Build-A-Film Workshop

LETS TALK ABOUT STRUCTURE!

JOIN ME AS I CHANNEL MY INNER BOB AND TRY TO PIECE TOGETHER A SHORT FILM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ENTIRE GAY LIFE. 

King of Building

Like I said before, this is essentially a film about how a son copes with the increasingly more tense relationship with his mother. It's also about how we perceive those closest to us, how we reflect on memories and their inherent subjectivity, as well as the idea of compromise. I always struggle with telling stories without giving away the ending so consider yourself warned.

The story will be split into three acts, each act consisting of about three scenes. The structure of these three scenes will be repeated in each act to emphasize the differences in each act and tell story visually rather than through dialogue.

Lunch Scene 

This scene is between the mother and the son as they have lunch; it is the most straight forward component illustrating their relationship in each of the acts. I plan to rely heavily subtext and symbolic props. 

My Dinner With André (1981) directed by Louis Malle

I thought about exploring this idea when I stumbled upon the 1981 film My Dinner With André. Now I'm not necessarily going for what Louis Malle was going for in his emulation of conversational speech; instead, I was interested in the idea of an entire film revolving around a dinner scene, using the subtext to convey the story. The beginning sequence of Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds(2009) exemplifies this style of writing. Dialogue full of metaphors and subtext that hints at what the villain already knows but hasn't explicitly stated. This isn't only foreshadowing, but it also amplifies the tension of the conversation- something that is incredibly hard to do.

Inglorious Basterds (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino

Fish Scene

Henri Matisse, Goldfish (1982)

In this scene the protagonist is in a fully white room talking to an artificial goldfish in a round fishbowl. The white room being symbolic of his state of mind, a projection of his inner monologue. I remember learning about the symbolism of goldfish in my AP Art History class as it relates to Henri Matisse's work; its meaning being that of a contemplative and mindful state.

I really didn't want to spoil the end but essentially the fish is a representation of his mom as seen through the protagonist's eyes. The fish being this foreign entity (given that is not human), whom the protagonist doesn't fully understand or relate to, but has to have this constant conversation with. Not only that, but given that the fish doesn't really speak English*, it further reinforces this linguistic disconnect between the mother and the son as it relates to the experiences of immigrants and the children of immigrants. It is also artificial; a constructed representation of his mom. The fish isn't really meant to reveal anything about the mom, but instead this hyper-stylization reveals how the protagonist/narrator feels about her. This is a concept I see myself borrowing from the 2017 FX show Legion created by Noah Hawley, but that show deserves its own blog post. 

Also, a fish making distorted bubble sounds with subtitles underneath is just the right kind of stupid  funny. Especially since I can get away with making this adorable bug-eyed fish curse without having to censor it. I'm excited for how dumb it's gonna look, and I really hope I succeed in at least making my classmates giggle or cringe- honestly I can't tell which one would be more satisfying.

Pool Scene 

The underwater scenes are all about the son trying to understand his mom and cope with the stress. This serves as a bridge between the more physical/real lunch scene and the hyper-stylized fish scene. It is essentially a scene in which the protagonist struggles to put himself in his mothers shoes. Considering that, according to him, his mother is a fish (I love As I lay Dying), it's no coincidence that when he tries to understand her he put himself in her environment. Water is also a symbol for change. I was inspired by Guillermo del Toro's Shape of Water in which he describes water as an ever-changing and malleable thing. Similarly, water is a symbol for change in my film as the protagonist undergoes a shift in attitude in order to coexist peacefully with his mother.

The Shape of Water (2017) directed by Guillermo del Toro

LET'S GET BUILDING ( I'm really trying to make this entertaining)

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet (I'll discuss techniques on my storyboard post). My film opens with a lunch scene between the mother and the son. The son is struggling to cut a a whole fried fish while the mom asks questions. The scene's purpose is to establish tension and illustrate their dysfunctional dynamic. As the son tries to drown her out with the sound of pouring water we are transported to an underwater scene in which the protagonist is drowning and struggling to keep his head above water. As he gasps for air and closes his eyes, a graphic match transitions to the next scene. He exhales, opens his eyes and finds himself sitting in a white room in front of fishbowl. Annoyed, he complains about the fish being back, a comment the snarky fish takes great offense to and curses him out for (the dialect codes the fish as Venezuelan). There is manipulative undertones in the fish's dialogue, as the protagonist tries to speak up the fish belittles him and interrupts him. 

This belittling transports the narrator/protagonist to Act 2, which opens with another dinner scene. This is essentially a flashback, but the actor is the same, with the only difference being his costume. He wears primary colors and kid's clothes he's now outgrown. This startles the narrator at first, but when his youthful mom talks to him in a nurturing and calm manner, he ignores it and continues to talk to her. He's eating chicken nuggets (or some sort of "kid food"), and drinking milk from a carton. His mother wears the same color as the orchids on the table. The purpose of this scene is to convey his longing for simpler times. It is  constructed representation of his past which starts to disintegrate as the inaccuracy in his mother's speech takes him back to reality. A graphic match edit from his mother to the fish transitions into the next scene. The fish is nicer to the protagonist, somewhat patronizing, the scene ends with "you can't hold on to the past forever" the last few words sound more human. The protagonist is startled, gets up, falls backwards and an action match cuts to him at his bed. Staring directly at the camera/ceiling, he is interrupted by a call from his friend.

This scene might change later but as of now it is a scene where the friend over the phone invites the protagonist to hang out. He's hesitant, expressing how he has things to do, "ah, sorry I can't... there's this fish I have to take care of now, and it's dumb but I-" she interrupts and proceeds to talk to him about how much she dislikes the fish, her description of the fish personifies it. The words "why do you even care, it's gonna die anyway" strike a cord with the protagonist, he drops the phone, the camera lingers for a bit.

Now in Act 3 the protagonist is swimming, essentially trying to figure out his place, and how to coexist with his mom- in a state of rapid change. The scene is punctuated by inserts of a third fish scene. In the inserts the fish is being funny, but mean comments take the protagonist out of it and we cut back to the swimming. The pacing of the edits slowly crescendos. The camera cuts to a scene of the protagonist looking overtly ominous as he stares at the fish. He's meant to look as if he was about to kill the fish, but the camera angle shifts so that we go from a low angle to a higher angle. He asks, in a charming and calm voice "how are you?" The fish is taken aback, initially combative, but then continues to give a genuine response. The camera cuts to along shot of the two talking, with the protagonist now laying down on the floor( level with the fish). There is a push out and the camera tilts 180 degrees. Then a graphic match to the dinner scene starts a montage of flashbacks and graphic matches that establish the mother and the fish as the same. Simultaneously, the fish and the mother's dialogue blends into one voice. The final shot is of the protagonist peacefully floating in the water, the camera shooting from a high angle tilting 360 degrees.

ROLL THE CREDITS.

He's done, sorta. 

And that's it, thats my basic outline! Hopefully now you understand what my idea is. Now I can begging blogging about how I'm actually going to be conveying that idea. Expect storyboards and script later this week :)










The fish is going to "speak" in a distorted high pitched voice that sounds kind of like bubbles, but the rhythm and intonation will code it as hispanic.  

Del Toro, Guillermo, director. The Shape of Water . Fox Searchlight Pictures , 2017. 

Malle, Louis, director. My Dinner With André. New Yorker Films, 1981. 

Tarantino, Quentin, director. Inglourious Basterds. Universal, 2009. 

Wilkins, Charlotte. “Matisse, Goldfish.” Khan Academy, 2013, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/matisse-goldfish.