TE - Project that may or may not be made
14 SEPTEMBER 2023
WHAT?
A short film called ‘To My Motherland‘ (working title) explores Thailand’s deep-rooted superstitions and rituals. Blending documentary and fiction, the narrative reveals ritual performances that shed light on issues of social inequality, capitalism, and sexism.
HOW?
I will take full charge of all pre-production and post-production processes; meaning I will do research, write the fictional script, edit, and color-grading by myself. However, in the production process, I plan to collaborate with my fellow performers. Even though I plan to be the director of photography for the project, I will need some assistance in shooting in a site-specific location.
WORKFLOW
Firstly, gathering and researching Thailand’s deep-rooted superstitions and rituals.
Then, I will select beliefs that reflect on social inequality, capitalism, and sexism issues. I plan to write a fictional script based on the selected beliefs. In the editing process,
I will find the archive footage related to those beliefs and edit it with the footage I shot.
TIMETABLE
September - October 2023 — Research and Finalise the beliefs that reflect on social inequality, capitalism, and sexism issues.
October 2023 — Writing the fictional script, finding performers to collaborate with, and shooting.
November 2023 — December 2023 Shooting and Editing.
January - March 2024 — Editing and sound mixing. (Shooting more if needed)
March - April 2024 —Color-grading. And fixing according to the feedback.
May - July 2024 — Feedback and Fixing.
PREVIOUS PRACTICE
‘To My Motherland‘ will be presented as a hybrid of documentary and fiction which is similar to my previous mockumentary film titled ‘The Holy Sponge’. Both films speak about the deep-rooted beliefs/cliché stories in Thailand. I will mainly focus on using a sarcastic voice narration as well as explore the spiritual connection to my motherland.
CHOICE MADE
In this MA, I have chosen to create work based on political issues and focus on ironic and fictional narration. Simultaneously, I continue to find different ways/structures to create work.
V2
What?
A short film (approximately 5-15 mins) titled Repeat After Me will focus on the repetition of dialogues and actions in Thai propaganda films from the late 19s until nowadays that were used to brainstorm and manipulate people in society. It will create a sense of hypnosis and make you aware of what you are perceiving. It will be shot in both digital and analog 16mm. cameras.
Why make it?
I would like to develop the research on propaganda in Thailand further. I consider "The Holy Sponge" , my recent film, as a start of creating political work with an ironic approach. I think there are a lot of possibilities to dive deeper into this topic; it is one way to understand the society I grew up in.
Workflow
Firstly, I will select and watch propaganda films that are effective in terms of implanting a particular idea, analyze them, and pick some terms or sentences that were used several times in the films. Secondly, I will create work based on the selected term and sentence that I got from the previous stage. Then I will explore the term, phrase, or sentence from the works I made. Lastly, I will select some terms and sentences to depict them through my film as a final outcome.
Timetable
Now - July: Research on propaganda films from Thailand. Watch and select films regarding their efficiency in brainwashing.
July - September: Analyse films and make work based on selected terms or sentences that are derived from the films.
August - September: Analyse the works I made from the previous stage and explore some terms, sentences, and ideas.
October: Select the final terms, sentences, and directions of the video. Plan on the pre-production process.
October - November: Production (shooting).
December - January: Post- Production, Editing, Color-Grading.
February- April: Feedback and Fixing.
Previous practice (use material from the text on practice)
Repeat after me will be the further expanded film from my previous research when I’m developing a mockumentary film titled The Holy Sponge.
Both films speak about the deep-rooted beliefs/cliché stories in Thailand that have been told for a long time. I will mainly focus on using a sarcastic voice narration as well as explore the spiritual connection to my motherland.
Relation to a wider context (no more than three sentences)
Fisher (2014, p.125) reminded us, "Home is where the haunt is." Moving to study in the Netherlands encourages me to conceive the deep-rooted beliefs/power dynamics from Thailand as well as other places of the world because I believe that power hierarchy is presented in every country.
What was the biggest CHOICE you made in relation to your work this year?
This year I chose to create work based on political issues and focus on the narration using objects as the main characters. I also spent time experimenting with sound. And continuing to find different ways/structures to create work.
Rapid prototypes (scratches)
1. Find a propaganda film you found on https://archive.org/ or other source on internet
2. Collect the cheesy terms / dialogue said in the films
3. Reproduce it (again & again)
4. I was born here. And I will die here.
V1
What?
A time-based media titled Repeat After Me will focus on the repetition of dialogues and actions in Thai propaganda films that were used to brainstorm and manipulate people in the society. It will create the sense of hypnosis and make you aware of what you are perceiving. It will be shot on both digital and analog format.
Why make it?
I would like to develop the research on propaganda in Thailand further. I consider "The Holy Sponge" , my recent film, as a start of creating political work in an ironic approach. I think there is a lot of possibility to dive deeper into this topic and it is one way to understand the society that I grew up in.
Workflow
Firstly, I will select and watch the propaganda films that are effective in terms of implanting a certain idea, analyse them and pick some terms or sentence that were used several times in the films. Secondly, I will create work based on the selected term and sentence that I got from the previous stage. Then I will explore the term, phrase or sentence from the works I made. Lastly, I will select some terms and sentence to depict them through time based media.
Timetable
Now - June : Research on propaganda films from Thailand. Watch and select the films regarding their efficiency in brainwashing. July - August : Analyse films and make work based on selected terms or sentences that derived from the films. September : Analyse the works I made from previous stage and explore some terms, sentences, ideas.
October : Select the final terms, sentences and direction of video. Plan on pre-production process.
October - November : Production, shooting.
December - January : Post- Production, Editing, Color-Grading.
February : Feedback and Fixing.