Visual Motifs and Meanings

       Here I’ve created a list of all the meanings and visual motifs within my FMP;

·         The Colour Purple; The main character is seen wearing purple all the way through the film, even when he’s at work and at home. Though purple is widely considered the colour of royalty I’ve read that purple is rare in nature and can appear artificial. I wanted the lost spirit to be like a star shaped block trying to fit into a circular hole, I doubt many people will notice the meaning of his purple attire but it’s there nonetheless.

·         The Empty Village; In my early story boards I wanted the village to appear empty, like the villagers were unable to leave their homes and walk the streets because nature had taken over. In the final cut there isn’t much of the empty village on show but what we do see are empty playgrounds and pitches, for such a beautiful day no one is around to enjoy it. I also have a shot of an angel statue, I wanted to show that not even religion or God can stand in the way of nature.

·         The Flowers; I wanted to show that the nymph was part of nature but without a budget to buy suitable clothes or effects to help blend her into the woods I decided to have her hold onto different flowers in each of her scenes, we see her playing with them, admiring them. I think this is the strongest visual motif in the film, it had to be.

·         The Pear; Having briefly read a Japanese myth were if one is to eat food from another realm it would make it difficult to return home I wanted the lost spirit to receive a piece of fruit as a gift. At first I was going to use an apple but after some time I changed it to a pear, the pear is symbol of immortality. The lost spirit is offered the chance to live amongst the woodland spirits until the end of time.

·         The Ruined House; When both characters approach the ruined house the nymph becomes exited, that is because in her realm the ruin is a beautiful manor where people gather to dance and hold market stalls. You can see the nymph begin to dance when she moves into the centre of the ruin and you can also hear the noises of the crowd when the lost spirit closes his eyes.

·         Removing The Mask; When the lost spirit finally catches up with the nymph he removes her mask. I wanted to show that he has finally remembered who he is and the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. He also greets her as an old friend and gladly returns to the nether realm with her.

·         The Stone Circle; As both characters fade away back to the nether realm you’ll notice they are standing on a stone circle this is an ancient magical teleportation device that can be used to travel between realms.  It’s my little wink to all those video games that have their characters travel around using magic stones and portals. I was heavily influenced with the video game ‘Folklore’ early on in the project so I thought it was a nice way to finish off the film.