The Darjeeling Limited.

After "Hotel Chevalier", we researched further into the short film and the next week we watched "The Darjeeling Limited", the film leading on from HC.

It follows the story of three brothers; Peter, Francis and Jack and their journey to find their mother to find out why she didn't attend their father's funeral. It ends up becoming a spiritual journey for all three of them unexpectedly and we discover how each character is dislocated in his own way.

Peter is expecting a baby back home (But he only told Jack this information) and he didn't tell his wife that he was going on the trip before he left. As the story progresses, you can see him worry more and stress about what will happen when he comes home.

Francis has bandages on his head for a majority of the film and we come to understand that he was in a motorcycle accident. He later on says the accident happened on purpose which made me believe that he was trying to kill himself. 

Jack (who was the character that appeared in Hotel Chevalier) is obsessing over his ex-girlfriend (who also appeared in HC) and to try and take away this pain, he sleeps with the stewardess on the train.

The characters are very dislocated within themselves, they think they know what they want but when they look at each other, they can see that no-one knows what they want or how to fix it. They go to India in search of their mother who they have always been very distant from, and they simply think they are going to jump on a train and see her, but like every film, things aren't as simple as you plan them. The film comes with twists and turns, and with each twist, the characters start to question what they are doing with their lives.

(to be updated)

Eating Local.

One of the benefits of researching my documentary idea, is that I get to go and try some new food. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food in restaurants; you wouldn't exactly see me going for frogs legs but when it comes to food 'on the outside' if that's what you can call it, I'm pretty much up for trying anything.

I first started researching vegan restaurants and found a few Facebook pages, and the first page I came across was for "Check Out My Buns". They aren't a restaurant but they are a gluten free and vegan bakery who sell their goods at St. George's Market every weekend. Back in November, I got tested and was told that I needed to go gluten free immediately because my body couldn't cope with eating gluten, as well as not being able to eat soy or carrots too. So when I found out this company was not only vegan (relating well to my initial research) but that it was also gluten free, I was over the moon. On their "About" Facebook page, they said "Delighted to say we are now an exclusively Gluten/Wheat Free bakery, working in an exclusively gluten and wheat free space". This doesn't so much relate to my subject, but for me personally, it's such a good thing to hear and see from companies, especially since I know that cross-contamination won't happen (Not that I have dealt with this yet).

On Wednesday evening, I placed an order with them and picked up on Saturday afternoon at St. George's Market. I picked up some Cocoa Nut Amazeballs otherwise described as healthy nut/fruit snack balls. They are of course, gluten free and vegan but they're also dairy free, egg free, wheat free and no added sugar (The only sugar that's in them is the natural occuring sugars that comes from the dried fruits). So what you're eating is clean and natural, and isn't full of sugary preservatives. I waited until I got home to take some photographs of them:

They were £5 for 6 which is excellent value for something clean and delicious that caters to you. I've already had two but they're not like other snacks. I cut one in half and I felt satisfied; I didn't get that 'chocolate bar' or 'Jaffa cake' feeling, I didn't need to have another one, it just satisfied my sweet tooth for hours, so if you're thinking six isn't very much, it really is, because these will probably last you until the next week (if you don't share them, of course). They are delicious and I don't mean to say I didn't need to have another one because I didn't like them, because I actually love them, but because they don't have all the rubbish that's in other snacks, they left me feeling like I had something sweet and didn't have an addictive craving to eat the entire set (which normal chocolate or other sweet treats do).

I'm really happy with my first 'local' experience of vegan (and gluten free) food and I'll be venturing back next week to the market to see what else this company have to offer. I say 'local' because apart from fruit and vegetables and the odd cake (when I could eat gluten), I've never really bought local food before, but even just walking around the market, it really opened my eyes to local food, even if I can't eat a large majority of it.

To find out more about them; their website, their Twitter and their Facebook page.

Hotel Chevalier.

In class, we watched "Hotel Chevalier" and "The Darjeeling Limited", both written and directed by Wes Anderson.

Starting off with "Hotel Chevalier", this is a short film shown before "The Darjeeling Limited" as a lead in to the film. As someone who didn't know either of these characters, I feel like it was very dislocated from the beginning. Wes Anderson is known for being very arty and in my opinion, he used this to push the art and not focus so much on the story. If you didn't do research into the film afterwards, you may be confused about what the relationship between the two characters is. You can take the film two ways:

• You can take it as a slow short film to start off with but then becomes very rushed that brings two characters together that have been very disconnected and by the end of the film, they will always end up regretting sleeping together.
• You can see the art of the two characters being divided by their feelings for each other, you sit and try and figure out their relationship and are unsure where they both stand with their feelings towards each other.

I drew two theories (before further research):

• They are two best friends who sleep together on a regular basis but they always seem to regret it the next morning.
• They had been in a relationship before and are currently off/on and both don't know what's going on between them but they have sex anyway and hope their feelings work out.

Wes Anderson is also known for using a lot of yellow throughout his films and "Hotel Chevalier" is no exception. Even from the screenshot above, there is a large amount of yellow on screen and this adds to 'the arty factor' I spoke about earlier.

Once you watch "The Darjeeling Limited" you come to find out that the woman had in fact been Jack's girlfriend and they weren't together anymore.

I think it's the perfect example of 'dislocation' and I'm glad we got shown this piece of film. I wouldn't necessarily say I loved it but I watched it about three or four times and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the mystery of what their relationship was and as I done more research each time, some of the lines they were saying to each other made more sense each time and all started to make sense once I found out that they had, in fact, been in a relationship before.

Fictional Reality Twist Proposal

Original Thought (Initial Ideas)

A story about a young woman around sixteen years old talking to a friend or a therapist (adding a therapist could make this story cliche however) about what she's been going through lately. She's fallen out with one of her best friends, she's falling behind in school, she's fighting with her parents, she's just broken up with her boyfriend. As she explains what's been going on, she says how if she was a character in a TV show, it would be so much easier because things on TV are always easier. She then turns into a character on her own reality show and she discovers the real pit falls of some of her favourite shows, and tries to hide away from her problems. The cameras pointing in her face, the sound mics always been hooked up, the director forcing her to face people she doesn't want to; all these problems make her face the real problems she's had to deal with lately.

Characters (Names, Descriptions, Personal Profile, Sketches)

Young woman: sixteen years old, appearance and name hasn't been decided yet, dresses like a normal teenager girl coming into her own. She's had a lot going on in her life so I want to give the impression that she hasn't been sleeping and she's been worrying a lot.

Director: man aged between thirty and forty, stubborn, bossy, wants everything his way. Forces the unnamed teenage girl to call her ex-boyfriend, call her best friend that she's just fought with, even though she doesn't want to. He wants the entertainment and isn't concerned about how she feels.

Friend/Therapist: age unknown at this point, friendly, understanding, good listener, doesn't really say much throughout the story.

Best Friend (who she fought with): very much like the main character, she's been going through a lot but decided not to tell anyone. This comes out and the main character then realizes that she didn't understand why her friend was acting so weird but now she knows and understands, but she's going through the same thing.

Ex Boyfriend: We don't see him on screen, he just hear him on the phone, he doesn't sound like an unreasonable guy, he's a little older than her, she was giving him mixed signals and he didn't want to do that anymore.

Story (Start, Middle, End or Conflict and Resolution, or what happens to whom and what's the result. If a poetic idea, then talk about theme and emotion.)

(This is my first initial idea that I wrote in my notebook. I haven't fleshed out a middle or an ending yet)

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

Genre

I want this to be in the comedy drama genre. I don't want to say it will be completely dramatic because I feel like I would be limited in where I could go with the story if it is just drama, but if I'm able to add little comedic effects to it, the audience could connect with it more.

Audience (Who are they?)

I want my audience to be a range of people. I want to attract young people who are interested in reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Hills etc. and show them parts of the reality world that they may not seen or may not be aware of. I also want to attract people who themselves are going through things in their lives, and feel like they have had new problems hit them  to realize how to fix their original problems.

Why you think this is a good idea (Interest to audience, ease of production, simplicity of idea)

This reality twist on a fiction is a good idea in my eyes because it gives you the best of both worlds. It's not exactly a documentary but it has elements of documentary and things being staged as well as it being a fictional story too. For the production, I will need quite a few cast members and just as many crew members; which sound daunting but if I am able to flesh out the story and make it exactly how I see it in my head, I think it could be an interesting experience for everyone because we will be doing two formats (fiction and technically behind the scenes of a documentary style show).

Second Idea: Fictional Reality.

Although not that many people like to admit it, I'm one of those people who watches reality shows. I don't watch the British ones, mainly because I find them over the top which is strange because the American versions are just as bad. I think it's because our generation especially, are so used to watching American programming that we don't see the cringe and the over dramatics as much like we would the British version.

In my spider diagram, I had a few categories connecting to my second idea. I had entertainment linked with TV to start off with. I'm a big television person; I haven't got around to watching the big shows like Game of Thrones, House, House of Cards or Orange is the New Black yet, because there isn't enough hours in the day. I am however a massive fan of shows like The Office (The American version, not the British) and Parks and Recreation, to name two that I thought of as soon as I first came up with this idea. Both shows are mockumentaries, following characters around their daily lives; one being a parks department and the other being an office environment. They both have 'talking heads', where a character will sit or stand in a room and talk to the camera directly and I wanted something similar to this for my second idea.

Another aspect taken from the world of television was the thought of reality shows. There have been numerous reports of former reality stars like Lauren Conrad for example who came out against "The Hills" (One of two reality shows she had been on) and said that the show was in fact for the most part set up. Phonecalls were set up, if you got in a fight with someone, that person would then be at the same restaurant a few days later and you weren't made aware until they came up to your table, meaning the camera could catch your first reaction, whether you wanted the person there or not. There has always been a lot of spectulation about these types of shows and of course, we all know that they're not real, but how much of your actual life is ACTUALLY on these shows? I wanted to use this as a fake behind the scenes of this type of thing and show the audience that it can be just as fake as a fictional show.

Going back to the spider diagram, I wanted to include 'trapped' and 'emotional' in the story too because this girl feels trapped in her own life which is why she is opening up to someone but then she suddenly gets trapped her own reality and doesn't know why. So I want the story to be fictional but with a reality aspect. Below are notes that I wrote down when I first initially thought of the idea to give you more of the story itself (because I hadn't exactly explained that yet):

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

I understand that this story has a few points that I need to address first. It could be very cliched and there is only a small possibility that that could work in my favour. I am also aware that the ending needs to be worked on; she needs to breakdown, or have something happen to make her realize that she needs to be happy within herself and find a way to do that, so that's why she gets taken back to her 'old life' essentially. This is still a very basic idea, but I'm hoping over the next few days I can flesh it out and even if I don't get to make this, I still think I will keep it in my notebook for future reference.

Even though I can see a few problems with the idea, it fits into the theme of 'dislocation' quite nicely. The girl is stuck in her own problems, and she feels dislocated so to help her fix her old problems, she has to face new problems with the cameras being stuck in her face and being told to see people that she doesn't want to. As she does these things, she learns that she's not the only one going through this situation.

Vegan/Vegetarian Documentary Proposal

Purpose (What’s my goal?)

My purpose for my chosen documentary subject is not only to inform the public on another way of healthy living but to educate everyone on what they may not know about vegetarianism or veganism and to break down some common misconceptions about these lifestyles.

Audience (Who will be watching?)

I would like a wide range of people to watch this documentary. It would appeal to younger people and their parents and to people who are looking to change their eating habits or maybe just don’t know anything on the subject, and this will give them more information about both lifestyles.

Content (What do I want to say?)

I want people to understand more about the lifestyles of a vegan or vegetarian; I want to be able to show more of a personal side of people. For example, I want to ask who I interview about how people first reacted to their change, why and when they started, how difficult or easy it is to go out food shopping or going out for dinner. I don’t plan on making this a scientific documentary, I’m not going to go into the science of the body or how food works.

Voice (How do I want to say it?)

This will be a documentary piece with the slight possibility of adding stop motion animation. This will all depend on what footage I film and the topics of conversation as well as stories that come up along the way.

Imagery (What do I want to say?)

I want to interview a number of people who are vegan or vegetarian or have been in the past. I would also like to get the opportunity to visit a few businesses who do vegan/vegetarian food and ask them questions such as: why did they decide to make this type of food, is there a big demand for it, how has it changed in the past five or ten years and if any of them or their employees are following the same lifestyle. Before I even start filming, I want to know what questions or how much information the public really know, so I wanted to create short anonymous questionnaires for people to fill out so I can cater the questions they have, to the documentary.

Style (How do I want to show it?)

I want it to look quite smooth, I don’t want it really slow but the only time I can see it going fast paced is if I choose and/or able to get a number of interviews, while editing their interview together, make their answers quite choppy and follow into each other.

Tone (How do I want the audience to feel?)

I want the audience to feel like they have watched a short documentary and they have learned something and they have a better understanding of a different lifestyle to what they may lead. It may also give the audience an opportunity to want to explore more lifestyles like this and possibly go to the businesses that I mention and try out something different.

Platform (Where will it be viewed?)

It will be shown in the Odeon, Belfast as part of the HND Film Festival and once it has been shown there, I plan on putting it on YouTube on my personal YouTube channel for more people to see, my personal Facebook page and my own Twitter page too.

Promotion (How will it be shared?)

I plan to promote this documentary on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and quite possibly, Vimeo, as well as the blog that I am using to keep track of my progress. I may also put it on a number of DVD’s and USB sticks.

Budget (What can I afford?)

I am not exactly sure how many locations I will be visiting, but to get to these locations, it will simply be using public transport, car or walking. I may also purchase some food from the businesses that I go to because I want to see what they offer as well as going in and knowing something more about them.

First Idea: Vegetarian and Vegan Documentary.

After taking some time looking over my spider diagram, I decided to first choose an idea that I want to find out more information about. In doing this, I choose vegan and vegetarian. For a long time I have been very interested in both lifestyles but I don't know very much about both so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about each or one or the other. I want to create this in a documentary format so that it is more informative and along with the research, if I choose to go with this documentary, throughout the process I will be able to find out new information about both subjects and it may even make me explore them more in my own personal life.

In my notebook, I took a few basic notes on my very first thoughts on the idea:

• Exploring the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, how people react, the questions they get asked, their experience eating out and food shopping, is it as hard as people think it is.
• Interviewing shops/bakeries that make vegetarian and vegan food, how different or difficult it is, how in demand it is and possibly shooting them making the food. 

The theme of 'dislocation' shapes around this idea very well. A lot of people of vegetarians or vegans when asked by 'normal people' or meat eaters, are often questioned why they lead this lifestyle and are often told that they need meat or that "it's just a phase" so many people who live these lifestyles, I would assume, feel quite dislocated until they find people who live the same lifestyle, and don't have to worry about fighting their corner every time they go out for something to eat or if they are invited round to someone's house, for example. 

First Thoughts Spider Diagram.

After my previous post earlier on tonight, I decided to write all of my first thoughts down. I liken it to math; some people can do it in their head, others have to write it out on the page. I'm the type that has to write it down. So that's exactly what I did. I drew a spider diagram (or mind map) of all my first thoughts; these are just words for the moment that stuck out to me while thinking of 'Dislocation'.

After seeing everything written down, it makes everything a lot easier to process. Yes, there are a lot of words written down and you could say, "Well doesn't that make it harder?". Absolutely not in my case, everyone works at different paces and has different ways of working, this is just my way.

Two things I love. Spider diagrams and lists. They make me feel more organized and slowly calm that overwhelming feeling of "there's so much to do and not enough time to do it". The diagram looks slightly organized to anyone looking at it, but to me, I know exactly what goes where, and I'm positive that it's going to help me move past this creative block.

Creative Block.

This process has barely even started and I'm already struggling with certain parts. Over the past few weeks a few people have asked me if I've had any ideas for my film and in all honesty, they're really really rough ideas. So rough that I couldn't explain one right now because it's seriously that rough.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to make my own film and have something that I've written, come to life. It's just that struggle before the ideas that's getting me. My mind blanks when I actually sit down and try and think of something. Before I started this course, I wanted to be a screenwriter, for television mainly; many people know that I'm more of a television watcher than a film watcher and in my opinion, that's not such a bad thing. I have been watching more and more films, and watching classics that I probably should have watched years ago; but if I can't think of at least one idea at this very second, that's something that worries me.

Anyone in my position would be overjoyed because they get to make pretty much anything they want (within our theme, of course) but I'm just not at that 'excited' stage yet, and I really should be. But I'm not.

There's two things holding me back:

Time
We only have five minutes for our film. We can make it longer but for it to be put in the festival, it has to be five minutes. So I could make a fifteen minute, but it would have to be cut down to five, which sounds simple enough but I need to make sure it still makes as much sense as it does in the longer version. I also worry that I can't do a great story in five minutes. It sounds incredibly pessimistic and I would agree, but once you're in that mind set, it's a hard one to get out of and I think this is where the "mind block" is coming from.

Characters
I love characters. One of the reasons I love The Sims so much is because I would spend so much time perfecting the characters look, their job and building them up to have these amazing careers. I love character development and the reason I love television a little more so than films is because television gives you the character development that people love. It doesn't matter whether you have a show like "Sherlock" that only has three episodes per season, or if the show can last as long as "ER", "Friends" or "The Office"; within each show you see each character grow and become a better person without even realizing it half the time. You only realize when you look back at older episodes or you're rewatching the series, when you realize "This person used to be so guarded, but now they're letting themselves be a little more vulnerable" for example. Along with the time aspect I spoke about, I worry that I can't bring across a character well enough within five minutes.

Hopefully in the next few weeks while I'm trying to write down more ideas and develop them, I'll be able to get over my fear of 'it not being good enough' and just go out and do it.

First initial theme thoughts.

Since finding out our theme last week, I hadn't actually realized there was going to be a theme, I thought we could make anything we wanted essentially. So after realizing this, part of me was actually glad that we have some sort of limitation.

Getting into the 'depths of life' for just a second, I personally feel like we have too much choice. For example, we go into the supermarket and you go to look for a cereal; not only are you bombarded with special offers and comparing prices of the shop down the road, you're also given at least 100 choices of cereal with different shapes, different flavours, different ingredients, different health benefits (or lack of) to name a few. In the 21st Century, there's no such thing as 'simple', there's a lot more choice than the world used to have and sometimes that can be extremely overwhelming.

Back into the main point I was trying to make; with our theme we are limited to a certain point and this makes the entire process a lot easier. We have to justify our final decision on what we want our films to be about, if we can't justify why it fits into our theme, then we can't use it. Sounds like a bad thing when actually, to me anyway, it's smart. It's less pressure, it makes us think about why we want to make our idea and it makes us research even further to make sure that everyone involved understands exactly why you're doing it as well as you being 100% on point about everything you want to happen.

"Dislocation"

For our Special Subject Investigation for Creative Media Production unit, we were given the theme of "Dislocation". You could go down a number of routes with this idea; we have the option of doing a documentary or a fictional story so no matter what you decide to do, you can from so many possibilities; choose the body side of the word or jump into the deep end and go for the more psychological side of things.

Physical

When you hear the word, "dislocation", I think the first thought in everyone's mind is something in the body. That could be a dislocated arm, leg, wrist; but in my personal opinion, I think keeping in the physical mind set would make an interesting documentary.

Location/Time
After thinking over with the theme for a few days, my first main idea was something along the lines of being stuck in a place or a time where you think you don't belong. This can be anything from a 'Freaky Friday' state where you're stuck in someone else's body and have to live someone else's life. I also thought of today's generation where people will look up to the likes of Marilyn Monroe and wish there had been born or grew up in the era she had been around, and everything from music to fashion, some say "I was born in the wrong generation". I possibly want to look into something of being stuck in a time or location and not being sure why the character is there and going with them to figure it out. Using this 'plot point', if you did good enough research you could maybe find someone or a few people for a documentary who believe they don't belong in this generation and dress like they are still in the 50's, 60's, 70's for example, and base the documentary around why they would prefer living in a different era to what they live in now.

Psychological
Every topic you delve into in film making needs research but if you were to make either a fictional story or documentary of a psychological nature, your research needs to be on power depending on what type of issue you would be using within your story. I always like the idea of going into a deeper state of mind and with our theme, it would be easily achievable. A film that I would like to explore further if I chose to go into this side, would be "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". I have seen this film once before and when thinking psychological, this film was something that shot out of my head immediately because of the relationship within the story and the journey of living through something and it being taken away because it being there, just hurt so much.

These were just a few of the routes I could go down with my final year film, but I want to try and take some time to further my ideas that I have so far as well as develop new ones. I'm really looking forward to coming up with some new ideas following some extra research.