As I approach the shadow of the end of the module and begin to walk into the light of a new year, it would be safe to say that my candle of imagination has been flickered heavily by this term; and I feel much more developed and mediated due to its cause.
Approaching the module at the start of term, I realise I was minimalistic in terms of knowledge about the three themes. I had a conventional mind and didn’t realise there was so much deeper theory and broader possibility in the possible creation of these three themes. I leave the module feeling challenged, worn, torn and twisted – but efforts in which have left me feel enhanced, victorious and making my perception of the mediated world greater beyond all possibility in which I thought was actually possible in terms of perceiving these three themes at the start.
I have always been a media person with large whisks of creativity. I have always wanted to create something specific that stands taller from the rest, ideas in which are labelled to me as a little bit extra of extraordinariness. In which I think in all three of my artefacts I have done that, they are simple and really basic ideas in which have blossomed into videos of uniqueness and onto a special level I feel. They are all narratives of ideas in which I am very interested and fascinated by within our culture; the myths of cinematography, the fascination of celebrity culture and collective memories of legacy. Three ideas in which I feel provoke the three themes in a more creative angle, simple but beautiful. I think its very important to a relationship with your work, you have to approach each text with a deep interest and love for, that’s why I am really proud with the finished series and collection of my work for this module. Not only did I develop a theoretical knowledge of the themes but also I developed my vision on perception of subjects that I have a deep interest for.
I think of course, given more time, extra space to develop these three ideas I would create something more spectacular but I have strived everything I know both practically and theoretically into these three themes. Not stricting my self to a stereotype of films, but trying new experiments in which the text can be signified for example, stock motion or split screen. Opening the boundaries of my vision on a creating element, which of course helps my vision on provoking my final project next term. These three themes have defiantly enhanced my perception on the idea of my final project. By researching examples such as psychological experiment like The Stanford Prison experiment and how it’s relevant to reference it to celebrity culture, I have become more aware and provoked of the mediated culture and society in which we live in. my artefacts perceive my knowledge within the themes, avoiding best the conventional ideas and instead testing my ability and understanding in which I have created three videos in which I believe signify power, spectacle and memory to a significant level.
As I close the window on the module, I leave with three quotations in which I believe have provided me with not the knowledge, but an influence throughout. Not definitions, but a perspective in which has directed me and helped me expand my imagination and approach.
“To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasure, we must go to those who are seeking it” – Charles Caleb Colton (1780 -1832)
“The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.” – John F. Kennedy (1917 -1963)
“Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.” – Bob Dylan (1941 – today)
Pitch: A short film containing mix media of still and moving image. Displayed in a split screen format, the film evokes the collective and personal memory that ‘Abbey Road’ signifies to the world, both individually and as a mass.
The third project of the series was for me, the hardest video to design and construct. Approaching the theme, I felt confident, I felt that the video would be very much as capable to do as the previous two. But for me, this idea required the most thought, an approach that took much planning and formulating in order for the video to ignite right.
Looking back now, I may have complicated my imagination far too much; I didn’t want to do the conventional personal memory approach, by portraying some element of my child hood on to the screen or a time that means most to me in which some people may struggle to connect with. I wanted to do something different, unique and an idea in which is more a global memory in which didn’t seem the most obvious. I began by recapping through my own archive; books, videos, trips, adventures and things that I have seen that have an emotional effect to everyone. It was then, when I discovered the Beatle legacy, in which I have visited in both London and New York; and legacy in which unifies a lot of people all over world – a collective memory in which a great mass share.
Choosing ‘Abbey Road’ as my subject, I felt was a different and monumental approach to the theme compared to alot of others people within the group. After visiting their back in April and witnessing people all over the world coming to this zebra crossing outside a recording studio, I realised it played a very important and special part in peoples lives, everyone had a memory of the location, but everybody’s memory was different. I myself wasn’t born, but its through stories of my grandparents, paintings and my own personal connection to The Beatles in which I realised the emotional connection in what people have with the group, and this location, this remote connection in walking across the same crossing as four people did famously in the late 60’s meant a lot mentally to people. It’s a passive fashion, a place where people from all corners of the globe and express their thoughts and memories in graffiti on the wall of the studio and then have a photo walking across the crossing; it’s a human myth, this celebrity and monumental time of music that excites us and fascinates us to do so. The Beatles connected a lot of people and still do; this was a place where a unified love for the group was expressed. A prime location and reasoning for my project.
The production shows the life of Abbey Road, an insight to the actions and memories in which are left and created. But what I did discover while I was there was a ‘love’ for the group, the word was frequently written on the wall and the whole atmosphere of the place, despite the sub zero temperatures, was joyful. That’s what I wanted to replicate into my video; a happy atmosphere of remembrance.
Through photography and video I wanted to capture as much footage as possible because after looking at split screen techniques and ideas, I realised that the footage would be multiple in useage and so even for a one minute piece, I had to gather a large quantity of media. But one idea in which I triggered as I was filming was how present the title and credits of the film. With the fashion of the public to write on the wall – I used my stock motion techniques from the first video of the series (power) to present them on the wall as if they were being written on and surrounded by all the other authentic messages.
The postproduction of my video was a very difficult and long process. The idea of split screen really interested me and I was determined to portray my skills within this idea, but one element in which I was transparent from before, was how to edit the piece. Doing it with video footage was fine, it was easy and looked great as it moved in motion, however still images are a lot more complicated and I had to individually state them in their place. Which was very difficult to do with 600 photos, it was very complicated to get them in the same place in order to make it flow in a beautiful and steady motion. However the outcome played to my advantage I feel, the images are jerky, a bit jumpy and aren’t issued in the same place as the prior or the next – in which creates this movement on the screen. But this movement and more jotted motion I feel adds to the atmosphere of the location; it’s a fun, loveable and it adds to the nice tone of the video.
The outcome of the video on a whole, and the theme of memory to me – is very positive. I do feel that this last sequel of the series was the most hardest, it required for me, a lot more inspiration that the other two. They were more based on themes and art in which I was very interested in at the time and become a more natural birth of idea – where this theme needed to be explored and like my previous two, I wanted to create something of extraordinary and difference. In which I think I have achieved. I have developed a much more theoretical approach to the subject and wanted to provoke a global memory, rather than a personal story in which I think may struggle to be connected with viewers. My ideas are on a mainstream base, they are created for the mass audience – rather than the individual. Which I think can be a good thing in this form, because although they appear for the mass, they are also unique and an interesting perception within the themes. This video I am particularly proud of because not only enjoy filming it and feel it provokes a collective memory – but also because it challenged me to a maximum level in which I feel accomplished with its conclusion.
“These boys wont make it. Four-groups are out. Go back to Liverpool Mr.Epstein – you have a good business going there” – a major executive f a major British record company,1962.
Despite the volumes of analysis that have gone into researching Beatle phenomenon, the ever-lasting value sees their songs bring the fondest memories. Since 1960 they have enchanted us with their profiles, became one of the most commercial discourses of all time, leaving us wit h their prolific output in which we now consume in today’s society. I think there is a potential project for the forthcoming ‘memory’ theme in which is subjected around ‘the fab-four’.
When I saw Sir Paul McCartney last Christmas at the o2 Arena, it was a ecstasy and breathtaking performance – it was like one I had or will ever witness. All ages, all cultures and all races worshipping the root of the group. It was a concert of excitement for all, in particular Sir Paul, who told many tales throughout the concert and fluently linking a story with a song – in particular the songs that embraced a dedication. Telling a story to thousands of people at the same time of the first time he met George (Harrison) and also how he showed George this song (‘Something’) and he didn’t really like it, as well as referencing his late wife, Linda throughout – explaining how and why these songs mean so much to him. It was like watching your Grand father tell some of the most extraordinary adventures and times in which you can not imagine, evoking you to feel very emotional and just speechless. He was just a man sharing memories.
I have in the past visited many Beatles ‘monuments’ – such as Strawberry Fields, The Dakota Hotel and Abbey Road – in which are very touristy places lying in the central of two of the most attracted cities in the world; London and New York. They are locations deserted and left to the public as part of the legacy in which The Beatles have left behind. Not only have they left behind their discography of music; in which is regarded as the some of the best in history and has influenced some of the most famous and successful artists ever since, they left behind a legacy of fashion, personality, beliefs, haircuts, music techniques and art.
“These are places I remember, all my life” – The Beatles, In my Life
Myself have no recollection of The Beatles, I just simply wasn’t born, but my grand parents have a pristine memory of the time they first hit the charts, their ‘visit to America in 63’, and how Beatlemania just grew and grew, however they also remember the clouded parts of their story, the deaths of John and George. These memories are passed down – the music and the styles in which the group presented themselves with was passed down, their legacy is as powerful as another, they were a global memory. My memory being the archive that I discover, the new track of the anthology album, a new book about life with The Beatles (can there be any more?) or even looking at more contemporary memories in which the legacy is blossomed to the modern audience; The Beatles rock band and the Xbox and even the accessibility in being able to buy all the Beatles tracks on iTunes, in which saw a major breakthrough between the two companies involved (both called Apple) and then there was Beatles week on the Uk television show, X Factor (the most popular UK show of the day). So you can argue that The Beatles haven’t really done it for you, and that’s fine – its opinion, but it’s a fact to say that even the a five year old playing drums on ‘She Loves You’ is now washed with this Beatle legacy that is turning to be immortal.
The Beatles play a part in everybody’s memory – but everybody’s is different.
“You will never disappear” – The Beatles, Long and Winging Road
After looking into various media forms and regenerating my approach as I look to create my memory artefact, I arrive at looking at various ways of functioning the piece. One-way to consider and in which we have been recommended to trace upon is the idea of ‘split-screening’.
Split screen is a technique in which simply divides up the visuals into two, three, four or possibly more; creating multiple options for the viewer to perceive the text. It could be used to show a persons perspective, with each split screen representing on individual – like you do when you play gun-fire games on consoles, the screen is divided up into a number point of views in which you perceive the game play and reality through that particular set of eyes.
In this post I will look upon and analyse various media texts in which split screen has taken place.
Starting with the first clip I have displayed, 500 Days of Summer. Although there is only a snippet of the split screen technique in the trailer, the film contains a lot more uses of this technique. But starting with the example in the trailer, the technique is used about 35 seconds into the trip clip to show the different perspective of the characters, a more biographical image rather than through their ideas; but the technique lets you compare and contrast the home footage. Giving you understanding of the two protagonists and the narration of ‘a boy meets girl story’. However contrasting this example is a later example in the film where the filmmakers use the technique to represent different time zones – or infact reality and idealistic. Splitting the screen into two views, the reality is delayed a few seconds behind the idealistic point of view. As the idealistic represents what he wants to happen, the reality view follows a few seconds behind, however not manipulating the same actions as the idealistic point of view witnessed, infact the opposite – the reality parallels a negative outcome, the positive being the idealistic. But it’s a very clever approach of displaying one person’s imagination of what he wants to happen at that particular moment, to what actually does happen.
Moving onto 2000’s Requiem for a Dream, a film that focuses around the themes of addiction, obsession and desperation; leaving the character locked in a imprisoned mental society, overtaken and crying over the truth and reality. If you haven’t seen the film, its not your conventional film – its very experimental. It uses multiple to reveal itself to the audience, techniques what aim to portray the obsessions and painful truth in such a way in which makes it impossible for the viewer to understand the true pain what the character go through.
However, the techniques that are used (as seen in the trailer below) are very well shot display various meanings within their usage. Splitting the screen fast forwards the element of time; propelling the correct feeling to the audience, but also displaying of ‘drug use’, due to the crazy and wild use of the camera to show the experience. Pursuing the shows theme of showing a imprisoned personality damaged by drugs and obsession. It is used to capture a momentum, a feeling, a crazy experience for both the character and towards the audience.
Let me introduce you to the 1966 experimental underground film called Chelsea Girls. Noted for being Andy Warhol’s first major commercial success after a long progression of more avant-garde films. The full movie is presented in this split-screen format, which is an immediate difference to the prior two examples as they only have certain scenes in which manipulate the usage of this technique. The narrative tells a number tales of several young women who live in this hotel, Hotel Chelsea. But what is interesting with Warhol’s approach is that he uses both contexts of colour, not is it just black and white or solely colour, he combines the two for certain scenes; displaying one as colour and leaving the other side of the screen black and white. A very unusual approach by Warhol as film texts never normally entwine both of the colour styles, making it very unusual to watch but forever fascinating. Warhol not only tells various stories at the same time through this format but he also displays them different; this to me signifies a feeling of time. The past is often perceived as black and white, the present in colour. An extremely clever and experimental approach in displaying the split screen technique.
Now I want to show you the trailer for the Coen Brother film The Big Lebowski, if you click on the link to watch on youtube, you will see the trailer appear.
Immediately the trailer splits into multiple visuals, later creating the sequence in which scenes from the film will be shown. As you can see the trailer certainly displays multiple screen splits, exploiting clips of ‘The Dude’ and the other characters in the film. I perceive the trailer as a sort of a comic strip layout, displaying the best bits but very hectic in the amount of visuals it displays. Showing very scenes involving particular characters for each clip; each clip has reasoning for its placement. Signifying a butterfly pattern, a image that has a lot to look at but what is also so beautiful to watch. It gives out a very unique approach to a movie trailer, it flabbergasts it with excitement; its fast, its funny and it looks cool. If all these clips were shown immediately one after the other then it wouldn’t work, but because you are seeing multiple scenes at once gives it a special attractiveness; it unique but contemporary, there is a lot to perceive but it looks fun. You want to be apart of it!
The last example of split screening I want to present is from the 2000 American experimental film Timecode. This film is defiantly the most exhilarating performance of split screen on this post, it’s a four dimensional story, filmed simultaneously by four different cameras and that are each divided on screen in quarters to be shown also, simultaneously. Now this method immediately breaks all the conventions in which we are parallel to. We are only used to be seeing one screen and make substancetial boundaries for the use of split screens (like the examples above), but this is like playing a video game with 3 other friends and keeping an eye on all 4 screens at the same time, its very much impossible for us to undergo. However, one technique in which the makers of the film is to dominate the sound significance of each clip, by presenting the audience with a higher volume of sound for that particular scene, we can justify ourselves to watch the high decibel scene over the others because that’s what has been presented by the makers as the ‘most important’. It’s a very daring product to experiment, however it I think it works to an extent; the sound volume helps a great deal and allows us to understand watch scene to watch conventional, making it feel accepted because we pursue the makers wouldn’t want us to miss a ‘important’ scene and we feel safe knowing that we are safe to be watching that particular clip. I have negative thoughts about trying this out personally, as I don’t think it exactly propels the right amount of relationship connection with the story and the characters, but it is a very exciting thing to watch and a fascinating experiment by director Mike Figgs.
Meanwhile, another video which coincidentally is also called Timecode, in which is a movie video for a Bright Eyes track also uses the split screen method. It’s a very simple narrative but is a very powerful pursuit by the creator. Its very clear that the man in the video is fighting against time, a simple but still interesting approach to the split screen technique; this time keeping what I believe as the same protagonist but developing the story with a extra screen.
“Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.” – Oscar Wilde,
Approaching the theme of memory after studying power and spectacle, I pursuit it with looking at it with a more broader perspective. Power is more than just the physical and alpha strength of one human being – it can be a discourse, controlling and twisting our perspective and the messages in which are provoked to us by the media, via television shows, newspapers, websites etc. We are entwined and stitched into a world where we don’t question what we perceive, pursuing as slaves that have adapted to a prison perceiving life in which our master has given to us (Foucault theory). Spectacle isn’t just a photograph, it’s a visual created that powers through the boundary as normal, creating a substancetial remarkable effect. The audiences are propelled in the visual, its results creating something of what can be seen as extraordinary – take the Stanford prison experiment (1973) that displays one economic of a spectacle. Its not just the photograph, I approached the subject in looking at the findings and philosophy behind that image – the reasoning and the findings. So as I approach ‘memory’, I haven’t got the immediate initial perspective as I told at the start of the module, I feel more evolved and equipped in approaching more variety of media forms and evoking the memory from the object.
But what is memory? Oscar Wilde described it as a diary in which we simply just carry with us. Which I guess is correct, I think it is hard and possibly technically impossible to find a correct and direct meaning of the term, however I have uploaded a few forms that evoke around the theme of memory – my interpretation of it and analyzing how everyone may provoke it differently.
Take a look at the trailer below, from the French film ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ (2007). A film based on a true story in which is about a journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, in who records his memoirs after suffering a stroke, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. The most remarkable spectacle about this story is that it was written through the blink of his left eye. With the help of his speech therapist, they start to slowly function a relationship and language in which narrates into Bauby writing about his current memories and post stroke as well as reflecting upon life pre the stroke. The film itself slowly broadens out between the two boundaries of time, as you learn more and more about Bauby’s life before the stroke and what he was like in which stitches you to the character in which he once was and comparing it to what you see him currently – a character you just simply you have a sorrow for but remarkably respect through his progression. He captures a time and records his current state in which people would never really truly understand the perspective without perceiving it for themselves and giving us an insight to life before. A striking collection of memoirs that are so unique and extraordinary to us viewers.
Jean-Dominique Bauby died 10 days after the books publication.
“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.” – Salvador Dali
Myself at the John Lennon Memorial, Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York
One eloquent approach to memory is revitalising yourself within a ‘historic event’. Visiting places where such an event has occurred in which has shattered the ‘expected’ narrative of the world of that time. One example of this is the death of John Lennon. Over summer I visited various America cities and states but New York for me was a city in which contained the most legacy, although some of it was not intentional and others were simply a horrible tragedy, the city had a history in which as a visitor you wanted to perceive and evoke the atmosphere of that location. In New York you could go to Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Grand Central or Times Square and be swept away by feeling in which is provoked by such a place. Ground Zero is the place where I felt most redundant, helpless and alone. In which was strange to me because I was travelling the city solo and was happy in doing so, but the feeling of area was unique – a feeling I had never grasped prior. I only have my memory of sitting in a classroom 9 years ago and understanding what had happened and then to all of sudden be there with the developmental construction going on, it is impossible to calculate anything. You understand the impossibility of stopping New York, its clockwork – but this did, and it was a global shared memory. A different type of tragedy also affected many people, the shooting of John Lennon outside the Dakota Hotel is a memory in which I don’t have. I wasn’t born as so I can’t revisit all the news and my personal thoughts of the time – however I like many other people are part of a legacy in which The Beatles and John created. You learn what the group did, how they changed music and you understand through stories in which have been passed down: memories of ancestors who were there when The Beatles ‘were bigger than Jesus’ and when Lennon was shot. An archive is created, in which passes down the power of this memory. So for me to visit such a scene was very eerie, standing in the place where a face recognised by all over the ruled was simply shot dead. Its not my memory but I have become a passenger of the archive in which was the created, provoking still that strange remarkable feel that attracts us to visit such scenes.
A similar essence to the prior memory was also present with myself in Washington DC. Standing on the spot where Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, looking out towards the monument in the background and your there, reliving the vision and perspective in which Martin Luther King witnessed to an extent when he looked out onto the river (of course it wasn’t the same). But you are in the spot where a movement and democracy happened, a position of legacy. Like the theory of the memory of the Lennon shooting, you are taught and provoked the importance of such a spectacle through passed down memories; passed down archives through the media, friends and family about the significance of such a scene. That even the reality of me never seeing the event – we all are stitched with legacy in which it contains and one that relates us to have a memory with the spot.
“Every man’s memory is his private literature.” – Aldous Huxley
As I was researching various media forms in which memories have been expressed through media forms, I came across one very ‘obvious’ choice – but one that has a very ‘spectacle’ edge about it and that breaks certain conventions in which we are used to. Piers Morgan’s Life Stories have a very simple format and understanding – they basically express and unravel certain celeb’s lives and revile facts that we didn’t really know and have been withheld from because we are not part of that celebrity lifestyle. We are only provoked stories through the media about celebrities, we are told the stories in which they want us to hear and that’s how our persona on them is perceived. We sort of forget or don’t associate Simon Cowell for example with eating a packet of Walkers crisps, it’s a convention in which we are not told to signify, instead we look at his power in the music and television industry and his ‘all the money in the world wealth’. We forget that celebrities are real people; we instead perceive them as ‘remarkable’. That’s what this show does, take the clip with Simon Cowell below, we normally see Simon judging on our screens, labelled ‘Mr Nasty’ over his open minded comments and saying what he thinks, as well as being the subject to tabloid speculation for a large percentage of our year regarding his shows. But we never see him talk about his family – and this video shows Piers ask him about the death of his father. A question in which we would never ask Simon and a response in which is never provoked. Its this fascination with celebrities in which we crave, we want to know everything about them and this show opened the boundaries wider than they have ever been for an insight in what the celebrities are really like. The show leaves us actually feeling like Simon Cowell is normal – “he likes the food I like and has been through similar activities to me”, that the message we get but we struggle to accept because the archive of conventions built around the character does not match that. We are used to celebrities talking about their ‘current projects’ on talkshows but not to this extent where they reveal their memories and facts in which we did not know. The show arguably leaves us having sympathy and more respect for the person due to their story telling and us being able to relate their memories to ours and actually realising that their reality isn’t far from ours.
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) is the written memoirs of a journey that saw 23 year old Ernesto Guevara, travel across South America with his friend Alberto Granado. By motorcycle the duo, set off to absorb different cultures by maximum potential, by having a constant struggle for food and to observe the identity of each encounter by alienating themselves from comforts and explore. Ernesto Guevara is now known better as Che Guevara, a revolutionary iconic Marxist for the Cuban movement. Che meaning ‘mate’ in Spanish recorded his journey throughout the trip and send memoirs to his family back home in Argentina to keep them recorded in their adventure. The account written by Ernesto during his riotous motorcycle from Argentina through Chile and Peru, concluding in Venezuela is a breathtaking and exhilarating record – you follow his memories on where he and his partner were going to get the next drink from, where the next bed lay and who was there to offer it. The film as well as its book offer various interpretations of the story (but what book and film is ever the same), but the travelogue for both is just a journey full of life. You are left following Ernesto and Alberto and accepting their vision, being the third passenger on their motorcycle and discovering in what they preach. It’s a very interesting provokes into understanding ones memory. This type can be argubly identified as the pristine archive – because you or I don’t know anything about his journey, you accept theirs, making you’re the sub-memory. You’re the consumer of their discoveries, which is very different to visiting the hotel of where John Lennon was shot, instead now you are on a journey around South America, reliving an account that was recorded in 1951. You instead create a visionary memory of someone else’s archive.
It’s hard to resist mentioning one particular advert on our screens at the moment that has a very broad however relevant element of ‘memory’. Its simple, its contemporary, its cool, its funny and it’s a Lynx advert. Although it could have been quite easily an advert for that particular supermarket to shop there – there sales will suddenly increase I can predict if they did. The advert narrates backwards (the couple revisit their tracks) to find their clothes and retain the situation where they started off before they ‘lusted for each other’.
It’s a very cool, short and quirky approach of the theme, which could have been easily recreated for the memory artefact in which we have to create. Although it is an advert to wear Lynx – in doing so you obviously are subjected to female attention 24-7, but the memory aspect is very fun to watch. A simple narrative of revisiting the tracks in which the couple undergone leaves you with the very clear of what happened to them – a backwards diary of visuals to put it in context. A joy to watch – very simple, very modern, very attractive and perhaps a better reason for myself to start wearing Lynx instead of cheaper branded deodorant.
Jim Carey in The Truman Show is a conflictional approach to provoking memory. Obviously Jim Carey plays this character whose interpretation of his own memory – of his memoirs of life, are later perceived as wrong, as real as a reality TV show. He lives in a bubble, with the real pulled over his eyes – imprisoned for everyone else fascination. However its very interesting to analyse the film itself, it actually plays into the theory by Foucault that there is a master/slave relationship. That the master, who could be represented as the audience, demanding the knowledge of a celebrity – this could run parallel with a celebrity in the tabloids for example. Take Cheryl Cole, she is constantly demanded by the audience, in which the media then feed the masters the slave. Foucault would of identified Cheryl Cole as a ‘slave’. This is evident with Truman, he is imprisoned for the ‘masters’. His memory is actually interpretated as ‘incorrect’ – an illusion for the pleasure of the audience.
The last example is one of my favourite films of all time, Forrest Gump. A very popular film and one which will be familiar to a lot of people so I wil avoid going into the story but infact analyse the memory aspect of the film. It’s a autographical film in which is very simply provoked to the audience; Forrest (played by Tom Hanks) talks in that distinctive voice Georgia accent and narrates the story of his life to various bystanders who are also queuing for the bus while sitting on the bench. The different characters at the stop raise different reactions towards Forrest’s story. It’s the way perception of receiving stories in which we have all grown up with; storytelling. Forrest is simply just telling a story of his life; somewhat happened to me personally when I was young and infact still happens today, we share stories. We share memoirs face to face, whether we are being told the story to fall to sleep to or just in conversation while passing in the street – our self-made stories are what sell and fascinate us. People share stories for newspapers because there is a social fascination with stories, with sharing experiences and sharing memories. We pas on archive to each other, we pass on our self-legacy story and our tales. That’s why I wanted to leave Forrest Gump to the end because it is identified most in the society, memories are told through story telling, through memoirs, through conversation – all the examples above have been passed and shared with. In Oscar Wilde’s reference; our diary of memories stays with us, but we share certain pages.
“We do not remember days; we remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand
In preparation for my spectacle piece but with also my final project in mind, I perceived the 2010 documentary of ‘I’m Still Here’. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by his brother in law, Casey Affleck.
The film itself is a very unique and critical documentary on ‘a year in the life’ of Joaquin Phoenix. However in approach to the film, Joaquin himself was the subject of a discourse of embarrassment, of self decline and of celebrity fascination. The films themes are focused around this subject of the celebrity, exploring the relationship with the media and the celebrities themselves.
Joaquin propelled a spectacle before any notice of a film was being made, by quitting acting and pursuing a career as a hip-hop star, he quickly was seen as one of the greatest in Hollywood of the time after success on films such as ‘Walk the Line’, to being the subject of the punch line in the joke.
The film hoaxes a precise perception of celebrity reality to the viewer, by changing his own reality (Joaquin), he allowed the audience to perceive this new interpretation, this downslide of celebrity in which was shown throughout the film. A broken character that was once loved and appreciated.
With appearances on Lettermen and featuring appearances by Ben Stiller and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, the film is a mirror of the real, however it was later announced it was a hoax.
But what are fascinating about the film are the level and the amount of boundaries broken within the narrative to give of this perception to the consumers. They created an astonishing spectacle, effecting the lives of all involved for a documentary designed to be perceived as real, a remarkable and unique perception of reality in which is one exclusive to Joaquin, due his hierarchy and level of fame.
Joaquin Phoenix’s interviw with David Letterman during production:
The film gave me ideas in the way the celebrity persona is and could be perceived by the media, an idea in which I looked on last year and scripted was breaking that fourth wall element, inviting the audience into a world that isn’t seen as conventional, in which Joaquin Phoenix did – he invited them into his own dark twisted tragedy of self destruction, manipulating perceptions of him for the rest of his career for the purpose of the film.
Joaquin Phoenix’s return to Letterman (post film):
As the winter arrives, thousands of protests across Europe are being functioned, and one particular revolution idea in France has made the headlines and looks to create a enormous spectacle to the political movement to the country and to others who may be influenced and effected by the cause.
Former football legend Eric Cantona who was know for his rebellious behaviour and actions has called for protesters against the world’s leaders banks to instead holding up banners and placards but to approach with a more sophisticated form of dissent. The retired footballer has they should create a more social and economic revolution by withdrawing their money from the banks.
Cantona quoted “This means that the three million people with their placards on the streets, they go to the bank and they withdraw their money and the banks collapse. Three million, 10 million people, and the banks collapse and there is no real threat. A real revolution.”
Cantona’s theory has propelled a big following of instant responses. Almost 40,000 people have viewed on the YouTube clip, creating the movement ‘StopBanque’, which has taken up the campaign and provokes a coordinated and constructed movement, making 7th December the day where people withdraw their money from the banks.
The spectacle and power of this movement will have a uprising effect of France and other countries with similar issues who may be influenced in the movement, most noticaly Britain. Another country that is suffering also of the economic condition that has had bad mediation about their banks also. But this is a amazing revolution generated by Eric, noted as a football rebellion legend. He certainly has a past of rebellious actions, but this one just shows the power of one celebrity and how they can generate to such a cause. The l’oreal model remembered by the world for kicking a Crystal Palace fan in 1995 and also attacking his opponents and own team in several cases as well as being regarded as one of the best Manchester Utd players of all time has created a cult, a potential movement of power that will spark a revolutionary image if the process activates and functions a social and economic change.
“He concludes: “It’s not complicated and in this case they will listen to us in a different way. Trade unions? Sometimes we should propose ideas to them.”
I percieve this story as a remarkable rebllious approach by Cantona. The revolotion clearly has touched many buttons of people and generated a possible economic change, but would the actions been active is Eric had not been the voice of the call to do so? Possibly not because he resembles an image, a voice that people listen to and perceive. He has a reputation of rebellious actions but is also evoked as wise and seen with an understanding on the topic.
Alot of French people will agree with him, he is a realist and a activist, and with his celebrity image and persona, people will agree. However, I’m sure Cantona will struggle taking his money out of the banks, he may need more than one suitcase.
