fmp mask man vs clown man research folder
DESCRIPTION
This is my Final Major project research folder for Moving Image year 3. Done by Michael Adebayo U0904227TRANSCRIPT
Final Major Film Influences
Masked Man vs. Clown Man?
By Michael Adebayo
A clown attempts to make a romantic gesture to a girl but is interpreted by a masked man …but who is the good guy.
Depending on the vantage point to where you stand, or whether your a male, female young old, it shapes how you see a story, any story, this story-‐ we each bring our own cultural and social baggage with us that informs and shapes are feelings about the art and world around us.
They say that there are only six original stories (1) to be told and specific genres to how to tell a story, and like any filmmaker or creative individuals the choices we make to tell our stories, our influence is what I going to attempt to explain about my short film.
My film’s narrative, starts at the end result of an encounter, then contains two flashes backs giving two different viewpoints of the same incident and then is left with a cliff hanger asking the audience to make their own to decision or not what they might think will happen or should happen or who was the good or bad guy in this part. Like some of Shakespeare’s 1 plays/ comedy or errors but without the humour. Or the famous poem Rashomon 2 an incident told from different viewpoints the participants so writer allows to reader to come up with their own conclusion as to what actually happened.
The genesis of my project before I worked out my final story started off from an image of black and white photo, a man in a ski mask, holding a gun and smoking a cigarette. This image taken by an amateur photographer and uploaded on an art community website called Deviantart.com3
IMAGE 1
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_comedy 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon 3 http://deviantart.com/
It made me think, what the artist on what decided to take this picture,
Part of the response I uncovered from the artist was this quote
“Violence is a part of you, this is the casual representation of that violence”. (2)
From reading his comments, it made me think of another subject matter, not so much about violence aspect from the image, but about individuals who conceal themselves, -‐matters about men in masks, particularly superheroes from comics.
Comic characters from the DC and Marvel stable and others have been a strong influence in my own personal art and storytelling style. From the classics Superman, Batman, Spiderman types to the dark types such as
Comic are made up of Superheroes and Villains and the civilians who playthings of both groups. Both parties to varying degrees to conceal themselves, the latter not so much. Unlike the heroes and villains in a typical western cowboy genre, the good guys wear white and the bad guys wear black. There is a complete and clear distinct between good and bad, right and wrong. In comic books characters that are my influences it’s not always clear-‐cut. In fact quite often one man’s heroes are another man’s villains.
So the rise if the anti-‐heroes are dominate and popular in e.g. Judge Dredd. Depending on your belief system heroes and villains become somewhat interchangeable in certain comic narratives.
IMAGE 2
I believe the heroes wear mask in order to conceal their identity so that their foes will not reveal their secret and so that they can protect their loved ones and society at larger away from harm and danger.
Their mask also has a secondary effect and it is also an identification of character the alter ego persona and a symbol for something bigger then themselves for better or worse.
The idea of the anti-‐hero, the outsider who wants to do well, but is sometimes misunderstood, is a theme in comic books that I relate to. I was heavily influenced by the works of, by watching an interviews and the works of the British comic book writer Alan Moore4, whose work involves with novels such as ‘From Hell’, ‘V for Vendetta’ and his most notable novel ‘Watchmen’, the book that involves with the subject matter of superheroes and theory of what could anti-‐heroes/vigilant superheroes do in the real world.
Are people who wear mask or conceal themselves are preserved to be hostile by the very nature of concealment not by any action they are doing. For example in western culture there is a general hostility towards women of a certain faith who conceal themselves for religious and cultural reasons. 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore
So the idea of fear and masking had me thinking also about clowns. Coulrophobia-‐ the fear of clowns. The very nature of the clown is concealment to put on another face. The most commonly feared character to me is funny, comedic but sometimes can be seen as an evil and demonic figure, the subject matter I pick were “Clowns”.
Originally I wanted to do a documentary on why are people are so afraid of clowns by nature, as if a person had two heads on one body or as if they were from another planet5 a afraid of style or a fashion like punk rockers or a woman wearing a burqa.
The reason why I decided to pick clowns as another subject matter to my film was the fact that I use to be afraid of clowns as a child due to a certain horror film based on an American novel called IT6, written by Stephan King. But at the same time, I was also a fan of another clown called Krusty the Clown, character from the Simpsons series7
IMAGE 3 IMAGE 4
So I wanted to do a film, which can make you think who in the film is a good guy, who is the bad guy, or are they both in the same situation. So the story developed to this a socially inept young shy young man tries to meet a girl, in the familiarly vain of boy meets or tries to me girl. He is shy so decides to give her flowers dressed as a pleasant clown, in his logic as night follow day, clowns are nice, funny and generally harmless. The girl miss understands and is naturally freaked out and runs away. The clown determined to purse his interest, so it becomes a cat and mouse chase.
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_%28novel%29 7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krusty_the_Clown
A self-‐proclaimed ‘protector’ sees this and thinks he is witnessing an attack and wanting to put wrongs to right and save the girl. They two have a conflict and both try to justify that neither of them has done anything wrong. This question then becomes who was wrong who was right. When does a romantic gesture become creepy? Is a creepy to approach a person dressed as clown in broad day light or romantic, or is it creepy to walk a round in a masked and grabbing people with the view to protecting others, whether requested or not. Decide.
So I had the themes I wanted to explore in a short narrative, and the style I wish to film was somewhat contained by limited resource but I like the film style of Quentin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction, where her replaces certain scenes in different orders, which is a film that is not done in the typical beginning, middle and end scenario.
IMAGES 5
Example
1. 2.
• 1. Dinner scene (where this scene will take place near the end • 2. Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife scene
(thus takes place 3 quarters before the diner scene
3. 4.
• 3. Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife (A scenery next day after the scene in the diner.
• 4. The Gold Watch (this takes place after the dinner scene at)
5. 6.
• 5. The Bonnie Situation (return of the second act of the film which is one
quarter near the end) • 6. Epilogue (the ending where the beginning is set).
This technique for the storytelling of Pulp Fiction was inspired and adapted from another film called Roshomon in 1950.
IMAGE 6
The Roshomon film is about a rapist who murders a samurai, and rapes the samurai’s wife, which is seen in four character’s point of views of four characters, the rapist himself, the bandit, a dead man which ends with a fourth and final witness, a woodcutter who is he one where audience might think he knows how the incident between the rapist, samurai and woman have ended.
This type of storytelling really has a similar look and style to what I have put in my film for my final major project.
Also the influences in adding establishing shoots to my film, where the story takes place and starts, I most got them from a film Maker called Gus van Sant8.
Who did films such as Elephant based on the columbine killings, last days based on the last hour of a rock star before he kills himself and Paranoid Park based on novel by Blake Nelson.
He would always start his scenes with 5 to 10 seconds on a building or a location, as a beginning title to his film.
IMAGES 7
The killing joke was another big influence, in making this film.
Because of how well it was narrated without any dialogues or speech, which made guess and I think on what might happen next from scene after scene. This short film was defiantly a big inspiration to helping me develop my film and a particular scene in my film where the clown who is chasing the woman at the public surroundings of Hackney Wick of with a bouquet of flowers.
8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Van_Sant
IMAGES 8
THE PROCESS IN MAKING MASK VS CLOWN:
The beginning of making this film, it felt if things were going accordingly to plan, but with unfortunate organisations and misunderstanding of my work, all things had to be deleted or sacrifices due to my time and schedule in finishing this task on time.
In every film there need a director and also volunteers to help to complete your task that you wish to achieve, so I need 2 actors and 1 actress, one will play the clown and the other will play the ski mask bandit, but I think when making this film my main priority was to find the right actress or volunteer woman to play the victim who is chased by the clown, this will establish the how the event of the clown and ski mask bandit conversation has began.
I did however advertise a notices page on Craigslist9, in order to find actors and actress or any volunteers to help take part in my film, which unfortunately did not go according to plan, so I had to make a sacrifice in not putting a female character on the film, where this leads to the clown chasing after her in order to get her attention, so I decided to shoot the film which will concentrate on the clown’s POV of his story on way his was chasing the and the mask man’s POV of story on why he attacked the clown in the public.
9 http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites/
Advertisement for finding actors and actress for MASK VS CLOWN.
IMAGE 9
In order to complete the task that I was given In my module, I had to Present my work and ideas towards students and teachers alike who could not possibly understood what I wanted to achieve in my film, until I did a few rough takes based on my idea and of course a short comic strip on what the storyline is all about.
This where things that were starting to make my project a bit risky, but at the same time very independently sufficient. Even thou I had no feed back from my advertisement, that’s when, I decided to play the two main characters in my film. Which had to be done very quickly as possible, with a little help and volunteering
from my university classmate, who helped me shot the early incident scene at Hackney Wick on 3/4/13 with Paul Camilleri.
For developing the story, I did a short narrative comic strip on Mask VS Clown…
Comic strip develop of MASK VS CLOWN IMAGE 10
Storyboards of Mask VS clown of shooting
IMAGE 11
Before having a female actress into the film, firstly I decided to do it without the female character, in order to get filming done and going.10
Which unfortunately displeased my tutor, who thought it was very mandatory to see the female in my film. Which was a very struggle point in the process of making this film, because I had to no female actress at all to play this, but thankfully after telling my sister the situation I was having, she insisted I get help from her friend, so that I can finally put the female character I have original as she was the most important part of the film.
10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaDE_KxSY&list=UUl1kr8dV2qpCRrw35nzdmtg&index=8
IMAGES 12
So I had to start from scratch, in order to get it right.
With the aid of my older sister (Tawa Durowoju), who helped me organise an actress for my film and typed up a log sheet (3) on when we are shooting our two scenes, which are the interrogation scene and the woman being freaked out by the clown’s appearances.
The process in writing the script was a very difficult .Due to the fact I am dyslexic, so I had an assistant to rewrite my script in order for viewers to understand and find out what I am trying to transfer on to film without any confusions.
THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE MASK VS CLOWN SCRIPT
EXT. Abandon house hold-‐ daytime
We enter the scene in quiet cold grey area, in an abandon building with blocked doors and windows.
Fade in: -‐
INT. – black dark room
Pitch black for five seconds, until a bright white appears into shot and points to a urban looking clown in red tights and a badly placed clown make up on him, with a green wig and looking very sweaty and paranoid.
As we see the clown, we also see another character but he reminds in the dark side of the room and walks past camera as he is going to interrogate the clown for questioning.
Shadowy figure:
All right then, what is your connection with the girl that you were chasing at Hackney Wick?
Cut to: -‐
Clown looking very anxious and scared as he response to the shadowy figures questions.
Clown:
I…I was trying to get her attention, I just had a crush on her, I have been seeing her often in my area so I decide to go after her by giving her some flowers and love note.
We are now seeing a flash back on the incident with the clown character as he is about chase after the female character.
This flash is seen as a black and white comedic type scene where it loops like a Chaplin film.
Cut back
Clown in the black room, continuing to answer the shadowy figures question.
Clown:
Instead of giving her cord to meet up with there. I thought let me just go after her in person, so she can see me and not think of me as a weird stranger.
But unfortunately, I guess due to my clothing range, I perhaps might had scared her, because I’m a clown, all I ever wanted to do is make people happy and smile, for who I am.
Shadowy figure answers to the clown’s story in a very aggressive tone of voice.
Shadowy figure:
From here that allegory, I think you are one sick twisted bastard and a joke, because you cannot just do that to any random female you.
In order to gain attention from a woman, you must at least give a sign that you are not there to hurt her or in fact try to deceive her in any disgusting manner.
The shadowy figure finger points directly at the clown.
Shadowy figure:
You need some e professional help in order to attract females and also you need to know how to approach people when necessary, not whenever you feel like it.
Now we see the clown confronting towards the shadowy figure, with a more confident tone.
Clown:
What gives you the right, what made you decide to attack me in the street when chasing her?
Shadowy figure: -‐
What do you mean?
Clown:
You were the one who approached me with the machine gun, pointed to my face after chasing the girl.
The shadowy figure revivals himself to the clown, as he puts his face to the spot light.
He is wearing a black ski mask and a blue shirt with an officer budge on it.
Shadowy figure:
Because I am a vigilante who is out they’re making the place saver from creeps and freaks like you.
Clown: -‐ even thou I never hurt her or insult her, but you have no right to antagonist me for what have I done, she could have defended herself on hit me back for staying away but, you intruded me very disrespect where does that come from?
Fade to black with a caption.
TO BE CONTUNED…
After having discussion with my relative on the script, she has re written it to simplify previous script, with out having to confuse people.
The Rewritten version of MASK VS CLOWN
My log sheets on my filming schedules for Mask VS Clown
Production pictures 27/04/13 -‐ 28/04/13 shooting IMAGES 13
Here are photos of me as the clown and my sister’s friend Deborah Blackstock who’d plays the woman, who will be scared of my appearance in the film.
Advantage side of filming MASK VS CLOWN: -‐
To makes fair and right, I finished my film, all what I have written on my original script may be changed, but most of my subject have still maintained into the film itself and above of it has officially been completed.
Disadvantage side of filming MASK VS CLOWN
After weeks and months of planning and preparation to the film, I guess I have just give at least 80 percent of what I wanted to achieve when making this film.
I think I also 10 percent of finding the right people to portray my clown and mask character, with the unfortunate that I was playing them both and maybe not keeping my first take on the interrogation that was shot at the AVA Chroma room in my university.
Bibliography: -‐
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.deviantart.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
http://london.craigslist.co.uk/
Filmography Pulp Fiction Written, Directed by Quentin Tarantino Genre: Crime / Thriller © 1994 Miramax Films Elephant Written, Directed by Gus Van Sant © 2003 HBO films Last days Written, Directed by Gus Van Sant Genre: bio/music/drama © 2005 HBO films Paranoid Park Written, Directed by Gus Van Sant Genre: crime/drama/mystery © 2008 IFC Films The killing joke Written, Directed by Sebastian Lopez Genre: horror/shots ©2012 iOiOMA FILMS Roshomon Directed: Akira Kurosawa Written: Ryûnosuke Akutagawa © 1950 Daiei Film Co., Ltd. United States:RKO Radio Pictures
REFERENCE TO MY WORK
(1). Six stories
Cinderella: The protagonist’s true potential for happiness and fulfillment is finally realized after many ups and downs.
Achilles: The fatal flaw. See films such as Hamlet, Amadeus, The doors. A genius undone by hubris or obsession
Faust: The debt that must be paid when fate finally catches up with you
Tristan: The external Triangle. Man, wife, Lunatic/obsessed lover
Circe: The spider and the fly. The relentless hunt used to great effect in the horrors and Terminator films
Romeo and Juliet: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy find girl again- or maybe doesn’t
Orpheus: The gift that is taken away- whether loss of life, love or other materials important to the success and wellbeing of the protagonist.
(2).
(3).
IMAGE LIST
IMAGE 1 – http://naamahornamentius.deviantart.com/art/Shoot-‐Em-‐Up-‐ IMAGE 2 – Judge Dredd America, page 1-‐2, October 1990 – April 1991 © America published Rebellion Developments, Written Wagner, Illustrated Colin McNeil, Editor Steve MacManus. IMAGE 3 -‐ https://www.facebook.com/pages/PENNYWISE-‐THE-‐CLOWN-‐IT-‐STEPHEN-‐KING/48109570425?group_id=0 IMAGE 4 -‐ http://poqd.com/category/medicines/ IMAGES 5 -‐ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_Fiction
IMAGE 6 – http://thefilmemporium.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/review-‐rashomon-‐1950.html IMAGES 7 – screen shots of Gus Van Sant’s films. IMAGES 8 – screenshots of Sebastian Lopez THE KILLING JOKE film.
IMAGES 9-‐ https://post.craigslist.org/k/VG72BUG84hGErWI8RgXcJw/8saTN?s=preview IMAGES 10 – comic strip of MASK VS CLOWN
IMAGES 11 – storyboards of MAKS VS CLOWN
IMAGES 12 -‐ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaDE_KxSY&list=UUl1kr8dV2qpCRrw35nzdmtg&index=5 IMAGES 13 – production photos of MASK VS CLOWN – taken in 28/04/13