User talk:SMB

It's a real shame you didn't make many of the GRS sessions. The text rambles and does not get to the point. I've suggested some edits below which can guide our meeting tmrw.

• [TITLE?] Cave Play

• INTRODUCTION

[Cut this and move to the proposal]

WHAT I WANT TO MAKE [ I suggest edits below. The submitted version lacked focus>>] Cave Play  is a short fiction film, 22 minutes.

The idea for the film sprang from an indexation box called THE BOX OF HUMAN EMOTIONS, which claimed to have gathered every human emotion known to mankind, through time and space, collected. Jealousy. Anger. Awumbuk [what is that?]. One that caught my eye was L’appel du vide (The Call of The Void).

In CAVE PLAY we follow Hamara, a middle-aged director’s assistant that has just broken up from her relationship. During a jog she is drawn to a cave. The darkness is impenetrable. Throughout the film we see here synthesising with her desire to disappear into the cave. While this is happening she strikes up a friendship with the leading lady from the ensemble she works with, named Francys. [<<is Francys in the cave?] Where Hamara is always the audience member, Francys takes up all the limelight.[how?] Throughout the film they will eventually shift roles until Hamara will finally experience the sensation of being actually seen, before disappearing forever. [<<tmrw you can explain this in simpler terms]

The film deals with l’appel du vide, as Hamara acts on this irrational or idiosyncratic idea that has taken hold of her. Questions surrounding the agency of desire, and the freedom to do things that are destructive are thrown around, just as the notion of the gaze.[ So you say, but how is that shown in the proposed film?] What does it mean to be seen? It’s important that the actresses in the film are women, as I often find the portrayal of women to be too moralistic and I find great pleasure in seeing women choosing their own truth, regardless of how that might affect others.[<< this actually comes across as moralistic and a bit mansplanish]

RELATION TO A LARGER CONTEXT

In my projects I often find inspiration in desires or thoughts people usually don't feel comfortable to address publicly. I find this a helpful rule of thumb while writing and developing ideas. [how does your proposal address that. How do you presume to think for other people?]

I also take inspiration from a wide array of media and people such as Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Camille Paglia, Jordan Wolfson, Chris Burden, Maggie Nelson, Dennis Cooper, Taeko Kono and many others. (for more information see annotated bibliography)

WHAT IS YOUR TIMETABLE

[Your timetable lacks specific actions taken on specific dates; not really sure of the outcome (film? Script?). Needs to be broken down in stages, clearly and consequentially ordered]. Until I know if we are able to shoot the film (depending on the funding I might get) I will focus on continuing developing the script. I will do this in tandem with shortlisting and location-scouting. [

After we have the go -- I shall focus on directing-preparations and more talks with the team as we’re kicking it in to high gear.

I intend to shoot between the end of February and the beginning of April.

Afterwards I need a month or two to work on the post production. I could have everything done by the end of June.

[a lot is hanging o 'could' here (funding, everything running without hitches &c. Not convinced this is viable, too open to contingency and not specific about outcomes]

• The bibliography is so big as to be meaningless (and it is nowhere near annotated). Choose five books, films or other media (at most) which have a direct relation to your proposal and give a longline in no more than 3 sentences of the book. The reader will then recognise the relation of the annotated text to your project.

• There are no visual guides of prototypes, works in progress that support this proposal. Seems a bit half baked and theoretical to this reader.