Introduction and Proposed Project
Together, my collaborator (Louis Marek) and I will be making a short film called ‘Bearings’ about the skating community, with the hope of bringing light and exposure to a once-popular and bustling community. This project will involve two main collaborators, myself (Dan Hall), who will compose, produce and provide all the music and sound effects for the project, and Louis Marek, who is responsible for filming all the footage, getting in contact with the various skaters and editing the final footage. We want this project to explore the skating community and bring back a feeling of nostalgia that this community has on many people of my generation (in terms of fashion and pop culture). The video will have defined sections (daytime footage, nighttime footage, indoor and outdoor shots), and the music will complement all types of footage shown.
Our Goals:
Both Louis and I want this video to bring recognition and exposure to the skating community. As I mentioned, this community was once very active and involved, but in recent years has fallen off, and we want to bring back some nostalgia that we had for this community when we were younger.
Messages
Discord Server between Louis and I
Dan Hall – Music Producer/Engineer:
I am a producer, engineer, keyboard player and guitarist from Cambridge. I mainly work as a recording engineer, but have a love for composing for moving image. I love film and have worked with Louis before on previous projects, so we have existing chemistry. I have been producing for around 5 years, but mainly working as a mixing and recording engineer. On the side, I tried making beats and writing more commercial-style music for fun. My main musical influences are neo-soul, hip-hop and orchestral/cinematic. As well as previous collaborators, Louis and I are great friends and find it very easy to work with each other.
Louis Marek – Cinematographer and Director of Visuals:
Louis Marek is a photographer and cinematographer from Cambridge. He got his start doing street photography, which later led to experiences with the National Film and Television School and the British Film Institute. The films he has shot have gone on to win awards and show at the Kingston International Film Festival, Dirigo Film Festival, and Fisheye Film Festival.
Other Musicians Involved in the project:
- James Morriss – Live drumming
- Matteo Bellini – Tenor Saxophone
Our Vision:
We want this short film to be as pure a representation of the skating community as possible. To capture this, Louis is going to go around the skate parks and get a combination of directed skating and some just freestyle skating shots. The freestyling aspect will be more natural and help us bring accuracy to our project. We want this video to come across as almost like a montage that would bring up even more nostalgia towards the 2010s early days of YouTube and online videos. To accompany all of this would be a variety of beats that are all complementary to the visual style on screen to help the viewer be more immersed in our project. We want to capture the zeitgeist of the 2000s and 2010s pop culture (and skating culture) with our choice in editing and colour grading style (see Appendix 2).
Appendix 2
Methodology and Rationale:
When we first started thinking about the project (around a year ago), Louis showed me some ideas for shots he had drawn up and started putting together into a short film. We then didn’t speak much about it for a while until I started this module, and we brought the project back. We sat together and watched old skating videos on YouTube (Appendix 3) to get inspiration for the vibe and cinematography for the project, as well as listening to some music that we had as inspiration. I started looking back through some old beats (Audio 1) that I had made for reference to Louis, and he liked the vibe and style that I had going with it, so we agreed to continue in that sort of genre.
Appendix 3 – YouTube Reference
Audio 1
I started to come up with other styles of beats that could be used for different styles of shots throughout the film (Audio 2) and sent them over to Louis. We want to get the music started before the film is shot, and then start filming once we have a good amount of music started and underway. This allows Louis to have a good reference of what the final product will be before he edits it all together, and could also allow him to tailor some shots to different hits on the music.
Audio 2
The next step is to start syncing music to the storyboard or any footage Louis has. This can then make sure we’re happy with the direction the music is taking, and then I can go and finish writing the bulk of it and send it over to him to review and sync with the film. Once I have made the draft tracks for him to sync up with, then I will go into the studio and record any live bits that I want, such as drums, vocal layers, saxophone, live piano, etc. I would normally do this during the writing process, but because I’ll be away from the conservatoire and the players I want to use, I’ll have to do it once I am back in Leeds in the new year.
Test Footage (From Louis)
Gantt Chart
Budget and Funding:
When thinking about the cost of the project, Louis and I realised that we have everything we need in order to bring this to life. Louis has a good selection of camera equipment, including different lens sizes and shapes, different tripods (and a gimbal) and mics. So we have everything we need to film it. Then, for the music side, we wouldn’t need to hire a studio to record because it’ll either be done on a laptop or it’ll be recorded at the university, so we won’t need to pay for any spaces. The only potential expenses will be the skaters involved (if they want to be paid), the musicians I record with for the tracks and the space that we use to film in. To get funding, we could apply for the BFI NETWORK funding, which provides funding for short film creators based in English regions. Our film is eligible for the funding scheme as the rules are:
- English regions-based – Shot in Cambridge, England
- Projects up to 15 minutes long – Ours is between 10 and 12 minutes
- Doesn’t support adaptations of existing material – Ours is an original idea
The funding scheme can offer between £5,000 and £25,000 to the filmmakers. Which would be more than enough to cover any potential costs we may have.
Hypothetical Budgeting
Inspiration and Influences:
Louis and I have similar tastes in music, and he liked my idea when I explained the musical vision. So, after that, I created a playlist (see Appendix 1) of songs that I was using as the main inspiration. The inspiration is primarily neo-soul, modern hip-hop (artists such as Tom Misch, Loyle Carner, and Berlioz). We liked the modern style beat making that they have on these, plus they all include aspects of live instrumentation (which we wanted to include as a part of the film).
Appendix 1
Target Audience:
Our target audience is the skating community. We want this film to reach that community and many other communities as well, to get more people interested in skating or draw people back to it who used to be involved with it.
Market Research:
From looking online at the current market for this kind of content, we realised that there is a gap in the market to bring this kind of content back. As I mentioned, this was a content form that used to be very popular in the early days of online videos, but then fell off in popularity to vlogs and gaming content.
Storyboard
Contingency Plan:
When looking for this project, I asked around some people I knew at Leeds Arts and asked if they had any projects going. I landed one with an animation student; however, the project is only 2.5 minutes long and is mainly looking for sound design rather than music. As well as this, Louis is also a photographer, and his Mum is an artist, and I have spoken to Louis about whether it fell through using some of his street photography as a project. This would work well, as the style of music that we are going for with the short film would still be applicable for the street photography project, so I would be able to keep some of the same music and put it into a new context.
Risk Assessment:
- Skater drops out – ask for other contacts from him
- Behind schedule – Get more cinematographers and skaters involved in the short
- Skater getting injured – Ask for contacts from him of other skaters
- Corrupted files – Making consistent back-ups of everything, both video and audio, on both physical and online storage locations
Future plans/Development for the project:
Louis and I would like to submit this project to some short film festivals and see if it can gain any recognition. We’ll post it up on subreddits, YouTube, and Facebook groups to get the video out to as many people as we can. We could also continue to make more of these videos with different groups of skaters and give them the same opportunity that we gave the group we are working with currently.
Individual Storyboard frames
I think this project is viable within the time frame that we have because we have planned it well and are already underway with getting test footage in the spaces and making music that could be used as part of the final project.
Bibliography:
BFI. (2025). BFI NETWORK funding. [online] Available at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bfi-network/bfi-network-funding.
Colin Read (2018). Connor Kammerer – Spirit Quest. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7LfeI4Y450&list=RDR7LfeI4Y450 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2025].
designmilitia.co.uk (2025). Hire Sony FX3 Full-Frame Cinema Camera | Wex Rental. [online] Wex Rental. Available at: https://rental.wexphotovideo.com/hire-sony-fx3-full-frame-cinema-camera-8200 [Accessed 4 Dec. 2025].
How Are You Cambridge? (2025). Skateparks – How Are You Cambridge? [online] Available at: https://haycambridge.co.uk/activities/skateparks/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2025].
Marek, L. (2016). hopper. [online] hopper. Available at: https://www.louismarek.com/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2025].
Moulang, J. (2025). Cam Skate. [online] Cam-skate.co.uk. Available at: https://cam-skate.co.uk/coaching.html [Accessed 4 Dec. 2025].
Youtu.be. (2025). Available at: https://youtu.be/f6VQjw2zN1U?list=RDpig9nxA-1xI [Accessed 3 Dec. 2025].
