Today, I presented the short film adaptation of Basho’s haiku “28” in my 16mm filmmaking class. Like I mentioned previously, I went to Duke Gardens to film some trees and ponds for this exercise. Part of the footage was overexposed though so the amount of shots I got was minimal. The second time I went to the gardens the footage was underexposed and the amount of shots was minimal again! It was a bit frustrating but the professor gave me another opportunity so I was more careful the third time I filmed. The results improved considerably (besides the inverted reflection of the horizon -0:35- and the flowers -1:13-, the rest of shots were recorded during my third attempt).
I recorded the soundtrack separately. Last night I went to the gardens and it was one of the creepiest experiences I have ever passed through! It was completely dark and the gardens were empty; since I was using special headphones to record my voice and the sounds of the gardens I was able to hear crickets chirping and other uncanny noises that made me freak out for a bit. However, it was totally worth it! While I was recording, a train passed in the distance and I decided to add that sound to my reading of the poem.
I also experimented with sound a bit: I wanted to read the poem with a calm voice first; then I would repeat the title and every verse four times to highlight the idea of repetition implicit in the haiku; then I was going to read the poem again and finally I was going to end the movie with the question of the first verse: “Another haiku?” Because I used some cross-dissolves between images to make the film flow smoothly, I came up with the idea that I wanted to use a cross-dissolve effect in the audio. That’s why by the middle of the short, I started reading the poem again while the four repetitions of the final verse were still going on.
My professor and classmates were happy with the final result and I feel so good about it that I wanted to share “28” with you today! Hope you enjoy it!…
