Rapture

Rapture. Considering that it involved swimming in a lake in February in such cold weather, I should have probably written it to not involve wearing no more than a dress for half of it. Due to this, I ended up acting in the film, which was certainly NOT rapture for me. It was scary! And freezing. Like an idiot (and also with a certain pizazz) I jumped into the freezing cold lake. I know myself you see, and I am a wimp for getting into cold water. I can’t do it slow! Unfortunately, the cold water I usually get into is swimming-pool cold, or running into the winter-sea cold. One is actually not that cold, the other has a small chance to acclimatise you. As you can guess, I got cold shock. If I had no one else in the water with me, I would absolutely have sunk because my limbs stopped working. Luckily David, our diving instructor, was there. He held me until I was less likely to die, and then we got on with the actual filming.

It was also surprisingly fun.

It was also beautiful. The colour-gradist is still working on the film, but hopefully the still that precedes this post shows you the imagery of our underwater shots.

Due to being so cold, I was unable to stay in the water for long, and we didn’t have enough time at the lake to warm me up and then get back in, so we were limited. As I was also the AD for the shoot, I had spoken to the director and made a list of the most important shots to the least important and we went from there as I knew that I may be unable to stay in the lake to film every wanted shot. Having to wait for the diver to sink down, get into position, film, then rise again to make any needed adjustments to my acting/swimming was a long process. And let me say again, it was cold.

Let me take us back a bit now, to the actual process of filming. To add another role to my list (Underwater Filming was not a subject that many of our course chose), I was also the scriptwriter. When considering where we should go for this script I had one idea that lodged itself in my mind; I didn’t want the narrative to hinge on scuba diving. The underwater shots should be a beautiful aspect of the project, not relying on scuba diving. The examples of previous years were mainly monsters in the deep, learning how to put on equipment. From this, the idea grew. Something surreal, intense. Something that really showed the beauty of the underwater world, and the stark horror of being forced into it.

The lecturers did not give any feedback on our script so it was not as advanced as it could have been, but it was my second journey into script and paved my way for future projects as I slowly learned how to develop my writing style.