will have to travel around the island (from the beach to the lighthouse(6km) and get all of the shots done before it starts getting dark at 3-4pm. 

Here is a video of he day I went filming the cliffs by the lighthouse with my sister Amanda:

It was recommended to me by my lecturer to watch The Light Between Oceans as it had many similarities to my idea for my film. Once I watched it that night I could see why. I took a lot of inspiration from it in terms of Costume Design, Planning Landscape Shots and how to approach filming my actors from different angels. It was set in the same era as I have imagine my film to be shot in. It was also based on a lonely island which is very similar to the hidden meaning in Lovers on Aran.

Here are a few photos of the film that I took inspiration from:

​​​​​​​

The poem I picked was very broad, meaning I could make almost any story match the poem. I decided to go with the initial hidden meaning in the poem of a broken relationship. So I began brainstorming ideas for a story in my head. The poem mentions America, therefore automatically I thought of emigration from my homeplace Arranmore Island to America during the famine, which continued for many years after. 

What I took from the poem first time I read it was that it was about a man and woman, who seem to be having some difficulty which could be due to emigration. 

Beginning:

A young man and woman are from Aran Island and are hopelessly in love. The beginning of the sequence shows just that as they cuddle closely together on the beach, playfully walk/chase each other and exchange loving looks.

  

Shot List for Beginning:

Middle:

The next scene cuts to the young man fixing the ropes for the boat at work on the pier as a fisherman, hauling his pots and nets. The mood of the film slightly changes at this point as the man begins to look worried as he pulls in the pots and nets without a fish or crab to be seen. He comes to the realisation that he may have to emigrate to America for work, like many others have. They just can't make a living off the fishing anymore since the quotas came in, banning salmon fishing. Later on that day he meets up with his girlfriend and they have an argument/she gets upset and walks off as he tells her that he has to move to America for work. 

Shot list for Middle:

End:

The last scene of the film shows the man back at the pier (his workplace) fixing the ropes again but you can see his good shoes in the shot instead of worker boots/wellingtons. Then comes a shot of the suitcase. The woman in on the beach on her own, longing looking into the distant sea. The man is seen in his best clothes leaving Aran Island on his boat as he emigrates to America.

Shot List for End:

I began chatting to Mark Sheen (Mark Sheen Photography), a classmate, who is a photographer and he had just filmed the shots for his film. I had a look at them and wanted to know how he got them so clear, in focus and perfect colour. So, he ran through a few simple steps with me. What I had to remember on the day was: 

- Lower the shutter speed - eg. 200 (brighter)

- Higher shutter speed because it is set outside.

- Above 100 - Shutter speed

- Normal ISO about 400

- Aperture 8.0 outside - everything in focus

- Grain - Higher the ISO

              Lower the ISO - less grainy 

              200

- Adjust shutter with the wheel on camera

- Get the balance between ISO and shutter

- Depth of Field  - Lower Aperture eg. 2.8 (going to be brighter)

ISO - 100 (darker)

Due to the weather conditions I have had trouble finding the time to travel to my location and film.  There have been gale force winds and the ferrys haven't been running to Arranmore Island due to the rough sea. The icy roads have also made it impossible to drive to the island as the roads are not safe to travel on. But I am hoping that weather will clear up slightly so that I can travel to the island this Wednesday 13th December.​​​​​​​

I done some reconstruction work before when I was working on a documentary for TG4. From this, I knew what I wanted my female actor to wear; the same pink dress that I borrowed from my nanny when I wore it for reconstruction. 

these are the costumes they wore on the day...

I spent this week working on storyboards, doing final bits of research, organising my actors; checking their availability and sorting costumes.

I also had to check the tides, as I planned on filming on the beach, it wouldn’t have been ideal if the tide was in, therefore not being able to access the beach or the tide being too far out hence, the beach looking gross covered in seaweed & rocks. I called up my dad and as he is a fisherman I knew he would have a tidal book, everything looked good for when I planned on filming thankfully.

I checked the weather also, luckily it wasn’t giving rain, as from experience I know that it can be a torture trying to keep the lenses free from raindrops and smudges when it is raining. Also, I needed to keep my actors looking good and dry.

I contacted my friend John who works on the Arranmore Ferry daily to find out how the sea has been and whether the ferries had been running or not. Luckily, we managed to have a calm enough day compared to previous weeks where it was given gale force winds and I couldn’t travel to Arran. I had a backup plan of filming in Ramelton and Rathmullan but it would have had the same effect as filming on an actual island, as that poem is based on an Aran island.

I had difficulty booking out equipment for filming. When I had gone to the technicians that week they told me that I could only take out a JVC for that day because they had given out all of the 1300Ds and 1200Ds that week. This was quite a disaster as I had only just learned how to properly film on a 1300/1200D prior to filming and planned on using one of those. I booked out a JVC in hope of figuring out how to use it in the same way but there was no hope, I didn’t know how to a just the aperture, shutter speed and ISO etc.  I had to think on my feet. I started contacting my friends and classmates to see if I could borrow a camera and after about 10 conversations I finally managed to get my hands on a 1200D with a standard lens from my classmate, Gemma Carroll. Legend.

The equipment I had is as follows:

-JVC

-Tripod

-Canon 1200D – standard lens 

-Dollys – used for a tracking shot. (they were HUGE and just about fit in the car haha)

-Siobhán Cox (me, director/producer, wonder woman)

-Kelvin Crossan (actor, driver, fisherman, cool guy)

-Nicole Breslin (actor, lover, lil’ nugget)

-Niamh Fitzpatirck (runner, crew, mountain goat)

Here is a video of us travelling to the island:

-Left Letterkenny at 8:30am. Booked on the 9:30am ferry.

-Collected camera from Gemma’s.

-Decided to take the car onto ferry & into the island as we had a lot of equipment/baggage to carry.

-Filmed the journey for ‘making of’ video.

-Landed on Arranmore – went for a cuppa tae first to cure the not so clear heads on the girls.

-Raided nannys wardrobe and found a dress for Nicole, one I had previously worn for -------Reconstruction work for TG4.

-Met up with dad who gave us his oil skins and fishermans cap for Kelvin.

-Drove to Aphort (fishing place in Arran)

-Began filming the beach shots first as the tide was just right. Filmed the beginning/middle and end beach shots at the same time. I also took a shot of Nicole on her own and Kelvin on his own, both longing for each other. 

-Filmed landscape shots  - beach/trawler/pots etc while I gave the actors a break and a chance for Kelvin to change into dads oil skins, fishing cap and wellies. 

-Filmed Kelvin at work as a fisherman, pulling ropes, checking pots for fish etc. I used dads pots and positioned it so you could see the Shannon boat in the background. 

-I took Kelvin down to Aphort pier to take a few shots of him working there too. Being from the island and having a fisherman for a dad certainly worked to my advantage.

-Kelvin had to leave on the 3 o'clock ferry for work so we had a tight schedule but managed to stick to it. 

-I filmed it all on Manual settings with Manual focus as I wanted to challenge myself instead of filming it all on P (auto).

I booked out the dolly's to attempt a tracking shot. They were huge and very awkward to take to the island but in my opinion the effort paid off because it is one of my favourite shots in the film. I have always wondered how they took shots like that and now I know so I am quite proud that I pulled it off. Here is my tracking shot:

After many attempts at double exposure on AE, I decided it din't look the best, every attempt to get Nicole's hair perfectly masked just looked a bit tacky as the ends turned into squares instead of masking the fine hairs and it looked unrealistic so I decided to go with a much cleaner effect that had the same effect; laying a shot of Kelvin and a CU of Nicole's head on top of each other and changing the opacity on both with a slow fade, so Kelvin is seen to be walking away and Nicole is longing for him. 

The whole film was very Raw and I wanted to keep that natural and authentic look. The setting on Arranmore was so perfect that I didn't want to ruin it with editing; colour changes etc. So, I thought the best idea would be to keep both shots an change the opacity as it may look out of place having one shot edited like above examples among other unedited, raw, natural shots. I was happy with the end shot. Here it is:

For Christmas I was lucky enough to get my very own Canon 1300D with a standard and landscape lens. I decided to take a trip to Béal a Chraoise which is a pebble beach on Arranmore to take some shots that I hoped to use in my short film. 

First of all I put all the clips from the camera onto my hardrive then onto the computer. From there I picked which ones I like the best. I was delighted that the shots were all clear and in focus because I filmed it all on manual it is sometimes hard to tell on the camera if it is all in focus. 

Also I planned my shots well enough that they led into each other eg. Kelvin's hand on his face when Nicole pushes him away links to the next shots when he is still holding his face. And when Nicole tilts her head in the second shot, she is still seen tilting it as it jumps to the next shot. 

Here I explain the editing process of Lovers On Aran:

Grouping shots on One Drive: choosing which to use and where to store them.

Sound: where I got it and what I used and why.

Sound, Seagulls & Reciting the poem: What I wanted I to sound like and why.

Double Exposure: how, why and positioning.

End Credit: why I chose to keep it simple. To suit the raw, authentic theme.

Wanted to create something that relates to past events on Arranmore island, where I’m from. In my family alone, my dad had to move to the UK and Dublin for work as there wasn’t enough money in fishing to provide for our family. I found making this film was very enjoyable because I was passionate about the subject matter. 

Working with friends made it a very enjoyable experience also. I wanted to test my ability and use friends who have no relation to media studies at all, therefore I was out on my own, independently making all the decisions. In pervious college projects I have always used classmates in my filming pieces, this meant that they were always there as a helping hand and they knew what to do. I found working independently on this project really gave me more confidence to go out there and work by myself without having to depend on others to help me.

I wanted to test my ability filming on Manual settings also. In the making of this film I found myself becoming a lot more comfortable with the settings of a camera. This was a good learning curve that will certainly come in useful in future projects.

Through the whole process of choosing a poem, making up a story, listing shots, storyboarding, casting actors, casting crew, choosing what equipment to use, booking it out, travelling to Arran to film and taking all my shots back to edit, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project. I put my heart and soul into it as it is something I am passionate about so I hope you enjoy it.