I wrote in my Research about how watching the YouTube videos by the YouTuber TomSka encouraged me to think about clever ways to get any effects that I want in my Year 2 FMP.
There are a few effects that I want to get. I don’t think they are particularly complicated, but I experimented different ways to achieve them, thinking outside the box like TomSka had.
Leaves blowing whenever a character time-travels in (but not out, that is different)
I was trying to think of a way to indicate that someone had time travelled in, without actually showing the character immediately. I brainstormed some ideas – I considered some kind of camera shake, but I don’t currently feel that fits with how the rest of my camera movements are planned. I considered a flash of light, which I like the idea of. I also think a sound effect could be effective too.
But the idea I came up with that I really like, is having leaves blowing around when the time-traveller is appearing. I like the idea of every time that Sam P bends down to try to pick up the pieces of paper with the lottery numbers on, he gets lots of leaves blown onto him. Sam F1 is already there and will have been following him in the opening sequence. So, the first time-traveller that we see arrive is Sam F2. Then we see Anna arrive.
The third time-traveller who we see arrive is Sam F3, who is there to warn Sam P about a splinter that he is about to get by picking up the stick under which the lottery number were originally placed. By this third time (rule of three), Sam P is getting pretty irritated, and also I want him (and my audience) to recognise the implications of leaves blowing all over him.
Sam’s irritation at this 3rd lot of leaves is in line with the Comedy Theory “Rule of Three” because it is the third time something happens. You can either have just a “straight 3 things happen” or “the third thing is contrary to the previous 2 things”. I discuss this more in my Comedy Theory Research Section. I’m hoping that as soon as the audience see Sam start to bend down toward the stick, like he has done 2 previous times and got covered with leaves, they will start to smile as they know what is coming. I’m aiming for both a “straight 3 things happen” element, where the audience predict that, yet again, Sam P will get leaves blown all over him, and then also a “third thing is contrary to the previous 2 things” because what Sam F3 has come to tell him starts out sounding dramatic but end up being as mundane as stopping Sam P from getting a splinter, which is contrary to what the audience expected.
How to get the leaves blowing
When I first thought of the leaves blowing, the image that came to my mind was of a leaf blower. We don’t have a leaf blower. My research showed me that although many leaf blowers have a cable that you need to plug in, you can get cordless ones. I asked around friends and family, but no one had a cordless one, which I would obviously need since I was filming in the middle of a wood.
I investigated the purchase price and it was on average about £50-£70 for a cordless leaf blower.
I really didn’t want to be spending that kind of money on something that I won’t be using again. My parents are really helpful helping me get things for filming, but they said that they really didn’t think they needed a leaf blower, and I agree it is a lot of money.
I investigated hiring one. At our local tool hire company, I found a petrol one which worked out at £30.80 for the 2 days I needed it. At this point I was thinking that a petrol leaf blower was really seeming a bit like overkill, so I stopped and put my “TomSka thinking hat” on, thinking that there must be a simpler way, like he finds simple ways to get seemingly expensive effects.
It came to me, a really simple way that needed no power apart from muscle power and was easily transportable and very safe. I really wasn’t comfortable with the idea of taking a petrol driven leaf blower into the woods, and, although I stopped the idea before I got this far, I’m wondering if I would even have been allowed to.
Back to my idea. It was a piece of cardboard that I could get one of my crew to “waft” up and down quickly to cause a draft and blow the leaves. Admittedly the effect wouldn’t necessarily be as pronounced as with a leaf blower, but actually I was thinking that the leaf blower might have produced to strong an effect anyway. I did some testing and tried it out, and I found that a flexible plastic chopping board that we have at home works the best. Being plastic is good too in case there is any rain on the day.
So, in the end, I did what TomSka did, and found a very simple solution works best.