Negotiated Project

Working With A Crew And Directing An Outside Actor

My idea has changed slightly to conform more with my third year final project. In my Third year I intend to collaborate with Samuel Johns on a film called ‘one who looks’… But I have yet to work with a crew or direct an actor that I don’t know. So I used this module to test my skills in actually producing a film through working with a crew and directing an actor.

Project Proposal

Above is my tweaked version of my new project proposal.

Coming Up With A Script Idea.

For my script I really wanted to delve deep into the story of Dante’s Inferno, I found it an interesting story and thought it would give me opportunity to explore philosophical thinkers and their various ideas. This would also give me a chance to explore the way philosophy is portrayed in film and various methods I could use to portray certain ideas I found interesting through visual media.

I had to come up with a structure for the script, I knew how I wanted it to end so I had to write it backwards essentially. I thought about constructing it the same as dante’s inferno, a nine act structure, each one relating to certain sin. I had to build a believable character within it though, one that people could relate to. I decided to make this person a robot however, a robot with a human brain, so throughout the film he slowly gains his humanity back. This will give me a chance to really explore several philosophers and develop the way I portray ideas in films.

I was really interested in exploring our existence and what it means to be ‘alive’ and ‘human’. What happens if you try and suppress that? and are you still human if you put your brain in a robotic body? what even defines “alive”. Too many questions. But i set out to explore them

The script now takes places over the course of a single journey, one mechanical man returning from a long space voyage, looking for other worlds that the human race can inhabit. Upon his return he discovers that the moon has been destroyed and everyone is dead. He is alone. Because he is mechanical and his brain has been wired up to control his body and robotic functions, the part of his brain that makes him human has been subdued. All his emotions and thoughts caped at certain levels, so not to hinder his ability to control his robotic body and disrupt the AI functioning as life support for the brain.

Being alone for so long and so far away from his home planet, His subconscious begins to reveal itself and challenge the AI hindering his emotions. Throughout the story they have several discussions about life, religions, existence and morality. It’s a journey of self discovery of race and spirituality, what it means to be part of a collective group of people and how culture impacts our combined thought. His subconscious, the human side of him, is trying to persuade him to become mortal again and join everyone else in extinction, because that is his fate; Denying himself the freedom of death is unnatural, as everything must come to an end for it to have a beginning.

I see it as being quite a mellow piece, quite drone like in pace and dreamy. I don’t want there to be a conflict between the two characters, I want there to be a discovery and gentle persuasion. I want acceptance.

Like the majority of my work it takes place in the forest and involves nature. The whole idea is that he is following a river, a journey and also a metaphor for time and existence. The river has a beginning, it’s birth at the top of the mountain, then the river runs down and  dies, the sea. But it becomes something much bigger, and continues it’s journey. We ultimately are born, continue our journey through life, then when we die, we become something much bigger. We merge with the earth and eventually the universe. Sounds so… hippy. But we are essentially ‘Star Stuff’

Bill Viola

I find Bill Viola a very interesting video artist, constantly working with water and exploring themes such as birth, death and rebirth. I’ve looked at him a lot in the past for other projects as I feel his work inspires me and he explores things that also interest me. I’ve always been interested in the way he uses water and slow motion in strange surreal ways.

Above is a really interesting interview with him.

So how has he influenced my work? Well in my project I’m using water as an entity, it’s something that gives life but can also take away life. In my film it does both. I feel this is heavily inspired by a piece called ‘Ocean Without A Shore’ by Bill Viola.

 

I really like this piece, I loved the sound that goes with the transition and how peaceful it all seemed, kind of hypnotic. I’m interested in trying to somewhat re-create this at the end of my film, but instead of a water wall I will have a lake. At the end my character kills himself to transform back into a human, rather than a robot. He does this by submerging himself in a lake. Throughout the film I also want to capture water in a hypnotic quality, I’m going to scour out the location I am thinking of soon and I shall see what potential there is for this.

Spiritually, water is often used to wash away sins. The fact that he is submerging his robotic body in water and killing himself resembles him washing away his sin to nature. He has transformed his body in an unnatural way, in fact not even transformed it, completely gotten rid of it.  It also adds a sense of shame and guilt, that he knows this is not right and he wants to un-become what he has transformed himself into.

Starting a new project – Vigil

So we have been given a two new projects to start, Moving Narratives 2 and Negotiated Project. I’ve decided to somewhat combine the two but focus on two different aspects for each, eventually colliding into one film.

I’m going to focus on building a tense soundscape relating to what is happening on screen for my negotiated project module. Through the fear of the unknown and unexpected I hope to achieve something that at first seems calming and familiar, but slowly begins to take a turn into unfamiliar territory. Eventually this will unnerve the viewer and a sense of dread for seemingly no apparent reason should hopefully fall over them.

For Moving Narratives I’m focusing much more on visual story telling and the story in question. By the end I hope to explore and capture philosophical questions and the general fears of human nature in a short narrative piece.

A Brief Overview 

The film I plan to make follows a man who owns a clock shop, something about this scene seems surreal. He has no customers, he is seemingly out of business. Upon closing up shop we can see that what previously looked like the present is actually the future, an empty future. Where is everyone? As he closes up and he walks away he glances at himself in a shop window, turning away form this he walks down the street and steps on a skull, crushing it.

The man now enters the forest, a place of transition and development. This is where the main story takes place, various symbolic things happen and present themselves. Somehow something is wrong though, something is beginning to not seem right.  Upon entering the forest he steps on a mirror and breaks it, releasing his reflection into the world. His reflection is his shadow, everything he does not like about himself, his humanity. Eventually He meets the reflection of himself and they converse at various points in his journey through the forest. His reflection my also be perceived as a guide through the forest, leading him to his eventual “rebirth” at the end.

Through his journey he stands upon a very tall hill that overlooks the city from where he has come from. The city is in ruins, this shows us there has been an event that has caused mass destruction and extinction; although this is not important and does not get explored, what is important is that he is alive and this is where he came from. It symbolizes how we are on the way to self destruction through power and technology. Such references can be found in the film koyanisquatsi.

Eventually the man ends up at the end of his journey, a large reservoir. It is revealed here that he is not completely human, that in fact the only part of him that is, is his brain. This all links back to the human desire to rule, enhance, dominate and live forever. The fear of death and weakness.

His reflection tells him to follow him, and if he remembers (referring to his mortal life). The man enters the body of water, his reflection takes the mans face off to reveal his natural state and then takes the top of his skull off to reveals the only part of him that is human, the brain. After having his face taken off he stands there, his reflection now gone and his hands covered in synthetic and real blood. He slowly immerses himself in the water, symbolizing a rebirth and transition of physical state, reverting back to mortality. He kills himself. As he slowly immerses himself the camera pans up to view the trees and sky lingering behind him, the animals slowly begin to react and they get louder and louder as more join in. Eventually they die down and all is silent again. He has transcended, his journey has ended. We view pictures of space, galaxies, nebulae, stars, energy.

The sound design will heavily influence mood and atmosphere throughout the intended piece, it will also hold key meaning to certain scenes, such as the final scene. It will constantly symbolize something and unease the viewer at the same time.

All in all it is a very ambient / surreal project.