Insert Incredibly Cliched Art-Based Phrase Here...

Yo ho ahoy to those of you who read me! I have a few new things to work on at present. One will be to help out fellow Chesseminter, Adam with one of his college projects. As it's a community action project, he has decided to help the rest of us Cheesemints to update our mad skillz and give us a chance to reach another audience. We've each been assigned a film genre. Mine is arthouse films, some of you might not agree that it deserves a whole genre of it's own however, David Bordwell has also claimed that

art cinema itself is a [film] genre, with its own distinct conventions

and he's a "Film Scholar" according to Wikipedia and I agree with him. So um, yeah, take that you arthouse genre naysayers, you!

Anyhow, I've already managed to digress...Basically, I have to write and direct an arthouse inspired short trailer (approx. 1 minute). However, it's got to be a parody...

To me, arthouse seems to be a difficult genre in which to incorporate comic material (without just relying on full-on slapstick perhaps?). I guess this is because even the arthouse films that incorporate humour are not funny on purpose and are done so in seriousness. One idea I have had however, is to use subtitles for humourous effect. That way at least, the comedic element will be a bit more subtle. Filming however, I think will be easy...there are a lot of cliched elements, icons, plot devices and themes in the genre. Also, the mise-en-scene (part of filming I really enjoy) will be fun to put together. So far, i'm thinking a few philosophy texts strewn around - nothing too obvious and a dripping tap/ticking clock plus lots of shadows, fade to black shots and obscure camera angles ought to do it. It can also be done on a tiiiiiny budget which is ideal. Most arthouse films often showcase new talent too. Not sure who'll be starring in it yet...I still need my creative vision before I decide that. Although I'm fairly sure it'll be no more than two actors.

Really looking forward to it and currently doing a bit of research for it. All of which I've included in this blog entry...








* narrative - passage from a philosophy text or classic author?
* fade to black shot at the end, followed by the over-used "FIN"?
* terrible french/german accent?
* words spoken by actor/s different to subtitles?
* ticking clock...dripping tap...day to night (general passing of time)?
* memory - use of still objects
* shots must be well though out - very aesthetic, perhaps "beauty over substance"?
* title - "Quiet, Now", "Silence, Now", a line from a book/text, something foreign, possibly one word as it has more effect?
* could incorporate past art work, like the blank canvas piece? Could be adapted into arthouse film easily...artists struggle with canvas/nothingness/the absurd? Too personal? Or perhaps it's the right kind of self-indulgence a pretentious art film needs?
* title has nothing to do with film's content?
* static TV screen/white noise
* broken sentences

Could draw on the following films/TV series/directors/influences:
~Memento (2001)
~Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
~Waking Life (2001)
~ David Lynch
~ Gus Van Sant
~ Lars Von Trier
~ L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961)
~ The Twilight Zone (1959–1964)
~ Twin Peaks (1990)
~ Dadaism
~ Surrealism
~ Un chien andalou (1929)
~ avant-garde movememt


I definitely won't be incorporating scenes such as the eye-slicing scene in Un Chien Andalou!