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.

(12-07updated: my footages!!!)

What are you thinking of making?

I have two options in mind. I will decide which option I will go in the future according to the time situation.

Option one: Three computer insult each other

I will experiment with the insulting words read by machine. The final result will be a installation of three computer talk to each other.

Option 2: Video Remix

I want to make a series of 3 episodes about sarcastic dialogues between people. This will result in three videos. In this path my focus would be the mean and bitter dialogues in any close relationship, people lose their control because close relationship triggers strong emotional responses. For instance: family members, someone’s inner voice, and a couple’s relationship.

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.

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. I call this method as "video remix".

How do you plan to make it?

Option 1

I will type in some insulting Chinese words in Google translator and let Google translate them to English and Dutch and then let Google read it. There will be 3 tones and 3 languages. They sound like 3 people talk to each other. I will adjust the machine tones and make a new soundtrack, that can be added to a video or stand alone as a sound piece. I will put the sound piece in Premiere and add add subtitles in both languages.

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 annoying noise each time they saw other cars pass. So I was offended. It turned into a family war. After calming down I became more objective with that situation. When family members sitting in a closed 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 human interaction 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 using words. We are too afraid to express our true feelings, and instead we do something else which creates a significant block in our communication with each other. However the connection does not work 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 express my thoughts.

Inside Mirror

A mirror is the only object that makes most of people connect with themselves. People try to fix their character by looking in the mirror. We always see ourselves in a 2D version through the mirror and we never know how the objective world perceives 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 routines? How about to project that on an artistic video but just to let the main character do her routine in a different way? My script is the core, I expressed my personal opinions through the main characters inner dialogue.

Inside bedroom

Words can be a powerful tool as people use to manipulate one another.In this dialogue I write down how the couple tries to understand each other but eventually the words and intentions backfire. I write negative dialogues there because I can be extremely negative and annoying 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 powerful way to express (something).

Some"Whys"

Why my lines are annoying and make people uncomfortable? My writing strategy is to write the things outside 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, a kind of anti-social norm. I think our brains are so well-trained to respond properly, then what if I respond in a totally wrong way? I remember in Pink Flamingo, the lines are totally annoying too, but I quite like it.

To answer why I got the ideas of let the computers insult each other, I have got some feedbacks on my writing style.

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

According to the feedback I received on my script, the language style is very weird. Some people think my writing is non-professional, but some people do like it. At beginning I thought I will use the English reading website Natural Reader to read my sarcastic lines, and I will adjust the machine voice to fit different characters. As a bilingual I think in both languages depending on which language situation I am in. There are big differences between pictographic characters and symbolic characters, when I use the metaphor in Chinese it probably sounds pretty weird but funny in English even though I was describing the same things. Then the idea of making the machine talk to each other jumped out when I talked to Marloe.

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

Relation to previous practice

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

Relation to a larger context

Low budget Film

Personally I think John Water's films are under evaluated, he broke the barrier of right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. His films do not fit in any structures on cinema, after 40 years they are still stylish and entertaining. That inspired me think of what to focus when the budget is low. Obviously if the dialogues are interesting, then audience might ignore the rough production and look through the ideas from content. Also, in a small budget context, I prefer "proud of being rough" rather than "try to be polished". The mono scene movies also inspired me a lot, such as 12 Angry man, Festen, Coherence etc. The stories are pushed over by dialogues and acting. Each actor's unique temperament modelled the character no matter how they look like. I also like the actor who don't care their looks and not try to be fancy. Last year I remixed some videos when I developed my last project Fresh to Decay, it was a 0-budget film because I took almost all the visual materials on Internet. Music can be remixed by DJ but I seldom heard about video reuse.

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.”

References

Youtube keywords "morning routine"
John Waters: Pink Flamingos (1977)
Thomas Vinterberg: Festen (1998)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World Revisited (1958)
Sherry Turkle: Alone Together (2011)