Author: Monty

Cultural
If done well, my films Will change peoples perspectives about living in artificial worlds

My intention for this project is to create a semi coherent narrative that will also include some of my previous films. The films I will make for this project can be viewed without having seen my previous work but I would like to include the characters and stories and worlds I have already made and in doing so create a rich and engaging narrative.

Narratively, the most important of my previous films in this respect are Killer Kat and Circuit Breaker. Killer Kat establishes a murderer who finds joy in killing. I would like for this character to be explored further. Circuit Breaker establishes another murderer and also a narrative context, in which behavioural learning algorithms are used to corrupt her mind and turn her into a killer, only realising her mistake once she has killed. The underlying context of these films the influence their environment had over their actions. In my next films, it could be revealed that Kat was a part of the mind control program depicted in Circuit Breaker. She could also work for the people behind the program. The protagonist from circuit breaker could be the wife in my next films which I feel would add a great complexity to her character and help explain her actions, or, she could be the villain in the final film, and the experience has she went through in the main control program help us understand why she has turned evil.

Film 3 – TracyCorp

Film 2 – The Briefcase

Film 1 – Waves of Sorrow

Finding actors Will be a major challenge. For the first two films, which I intend to make cheaply and quickly, the principal criteria Will be the actors availability and willingness to take part for minimal financial compensation. They must also be comfortable acting to extremes as I have no interest in capturing ‘normal people’ or ‘real life’ and instead wish for my films to feel like entering another dimension. Ideally, I prefer working with older actors but I know this will greatly Impede the speed of the production, and instead I will cast my friends.

I would also like there to be consistency of the actors throughout the films as each film Will be a continuation of the narrative from the previous. As such, I need people who will commit and who are able to act well.

Because my project is film, it will be necessary for me to research the work of filmmakers who explored similar ideas to mine, both visually and contextually. It will also be important to research the past, present, and future of the use of artificial intelligence as a means of control as I believe this Will do much to inform my stories.

To research:

Frankenstein
A Clockwork Orange
Alphaville (1965)
Being John Malkovich(1999)

I do not want to become weighed down with explaining my idea to others when I am not sure myself exactly what my films are about. The narratives are becoming clear to me, as are the characters and the style in which I will film, but the explanations of the motivation behind the idea are still misty. I have decided not to obsess over this as I do not want my films to become just like everyone else’s in an attempt to pretend I have something interesting to say. I make my films for the sake of art itself and I believe that rarely can art be explained, instead it should be felt and understood on a level that a written explanation cannot achieve. This being said, once the stories and films have become more concrete and the ideas have had longer to settle in my mind, it will become easier to extrapolate an explanation.

For the meantime, I will say this. My films are an extension of my own attempts to understand this life: notions of right and wrong; living in death; Love and hate; apathy and joy. I am aware this is very broad and non-specific but I do not intend to become trapped down with semantics and particulars as I do not believe this is the way art is made. I will also add that the films will explore the idea of artificial intelligence and the way it can be used and abused, and how it can help us understand our own minds.

My project is ambitious in scale and so good time management will be essential. For each film I will need to write a script, find the actors, produce, edit, and colour grade the film. This is a lot, and the first film of the three Will be my guide as to whether I am able to make another two or if I should stick to just the one or only make one more. Last week, I skipped uni to work as a in-house Runner at a large London production company. I did this because I need money to make my films and because I want to work in this industry after university. However, the long hours made me realise that producing of films while working a job Will be far more difficult than it is now. As such, this feels like my last chance to really make art that is entirely mine and on this scale, as once I leave university and enter the real world and get a job I will no longer have the luxury of a lot of free time. All I really want to do in life it’s make my art. It is the activity that makes time slip away and my mind to race with ideas and excitement. I fear what life will become if I no longer have a time to make it.

My reasons for wanting to be a director is not that I love film, I do like film but not nearly to the extent others do, and I far prefer Music and reading. It just so happens that my creative ideas materialise as moving images and narratives and this is where I feel I have a lot to say. As such, I would very much like to earn my living as a director. In an ideal world I would direct films, what are for the moment it is more likely to be music videos and adverts. My chances of being given money to make films relies directly on the quality of my films and ideas. No production company will give me money to make a film because I told them I’ll make a good one, they need solid proof, and this is what I’m going to create.

For the last several years I have been making films. However, they are of a very abstract and experimental nature and however good I feel they may be, they do not yet prove that I can successfully direct a story with narrative and actors. The next three films I will make for this unit, therefore, Will be narrative films made in respect of classic film conventions, albeit with my own style. I will definitively prove, one way or the other, that I can create and direct engaging an interesting stories and that my own style of filmmaking is successful.

Back to time management … because of the reasons stated above it is essential my final project demonstrates my ability to create a narrative and explore interesting Visual techniques, and so three films is necessary. This means my time management needs to be spot-on, and I don’t let the weeks slip-by without either producing, filming, or editing one of my films. I intend to spend six weeks on the first two films and six weeks on the third film as the third one will be by far the largest in scale.

To make this possible, the first two films Will use only the barest of crew and equipment, and everything needed will be sourced from what I already own or can be borrow for free. The actors will be my friends and I will make compromises when necessary. This will mean I can make them quickly and cheaply and so will have some time and money saved to spend on the final film.

Conversation with my Tutor
My intitial idea was to create a short film with live actors composited into a CGi world. However, over the past year I have been having bad problems with my arms and hands, making using my computer very painful, and so I have begun writing and thinking of narratives stories instead of computer graphics based visuals. To my suprise, writing follows a similar creative process for me as computer graphics: I have an initial idea which deforms and develops and comes alive as I work and refine and iterate through it. As such, for my final project, I want to make several short films that use no CGi and instead rely entirely on the script and direction for their successess.

After explaining this to my tutor, Anna, she explained that the final project must be just that: a final project and not a portfolio of work, and as such I should focus on one film and do it really well. After considering this I have decided I want to shoot 3 seperate films, all of which can be viewed in sequential order and the narrative and themes will continue and be expanded on with each film. My hesitation to make one single film is: the idea I have for the last of the 3 films is very complicated and ambitious and if I got into it without having tested the ideas on a smaller scale first I will make innevitable mistakes. Therefore, the first two films will test visual ideas from the final film and will set up the characters, world, themes, and context of the last film. This means any mistakes will be made in the first two lower stakes/smaller scale films and the final one will be as good as I can make it.


Themes
The purpose of these films is art. The ideas do not stem from specific issues but rather they are ideas that have come to me and I want to create. This being said, working backwards, there are some themes central to the narratives that are very clear and important. The films will use Artificial Intelligence based technology and ideas to explore what it means to be alive: is it enough just to be breathing or is there more to life.

Film 1 – Waves of Sorrow
The first film will be the most simple: a husband, Lewis, and a wife, Katy, will have a confrontation in their living room. It will be revealed that some terribe accident has happend to their daughter, and they are terrified for her. Throughout the film ocean waves will be projected across the room, creating a sense of the collosal weight of the tragedy for the parents, and will represent the waves of grief that relentlessly rush through them.

This film establishes characters and contexts.

Film 2 – The Briefcase
The film will be shot entirely in outdoors locations. Everything will be shot at night and use car headlights to light it. The sets will be created with a table and chairs and a lamp. The film opens on an evil and powerful man with a strange contraption on his head sitting at his table in an ancient forest at night. The wife, Katy from the first film, will arrive and he will explain to her she must retrieve a stolen briefcase for him and kill the thief, but will not reveal its content. It is implied Katy has worked for him for a long time, and that she kills for money. Katy accepts and leaves with half her money, the rest to be collected after completion of the job. As she is leaving the man mentions her daughters accident, and there is sub-context that he was involved. After she has left, the man makes a call and tells the receiver to follow Katy as she will lead them to the briefcase, before killing her and the thief and retrieving the briefcase. The assasin, who also wears a contraption on his head, hangs up the phone and follows Katy to her home on a huge moor, covered in grass that moves in waves as the wind passses. In her home is her husband, Lewis from the first film, who holds the briefcase. Katy explains to him she is being followed, and when the assassin arrives, they disarm him. The assassin appolagises, and reveals it was he that is responsible for their daughters accident as revenge for the briefcase. Katy removes his contraption and he dies. Katy returns to the man with his briefcase. He feigns happiness at his return, but she kills him and removes his headpiece and uses it to open the computer in the briefcase.

This film alludes to the use of AI technology and reveals Katy’s abilities and raises the stakes


Film 3 – TraceCorp