Introduction:
Picture Paralysed is a music video for a song of the same name. It follows Natalie, a lonely middle-aged woman unable to let go of her past as a promising singer. Unfulfilled in a university degree, one last attempt to recapture those perfect days, she obsesses over a song she wrote decades ago but never performed.
This film was created as part of my MA final project at the University of York, but it started a while before my course as a family project; my MA gave me the perfect opportunity and resources to realise our vision!
Inspiration:
The original song was written and performed by my cousin, and had been received positively at talent shows, with interest from some producers. Even before my MA, we were thinking about how to make a music video.
The song is about being trapped in an idealised vision of the past to the detriment of your present, lamenting all your missed opportunities, and the struggle of letting that pain go.
We felt a great way to communicate that was to split the music video across a present and past version of the singer, embodying on a more personal level those themes of listlessness, obsession, and moving forwards.
The more personal touch was important to me, as I related to these themes more deeply than I understood at the time; when I finally got an ADHD diagnosis after university, those ideas of lost time and isolation hit even harder!
The Process:
Filming took place primarily at the university itself, which was the cinematographer’s idea; this both simplified the shooting process and helped me to expand the story, with the present version of the singer studying at university to try and reconnect to their past. We also filmed by the River Ouse for the finale.
The main challenge was time: we only had 3 days to shoot the whole film, and only one where the singer herself was available, so we had to film the rest of the present-day scenes across two days, working around the actress’ availability. We filmed all of the exterior scenes on one day, and the interior on the next. This was further complicated when we lost one planned location only a few days before shooting, leading to the exterior scenes being mostly improvised on the day.
Fortunately, these and other improvised moments turned out to be some of the strongest in the film: for “Older Natalie’s” tearful breakdown at the end of the song; we were nearing wrap
time and had to move quickly, so we combined several shots into one and the actress performed the entire breakdown in just one take!
What It Means to Be a Finalist:
I have been coming to the Worcester Film Festival since its very first edition, where I was an assistant during my undergraduate degree at the University of Worcester. Looking back at all the time that has passed since then, everything I’ve learned, and at my present journey as I search for where I truly fit, being accepted into WFF means the world!
Where to Watch / Follow: You can find me on Instagram (@lucaskeay) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-keay-63b130362). You can also see Picture Paralysed on YouTube (https://youtu.be/cRCcXgdmnIo)
About The Author
