OT: Our Town

This is part of some research I did for the documentary by watching a similar doc that follows a group of high school students performing for the first time. The other girls in our Shakespeare doc group also watched a commented on this film. It helps us visualize a little of how we wanted our piece to look like and the possibilities that were available for editing, visualization, character development etc.

OT: Our Town

First thing I noticed about OT: Our Town, was the style of the filming. Given that it was shot in 2001-2002, the quality is still somewhat poor and almost all of it hand held. The high school kids claim their town as ‘the ghetto’ and so the grainy and low quality look creates a grittier feel that compliments the on screen action.

With this sort of feel for the entirety of the film, I felt like the relationship between filmmaker and the subjects, was very personal and non-intrusive. When the filmmaker was filming the students in a round table –classroom setting, it felt like we were part of the discussion and everyone could- and was being natural in front of the camera. The camera was just a part of what was going on. It was acknowledged by the high school kids and put into the environment like another character.

I cared for these subjects because the story was told through the kids and not as much through any authoritarian figure. While the teachers were also interviewed, it was the kids that drove the plot forward. With the interviews Kennedy did, I was impressed with how much the kids revealed on camera. The relationships I think, were key between filmmaker and subject. It made for a more meaningful film because it was like the filmmaker was a friend to everyone rather than stranger watching.

A really good editing choice in my opinion, was the idea to have ‘Our Town’ the film version of the play, being interjected between shots of the kids rehearsing their own version. Juxtapositioning these two different performances added meaning to the changes that kids were making themselves to their play. It showed a stark difference in the passion that these kids were putting into their play and what is means to them to be residents of Compton, California.

I do wish that most of the story-telling could have been more observational rather than based on the narration of interviews of the kids and the teacher. After doing some research on the film, it looks like the filmmaker is/was actually involved romantically with the teacher. This explains why perhaps the kids felt comfortable with Kennedy the filmmaker because I imagine he would have spent quite a lot of time with his subjects.I think a lot of the success of the film can be attributed to this: the relationship between subject and filmmaker. I could tell that he cared about these kids and if they succeeded or not. While I don't think that Kennedy was probably living or grew up in Compton or 'the getto', he definitely had something to say about accepting and loving the good and bad about our own town's.

Working tirelessly away with Christa!

Preview for Friday!

King Lear act 5, death death death.

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all?
-Lear (seeing Cordelia's dead body)

Why do the 'good' and virtuous characters also die? While I don't mind at all the Goneril and Regan die, it makes an interesting image to see Cordelia lying alongside them with another seemingly more pure character like Gloucester. I strangely don't feel thematically satisfied as I imagine all of them lying on the stage together. It's like in war, while we may see a side as 'the goodies' or 'the baddies', it's always more complicated than that. There is always onslaught and bloodshed on both sides and that is the nature of it. It get's messy and that is why we don't like war. The innocent die.

Documentary preview!

Documentary sneak peak from Shakespeare on Vimeo.

Shot List

Tomorrow we're filming the acting group rehearse. These are some of the shots I want to make sure we get. If not tomorrow, then of course by the end of our production/filming period.

-Avril directing each group individually - wide, close ups
-Actors getting frustrated - close ups,
-Actors understanding, feeling like they are 'getting it' - medium
-Everyone rehearsing together- all actors in one shot - wide
-Interview with Avril
-Feet, hands, scripts, - all close ups
-Entering/exiting the rehearsal space - wide

** A VARIETY of close ups, mediums, wides, long, point of views?, establishing shots

Goneril and Regan in Cinderella?

It hit me in class yesterday how alike Goneril and Regan
are in comparison with the two ugly step sisters in Cinderella. 

We have a Cinderella, pure and most loved sister (and I would say is usually depicted on stage as the prettiest of the sisters) compared against two other sisters that are seen as greedy, power hungry and conniving.

However connecting their likenesses, is maybe a little too superficial. I wonder if our Cinderella figure - Cordelia, is not as saint-like as she initially seems in juxtaposition with her sisters. Cordelia seems to be just as stubborn as her father. In a family relationship, or in any close relationship for that matter, we usually tend to get to know the things that will really annoy, hurt or please the other. Obviously, the King needed some form of affection from his daughters in his old age and Cordelia would not give it to him. In a similar act of self-justification and power, the King overrules her by abandoning her. Like stubborn father, like stubborn daughter.