Sheffield cityoneminutes

Sheffield cityoneminutes from Phoebe Jaspe on Vimeo.


Louise Essam and I booked out a Sony Z1 and were asked to film a one minute short in the style of cityoneminutes about the Sheffield Midland Station. Louise Essam did majority of the cinematography while I had the final edit on Final Cut Pro X.

At 10am, we were outside the Sheffield train station. There were a plethora of objects and sceneries to capture and it was a joy to work with another person. Teamwork is something I've always considered but haven't practiced much of it. I find that it's an important skill to develop over time, especially in the film industry.

Final Cut Pro X seems to be a simpler version of FCP 7, I find that FCPx is more convenient because I've been using it for a few months. FCP7 is similar to Sony Vegas which is what I am familiar with as well. During the film shoot, we managed to get 13 minutes of rushes and I compressed it to a 1 minute film, it was enjoyable to put it together. Not many difficulties were faced, except for choosing specific scenes and trying to create a storyline. A fast paced narrative and montage editing was the most suitable route for this short.
A linear narrative is what I had in mind, especially with the beginning and an ending. The mid-point contains a lot of fast cuts as the music parallels with the fast movements of people walking and it evokes a sense of speed and urgency about city dwellers. Small seconds of their lives are recorded running towards the train station, either leaving, visiting friends/family or returning to their homes.

I've also deliberately cut the music with the fast cuts at the beginning with the man on rollerblades, which I think is fantastic. The music is constructed by a part time composer and a full-time software developer with Guitar Pro. He was happy to let me use his song in this film. A small error with this film is that it's 61 seconds, not 60 seconds. Overall, I think it went well and hope to continue making interesting films in the future.