The Fifth of November | LUMIX S5IIX Cinematic Short Film

Remember, remember, the fifth of November! An experimental cinematic film from Guy Fawkes Night here in the UK. 419 years after the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the villagers of Ottery St Mary in Devon still carry out the famous 'Flaming Tar Barrels' tradition, every year on November the 5th.

This year I went along to the tar barrels event which is just up the road from me. I took the LUMIX S5IIX with me, with just one lens, but had no plans to actually create anything from it this year. It's just one of those events that's super cool (if not incredibly challenging) to shoot. I love a bit of fire.

It's a pretty mad event when you think about it. Thousands of people crammed into a small rural village, with people running around through the crowds with burning barrels of tar. You've got to keep your whits about you, as if you don't pay attention, you'll end up with a face full of fire (as you will see from this film). Gotta love Britain's historic traditions!

Anyway a few days later, I found myself randomly watching the movie ‘V For Vendetta’ on TV. I'm personally not a big fan of comic book movie adaptions as a genre, but I’ve always liked that one. I feel it's aged rather well, and appears to become more relevant with each passing year. The character of 'V', superbly performed by Huge Weaving, is pretty iconic.

As I watched the movie I found myself wondering; what would Guy Fawkes, Catesby and the other plotters make of modern society today? Especially so with the whole of Britain still celebrating the event many centuries later. What would they make of it all? I then remembered I had some footage from Tar Barrels sitting on a drive. So I thought it might be fun to stitch a stylised little film together, based around that concept, featuring some of the footage I captured at Tar Barrels.

This was a really fun piece to get creative with. Part experimental film inspired by the movie ‘V For Vendetta’, part documentation of the awesome Tar Barrels event and wider November 5th celebrations here in the UK.

Can you guess who's behind the mask!? Hope you enjoy it!

Production stuff:

All footage shot on the Panasonic LUMIX S5IIX, with the 75mm Sirui Saturn anamorphic lens.
Recorded in ProRes 422 to SSD.
I decided to go for a 35mm Kodak 2383 film emulation on this one, using Dehancer Pro.
Music by Musicbed.

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