Drip Dry

Dir. J Francis - 12mins - 2007

Drip Dry is a study of obsession.  The film aims to externalise the nature of obsession and act as a fable to warn of its dangers.

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The opening montage presents a visual and aural deconstruction of a man’s obsessive cognitive process and the individual actions that combine in its creation. 

To demonstrate this, controlled editing was exercised over both sound and image with a structured layering of elements building to create a rhythmic sequence.  At the point when the man’s concentration is interrupted, the rhythm is disrupted and never fully regained throughout then film. 

This parallel places the audience’s cognitive process on a similar level to that of their intended onscreen representation.  The man’s concentration has been broken, as has the audience’s engagement with the initially established tempo of the film.

The man’s study is lit very distinctly, with harsh edges and a high contrast between light and shadow.  This replicates the composure and clarity he originally experiences in the film.  This lighting could have been carried through to the bathroom, but this area has softer, less defining lighting which helps to present the tap as an outside entity that is encroaching on the man’s obsessive mental processes. 

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In order to create the conflict that truly reveals the depth of the man’s obsessive nature, it was necessary to characterise the tap.  The sounds of dripping are altered throughout to accompany differently composted images of the tap.  Close up and centrally framed shots of the tap give it a distinct presence in the film, displaying the man’s projection of his frustration onto the inanimate tap.     

The man’s assault of the tap with a wrench is presented using symbolism reminiscent of the menacing killer in ‘slasher’ films.  The man’s face is not visible as the camera focuses on the instrument with which he is about to exact his revenge.  Low angles were used to provide the man with a towering, threatening presence as he fills the frame and looms over the tap. 

The music used for the film was chosen to be suggestive of gothic horror films, assisting in the creation of the film’s darkly humorous tone. 

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