Moving right along…

image copyright Aaron Diaz

The project moves ahead, and it seems I’ve a few questions that need answerin’…

Apologies for the lack of updates to the project over the last week. I was hoping to provide updates and to answer any queries daily but that hasn’t really been possible, so instead there’s quite a back log of issues to address and clarify.

First, and this is really a small housekeeping reminder really, as each of the 42 vignettes are being gradually taken up by participants in the project, please make sure you get in quick and nominate which one you’d like to complete. I’ve had quite a lot of ‘maybes’ and half-decisions come my way, but I really need you to confirm your nominations with me either via email (dermotmcguire@gmail.com) or twitter so you can secure the vignette you want. I’d hate for someone to miss out on participating in the project because they didn’t get the vignette they were after. Moreover, confirming which one you’re going to complete also helps me keep track of how the project is evolving and what genres or dramatic devices are proving popular and which aren’t.

Second, and this is a big one, I’ve had a lot of questions regarding how I wanted the vignettes to look, or how I wanted them scripted, or what relationship did I want the filmed vignettes to have with the original Diaz images. The short answer to all these is whatever you like; I am in no way putting stipulations or conditions on the sort of films that you produce, nor on the way that you choose to interpret the initial Diaz image.

image copyright Aaron Diaz

Which is to say, do what you feel like, just so long as it’s identifiable as the hypothetical scenario that you’ve picked.

Say you’ve picked “Amnesiac Villain Kidnaps Self“. Obviously, something about the scenario has appealed to you, and you’ve probably got an idea in mind already of what your film will be and how you want it to look, and because you’re terribly clever and you recognise the filmic and theatrical tropes that Diaz is playing with here (both in the “thriller” format, and in the dramatic use of peripeteia), you not only get the original joke, but you can flesh out in your mind’s eye the rest of the storyline to that scenario leading to that specific still image.

So, because you’ll have that all in your mind already, I’m not going to impose any restrictions on the way you choose to make that hypothetical scene a reality. Go for it. Do it however you feel like. Have fun with it. Play around with form and method; make a stop motion film, make a claymation, make it with a crew and a HD camera, make it with your mobile phone, whatever.

I’m not the creator here; you are. I am, at best, a custodian or a steward for your efforts, a participant playing a slightly different role to the rest of you, putting all your pieces together in order to assemble the whole. Which is a rather long way of saying: do what you want, just make it recognisable as that specific scenario.

image copyright Aaron Diaz

If I watch your film and think “yep, that’s totally a sci-fi reverse MacGuffin about an ancient alien pyramid scheme” then you’ve succeeded.

The rest is entirely up to you.

Something else I’d like to cover here briefly are some of the technical aspects of the project. I’ve said before that I want the project to be as accessible to non-specialists or artists as possible, so I’m keeping technical requirements to a bare minimum. For example: you’ve just completed your 1-2 minute film about unintentional incest. What then? Well, you’re going to have to get your film to me, and deliver it in a way that I can work with. The technical specifications for the export that I’d like to see are:

Compression: H.264

Dimensions: PAL 720×576 4:3

Deinterlaced Source Video

Sound at 44.100 kHz, 16-Bit Stereo

If the above mean nothing to you, send me an email or DM on twitter and I’ll be more than happy to walk you through the export process. For those of you who might have a little more experience, you might be wondering why I’ve asked for those specifications, specifically the H.264 compression and not, say, ProRes 422 or Motion Jpeg. This is largely because the finished films will have to be delivered to me via an FTP service. I won’t be able to receive DVDs in the mail, and I certainly won’t be able to receive your films in person, so the best way to get your film to me will be using a service like YouSendIt or Drop Box (there are plenty of other services out there, but those are two that I use regularly) where you’ll be able to upload your film to their servers and I’ll be able to download a copy of it at my end.

image copyright Aaron Diaz

Hence the need for your film to be exported with the H.264 compression; it will keep the file size down significantly and will save you a lot of time and ISP charges when you upload it.

Sorry for the very long update, hopefully though that’s cleared up a few queries you might’ve had. Again, feel free to send an email to dermotmcguire@gmail.com or DM me on twitter if you’ve any questions or suggestions. Good luck with getting your films finished guys, and please, keep spreading the word to any and all who might be interested in taking part in the project.

To update the list from my last post, the scenes that have been nominated (which is to say taken but not yet completed) are:

“Unreliable Narrator“

“Unreliable Reader“

“God Did it“

“Vampires Repel Daylight“

“It was a Dream“

“It wasn’t a Dream“

“Toy Actually Magic Wand“

“Wand Actually Handgun“

“Conspiracy Actually Kinda Boring”

“Stolen Identity Not Worth It”

“Autistic Boy Grants Wishes” (thank you Clare!)

“Government is in on it”

“Government is Actually Autistic Boy”

“Dark Lord Reasonable”

If you’ve nominated a scenario to me and it’s not on this list, please let me know right away as I must’ve forgot…

42 Essential 3rd Act Twists (an update)

 

image copyright Aaron Diaz

 

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the incredible response to yesterday’s post; it’s great to see so many people getting excited about a project so quickly. Kudos to you all; many, many kudos.

I’m going to be posting here pretty regularly to keep people updated about the project, and especially which of the 42 scenes have been nominated by participants so far (there’s already been some fighting over the best ones…)

So as it stands, the scenes that have been nominated (which is to say taken but not yet completed) are:

“Unreliable Narrator“

“Unreliable Reader“

“God Did it“

“Vampires Repel Daylight“

“It was a Dream“

“It wasn’t a Dream“

“Toy Actually Magic Wand“

“Wand Actually Handgun“

That’s an awesome response for something that was only launched yesterday, I’m stoked. But we’re not there yet: if you’ve nominated to create a vignette, then it’s time to get cracking on scripting and filming; if you’ve not nominated yet but are interested then it’s time to put your hand up before you miss out; and if you reckon you’ve got a friend who would be interested, then it’s time to let them know about all this.

Again, you can contact me via email (dermotmcguire@gmail.com) or twitter (@commuter_dirge) to nominate yourself or your group or if you have any questions about the project.

42 Essential 3rd Act Twists and an experiment in something different…

I’m going to have a stab at something new.

Those of you who know me will know that I regularly make films for the Kino Sydney collective’s film nights that are open to everyone from professionals to amateurs and everyone in between (and yes, I’m definitely somewhere in between). Since first being introduced to Kino in 2007, I’ve been an especially big fan of its inclusive, experimental ethos and its dedication to creating a supportive space for artists to try new things and play with new forms of filmmaking and storytelling.

If you’ve never heard of Kino before, I’d strongly suggest you check it out now or perhaps read this homage from Kino regular Clare.

For everyone else who’s heard of Kino before, let me get right to the point.

The last Kino event (#32) for 2009 will be on the 14th of December and I have a plan for a film (of sorts) but I need your help.

I’ve been interested for some time in trying out different forms of film production as well as different ways of approaching traditional narratology. Which is to say, making something that isn’t necessarily a story with a beginning, middle and an end (in whatever order) made by an individual or by a crew.

Most efforts that I’ve seen so far tend to up a glorious mess, as a smear of “crowd-sourced” (erf…) participants attempt to reinvent the wheel, while driving, while juggling, and while trying to keep their collective egos in check…

So bearing in mind that I’ve just said that such (communal? collective? anything but “crowd-sourced”, please) efforts tend to either fail abjectly or result in something thoroughly unappealing, I’m asking you to help me do just that.

So this is a collective call-to-arms then. Except we’re not making a film. Or not making a single film.

What I’d like to make is a multi-narrative, parallelised and cross-referenced matrix of vignettes that will be produced by a number of individuals or by individual teams and then collated into a final interactive document/artefact/filmscape(?).

Which is really an overly complex way of saying that I’d like to make this:

Image copyright Aaron Diaz

Some of you might recognise this as a comic by the incredible Aaron Diaz, the man responsible for the beautiful Dresden Codak. Apart from being an awesome artist, Diaz is also thoroughly clever; what we have here is Diaz cross-referencing a variety of standard genres with some classic narrative devices, some of which are as old as Western narratology itself (peripeteia, anagnorisis, deus ex machina) while others are decidedly more modern (the reverse macguffin and the Shyamalan), to produce a series of potential 3rd act plot-resolving twists (for a hypothetical amateur theatre company).

You’ve probably noticed that some of these refer to actual or existing film, theatre or literature plots (for instance, the deus ex machina entry in the fantasy genre “Eagles” is a reference to the resolution of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which has always pissed me off…) whereas others are simply theoretical (or at least, I’ve never seen a film in which all the butlers did it).

So what I’d like to do is to bring these 42 scenarios to life. I want your help to produce short vignettes (maybe thirty seconds to a minute, longer if you’re feeling braver) for each of the 42; from “Land Assaulted by Ghost Boats” to “Reverse Robot Reveal” (my personal favourite). And then we’ll put them all together in an awesome living vibrant version of what you’ve got there in front you in static .jpegedness.

Don’t worry too much about quality; we want this to be organic and for anyone to be able contribute a piece of the bigger puzzle. If you’re not a professional, don’t worry; grab a camera and some friends and muck around with it, have fun first and foremost. We’ll worry about an overall aesthetic direction to each of the pieces later once I have a sense of how many people would like to participate and contribute.

For now, if you’re interested and want to help make this happen (thank you, you’re awesome), send me an email (dermotmcguire@gmail.com) or DM me on twitter (twitter.com/commuter_dirge) and nominate what scenario/s you’d like to complete. I’ll post back here once I have a sense of the numbers of people participating, and we’ll look at what ones still need to be done.

Again, this could be very cool and I’d love your help to make it happen. Send me an email, DM me, make my day for me.

Thanks in advance…

Everybody has to (re)start somewhere.

Orright, so here it is; the shiny new (public) blog for leisurely perusal, embaffled wonderment, and snarky commentary of all kinds.

I’m still shifting things over from the longstanding private blog which is in the process of being mothballed, so things will be appearing here in dribs and drabs until that is finished. Add to that an ever-increasing backlist of posts to finish and publish (most notably a write-up of the not-so-recent Revealing the Arts conference) and there’s going to be quite a bit to cross over in the next few weeks.

What you can expect to find here will be covered in a future post too, so if you’re wondering right now what the hell Faraday Cage Fight is all about sit tight, be cool, all will be revealed.

So why the post that isn’t a post about posts that aren’t yet posts?

We-ell, my hand’s been forced and I’ve moved things forward because I needed to launch the project that’s the subject of my next post (see above, or below, or however this damn theme organises posts…)