The idea of place and how it impacts on character has always interested me, an explicit example I can think of in regards to this can be found in the works of Western Australian writer Tim Winton. Winton shapes his characters around the places in which they were brought up and raised. The legends and myths that have (and continue to) spawn from these places are channelled within his characters, reflected and revealed in their fears, desires and beliefs. In my project I intended to follow in a similar path to Winton by exploring loneliness and subsequently the inability to communicate ones true feelings through the use of two characters- both of whom are lost within a sparse, open and alienating environment.
Initially when conceiving an idea for this project I wanted to create a more conventional Western scene consisting of two hard bitten men in the outback discussing life and the land. However, as I wrote and thought progressively more about what the final product would look like I realised that sticking to the well worn tropes of this genre would only make my piece bland and uninteresting, instead I decided to subvert the tropes by casting female and male leads and by writing ambiguous, less secure characters who instead of feeling at one with the environment, feel isolated by it-completely at the mercy of the harsh, quintessentially Australian land.
In regards to approach I shot a finished script word for word because I was interested in seeing how the pace and the rhythm of the script translated from page to screen. Potentially due to the economic coverage of the script (there are just two shots in 4 minutes of my film) and the actors performances (occasionally the rhythm and pace that was initially written in the dialogue wasn’t quite there) the film on whole had a slow and stagnant pace, though this came about unintentionally (especially in regards to my actors performances) it agreed with and enhanced the pessimistic, futile tone of the script.
Another turning point in my investigation of loneliness and its relationship to land occurred after a class in which we explored the use of narration. I altered a line that was initially a turning point in the two characters relationship. One character (man 2) was initially supposed to reveal her true self, by expressing her inner most thoughts and feelings to the Man 1. I then thought it would be much more tragic and meaningful if Man 2’s communication and lust to tell the truth was trapped within the confines of her mind. Through the use of narration (her most meaningful line is narrated over film of her sitting on her lonesome) only the viewer would understand the true tragedy-that this character has the emotional capacity and articulation to reveal herself, but innately cant, the environment in which she has lived wont allow her too.
Lastly, this project has been useful not solely because it has got me to think outside the box in regards to approaching specific ideas with relevant and varied different methodologies subjective to the idea, but, by filming with the Sony EX-3, recording Sound with a Zoom Microphone on a boom pole (with assistance from a class mate) and editing on Adobe Premier for the first time (In Media 1 I struggled on Windows Movie Maker) I was able to improve my technical media making abilities out of sight, doing justice to the idea.
By Brydan.
