Irma's Proposal Draft

a small piece that addresses your proposal: http://irma-paperwork.com/docu_mm.html

What do you want to make?

I want to make a short film, let's say 20 minutes, with interlocking storylines and multiple characters. a good example in this genre would be the Film Magnolia. The film would use multiple visual languages but start as a documentary and then slowly turns into a fiction film.

The movie could start with the youtbube channel (something like this ) of a young female documentary maker character one , about 30 years old, she tells her followers about this man she is researching character two lives his life as a sovereign citizen and sees himself as The Tachyon Energy Facilitator. This man is actually a real person, and a want to start to make a real documentary about his political and spiritual points of view. I like to play with the realistic approach of a documentary. I'm fascinated with his lifestyle, political view and if he is successful as a Facilitator of energy. This subject is also connected to my research in my thesis.

Sovereign citizen: I'm still researching but at this moment I understand that a self-described sovereign citizens take the position that they are answerable only to their particular interpretation of the common law and are not subject to any government statutes or proceedings.

The Tachyon Energy: alternative healthcare where there is a belief that all matter is made of energy and is part of an Energetic Continuum, a term used to describe the flow of energies as they move down from the source. This stepping down process creates the third-dimensional world in which we live. A Facilitator would help you restore these energies.

The third character is not yet directly connected to the first two. I imagine a female perfectionist living in a "perfect" terraced house which is far too big for herself. She is nesting but doesn't have anyone to share her nest with. She is a neurotic perfectionist, she wants to live an interesting life, she wants to travel and share her life experiences, although she is too afraid to do so. She hires a photographer to take pictures of herself in a greenscreen studio. In her save apartment she edit's her holiday pictures to post online.

The fourth Character is the spying neighbor of the perfectionist, I can imagine him having multiple roles, being for example also the photographer and maybe a mechanic. I want to create an uncanny agreement between the two, an unspoken roleplay of a stalker and the victim who likes the attention.

The script is developing while I'm researching theories of plot writing techniques, analyzing films, books, and artists such as Omar Fast.

Interesting examples of Mocumentaries :

you answered what the project will be. try to also answer what will it do? what (done)/ how / why?

How do you plan to make it?

I want to develop the scripts and characters more, organize and research my characters. The man who is a sovereign citizen is this in real life, I know him, but have to ask if he would be interested to work with me. If so, I would try to meet/interview him.

The most practical storyline, the perfectionist woman, I would like to start filming soon.

What is your timetable?

Before Dec 2017

• develop the script
• Organise first location and actress
• Start filming the scenes of the woman
• research the real-life character, sovereign citizen, have a pre-interview.

Before March 2018

• Film all footage

Before April 2018

• First draft Film

May 2018

• experiment in editing the story for a 4 screen installation
• experiment in editing the story for a linear movie

Why do you want to make it?

I want to use the language of film to express my personal point of view on the world. I want to use characters to represent theories I've been reading. The visual film language is very approachable for a big audience. The stories can be read in different layers, which makes it a rich medium to express multiple senses.

Who can help you and how?

My first focus points would help with, locations, actors and developing my script.

• Next to peers, tutors I'm also trying to get some knowledge on creative writing during an extra course at crea/Uva

• First one to ask is my friend, I've used her before as an actress and want to ask her for the role of the third character. (meeting her next week)
• The home for this character is based on my other friend's house, hopefully, this could be arranged at a short-term.

• Get in contact and research the man who is a lives his life as a sovereign citizen. He has a lot of things online but at some point, I would be good to interview him about his political and spiritual point of view.

• At some point, I need to find the girl who plays the documentary maker, the "real" documentary part I would film myself, but the turning point of the movie, where the filmmaker becomes a fictional character that needs to be played by an actress.

Relation to previous practice

How does your research connect to previous projects you have done? Here you can use the descriptions you made during the Methods seminar or make new descriptions. Your Text on Method will also be useful in completing this section.

I see a lot of overlap in my previous research in the second character, sovereign citizen. In the theories of Ideology, the big other, trepanation (making a hole in the skull of a living person to create a higher consciousness) which seems in the line of the Tachyon Energy Theory, longing for a bigger power. I can also imagine there is a connection with the philosophy of Noam Chomsky and a person choosing to be a sovereign citizen. Both theories lean against conspiracy theories.

Relation to a larger context

In combination with my thesis, I would like to research the cause and effect of storytelling, the rhetoric's behind the manipulation of believability of the truth. (still working on this part)

Feedback Fabian, Steve, Nadine

• It's not clear for Fabian, are these the chapters already?
• It's not very clear what is the connection with Rachel or representing the persona.
• Something are a bit far fed, some a bit abstract, it could be more specific.
• Steve things a case study is a good idea, maybe a case study of her own work
• You've got storytelling, truth-telling, representation of true or false identity, but the o
• Social media communication is related to the film and previous work.
• Steve things an important element is rhetorics, but she should be more specific on what kind of rhetorics, you could analyze case studies instead of going in this historical path, that seems to far of your work.
• Storytelling as Rhetorics, Truth isn't relevant.
• Good to read about Post-truth, think about affective politics, this is more about emotion than reason.

(irma : Rhetorics to manipulate on an emotional level)

• Fabian, But you should realize that the thinking fast and slow, connection between emotional and reasonable thinking
• But we can agree that is is not about truth but the interpretation of truth. How storytelling affects the individual and she should use her own work as a case study.

• Steve : Take two of the books or articles that you are reading and write a synopsis. Use your instincts to select.
• Book tip Steve - Post-truth (it's on Emily's desk)
• Fabian Thinks about the power of words, book?