Final Major Project

Proposal

For this project, I will be making a short film based on two poems that I have finally personally written under the influence of inspiration writers and film directors I’ll later on decide which poem to take on and develop into a short sequence of different pieces of footage, depending of feedback I’ll receive.

For my research I’ve taken inspiration from Terrence Malick to help in which way I’ve decided to direct my story, I decided to watch and analyze “The tree of life & to the wonder” which both initially helped steer me in the direction of where I wanted to be. Stories are unique and rich in emotion, I found comfort in his way of storytelling, and he takes us on an enchanted journey that has our undivided attention by the throat. I’ll have to research the methods in which he filmed the scenes and be able to take inspiration from that and show it in my own final outcome I will be looking at different styles of writing since, I’ve never written a duologue before and I’ll need to know the fundamental skills of writing and what makes a duologue truly great, I’ve decided to look at different forms of writing researching Antigone (monologues) Books from authors such as John Green, Charles Bukowski, Charles Saatchi, Paulo Coelho. I think studying the diversity of each writer will prove to be important since they all own an individual style of story telling and in which I could develop as a writer. I will also create a moodboard via Pinterest that will be a valuable tool in which I’ll be able to document images that have inspired me

In order to carry out my project successfully I’ll need to carry out different types of experiment that will help in the development of the filming part of my project. I will have to study the way in which Terrence Malick tells his compelling stories (the way in which it was directed.) also getting feedback

Currently I’m thinking of ways to explore the depths of how far i can go, what limits me? also what could be achieved in the time i have left.

Ideas?

I thought about possible ideas for my final project that could showcase my story telling ability, I’ve come up with the task of creating my own short story and adapting it into a screenplay. but instead of creating an ordinary situation I’ve come up with the proposal of creating a monologue that two characters with play out on screen.

So far the benefits of doing a piece like this is that possibilities are endless, through the correct manner of speech I’d like to successfully conduct a short piece.

STORY –

I personally wanted to write the short monologue about a young couple, the initial idea came from the movie “To The Wonder” that showed in full the strength of bond and trust in result a clear balance between two worlds that have collided

It will be a mixture of poem/monologue but without trying to make the audience search for the answer while trying to figure out the question? it will be simple but not easy to understand without really thinking about the strain on living in two complete different worlds

As time has gone on I’ve thought of a idea that is completely the opposite of what i had first thought of initially i thought of doing a narrative script about a girl that has lost love but still finds herself crawling back to it even though its tainted her heart. Also i have written a narrative script about a teenager that has found out he had a twin at birth that sadly passed away, out of the two I will gain feedback and decide on which one I will proceed with filming.

But for now i feel researching on written monologues is how I’ll be able to learn more and gain better understanding in general so first I’m going to look at monologues written by a man of the name of Sophocles which was born in 496 BC which his famous monologues have survived are still known throughout the world today.

MONOLOGUES –

Sophocles a man born in 496 BC in Colonus Hippius is without a doubt written down in history as one of the greatest play writers in history. His work has survived and lived through time since then, his stories carried meaning. An understanding of life, pain, broken bonds, love and life all things which are initial basics of creating something worth listening to but I feel making anything personal brings the story to life, anyone could write a script of a book without meaning but what I feel personally that if a poem or a book is written its most likely written from experience or some sort of loss or maybe just insane creativity or its a simple way of expressing compressed feelings through the lives of others.

There are many reasons in which i wanted to use Sophocles as apart of my research, I feel within his work there are ideas of creating new stories, things in which I could be inspired by its not directly connected with what I plan on fulfilling in the long term but what I feel I need to accomplish now is getting to understand what I’m actually writing about and within his stories are countless examples. Within my story there is a range of emotion I’d like to capture, for example feeling lost and misguided, broken, reborn, misunderstood, its a type of feeling that people of every culture and every race happen to experience at some point in their lives. I want my audience to feel a certain way about it after watching it, I want to capture the raw essence while blending in the my own style of writing.

Antigone –

Tomb, bridal chamber, eternal prison in the caverned rock, whither I go to find mine own, those many who have perished, and whom Persephone hath received among the dead! Last of all shall I pass thither, and far most miserably of all, before the term of my life is spent. But I cherish good hope that my coming will be welcome to my father, and pleasant to thee, my mother, and welcome, brother, to thee; for, when you died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you, and poured drink-offerings at your graves; and now, Polyneices, ’tis for tending thy corpse that I win such recompense as this. And yet I honored thee, as the wise will deem, rightly. Never had I been a mother of children, or if a husband had been moldering in death, would I have taken this task upon me in the city’s despite.

What law, ye ask, is my warrant for that word? The husband lost, another might have been found, and child from another, to replace the first-born; but, father and mother hidden with Hades, no brother’s life could ever bloom for me again. Such was the law whereby I held thee first in honor; but Creon deemed me guilty of error therein, and of outrage, ah brother mine! And now he leads me thus, a captive in his hands; no bridal bed, no bridal song hath been mine, no joy of marriage, no portion in the nurture of children; but thus, forlorn of friends, unhappy one, I go living to the vaults of death. And what law of Heaven have I transgressed?

Why, hapless one, should I look to the gods any more–what ally should I invoke–when by piety I have earned the name of impious? Nay, then, if these things are pleasing to the gods, when I have suffered my doom, I shall come to know my sin; but if the sin is with my judges, I could wish them no fuller measure of evil than they, on their part, mete wrongfully to me.

MY THOUGHTS – While reading this monologue I feel the character has gone through a sense of loss and confusion I picked up on the feeling it was like reflective journey of self-explanatory, more so regret, but with a ounce of betrayal still lingering in the back of his mind but simultaneously i also sensed the feeling of him gratified and humbled by his journey he relinquishes that feeling of holding dear to him his beloved family members, He reflects on certain moments in time “when you died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you, and poured drink-offerings at your graves;” which suggest to me that he committed an act that he couldn’t take back. He also recognizes or even more so analyses the lives and loss of others that could have possibly gone through hard circumstances “The husband lost, another might have been found, and child from another, to replace the first-born;” but what really caught my eye was when he mentioned “father and mother hidden in Hades no brother’s life could ever bloom for me again” which is a powerful reminder that he has lost all that was dear to him, it makes you think about how he must of felt during this time also which to my knowledge when he mentions “Hades” Means they’ve gone to rest in limbo a place where souls rest until “Judgement Day” he also expresses his frustration of being wrongly accused by someone that meant a lot to him in his life he explains the things that have wrongly been taken away from him that he could never get back due to his circumstances. Personally i enjoyed each moment and every moment of this tragic story since its more of a reflective rant rather than what could of possibly changed in the future, Its holds meaning that i would like to replicate into my own poem/monologue.

Macbeth’s Monologue – “She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)”

MY THOUGHTS – I could imagine this monologue being played as a narrative script over a sequence of different shots containing different parts of a scene that might not be connected in anyway I feel that in my own project this is the type of monologue I would like to pursue and see how the knowledge I obtain will help me in the progression.

Its known for there to be many types of monologue styles such as

But i feel in this case in particular i would like to learn more of the art and history of performance poetry because personally I feel its the one of many above that i can truly same i have actually connected with so i can say with confidence that within my poem there will be not trouble to seeing the emotion embedded into its core Or maybe a mixture between them.

Performance Poetry – Is formally known as a part of a play where the main character addresses another character in such he reveals his thoughts and feelings through a poem in a calm and isolated atmosphere Using repetition, alliteration, rhyme and kennings. In my project I will replicate the style of this poetry and i feel that this will help develop my personal style of writing.

The reason i like this poem because its personal and intimate and its close to heart it terms of what she’s saying from her mouth was written on nothing more than raw emotion, she found her inspiration from The poets Richard Siken “…Everyone needs a place. It shouldn’t be inside of someone else.” I feel the moral and understanding of the core of this poem touches the hearts and minds of many young women across the world. In regards to how its relevant to my poem is because i want to crystallize the emotion drawn and put into my poem i want to make people feel and understand it.

John Green – The fault in our stars – is a story where the stars reaches the heavens its a righteous tale of two hapless souls that have had the oddest of encounters within a cancer support group and from that point, we’re taken on a enchanted journey through love, pain, joy, happiness all crushed and molded into one soulful object that lives throughout each and every part of this story. I felt while reading this how love overcomes any circumstance you may encounter, visually and emotionally understanding the strain of its endless gut wrenching feeling of falling apart without that person you share that mysterious connection but also the rare infinite moments that last forever. For my project the main character has slowly but surely gone through the endless gut wrenching feeling and its of that she comes to turns with her situation yet while trying to let go of old habits.

Narrative scripts in Tree of life –

Tree Of Life

The reason I chose this scene was because I wanted to show the effectiveness of using natural light during the movie it just allows the scene to become balanced with bright bold color’s that you may miss, also the recurring motion of us being pulled towards the characters mining their movements and being apart of each moment together with the occurring situation. Another thing that I noticed was moments during scenes throughout the film that the camera being held from a low angle magnifying the character in the shot’s presence and importance of that very scene, In my short piece i wanted to add the same effect I wanted to show the audience the importance of both characters within the scene.

This shows a perfect example of what I’m aiming for in the final piece i feel doing a endless amounts of experiments will definitely help determine the success of my project.

This is another example of what I’ll be trying to achieve (1:27 -2:06) parts I’ll reproduce in my own style finding a way to connect my story to the way of how the scene is shot.

During the weeks I started to think more about my idea in depth because of the feedback i received and what was initially meant to be a poem about a couple turned out to change completely so here are two new ideas with the inspiration along side it.

Google Play Out Of Your Heart Advert.

Here’s another example of a monologue used from Google for their “play out of your heart advert” it consists of different films, games and filmed shots that was collaborated into the sequence

The Sunday Times – icon

Mood-board – I feel personally with every piece of art or object or human there’s story hidden away, a untold story of the birth and origin of it. Its timeless journey throughout time and its essence of nature within the story the history is unfolded and me begin to understand the it in a way that could have been misinterpreted or misunderstood. The reason I chose to use Pinterest is because i feel inspiration can take any form and its our reasoning and understanding that allows us to look far behind what we just see.

Idea Development

THE TWO IDEAS

I NEVER LEARN –

Template (First Draft)

The darkness in my heart won’t last forever but it’s tearing me apart

Who will be there to catch me?

How far do I have to fall?

What caused this much pain?

I see the luminous light at the end of the tunnel

Shall I go?

All I know is that I’m falling

So I might as well fall

But I pray someone catches me

I’m wondering aimlessly

Wondering aimlessly into you

Oh how I never learn

The sky still burns

Enlightened but not wise

Cold but still feel the fire in the sky

Oh how I never learn

Silly old me

The tree whistles

The ocean current crashes into my subconscious mind

But I’m still..

I’m still

Wondering aimlessly

Aimlessly into you

Oh how I never learn.

This poem i wrote is about a girl that’s fallen out of love but has the tendency to make the same mistakes “wondering aimlessly into you” meaning that after that heartbreak she still feels connected to that pain, in the poem i try to describe that and the hardship of letting it all go for good because its what she only knows as the feeling at “home” within her world. Its a type of poem that was created to allow whoever reads it to reflect on their own emotions and situations that may or may not be connected to having to let go of something being so familiar. whether it maybe a person or a thing personally I’ve imagined different parts of filming my project I’ve thought of using different parts of life that may seem completely irrelevant about the topic at hand but in someway or another everything is connected.

Temi -The poem is very good and intensive, drew me in straight away. Very good emotional vocabularies were used. Maybe you could complete the poem with something that will make the reader think.

Shaquilla – I think that it is good, though you should continue it. I like the inward reflection in the verses, it would work really well as voice-over over top of your film. You could possibly make it longer by mentioning more about the environment in the next couple of verses. This could give you some ideas about how and where to film it. Also, you could develop the story behind it by making the main ‘character’ come to some final realization about something, like possibly making them realize something about themselves or make a decision about something.

Xenia- I do like it even though it is a little bit depressing as a story. I do like the imagery and I like the emotion in the poem. I think that there should be a bit more development with your main character as she comes as a bit bland.

THOUGHTS:

I feel that while writing this poem that something was missing, so I went back to the drawing board and looked at parts that I personally felt could be expanded or descriptively altered. Here Underneath my final draft of my poem.

FINAL

After getting feedback from my peers we discussed the possibility of extending a part of the poem so it could be stretched out during the duration of the project that I’d hope will last up to 2-3 minutes long.

Here is what i came up with..

The darkness in my heart won’t last forever but it’s tearing me apart

Who will be there to catch me?

How far do I have to fall?

What caused this much pain?

I see the luminous light at the end of the tunnel

Shall I go?

All I know is that I’m falling

So I might as well fall

But I pray someone catches me

I’m wondering aimlessly

Wondering aimlessly into you

Oh how I never learn

The sky still burns in your eyes

Enlightened but not wise

Cold but still feel the fire in the sky

Oh how I never learn

Silly old me

The tree whistles

The ocean current crashes into my subconscious mind

I fear the great unknown

Let my soul rest in your embrace

Lonely as I might be..

Still..

I’m still…

Wondering aimlessly

Aimlessly into you

Oh how I never learn.

Conclusion – Its come to my attention that from both of the feedback I have received they’ve liked the second poem more and I understand why its because in the first poem while a read it I don’t feel as if it has a strong foundation enforcing the emotion to the front-lines, it almost kinda falls back on itself and entirely becomes just words and nothing more but whereas in the second poem it seems it could be developed more into something bigger and more heart wrenching the story of a boy aimlessly writing a story about his lost twin seems to be a deal breaker in terms of it being looked at with seriousness. But underneath this is the second story

(FICTION)

The next poem was named “Him” It Is about two brothers, actually twins that was born into this world on December 9th 2003 but no long after arriving in the world one of the twins sadly passed away because of abrupt circumstances, the mother of the children had to come to a harsh decision to save only one of the twins. Both unnamed and pure, years later the mother fell harshly ill and one night she told this story to the son that survived, he was named Isaiah shortly after hearing the news that he was born a twin he started to write letters to his brother. This was one of them.

To my soul that was taken away from me

I bleed internally for you

Under no circumstance did you die intentionally for me

Under no circumstance will I ever forget you

Indebted by promise

Under any circumstance my will is broken

Pierce my heart with your hatred

Open up the heavens

And cry down with your tears

My Trust without honor

Is no trust at all?

I am yours

You are mine

See through my eyes

Cry through my tears

Hear through my ears

Talk through my spout

Desire through my mind

Curse through my tongue

Death is the disguise my brother

Soon I will see you again

Until then I will live for the both for us.

Shaquilla – Between this poem and and the first one, I prefer this one. They are both poetic, but this one draws me in more than the first one. I wouldn’t make this one longer, you could probably make the video the length you want it to be by reading out the poem in sections. Some of the verses sound like they could be read out by a second voice. Have you considered getting the poem read by two people? I think that it might add something to the video.

Xenia- I do like the story of this poem more than the first one. I think this one is more poetic, touching and emotional than the other one as this one feels more unique. It almost feels like that there could be two characters in this poem so I think that this poem could be developed more in that regard. I think you could introduce that other twin if you wanted to.

For my sound experiment i will put together first draft piece of footage and audio together to give you an idea of what will be done in the final stages of my project but just on a high magnitude i need to see if things could be altered, see if it sounds and fits the category of what I’m trying to achieve.

Experiment 1

For this experiment I have decided to record my first attempt at hearing the audio live for the first time

Audio

For this

Temi-

Very good, clear voice illustration of the peom; I can hear the emotion.

Gozde-

The poem is actually sick. Didn’t expect it to be that good. Brilliant :-)!!!!

Sha

I like the poem a lot, though I picture it with a different voice. It does sound good but I think a deeper voice would be better suited.

Mark

I like the poem it would be better if it was said more tenderly/imitate try some different voices. some errors

Experiment 2

Same poem Different Voice

Feedback – I like the poem but i feel the voice used at first is better off for this type of film, it seems to be more relaxed and soft.

This experiment is just a bunch of random footage just thrown together just to see the result of what i could create and what from the experiment could inspire me to show in my final piece, personally i feel confident that with the feedback it’ll help push me in the right direction.

feedback

Experiment 3

Close up –

Screen Shot 2014-05-15 at 10.59.16

Thoughts:

Within my project I wanted to use a variety of different angles that could show the emotion of the character since there is no dialogue within my project I thought it was essential to use close ups to extract all the raw emotion displayed on the characters face. I felt that without it my poem will lose its purpose and emotion, it will lose its meaning and significance.

FEEDBACK

Temi – The angle that the camera was placed exposed the distinctive features of the character and you can read her emotions through her cheek bones.

Shaquilla – I like the framing of the shot. The framing, along with the subdued colors and her expression, evokes emotion.

Experiment 5

Color Correction

Before

This is a before image shot taken from my film as you can see the whites, blacks, mids and sats have all been set to a default settings it was different to what I initially visualized for my FMP (Final Major Project) so while filming i had to adjust the settings on my DSLR changing the ISO, aperture and shutter speed to gain the right lighting so when i put the footage into final cut I’d just have to adjust the contrast and saturation to numb the light.

After

Screen Shot 2014-05-15 at 10.14.49

Experiment 6

Tree Footage

Inspiration – While watching tree of life i spotted parts of the film that represented tranquility, be to one with nature and use the form and structure of nature to help build a bridge to the audience. I personally felt that the way the sun hid between was breathtaking and it gives off a calming vibe that allows you to just sit back and watch. So in my time during filming i took time to help capture those infinite moments of beauty. It gives you the time to sit back and admire the view.

Way of nature vs Grace – 20:14-2:18

Feedback

Experiment 7

Building Footage – Experimenting using color correction

I wanted to show the range of exposed and underexposed color that I had at my disposal it gives me the confidence that I’ll have a diverse range of color that I could potentially use in the end of my project I felt this experiment has allowed me to visualize the type of natural atmosphere I’m trying to capture i feel this holds a lot of importance to the success of my project.

Screen Shot 2014-05-15 at 14.29.35 This is another version of the same image but as you can see I’ve adjusted the saturation of the footage and you can see the sky has become grey