'If...'

'If...' Is a 1968 British drama film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson satirizing English public school life. Famous for its depiction of a savage insurrection at a fictitious boys boarding school, the X certificate film was made at the time of the May 1968 protests in France by a director strongly associated with the 1960's counterculture. The film, very suggestive and sometimes confusing, leaves the viewer open to their own interpretation of certain events and scenes which happen in the film. One of the best scenes in the film is the 'café scene', when Mick Travis, played by Malcolm McDowell, and 'The Girl', Played by Christine Noonan, play fight and attack each other in the café acting like lions, which is rather strange to watch seen as though they have only just met. The filming suggestively provokes the idea of the play fighting leading to sex even though nothing physical is shown, just some short clips of nudity. Further into the film Mick Travis finds a dead fetus in a jar and quicky hands it over to 'the girl' dismissing it completely; unsure of how to respond. Thus representing what could have been,something not realised until the end of film when they die together. This film has given me the idea to create a short performance film suggesting the stereotypical primitive nature of both genders, female and male. The idea of 'what could be' if people in the future would possibly go back to interacting with each other the same way they did many centuries ago.

Research for film

Christopher Nolan- 'Doodlebug' 1997

The story consists of a somewhat ratty man, in a much rattier flat. There, he seems intent—and possibly even driven to insanity - with catching the 'doodlebug' of the film's title. However, after over two minutes of cat and mouse chasing, it is revealed that the bug resembles a miniature version of himself. He squashes the bug with his shoe. The audience comes to realise that every move that the doodlebug makes the man reciprocates a second later. Into this Kafkaesque situation enters a large face, that of the man; thereby making the man the doodlebug, and he proceeds to get squashed by this newer being.

This film is what has initially inspired me for my next film, its ideas, and possibly even the way it has been shot. I'm interested in the never ending feeling the short film portrays, a cycle, that can never be stopped. A film within a film, mimicking an inescapable perspective.

FMP Film Idea

 Rough draft;

'The Experiment'

Looking at males and females.

Box big enough for people to fit into

Filmed from peephole- when viewer watches they will be were the camera was.

Actors to interact with camera

Start off with girl on her own(looks around the space and eventually comes up to the camera and starts 'grooming' herself like an animal)

Starts to get comfortable in the space and then another girl enters. Both girls stand up to each other and circle around each other like animals. Eventually both back down and sit at opposite corners of the box. A male enters and dominates the room instantly. Both girls try their best to impress him (through primitive suggestive movements). Two more girls enter the box, one at the back slips away to the closest side of the box to camera.(She is now not visible on camera). Actors carry on 'performing' which makes the viewer subconsciously forget that the girl that came in last is still in the box. Another final male enters, group becomes divided, males on separate sides of the box. Tension builds as their is now(to the viewers vision) an odd number of girls and two teams of people have now been created. Both sexes, (girl, girl) (girl, boy) (boy, boy), break out into fight acting again like animals. All actors somehow leave the box(not sure how yet, possibly doors at either side). Girl we forgot about slowly sits up and taps on the camera. Now only just realizing she is being filmed, she starts grooming herself, suggesting that the cycle is about to start all over again. Another girl begins to enter, the girl already in the box turns to look at her and then the film ends.

Francis Bacon- 'Triptychs' Between 1944-1986

The Irish-born artist Francis Bacon (1909–1992) painted 28 known triptychs between 1944 and 1986. He began to work in the format in the mid-1940s with a number of smaller scale formats before graduating in 1962 to large examples. He followed the larger style for 30 years, although he painted a number of smaller scale triptychs of friend's heads, and after the death of his former lover George Dyer in 1971, the three acclaimed 'Black Triptychs'.

I have the idea alongside my FMP to use three canvases/paintings placed next to each other, which work as separate paintings but also relate as a trio. Similar to Francis Bacon's, I want my work to contain repetitive colour and ideas. Maybe look at and produce portraits of three different people(probably girls) that I know and paint them in suggestive ways. Representing their thoughts and feelings of what it means today to be a young woman within the work. I am going to start of on quite a small scale to see which portray my idea best and then probably increase in size.

FMP

I have a few different ideas for my final major project and how it will be exhibited;

Zoetrope- Spinning images produced in zeotrope or produce instillation mimicing a zoetrope illusion (have people in a sepcific space with images on walls spinning around them)

Projections of photographs or film? Looking at women/young girls similar to my age and how society represents them. Looking at the opposite gender also in relation. Focusing on the change in time and  how that may have influenced our stereotypes/ views on people. The primitive side of people. Creating space in a box to produce the film in.

Idea of the cycle- Never ending cycles. Overlapping. Looking at stages of work on their own, and then as cycle(exhibited together in chronological order)?

Gender Specific work- Stereotypically women and men would have different views on what work was trying to communicate. Play on that idea. Ask physical questions within work.

Produce series of smaller painting/drawings similar to 'Do you see yourself in me', maybe produce a series of work with the same title.

Stills From Short Performance Film

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For this short performance piece I had the idea of representing both genders in a primitive state. I found my inspiration from the film 'If...' as it shows possibilities of what could happen in the foreseeing future if things carry on the way they are. I wanted this performance to exaggerate animalistic characteristics within people, focusing on the male species as a predator, and the female as the prey. I have deliberately filmed this piece with the black background surrounding the white drop to create a controlled environment taken in by the viewer, the light helping to symbolise a box like narrative, a similar idea to my taxidermy installation pieces.

For my next piece of work I want to produce a short film that involves more acting and movement than this one. I'm pleased with this piece as a starting point but I think I could communicate my idea more successfully through using more particular movements as well as the more vague and suggestive positions acted out by the people in the clip I've already done. Maybe shoot in a more humane environment rather than a studio so that the viewer can relate to it more? Making the animalistic movements seem even more strange because they'd be performing in their usual everyday environment, yet it wouldn't feel staged/as staged, more automatic and natural.