Greek everything!

The film

POV: The Oracle (Narrator)

The film begins with the story of Oedipus, with a narration running in the background. The King of Thebes, Laius was old by the Oracle that his son would kill him and marry his wife. Upon hearing this, he pierced his new-born's feet and asked a servant to leave him on a mountain to die. Taking pity on the child, the servant gives him to a shepherd in the neighbouring kingdom of Corinth. Having no child of his own, the King of Corinth adopts the child, and names him Oedipus after his swollen feet. Oedipus grows up believing his real parents to be the King and Queen of Corinth. On consulting the Oracle at Delphi, he is made aware of his fate and he leaves Corinth to prevent it from coming true, heading towards Thebes.

On his way at a crossroad, he comes across a chariot and there is a fight over who will cross first. It results in bloodshed and he slays everyone in and with the chariot, except a slave who escapes. On the outskirts of Thebes, he meets a Sphinx, who had been stopping all travelers to Thebes, asking them a riddle. If they solved it, they were free to pass, but if they didn't they were eaten. Oedipus answers correctly, causing the sphinx to kill herself, thus freeing Thebes. Grateful for his heroic deed, the Thebeians appoint him as their King, giving him Queen Jocasta's hand in marriage, as they believed Laius had been killed by the Sphinx.

Years after the marriage, a plague of infertility struck Thebes; crops didn't grow, women did not bear children. Having promised to end the plague, he consulted the Oracle who told him that the murderer of Laius had to be found and banished. Jocasta's brother suggested they also consult Tiresias, the blind prophet. Tiresias warned him not to seek the killer, and in the heated exchange that ensued he revealed Oedipus to be the killer and also told him me was adopted. Having heard from Jocasta that Laius was killed at a crossroad, Oedipus realized he was the killer. A messenger from Corinth arrived to tell Oedipus that the King of Corinth was dead, but being afraid of the second part of the prophecy, he refused to attend the funeral. The messenger told him he was adopted, and Oedipus at once wanted to verify that. Jocasta realized he was her son and begged him to stop his search, but he paid no heed to her words. She proceeded to go hang herself.

Meanwhile Oedipus verifies the story from the servant who had given him away to the shepherd, who told him that the son of the King of Corinth was actually the son of Laius and Jocasta. Having realized the truth and the fulfilment of the prophecy, he goes to look for Jocasta and finds her dead. In a fit of agony, he pulls off a brooch from her dress and stabs his eyes out. He lies there suffering and bleeding.

We suddenly notice strings attached to his body. The camera moves up following the strings, while the narration continues, bringing the story to a conclusion. We see the Oracle, the storyteller and narrator, holding onto the strings like a puppet master, with a crazed look on his face. He suddenly freezes mid-sentence, as we notice a cut string falling from the top. We go up to find the source and see the hands of fate with a pair of scissors. a new string comes into the frame from the left and the camera pans left where the string came from, revealing another two pairs of hands, one weaving the thread (of life) and another measuring it. Following the source of the thread which leads out of the frame, and into another, we go back to the scene where Laius decided to kill his son. The ball of thread is in his hand. The film ends with the voice of Laius asking the servant to leave him to die on the top of the mountain, so that he may never realize his fate (against a black screen).

Why oedipus

Updating 2

Updating

I've moved way ahead, but haven't had the time to update the blog.
A quick recap of what's happened so far:
I am working with a story from Greek mythology.
I did extensive research on it, and ended up choosing the story of Oedipus.

link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus
I tried ways of adapting it to a modern context, but something always felt wrong.
I starting looking at the bigger picture, at what I really wanted to SAY through this film.
And jackpot.
I realized a lot about myself and my film.
I am really very happy with what I'm working on now.
It's something I've always wanted to do.

It's moved beyond the assignment, experimentation, and film.
It's gone into deeper territory, to do with me, my thinking and my life as well.
This may be the best thing I have done so far.
There's always a chance of failing, but I am determined to do this, one way or another!
A couple of notes and scribbles from my initial struggles:

fairytales

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/fairytales/

On Reverdy

"Reverdy's strange landscapes, which combine an intense inwardness with a proliferation of sensual data, bear in them the signs of a continual search for an impossible totality. Almost mystical in their effect, his poems are nevertheless anchored in the minutiae of the everyday world; in their quiet, at times monotone music, the poet seems to evaporate, to vanish into the haunted country he has created. The result is at once beautiful and disquieting as if Reverdy had emptied the space of the poem in order to let the reader inhabit it" --Paul Auster

Amedeo Modigliani: Portrait of Pierre Reverdy, 1915

His companions were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and many others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Reverdy

Pierre Reverdy- my favourite

THE SAME NUMBER

The hardly open eyes
The hand on the other shore
The sky
And everything that happens there
The leaning door
A head sticks out
From the frame
And through the shutters
You can see out
The sun fills everything
But the trees are still green
The falling hour
It gets warmer
And the houses are smaller
The passersby go less quickly
And always look up
The lamp shines on us now
Looking far away
We could see the light
Coming
We were happy
That evening

At the other house where somebody waits for us

I am planning to respond to each line in the poem, to continue the poem.
Although it wouldn't appear to be a conversation, it sort of is.
More on that soon!

sacrificed man, pierre reverdy

More poems on: http://www.fudomouth.net/thinktank/now_reverdy.htm

SACRIFICED MAN

Nothing but blue spots in the corner of a sheet
Memories of smiles filed away
A head and thorns on a crown of arms
Heaving shoulders
At last the mill moves
And the mountain of brass wire
Slides around the world
Somewhere doors open
On ordered numbers
Gathered by name
By height
Rollcall
Over the whole mob
Rain splinters of glass
Or dew
The dampness of the shores penetrates to the middle
of the driest soil
And beneath their shivering dance the houses
Rotted by sun and chill wear away
Then leaves are born from young girl's fingertips
Eyes open under moss
Now and then feet crush eyelids
Then curtains are drawn still lower
The head turns and hides in the hollow of the arms
Memories stir
Night goes

cubist poetry

What i've been doing so far, is reading cubist poetry by Pierre Reverdy, who is considered one of the most appreciated and best known cubist poets.

On Reverdy: (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/pierre-reverdy)

His early work showed the definite influence of cubism and surrealism. His poems were short and fragmentary with a sharp visual appearance which was compatible with the cubist feel for plastic values. The loneliness and spiritual apprehension which ran through his poetry attracted the surrealists. Despite this influence by both modes of thought, Reverdy remained independent: he searched for something other than the goals of cubism or surrealism. He endeavored to find "the sublime simplicity of true reality." His writing became more mystical and attempted to delve beneath outward appearances to discover the concealed truth.

(from http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/reverdy.htm)

He seeked, as all cubists did, to present the spectator with a little organism that will take up all experience brought to it, digest it, reorganize it and return it as the aesthetic experience, unadulterated. All works do this. Artists like Revery or Juan Gris sought to do it with minimum interference. When they were successful, their artifacts were peculiarly indestructible.

http://killacan.com/pierre-reverdy/

some old random thoughts

some old doodles which I should have put up earlier:

Portrait

I have been toying with the idea of 'collage'.

(later cubism had collage eg. the guitar- picasso)
Hands on work inspires me much more than digital,

so I used magazine cutouts (image and text) to create what turned into a self-portrait.

I've always been fond of collages.. it reminds me of my school days.

I used to love making collages; i had forgotten that.
I'm quite happy with the tiny peice I've made, but I believe a collage can never be finished.

There's always another layer that can be added- there are no limits to how many.

Below, is a small ideation sketch for what a cubist portrait could be:

how does it all relate to obstruction?

Literally, obstruction would mean something that is blocking or holding something back.

I find the infinite options so easily available to me quite suffocating.

I see the 'obstruction' as forgetting about the existence million other options.

Usually, i'm hell-bent on working seamlessly. having all the answers. knowing exactly what I'm doing.

for this assignment, i'm trying to let myself loose, open up the seams a little bit, and let everything fall into place.

and maybe stop being such a control freak.

lately, i find myself traveling from idea to idea, which is refreshing, but also worries me bit.

i've been trying to get a greater understanding of cubism. maybe even stick with using the idea of cubism as my obstruction.

the problem is, that my idea of cubism itself is constantly changing.

cubist film making may not be the same as cubist art or poetry for that matter.

but i'm excited to see where this is leading me.

i've had several ideas of things i could do with cubism:

from relating cubism to split screen (which is a whole world in itself) to cubist video poetry, to what i feel about cubism.

i haven't decided on any one thing though.

links on cubist poetry:

http://connaissances.blogspot.com/2005/07/cubist-poetry.html

http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/reverdy.htm

wandering mind

the mind wanders.

accept it.

understanding entails wandering.

giving oneself obstructions

is merely wandering in a smaller space.

Kinshuk made me think.....

Can one really experiment with the intention of experimenting?

http://noexp-k.blogspot.com/2011/09/experiment.html

I simply love Picasso

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given to us to understand.

ijustliketheimage

Peeling the layers

peel all the layers away... but dont' discard them... they made what you found inside.

where do you stop peeling?
when you do, that's IT..

Picasso:
To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow...

cubist mirror

What does this say to someone looking into it?

identity.....................

wants, desires..........

inside-outside...........

the hidden dimension to you..

how much more is there to a person?

frame within a frame?

something like fractals

intrigue and cubism

Cubist photograph..

early manga

an image of the original manga on scrolls

manga

I've been thinking of manga recently. Or generally, comic books and graphic novels.

manga started in japan in the late 1800's.. way before cubism and split screen. earlier manga was like an entire story on a single sheet (scroll).

the concept is not the same as split screen though. its more like a film in a series of images, like a storyboard. its also episodal, like tv series.

i did find this image though, which could be synonymous with split screen. its from a relatively newer manga called akira. (started in 1982)

random

this may be too random, but i just think she's a really genuine character..
http://www.youtube.com/user/JenMarissa

film and stuff

a film needs to hook a viewer to his seat.
the character needs to be engaging, not necessarily likeable..

what's really important? and for who should it be important.
im drifting amongst clouds of scattered thoughts and ideas...
sometimes its too much, sometimes too little.

cubism and split screen

I was revising my art history and film history when I took a second look at Cubism..
and I realized that split screen could be seen as video cubism, if I look at the concept as seeing more than one dimension. And of course that could be taken a whole number of different levels..

I like the parallel.. cubism and split screen.

I'm thinking of doing a small exercise for the week. Use projection mapping to create a small cubist peice. They seem to fit very well together.

some links on projection mapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSR0Xady02o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IICGkOtJ9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGXcfvWhdDQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp2Z_RBcLPs

A beginning (finally)

Ive decided to make this blog my digital diary for my experimental project.
So far, i'm trying to work with the idea of obstruction to experiment with.
something like the the 5 obstructions by jorgen leth.
more on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Obstructions
and watch it here:
#1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOQH_OG1tJA

#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfkT0ouIJ-4

#3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3diVSxgLzsg

#4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Y1PhOt6sM

#5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0nJ-ccwMnE

im also quite influenced by aranofsky's requiem for a dream, with its interesting split screen techniques, juxtapositions and general camera work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgo3Hb5vWLE

an interesting peice of work in stop motion, using actual sound recordings on animated zoo animals, called creature comforts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihhq5_2kaWQ