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Isolation & Connection | Twin Screen

Post author By tomsadegasellis
Post date 26th Apr 2020
No Comments on Isolation & Connection | Twin Screen

This film is titled “Isolation and Connection” because that is what it’s about, namely, the duality of human contact and isolation shown in separate panels. I wanted to show most panels show a character alone on one side and two characters together on the other; the natural assumption is that contact is good and isolation is bad.

This video disagrees, and shows variation in both ideas: in some clips the isolation is depicted as driving the unnamed character to despair and misery, for example through them rolling on the floor or putting head their head in their hands, while in other clips he is shown calmly reading a book. In some clips where two characters are together they are shown in explicit conflict, for example shoving or grabbing each other . One could say this is a duality of dualities, not all contact with others is good and right nor is all isolation wrong and cruel.

The only matching video clips are the ones at the beginning, where on one side the unnamed character is shown running away and another he is running towards us. The one of him running away shows fear, doubt, anxiety, mistrust of others and aversion to contact while the other panel showing him running at us could be interpreted as an antithesis to the above: curiosity and desire to connect to others, including the audience. Both panels, although they have only figure, imply the presence of others.

The man running away and towards us where the only clips shot outside, the rest where shot in me and my parents’ apartment on iPads.

The music was chosen and selected from a film I like from the 90s, “The Devil’s Advocate”, used in the credits. I don’t care about the lyrics but the beats are ominous and dramatic but alluring and energetic without being annoying or needy.

The lack of colour was inspired by La Jetée, and reflects the contrast of the thematic dynamic of contact vs lack of contact; by the use of just black and white. The use of stills is intended to separate the eyes from the use of moving images. The eyes are intended to give a sense of contact, through the expression of emotion, even though there is only one pair of eyes.

“Isolation and Connection” is one of my more unusual films, using black and white and still images to explore the contrast of mood and action. It is not intended to be a comfortable experience. In this I took inspiration from the claustrophobic atmosphere of Twelve Monkeys.

Manifesto

Artist Manifesto

I would like to create films which have a unique, distinct style.

I appreciate films which have a
darkness to them. For example, Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys, like his film Brazil, is both literally
and proverbially dark, with the scenes set in the future having dark, gothic architecture which suits
the subject.

I have used colour to try to create atmosphere as well. One inspiration for me were posters for the game “Batman: Arkham City” in which characters were depicted almost entirely in
black and white, with only a small piece of themselves in colour, drawing the attention of the audience to that part of them.

In my film “Body” I tinted every clip red to create an atmosphere of
violence.

I want to choose music which reflects the atmosphere of my films.

That is why I chose for my film
about “body” the song “Midnight, the stars and you”, an iconically ironic choice because of the
juxtaposition between joy, contained in the song, and horror through the violence in my film.

I am also echoing a film which I appreciate, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which is frightening by being
confusing. In the film, unlike in the book, the audience is given no explanation for the strange
visions that appear.

I also like music which fits the subject without being ironic; such as the darkness which comes
through the song “Nothing’s gonna hurt you baby” by “Cigarettes after Sex”, which I put into my film
“light”, in which I showed images of a man walking into darkness.

I also want to gain the viewer’s trust in my films. It is essential to have that trust, because it
enables the viewer to enjoy the film. That is what most writers want. The desire for trust is why in
my film “Politics” I used words like “Unity” which is especially relevant in the aftermath of Brexit
and in the face of the Coronoavirus outbreak.

That desire for the trust is also why I chose for that
film the speech from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” with its emphasis on the goodness of
man.

A distinct style can be found in different ways, for example through the use of only still images in
La Jetée, which interested rather than inspired me. I would say the same for the concept of
entering dreams and stealing information in “Inception”.

What most inspired me more was Twelve
Monkeys, because of its wider variety of scenes, using past and present, and Inception because
of the variety within the dreams.
I am a strong believer in stories in films.

Stories keep the audience invested.

I especially like films
which contributes new ideas to old franchises, which attracts new fans, which I feel, is vital to
keeping a franchise afloat.

A Director I admire for doing that is Gareth Edwards, who refreshes the Star Wars genre in Rogue One by showing darker, more unethical and unscrupulous behaviour by
members of the rebellion, usually thought of as infallible paragons, mirroring real life revolutions
and insurrections.

It also give the average man’s view of the Star Wars galaxy, with no Jedi and
only one Sith in the film.

Good stories can also work in less mainstream films.

Twelve Monkeys has a plot which explores
difficult issues such as mental illness whilst keeping the audience interested to see whether the
past can be changed.

The film also provides a twist in its casting by having a traditional action hero actor, Bruce Willis, in a less action oriented role, giving him room to develop.

Stories can also
appear in animation, as shown by a writer I greatly admire, Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack and other animations, who creates a very particular atmosphere by his combination
of soundtrack, plot and animation style.

My aim as a filmmaker and writer is to be creative, not original, because creativity, not originality,
opposition or deviation, is the opposite of derivative writing, which is dull.

Manifesto

My Manifesto.

Develop sequels or prequels to franchises, putting new spins on it,

challenging and deconstructing ideas and notions (not satirising them).

Create and write for tv series, planning out the entire plot from beginning to end and its universe.

Include moments of humour to give the audience space to breathe; but the jokes have to be well timed so have not to disrupt the tone or come at the expense of character’s development.

Appeal to a young target audience by having the story start lighthearted and gradually grow dark, as the audience I hooked in grows with it.

Depict mature topics like sex and violence sparingly and tactfully, and to further the plot and/or develop characters, not for cheap shock value.

Exhibitions

PICASSO & PAPER @ RA.

I could not attend this exhibition in person, but once I was informed that it was available as a virtual tour, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get to experience something that I thought I had missed the opportunity of viewing.

The early self portrait does not suggest sadness, although it is done in the Blue Period. So too, La Vie suggest creativity, the start of humankind.

His choice of circus performers in the Rose period might have come from his sense of being outsider, as an artist. There is a greater lightness to these pictures than those of the Blue period.

The inclusion of non Western influences in his work creates more disturbing images, with a focus on the face, such as in the Demoiselles d’Avignon.

He then heads towards greater abstraction, using not faces but solid objects such as a guitar, a bottle. I liked the costume designs for “Parade” with the splash of colour and little dots around and within it, and the skyscraper costume which forces the viewer to look at it.

The self portrait of this time is disturbing like a Cubist image but in a subtler way. There is something almost alien and inhuman about the “Head of Woman”. The images of Walter go one step further, with what looks like a penis on her head.

From the War images, the man and sheep series is oddly heartwarming, creating a pet/master dynamic. The disturbing sheep skull drawings remind me of the dark images H. R. Giger or David Kronenberg.

I liked the grouping of small paintings of women, which was creative and different to his previous compositions.

Overall, Picasso’s work is extraordinarily varied in style, sometimes erotic, other times cubist, with many different kinds of art such as portraits and sculpture.

The exhibition is available to view virtually here.

Reviews.

La Jeteé. A Review.

Director: Chris Marker | Release: 1962 | Genre: Sci-Fi

This brings us to the French short film that inspired Twelve Monkeys: La Jeteé. Made in 1962 and directed by Chris Marker it tells the story of another man, this time without a name, living below the surface of a hopelessly hostile world, destroyed by World War Three (a familiar fear of annihilation from that time, also shown, for pitch black laughs, in Dr Strangelove). He is selected, by an unnamed superior, and told that there is hope for the future, but it lies not in space but in time. He is sent back in time to bring back resources,

While 12 Monkeys wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows this film takes the nightmarish bleakness and abstract surrealism even further: there are no moving images, only still pictures, nor even a dash of colour, everything is shown in black and white, at one point a man’s face under a light bore an uncanny resemblance to a skull. Even the voices are grim and melancholy. There is no music, just a voice.

All these films have in common a darkness, sometimes literal and sometimes metaphorical, and all deal with the mind, including the outer reaches of sanity. All use music and unusual photography, of different sorts, to create a sense of confusion.

Reviews.

Twelve Monkeys. A Review.

Post author By tomsadegasellis
Post date 15th Apr 2020
No Comments on Twelve Monkeys. A Review.

Director: Terry Gilliam | Release: 1995 | Genre: Sci-Fi

This is not a cheery film, but what can one expect from the director of Brazil? Made in 1995 it is set after a plague has wiped out most of all life on earth and our hero, James Cole is sent from the future to gather samples so scientists can cure the plague and mankind can reclaim the surface of earth, and no longer live underground.

Twelve Monkeys deals with the theme of fate but unlike Back to the Future and the Terminator films (at least the first two) the hero fails to prevent the outbreak, and dies, the audience has to settle for a sample successfully being retrieved by Cole before he dies and being used to make the cure for the disease, allowing mankind in the future to repopulate the earth.

The film also deals with theme of mental illness and delusions, with Cole initially trying to convince the people around him that he can save the world from a deadly pathogen and that time is running out but eventually comes to question his own sanity and perception of reality.

Like Brazil this film has a dark, gothic aesthetic with buildings and scenery in different time periods, such as the underground shelters, the mental asylum which he is put in when he goes back in time. The camera angles convey the sense of an unhealthy mind. The asylum’s filthy aspect reflects the discomfort of Cole.

The music was ominous, adding to the atmosphere. It is subtle, using the accordion, an instrument usually associated with lightness rather than danger.

The lead actor, Bruce Willis, successfully conveys the feeling of desperation as he fails to complete his mission, and his frustration that people from the past fail to understand the importance of his mission. Willis, an action star, is well cast as a man who fails in one of his objectives.

It was particularly appropriate to watch this film during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Reviews.

INCEPTION. A REVIEW.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Release: 2010 | Genre: Sci-Fi Action.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

The protagonist, Dominic Cobb is a thief with the special, though not unique ability, to extract information from people’s brains while they are asleep. He meets with a man named Saito, claiming to have the ability to extract information from the mind and offers to protect his, even during sleep from thieves who steal people’s dreams. Cobb encounters a woman, Mal, who helps him get to Saito’s safe in his mind but she ends up siding with Saito. They take Cobb’s colleague as hostage.

Cobb and his partners wake and go their separate ways, with Cobb going on the run from his current employers. Saito catches up with Cobb and makes the extractor an offer: he’ll arrange to wipe Cobb’s criminal record (which would allow him to go home) if Cobb can manage to perform an inception on one of Saito’s rivals. Whereas extraction involves stealing ideas or information already in somebody’s head, inception involves the insertion of an idea into someone’s head in a way which convinces the target that they independently conceived the idea. Cobb accepts Saito’s proposal, even though he knows it has a catch: nobody has ever pulled off a successful inception, as the targets always realise that they didn’t come up with the inserted idea.

I enjoyed scene with the elevator where Cobb goes through memorises of his wife, which I found a creative way to move though non physical locations. The use of nature was beautiful; rain in one dream and snow in another, which felt added some environmental diversity to dreams

I especially like tow fight scenes in dreams, one where a hero fought another man in a hallway without gravity and another where Saito escapes a man in a stairway then runs down it but we see this from above and Saito somehow ends up behind the man and the stairway now has an edge that Saito and pushes the man off, it is both cleverly filmed and clever of the character. It is also clever because a similar effect was shown earlier when the architect was walking up some stairs with another character, which rewards the viewers to remember that scene.

Some of the dialogue describing ideas and their resilient nature I found clever, also the concept of stealing ideas and dreams within dreams. Dreams can appear real in the film not just because there are not surreal colours, flashing lights or whispering voices, but other people are present and are explained to be creations and extensions of their mind, which I found interesting.

I also enjoyed the twist with Mal being a projection created by Cobb of his dead wife, giving Mal and Cobb a sinister but intricate dynamic. In addition, I thought the way in which the dreams and reality were enmeshed in certain scenes were very well executed. For example, the dream life Cobb was living with his wife went faster than reality, which was mentally, 50 years.

The Soundtrack, composed by the talented Hans Zimmer, was ominous and dramatic, thus fitting with the film. Finally, the ending left the audience reeling if as we are left to decide if Cobb was truly reunited with his family or merely dreaming about them. Although, I can imagine it may be frustrating for some viewers, but it worked well with me.

Rating:

Short Films.

PERSONAL.

For this project I focused on my personal feelings as a an aspirant writer, taking inspiration from places where I have lived and people I met, as well as from where I live right now. I used objects from my immediate surroundings, and words, to evoke those concepts and aspirations, as well as worries.

I set the video to black and white with high contrast and had the words slide over the footage, like film credits. I chose a font that I found unusual and cool.

If I had more time I would like to include some special effects, perhaps with some blurring.

Uncategorized

Twin Screen Proposal

This is the tale of two adoptive brothers: the Right Hand (who wears white armour) and the Left Hand (who wears black armour). They live in post apocalyptic Europe, twenty years after an unknown event named “The Fall”.

The Right Hand is energetic, brash, hopeful and optimistic while the Left Hand is bitter, jaded, sardonic and world-weary. They are knights, and together they fight evil.

Short Films.

POLITICS.

You can watch my short here.

This time I wanted to try out the graphics on Premiere Pro. So I decided to keep the concept really simple and just use a combination of soundtrack and graphics. I thought about using political speeches and ended up considering “The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin.

It was made in 1940, a time when the truth about what was really happening in Europe was not out. Nobody knew about the concentration camps or the extent of what was to follow. The US was still attempting to avoid getting involved, and even in the UK the politics were not what we now choose to remember.

In fact, the British government of the time said that it would outlaw this film’s exhibition in the United Kingdom, in keeping with the appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany. (Wikipedia. Friedrich, Otto (1997). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (reprint ed.). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0520209494.)

By the time production of “The Great Dictator” was finished the UK was at war, and all of a sudden, its theme was no longer unwelcome. I edited the speech to keep the relevant parts and keep it down to 60”, and I chose the concepts and words that Come to my mind when I think about politics.

I made an initial try, which turned out a bit messy because I had not really learned how to use the background and the titles. I put that aside and started plan B: same idea but more refined and nuanced, staying with the same colours and font throughout.