Through my work in FILM 3 I have learnt a great deal about what goes into filmmaking from a practical standpoint. I had worked on several projects before but with very little emphasis on people having defined roles and goals within the crew. Through this work I have seen the importance of having defined roles with each member having specific affordances and boundaries, this allows for a much more streamlined process with little confusion on what is to be done and who has the say in a given situation. I have also been given a new understanding of the many elements of filmmaking that I previously overlooked to a certain extent. For example, the importance of lighting. I had previously acknowledged the importance of lighting in past works that I had been a part of but not the the extent that I now know is necessary.

With my piece, I set out to create a look inside the mind of somebody who is undergoing some form of intense mental illness. The sequence that will be showcased takes place in a paranoid delusion of the protagonist. The scene is not intended to be an action scene with crisp fighting technique and choreography, but rather a confused, rage-fueled and deluded gentlemen stumbling through an erratic mess. Through the way I chose to shoot the scene I attempted to convey panic and instability.

I found that putting my ideas for this scene into practice were difficult due to the nature of what I was shooting and how it was being shot. The long-take moving from outside to inside posed a lighting issue that I didn’t end up solving that I believe negatively impacted greatly on the final product. The set was also a challenge as the hallways of the house were very narrow and didn’t allow for much room for the camera operator to achieve a wide enough angle for a lot of the sequence, limiting the scenes overall visibility even further. Even though it is not intended to depict real, authentic violence, much of the scene still looks very contrived, limiting it’s plausibility. This is mainly attributed to me and my cast not being professional actors.

Overall, I feel this was a successful endeavor as it allowed me to attempt to put my ideas into practice. Bearing both successes and failures in the process, which allowed me to learn from what worked and what didn’t work.

One of the major aspects contributing to Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective’s refreshingly unique and intriguing story-line was its ability to create a seemingly supernatural environment, while remaining in the confines of reality.

What a shot.

The series does this in a number of ways:

Reoccurring ritualistic themes / Religion paralleled:
The majority of crimes that are investigated in the series follow a similar ritualistic pattern. The presence of the consistent symbolism and motifs embedded in the killings are supernatural in nature as they connote a darker and more powerful force at work.

Dora Lange, the first discovered victim. Bound, antler’d, adorned with symbols and sacrificed.

The presence of truly supernatural qualities within the show is disputed when paralleled with religion. The show takes place in the highly religious southern state of Louisiana and more than often lets you know it. Much of the season is represented through the lens of Rust Cohle’s perception and ideologies, meaning that the conceptual validity of religion is often put under scrutiny. This scrutiny allows the paranormal tendencies of the investigation to be subdued as the stark contrast of  Rust’s ideology in relation to the existence of a higher power or any form of universal mysticism is brought to the forefront.

“If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then that person is a piece of shit.”

Rust Cohle’s hallucinations and ideology:
Carrying a great deal of neurological  damage and stress from the death of his infant child and subsequent years of heavy-hard drug abuse, during his stretch working undercover narcotics. Driven by the desire of escapism to remove himself from what he believed would be his self-inflicted demise, Rust has developed a few knocks and bruises on the ol’ brain.  One of many on the tally of psychological conditions Rust has developed is insomnia. We’ve all seen Fight Club so we all know what insomnia means for protagonists in movie world – visions, hallucinations and wonderful symbolism.

Rust hallucinates the symbol that occupies his mind in the form of a flock of birds.

Pizzolatto is able to utilize Rust’s fractured mental state to further induce a sense of the supernatural, while still keeping both feet on the ground. Rust’s hallucinations are used as a vehicle to continue to develop the ritualistic symbolism and motifs and also to reinforce Rust’s obsession with the case. Going back to his self-destructive quest for escapism, Rust immerses himself in his work and embraces these moments of abstraction, which he believes bring him insights into the events unfolding.

Rust evaluates the crime scene of Dora Lange.

Stemming from his nihilistic and distorted sense of reality, Rust carries many ideas challenging existentialism and the place of human beings in the universe. This dialogue is often metaphorical and aids to shape the cognitive environment of the show further towards the surreal.

“This place is like somebody’s memory of a town, and the memory is fading. It’s like there was never anything here but jungle.”

Cult mentality, expansive indoctrination and mystery:
What I believe is the strongest aspect contributing to the show’s indistinct paranormality is the presence of a strong cult. As the investigation unfolds, we are introduced to what can best be described as a cult. There are seemingly normal people and influential members of the community that have been indoctrinated into this long standing organisation founded on sacrificial ritualism, often pedophilic in nature. Which until now, has been shrouded in secrecy and able to operate freely. We are introduced to multiple characters throughout the show that have been deeply indoctrinated into this ideology. Often beginning to almost preach their gospel when confronted with their involvement or knowledge of the heinous activities associated with the group.

Old images from activity of the cult discovered by Rust.

The mysterious nature of the evidence of the existence of the cult, i.e. old photographs/video tapes of masked men carrying out ritualistic sacrifices on young girls, as well as the strongly held shared ideology of the members, creates immense intrigue and air of the supernatural. One instance that really intrigued me was when characters referred to the mysterious place known as “Carcosa”, this is where we are lead to believe these rituals take place. Carcosa is held with great esteem by the cultists, referring to it as an almost-heavenly site of wonderment and power. This again, contributes to the idea that there might be something a little bit more than what meets the eye occurring here, yet does not explicity reveal it.

Marty entering Carcosa.