THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MOLLY - DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
This is my first film that I have completed from concept to final edit, including the end titles.
I had always wanted to make a film about my adored dog, Molly, prompted by the way in which friends and new acquaintances talked about her - always in human terms, as if she were an eccentric, wise and slightly mischievous old person. Sadly, I didn't manage to make the film while she was still alive. But, when we were exploring topics for our final short film at the City Lit Film School, the subject came to me again - nearly four years after Molly's death. I decided to make a biopic, using the same technique as for a deceased person, weaving archive footage with contemporary interviews and personal voiceover to create an intimate and rounded picture of a unique character.
My intention in the opening sequence was to keep audiences guessing - but of course, when one knows the film is about a dog, there's no surprise. However, to the uninitiated viewer, there is a question mark - are we talking about the dog or the child? And when my voiceover says, 'one day she went missing,' the idea was to send a momentary chill through the audience, as they imagine that this is going to be a tragic story about the disappearance of a young girl. I determined to dispel that chill rapidly with a light remark, so as to give the audience a brief frisson rather than to mislead.
The final sequence in the Dorset hills was shot with an early iPhone using a free app, since the phone itself didn't have a video setting. Although the footage is juddery and slow, I have actually doubled the speed of the original film. The colours are exactly as they were captured on the iPhone, and when I found this footage, four years on, with its impressionistic, hyperreal, textured quality, I immediately saw that this would make a beautiful, arty finale to the biopic, when the sensations created in the viewer, the laughter and tears, would have time to sink in gently as the film came to a close.
Then, to give viewers a final little surprise, and a lift from the melancholic tone one is left with at the end of the film, I put in the end titles with the final bark - with the idea of sending audiences away with a smile on their face and a warmth in their hearts. The barking Molly references the MGM roaring lion within a circular emblem. It fitted perfectly with my new Tideturner Films logo, which I had designed to mimic an old-fashioned ink stamp on a letter, with the waves echoing the 'Tideturner' theme. (It was coincidental but doubly fitting that the opening scene of this film, emerging as the Tideturner logo fades, features the sea and crashing waves.)
This is my first film that I have completed from concept to final edit, including the end titles.
I had always wanted to make a film about my adored dog, Molly, prompted by the way in which friends and new acquaintances talked about her - always in human terms, as if she were an eccentric, wise and slightly mischievous old person. Sadly, I didn't manage to make the film while she was still alive. But, when we were exploring topics for our final short film at the City Lit Film School, the subject came to me again - nearly four years after Molly's death. I decided to make a biopic, using the same technique as for a deceased person, weaving archive footage with contemporary interviews and personal voiceover to create an intimate and rounded picture of a unique character.
My intention in the opening sequence was to keep audiences guessing - but of course, when one knows the film is about a dog, there's no surprise. However, to the uninitiated viewer, there is a question mark - are we talking about the dog or the child? And when my voiceover says, 'one day she went missing,' the idea was to send a momentary chill through the audience, as they imagine that this is going to be a tragic story about the disappearance of a young girl. I determined to dispel that chill rapidly with a light remark, so as to give the audience a brief frisson rather than to mislead.
The final sequence in the Dorset hills was shot with an early iPhone using a free app, since the phone itself didn't have a video setting. Although the footage is juddery and slow, I have actually doubled the speed of the original film. The colours are exactly as they were captured on the iPhone, and when I found this footage, four years on, with its impressionistic, hyperreal, textured quality, I immediately saw that this would make a beautiful, arty finale to the biopic, when the sensations created in the viewer, the laughter and tears, would have time to sink in gently as the film came to a close.
Then, to give viewers a final little surprise, and a lift from the melancholic tone one is left with at the end of the film, I put in the end titles with the final bark - with the idea of sending audiences away with a smile on their face and a warmth in their hearts. The barking Molly references the MGM roaring lion within a circular emblem. It fitted perfectly with my new Tideturner Films logo, which I had designed to mimic an old-fashioned ink stamp on a letter, with the waves echoing the 'Tideturner' theme. (It was coincidental but doubly fitting that the opening scene of this film, emerging as the Tideturner logo fades, features the sea and crashing waves.)
