This Is How I'll Remember Us

Synopsis

This one is narration led, built around specific memories and moments between friends, re-enacted rather than filmed as they actually happened. It's not really about one event. It's about the small stuff that makes up a friendship: the habits, the in-jokes, the version of someone you only get to see when you're with them.

The film comes from a fear a lot of people have but don't say out loud, that the friendships you rely on right now might not last forever. So it's also an attempt to hold onto them properly while they're still here. Made for anyone who has a friendship they're scared of losing.

Process

Shot in V-Log. One key shot was filmed at night using LED headboard lights, but half of them had broken and could only put out green or red instead of the blue that was planned. The green stayed in, since it read as distinct enough from the rest of the scene to fix properly later. In the edit, two colour nodes in series handled the conversion (one for V-Log to Rec.709, one for tone, saturation, and curves) and pulled that green back to the intended blue, with a slight vignette added on top.

For the audio, narration was recorded at home using studio grade mics plugged into a MacBook Pro. It was recorded in mono on purpose, since narration reads more consistently that way and it leaves room for ambient sound to move across the stereo field. A 4:48 raw recording ended up cut down to 59 seconds, cleaned with noise reduction profiled from a quiet section.

The closing montage runs under "Don't Fade Away" by Beach Fossils. Only the instrumental intro gets used, but the lyrics (about friendship and how temporary it is) are why the song got picked in the first place.

Nominations

• Runner UpBest ConceptSouth Devon College Film Festival