(This piece has yet to be titled)
Synopsis: For my final project I am going to explore the life of student activists of color on campus, specifically focusing on issues of racism and oppression and those whom have organized recently around action awareness week. I want to know what drives people as activists to do the work that they do. How do people stay in the movement and keep doing work when all the odds are against them? I plan on using footage from the most recent walk out as well as interviews, piecing together the interviewees words to creative the narrative weaving together a story that is built on the voices of many students not just one. Similar to the movement which also came out of several peoples stories and struggles. My piece will be about identity as it effects social actions, and the personal struggles with doing work that is so closely tied to identity. I want to show the faces and voices of a movement that has been happening here since Hampshires creation.
(In terms of exact story board this will be worked out more once i have completed my interviews)
Style/Aesthetics: I want this to be a serious but uplifting piece that sheds light on each persons story, even if there is only one moment of the story. I plan on having extreme close ups of the person i am interviewing. As well as focus on different body parts of the subject such and hands, arms, mouth, eyes hair, face. Each person will fade into the next person so that the characters mesh together to convey that these stories although unique are apart of a larger experience that many students of color go through on this campus. I want to experiment with light and use it to show the different extremes of emotion. Such as bright lights against a dark background with the subject in the center, so that you cannot avoid their faces and emotions.I want to use some of the camera techniques that can be found in 'Tounges Untied', for I think it inspires me to use the camera (angles/effects) as a tool to show emotion within my subject. This will read as a clip from a larger documentary about the lives of students of color on this campus.
Sound: I plan on having the spoken word poem "the revolution will not be televised" in the background. There will be some voice over inccoperated in this project and so the song will be playing very softly getting louder towards the ending.
Lights: I plan on working with a light kit to get the extremes that I am looking for in this project.
characters: Voices from source, i intend on getting 5 voices minimum.
place: Their personal spaces, my room in some circumstances.
Timeline/production:
April 14-21 shoot
April 21-28 edit
I am doing this project because I want to celebrate those of us who do activist work around issues of racism and oppression. I the audience to see that we each have a story or reason for doing it that is so personal and so connected. I want my audience to see that this work does not stop or end with one person that it is built upon student after student. And I am interested in it because I am personally effected by the isms that exist on this campus and that I am not alone and I want other students involved in this work, to know that they are not alone either.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
TREATMENT
TREATMENT for The Magic Chalk
(an adaptation of a short story by Kobo Abe)
Synopsis: Argon is a starving artist who finds a piece of magic chalk. When a picture is drawn with this chalk, it becomes real--but only if there is no sunlight. Argon decides to board himself up in his room and live in a world of his creation. It starts off as a world in which he can have anything he wants--as a way to escape starvation and his difficult life. But he draws a window in the wall, and it does not become real. He realizes that without a world behind it, it is not a real world. So he contemplates how he wants to create a new world. After four weeks of contemplation he gives up in a fit of frustration and draws a door, thinking that he will leave it up to fate and the chalk to create the world behind it. But when he opens the door there is nothing really there--just a barren world, a barren sky, and a horizon line. He closes the door depressed. Then he finds a newspaper from before he closed off his room. He sees a picture of a woman and gets the idea to start over from Adam and Eve, and so he draws Eve--who also happens to be the woman from the newspaper (Ms. Nippon). She believes she is Ms. Nippon and thinks Argon is crazy. She tries to get out, but when she discovers that Argon has magic chalk, she becomes interested in using it to advance her career. She tells Argon that she deserves half of the chalk because she is equal to him. He reluctantly gives her half of it, and she draws a gun and shoots him. Then she smashes open the door to the real world, and everything turns back into drawings on the wall. This includes Argon, who has eaten so much chalk-food that his molecules have become too infused with this magic. It ends with him "saying" " It isn't chalk that will remake the world."
Style/aesthetics: This video will be a fictional narrative. I want the focus of the video to be on Argon and his two worlds. I want the real world to be a dirty, gritty, bright world, and the magic world to be slightly fantastical. I want to do this by having both worlds well lit, bit the real world a bit more yellow and brown, and the magic world bright with slightly more saturated colors than might normally exist. I want to explore different editing styles to show the passage of the four weeks--fast shots of tableaus that communicate how Argon is passing the week without him saying anything, or even moving very much. I also want to pass the four weeks in a very short amount of time. I want the tone of the movie to parallel Argon's emotions.
Elements:
Chalk drawings into real objects: Cross-dissolve: To materialize the objects Argon draws, I plan to simply cross-dissolve a shot of the picture into a shot of the real object keeping the camera in the same place.
Place: My room (emptied of everything). Possibly a short montage of Argon looking for food and begging.
Characters: Argon: a starving artist. Intellectual, dreamer, idealist. He is the main storyteller and should convey through both speech and movements the dilemmas he puts himself through trying to create a new world. Eve: A materialistic, caddy girl, but with just enough intellect to comprehend a situation and put herself in an advantageous position.
The door to the fake world: Bright light shines in through the door, then into the camera. Haven't determined how to make the blank world.
Lights: I plan on doing them myself, experimenting with the light kit and whatever else I have.
Sound: I have not yet picked a soundtrack, but I would like there to be music underscoring most of the scenes. I also want to have a few sound effects--for the objects appearing (I think a scraping sound), and the blank world (loud wind and possibly a ringing sound that sounds kind of like a one-note echo).
Production Schedule:
April 6: Sent actors script.
Now-April 17: Prep work with Actors and gathering any props I will need. Storyboard difficult scenes more precisely than script.
April 17-April 25: Shooting
April 22-28: Editing
(an adaptation of a short story by Kobo Abe)
Synopsis: Argon is a starving artist who finds a piece of magic chalk. When a picture is drawn with this chalk, it becomes real--but only if there is no sunlight. Argon decides to board himself up in his room and live in a world of his creation. It starts off as a world in which he can have anything he wants--as a way to escape starvation and his difficult life. But he draws a window in the wall, and it does not become real. He realizes that without a world behind it, it is not a real world. So he contemplates how he wants to create a new world. After four weeks of contemplation he gives up in a fit of frustration and draws a door, thinking that he will leave it up to fate and the chalk to create the world behind it. But when he opens the door there is nothing really there--just a barren world, a barren sky, and a horizon line. He closes the door depressed. Then he finds a newspaper from before he closed off his room. He sees a picture of a woman and gets the idea to start over from Adam and Eve, and so he draws Eve--who also happens to be the woman from the newspaper (Ms. Nippon). She believes she is Ms. Nippon and thinks Argon is crazy. She tries to get out, but when she discovers that Argon has magic chalk, she becomes interested in using it to advance her career. She tells Argon that she deserves half of the chalk because she is equal to him. He reluctantly gives her half of it, and she draws a gun and shoots him. Then she smashes open the door to the real world, and everything turns back into drawings on the wall. This includes Argon, who has eaten so much chalk-food that his molecules have become too infused with this magic. It ends with him "saying" " It isn't chalk that will remake the world."
Style/aesthetics: This video will be a fictional narrative. I want the focus of the video to be on Argon and his two worlds. I want the real world to be a dirty, gritty, bright world, and the magic world to be slightly fantastical. I want to do this by having both worlds well lit, bit the real world a bit more yellow and brown, and the magic world bright with slightly more saturated colors than might normally exist. I want to explore different editing styles to show the passage of the four weeks--fast shots of tableaus that communicate how Argon is passing the week without him saying anything, or even moving very much. I also want to pass the four weeks in a very short amount of time. I want the tone of the movie to parallel Argon's emotions.
Elements:
Chalk drawings into real objects: Cross-dissolve: To materialize the objects Argon draws, I plan to simply cross-dissolve a shot of the picture into a shot of the real object keeping the camera in the same place.
Place: My room (emptied of everything). Possibly a short montage of Argon looking for food and begging.
Characters: Argon: a starving artist. Intellectual, dreamer, idealist. He is the main storyteller and should convey through both speech and movements the dilemmas he puts himself through trying to create a new world. Eve: A materialistic, caddy girl, but with just enough intellect to comprehend a situation and put herself in an advantageous position.
The door to the fake world: Bright light shines in through the door, then into the camera. Haven't determined how to make the blank world.
Lights: I plan on doing them myself, experimenting with the light kit and whatever else I have.
Sound: I have not yet picked a soundtrack, but I would like there to be music underscoring most of the scenes. I also want to have a few sound effects--for the objects appearing (I think a scraping sound), and the blank world (loud wind and possibly a ringing sound that sounds kind of like a one-note echo).
Production Schedule:
April 6: Sent actors script.
Now-April 17: Prep work with Actors and gathering any props I will need. Storyboard difficult scenes more precisely than script.
April 17-April 25: Shooting
April 22-28: Editing
"Tongues Untied" by Marlon Riggs
What I found most interesting about "Tongues Untied" were the components of the video compared to the message it was relaying. "Tongues Untied" is about speaking out for change and not silencing oneself. That is why I found it particularly interesting that not only did they speak out in the film, but they spoke so eloquently and poetically. A main aspect of the film that stood out to me was the use of voice overs. Most of the film is a voice over images that do not match, whether they are of a man sitting or found footage. There were also parts where the voice overs would overlap, which further proves the point that one should not silence themself. I also found the repetition in the video to contribute to this idea. There were repetition of images (close ups of faces) as well as of words ("anger unvented becomes pain unspoken becomes rage released"). Those repeated words encompass the main message I got out of the documentary.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Chef! (Chief)
What I found really interesting about Jean-Marie Teno's film Chef! was that it's a documentary film on a topic that truly unraveled itself. Jean-Marie said that he didn't have any set plans or intentions only to follow his interests within Cameroon where he was born. The interviews throughout the movie gave a strong interwoven structure that was especially impressive since the direction of the film was unclear when he conducted the interviews. The film was 1 hour long- cut down from only 10 hours of footage which seems extremely small considering the various and dynamic images within the film. All the shots really set the scene and always depicted several angles. The strength of his filmmaking eye becomes very clear because he was able to create a very complete story even without a set plan.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Chef! by Jean-Marie Teno
Chef! dealt with the patriarchal system in place in Cameroon, both in cities and in rural societies. The film is an look at the role of the chief as a model in all spheres of society. One of the first things I noticed, just as Teno’s voiceover narration pointed it out, were the European beer ads which stood out against the straw huts of the Cameroonian village. When a young boy is caught stealing some chickens from a neighbor, a group of men gathers around him to decide the best form of punishment. Most suggest beating him, but one man steps in to prevent him. Interestingly, he wore a bright pink and blue striped scarf over a traditional, tribal-patterned shirt. I think, perhaps without meaning to, the man's clothing and the modern beer advertisements definitely highlighted the rise of globalization and the permeation of a mass consumer culture. The film also highlighted political corruption, and the ease with which one can buy freedom with money. I thought that the emotional climax of the movie was when a former prisoner described the conditions inside a Cameroonian jail. He described their one meal a day, which was a handful of corn, and pictures were shown of row after row of emaciated bodies, of thousands of men with visible rib cages and swollen bellies lying on the floor packed tight against each other. It was extremely powerful, and for me almost reminiscent of images from the Holocaust. During a wedding scene, we learn that one of the marriage laws in Cameroon directly define the man’s role as the “chief” of the family. Another states, “If the husband strikes the wife while visitors are present, she must smile and pretend that nothing has happened." Teno asks, in a population of 14 million, what happens when 7 million are chiefs? Who is the chief of all of these chiefs? I thought this was a poignant, poetic look at a country dealing with its “awkward heritage” and many of the sad truths that are a result of that.
Tongues Untied Part II
I think that 'Tongues Untied' is a great testament to the queer black male. The way this piece was created reads to me as a series of short delicate plays tired together by spoken word and an intensity that each viewer cannot avoid (for example the super close ups). I think it is perhaps the rhythm and movement of the bodies their relationship to the camera that makes me feel as though i am watching a dance piece. I like the way that Riggs is able to bridge the new civil rights movement to the new LGBT movement, specifically within the lens of the queer BLACK male. I appreciate the respect and careful way he put together found footage from the civil rights era marches and footage from what seems to be a gay pride parade, revolutionary movements. The way the two social movements coincide, and the way he bridged the footage together for me signified the importance of intersectional identities--Black and Queer, man "Brother to brother; brother to brother". I also liked the way spoken word was used in transition periods; for example when the dancing body transitioned to a man on the screen speaking to it. How important it is that words were there to help the feel and slow of the piece. I also appreciate the way the interviews were set up so that the piece felt like more of a collaborative effort; on a subject that often goes unspoken or unheard of.
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