Fiction Adaptation - Actual Narrative

So after discussing quite heavily with Mike some concepts and my proposal, I felt that I didn't really need a character, and wanted to play with the visual aspects more so with this as I felt if I were to throw a character into the mix then it would restrict my creative abilities when it came to shooting. 

I knew though that I had to try and think of some kind of arc, in which atleast a basic narrative could be strung upon and that we all travelled on together, (the audience and the visuals) so that with this I could add lots more creativity into the visual imagery and focus more on that. 

Having spoke about the usage of smoke bombs and what they could signify, I wanted to blend them with another object metaphorically, which would be an indication of the passing and coming of life itself; Ash would be scattered, being captured to fall downwards, and then the smoke would rise, one entering the earth to be engulfed, and one being born into it, releasing itself freely. 

The smoke within the film is representative of many things, life being the main focus, but also as a visual gateway to loop in other key shots, like the flowing water. I wanted a natural, fluid an authentic feel to it as the poem to me comes across with an inherent tone of peacefulness, as its about coming to terms with tragedy.

Also throughout the piece, which was spoken briefly in my proposal, i wanted a running theme which would compliment the focus point which was the passing of life. I felt this kind of got lost through shooting it as I found it hard to grasp a strong concept that I could run with as I really did not want to put in a character. Possibly this was a mistake on my end, but I went with using strong imagery anyway, and continued the theme of the 'cycle of life', I had a few ideas rolling around in my head; flowers dying, fruit decaying, ice cubes melting. Due to practicality reasons and time constraints I went with ice cubes, I felt it captured in essence what I wanted to convey, I just need to make sure in the edit that I can achieve it. 

With the end of the sequence I want there to be some kind of new equilibrium, we've seen the scattered ashes, the dead put back into the earth, we've seen the rise of a potential new life/being with the smoke bomb, now with the ice cube, i'm thinking to reverse all the footage of it melting to take it back to its original form. Again i'm a bit apprehensive to see if this can be achieved effectively, but i'll just have to wait and see.   

THE STRUCTURE OF COMPOSITION/FILM 

BEGINNING - 
The death of life
Signified through the use of the flames and non-diegetic sound played simultaneously together. The fire is a clear indication to the passing of life, later on with the ashes being scattered and allowing that connection to be made from the first shot. 

MIDDLE - 
The beauty of life
Having a variety of extremely visually engaging, natural wildlife shots, i wanted to fill this section with the beauties of the every day life within this environment. This needed to encapsulate briefly some of the things the poem touched on, like the fields, the sun and the birds. I wanted to expand with things that you also associate with these environments and that's why i chose to get coverage of a river, and to bridge the shots of the river and the smoke bomb together for post production purposes. 


END - 
The birth/rebirth of new life/old life remaining
As the on going visual metaphor throughout the film had been the ice melting, which was to represent the inevitable death of a life, I wanted then to reverse the long and lengthy theme which had been shown throughout all of it staggered, to then be reversed rapidly, back to its original form and end it there. This was to indicate how the world is forever cyclical and what you may think has left this world, actually doesn't, it in fact remains, but potentially as something different, or something similar.