SLIDE 1
Sires
By
Robin Booker
SLIDE 2
Sires will show that the real in from is not always the most meaningful. Using 48fps long realistic shots I will tell the story of an army leader who squashes rebellion. Using 24fps close up poetic shots I will haunt Sires with the past present and future showing the emotive repercussions of war, inseparability of death and perpetual nature of life.
SLIDE2.5
THEORETICALLY
I wish to explore two oppositional views of cinema including Bazin's realism and Eisenstien’s montage within my visual style whilst using recent technological advances to push them further than before and explore which view offers more emotional response and how combining them and separating them can give different views of similar events. Using theories on perpetual death and repetition I will twist narrative in a new and interesting way to explore Stambaugh’s ideas of significant actions within repeating cycles of death such as in the Greek tale of Prometheus.
SLIDE 3
Inspired by Zeno's paradox (The direction of Time Reichenbach 1991) and Sacks' River of Consciousness (Sacks 2004) I decided to play with the format of film to create two forms of image with differing qualities of reality. Also inspired by the Wachowski's use of time manipulation to create "panels and gutters" in The Matrix (L. Wachowski, A. Wachowski 1999) I developed the two styles further into extreme close montages reminiscent of Eisenstein with visuals inspired by Pan's Labyrith (del Toro 2003) and long real takes reminiscent of Bazin.
SLIDE 4
BLUE
Realist
extreme longs
48fps
slow cuts
SLIDE 5
ORANGE
fairytale
close up
fast cuts
24fps
SLIDE 6
ORANGE
The opening of the film an exclusive close up section will show the death of innocent women and children at Sires' own hand and the premonition of his death, a bullet to the chest and a bullet to the head.
SLIDE 7
BLUE
Yanked from one visual style to another as Sires is from dream to reality, Sires discuss' the previous nights attack before preparing a strike force to kill rebel fighters in their homes.
SLIDE 8
BLUE
The massacre is viewed exclusively in the long shot style removing much of the emotion and action to the confined and hidden tents of the rebels. On the return journey to camp, the midpoint of the film, Sires is attacked, the whole scene is shot from outside of the truck. A gunshot is heard.
The massacre is viewed exclusively in the long shot style removing much of the emotion and action to the confined and hidden tents of the rebels. On the return journey to camp, the midpoint of the film, Sires is attacked, the whole scene is shot from outside of the truck. A gunshot is heard.
SLIDE 9
ORANGE
The scene is replayed this time inside the truck, claustrophobic and messy Sires is shot. Another troubled dream to wake from, but this time to the sound of gunfire. This is the point at which the majority visual style switches to the close ups to reflect the idea of an "infinity narrative" talked about in my research.
Guns are loaded and fired, blood platters faces and mud flies up to the knees as grenades devastate the defences of Sires encampment. Gunpowder fills the air and after a hectic battle Sires men stand tired but victorious. As they drag the dead bodies onto a bonfire Sires decides he has had enough, killing the rebel fighters obviously want enough, this time he would attack their homes and their families.
SLIDE 10
ORANGE
In the penultimate and revelatory scene Sires and his men gun down the village, bullets fly into homes, children cry in fear before their parents are overpowered and their lives ripped from them. Close up the brutal murders should look more horrific than last time to both us and Sires who sees the woman and child he recognizes from his dreams. He shoots them both. He stands still in regret.
SLIDE 11
BLUE
A long shot shows the mayhem around him as he stands statue like in horror and a rebel shoots him.
SLIDE 12
The first dream Sires had has come to life, it repeats, will he wake up this time?
SLIDE 13
There is a problem with this narrative structure, other than its complexity. Although the dreams line up in reverse the close ups in the second half of the film do not, they are forward in the narrative. The infinity image is not a perfect match to the narrative but is the source of inspiration for the structure and crossover of the dreams and visual styles.
SLIDE 14
STAMBAUGH
"“the question of how something significant can occur” when “caught in the cycles of birth and death”."
DREAM 1> CHOICE 1 = kill fighters = soldiers get attacked + sires death = DREAM 2 > CHOICE 2 = kill women and children =sires death + DREAM1
Assignment 2: Dramatising Time
1. Short Film Treatment
NAME:
Robin Booker
WORKING TITLE:
Sires
TAGLINE:
Death or dream?
BRIEF SYNOPSIS (50 WORDS):
Military General Sires faces rebellion, they attack his military encampment no matter how hard he fights back they always return. However with the perpetual repetition, bloodshed and danger can one man's conscience bear the weight? Troubled by dreams of past, present, future and death Sires is tired of fighting it’s time to stamp out the rebellion once and for all.
BRIEF OUTLINE (Circa. 500 WORDS):
A film of two extremes Sires fights back rebellion on the battlefield and in his dreams. The visual style of the film is extremely important almost more so than the narrative and is comprised of two opposing styles, firstly close ups at 24fps with a quick cut rate and a vivid saturated chroma. This visual style is largely influenced by Guillermo del Toro's Pans Labyrinth (2002 del Toro) I wish to achieve the same kind of dark fairytale aesthetic. The other visual style is almost the opposite, long takes, long shots and a realistic colour pallet will be complimented by the use of 48fps to make the shots look as real as possible. These two visual styles will mix at times and a range of mids will be used at the less essential points of the plot however some sections will use these styles exclusively.
The opening of the film an exclusive close up section will show the death of innocent women and children at Sires' own hand and the premonition of his death, a bullet to the chest and a bullet to the head. Yanked from one visual style to another as Sires is from dream to reality Sires discuss' the previous nights attack before preparing a strike force to kill rebel fighters in their homes.
The massacre is viewed again exclusively in the long shot style removing much of the emotion and action to the confined and hidden tents of the rebels. On the return journey to camp, the midpoint of the film, Sires is attacked, the whole scene is shot from outside of the truck. A gunshot is heard. The scene is replayed this time inside the truck, claustrophobic and messy Sires is shot. Another troubled dream to wake from, but this time to the sound of gunfire. This is the point at which the majority visual style switches to the close ups to reflect the idea of an "infinity narrative" talked about in my research.
Guns are loaded and fired, blood platters faces and mud flies up to the knees as grenades devastate the defences of Sires encampment. Gunpowder fills the air and after a hectic battle Sires men stand tired but victorious. As they drag the dead bodies onto a bonfire Sires decides he has had enough, killing the rebel fighters obviously want enough, this time he would attack their homes and their families.
In the penultimate and revelatory scene Sires and his men gun down the village, bullets fly into homes, children cry in fear before their parents are overpowered and their lives ripped from them. Close up the brutal murders should look more horrific than last time to both us and Sires who sees the woman and child he recognizes from his dreams. He shoots them both. He stands still in regret. A long shot shows the mayhem around him as he stands statue like in horror and a rebel shoots him in the chest, then head. The close ups from the first scene play again, will he wake up this time?
This film is to be as much an experiment as a film made to entertain, the mixing of frame rates and styles will hopefully draw academic minds towards the project as it is something rarely attempted. I also believe the vast theories of time woven into the plot will attract academic minds and those of fans of "puzzle narratives". Surely a film for an older and more mature audience I hope to create an accessible film with enough depth to warrant study
2. Outline of the theoretical focus (the main concept or issue)
I wish to explore two oppositional views of cinema including Bazin's realism and Eisenstien’s montage within my visual style whilst using recent technological advances to push them further than before and explore which view offers more emotional response and how combining them and separating them can give different views of similar events. Using theories on perpetual death and repetition I will twist narrative in a new and interesting way to explore Stambaugh’s ideas of significant actions within repeating cycles of death such as in the Greek tale of Prometheus.
____________________________________________________________________________
3. An explanation of your aims, and of how you developed your creative treatment from the initial concept or issue, as well as how you have incorporated further research
My whole project hinges on my two contrasting styles which came originally from my fascination with Aristotle's Arrow and how it links to frames per second, a relevant discussion in cinema today as Hollywood begins to experiment with using both 24 and 48 frames per second. The idea of still moments creating movement displayed in Zeno’s Paradox (The direction of time Reichenbach 1991)directly links to arguments over frames per second and many viewers have said that in 48fps things seem fast and more real. The idea that the number of frames per second changing could alter how real the image seems is somewhat supported by Sacks' In The River Of Consciousness (Sacks 2004) in which he observes the opposite, people stuck in one image and frozen in that moment in time.
The idea that the speed varies reminded me of a comment about time made by Andy and Lana Wachowski, directors of the Matrix trilogy, (The Matrix (1999) Matrix Reloaded (2003) Matrix Revolutions (2003)). In the special features on The Matrix they discuss how they sped up time and slowed down time to reflect panels and the gutters in comic books, the slow motion being the panels and the sped up being the gutter. This began the two separate visual styles in my mind, the sped up became 48fps and the slowed down 24fps a normal frame rate. Panels and gutters (the space between the panels) also reflect cuts themselves and the space between the cuts are something often discussed within film theory, this gave me the idea of using montage like sequences with extreme close ups and fast paced editing. Oppositionally for the 48fps sections I will use concepts defined by Bazin (What is cinema? 2005) that make up realistic films such as long takes and long shots. Although this separates the visual style from the gutter the distinction between the two forms in terms of film making and the experimentation with which conveys more emotion is a more interesting area to explore.
Now with the idea of using Eisentein esque montage (Eisenstein, (1977)) mixed with long takes emphasising realism I had to construct a narrative. I wanted the visuals to reflect my ideas on the two styles and therefore planned desaturated realistic visuals mixed with more poetic and fairytale visuals strongly inspired by Guillermo del Toro's Pans Labyrinth (2003 del Toro). As for story I wanted to weave time theories into the narrative and needed some way to use both contrasting narratives to make a point. Inspired by the geographical modelling of the Mobius strip narrative I created a narrative around the shape of infinity, an eight on its side. The start, end and middle are the sections where the visual styles mix, in the first half, along with mids, the realistic long shots prevail until the middle crossover, a turning point in the narrative in which the poetic shots become the most prevalent.
The narrative itself is thematically based on the inescapability of death and its haunting of the main character. Inspired by the tale of Prometheus and his punishment I worked the idea of repeated death into the narrative. Although this is often done in films and television I didn’t want exact and definitive repeats, to reflect the perpetual nature and danger of war I decided rather than him dying and repeating there would be an ambiguity surrounding his death hence the dreams. This gave me space to repeat war events but with a change in Sires’ character and actions, in Time Finitude and Finality (Stambaugh 74) Stambaugh talks about causality and how “the question of how something significant can occur” when “caught in the cycles of birth and death”. This in essence is what the film represents, Sires’ first decision to kill only the rebel fighters is informed by gruesome visions of dead women and children and the guilt from his previous life. His second choice is however informed by the dream of the attack on the soldiers and his own death in the trucks from the day/life before. The film ends with us seeing the life/dream that informs the first choice.
The article The Fate of Prometheus (123HelpMe.com 2011) talks about how for Prometheus “Each successive instance of suffering perpetuates the desire within him to succumb to his suffering, and die without repetition, but, instead, the cessation of desire and death elude him more and more.” This offers some insight and inspiration for the characteristics of Sires in my story. Originally I imagined him as a hardened veteran trying to stomp our rebellion however making him more suicidal, wanting to die to end things once and for all is a more interesting character trait. The inspiration and theory gained through both Prometheus’ tale and through the philosophical debates of Stambaugh add a lot to the understanding of the narrative however I was keen to create a film that could be read into but didn’t have to be read into. This is inspired in a backwards way by Lost Highway (Lynch 1997) a film I personally didn’t enjoy because of the need to analyse for pleasure. My aim as a film maker is to make films which can be explored but don’t have to be read into, therefore I ensured that Sires can be viewed as a straightforward narrative about repetitive war and guilt.
Bibliography
1. Reichenbach, Hans, and Maria Reichenbach. The direction of time. Vol. 65. Univ of California Press, 1991.
2. Sacks, Oliver. "In the river of consciousness." New York Review of Books 51.1 (2004): 41-45.
3. Stambaugh, Joan. "Time, finitude, and finality." Philosophy East and West 24.2 (1974): 129-135.
4. Eisenstein, Sergei. "A dialectic approach to film form." Film Form: Essays in Film Theory (1977): 45-63.
5. Bazin, André. What is cinema?. Vol. 2. Univ of California Press, 2005.
Websites
1. "The Fate of Prometheus." 123HelpMe.com. 02 May 2011 <http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=22394>.
Filmography
1. The Matrix, (1999) Wachowski A., Wachowski L., USA, Warner Brothers Pictures
2. The Matrix Reloaded (2003) Wachowski A., Wachowski L., USA, Warner Brothers Pictures
3. The Matrix Revolutions (2003) Wachowski A., Wachowski L., USA, Warner Brothers Pictures
4. Pans Labyrinth (2006) Del Toro G., Spain Mexico USA, Estudios Picasso
5. Lost Highway (1997) Lynch D., France, USA, October Films, CiBy 2000, Asymmetrical Productions
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