Deeper narrative possibilities #4
Although we have both decided that we definitely want a narrative running through or film, we know that we want it to be loose enough so that it can be open to interpretation. However, this doesn't mean we can't explore the possibility of hiding some subtle messaging within the film. Our issue is that we couldn't decide if we wanted this piece to act as a political statement or if we just wanted it to be an innocently thought provoking piece of fiction. Just to have things to consider, we thought about how our narrative could link with worldly events. The first one that sprung to mind was COVID-19. The UK, and the world's, current ghostly streets due to quarantine laws that have been put in place resonates strongly with the ghosts, now abandoned, empty above world.
COVID-19
The world, that was and is in the hands of humans, has come crashing down for the worst and faces a regression instead of progressing into the future. There are debates as to whether this pandemic is positive, in that it's giving our planet that vital time it needs to breath and rejuvenate. The decrease in fuel emissions is building up our environment. Animals are returning to habitats, air pollution is decreasing and the earth just seems happier. The same can't be said for people in quarantine, as this carries its own dilemmas and means we can't enjoy our environment. We cannot know for sure people's situations from country to country, and house to house. Some people are coping better than others; people that have open garden space to roam in, access to water and secure family life. Everyone is currently locked up in their houses and unseen. This is reflected in our film. As the Ghost walks past each house, he illuminates them. Much like him, the times where homes were full of life but are no more and have become nothing but memories now. As he walks past, you will hear the noise of the families in there hiding away or that once lived in each house, giving each house a different character to go with their unseen occupants. I have been creating a soundscape for each building. However, we leave it to be unclear as to whether they are actually in there or whether that was in the past, and he is reminiscing on it. If we chose to, we could definitely link our story to COVID-19, as both the pandemic and our narrative hold many similarities and this link may make our project more poignant. I created a COVID-19 soundscape in the style of the others I've created for this project, just in case we decide to relate our ghost's situation to the world's current situation. Here is the concept:
Creating this soundscape was a lot of fun and also helped me to really realise the severity of the world's current situation. I recorded snippets from Queen Elizabeth's most recent speech and used one of her lines "We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again" to fade the soundscape into Vera Lynn's optimistic and hopeful classic, "We'll meet again". I then contrasted this hopeful song with rather disturbing news reports and interviews about the effect the pandemic is having on the world. I recorded interviews from nurses in America, the nurses from the NHS, people that have been infected, Boris Johnson's speech and then the news that he'd contracted the virus. I also recorded interviews from Italy and layered that, to make the soundscape as chaotic as our current situation is. Towards the end of the soundscape I strayed away from the pain this pandemic is causing people and recorded reports about the environment and how the lock down is cleaning our planet up; "Could the Coronavirus eventually be good for the environment?" "Bluer skies and cleaner air in previously heavily polluted areas". The soundscape ends on a bittersweet note ,with recorded sounds of people clapping for the NHS all over the country. This comes in as soon as Vera Lynn is also joined by accompanying voices. It's an overwhelming chorus of positivity in a not so positive time. I created this soundscape on Adobe Audition and under laid it with the theme I've created for the above world soundscapes, which i'll cover in the next blog. I placed an echo effect over the dialogue and music to carry that eerie effect across and make it as otherworldly and ghostly as possible. So when people listen back to this in a few years time, it will seem alien to them, as this pandemic was such a shock and sent the world into a regression it hadn't seen for decades. Whether we decide to link our film with the virus and use this soundscape is undecided and will probably remain that way until we are able to see each other and actually begin to make this project come to life. It'll also be interesting to reflect on the pandemic during the time when we come back together and film. Maybe our views will have changed depending on where this pandemic ends us up. A soundscape like this may be too obvious and obnoxious, as we do ideally want to keep any subliminal messaging on the down low. Whatever we decide, we want our film to be as ambiguous as it can be. Maybe viewers will see the likeliness to COVID without actually having to be told or shown. This is something to consider.
Empty streets because of the Coronavirus Lockdown
These empty streets hold similarities to Francis Lawrence's post-apocalyptic thriller film 'I am Legend' (2007):
Scenes from 'I am Legend', starring Will Smith.
This film is extremely relevant to our current situation and scarily so. It depicts what our world would look like if the virus was to win, over run our NHS and completely wipe out our existence. Set in New York after a virus, originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving the protagonist, Neville, as the last human in New York. The only things that exist along side him, other than his dog, are nocturnal mutants. Neville is immune to the virus and he works to develop a cure while defending himself against hostile mutants. A future that, now...doesn't seem so unlikely.
However, our film could alternatively focus mainly on the industrial, polluted side of our world and the carelessness we have for it sometimes. It could be a comment on consumerism and capitalism and the wrong decisions we, as humans, make. Like Tim Dorland's art, our film could showcase the impact humanity has on our environment. If we carry on treating our planet as we do, our streets will soon be empty and the world will be deserted, much like our ghost's above world. Once thriving and vibrant, his town now stands still..empty and soulless, like himself.
Scenes of cities blanketed by smog
COVID-19
The world, that was and is in the hands of humans, has come crashing down for the worst and faces a regression instead of progressing into the future. There are debates as to whether this pandemic is positive, in that it's giving our planet that vital time it needs to breath and rejuvenate. The decrease in fuel emissions is building up our environment. Animals are returning to habitats, air pollution is decreasing and the earth just seems happier. The same can't be said for people in quarantine, as this carries its own dilemmas and means we can't enjoy our environment. We cannot know for sure people's situations from country to country, and house to house. Some people are coping better than others; people that have open garden space to roam in, access to water and secure family life. Everyone is currently locked up in their houses and unseen. This is reflected in our film. As the Ghost walks past each house, he illuminates them. Much like him, the times where homes were full of life but are no more and have become nothing but memories now. As he walks past, you will hear the noise of the families in there hiding away or that once lived in each house, giving each house a different character to go with their unseen occupants. I have been creating a soundscape for each building. However, we leave it to be unclear as to whether they are actually in there or whether that was in the past, and he is reminiscing on it. If we chose to, we could definitely link our story to COVID-19, as both the pandemic and our narrative hold many similarities and this link may make our project more poignant. I created a COVID-19 soundscape in the style of the others I've created for this project, just in case we decide to relate our ghost's situation to the world's current situation. Here is the concept:
Creating this soundscape was a lot of fun and also helped me to really realise the severity of the world's current situation. I recorded snippets from Queen Elizabeth's most recent speech and used one of her lines "We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again" to fade the soundscape into Vera Lynn's optimistic and hopeful classic, "We'll meet again". I then contrasted this hopeful song with rather disturbing news reports and interviews about the effect the pandemic is having on the world. I recorded interviews from nurses in America, the nurses from the NHS, people that have been infected, Boris Johnson's speech and then the news that he'd contracted the virus. I also recorded interviews from Italy and layered that, to make the soundscape as chaotic as our current situation is. Towards the end of the soundscape I strayed away from the pain this pandemic is causing people and recorded reports about the environment and how the lock down is cleaning our planet up; "Could the Coronavirus eventually be good for the environment?" "Bluer skies and cleaner air in previously heavily polluted areas". The soundscape ends on a bittersweet note ,with recorded sounds of people clapping for the NHS all over the country. This comes in as soon as Vera Lynn is also joined by accompanying voices. It's an overwhelming chorus of positivity in a not so positive time. I created this soundscape on Adobe Audition and under laid it with the theme I've created for the above world soundscapes, which i'll cover in the next blog. I placed an echo effect over the dialogue and music to carry that eerie effect across and make it as otherworldly and ghostly as possible. So when people listen back to this in a few years time, it will seem alien to them, as this pandemic was such a shock and sent the world into a regression it hadn't seen for decades. Whether we decide to link our film with the virus and use this soundscape is undecided and will probably remain that way until we are able to see each other and actually begin to make this project come to life. It'll also be interesting to reflect on the pandemic during the time when we come back together and film. Maybe our views will have changed depending on where this pandemic ends us up. A soundscape like this may be too obvious and obnoxious, as we do ideally want to keep any subliminal messaging on the down low. Whatever we decide, we want our film to be as ambiguous as it can be. Maybe viewers will see the likeliness to COVID without actually having to be told or shown. This is something to consider.
Empty streets because of the Coronavirus Lockdown
These empty streets hold similarities to Francis Lawrence's post-apocalyptic thriller film 'I am Legend' (2007):
Scenes from 'I am Legend', starring Will Smith.
This film is extremely relevant to our current situation and scarily so. It depicts what our world would look like if the virus was to win, over run our NHS and completely wipe out our existence. Set in New York after a virus, originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving the protagonist, Neville, as the last human in New York. The only things that exist along side him, other than his dog, are nocturnal mutants. Neville is immune to the virus and he works to develop a cure while defending himself against hostile mutants. A future that, now...doesn't seem so unlikely.
However, our film could alternatively focus mainly on the industrial, polluted side of our world and the carelessness we have for it sometimes. It could be a comment on consumerism and capitalism and the wrong decisions we, as humans, make. Like Tim Dorland's art, our film could showcase the impact humanity has on our environment. If we carry on treating our planet as we do, our streets will soon be empty and the world will be deserted, much like our ghost's above world. Once thriving and vibrant, his town now stands still..empty and soulless, like himself.
Scenes of cities blanketed by smog
Our narrative is so flexible that anything is possible. It's just whether we decide to aid the audience in seeing these worldly issues depicted in our film or whether we leave it completely open to interpretation and take a more abstract approach.
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