Love Bits and Ramblings!
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By Helen Merete Simm in MA Final Project Published: Saturday, 07 March 09 - 04:55 PM (GMT) |
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1. Technicalities
Lately I have been having a couple new ideas for my film.
The first of which was the idea of merely interviewing some interesting and quirky people I know in order to get some quirky answers that would then possibly fit in with the Zombie character and then use a visual approach only to inform the audience that he is actually a Zombie, rather than to script out a rather formal and strict dialogue which then might not be as easily performed by my actors.
The character could even end up as a Frankenstein monster or vampire. The important element to the character is the sympathetic monster.
Next up is to weed through the potential hours of interviews to find those little gold nuggets that work with my concept.
Then I will be filming various people I know lipsyncing and miming to the chosen snippets of the interviews, in order to get some interesting gestures. This is how Creature Comforts was made, and I really like this approach. I think it will bring more life to the character and also give me a little more to think about when compositing the eyes and the character together.
2. Xenophobia
Initially it was all about the character's body falling apart around him and how he wishes he could find a girl that isn't so picky, who doesn't mind a bit of DIY. All this because his main motivation is loneliness. He is the ultimate paradox, a zombie with a brain, and therefore there is no real place for him in society. He can't find any friends amongst his own kind and he can't find any amongst "normal" people.
In a way this addresses the common zombie theme of xenophobia.
In most zombie films for example Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead etc. the themes are xenophobia (fear of foreigners and people who are different) and also consumerism.
I wanted to convey his loneliness and isolation from the world around him, and how he realises that to live forever alone would be endless torture. This, along with a few puns about how he uses endless amounts of industry strength deo and his limbs keep falling off, was to be the main idea.
3. Alex Becomes Alexis?
But then I began to wonder what would happen if the main character was female?
What would her main concerns be? Thinking of the idea in terms of gender brought out even more interesting ideas.
Most women fear aging because they lose their beauty which is to them the source of their power. Death Becomes Her is an awesome film about intelligent zombie women fighting to maintain their looks...forever...at any cost!
For men, their source of power is their virility, their masculinity. So in researching the female side of aging concerns, it reminded me of some additional motivations for a male zombie.
He would of course be terrified of losing his strength and his masculinity which is to most men the source of their power. This correlates with professional athletes growing older.
One of the men that I had intended to interview and test as an actor, is an athlete who has had countless injuries. This is something that I can bring into the interview questions. Another side effect of being a zombie is the whole rotting flesh thing. Well I know a few jocks, and one thing they have in common is sport shoes that should be burned.
4. Avoided Like the Plague
Another interesting idea could be to explore how people react to the terminally ill, especially when the diseases are viewed as self-inflicted. Films like Philadelphia where a gay man is dying of AIDS, but because people are disgusted by the fact that he's gay, they blame him for his predicament, and have almost no sympathy.
This ties back in with the sympathetic monster. The horrible creature that you pity so much but you would never be able to be in the same room with it without losing your lunch.
Frankenstein, The Elephant Man, it all brings you back to the freak show.
Images that came into my head regarding that concept were a huge monster trying to hold onto the person it cares about, but ends up crushing them as they shriek in horror and pain. Almost like King Kong, if he had been a little less gentle.
Another image was of a newborn baby...born with serious birth defects, hideous to look at but reaching out to its mother with the same need of any other child, but the mother shrinks away in revulsion, her natural mothering instincts overcome by disgust at the outer appearance. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has this strong image in the beginning, but then the child in question becomes Brad Pitt. Alex the Zombie will only become more and more disgusting.
5. Heroin Chic
Then I wondered how he would fit into society if he had been passably attractive before death. After death, he would have become thinner and thinner and possibly passed for heroin chic. Then again he would have terrible skin...
6. Addictions
Finally that brought me around to addictions. Zombies have an addiction, a mindless craving for human flesh...traditionally for brains.
If I were to interview women, I could interview them not only about love, fear of ending up alone and watching their bodies deteriorate around them, but also about addictions, such as chocolate.
I could interview them about their cravings and desires. About passions that are unhealthy. Or, if they were smokers, how they gave up smoking.
This could tie in with my zombie not eating brains. How did the zombie stop? How did he/she feel after stopping?
And finally of course, I can ask the interviewees about how they fight the mainstream, if they do. What makes them different than everyone else, and why do they want to be different? What makes them unique and not just part of the (zombie) herd?
7. Interview Topics
- Sports Injuries and smelly feet
- Obstacles in love
- Obstacles in dating
- What are they looking for in a partner?
- Why do they want a partner? Loneliness?
- Isolation?
- Addictions
- Cravings
- Giving up bad habits.
- Pet Peeves
- How are they unique?
- How do they feel about aging? About losing their beauty? About losing their strength?
8. In the End?
If I was to make a trailer for the film I would initially set up shots portraying Alex as evil and zombiefied, but then show those shots to be completely innocent. A little bit of juxtaposition to spice things up! He could be throwing silhouetted objects that resemble limbs into a blender and bits of red splash out...but then the kitchen light switches on and it is revealed that the contents of the blender are vegetables...and the red splashes were just juice.
I also thought it might be fun to add in a couple of scenes where a female zombie is stuffing her face with brains and possibly use some dialogue about cravings...
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