The System

The Sytem
Genre:	Drama
Broadcast:	24/12/2019
Producer(s):	Joseph Wharfe Sam Hance

History

The system is a film written and directed by Sarah Lisgo in late 2017. At some point in spring 2018, the idea was greenlit via YSTV pitching meeting after a version of the script was brought in. The final treatment would be finalised and the shooting was set for summer of the same year.

During the shooting the crew situation was rather mixed; with multiple sound operators, DoP's and so on which lead to a number of different directional choices during the production which lead to a fairly non-uniform end result in the footage.

Unfortunately for the project, the problems didn't stop with unconventional crewing. When the footage was brought into post production, it was realised that there were some missing files. Then it was worked out that there were a whole lot of missing files. These being both audio and video files and spread out over many different scenes, the edit situation became very complicated. From late summer 2018 onwards, the headache of piecing together the missing footage and sound was given to Sam Hance. As one of YSTV's best editors, he had agreed to work on the film unknowing of the file madness that would ensue. Sarah graduated around the time of production.

Over the following 15 or so months, the edit continued with Sam being assisted in the process by Joe and an invention of Sam's dubbed YSTV Jenga. Through uncountable adobe crashes and failures the two editors fought to get the project finished. Working around the footage available lead to changes both in pacing and in the feel / direction of the film. As the film neared a functional form, Sarah was brought back into the process to sign off on the direction of the film in the early part of 2019. Around this time, several ideas were floated as to ways in which to flesh out the missing areas of story including reshoots and puppets. In the end, the decision was taken to write a section of the story again, with a mind to reshooting. Unfortunately, the availability of the actresses didn't allow for the reshoots and so the idea was abandoned.

Release

The final version of the film was finished from the creative mind of Sam Hance as an experimental film in the newly created 'Heslington New-Wave' style. The film was intended to be released to the YSTV website on Christmas Day 2019, as a Christmas present to the world after nearly a 2 year long process. Sadly, even this did not go to plan, as the site decided to stretch out the selected 1:1 circular aspect ratio. The film was then re-uploaded on New Years eve instead.

After a more or less 24 month process the end result is, above anything else, a testament to the creative editing ability of Sam Hance and the dedication of Sam and Joe's want to just get the damn thing done.