FLYING

Maggie is defined and transformed by her fantasy of flight. It’s the reason she makes a deal with the devil and the reason she persists relentlessly despite every knock, every fall, every risk, every humiliation. And when she finally flies she is changed forever. She becomes an eldritch creature of the night, set apart by her experience as well as her obsession.

When I was a kid I used to ask everyone if they flew in their dreams and if so how. According to my unscientific survey, nearly everyone flies superman-style. But I had very vivid dreams of flying with swimming strokes. I never soared, it was like swimming against a strong current, always close to drowning, passersby often trying to pull me down, but once I made it up just out of reach, just high enough, the perspective it gave me had a rare strange beauty. My boring suburban neighbourhood looked more like an Edward Hopper painting or a David Lynch film from above in the twilight.

Movie flying in recent years generally falls into 2 camps : superhero or wire fu. With Little Bird I want to do something distinct. Flying is difficult. I want it to look like a struggle. Maggie has to learn the hard way using every ounce of her energy in an ungainly thrashing mess. I want to use the elements to make her flight look more organic: wind, rain, fog and most importantly the night. In the close ups I want to make the shots dirty and chaotic. I want to use wire work in combination with drone shots/vfx. The wider shots will look eerie and ethereal. Surreal. Dark enough and strange enough that anyone who sees Maggie fly will question their senses.

FALLING

And then there’s the falling. There’s a strong seam through Little Bird of Christian fundamentals and the interplay and interdependence between our concepts of good and evil. It’s deeply ironic for Maggie to ask a fallen angel for the power of flight. And the allusions to original sin and the original fall of man proliferate. And Maggie’s ultimate loss of innocence - what she finds when she finally flies far enough away from home to call it freedom - is darker than anything in her cold lonely family house.

But in the end, it is the falling that redeems Maggie, not the flight. Through her efforts she accepts herself as she is and the wind and the grass and the night banish all thoughts of hell and death.