Cumha - Production Blog

This is our final poster, we used examples of real posters to decide where to put the actors' names and the review. The slogan comes from an Irish saying ' Níl cara ag cumha  act cuimhne' which ties nicely back into the story's origins in an Irish short story. I really enjoyed making the poster, as graphic design and illustration is a personal interest of mine, and that helped the progress along.  Cliona also had experience with the editing software we used, so we worked together well. Overall, I've enjoyed this stage of the process the most.  The film board we chose to associate ourselves with is the Irish Film Board, to pay homage to the Irish in the title, and the short story that initially influenced the plot. We chose the studio name 'Blacksheep' because we felt it reflected the uneasy tone of the movie, and played on the seemingly outsider 'stalker' status of the main character. The decision to include a studio name instead of ...

We initially had three ideas for our poster: a smashed clock, that is seen in the opening shot of Cumha , a screenshot from the movie of the girl's face smiling over the flowers, and a picture of The Girl with a dart through it, all of which are pictured below. We first ruled out using a screenshot from the movie, as this isn't a very professional approach, and then decided not to go along the lines of using the dart as a) the dart board never appears in movie and b) it implies that the movie would be a slasher or horror, which it is not.  Here are the photos we took after we smashed the clock, a symbol of The Boy's hopes and fantasies, as a hint to people looking at the poster of what is to happen.  At first, we couldn't decide between the third or fourth photo, so I decided to do some trials with the third photo, as it's my favourite photo, but it wasn't portrait, as most posters ar...

Many famous movies have motifs, or reoccurring symbolism, in them, to hint at a larger theme for the audience to decipher themselves, such as the Girl in The Red Coat in Schindler's List .   Cumha has three motifs, which we use to hint at the greater plot. 1. Nature: we use shots of nature to represent the dream The Boy has invented where he and The Girl are a couple. Any shots of reality do not feature nature, even though Scene Three is shot outdoors, it's on a bare concrete platform.  While there is nature close by, it's behind a fence and The Boy has his back to it, symbolising the unachievable nature of his fantasy.   2. Red: Cumha has a very limited colour scheme, we purposefully choose costumes and locations with dark or otherwise dull colours. The most colour used is during Scene Two, particularly the closeup shot of The Girl's mouth, against a flowery background. We choose the colour red, the colour of danger and wanting, to dec...

Due to the lack of script, we always knew that the postproduction stage of Cumha would be vital to conveying the story and mood, so we took great care with the editing.  Overall, Cumha is meant to feel uncomfortable to watch and make the audience uneasy, right from the beginning. I nspired by the short movies we watched, we decided that the best way to achieve this was sharp cuts between each shot, so that viewers could never get comfortable. For our title, we decided to open onto black and use white font, as I've seen so many short movies do, but we went with a typer writer effect to slowly drag the opening in. This effects also works well with the ticking noise, which nearly sounds like a keyboard. We went with a 'Dictionary Definition' style opening because not everyone in the audience would have a passing knowledge of Irish, and it's important to know what the word means, and how to say it. We did a bit of research into I nternational Phonetic A...

On Sunday, we gathered at my house, which was the base and a few of the sets, at eleven o clock in the morning. To prepare for the actors, the Cumha production team arrived early and stuck the photo of The Girl we had printed up on the wall of the bedroom.  I started the day by giving all the actors a reminder on the plot and showing all of them the storyboard and shot-list, before we headed up to the bedroom to do Scene One.  The most difficult shot to take for Scene One was the opening shot of the clock, as the room had been darkened and we struggled to find a balance between getting a clear view of the clock and not getting the reflection of the camera, but we eventually found a good balance. The whole room was very dark in general, so we used a strong singular light right above the bed as our primary light and decided to lower the brightness in poster production.  Our actors were very patient and ex...

Props: - Clock (to be smashed later for the poster) - Calendar (with countdown) - Wristwatch - Photographs - Luggage bag Costumes: - The Boy: Pyjama top, with red. Dark hoodie, trousers, shirt - The Girl: Dark dress with red. Red lipstick. Coat.  - The Other Boy: Dark hoodie and trousers. 

To create a more tangible atmosphere in Cumha , we did a bit of research into some royalty free music we could possibly apply to the background of Scene 1. We looked at "Everest" by DeKibo, but the guitar sound was too prominent, and it sounded like an indie song. We had the same issue with "As Time Stands Still" by Big Score Audio, and while we thought we might like "Cave Crystals" by Sirius Music, it went the opposite way, and was too abstract to apply to Cumha . We eventually decided on "Past has not passed" by James Blackshaw, and when we applied it to certain parts of Cumha (and then cut is abruptly off) it was very effective in creating that tone of unease we're going for. We also added a heartbeat sound into the credit sequence, similar to the ticking noise, but more personal. 

Our main actor Calum has dropped out completely. We found a new actor very last minute,  Michael Kelly , whose willing to jump in and fill his role. Michael Kelly  Role: The Boy  Height: 6' Build: Lanky Appearance: Pale complexion, medium length brown hair, pale eyes  Experience: None This leaves the shots we took earlier and edited pretty much useless, which is not ideal but there's no time to reshoot them and get the photos printed for this Sunday.  We can use one dream sequence shot of Ríbh on her own which is still useable, so that's what we'll have to work with.  This could work as it implies that The Boy and The Girl don't have any relationship at all and makes the twist ending a scarier reveal. It wasn't what we planned, but we can work with it.  

For inspiration for our own 'dream' sequences, I looked at famous examples from full length movies. They don't quite have the same feel that I was thinking of, but sometimes it's just as useful to know what we don't want as it is to know what we do . The dream sequences I watched all have an 'unreality' to them which is something we need, but they're also dependant on speech, and aren't 'dreamy' enough. Now I know to use the effects on Final Cut Pro to achieve the soft and golden look I was originally thinking of.

I looked at posters for Drama movies, romantic thrillers, and melodramas, to get a better idea of what kind of font is commonly used by professional movies.   Personally, I like the thinner fonts because they seem to look more sleek, and our main actor Calum, is tall and thin so the font could tie in nicely with the look of the film by being the same.