HEADLESS CHICKEN: Why?
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. Editing is where I'll likely be playing with these limits of tangibility - but throughout the entire process what must remain in my vision is the ideal of relative purity that my original nightmare represented.
Further than originality, there are other aspects which define my thoughts. HEADLESS CHICKEN, as the name and concept likely suggest, is not supposed to be a comfortable experience - it is foremost a nightmare, and as such needs to be unsettling and provocative by its very nature. The general crescendo in tension of my narrative is certainly purposeful, to the effect of loosening an audience's grip on the reality of the situation - the boy's progression from the warmth and comfort of his own room, to the cold rain of the outside and muddy sty of the coop certainly speaks for this, also; the final action is him running back to safety and a more controllable reality. The tight runtime and limited action, alongside a lonely duet of (notably ambiguous) characters should further this unnerving effect, giving little information for an audience to stand on. Provocation should come from the untraditional aspects primarily, but hopefully even the elements of sound design (ambient rainfall, amplifying chicken wailing etc.) and camerawork should elicit some thought, or strike away from the norm.
We will have to wait and see how these ambitions are met in practice; filmmaking is a novel form for me, and as such it can be argued that the ability to compromise and evolve as problems arise is as important as any script or amount of preparation. I will be attaching a finished screenplay to the next post, then moving onto filming, then finally editing.
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. Editing is where I'll likely be playing with these limits of tangibility - but throughout the entire process what must remain in my vision is the ideal of relative purity that my original nightmare represented.
Further than originality, there are other aspects which define my thoughts. HEADLESS CHICKEN, as the name and concept likely suggest, is not supposed to be a comfortable experience - it is foremost a nightmare, and as such needs to be unsettling and provocative by its very nature. The general crescendo in tension of my narrative is certainly purposeful, to the effect of loosening an audience's grip on the reality of the situation - the boy's progression from the warmth and comfort of his own room, to the cold rain of the outside and muddy sty of the coop certainly speaks for this, also; the final action is him running back to safety and a more controllable reality. The tight runtime and limited action, alongside a lonely duet of (notably ambiguous) characters should further this unnerving effect, giving little information for an audience to stand on. Provocation should come from the untraditional aspects primarily, but hopefully even the elements of sound design (ambient rainfall, amplifying chicken wailing etc.) and camerawork should elicit some thought, or strike away from the norm.
We will have to wait and see how these ambitions are met in practice; filmmaking is a novel form for me, and as such it can be argued that the ability to compromise and evolve as problems arise is as important as any script or amount of preparation. I will be attaching a finished screenplay to the next post, then moving onto filming, then finally editing.
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