Movies You Made: “Spirits of the Past” by Declan Dineen

For several months, I’ve been tagging a bunch of emails from filmmakers who have contacted me about their film projects, so I figured we should feature them this May. If you have a movie, either short-form or long, with which you were involved — writer, actor, director — please either email me or post details in comments. Happy to promote them on GITS.

We kick off the series with Scottish filmmaker Declan Dineen and his short film Spirits of the Past. Here is a note from Declan:

Hi Scott,

I’m a writer from Glasgow in Scotland, and your website has been a daily visit for the past few years. I cannot tell you how much I’ve learned from your site.

I know sometimes you like to showcase reader’s films on the site, and I’ve just completed one that I think would be particularly interesting to feature. It’s a film I made entirely online.

I made a short film last year as a calling card for my writing, and I immediately got the bug to make more. I started to think about making a new film, something I could do fast and just throw up on youtube. The equivalent of a three chord punk song. Messy and raw and fun. Problem was making any type of film takes so long: auditioning, sourcing crew, organising locations, hiring lights and cameras etc. etc. I had a notion. Would it be possible to make a short film, from initial idea to final cut, without leaving my sofa?

Turns out it is, here is the result of that idea:

Cast

Colin — Ben Sherwin
Dr. Joe — Neil Bratchpiece
Alison — Claudette Baker-Park
Jenny — Shona Denovan
Daniel — Chris Moore
Teresa — Vasso Georgiadou

Written / directed / edited by Declan Dineen

@declandineen

Online: www.declandineen.com/b/spiritsofthepast

Things to note:

I still haven’t met half the cast, and they haven’t met each other. Most of us were in Glasgow, but Chris is in London, Ben is in Derby and for a time during rehearsal Vasso was in Athens.

I was present in the hangout during the shoot. You can add yourself as a cameraman but remain hidden from the final product. Whilst hidden, I was able to choreograph people leaving and arriving, and was able to focus the camera on a specific person if the hangout didn’t organically move to them.

In terms of the writing, I think the main thing I wanted to make sure I got right was the reason for them all being in video chat. It’s quite a contrived set up, but I wanted it to be believable, and I wanted it to serve the story.

Originally it was just all about the friends, with scandals from their past emerging. The ghost story was introduced because I wanted to give it some spice, and also because structurally I tend to work best using Dan Harmon’s story circle / Joseph Campbell. The ghost story allowed me to move into ‘another world’ so we could have a cross the threshold moment and a return moment. I think it makes for a more satisfying tale and a more complete journey.

Please head to comments to provide feedback to Declan for his movie Spirits of the Past.

Again if you have a film project you have been involved with and would like me to promote it on GITS, and I can embed it, email me or post details in comments.

May is Movies You Made month. Let’s celebrate your cinematic creativity!