I had a crack at delivering a super short super intense audiophonic trailer of my world with some visuals.
Sonically it is actually a lot wider in sound field and brighter than my main artefact.
I’m hoping that this could be considered for our end of semester presentation!
Character descriptions
In response to the first class focus group session, I felt that each character required a detailed description as the students who looked over my scripts did not see the extremes in each of the characters. When classmates read through my scripts, I recall that they seemed unclear as to why the language was so over-theatrical. Without any background knowledge, Beecroft and Melanie, to new readers, could well have been ordinary and everyday folk. These group sessions definitely inspired the need for further explanation.
Subsequent group activities have also brought about Melanie’s name. In explaining to my peers of her malevolence, one classmate suggested that I call her Melanie… ‘Melanie the Malevolent’. From here, I began to think about villains that I could model her on further such as Ivan the Terrible. Though, I felt that Melanie would be closest to Shakespeare’s Lady McMeth (1606) for her greed and manipulation, accompanied by the brutishness of Charles Dickens’ Bill Sikes (1838). Spielberg’s Biff Tannen was the inspiration for her owning the police and the sadomasochism is attributed to James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw (2014).
Scene 1 – Beecroft’s Exit Scene
This is the opening scene which is set up to be the catalyst for the rest of Beecroft’s story.
I have stayed fairly true to the script when producing the audio artefact however, the print at the head became a voice of God narration as I felt that these were essential details that an audio piece could not illuminate.
As it was initially written for a visual medium, there are still some minor textual remnants that would require a camera. For example,“A 30 year old tycoon dressed in Sass & Bide arranging plastic flowers. She is, slick, confident, beautiful though, she is as mad as a cut snake” (p. 1). This big print demands either vision or narration and despite using neither, I left them in there just in case I was to change my mind as to which form I would use at the eleventh hour.
I have purposely left the copyright © symbol in the script to emphasise how so much, of what constitutes as a human experience, has been privatised. The world’s artificiality is something that I feel comes across in this script as well as the audio artefact and I feel that it is here, at this tonal intersect, that the two texts speak to each other.
It was my hope that the words and the images that they symbolised, inflicted a dirty, painful, visceral sensation in the consumer. I wanted people to wince as many did when I played the class Anaal Nathrakh’s Pandemonic Hyperblast (2001) for my first class presentation. Though, having pushed this tactic of eliciting a reaction in the audience as far as what I regard to be a rich learning experience, I feel as though I can move on from the grotesque for now.
Scene 2 – Beecroft Meets Hailey
As Beecroft begins the process of escape and codependency recovery, he stumbles upon the Free-Thinker Hailey, a jovial 30 year old gardener who later introduces Beecroft to the Free-Thinking minority.
Regardless of the fact that this scene was the first I wrote for this world, I feel that it is less groomed than the other work for this focus. Since I passed it over to class mate Brydan to have a read over it in week 2, I have felt somewhat disconnected from it. Though it’s worth noting that, since week 2, I have engaged with new writing concepts and eschewed earlier writing habits, my knowledge of writing for world and place has advanced further than I could have imagine. So in a way, I have grown out of this scene so to speak but this needn’t be the case. In order to reconnect with this scene and Hailey moreover, I believe that further workshopping with peers could be the answer as this is an important sequence and I’d be loathed to discard it.
Beecroft Synopsis
The synopsis underwent several manifestations until one night, I sat down for half an hour and smashed-it-out so to speak.
I was surprised how much I second-guessed the synopsis. On one hand, I wanted to deliver a nuanced description of the world, yet on the other, I was set on succinctly explaining the synopsis as though I was talking to a child. There were several variations though all shared the same goal of exposing Beecroft as a lying cheating fiend… which is an indirect comment on the dangers of gullibility.
In this writing process, a new character emerged, Gail whom I imagined as having a pivotal role in crystallising my premise of deception. As Gail is a last minute addition, I have withheld expanding on her character for now. My main focus was to have people sympathise with the protagonist but at the end, feel betrayed.
Overall, I have enjoyed being creative and have relished reading up on villains and tragedies. I drew inspiration from Macbeth (1606), Metropolis (1927), Oliver Twist (1838) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Audiophonic Trailer
Jean-Luc Godard’s film Bande à Part (1964) is a key inspiration for the stylised elements of my audio piece. Like with Godard’s production, I have attempted to blur the lines between diegetic and non-diegetic sound. This is to contribute to the item’s awareness of its artificiality. Ultimately through my production, I hope to highlight dishonesty in my work and in turn evoke an overall mistrust in the media as a whole.
Credits:
Melanie – Anneliese Milk
Beecroft – Daniel Bowden
Music score ‘In Dust’ written and performed by Daniel Bowden
[For further reflective commentary, please see the below blog link posted May 2o, 2017]
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/daniel-bowden/2017/05/20/as-close-to-real-as-possible/
References:
– Anaal Nathrakh 2001, Pandemonic Hyperblast, CD, FETO, UK.
– The Daily Script, viewed 30th May 2017, <http://www.dailyscript.com>
– Demme, J 1901, The Silence of the Lambs, Orion Pictures, USA.
– Dickens, C 1838, Oliver Twist, Richard Bentle, UK.
– Godard, JL 1964, Bande à Part, Anouchka Films Orsay Films, France.
– Screen Australia 2009, What is a Synopsis? Screen Australia, Australia, viewed 25 May 2017, <https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/ae5708a4-05d9-4db0-b5fb-4f999fdfed57/What-is-a-synopsis.pdf>
– Lang, F 1927, Metropolis, Erich Pommer, Germany.
– Shakespeare, W 1606, Macbeth, UK.
– Zemeckis, R 1985, Back to the Future, Amblin Entertainment, USA.
Greenblatt, S 2002, A special letter from Stephen Greenblatt, viewed 25th March 2010, <http://mla.org/scholarly_pub>
Declaration and statement of authorship
My favourite dance scenes are as follows…
Hal Hartley’s Simple Men (1992)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Yy221HYps
Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à part (1964)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1MKUJN7vUk
Quentin Jerome Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSLMN6g_Od4
It’s been a dark week and I feel I need this.
I’ve roughly cut together my audiophonic piece, it’s ticking the boxes so to speak in terms of my world, the story, the narrative, blah. But there’s a certain magic dust that I feel that’s missing from it.
Nevertheless, the voice-over artist who generously offered her time, did a smashing job, for someone who isn’t all that versed in radio fiction. Annalise’s ability to listen and take direction was outstanding. She was such a trooper!
But my story is so hyperreal, it’s also fairly esoteric, and it was a feet to even get close to the performances that were required. In addition, having run out of time to cast the Beecroft character, I had to perform the protagonist myself, and by golly it was tricky. I think my neighbours might have grave concerns for my welfare after a series of yelling, crying, moaning and… “I’m leaving you!”[s].
What this story could have benefited from, was some dramaturgy, possibly a collaboration with performers to land on the feel of a real breakup in a world that was… breaking up.
The process of creating a media artefact for the Beecroft story, has been really big! It looked simple from the outset, but it was deceptively simple. Had I produced this piece on location, and at the Docklands Studios, or even with video vision and multiple actors, I think I wouldn’t have survived. I’d be rocking in a corner somewhere saying bring me some chamomile tea. Though overall, I’ve had a great experience producing this and have been constantly learning as I go!
Though, I think I’ve again gone against an ethos that I’m constantly reminding myself to conform to, which is keep it simple stupid.
But, I am pleased to say that I am done with dystopian stories! I have gone as far as I can go with trying to get a visceral sense from the viewers on this instance, and I think I would like to come back down to worth and create stories and work on ideas that are real… or as close to real as possible.
After reading Screen Australia’s Info Guide – Story Documents, it got me thinking about a few things.
– First there was the ‘how to guide’ to writing a story’s pitch (p. 5) and how this helped contextualised my own work,
– Then there was the notion of core concept, or premise, and the importance of grounding this early in dramatic writing
– But then I started thinking about the bureaucratic jargon that seems to be based on the earlier Hollywood studio system model and the problems that this causes for the Australian industry.
For my piece, the guide help me establish the pitch version of the one-paragraph synopsis for my own story.
It is as follows;
(NOTE: I have made bold my story’s beats and left the template normal)
This story is a…(noir thriller) …about…(Beecroft, love locked in a toxic relationship in a dying world)
…but then this happens….(through meeting the free-thinker Harvey, he begins to repair himself and his world) At the end of Act One they…. (plan to overthrow the corrupt rulers at every cost) At the midpoint… (he is reunited with his oppressor and concedes to her wishes) At the end of Act Two…(his new found followers turn there backs after hearing of his racketeering and dishonesty)
The climax… (as they watch him burn alive after the final dispute with Melanie, the free-thinkers congregate in sorrow) In the end….(The people learn that there is no truth in the world, just the hope of love).
Blah.
From here, I feel as though I got closer to a core concept, or a concrete premise… which is; There is no truth in the world, just the hope of love.
The fill in the gaps template thingy was a lot of fun and it definitely helped me see the bigger picture with my own work. Though it seems to encourage high-concept mentality as described by Michael Haugue in his 2011 presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3j5koW76k) and brilliantly executed by the seminal high-concept production Jaws (Spielberg, 1975).
However, to impose such a blanket treatise on an infantile industry such as Australia’s could well obfuscate the country’s unique trajectory and films can end up feeling contrived, pretentious and/or just missing the mark. It marginalises alternative and subversive concepts with influences of Godard, Tati and the likes. It sends local prodigies off to the USA to produce block busters like Saw (2004) when the talent and infrastructure was at their home base all along. This poses more questions for me like, why are so many world class facilities such as, Fox Studios, Docklands Studios and Global empty most of the time when budding producers are shelling out thousands to rent low quality spaces? Is it because admission frameworks are too rigid? And is this why Australia is still considered a cultural back-water? Hell, since the Gordian knot seems to only get tighter with thanks to the cultural cringe, perhaps people need to create their own cinematic balls of twine on the fringes. And perhaps one day, on the release of the government’s budget, we can see a slice of the pie offered to creative mavericks like Wan and Whannell.
Ah jeez… this is such a cynical, tangential, cursory blog rant… but I’m sure I could use it as a rickety framework for something.
Now, just click your heels together and repeat after me, there’s no place like home and a systemically flawed industry.
In a class exercise, we were to choose one of our peer’s characters and write about them. I chose Justin Luh’s character Grease who is a robot. It is about Grease’s most embarrassing moment. It is written as if an interview and it goes as follows…
Grease:
So anyway, I was at the Boron baths. Boron nitriding it up. Replenishing, getting the rust and detritus out of my components. It’s something that you have to do… if not for yourself, for those who you work and live with. Like seriously, you are more relaxed, you’re less likely to fly off the handles at minor issues on the floor at work. Boron baths… they’re good. Do yourself a favour. Really!
Anyway, there was only a few of us in the bath… 4 to 5000, and I thought that I might nip out for an extra treatment… Liquid nitrogen scrub. But seeing that it was only me there, I thought I could shed some layers… you know, like down to my chassis. You really get to feel it that way. And anyway, I’m lying there and I notice a message on the portal from administration, so I link in to see what the message was about. BEEP. It said I’m not in today. I’m out getting a scrub too. BEEP. But remember that this room will undergo a deep clean at 12noon today BEEP. I look up at the clock… it says 11:58. Farrrrk!!!
And thats when it began. I was scooped up, dipped in what felt like mercury or something, I was shoved around the room and pushed toward the exhaust vent… Exhaust vent!! But I had another 30 minutes left on my credit! Nevertheless, the evacuations process had gone passed the rubicon and I was getting excreted early AND with no covers on… stark naked!
Before I knew it… CLUNK, I’m sitting in the fallout basin, not a shred on me, covered head to base in mercury, I started to discreetly tiptoe to the exit when all of those units… remember the ones that I had shared a boron nitride spa with, they all cascade through to the bin that I was at and are presented with my pathetic silver arse. They laughed naturally which as you know sounds like a machine gun.
Still to this day, that was the most embarrassing moment of my robot life.
On viewing Howard Deutch and John Hughes’ 1987 teen film Some Kind of Wonderful, I had a thought that dramatically altered the form of my major piece from short film, to an audio story.
The importance that Hughes placed on sound to communicate with the youth culture was palpable.
The pains at which Hughes manipulated sound, reminded me of my own mantra, which is that sound should never be overlooked, nay, it should, if applicable, be at the forefront of communication.
I by no means, feel as though I need to target the youth audience, in fact, I really dislike teen movies! They remind me of being a teenager, and those were tumultuous times that I would prefer to forget. Ha ha ha ha… ew! All I am saying, is that sound should be considered further in my major Media 5 project and perhaps prioritised. My original plan to produce a short film will need to be revised.
Other issues with shooting a short film that have been brewing for a few weeks, is the talent’s apprehension to partake in the film, not that he doesn’t like working with me or I him but, because he is only weeks away from becoming a new dad and he is naturally nervous about spending too much time away from his wife. I would be loathed to relaunch the casting process is this is time consuming and frightfully annoying at the best of times, therefore, it’s back to the drawing board.
I had however secured a place at Docklands Studios. It was incredibly exciting to get an email two days ago stating that I’m more than welcome to utilise their spaces next time provided they were available.
Overall I am relieved that I have decided to create an audio piece for my final project. Not least because of the logistics, but because it’s something that I am incredibly passionate about.
But don’t expect a teen podcast. It’s not gonna happen!!
The process of showing my unseasoned work to a group is like hanging my knickers up on the line… or, I feel as though I’m offering you an insight into how I organise my sock drawer. It’s all so personal dammit! But I guess that’s the thing, it helps me be real about my creative process. The world gets to see it… warts and all!
The following paragraphs describe the characters who reside in my world, which I hope to hang on the line for my peers this week.
MELANIE
Melanie is a psychopath. She has been called Melanie the Malevolent but don’t be caught saying it, or you’ll be thrown into a kind of a purgatory for the living. Melanie’s punitive actions may include; carrying out wanton deeds, data entry and odd jobs within her vast empire. She is one of the many barons of this world though her madness makes her stand out from the rest. At face value, she is beautiful, still and calm, but underneath, she is a tempest of hate and retribution. Regardless, she has been venerated by her peers on account of her savage business tactics, killer instinct and cut throat attitude.
THE FREE-THINKERS
The free-thinkers are a collective of societal hopefuls who’s mission is to repair the atmosphere, socially and physically, through agriculture, humour, diversity, education and the dissemination of unbiased empirical research. They frequently put on stage shows; Shakespeare, Ibsen, Samuel Beckett and the likes. These take place at their secret lair which is deep underground.
BEECROFT
Beecroft is shrinking… well, he thinks he is. This is on account of the bouts of psychosis that he suffers, which are attributed to the abuses from the harshness of this world, addiction, and the psychological and chemical administration that is ritualistically delivered to him by his boss, Melanie. He is an addict. A slave to synthetic weed, whisky, mescaline, high powered blotter acid, heroine, crack cocaine, amyl and caffeine. Aside from frequent outbursts of fear and hatred, he is a nice guy. When he is not indisposed, he reads blogs posted by the free-thinkers, he whittles soapstone and communicates to friends through a clandestine network. NOTE: He is later, diagnosed with Morgellon’s Disease which could explain why he feels as though he is shrinking.