Canon Fodder

The studio I was a part of interrogated what it means for a film to be ‘Canonised’ and made a part of the top 100 films of all time on the 2012 Sight and Sound list. Isabel, Roisin and Shaun (Group One) produced a video with three segments detailing the past, present and future regarding who should have a say in constructing The Canon. In comparison, Alannah, Giorgio and Zoe (Group Two) made a video about who should also contribute to Canon, but both provided different solutions.

Group one suggested that The Canon belongs to all people, not just those with inherited knowledge such as critics. A wider diversity in people adding to the list, a wider range of films and different representations will be included. On the other hand, Group Two suggests there is still importance in the inclusion of critic’s opinions and expertise, opting for a fifty-fifty split between critics and laymen to form the list.

Both provided discussion of the difference between ‘favourite’ and ‘best/greatest’. Whether it is dividing the films by decades, by continent, by box office success and more, popular vote, both groups acknowledged that art in itself is difficult to define and difficult to pit against each other.

From group one, I thoroughly enjoyed the forms in which the three sections took. The past shown through old movie clips, the present as represented as someone of today’s population and the future as an ambiguous messy amalgamation of uncertainty, celebration, unease and disdain. I felt this was representative of the general sentiment of the class over the last twelve weeks.

 

A Different Studio: Translating Observations 

Video One: Mina’s video titled An Unheard Conversation clearly demonstrates the beauty in the action of observing rather than the observation itself. She employs a main character in which we borrow the point of view of to perceive a conversation between two friends. In doing this, we take on her facial expressions and project them onto the interaction to understand the encounter as well as how we feel about what we see ourselves.

I believe keeping the opening shots focussed and tight on the subject matter teaches a lot about the place her main character is viewing. By removing the landmarks of this well known place, I believe that it removed the assumptions and pre-established ideas we have about the place letting the strangers and their interactions with the space teach us about the role it plays within the place alone.

By removing any dialogue or music the audience is deprived of vital information needed to make sense of our surroundings. However, I was able to imagine the sounds of the place due to the carefully chosen clips of the guitar player and the birds in the background.

It is the main character’s headphones that intrigued me the most. As there was no noise change when she took them off, I interpreted this moment as a separation between the audience’s point of view and the main characters, as maybe we are then to view her as we are the view of the other two girls. I initially thought our vision was as one, but we ultimately view her as she views others by the end of the piece.

 

Video Two: Charlie’s video titled Serial Knitters speaks to the idea that one can miss observations right in front of them if we don’t look up from our established routines. However, whilst the didactic provided helped me to come to these conclusions, I independently understood the short film to be a celebration of the observations of others in common spaces, such as a laundromat. These meetings are made by chance; crossing paths and observing people that you don’t usually see. And for me, that was the beauty I found in this video. 

 

For both videos in the translation observations studio, I was pleasantly delighted by how they depicted one’s relationships with their surroundings and the other people that inhabit places. It was their skilful construction of the setting through the eyes of the main characters and their own position within the space that elaborates the complexities within the space and the stories that exist beyond our own point of view. This is what I believe to the idea that runs through both videos and the studio they were made in.

For my final assignment, Ben, Connor and I made a manifesto in the form of an infomercial. The advertised book ‘How to Make the Greatest Film of All Time’ as written and promoted by protagonist Henry Pellicule (Viv Dobbie-Glazier) exhibited a satirical approach to the task as we felt this tone was fitting for our indifference and anarchical attitudes towards The Canon. We felt presenting the commonalities between the films, and their makers, on the list in a productive manner would highlight the absurd narrow criteria for a success the list promotes.

Ben and Connor were excellent group mates for this task. The formation of our final project happened in a spur of writing and an afternoon of filming as we clearly outlined the aesthetic, tone and contents of our script after two weeks of planning. It was beneficial to riff off each other and note all ideas as we combined, including even the most outlandish ideas we had such as live performance and flash mobs.

The impetus for our manifesto was a general dissatisfaction with the list and all it contains/represents. This enabled my group to pick and choose what we included in our manifesto which allowed for a broad scope of creativity to be employed. In the beginning. We were very much plagued by choice. The first few stages of brainstorming saw a push and pull of Connor and I’s ideas which were initially vastly different. I found this frustrating as I joined the group with preconceived notions of what I wanted the final project to say and feel like and thus conflict arose as I was close minded.

Therefore, it was imperative that I trusted my group mates. At the core of our group dynamic is ultimately a friendship. Not all working relationships have to be friendships, but this dynamic gave me the freedom to trust in Connors’ more developed vision of the final product. Thus, our group slowly moved forward combining ideas.

The scripting phases were a testament to this (my newly developed) opened mindedness we all shared. I had to detach from the lines I wrote for it to be edited to make it consistent with Connor and Ben’s sections which honestly hurt my pride at first. But I truly believe both Connor and Ben are far more funny than I am, so I separated my idea and self worth and the edits were made. I believe the script was then consistent at the end of the day and the moment I saw it for the first time I was very happy with the end product.

Whilst filming, Connor and I were able to switch roles effectively to direct specific scenes we wanted. As our friends and the two of us (as Ben couldn’t be there) were well versed in the equipment, we were able to shoot our manifesto with ease. And due to a smaller crew than the studios warrant, I was able to use the ‘God Mic’ to communicate with Viv and the headsets to communicate with the camera operators. However, it was the freedom we gave our camera crew that produced some of my favourite shots in the final product – where the subject is slightly out of focus, the product isn’t centred and Viv’s head is out of frame. Rather than mimic these imperfections we desired, it was far more effective and fun to slowly provide less instruction to the camera operators throughout the video to create this look and I am delighted at the final product.

Moreover, directing Viv’s performance was really difficult as I found that I couldn’t describe what I wanted without performing it myself. Although this was effective at the moment, it was time consuming and taxing on our bodies due to the nature of the repeated yelling and straining the performance called for.

The lack of representation and constantly being left out of The Canon, as analysed in the research stages, felt discouraging as it only left me with the exhaustion and anger at the exclusivity of The Canon which drove me to a more light hearted final manifesto for my own sanity. 

In the establishment of our ‘final message’, I believe that the infomercial conventions paired with the satirical tone called for a less complex analysis of The Canon. We mostly took note of the optics of The Canon; who were the makers and their privileges that bought them to make films? And what is the mark that privilege has left on the film rather than a deeper analysis of the canon. I think this could be one of the faults of our manifesto and I only realised this after viewing some of last year’s manifestos which sought to make a big important statement. Whilst ours aims to create the same sort of discourse around The Canons legitimacy and longevity, it was hard to ignore the lack of a larger louder dramatic political statement in our work.

However, it is the form of our video that makes this difficult. I believe that even though manifestos do not usually manifest as an Ad for a product, I am pleased with the ‘shouty’ and deranged performance from Viv as to me, this is a hallmark of the manifesto. I wanted it performed with gusto, an all consuming commitment to the guidelines made and a fervid attempt at convincing or teaching the audience and I believe we achieved this.

The formation of our manifesto stemmed from the realisation that not only can anyone be canonised (dah) but anyone can make and deliver the manifesto and thus we grounded this idea in an unconventional setting for a manifesto, the infomercial. Despite the rigidity of our information the video provides, I like how the video and its form is unconventional in itself.  

It was my politics class which led me to the greatest realisation of The Canon during this process. In that class and in a discussion of alternatives to democracy, we spoke about how alternative models of the future are inconceivable to our minds because it is nothing like what we have seen before. There is no path to follow as the status quo has always been predetermined. And I feel this way about The Canon. When we viewed many of the manifestos, they did not provide a solution to the problem which I once considered a flaw of the manifesto, a trait that deemed it useless and a questionable unfounded demand for change. But after this politics class I realised that the inherited history of The Canon only speaks to one narrative, the narrative of the straight white male and their creative voices that has largely been unchanged and unchallenged widely and accepted until recently. This meant that the internal struggle I felt to come up with solutions to this lack of representation dissolved, as new ways forward are difficult to see when the past has remained constant. And thus, concluding our manifesto with no solutions was freeing. I was allowed to be angry at the systems in place and emancipated from answers required to solve it.

In the completion of our manifesto, I hope that the audience understands that the video is satire and I hope they have a giggle. We intend that the audience is fooled by the nonchalant opening and they are engaged by the slight changes in camera motion that begin Henry’s descent into madness.

I also hope that they get tired of the concept of lists as I have after making this video. Whilst we didn’t make any explicit commentary on the list on purpose, I think the absurdity of the list we made will make the audience think of its inappropriate nature as it singles out many people in a modern audience. I do hope the tone of the video conveys that it is a manifesto and not just an infomercial. I’m not sure how well versed the general public is when it comes to manifestos, as I wasn’t familiar with them myself before the class.

If I was to continue this piece into the future, I would like to explore what it means to put films on a list and what it means to inherit history without questioning its consequences. To keep our script concise, we did not include these elements but what The Canon means for society and the world it builds for readers and viewers for film was an integral part of this course. I would do this by extending the script and run time to include this. I would also aim to add some graphics to the video elaborating on the book as a product itself, possibly adding some ‘buy one get one free’ phrases adding on some more useless items that could be used to describe the aforementioned faults with lists and inherited history. And if I was to remake the video, I think it would be fun to do it in a seventies aesthetic as it would challenge my production skills as well as connote and sell the likeness to an infomercial more.

 

~1507 words

LINK TO OUR MANIFESTO: Here!

Vimeo Link: Here!

(Google Drive link above. Video will also be on the Vimeo)