Man & Tree Shotlist/Treatment
-Shots of serene wilderness, mostly tall healthy trees and birds.
-Focus in on a nice looking tree.
-MAN (young adult, possibly changing costume every scene) approaches tree (begin interrupting with very quick shots of industry and machines, black and white or sepiatone.)
-MAN meets TREE.
-MAN and TREE have embrace. In Book IV of the Aeneid, Aeneas and Dido are brought together by the work of the gods, and it is implied that they ultimately have sex/get married. The sexual relationship between the two will be portrayed in the film by a series of shots showing physical contact between MAN & TREE, interrupted occasionally by INDUSTRY.
*-Day becomes night, night becomes day, (shots of INDUSTRY increased greatly to show time=progress?)
-The next scene begins with MAN's hand covering the sun.
-MAN returns in the similar fashion each day, MAN will leave and similar shots will be shown during "night", but longer shots of INDUSTRY.
-As time passes, interrupting shots of INDUSTRY increase.
-As MAN befriends TREE, he becomes worried about the pace of INDUSTRY and its need for fuel.
-Internal conflict implied by MAN, who must is ultimately forced to sacrifice TREE for the sake of INDUSTRY.
-As INDUSTRY intensifies even more, and MAN spends less time with TREE, his compassion wanes.
-In the end, TREE is burned. It is assumed that the entire forest is burned, being an allusion to the future destruction of Carthage as brought about by Aeneas' descendants in Rome.
-While TREE is burning, MAN is shown being slowly submerged in water, symbolizing Aeneas' overseas departue from Carthage, oblivious to Dido's demise.
-Fade to darkness, and back to racing shots of tree stumps and wooden structures to emphasize the trade of life for creation, and the absorption of MAN and TREE into INDUSTRY.
Imagery: I really want the imagery and audio to tell the story, and since the plot is so subtle, I've decided to take a more experimental approach to illustrating my message. I hope for the visuals to be somewhat confusing, and shots will sort of be thrown at viewers before they are able to fully comprehend their significance, because I hope to receive different interpretations of my film.
-Sound: Main soundtrack is nature sounds, recorded in a forest, along with four different speeches given by famous leaders about duty, industry, and international relations.
-Themes: Stoicism, Xenia, duty, different interpretations of right and wrong, nature, civilization, sacrifice, the greater good, fate. The relationship between the TREE and MAN can be compared to that of Aeneas and Dido of Vergil's Aeneid, in Book IV: Aeneas wastes his time in leisure with the foreign queen, but is forced to leave her in order to complete his duty, unaware of Dido's fate, who kills herself. MAN kills TREE because he does not understand the reality of what he is doing and its possible consequences, just as Aeneas may as well have killed Dido, although without intention. INDUSTRY, the third main character, as well as being a major theme, is parallel to the supernatural forces of the Aeneid that influence its characters, especially Aeneas. The Gods/fate(INDUSTRY) compel Aeneas(MAN) to leave Dido(TREE), regardless of what may become of her, in order to complete his duty.
-Location: My thoughts are to find a tree in the forest near Forest Hills. An important aspect of MAN's encounter with TREE is the crossing of a boundary, as Aeneas did when he crash landed in Carthage, so I am going to have man stumble upon TREE.
-Speeches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOQwa73KXbs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjAR7mOvgc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufHojkoGtw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY&feature=related
-This film is a Homeric metaphor of sorts, using nature to represent the aspect of human nature that causes one to believe so strongly in whatever they believe to be right, their duty, that reality escapes their scope of comprehension and they lose sight of what they were intending to do in the first place.
-Characters:
MAN is Aeneas, with whom Dido falls in love, but is compelled by INDUSTRY to seek out his future.
TREE is Dido, who sacrifices for the sake of INDUSTRY.
INDUSTRY represents not only the Gods, and Divine Intervention, but also the future of Rome.
SYMBOLS:
-The forest is Carthage.
-In the beginning, the sky is gray because a storm has just passed.
-The dead tree seen briefly is Sychaeus, Dido's late husband, the death of whom she is still recovering from. Dido is without leaves, as if winter has just come and gone, because she is in a weakened state after the death of her husband and the treachery of her brother Pygmalion.
-The squirrels are the Carthaginians.
-The bird seen perched nearby Dido is Iarbas, her suitor.
-The puddle next to Dido is the Mediterranean Sea.
Comments
Dear Monty, It was a pleasure
Dear Monty,
It was a pleasure seeing you at the ICA yesterday. It is good to see you working hard on your piece!
Thank you for sending me a link to your post. I remember seeing it before and thinking about its evolution from the time that you posted it. Reading it this second time, I took the liberty of taking some notes that I hope will be useful to you. Please let me know if they are confusing or if I am misunderstanding something. But before you read them, I wanted to let you know that you did a great job in explaining your idea and the various layers that will give shape to your piece. Again, I am very intrigued and excited to see how the final piece will turn out!
Here are a few of my thoughts on some of the ideas in the treatment:
1.- I am very interested in hearing more about your plans for each shot and how you will edit them. From what I remember seeing in your storyboard, there is a paced feel, both in your shots and in your editing (I may have just gotten that impression since we only looked at it briefly). From what I am reading in your treatment, I am still a little confused in terms of the way you will present the INDUSTRY.
It would be good to try a few different shots of the INDUSTRY (angles and/ or juxtaposition of industry with the forest in the same shot) as well as different edits to see what will work best for the piece. For example, one version could have the flashing images of the industry interrupt the image of the man and tree (is this what you meant by "interrupting shots"?). Another version could be the presence of the industry slowly becoming more evident in the shots of the man and forest as the piece progresses...
With the incrementing use of interrupting shots, do you want to refer to the idea that time = progress, or the incrementing prepotent presence of the industry as time moves on? The viewer may have slightly different interpretations depending on the way INDUSTRY is edited into the piece/ how it is presented.
2.- I am quite intrigued by the image of MAN submerged in water as the tree burns. For me it not only represent's Dido's demise, but also Man's (un)conscious end. How can man live without nature? How could Aeneas live without Dido? Perhaps you could use your growing knowledge of After Effects to help you with the fire and its reflection on the water!
3.- Rather than cutting down the tree in the end (which I believe could still be a very strong end to your piece), there is a clear link between what I imagine to be a chimney-like structure in the industry shots, and the smoke coming from the burning forest.
4.- I am very interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the Eisenhower Farewell Speech and its influence and possible incorporation in your piece.
How can this speech be made to make a contradictory or juxtapositional commentary on our society today? Or would you use min 10:11 - 11:48 of the posted video to make your message more explicit?
5.- It would be great that when we meet next time we can talk about how the video will be abstract enough for viewers to have different interpretations. From what I read there seem to be quite a few messages or stories in this one piece. This is a wonderful thing to explore and I think all of the messages can be successfully interwoven into the piece, but I'm just concerned that all of these messages may become too convoluted. I think you are working with a very powerful overarching topic, and it might be worth writing down all of the different messages and stories and noting down the level of importance of each. This way we can assess the way the prevalent message will remain in the surface and how the other messages can be incorporated without overshadowing the main idea.
Again Monty, I think you are doing a great job with this piece. You are working with a lot of strong and interesting concepts. I hope these comments help.
Keep up the good work!
Camilo
Post new comment