Harlinn is a psychological sci-fi film, conceived, directed and produced by Greg Bakker and his team of friends, who variously acted in and helped with the production of this, Greg's debut film.
A scene from Harlinn
20 years old and still a student at the University of Cape Town, Greg has all the characteristics of a future top-class film-maker. He is meticulous and pays attention to even the tiniest detail. His work already shows a refined sense of artistic judgement. And throughout the project he has shown a maturity beyond his years in his ability to work in a disciplined but generous manner with a disparate group of people of different ages and levels of experience.
But of all the Team Harlinn members, I most particularly cheer for my husband, Guy.
Guy composed the original musical soundtrack for the film (sound-scaping, he terms it), and his music for the film has received much praise from a variety of quarters, including from a music theoretician.
Guy has a natural and emotional sense of musical composition. After ascertaining what Greg wanted the music to convey in the film, Guy familiarised himself with the actors, the characters, and the script. Then he put all that to one side and composed the music entirely from the silent film footage. The music theoretician noted afterwards that Guy had instinctively composed the music in the sound range that lies below spoken sound (despite composing it to silent footage). This was not only useful in terms of the film's atmosphere, but also ensured that the music did not clutter up the actors' speech.
So where did I fit in? I had only a very small part in this, but it was fairly crucial.
I was about to throw our (outdated) community newspaper away, but saw that I had not read it. So I quickly skimmed through it (being of frugal mind and not wanting to waste it, even though the paper is free). There I saw a short article by Greg in which he had made a request for an interested person to please come forward to compose music for his film.
Knowing that Guy has alway been interested in film music composition, I showed him the article and encouraged him to contact Greg, even though the article was some days old.
Harlinn was Guy's first original filmscore. (He has put music to film before, but it was music that he had pre-composed for other purposes). He has had a lot of pleasure out of the project and has taught himself a lot too in the process and so has gained more confidence in his abilities (funny how very talented people often doubt their abilities). Guy is now looking forward to composing for other film projects.
Our Harlinn experience illustrates something about taking chances.
We all want chances to be given to us. We often bemoan - "if only I had the chance...".
Yet when we come across a chance, we often reject it for one reason or another. Chances are often poorly recognisable at first glance and almost slip past. We might think that the chance offered doesn't fit what we want. Or it doesn't seem worth the trouble of taking up. Or it might seem to be too much trouble. Or we feel that we are unable to take it up. Or it might seem too late. But a chance is not a chance unless it is acted upon.
The good things that come about from taking up the challenge of an offered chance usually exceed expectations vastly and pleasurably. (I am almost sure that there is a moral here that applies to me and blogging....)
Team Harlinn have shown amply that taking a chance has been highly rewarding in so many ways. And they have demonstrated that a first film project can be fully professional. I look forward to attending the premiere.
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