Memory Pre-Production1: Rough Storyboard

After a nice week-long hiatus from classes, and with my attention focused internally, I began to think about elements of my memory, and the quality & symbolism of these elements. I spent time around the places where this memory occurred, and took in the atmosphere and environment of early spring in Texas. Although it occurred in May, March would have to do. Unfortunately it rained 90% of the time I was back home, so pictures and would have been almost useless. The sun was shining at the time my memory had happened, and weather permitting, it will be when I begin shooting. Although no photos can aid the observer at this time, I have provided a few sketches and visual ideas of what kind of sequence I have in mind.

Video Response: Kenneth Anger's Kustom Kar Kommandos

The mood of the piece was nostalgically 1950s-esque, with strong sensual undertones. From the metallic curves of hot rod, to the white fluffy polishing cloth, even down to the female singer, singing "Dream Lover" throughout the course of the video. It had a vintage feel to it, but i think that may have just been the quality of the film, and the soundtrack coupled together. Either way, the film was intriguing to watch, and was slightly eerie to me, but i do not think that was the intention of Mr. Anger. I liked the comparison in sensuality and the automobile, almost as if the car was a woman itself.

Planning to shoot the memory piece

- I want to have a strong narration (either my own voice or the voice of someone reading words i write, as if they were me), and i want the narration to guide us through the movie, reciting the memory; not necessarily what i had written, but something along those lines.

- I want some sequences to involve real scenes, but i really want a lot of it to be a montage of imagery dealing with the subject matter, and not necessarily the people who are included in it.

- As far as sound goes, i want sound effects, but throughout, I'm considering writing and recording my own score on guitar, and through the magic of garage band, making it fit into the movie.

- Blurry, out of focus shots, i hope will emphasize the memory aspect on some scenes, but i won't over-do it.

Response: Feedback from the reading of My Manifesto

From reading my manifesto in class, the feedback i have received has led me to the following.

_ I need to refine my ideas, my beliefs, into a more distilled and commanding statement, more of a declaration of these ideas, rather than just a list under each category.

_ The class told me that the verbs and adjectives i have chosen to use in describing my work, my ideas behind that work, and even my loves and my hates are all good things to include, and that they help illustrate my point as well as indicate my passion for the things i have written down, and most importantly, the thinking behind my work.

_ I believe i should use my list of the things i love as well as the things i hate to further develop my filmmaking (including making something that uses all of the things in my love list, and also making something that uses all of the things in my hate list.) I'm learning that both lists can offer a new direction to my movies; whether it's something i add or take away, both lists could be extremely useful.

_ I should watch "Myra Breckenridge" with Sophia Loren.

_ I should challenge myself.

_ I should make something i love as well as something i hate.

_ This critique has helped immensely in the thought and consideration of my movies, but I'm still uncertain about how it will effect the outcome of my essay piece. I have ideas for how i want to shoot, and plan out some scenes, but the majority has yet to be fleshed out. One dilemma is that I'm not exactly sure how much of my characters i want to show, and how that will impact the piece as a whole. i do know however, that the use of a voice over has been a huge consideration as far as the actual telling of the events goes.

Manifesto

Loves

-Interesting, arresting, and unconventional camera angles
-Cityscapes
-Wet pavement during night sequences
-On-location shooting
-The work of Stanley Kubrick; following shots, across the room sideways
camera trucking, long distances between camera and subject(s), sterile
environments.
-Chase scenes
-Loose ends
-Characters who have the same names of the actor portraying them.
-Horror movies, westerns, mob movies, spy/James Bond movies, movies based
on historical events and novels.

Hates

-Love stories
-Lame soundtracks (strings and overly sweet scores)
-Boring, overly complex, go-nowhere plots
-Ridiculous, and complete lack for realism.
-A heightened, and saccharine sense of romance and love – see also 'love
stories'.
sound stage shooting (unless its absolutely necessary, or completely
practical.)
-sentimental chick flicks (not too sound like a complete male pig, but you
know what I'm talking about)
-An unattainably perfect and flawless character (especially as a
protagonist); humanity is important, and all characters must remain
human–thus imperfect and flawed, capable of being deceived, happy, sad,
sick, etc.

Style and Techniques in the past

-camera-following shots of main character
-sped up/time lapse footage in order to illustrate the passage of time
-shooting in a car from the windshield perspective
-hanheld shooting
-tripod shooting
-trucking on a wheeled device

Content of my past work

-single-person narrative
-documentation of the passage of time from the side of a highway, and from
a car on the actual highway itself
-how-to video
-montage of buildings, structures, attractions in Memphis
-forced human interaction

How I want my work to grow, change, transform

-I want to use more people, more often, yet I'm still drawn to the idea of
single person storytelling, but perhaps featuring others interacting with
that main character.
-in continuing with the statement above, i want more human interaction.
-i want my movies to be more and more about real life, and all the
bullshit that comes with that. (money, bills, work, school, bosses,
girlfriends, friends, family, etc.) In other words, things that we all
have to deal with.
-I want to shoot more angles, every time.
-I want my movies to be able to reach eveyone, no matter where you come
from, i want you to 'get it'.
-I want to use people in my movies that i think are not only "good for the
part" but people i like to work with and who are passionate about the
work, like i am, and who are willing to help in anyway they can.

How I want my Work to function

-I want my work to be a vehicle through which i explore and examine
various circumstances and situations most of us find ourselves in and
around throughout our lives. The familiarity of real-life events, only
with small exaggerations from time to time.
-I want people to feel like they know my characters, or could know my
characters–love them, hate them, it doesn't matter to me, as long as you
feel something while watching them.
-My work should function as a narrative, as a story, and although i wish
the work to be about real subject matter, or the events of real-life, my
movies should be an escape, a detour from harsh reality; not always taking
itself so seriously.
-With that said, humor should be a subtle device, used sparingly, and with
finesse.
-When watching my movies, i don't want people to focus on aesthetic
choices so much, as i want them to focus on the mood of the story, and the
way the characters carry that mood throughout the course of the film. Is
there feeling in the characters' eyes? What is that feeling? How does the
movie in general make you feel?

My role as a filmmaker

-To tell a story (no matter how small, out of order, complex, simple,
stupid, clever, it may be.)
-To organize real life into smaller, clean-cut pieces so that this story
can be told with relative ease.
-To communicate my feelings, thoughts, and ideas about a certain subject,
character or event; and subsequently present that to a larger audience
than myself.
-To interest, please, captivate, baffle, anger, or arrest my audience with
the things i put on screen.

Memory Essay

After a week of the bedside visits, through tears, frustration, anger, and a shifting memory of those that surrounded him, my father passed away at the age of 59 in the spring of 2003. He had been sick for eight long years, and the time we did have with him, we were more than lucky to have. But on that Tuesday, in the wee hours of the morning, my mother came into the blackness of my bedroom, and with the flip of the light switch, she bathed the room in the harsh 60 watt light that told me immediately and without any doubt, what had happened. i could hear it in her voice before i even opened my eyes to look at her standing in the doorway. As she called my name, i could hear the desperation in that voice of hers, growing shorter and closer to breaking down with each word. 

 

I sat up in bed, and when our eyes met in the still of the morning, she could hold back no more. She told me everything. He had passed no longer than thirty minutes before, and she had just got off the phone where she had heard the news. I hugged her tight, not wanting to let go for anything, and began going through my mind, the things i would have to endure in the days to come; telling my friends, dealing with the end of my sophomore year of high school, the funeral, and just coping with the immense loss that had just ripped through us. At the time i heard the news, i was too tired to cry, as was my sister. And i wouldn't until the viewing, but when i did, it came cashing down hard.

The weather was hot and balmy in the days leading up to the funeral. I had to buy a suit, because i had never owned one. What an occasion. Spring had been kind with the rain, but it would prove miserable on that friday, the day he was buried. Sitting at the burial site, we were surrounded with family and close friends my father had known since his younger days, who would pull me aside and tell me the stories of their youthful conquests and all the awful trouble they all used to get into as young men – war stories my father had been an important part of, and that these men thought i would like to hear – they were kind and respectful of him, they loved him. Older men now like my father was, they had known him in a different time. I thanked those who had taken great care of my father in his final years, and one thing i saw that day i have never forgotten. Circling the casket, flying in and around the bouquet of flowers on top of it, was a bumble bee. Trying as it might to get to the pollen that was to be had from them, at first i was annoyed at it. Maybe it was my sad state, but i thought to myself "can't you leave well enough alone?"

 

But the more i thought about it, i began to realize that maybe it was something greater than i could have ever imagined. I had heard sometime before that bumblebees were supposed to be physically incapable of flying, yet they do anyway. So i watched this creature, whose only drive in life was to get the sweet nectar of flowers zipping around the flowers on my father's casket, thinking about how even though nature had given the bumblebee an unfortunate set of circumstances that should have prevented it from doing the only thing it wants to do in life, it did it anyway. I had stopped crying just long enough to realize this, and i began to laugh to myself at the beautiful irony that nature, God, or whoever had put in front of me, and i think that's the moment i started dealing with my loss in a positive way. And all because of one bumblebee.