Major project - Ideation and summary.

"My Dinner with Andre" (1981) dir. Louis Malle

It is my hope that I can prepare a showcase of the skills learned during the onward motion of the course; that I can effectively produce a piece of work that both speaks to me as a creator, and highlights a professional sensibility. 

The inception of my idea came out of my work on the extended dissertation, which - broadly speaking - focused on the discourse between high and low artforms. This difference, or lack of (depending on your viewpoint), has always interested me as it forms the basis of the way in which we as individuals build up our own assertions of taste, through our subjective consumption of art. This is evidenced in its simplest form in conversation, where there are often as many disagreements as there are agreements. As such I've elected to keep my animation semi thematic to my work on the dissertation and pursue a more conversational end product.    

Marvel Studios, and the death of Cinema?

I'd been sitting on this very basic want/outcome for my major project for the few months I was writing my dissertation, and I admit, it hadn't grown much through those months, sitting in the back of my mind waiting to take a fuller form. But from early conversations with Alan, it was suggested that I watch Louis Malle's "My Dinner with Andre" (1981) which by and large, is a two hour conversation with the appearance of being realtime, centering on a meetup between old friends Wally and Andre. It took me a while to settle in to the very simple set up for the film, but I found myself sinking into the natural patter of their conversation. Sure, this is a movie that might as well be a podcast, or on radio, the filmic qualities of this film are secondary to the content of their conversation. As such, the film isn't very complex. It's a collection of one two shots, tracking reactions between the two gentlemen as their evening progresses.

It dawned on me, as I watched, that this film was doing everything it could to immerse you in the reality of these two friends, sharing a sometimes awkward, sometimes riveting conversation. Aesthetically, it's steeped in naturalism, almost shot as if a documentary, and there's a decidedly lo-fi sheen to the picture, very 70's grainy. Conflating this further, the actors walk a fine line between playing themselves - they share names with their characters etc. Despite this, the film obviously conflates time in the attempts to shoehorn an entire 3 course meal into the runtime, as it's implied through proceedings that the two arrive at the restaurant near opening time and are the last customers to exit.  

The crux of my ideas generated by viewing the film really centered on the representation of reality and the content of their conversation, which too, felt very real, almost ad libbed. And, as far ranging as it is, there also seems to be this air of control too, where the conversation is consistently entertaining - whether this is through a large amount of observation of real conversation combined with cherry picking, or entirely spontaneous seems moot. From thinking on all of this, I really hit on the need to situate characters in a similar setup to chat about film, perhaps extending some of the discourse Wally and Andre share about art, but in animated form. The need to justify the need for this to be animation seemed to be as moot as it was for Louis Malle when he made this film when it could have easily been something else. 

After relaying this trail of thought to Phil - with attempts to justify why I would use animation on this project, where I cited that the immediacy of animation makes it easier to identify with events on screen - we centered on the idea that I could perhaps produce a proof of concept series of shorts that focus on film itself, perhaps showcasing peoples genuine reactions to seminal moments in film and pairing high/low arguments in an immediate and naturalistic way. This would allow me to showcase my work in all of the ways I would like, whilst also allowing me a means of production that allows me to produce something within a framework that doesn't shift, with beneficial limits in place to aid the speed of creation. Initially this worried me as I still feel compelled to create something with a traditional narrative, akin to short film making, and I do feel that the initial state of this particular idea threw away a lot of what I enjoyed about My Dinner with Andre; it would involve breaking a fourth wall with visual elements that sit outside of the reality of the recorded conversation (much like a youtube video essay does) and whilst I like the idea of creating a quasi infographic/narrative series of shorts, I would like to progress in a direction that tries to maintain the illusion of reality, much in the spirit of MDWA, so I would like to rely on what happens "in camera" or in sound, or at least, just avoid breaking the illusion that you are an observer. Perhaps more Creature Comforts than a Collider Top 10 video.   

Going forward then...

The obvious component needed is the audio content as it's the element that everything will hinge around. I'm aiming to keep things semi focused on films, but I really want to maintain that documentary feel, so I'm trying to record things in a very candid way - either by doing quick "hot takes" or spontaneously electing to record a conversation between two people after showing them a certain film scene etc. This is in response to the initial idea of just going into a recording studio and performing in a way that's similar to recording a podcast. I feel there are drawbacks here as there is a certain amount of 'playing up to the camera' with those methods of production, where I feel people tend to be a tad more outrageous and therefore, staged, than they would be in a different setting. I want to absolutely nail that naturalistic feel after all. 

I'll be writing a post that will further detail the process and the criteria for recordings soon.