After making a start to a series of shorts called – ‘LifeEye’ I realised a breakthrough in my Web Series which has got me out of a big hole. 

In an earlier blog I spoke about shooting my entire series from an overhead angle, looking down on a room, letting the action play out in front of us like on a stage.

This was because I wanted to give the same perceptive on different situations each time, allowing the audience to understand their surroundings and formularies themselves with it.  But also because I had an obsession with shooting a film from this angle and I needed to do it!

But shooting this way was limiting me in what I could show and tell just from this one angle, which then made the stories suffer because of it when trying to write each episode.

This led me to think what is this series all about? And why am I making it?

The conclusion was, this is a series of short sketches on relatable situations we all find ourselves in day-to-day life, one’s that we can all laugh and say as one “I do that”

 

 

I realised sometimes you can’t have everything you want on one plate, you always have to go on what is best for the story and in this case the overhead angle wasn’t it. 

I came to this conclusion by looking at how I’ve been shooting 'LifeEye' shorts from a point of view angle of myself. Giving the audience a perspective to what I see and how I carry out actions.

Which clicked, this is how I should shoot my web series. Keeping the stories the same but change the perspective from overhead to a point of view angle.

A point of view angle would put the audience in the eyes of our character, as he or she would deal with every day situations we all face and from a relatable angle we see them from.

Looking at your ideas and stories from a completely different angle can sometimes be a scary thing to take on board, but sometime it can open your eyes to a better approach and better way to telling the stories at hand.

Below are some great examples of work that have used this point of view angle to aid their stories. Which I have will be taking inspiration from when writing my own series.

 

PEEP SHOW

 

'THATS LIFE (WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK)'  BY  MARTIN W. ANDERSEN

 

'TIME WARP PROJECT' BY ULRA LAMOUR 

I always say never be scared of change if its helps your ideas and films become better for it. By me not saying ‘it’ll do’ to the first idea that came to my head has lead me to come up with a far better approach to my series and one I can work with easier because of it.

 

I will be sharing more information on the stories and ideas you expect to see in this series later on in the week.

 

Jack Tew