Project proposal 1204

What are you working on now?

My project Inside Triangle is a short experimental film, a mix of different kinds of video materials such as actual footage, found footage, and games. The pre-situation of the film is about a sarcastic family who moved to Mars, driving their spaceship on the way to a funeral on earth. I have written the dialogue for the project, currently I am preparing for the shooting of one of the scenes. The shooting day is in 6th December, I will use the green screen studio at Willem de Kooning. The following content are more dots rather than a complete picture due to my ideas still floating.

What are you thinking of making?

I have two options in mind. I will decide which options I will go for after shooting.

(snapshot)

Option one: Arguments dialogue on Screen read by machine

I want to make a series of 3 episodes about sarcastic dialogues between people. I guess at this path my focus would be the mean and bitter dialogues in any close relationship. For example: family members, someone’s inner voice, and a couple’s relationship. Also, according to the feedback I received on my script, the language style is very funny. I might use the English reading website Natural Reader to read my sarcastic lines, but I will adjust the machine voice, to fit different characters. (audio click) (add a sentence about people cannot control their emotions)

Inside triangle

I wrote a long version of the script full of bitter arguments between dad, mom and Mandy. I have a short version too that I will shoot soon. (put a dialogue)

Inside mirror

Inside Mirror is a young girl’s morning routine featured with the voiceover of her opinion towards others and life. I will put some similar Youtube video materials together and remix them. I already wrote the voiceover script, my lines sound depressing and struggled. This fits the topic “happiness” of the Eye project. I used to spend hours on Youtube to check what other people's lives are like, I wonder what makes them spontaneously energetic? Usually those Youtubers have their fancy morning ritual: makeup, matching clothes, dancing, observing their own face, talking to themselves… etc. But in my script the girl has an ordinary morning, she is shy, depressed and sensitive. She has her own struggle in her mind which makes the morning harsh and painful. She is mean, but she is meaner to herself. In this mindset, she is not happy at all. She maintains her own balance on a high level of narcissism and self-hatred at the same time to let her emotions go.

Inside bedroom

Inside Bedroom is a dialogue between a man and a woman. The situation is: the couple breaks up after this long deep dialogue. Some couples avoid deep conversations because they are more comfortable with the imaginary projection in their own mind rather than the truth. Some couples cannot seperate love and attachment. Also, words can hurt, because words can be misunderstood easily. The couple confronted to each other because they cannot control their emotions.

Option 2: Video Remix

The other version Inside Triangle could be an individual project. As I mentioned at the beginning, I will draw a cartoon background with green screen footage, and mix them together. Also I will use found footage and games to match my script.

How do you plan to make it?

Option 1

I will finish the script first and then put them in a machine reading software “Natural Reader”.

Option 2

If I choose to make “Inside triangle video remix”, I will shoot the scene first then draw a spaceship and galaxy as the background by using After Effects. Also I will get founding footages from different media.

Why do you want to make it?

Inside Triangle

The inspiration comes from a tragic experience of mine. I was driving and sitting inside the car with my parents, we do not usually appear in the same space. My parents did not trust me on my driving skills so they were scared. They made some annoying noise when they see other cars past. So I was offended. It turned out to a family war. After calming down I became more objective with that situation. When family members sitting in a close space, they have nowhere to go and they reflect each other's behavior. When people say something they do not have to mean something, most of the words in life are meaningless and useless. Words are the human interaction between each other to communicate their emotion and intention. Even though we can love and hate in a simple way, we just make it more confusing by words. We are too afraid of expressing our true feelings, and instead we do something else which created a significant block with each other. However the connection does not work in that way.
How to visualize my thoughts and combine them with my skills? I wrote the script because it is the easiest and the most direct way to tell the thoughts. But it is only easy at the beginning. Once entered the operating phase, everything became problematic. The sparks at the beginning disappeared gradually. I have to solve the problem from casting to directing and it was stressful.

Inside Mirror

Mirror is the only object that makes most of the people connect with themselves, also people try to fix their character by looking at the mirror. We always see ourselves in a 2D version throughout the mirror and we never know how does the objective world perceive us. On Youtube if searched ”get ready with me” or “my morning routine”, there are numerous Internet characters doing the same topic video and get crazy amount of views. So I thought about why people are so obsessed with those boring daily life topic? How about to project that on an artistic video but just to let the main character does her routine in a different way? Also my script is the core, I expressed my personal opinions throughout her storytelling.

Inside bedroom

Words could be a powerful tool as people manipulate over another, and in this dialogue I would write down how the couple try to understand each other but eventually the words and intentions backfired them. I write the negative dialogues because I can be extremely negative and annoying there which would never happen in my real life. Most of the artworks are polished, positive and beautiful, but I think rough, negative and ugly can also be a style.

Some"Whys"

Why my lines are annoying and make people uncomfortable? My writing strategy is to write the things out of the expectation, either inside the scene (characters) or outside the scene (audiences). I write the things that people may think but never dare to say which kind of anti-social norm. I think our brains are so well-trained to response reactions properly, then what if I response in a totally wrong way? I remember in Pink Flamingo, the lines are totally annoying too, but I quite like it.
I have got some feedbacks on my writing style.

“Quote: It’s like Google translated directly from Chinese to English”.

Inside my mind I think in both two languages depends on which language situation I am at. There are big differences between pictographic characters and symbolic characters, so when I use the metaphors in Chinese and probably it sounds pretty weird but funny in English.I guess it would be interesting to make the machine read my script.

As I pushed the project step by step, I revised my thoughts again and again. So I guess there will be some changes later .

Relation to previous practice

My previous project Fresh to Decay used the founding footages to illustrate my background voiceover. Technically there is a big relation between my previous project and the graduation project, I developed my method of video remix----by using founding footages to narrate the original storyline. Nowadays a film can be made by only one person, it is getting cheaper and easier. In a style sense, I used a humorous way to express some negative emotions in both of the projects because I try to see dark humor in everything.

Thesis Intention

There are not much relation between my project and my thesis.

My thesis title is: Human civilization is made out of illusion----Why live stream is addictive By analyzing the prevalent live stream in China and slow TV in Norway, as well as people’s addiction to social media, I assume that the more civilized in society, the less basic needs people had, then the less needs of going out. In somewhere a hostess make her life happen, then her life has been transformed to codes and signals gone through the receiver’s cellphone screen. Do the hostess actually exists in receiver’s reality? No. And things don’t exist can be called illusion, it is scary but how much pleasure we have got from technology are illusion? Countless…

Quote by Aldous Huxley: “City life is anonymous and, as it were, abstract. People are related to one another, not as total personalities, but as the embodiments of economic functions or, when they are not at work, as irresponsible seekers of entertainment. Subjected to this kind of life, individuals tend to feel lonely and insignificant. Their existence ceases to have any point or meaning.”