Spike's Film Blog

 The storyboards for Headless Chicken , hand-drawn with notations - the intention almost certainly being to use them as a guideline on-set and in pre-production, but just as essentially the very act of drawing them up served to stretch my mind visually. Considering shot types, movement and lighting, all to the effect of visual communication was another step towards really forming this story in a mode more tangible than just my imagination. I found myself particularly conscious of the styling and pacing of Slap as a visual reference, with the semi-skeletal and highly detailed profiles of the protagonist similarly thoughtful and evocative to the visage of troubled youth I want to portray. I can only hope that the equipment, lighting and conditions will align in order to capture the fragility of the boy, along with an eye for casting - this at least I think I have sorted, with a friend willing to hack it in the cold for a night.

LOG: A DISTURBED YOUNG ADULT FINDS HIMSELF INEXPLICABLY DRAWN TO THE DISTANT CRY OF A WAILING CHICKEN. FADE IN. - INT. YOUNG ADULT BEDROOM, NIGHT The WHITE NOISE of a spent record runs maddeningly alongside another sound, piercing and inexorable; a distant yet unmuffled WAILING OF CHICKENS. A window cracked half-open shines a white light into the room, mingling with the weak flicker of a small BEDSIDE LAMP that illuminates a lonely figure. Strung taught in fear under a thick duvet, tiny amongst the clutter of his bedroom lies our unfortunate protagonist of 18 years. A sweaty mess of hair and an unshaven chin define a shivering, grimacing face - deathly awake. Swaddled in sheets, his eyes fix strictly into nothingness, attention seized by the echoing cries. A jagged few seconds pass before he shoves the covers from himself and arises, half-naked. A cold dredge rattles up his spine. He slumps forward with the grace of a zombie, dragging towards the RECORD PLAYER; stumbling b...

It seems appropriate, now that I have a solid concept, synopsis and logline - along with consideration of the structure of my piece - to really nail down what it is I want to achieve on a larger scale. I have hinted and skimmed this topic before in reference to surrealist traditions, but I want to really pin it down in writing. The main drive behind my project as a whole, as I have stated before, is originality. I want to create something both unique and reflective of myself, something that is utterly unapologetic for being unusual. In theory, at least. Ever since studying the work of the surrealists, the way in which they bent the medium to their psychological ambitions has fascinated me - I don't, however, wish to imitate this exactly. I mean to use surrealist elements of narrative subversion and ambiguity to the effect of opening up my story to personal interpretation, but not to the limits of rending my story unwatchable or unattainable for the (presumably single-time) viewer...