Aims and Context/ Reflective analysis

LINK TO MY SCRIPT (I DON'T WANT TO PRINT OFF WASTING PAPER IF I HAVE TO EDIT AND CHANGE IT)

Script:

https://www.celtx.com/auth/public/resource/a2z1tn91 



Aims and Context:

'Quick Shot'

• Script 
• Urban Story 
• Target audience of 18-year-old, males
• Film festival ( e.g. Toronto Urban Film Festival) 
• Apply cinematography techniques developed for Urban Stories
• As the writer, I took inspiration from Tarrantino's detailed description of characters, settings etc in particularly the 'Jackie Brown' script

Thea Barnes- Reflective Analysis

For my A2 Film coursework, I decided to create a screenplay within the Urban Story genre, focusing on two Latino characters, Paavo and Alonzo, whilst living within the poverty stricken areas of New York. I chose to focus on the opening scene of the movie, as I believe it allows the reader to clearly see that the socio-economic difficulty (dominant theme within Urban Stories) that is experienced in Alonzo and Paavo's everyday life. If I were to focus on a key scene during the middle of the film readers may not get the sense of entrapment the characters experience and the sense that their situation has no potential to change.

My storyline is inspired by the films my class have studied this year, especially City of God by Fernando Meirelles and Kàtia Lund, which depicts the struggles of growing up whilst surrounded by poverty, drugs and violence which I have tried to adopt throughout my script. Unlike City of God, which is set in Brazil, following Brazillian citizens, I have chosen to follow Alonzo and Paavo's Latino roots despite being set in New York City to further heighten the sense of alienation and the oppression immigrants tend to experience as a result of culture differences. Ideally, the target audience would already have a pre-existing appreciation for the urban story genre and understand the conventions that this genre tends to follow, regarding the portrayal of a different culture that is different from their own. By adopting Tarantino's extensive description evident throughout his scripts, I have tried to depict their socio-economic difficulty through the way in which I have described the misè-en-scene and their surroundings. My character, Alonzo, was inspired by Rocket out of City of God as his mentality was vastly different in comparison to the other characters within the film, shown through the fact that Rocket was the only character who managed to gain a job he had a passion for instantly opposing the attitudes of the general population living within the favela. I wanted to portray Alonzo as a young adolescent who is stuck in an unfortunate predicament unjustly due to his postcode and lack of money. 

In hindsight, I feel as though the depiction of my story could've been executed much clearer especially regarding the settings. Throughout my script I focused a lot on the characters and their actions in response to their surroundings however I feel as though I could've created a much clearer idea of their surroundings which would allow the reader to truly 'feel' the setting. However, I do feel as though I used particular aspects of the misè-en-scene within my script to create symbolism and connection to my intended genre. For instance, two scenes parallel each other, just as Alonzo leaves his apartment to catch his early pickup, a crowd of thugs sat upon metal trash cans make numerous racist remarks and then when Alonzo tries to run after the thug who has just shot up Paavo's shop, he notices a number of children onlooking the situation whom are also sat upon metal trash cans, mirroring the prior scene, clearly showing the way in which the lower class follow and a cycle which is almost impossible to escape. However, I still believe if I added more detail regarding the misè-en-scene and the surroundings, the position of the characters would be much clearer. Also, considering the context of my story focuses on the underclass whom are surrounded by drugs and violence, I feel as though my script would’ve been much more effective in portraying this if it were to have been set in Paavo and Alonzo’s native country. Although, by setting it in New York, I was able to portray the issue of race and immigration and the troubles immigrants deal with when attempting to integrate into a foreign community. Within my script this was particularly clear when the thugs shout “What’s up cherry picker” this snippet of dialogue clearly suggests the racism but also hones in on the specific racism that Hispanics experience as a result of their culture, because Hispanics are often limited to low paying jobs, such as picking fruit in particular cherries.

I find that the limited dialogue I chose to include worked successfully because the story isn't contained within the character’s interaction but rather the life they are trapped in ultimately found in other aspects like the misè-en-scene. I believe the lack of dialogue allowed the other aspects to speak more and create a more profound meaning achieving my intention for this script to only insert dialogue at the right moments, not just for the sake of it or just including having meaningless dialogue. The dialogue between Alonzo and Paavo, I believe, gave enough insight to their relationship, allowing readers to see the close bond between the two making the shooting even more unfortunate. By using words such as, 'Hermano' and 'Papi', popular Latino lingo, clearly showed the level of their friendship, and that they cared and respected each other. 

I attempted to adopt the cinematography style/technique often seen within urban stories however, whilst I intended to do so I don’t believe I wasn’t successful mainly due to the fact that I wasn’t too sure on how to translate it throughout my writing. Although, one reoccurring shot used within urban stories, is the fact that there is never an ‘Establishing shot’ of the city the film is set in because the director intends to bring their audience to the true nature of the city, the experiences that the underclass citizens endure day-to-day rather that the built up tourism that fabricates real social issues. Within my script, I haven’t used any famous New York landmarks as ‘Establishing shots’ or as a part of my setting, in order to distinguish audiences pre-conceptions of the city that in essence may not be true, but instead introduces Alonzo and Paavo’s experience of New York, one that is inevitably difficult. Upon reflection, I feel as though I successfully met my aims and stayed true to my intended genre. Regardless of the fact that I would've added even more detail to the misè-en-scene I do believe that my script clearly depicts the life of Alonzo and Paavo through the use of the misè-en-scene clearly adopting conventions of the Urban story genre. 

DRAFT SCREENPLAY

TITLE

SCREENPLAY BY THEA BARNES

INT. POLICE STATION- NIGHT





          MID SHOT of OFFICER CLARKE, middle-aged man, 
          standing with his knuckles rested on the 
          desk, head down. The CAMERA PANS upwards 
          revealing the wall behind him which is covered 
          with evidence, suspect pictures, maps etc,                           revealing the extensive task of this investigation.

          CAMERA CUTS to the door, as OFFICER MANNINGS enters.

OFFICER MANdumINGS
You gotta see this, i've 

  just spent the last 3 hours
re-watching that bastards

      tape and whilst admittedly,this
      theory is rather imaginative I 
    just want you to hear me out.

         CAMERA PANS following OFFICER MANNINGS walking over 
         to the TV stationed in the corner of the office. 
         CUTS back to OFFICER CLARKE, who folds his arms in a                judging manner and takes a big sigh of frustration.

OFFICER MANNINGS

  Yeah i can hear you huffing and
      puffing and I am ever so sorry for 
   wasting your precious time, but 
       potentially in a matter of 3 minute 
    you could be kiss my ass wishing 

    you had let me on this case much,
much earlier 

OFFICER CLARKE

(sternly)

     I'd watch what you say Mannings, I
    can have you kicked off this case
quicker that I let you on

OFFICER MANNINGS

(mockingly)

       Lets see if you're saying this after
I show you this! 

         CAMERA CUTS to the TV in the corner, with MANNINGS 
         standing next to it, with his arm casually resting on the            corner of the TV. Tape begins to play a grainy                      police interrogation showing an overweight man, wearing
         an all grey, stained, prison clothes, sitting with his 
         arms crossed compliantly answering questions. 

         FADE TO BLACK

         FADE IN:

         INSIDE POLICE STATION,same scene that MANNING was showing            CLARKE however, this is actually the interrogation which            happened 2 weeks prior. Behind one side over the desk sits          2 policemen in dull suits, clipboards in hand, and on the            other, the same overweight man, in his stained grey                  tracksuit.

FIRST POLICEMAN

(mockingly)

       This time try telling us the truth 
           about where you put her, I know it may 
             be hard to sit there with the blood of a 
        young girl on your hands and oh i'm 
              sure it affects your memory but just try, 
            really try okay, i hope i'm not causing 
you any trouble 

NEW PRESENTATION SCRIPT

Projector: Scenes of gore and violence are often found in Park Chan-Wook’s films, does this make him an auteur?

Speaker: Park Chan-Wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. Park Chan-Wook is on the most commended and prevalent filmmakers within his native country. Throughout his work the dominant use of violence is evident, taking this into consideration, can we consider Park Chan-Wook as an auteur by referring to his reoccurring use of violence evident throughout his work? “Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses pain and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director” (item 14).

Projector: Fight Scene (Item 1)

Speaker: In 2003, Park Chan-Wook released ‘Oldboy’ one of his most notorious films, appreciated across the globe. Oldboy follows Dae-Su, an obnoxious drunk who, after being bailed out of prison, is abducted. When Dae-Su eventually regains consciousness, he finds himself imprisoned in a cell where he is kept captive for the next 15 years and then suddenly released having been invited to track down his captors. This four-minute scene epitomises Chan-wook’s reoccurring convention of violence, showing a LS of Dae-Sun fight a group of men with weapons, immediately introducing his reoccurring use of violence which supports my statement that Park Chan-Wook is an auteur. Chan-Wook was inspired by Franz Kafka “I’m influenced by Kanz Kafka” (item 11). Upon research, I discovered that Franz Kafka was often worried about people finding him mentally repulsive, throughout Chan-Wook's films there are many scenes where one could possibly become mentally repulsed due to some of the shocking imagery Chan-Wook creates


the caution regarding his worry that people may find him mentally repulsive


 because multiple scenes throughout his work causes discomfort and reaction as he doesn't hold back on uncomfortable scenes. Therefore Chan-Wook's identification and

Projector:  ‘An conversation with the audience about Oldboy’ (Item 11)

Speaker:  During this interview someone asks the question “Your films are violent, are you like that?”. Park Chan-Wook states “I haven’t had any experiences like that, I’m just the opposite. Except in my childhood, I’ve only fought physically once. I suppressed my anger and hatred all my life. Maybe that’s why I want to show these things in films” (Item 11). When referring back to Item 14 “It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director” this interview strongly supports my questions because Chan-Wook is in cooperating parts of his childhood within his films, which is an evident example of artistic expression of the director. It’s without a doubt that Chan-Wook’s “Oldboy certainly nudged into the horror bracket: not merely in its Jacobean-tragedy bloodletting, but also in the distressing feeling you get that you are in the hands of a quite possibly deranged authorial presence” (Item 5).

Projector: Tooth Torture Scene (Item 1)

Speaker: In an interview with ‘Spinoff ‘ (Item 8) the interviewer asks Chan-Wook “People talk a lot about the violence in your films. Your technique is very effective because most of the brutality is left to the imagination (…) Would you say that’s essentially the thesis for your approach to violence?” In which Chan-Wook replies “I like to pull away from the most terrifying moments that would make people shudder and leave it to the imagination, and let it do its job” (item 8). Whilst Violence is extremely evident in each film of his, it’s often just suggested showing Chan-Wook plays on the psychological aspect which can often create more of a lasting effect because as he says, he likes to leave it to the imagination. But nonetheless, “Chan-Wook’s films are praised for their stylised, gorgeously shot, surreal images and often brutal subject matter” (item 8).

Projector: Massacre Scene (Item 2)

Speaker: Three years later, Chan-Wook provided another example of the way in which he constantly rejects the conventional expectations of genres and again exhibits reoccurring violence. In this scene, Cha Young-goon turns into some bionic type machine gun and continues to kill every care worker in a violently reckless way. ‘I’m a cyborg but that’s OK’ is actually considered a romantic comedy, yet Chan-Wook was determined to “make a romantic comedy without the phrase, ‘I love you’” (Item 9). As he states, he steers away from phrases that often fabricate reality. Chan-Wook’s use of violence within this scene does just that, its doesn’t fabricate reality. The massacre scene takes place in hr imagination yet Chan-Wook uses the violence within this scene to portray reality and the truth “Obviously that’s her own imagination, but when he enters her imagination and he witnesses what she’s thinking, it’s the most important part of the film because he’s showing sympathy, he’s feeling terror of her situation” (Item 9).

Projector: Massacre Scene (Item 2)

As stated previously, this film was an unusual example of Chan-Wook’s work as it was much more light hearted in comparison to his previous work, despite dealing with issues of mental health. However, even though he states that this film is “a hopeful and bright movie” (item 13). He still makes it clear that when he talks about a hopeful movie he is “not referring to the floating bubbles of hope with unrealistic wishes and dreams that pop as soon as you blow them” (Item 13). An interviewer even makes a joke at the start of an interview “So when did you decide to become a romantic comedy director?” (Item 12) Because Chan-Wook’s films are infamous for his violent conventions and gory scenes, so even though this film doesn’t conform to his usual choice of genre, it still doesn’t fit with it’s own expected genre and instead rejects the expectations expected from a “romantic comedy”.

Projector: Transition scene (Item 3)

Speaker: Chan-Wook’s 2009, ‘Thirst’ has been noted to be his “Darkest film to date” (Item 9). ‘Thirst’ follows a respected priest, Sang-hyun, on his experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly infection. However, Sang-hyun caught the infection and dies, but a blood transfusion brings him back as a vampire. We see Sang-hyun torn between faith and bloodlust. The violence evident within this scene is touched upon within an interview with Chan-Wook where he states where he gets his influences for the use of violence from. “her character is very close to the conventional film noir ‘femme fatale” (Item 10. This provides an explanation and gives support to his reoccurring use of violence due to the fact that he is inspired by film noir which is notorious for it’s violent conventions.

Projector: A priest who become a vampire scene (Item 3)

Speaker: Now that we have seen how Chan-Wook’s films exhibit use violence, we can now begin to question the influences for this particular technique, for example, whether Chan-Wook was surrounded by such sights as a child? In an interview, Chan-Wook stated that the idea of a vampire priest came from his early childhood memories “it goes back to my childhood memories. In the Catholic church, a priest drinks red wine as a symbol for the blood of Christ, and in a way this always reminded me of vampirism” (item 7). In each of his films, Chan-Wook depicts the reality, whether it means it’s a harsh portrayal, he still doesn’t deceive audiences with false hope. Although there is romance within ‘Thirst’ it’s more focused on violence however, the romance that is included is harsh and cold fitting nicely alongside the harsh violence “I decided to remove all the romance and clichés that classic love stories are based on because in Thirst I wanted to explore the real side of love. I mean the fact that love can give not only the strength to survive, but that one can also achieve something through love, and that, to some extent, love is always selfish” (Item 7).

Projector: Side by Side shot of two scenes from Chan-Wook’s films (Item 4)

 Speaker: To conclude, with the evidence I have gathered and research I have completed, one could say Park Chan-Wook is indeed an auteur. Chan-Wook’s idiosyncratic style, “blood and gore-spattered films are often discussed as much for their philosophical content as their ultraviolent aesthetic” (Item 6) immediately connects the audience to his work as his filming style is a dominant reoccurrence within each film he has ever done. Even in (Item 4) showing the side by side shot of India out of ‘Stoker’ and Young-goon out of ‘I’m a cyborg but that’s OK’ clearly shows his signature style… but overall, his signature use of violence is the obvious convention of his that audiences are able to recognise within his films.