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FILMMAKING PORTFOLIO

Hi I'm Ben, I'm 19, and I have a fierce passion for film. Here are some things I've made :)

me

03:08

Rock and Roll. (Busking Documentary)

03:17

Kuro To Shiro | A Short Film

Kuro To Shiro, influenced by both modern, and traditional samurai films, and Spaghetti Westerns.

05:29

Ben Copping

The Saltwater Monster

The Saltwater Monster is a five minute black-and-white detective comedy, adapted from a short news article about a large footprint found on a beach.

05:33

Ben Copping

Jekyll & Hyde Short Film

This is my first ever short film, in which I directed one of my fellow classmates in college, as we made our own version/homage to the original 1931 Jekyll & Hyde film's transformation scene.

03:40

Ben Copping

FILMS

PROCESS OF CREATION

Here are some images/clips and descriptions of the process of making some of

the short films above, and what I learned from the production of each one.

Kuro To Shiro

Kuro To Shiro, which translates to 'black and white' in Japanese, is possibly my most ambitious filmmaking project I have taken on so far in my creative endeavours. This is mainly due to how much I needed to properly fulfil the idea in such a short amount of time, with only one week available to film as one of the actors lived far away. It gets its' name from the use of colour in the film, where two characters take either colour, or black and white, with them wherever they go. This gave me a lot of creative freedom and experimentation of colour with video editing when they collide.

Directing this short film gave me the perfect amount of experience I required for directing, improving skills such as communication with cast and crew. Here are some clips of me directing the short film.

This particular short film required a lot of choreography with wooden swords, precise foot movement was needed to make the shots work as planned. Here are some clips and images of me working on choreography with actors

Below, is an example of how choreographed foot movements looked in the final product.

The actor's legs move into triangular opening position, allowing the second actor to be in frame through his legs.

Here is me experimenting with placing a camera on a bike, then pushing it across a wooden plank. This was to find a way to try a smooth dolly shot I was after in the short film.

Saltwater Monster

Saltwater Monster, was a little 5 minute short film I directed. The short was adapted from a newspaper article about a giant penguin footprint found on a beach. It was lots of fun and great for my learning experience as a filmmaker to be able to direct a comedy about two detectives with very different personalities.

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There were lots of challenges to face on the day of shooting, notably the fact that it was shot during the weekend that there was a very prominent storm in the UK. Filming on the beach did not make filming during the storm any easier, however along with filming around the tide times, some strict time management meant it was possible to overcome these obstacles.

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This happened to be the first time I had directed actual actors, rather than friends who agreed to help me out like my previous projects. This helped me learn how to communicate with my cast and crew a bit more formally and articulately, as I didn't know them well enough to just assume they understood what I was after.