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.
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I watched Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 film Requiem for a Dream and it got me thinking about psychosis and addiction, I wondered how I could apply this to the screen in my own unique way. As I only have limited experience into the aforementioned ailments, I turned to external sources for inspiration. Like for example, in John-Paul Sartre’s 1938 novel Nausea, the protagonist Antoine Roquentin suffers acute physical illnesses on account of his immutable obsession with his own existence. As a form of textual dramaturgy, I thought to start with Sartre’s notion as a baseline for writing Beecroft’s crisis and the belief that he is shrinking. “What’s my name then?” bemoans Beecroft to the evil, calculating and sociopathic Melanie who is both a byproduct of this world and a contributor. My intention is to imply the question, how do I exist? Or, do I even exist in this world? A celebration of Sartre’s original text but moreover, a lead into Beecroft’s later line, “[I’m] Shrinking. I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got nothing left”. And it is here we see the catalyst for Beecroft’s escape from Melanie, personal recovery and impetus to repair this broken world.
To paint more of a picture of the world, I have added a sequence where Melanie argues that Beecroft would be better off staying with her due to the toxicity outside. It also illustrates Melanie’s need to keep him close. “You’ve got everything you need. Can you imagine living like the riffraff out there? You’re lucky, and you’re too selfish to see it. What could possibly be wrong?” As to why she intends to keep him close is left ambiguous. This is because I feel that applying such narrative at this stage of the writing process may cloud my attempts to crystallise the world.
Additional ‘world’ expansion can be seen when Melanie laughs hysterically at Beecroft immediately after he expresses that he has “given up”. Her reaction is to suggest that his woes are trivial in this world, it highlights the division of the classes by juxtaposing the opulence of the wealthy and the desperation of the poor. This reaction, and perhaps even some of Melanie’s character tropes, have been inspired by the character Effie Trinket in Gary Ross’ 2012 adaptation of Suzzanne Collins’ trilogy The Hunger Games. I would hope that these reactions become leitmotifs that would occur after any mention of Beecroft’s shrinking. In a sense, these reactions are my own reactions to my original misinterpretation of Florence Parry-Heide’s children’s book TheShrinking of Treehorn (1971) — the source of my inspiration. But moreover, they are to emulate and in turn comment on stigma in mental illness — which is entertained by this world’s inhabitants. These are themes that I hope to continue exploring throughout my practice.
To heighten an understanding of the effects that world has on its residents, I aim to apply audience and character interactivity by frequently blurring the lines between diegesis and non-diegesis. This I hope will cause insecurity and menace, as if a foreboding presence is looking over the viewer’s shoulder. I have illustrated this in Melanie’s introduction, “Each number needs a name”. I had envisaged that this dialogue would be delivered as a Voice-of-God narration and like a McGuffin, the point of view and audience expectation would be disrupted. I am hopeful that, such audience immersion may enrich the viewer’s empathy for the characters further.
The Hunger Games 2012, DVD recording, Color Force, Lions Gate Films, USA.
Parry-Heide, F 1971, The Shrinking of Treehorn, Holiday House, USA.
Flavoured carbonated candy that creates a fizzy sensation when dissolved in the mouth.
The atmosphere of the class was a world in and of itself. It was almost a full house! And with the inclusion of our two guest panelists Lucy Schmidt and Michelle, the air bristled with excitement and anticipation. With a ferocity as if fired from a machine gun, presentations began almost as soon as the class had settled, aside from general introductions, there was little chitchat. Poised, focussed, astute and some noticeably tense, each class member waited for their turn to reveal their world.
For my presentation, I was fortunate in that I was number 15 on the running order and therefore was able to learn from presenters that went before me. I noticed that some had received criticism that they were speaking too fast and as a result had compromised vocal clarity. This was something that I have fallen victim to in previous presentations where, due to excitement, nerves or just the need to get my story across, I stumbled over my words resulting in entire sections being inadvertently omitted. This is exactly why I decided, some days before this presentation, that I would write a prose and not deviate from the script. Though, this is not my preferred method of relaying information at presentations, it is particularly annoying as an audience member as one can feel detached from what is being posited. It can remove the human aspect and may leave people thinking that they may have been better off just reading the presentation.
Cue cards are a go-to method for many, though, with the assignment time constraints and the complexities of my piece, I decided to read my prose, off the page, verbatim. I had carefully timed the script to ensure that I would not have to rush, however, finishing about ten seconds early suggested that I could have slowed down somewhat. Regardless, I proceeded to improvise the final few seconds which I felt wasn’t all that bad.
Overall this method was the best for what I needed to achieve on this occasion and I was grateful for the feedback. The comments that the panelists made in relation to my world were; Stayci, “a beautiful rich world”, Lucy said it was, “the most well established world in my imagination” and then Michelle remarked on how it was “so juicy”, though, Michelle must have missed my opening and thought it was a book and not a one scene film vignette psychological drama. This was quickly clarified though I wondered whether I hadn’t been clear enough in relaying the form I am intending to use.
The comment that resonated with me the most, was Lucy’s thoughts on my description of the physical sensation of pop candy, “Using physical words to describe feelings, made me feel” she remarked. My affinity with Lucy’s feedback was less about fuelling my ego further, and more about a statement of confirmation, that my overarching strategy to create visceral sensations in all of my worlds this semester has been recognised.
For the year, I have endeavoured to push the boundaries further with the look to producing precisely these responses from people. Having been inspired by the likes of David Lynch, Matthew Barney, and metal music, I may well continue to apply methods to induce such reactions in works to come.
However, I understand that these artist’s productions are perhaps not everybody’s cup of tea so to speak. And likewise, my insistence on aiming for the grotesque may not be either. Regardless, viewing the process hereto purely as an exercise has been greatly beneficial for my future development as a media practitioner.
P.s… I feel as though passivity across the board is on the rise perhaps as a result of heightened bureaucracy on account of the exponential growth of the human population — like I am trying to describe in the world of Beecroft. As consumers, we are rarely given the opportunity to really feel what is being presented outside the underground and/or grind-house. When we dare dip the big toe into the warm milk of the mainstream, we have been immediately conscripted to toil like the poor sods in Beecroft’s world.
This is why I have arrived at the belief that it is healthy to exercise the exploration of pop candy and other sensations.
The sun rarely breaks through the thick black smog. This world is, for the most part, shrouded in a black cloak… both, figuratively and physically. The rare free-thinkers (who I’ll mention soon) facetiously call the atmospheric obscurity ‘the cloud of misery’.
Overpopulation has meant that humans must either scavenge or be the masters of those who toil. One must rule or be muled. In other words, leech or be a mule.
But what happened? How did this world become so caustic? What is its internal logic?
Consumerism is the opiate, it has become a totemism, it has caused a social chain reaction where, the rapacious human appetite for material goods has become a collective addiction… everyone is a junky for something. If you’re lucky, it’s shoes and the latest gadget, if you’re less lucky, expensive morphine, and/or a need to gaze into the ‘lights’ of the gadgets that will cause neuralgia and a subconjunctival haemorrhagecausing ones eyes to bleed now and then.
Genericised trademarks have become increasingly more common in this world. Some examples that you may know already are, Crayon, Texta, Aspirin, Kerosene, Sellotape, heroin, iPhone, Jacuzzi, Xerox to name but a few.
But in this world, things like; sex, the feeling that pop candy makes in your mouth, the feeling of when it exits the body, certain plant species, photosynthesis, mercenary, kill, starvation, are all genericised trademarks that have been applied to the lexicon. Therefore, some words have lost their legal status making them all the more easier to commodify and and by extension, justify.
For this world, it breathes opportunity for the corrupt and the wealthy, the leeches. But conversely, it spells desperation for the poor who will inevitably become the mules.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for subordinates.
There is however, a talisman of hope for the less fortunate, as formally witnessed by the junky mule protagonist Beecroft. It is the uprising of free thinkers who’s mission is to repair the atmosphere, socially and physically, through agriculture, humour, education and the dissemination of unbiased empirical research.
However, such an agenda is damaging to the upper echelons of this society and they will do all they can to stop its progression.
As RMIT Media students are seemingly unable to take advantage of the ‘flexible studios’ in building 9, I will have to produce my final M5 short film somewhere else.
Due to the cinematic viciousness of certain sequences of my piece, it demands an isolated studio where people in the near vicinity have an understanding that this is just staged action. By extension, it is also important that I have a controlled audio space sans residual noise.
I’ve been ruminating on the shoot location for ages;
if it were to be at my unit, it would give neighbours the impression that there is a domestic disturbance
if I were to take the shoot out of Melbourne, the talent would be less likely to commit as it is unpaid for them
If I were to use a rehearsal studio such as Bakehouse Richmond, I would run the risk of having a metal band whitewash my audio from adjacent studios
if it were in the uni… well, I would again be competing with noise and naff architecture
And most other shoot location ideas just don’t compliment my world.
I wrestled with this idea of approaching Docklands Studios to see if they had any spaces that were vacant which I could perhaps use for my own project.
I shot them an email to which they addressed with a phone call the following day. They asked me typical questions like when we were looking to shoot, and for how long. Those could easily be answered though the question on Public Liability stumped me.
My application will need to be passed by their CEO, they will have to justify my minuscule budget and they will then have to check on the studio’s availability but all up, I got the sense that this is a real possibility.
I would be so excited to shoot in such a colossal space! It would put me through my paces as a producer and allow me to experience my own work on a busy international stage.
Whether it happens or not, I will always be reminded of the studio’s benevolent ethos… that they have not declared that they are too big for the budding artists of this state. I should hope that this attitude reflects the broader industry.
We’ve been asked to consider a taxonomy of world attributes as they relate to our Media 5 project. In the following blog, I hope to contextualise this to my piece Beecroft.
First of all we are to Cast the world. For example;
1.1 Which characters belong in the world? For my project, it would be the tough, or conversely, those willing to be mules
1.2 Which characters don’t belong in the world? The benevolent and naive
1.3 When characters that don’t belong in the world still inhabit it, how do they and other characters react? Toward them, withtrepidation but eventually with positivity as, those who don’t belong, are talismans of hope
1.4 What are the character hierarchies of the world, and how are they maintained? The primary populous includes societal leeches and the leech’s mules
1.5 What relationships exist between the characters and their world? How does the world affect them on a daily basis? The world fuels the leeches but it sucks dry the mule’s resources.
Next, we are to consider Structuring the world;
2.1 Does the world have a specific, tangible hold on the plot – things that literally can or can’t happen? In the world of Beecroft, the huge division between the rich and the poor prevents prosperity in the lower social economic bracket.
2.2 Does the world suggest – or demand – a specific type of emotional movement or arc? Perhaps with the existence of ‘growth characters’ like Mr. H, who is the voice of reason, the arc may swing into the positive field.
2.3 What’s the pace or feel of the world, and how does that play out in the sequences and scenes you write? Despair = fast paced and frantic, Controlled and calculating may give the sense of a timpani introduction, like in 2001 Space Odyssey, Hope = moderate, rocking fluidity.
2.4 Are actions affected by the world? What do characters feel they can and can’t do? (See 2.1)
2.5 What different varieties or versions of the world exist, and how do they play out through the plot? This question I will need more time to think about and discuss with my peers.
Voicing the world
3.1 What does the world sound like – does it have a universal voice? Like with 2.5, I may require a second opinion
3.2 How might character dialogue be infected by the world – attitude, perspective, etc.? Like in draconian societies ruled by a dictator, one cannot be heard saying anything that goes against the leeches regime in this world
3.3 Does the dialogue complement or in fact juxtapose the world? The head leech character would compliment this world but by contrast, the mule juxtaposes. However, Mr. H’s voice aspires to entertain and subvert introducing a new formal element 3.4 Is there a style and pace to character dialogue that reflects what the world’s about? Yes! Beecroft’s compulsive and frantic belief that he is shrinking, in addition, the Head leech exudes a confident ostentatious language
3.5 What are the competing voices in the world, and how do they go about being heard? Beecroft must scream to be noticed, Mr. H uses humour and wisdom, and the Head leech boasts.
Theming the world
4.1 Does the world demand a type of understanding that translates into an obvious theme? Again, I will need clarification on this question
4.2 Which themes are already prevalent in the world? Capitalism, societaldepletion, psychosis, hope, growth, transition, transsexuality — and which are denied? Marxism perhaps.
4.3 How might theme and meaning be woven into the world through characters, action, visual motifs and dialogue – and then communicated out again, to the audience? This is a fairly open question but here is what I came up with; There is the theme of growth through the many references to horticulture, these sequences will be driven by jocular banter. Growth character Mr. H (the voice of reason) is transexual and does not conform to the world’s regime,. The Head leech is visually pristine in contrast to the other characters. Violent psychotic moments relay despair, confusion and hopelessness.
It was great to see so many people wrestle with the glide cam for the first class of week 5! This is a camera mount that mechanically isolates the camera person’s movement, which gives the sense of a steady shot even on an uneven surface.
It was such an underwhelming experiment and nuisance to lug around that I gave it back to AV Loans. It was also frequently knocked out of balance when it was passed around to different operators.
This device was borrowed in the look to adding sexy camera shots to the class chronicles as next week, it is our group’s turn to present the semester thereto.
The chronicles will involve the usual stuff like interviews with the students, attempts to be funny, and just a rushed cluster of media artefacts bound together with digital Scotch tape.
So far, willing participants offered some interesting feedback on the course. However I was surprised to learn that students were less engaged with the readings… ha ha ha, who am I kidding, I wasn’t surprised!
So, what I’ve garnered from this experiment is that the glide cam should only be used for specific projects where there is only one operator.
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