Porsche Awards 2014 Winners: Dan Neeson
As proud partners of the student filmmaking competition, we talk to the winners of the event. Taken from shots 155.
Dan Neeson
Second Prize
Shelter From The Storm Once She Was Just Like You
Australian, aged 30
National Film and Television School, 2012-2014
Representation Unsigned
Aussie director Dan Neeson’s film Once She Was Just Like You is over before you know it. But don’t let that put you off, because so much happens in the 30-second spot that you’ll want to watch it again and again.
Introducing a female protagonist who sits still in front of the camera, the spot documents her life as it tragically unravels around her. The piece is a technical masterpiece and is a real testament to Neeson’s education in special effects at the UK’s National Film and Television School (NTFS).
“There were literally hundreds of technical challenges to overcome on this shoot,” reveals Neeson. “We decided to shoot stop-motion using a real actor and life-size props, as we felt this would lend a sense of tangibility and realism. One of the main challenges we faced was figuring out how to shoot 750 frames of continual animation in just three days.”
For most of that time, Claire Bond, the actress who plays the woman in the film, found herself sitting still in a chair transfixed to the camera lens. “Our actress had to stay very still during photography,” reveals Neeson. “However, for obvious reasons, she still needed to be able to get up and out of her seat, so we designed a chair with a positioning marker that rested on the back of her neck. Every time she sat back down, she lined her skull up against our marker and positioned the rest of her body from there.”
The key to the film’s concept was to think of homelessness as a process and Neeson points out that it can happen over months, years and even a lifetime, which his film depicts.
“The camera stays connected to the eyes of our character. I didn’t want to cut away from that connection for our scene changes, so we worked out that we could do the whole story in a single take if the set, lights, props and costume physically moved around her.”
He continues: “There must have been a lot of good coffee that day because we somehow convinced ourselves that it would be possible to shoot a highly complex 750-frame story about a young professional’s journey through depression, alcoholism, joblessness, abuse, divorce and abandonment over the course of two-and-a-half days.”
Once She Was Just Like You won Best Overall and Best in Brief at the Nahemi/Kodak Student Commercial Awards in 2014 but taking the second prize at the Porsche Awards came as a surprise to its director: “To be shortlisted was compliment enough. I never expected to win anything at the Porsche Awards and certainly not the silver slingshot. I met some incredibly talented people, got some fantastic advice, made friends and drank German beer.”
