Gabriel Bissetsmith

0:00 You You Hello, hello Hello, my name is Gabriel and I am here today to tell you about my process of trying to make stories And I think the best way for me to do that today is to use the example of the first Short film I ever made which is called thrush, which I made with this sexy photographer over here who coincidentally is here today so what I'm going to do is tell you how we kind of came about with this story and How easy technique I call piecing together story, which is a slightly different way of approaching it which is a lot of people like to you know really focus on the script up front and and Over over planet I think a little bit to his agree before you start shooting when I like to maybe take the approach of Picking up elements as you go and creating the story throughout the process So we'll start with step one which is what the fuck is wrong with you. And this is where I Like to start I like to ask myself. What am I feeling? Where am I at? What are my emotions and six years ago?

1:53 Just before I made thrush. I had just gone through a horrible horrible breakup with a woman who shall remain nameless, but when we We started dating six months into the time we started dating She had to go live in Brazil for a year. And we tried to have a long-distance relationship But that just turned to shit. And I am I Got obsessed and as as we all do so this is where. I was at.

2:12 This was my state of mind I wanted to make something about this, but it's a completely unoriginal experience that we've all had and it's very cliched but Saying that. There are a lot of movies which are based on breakups which are very good Here's one Wuthering Heights. That's a classic and that's based on a breakup. Here's another Wally Which is also based on a breakup and Shaun of the Dead, which is a horror so sci-fi classic and a horror so there are you can take a small emotion and Turn it even if the motion is cliched you can turn it into quite an original story.

2:49 So I had Just quickly I like to flag up that my favorite film about a breakup is Annie Hall Of course and my favorite scene from Annie Hall is at the end of the film when After Woody and Annie have had a huge breakup they meet years later for a coffee and this is the scene I realized what a terrific person she was How much fun it was just knowing her. And I thought of that old joke You know this this guy goes to a psychiatrist.

3:28 This is Doc. My brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken and The doctor says well, why don't you turn him in the guy says I would but I need the eggs Well, I guess that's pretty much now. I feel about relationships You know, they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd But I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs Yeah, so that never fails to make me cry And the whole idea that someone can be so important to you.

4:08 And then become just a nice acquaintance is the whole thing that underpinned my film thrush So anyway, we had the Let me just quickly move on yes, so I Knew I wanted to express this emotion, but I didn't know how so then we move on to the next step which was How are we going to do this. And this. This is a So yeah.

4:41 So the next thing is a lot of people think that you need to write the script and and get that together before you make the film I kind of think that's bullshit.

4:46 I think you should sort of work out You know, I've worked I've worked on big budget films and you spend hours talking about how great the spaceship fights gonna be But then when you get into production that just gets thrown out the window and it's just it's just nonsense So I sort of think that you should just go and say we're gonna start making this film.

5:02 And then try and just pick up the pieces as you go But at this time I didn't have a video camera or any money So I had zero idea how I was actually going to Make a film.

5:16 And then my friend GT Graham who was taking pictures here has disappeared He came on a night out with us and he took loads of pictures and then put them together into this short film So He just took loads of pictures all night Then he put them together.

5:47 And then he showed us this. And it made me realize that I could tell my story through Through photos and during this time Facebook has come out. And I've been obsessed with my ex's photos going through the day in and day out Total fucking stalker so I also thought well if we're gonna tell the story using photos We should tell the story about photos as well.

6:09 So I spoke to Graham I was like, are you up to trying to do this? He was like, yes So then we moved on to the next step, which was what the fuck was our actual story. So Again Again, so I was like, okay, so we've got the form We've got the emotion But what is going to be the story.

6:32 That's going to be engaged into this and again people like to write scripts But you know not that I don't write a script but at the same time I have to use what's around me, especially when you're working a low budget So I knew an example of this is my the character that was going to be playing my girlfriend I cast as my flatmate who happened to be a model at the time. And It may it suddenly realized that. Actually making that character a model in a film about photos was probably quite a good idea. So that sort of changed the way the story worked and this happens in big Hollywood films all the time An example of this is the film salt starring Angelina Jolie Which was originally written for Tom Cruise and then Angelina Jolie took it and they had to completely rewrite it but at the same time it's still a really terrible film and And they probably spent forever trying to work it for Tom Cruise trying to work with that when I kind of think you know If it's gonna be shit.

7:25 Anyway Why not just you know take some risks and just start making it and maybe get Angelina Jolie see what happens and that's kind of the way We approached it But so anyway lots of different things made the story of my film go in a certain way to do with Budget and how many days we could shoot and all of that type of stuff and cast and when GT was available So we finally sort of had a story together.

7:45 So we moved on to step four which is filming which to me is actually the most boring process of filmmaking because If you've got a good crew usually it will just go quite well and you'll just stick to your shot list and you'll get everything that you need and You know sometimes some things can go wrong and you have to adapt and you change your story slightly But usually it goes quite well. So I kind of it's the most boring bit.

8:09 And then the most exciting bit for me is when we get on to the editing which is when You really start piecing together your story and you have to go back to what you You have to go I go back to what I originally the original motion was so what was the emotion?

8:28 I wanted to express through this film and the very famous Movie editor, I can't fucking remember his name now But he wrote a list of the six things that you should look for when you're cutting a film and he put them in Order a percentage of what's most important and if you see that emotion is more important than anything else on that list And he's basically saying that it doesn't matter if you can even tell whether people in the film are sitting in the same room As long as you the audience are getting the emotional Narrative of what's happening in that space and I think that's for me when you come to the edit when you really start piecing together What it is you want to get across and then That.

9:12 So that for me was the whole the whole system we finally came We reached the end of the film. We must have reedited it about a hundred times and then I feel like hopefully it had Got across what my original intention of what I was trying to express it to be and now I will show you that film A blip a second half a second that's how much a photo used to catch a tiny blip They used to be stilted set up scenes where everyone may as well have been statues or fake bullet points of holidays birthdays Christmases achievements you had your role of film and you hope for the best but now With the birth of the internet and digital cameras they capture well everything You take a hundred and delete the ones you don't want the unflattering ones the embarrassing ones the useless ones And the ones that tell the truth So all you're left with is the perfect picture This is me and Ruby.

10:22 This is the last picture. We ever took together. Look at it. You'd never know. And This is the first Donnie's house party That's Donnie there in the middle grinning away like the retard he is She was being chatted up by this Mexican dick As soon as I arrived I couldn't take my eyes of her, but I couldn't get close to her as my ex-girlfriend was there Samantha bitch But the night continued drinks were drunk and we finally got talking. She was a model We talked about our childhoods where we studied our dreams everything we clicked This was it The First six months it was perfection But as our love grew so did our insecurity and I was jealous of all her exes She didn't like how close I was with Michelle from work We started arguing over little things at first, but then they became more personal more vicious On the day this photo was taken we broke up I'm not sure who suggested it, but we both wanted it Freedom I once again into the glorious world of the single man I think we were both glad to get out in fact. I know we were But then after a few weeks I started to miss her Started to miss her a lot Wasn't missing me not at all.

11:59 She was like every woman I'd ever been out with once she was out. She didn't want back in I Loved her. I needed her back. I called her every day. I obsessively went through her pictures. I Don't know when it began, but once I started following her I couldn't stop I'd bunk of work to do it. I developed a whole schedule I'd know what day she went food shopping when she had to go to her agency where she'd go with friends I'd follow her to shoots And then she met him again the Mexican dick Freddie perfect Freddie. He's a musician of safety second coming and watch them I watched them as they fell in love as they got to a place we couldn't even get close to I wanted to kill them.

12:46 I wanted to destroy them.

12:50 I wanted them to die in a terrible accident I wanted them to burn to bleed to rot away, but then.

12:54 But then Suddenly I saw it I realized Me and Ruby were never gonna be like that with each other We just didn't click the right way, but her and captain amazing there. They really had something going on When I looked at them.

13:08 I didn't feel angry or jealous anymore. I felt Well, I felt like I've been wasting a lot of my time. And I hope to hadn't lost my job Seven months later. I was in a dentist and there was a couple of women's magazines lying about I Flicked through one to pass the time. And I found this picture It was an advert for thrush cream maybe laugh at first, but then Isn't it funny how you can know somebody inside out.

13:31 And then suddenly They just become an image a bullet point a blip