Task 2 – Research

20/20 ABC Report on Rape Allegation in Alabama

This video was presented in Gary’s class between Tuesday and Wednesday during the “meeting lessons” of 10/04/18 and 11/04/18.

The video covers the basic outline of the entire piece and the sole inspiration of I will be undertaking. The story of Savannah and Cameron reflecting on the fictional characters of Jake and Lola, and both their struggles. Jake being accused by Savannah’s friend that he raped her, and sparking up a stark divide in the town of Alabama on whether Cameron raped Savannah or not. And if he did, whether it was really consensual or not.

After many months of apologies, feeling bad and court cases, the whole incident was put under wraps as unsolved. To this day since 2015, the case has never been solved and Cameron was released from prison and house arrest.

Personally, when watching the documentary, I was never particularly impressed by the large amount of dramatisation of these events. Building up overly dramatic statements and cinematic editing to tell the story I was never a big fan of when watching a documentary where it’s super dramatic and overblown for ratings. When documentaries give a more personal feel for the journey of discovering information (such as Louis Theroux), it just comes across as impersonal and not very sympathetic to the plights of the two parties involved in the situation.

However, as a standard viewer, it came across as fairly informative, entertaining and well-presented (despite how much the information was definitely controlled and edited). The delivery of the information presented definitely helped me come to the conclusion that Savannah was definitely the innocent one in the situation, however embellished the information for her may have been. She was definitely raped. But whether it was by Cameron or not is completely unclear. And is the primary reason that we still can’t be sure, making the case still unsolved.

However, the story itself is a great example of mob mentality and what it can do to a person. The crowd’s reaction to the spreading of information from Savannah’s alleged rape, crowding against her for being a “slut”. Whereas her friends were crowding against Cameron calling him a rapist. The dividing of the town and even parents calling Savannah a “slut” as well. It’s a good example of Tribalism. A type of mob mentality that drives people to join the crowd and push the accused off a cliff.

Overall, while a very poorly presented documentary to rake in ratings for ABC, it is a good start for this FMP.

 

Zodiac: The Adaptation to a Case Unsolved

Back in 2007, director David Fincher made a film called Zodiac. The film covered the incredibly foggy mysterious story of the Zodiac murders from the late 60s to early 70s, through the eyes of cartoonist-turned author Robert Graysmith (who wrote the book the film is based on and screen-wrote the film as well). The film chronicles the growing obsession the cartoonist underwent in the middle of the events of the Zodiac killings.

The core theme of the film is obsession, and how an unsolved case can drive a man to create solutions on the fly to satisfy an urge to solve a mystery.initial

And the similar end to both the Alabama Rape Case and the Zodiac Murders and how they both are portrayed as a form of entertainment makes researching the film all the more relevant for how we should portray a real-life story and characters in a new context.

My own thoughts on the film after seeing it is that it manages to keep my invested in Robert Graysmith’s journey into attempting to solve this unsolved series of murders; even putting his own life and marriage on the line for this. I found the whole film incredibly well written and engaging through and through.

How does this connect to the FMP?

The documentary crew, similarly to Robert Graysmith, are fascinated by an unsolved case. Both work focus on the making of a developed narrative of the creation of the telling of a story. The characters working on their documentary, getting wrapped up in Jake and Lola’s predicament, somewhat reflects on Robert Graysmith getting entirely wrapped up in the Zodiac killer’s murders. At one point even being mentioned by the Zodiac killer himself and getting targeted as a result.

 

 

 

 

DARREN BROWN THE EXPERIMENT EPISODE 2

 

Initial thoughts

i find the presentation of a game show interesting and am very interested to see how the consequences of the audience’s actions will destroy this man’s evening. The mild humour  building up to a disturbing underbelly. The use of masks helps deliver the point so far that when people are put in a position of anonymity. Feeling a strong sense of foreboding at its presentation.

 

Points of Interest

Definitely the choice to use masks that look strikingly similar to the “anonymous” masks used by certain individuals online to hide their faces so they can’t be prosecuted for their shady actions online. For the internet is a place where people can do whatever they want anonymously. Primarily through the infamous Guy Fawkes mask used in the film V For Vendetta.

Near the end when Derren Brown had successfully made the audience feel awful for being wholly responsible for the death of Kris in the video, and seeing the awkward guilt on the audience’s faces at the very and and the dead silence within the audience when Darren says “thank you, and goodnight” captures just how everyone there is feeling here. Used, in a way.

 

When one of his producers is searching through his flat and the audience is egging him on destroying his TV (and even his Xbox!) is well illustrated the people’s continuous downhill slide into intentionally destroying this man’s Friday evening.

Relation to the FMP

The mentality of the audience on the gameshow reflects how Jake and Lola were seen by the rest of the school. Through an incredibly biased lens of information. In the episode when the metaphorical curtain is revealed to the audience’s eyes that Kris wasn’t actually hit by a car and that they were manipulated, is somewhat similar to how the school’s views are masked by a certain point of view blocking true judgement.

As well as the decisions made for Kris, fueling his actions, are done by “the people”. In the FMP’s case, it’s the media. In Darren Brown’s case, it’s his own audience.

Both the experiment and the FMP are illustrations on how mob mentality can affect a whole situation to turn from something bad, to much worse…

Further Future Research…

The next bit of research to work on is mob mentality, as well as peer pressure and what that can do to a person.

I will be looking into Kendrick Lamar on his experience on peer pressure and how the song “Swimming Pools” reflects on the themes of the FMP as well as it does for the party scene…

The Effects and Science of Mob Mentality

An article i found by Tamara Avant involved the deindividuation process of being in a group. While the process doesn’t always happen to every person, it certainly happens. When someone is in a group, they feel like they can’t personally be responsible for any violent actions caused by the group since it’s, well, a group. It’s the group’s fault, not the person’s. So that person in the group can do anything he wants.

And typically the bigger the group is, the more unaware of their actions in the group come to light. The phrase, “I didn’t do it really! They made me do it!” is one that is quite common among many people with the mob mentality.

According to the article, we are all susceptible to group behavior. Whether we’re aware of it or not, and that can be a truly troubling thing when that leader of the group transforms the group into something more sinister for his/her own gain.

http://source.southuniversity.edu/examining-the-mob-mentality-31395.aspx

And on a incredibly similar subject, music can even show examples of past mob mentality that have been a negative impact on that artist’s life. And one such example follows well into the themes of the FMP. And that is Kendrick Lamar’s Swimming Pools. In lyrics and themes, it follows the narrative of a young Kendrick Lamar in a club with his group. What follows is a series of underage drinking and losing his control and giving it to the group he’s with.

He talks about when he was young he would be drinking, and then the famous line comes in “Why you babysitting only two or three shots, I’ma show you how to turn it up a notch”, which is clearly stated by a member of the mob he’s with. When describing his experience with drinking in that environment, he best sums it up with this lyric; “Some people like the way it feels, some people wanna kill their sorrows, some wanna fit in with the popular, that was my problem.” which shows his problem being the need to fit in to make himself feel one with the group.

My thoughts on Kendrick’s music have always been positive. His personal messages on his own experiences of youth, and the message towards young people mixing with bad groups heavily shows in his album (and my personal favorite from his), Good Kid M.a.a.D City. the whole album talks about Kendrick’s own problems with drinking during his youth, and how much that was effected from his stint with mob mentality.

Gary’s Cinematic Influence and Martin Scorsese

After recording a reflection with Chris, me and him had both forgotten to ask Gary the age-old question to him; “what are your cinematic influences?” to which he replied along the lines, “Martin Scorsese is definitely one of them”.

The best way to discover the artistic process of directing this FMP, it’s good to have an idea on what influences Gary’s vision.

The two best works of Scorsese’s to use as comparison points for this FMP are the films Goodfellas (1990) and George Harrison: Living In The Material World.

George Harrison: Living In the Material World fits in with the ideas of the FMP being set during a documentary filming. The film covers the life of George Harrison (1943 – 2001) from his rise to fame during his years with the band The Beatles, to his solo career and how his quiet thoughtful persona touched the lives of many.

Gary’s influence being Martin Scorsese and his experience with documentaries is certainly not a coincidence and watching the film delivers a good example of how documentary interviews can be conducted, as well as how footage and music can be edited together to create an interesting story that chronicles a real event.

 

Goodfellas is easily the most iconic film Scorsese released, and the most well-received of all of his work. Based on the book Wiseguy by Crime Reporter Nicholas Pileggi about the life of former mobster Henry Hill, Martin Scorsese has help from Hill himself to write the screenplay where it turns out that the majority of what happens in the film actually happened and is told incredibly accurately and realistically for around 95% of the film, as shown here.

Goodfellas’ smooth transitions between days, months and years is a great influence on the FMP’s own transition between the days after the party, and how both go about those said transitions is subtly layered through their respected dialogue. Goodfellas’ influence can definitely be felt through many films and theatre as its style and character made the movie an absolute masterpiece.

My feelings on both the George Harrison documentary and Goodfellas are that they are both fantastic films in their own right. George Harrison: Living in the Material World is a really interesting look into George Harrison’s perspective on The Beatles and what made him one of the most important figures in music history, and Goodfellas is in my opinion one of the greatest gangster films ever made for its purely amazingly written script and memorable moments such as the scene where Joe Pesci’s character faces off against Ray Liotta’s character, and the intensity between the two characters is truly palpitating.

This scene alone could be researched for how natural the whole scene feels, and how real the dialogue sounds coming from these actors and how naturalism can truly be one of the most important aspects of theatre, as well as acting, to make a scene truly believable. Which is funnily enough what I’m about to research next.

 

Naturalistic Acting or: How I Learned How to Stop Worrying and Love The Script Ft. The Coen Brothers

A few years ago, I made a really cringe-inducing video on one of my favorite directors on why I love them so much. For the sake of this research section, I feel it’s necessary to include the video as it’s important to the subject of the Coen Brothers and what makes them so special to naturalistic acting.

And yes, this is a very old essay, excuse the amateur editing and vocal delivery…

What makes the art of naturalism on-screen the most brilliant, is how it can make your characters so much more real. Even minor topics for your character to be talking about; like in Pulp Fiction where two characters are talking about the most mundane subject of the difference between the names of McDonald’s burgers in other countries, it can make these characters that do inherently awful things: such as killing people, actually relatable. That they’re still people inside that talk about these mundane things.

How Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta work off of each other to talk so casually outside of their own profession in their characters is in many ways what I have to do with my character in the FMP. While definitely more theatrical in tone performance-wise, is still very conversational and relaxed.

And when talking about Joel and Ethan Coen’s style of writing and directing, looking at this scene from the film The Big Lebowski (1998) is a great subject to talk about when talking about naturalism.

Steve Buscemi’s comedic cuts in-between the conversation and going completely off-topic and not knowing what the other two characters are talking about and just trying to join the conversation anyway, is exactly the kind of situation my character Patrick would find himself in with his own group of friends. Steve Buscemi’s laid-back approach to the character and as well as how much garbage gets thrown at by his character makes him charming and real. I think we all know someone like Donny, and that’s what’s so endearing about him.

One other part about what makes the Coen Brothers amazing is their scriptwriting ability. When watching that clip shown above, most people would have probably thought that that whole scene was improvised and all of those interruptions were just made up as the scene was being shot. They weren’t.

Essentially every stutter and interruption was written down. Truly human conversations that the two brothers manage to capture almost perfectly on the page. A lot of the believably does indeed come from the actors’ performance, but what is interesting is that the two brothers make a point that these characters are imperfect. Right down to how they speak.

In general, they make a point that all of their characters are layered and have reasons for why they say the things that they say. Such as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski copying a lot of what he says in the film from what he actually sees on TV and what people say to him throughout the film.

The Big Lebowski is a great subject to look into when thinking about naturalistic acting, and even when juxtaposing something unnatural (i.e. Greg and Patrick in the FMP) with something very real (i.e. the rape allegation) it manages to make it feel that much real when there are funny moments in between the reality of the situation.

 

The Creation of the Poster and the FMP’s Title

Over the weekend, while working on some videos, I had decided to make a poster for the project for a bit of fun! Based on the title that Chris Collins had come up with to Gary one day, I had decided to solidify the name by making this poster.

 

My ideas for this poster had come from the theme of division, and how it can lead to a violent outcome. Explaining my intentions for this poster would be really simple; it’s to illustrate a divide within the cast itself. I purposefully set each of the actors’ credits next to their respected side. Chris’ (Jake’s) side sorted at the very top. And Eloise’s (Lola’s) side at the very bottom. Me and Charlie being at the very middle, representing our characters’ neutral stance on this divide.

The symbol I had managed to create with the font I had used for the title had been created using these symbols “[]” which is meant to represent the media and the influence in the title. And mine and Charlie’s characters are what in a way fuel that, which is why we are both next to that symbol.

Originally, I had the idea of using an image of a camera lens in the very middle, with the symbol being in front of the lens representing Greg and Patrick overlooking the chaos and the camera being the cause of the broken glass.

The broken glass itself was chosen as a representation of violence since that plays a part in the play’s opening, as well as how Lola and Jake’s situation involves violence within Jake’s own group involving Harry and Marcus.

The idea to include broken glass on the poster itself originated through the opening of the play featuring the sound of smashed glass. The sound used for the opening was used as a good point of reference to use when working with this poster visually.

My purpose was to create a sense of foreboding and mystery to what might happen in the play, and to even hint at one of its hidden yet not-so hidden theme of division of groups and how dangerous that can be. The glass smashed is somewhat intended to resemble a broken phone screen as well, illustrating the danger of how phones and the internet can charge the behavior of our characters.

As for the title itself… Chris had come up with it based on the idea that the play is centered on influence. Whether that being from influence of mob mentality, or alcohol, or the media, or social media or even from misguided thoughts. The title quite literally hints at its themes right from the start, and is a great tone-setter for the rest of what the audience may experience…

 

CHARACTER QUESTIONS

1. Who am I?

Patrick. I’m a photographer/filmmaker in college who is anxious about my final major project this year…

2. Where am I?

Currently at my house, with my friends.

3. When is it?

Just around the evening, so 4 PM. Just before the party starts!

4. Where have I just come from?

The living room in my house with Greg getting our camera equipment

5. What do I want?

To get some good footage at the party for my college project

6. Why do I want it?

Because I want some good shots of the girls at the party and maybe pick some up during the party.

7. Why do I want it now?

Because the college has pressured me to get my work done for the project as soon as possible.

8. What will happen if I don’t get it now?

I won’t get my footage for the project and I’ll fail the course.

9. How will I get what I want?

By forcing myself into Billy’s party and working with my friend Greg to help get the footage of the party and arriving in time!

10. What must I overcome?

My awkwardness within my group.

 

Trainspotting and Hallucinations for Storytelling

During one of our rehearsals of the diagonal scene for Chris (Jake), Gary had decided to show us all a scene from Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) where Ewan McGregor’s character is detoxing at a rehab clinic after having been heavily addicted to heroin throughout the film.

The result of this scene is an incredibly psychedelic yet horrifying experience going through this character’s life up until this moment while going through all of his insecurities.

The intended effect for the diagonal scene for Chris is to reflect the surreal “is this really happening or is this in his mind?” effect that the detox scene from Trainspotting (1996) had for many audience members watching it at the time.

For me, I’m a big fan of how this scene is shot. The use of fisheye lens and intense closeups of the main character as he’s suffering the effects of detoxing is incredibly effective at making me uncomfortable and disturbed. The sounds of the baby in the background never ceases to shock me to my core.

It’s a great scene for a great film about the horrors of drug use.

Konstantin Stanislavsky and Naturalism

Stanislavsky was a Russian playwright, actor, director and producer.

he regarded the theatre as a strong social force, while feeling its significance with people, wanted to push the entertainment medium forward from where it was at the time. In 1888, he established a theatre company with several colleagues of his called The Society for Art and Literature. It was a highly praised company across all of Russia, and is where his start as a practitioner truly took off.

Later, in 1898,  The Moscow Art Theatre opened up where their first performance was Aleksey K. Tolstoy’s Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. However, after the performance, Stanislavsky felt something was severely lacking in its performance. The intonation, the gestures and conceptions were all based on their director.

He wanted more from acting than there was at the time. So he developed The Stanislavsky Method. It would involve that of the psychological, breaking his actors down and critiquing every aspect of their performance. The worse critique of which being “I do not believe you.”. He was strict. Uncompromising. And an incredibly tough director overall.

Over 40 years of developing The Stanislavsky Method, and many experiments performed on his own actors, it was concluded that the method would involve using past experiences from the actor to derive true emotions onstage. However the effects, Stanislavsky remained disappointed about the results for his experiments.

“In 1935 he was taken by the modern scientific conception of the interaction of brain and body and started developing a final technique that he called the “method of physical actions.” It taught emotional creativity; it encouraged actors to feel physically and psychologically the emotions of the characters that they portrayed at any given moment. The method also aimed at influencing the playwright’s construction of plays.” ~ source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Konstantin-Stanislavsky

As Stanislavsky once said about acting

“Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part.” ~Constantin Stanislavsky.

Now, in regards to my own personal opinion on his methodology and directing style, I’m not a terribly big fan of it. Emotionally degrading your actors is not always the best solution to get the best performance out of your actor from my own experience with directors in the past. Knowing your actor and treating your actors with respect, while understanding their limits is the best way to go about it.

There are exceptions where the solution works incredibly well for a piece of media. Such as Stanley Kubrick’s work on The Shining where he mentally tortured his actors on-set. (as seen below)

However, Stanislavsky did a huge amount for acting and paving the way for decades of innovation in entertainment and without the man’s brilliant innovations, we would be stuck in a world of socially stagnant art. And how does this relate to Under Influence? His naturalism and realism in his practices alone reflect the style of Under Influence.

The performance of Jake and Lola are practically oozing Stanislavsky influences in terms of emotional acting and driven storytelling.

Justin Timberlake’s “Say Something”

The most important song throughout the play easily that is played in the party scene, as well as through each diagonal scene involving Jake and Lola. The song was written by Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton back in January 25th 2018, and contains themes strongly regarding the media and people’s reliance on being apart of a group deciding the social fate of a particular person big in the news at the time.

In the case of the song’s original inherent context, the song is about Justin Timberlake’s own relationship with the media and the chorus itself “say something, say something” is representing the people online’s desperation for their opinions during the recent social climate with the recent Donald Trump presidential election, as well as the ethical politics that have been going on recently.

“Don’t wanna get caught up in the middle of it” is one such lyric that represents the celebrity’s voice in the situation. Not wanting any conflict on a certain opinion and getting a negative response for having said opinion.

The song is about people’s desperation for validation to be apart of a certain group. Which happens to echo the themes of Under Influence purely for its focus on mobs going against eachother for opinions on a situation.

For Under Influence, the song takes on a new meaning. One of not “wanting to get caught up in the middle of it” “It” being the drama between Jake and Lola. “But I can’t help myself” being the people’s admittance to taking the side within the conflict. the song itself being so focused on people’s attraction to being apart of a side, makes the diagonal scenes all the more powerful as a result for having this song play over the moments of conflict.

I personally feel that the song itself is a tad bland, but that blandness is made up for its incredibly powerful meaning. Its repetition seeping through and making the scenes with Jake and Lola getting isolated socially all the more manic. I like the song for how it works so well for the context of the story, but not objectively for its melody. Just not a big Justin Timberlake fan, honestly.

9 Crimes by Damien Rice – A Song About Guilt

During the fifth week while experimenting with what music to go with for the “Court Hearing Preparation” scene, this was the very first choice that was shown to the cast. Immediately we all chose this over the latter choice (which I honestly can’t remember the name of the other song).

The themes of the song reflect the feelings between jake and lola incredibly well. While the song is inherently about the painful regret of cheating on your romantic partner, the context for the song being used in the scene becomes a ballad for Jake and Lola’s painful regret for eachother’s circumstance.

With the lyric “this is not what I do” reflecting their regret and feelings toward not usually doing something like this. Jake not really being a rapist and being accused of such a thing reflects his character, while the lyric reflects Lola for her not believing she’s at all a floozy, is being accused of one. That desperate insistence of not being something the world is claiming you are, is a feeling both characters certainly have, and the song in my opinion is a beautiful and poignant expression between the two characters’ feelings right from the first lyric.

The chorus and its repetition of the female vocals singing “is that alright yeah?” represents Lola’s increasing doubt of Jake’s sincerity of regretting his actions, while the two voices fight in harmony over their guilt for eachother, Jake and Lola’s own guilt for eachother grows as they stand, vulnerable, changing their clothes regretting their own decisions in the party.

Melodically, it’s melancholic sound resonates for the tone of the scene. Making the musical crescendo making the scene all the more emotionally powerful when completely understanding both the characters’ perspective.

I personally really like the song a lot. Its vocals and well-hidden meaning through its lyrics play a big part for the finale of Under Influence. Just a really good choice of song overall.