Menu
IN YOUR SHADOW RESEARCH
http://vnbateman.com/index.html https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/12/naked-anti-brexit-campaigner-challenges-rees-mogg-on-live-tv A Fellow in Economics and an economic historian at the University of Cambridge, Dr Victoria Bateman has caused a wide spread stir in the media over the past week due to her appearance on TV programme Good Morning Britain (2019). Appearing in the nude, with the words “Brexit leaves Britain naked” written on her chest, Bateman, a self-proclaimed feminist, explained that her state of undress is designed to deliver a visual metaphor that, ‘Brexit is the empire’s new clothes’ (Weaver, 2019). When debating with the programmes hosts on if her naked appearance could be considered shocking or not, Bateman states that: 'We see naked women around us all the time. We see the scantily clad in advertising, there’s a whole world of pornography out there. If you go to any art gallery in the UK or across the world you will see nudes in the world. The common thing about all of those women is that they are silent. They are not allowed a voice. What is shocking perhaps to some people is a woman who is naked with a voice' (Weaver, 2019). These words resonated with me a great deal, Bateman managing to put across in a very succinct way a point of view that relates strongly to my reasoning behind the manifestations of the Shadow and the unsettling tone of her visitations. A naked women with a voice can be deeply shocking to the male mind and ego, especially if that voice is used to question the specifics of why a woman is being visually portrayed as an object. I specifically chose the photo in which the Shadow’s mouth was covered to convey a sense of that character being without a voice. The manifestations that Mathew encounters will give the Shadow a voice to question the male dominated point of view in which Mathew chose to capture her. At its heart, In Your Shadow is what I would consider to be a gender conscious horror film. A horror that is directed squarely at the male ego and the patriarchal society we live within. Bateman’s impassioned words have helped me solidify the unsettling tone that I want the film to convey. REFERENCE LIST Good Morning Britain (2019) ITV, 12 February. Weaver, M. (2019) 'Naked anti-Brexit campaigner challenges Rees-Mogg on live TV', The Guardian, 12 February. Available at: URL (Accessed: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/12/naked-anti-brexit-campaigner-challenges-rees-mogg-on-live-tv).
0 Comments
When talking about her BBC drama series Killing Eve (2018), British writer, director and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge recently described watching female characters acting violently as ‘refreshing and oddly empowering’ (Quinn, B, 2019). Violence is not a trait that most people would associate with femininity and Waller Bridges statement has caused many to accuse her of double standards. I would argue that such a statement is a sign of the oppression of females in the modern world and agree with Waller-Bridges assessment that she is ‘exhausted by seeing women being brutalised on screen’ (Quinn, B, 2019). This is clearly a sign of a modern day need to rebalance the scale of depictions of female characters as victims. Point in fact, what many believe to be the first ever graphic depiction of onscreen violence occurs during Battleship Potemkin (1925), where a defenceless mother is shot in the eye. It’s very clear that this character was created to be a victim of not only the political kind, but also of the male soldiers that oppress her and administer her fate. As a result of this need for rebalance, we are now starting to see female characters in TV and film that are more multi layered, their psyches containing the same dark, sometimes violent urges that male characters have been depicted with since the birth of film. Although I couldn’t purely state my intentions behind the creation of The Shadow at the time of her conception, Waller-Bridges words have helped solidify The Shadow’s purpose within the narrative and the motivations of the character. While The Shadow can be viewed as a symbol and creation of male desire and oppression that is originated from a male character, she also vocalises what I believe to be a female point of view in questioning the ideologies of the male gaze that created her. Her act of violence against Matthew in the films closing moments is an act of female empowerment and a refusal to be viewed as a victim of the objectification of the female form perpetrated by him. It is my intention to keep the ending of the narrative ambiguous, in order to let the audience make up their own minds as to if such an act against Matthew is justified or not. REFERENCE LIST Battleship Potemkin (1925) Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein [Film]. Soviet Union: Goskino. Killing Eve (2018) BBC One, 8 April. Quinn, B. (2019) 'Phoebe Waller-Bridge 'empowered' to see violent women on TV', The Guardian, 10 March. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/10/phoebe-waller-bridge-empowered-to-see-violent-women-on-tv-drama-killing-eve (Accessed: 13 March 2019). Hollywood based photographer Terry Richardson is one of the most successful and controversial figures amongst the fashion industry. He has photographed a wide range of noted celebrities from the entertainment industries including singer Rhianna, film star Jared Leto and super model Kate Moss, to name but a few. His work has gained a great deal of interest and exposure due to a style that Business of Fashion calls, ‘sexually charged and hedonistic’ (Business of Fashion, 2019). The excess of the Hollywood lifestyle would seem to be a key influence on his photographic output. Although rumours of Richardson’s alleged sexual misconduct during his often explicit and racy shoots have circulated since 2001, it wasn’t until October 2017 that the major brands that Richardson has worked for would take any serious notice of the allegations. In that month, Marie Claire published an article collecting the allegations of over ten women within the industry who have spoken out against Richardson, detailing encounters where he coerced them into uncomfortable and lewd acts (Sim, 2017). Since then, several major fashion magazines, including Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ have blacklisted Richardson, refusing to work with him again. The allegations against Richardson are so strong that the NYPD would begin investigating them in early 2018. Terry Richardson has become the main inspiration for Matthew, the protagonist of In Your Shadow. Although Matthew never assaults any of the women around him in such an extreme way that its been alleged Richardson has, his behaviour towards the model he works with is still unsettling. I wish to portray that Matthew’s unconsummated desire is driving his actions, destroying his self-control in the process. The circumstances that Matthew unsettles the model he works with are a metaphor for the way that powerful figures in the industry, such as Terry Richardson and Harvey Weinstein abuse the trust of the vulnerable women they work with. Nobody should be made to feel intimidated while in any work place, especially those who are expected to expose their bodies and sexuality in the name of art. REFERENCE LIST Business of Fashion (2019) Terry Richardson Biography. Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/terry-richardson (Accessed: 9 March 2019). Sim, H. (2017) The Disturbing List Of Sexual Assault And Harassment Allegations Against Terry Richardson. Available at: https://www.marieclaire.com.au/terry-richardson-every-sexual-harassment-and-assault-allegation (Accessed: 9 March 2019). Solaris (1972) is Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s first foray into the aesthetics of science fiction cinema as an exploration of humanities inner emotional landscape. Psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris after one of the three remaining crew members commits suicide. When he arrives, he encounters a seemingly near perfect reproduction of his late wife Khari (Natalya Bondarchuk). Initially disturbed by her presence, Kris eventually embraces this manifestation of past memories, unaware that the past will be doomed to repeat itself once again. In keeping with the other six films that Tarkovsky made Solaris is a deeply philosophical film that presents its key thematic elements with an emotionally sensitive and thought provoking ambiguousness. The sparse narrative of Solaris explores mankind’s perception of themself and how the present is shaped by our memories of the past while also being shaped by our perception of the past in the present. This is evident in the film by Khari’s status as a perfect visual replication of Kelvin’s deceased wife, brought to life from his immaculate visual memories of her. While Khari outwardly appears to be human, she is not and her own memories are limited by what Kelvin remembers of her from his past interactions with his wife. As the narrative unfolds at a glacial pace, we learn that Kelvin feels a great deal of shame towards the fact that he never really loved the original Khari as much as she loved him. This led her to commit suicide by poisoning herself. Kris tries to make right in the present his past undoing’s that led to the original Khari’s death by loving the replication of Khari more than the original Khari. In doing so, however, he is avoiding facing the memories of her that haunt him in an effort to overcompensate for past mistakes. He is merely in love with the idea of Khari, his own perception of who she was that has been shaped by the shame and grief that he harbours for her. Inspired by the thematic undercurrents of Tarkovsky’s film, I will need to be careful when writing the screenplay to lay out the limitations of the manifestations that are shaped by Mathew’s subconsciousness and the repressed desire that shapes the manifestation of The Shadow. REFERENCE LIST Solaris (1972) Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky [Film]. Czech Republic: Asociace Ceských Filmových Klubu. Created by British writer and director Shane Meadows, This is England 88 (2011) is the second TV series in the kitchen sink drama saga that began with the film This is England (2006). The story centres on Lol (Vicky McClure), who is haunted by visions of her sexually abusive father Mick (Johnny Harris), who she killed two and a half years earlier after he raped Trev (Danielle Watson), a close friend of hers, then attacked Lol while she confronted him. Set across the Christmas period, the narrative of This is England 88 holds some similarities to the classic festive tale A Christmas Carol (1951), the protagonists of both films being visited by “ghosts” from their respective pasts. The festive period is a time when many people feel at their most vulnerable, plagued by negative thoughts towards their broken family life’s while feeling isolated and alone at a time where the majority of people are happy to be surrounded by family. The story of This is England 88 is driven by such negative thoughts towards family, the stress of keeping Mick’s death a secret manifesting in visions of her dead father. The re-appearance of Mick is a physical embodiment of the guilt that haunts Lol for her part in his death, a spectre of the id and reminder of past traumatic times. The scene in the video above is the second time that Lol encounters a vision of Mick and takes place in her bathroom. This is a location that most people would associate with vulnerability, as we are often in a state of undress or engaging with intimate acts such as using the toilet when in this room. Perhaps this unconscious sense of vulnerability, combined with the fact that Lol has spent the evening with Trev who is now sleeping on her sofa downstairs, is the mechanism that triggers the vision. The jarring reveal of Mick’s reflection in the mirror, his hung jaw, recessed stare and asthmatic breathing instantly conveying an unsettling, unnatural desire, is a simple but effective compositing effect that is in line with the naturalistic tone of the This is England saga. The characterisation of Mick in this scene, however, leans more to the subtly abstract when considering the often lose and improvised nature of the performances of the saga as a whole. This helps give the vision a slight otherworldly feeling of artificialness. It is Mick in physical appearance and voice but beyond the outer surface, there is nothing else there that can harm Lol. After confronting this vision and deciding that it isn’t real, Lol hastily walks past Mick, who closes his eyes, implying that his presence no longer has any power over her. Mick remains as the light is turned off, plunging him into darkness, suggesting that Lol’s refusal to be affected by his presence has pushed him back into a dark corner of her mind. Although the context for Lol’s visions is very different from the context that Mathew has his visions within, there are strong similarities. Both protagonists have lost someone close to them and are suffering from visions of these people that represent repressed emotions. REFERENCE LIST A Christmas Carol (1951) Directed by Brian Desmond-Hurst [Film]. USA: United Artists. This is England (2006) Directed by Shane Meadows [Film]. UK: Optimum Releasing. This is England 88 (2011) Channel 4, 13 December. https://cinephiliabeyond.org/persona-ingmar-bergmans-psychological-masterpiece-white-whale-critical-analysis/ http://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/38844/1/how-persona-reimagined-mental-illness-in-the-movies https://brightlightsfilm.com/a-mindscape-of-mirrors-persona-and-the-cinema-of-self-perception/#.XFtD4tHgpBw Written and directed by Swedish experimental filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966) is a highly atmospheric and complex study of identity that refuses to conform to the tried and tested cinematic standards of narrative and thematic cohesiveness. When famed actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) suddenly stops speaking during a stage performance, a young nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson), is assigned to care for her. Convalescing at an isolated cottage, Alma begins to confide in her mute patient, while finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish her own persona from that of Elisabet’s. While several key themes are clearly inherent in the quietly chilling narrative of persona, the ambiguous tapestry in which they weave together is very much open to individual interpretation. The word persona translates from Latin to English as “mask”, and as such, the two protagonists can be read as a portrayal of both the way we view our self’s as individuals and the masks that we hide behind when we present ourselves to others. Such thinking is valid when we consider that Elisabet stopped communicating verbally while acting in front of a crowd of cinema goers. This would suggest that Elisabet’s status as an actor represents the mask that we portray to people in our day to day life’s, literally playing a part on our own stage as we engage with other personalities. Elisabet has publicly rejected her mask as a performer on the stage of life and now seeks to acquire a new persona in the form of the overly forthcoming and entrusting Alma, consuming the intimate details that her silence has brought forth from her. A theme of duality is very much evident in this reading, with no solid answer provided come the end of the film as to if Alma and Elisabet are indeed two sides of the same personality. This is the power of the ambiguity that lies at the heart of the narrative choices of Persona. Bergman is wholly willing to surrender the surface value of established cinematic story telling to explore a more deeper, rich tapestry of honest human emotion that is as intangible and fleeting as the depths of the human psyche. The theme of duality extends to the cinematography by frequent Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist. Scenes alternate between the harsh, enveloping shadows of low key lighting and the smooth, hazy softness of high key lighting, reflecting the silence and vocalisation of the protagonist’s duplexity. The framing of the individual shots captures Alma and Elisabet in exquisitely composed two shots, favouring close ups that capture every detail of the emotions that the actress’s eyes and facial expressions authentically convey. Such closeness, when combined with the stillness of the blocking, effortlessly implies an internal intimacy, as if the two woman are somehow sharing the same psychological head space. Inspired by the carefully considered cinematography of Persona, Mathew’s encounters with the Shadow will be captured in two shots that will visually suggest that her presence is a physical representation of Mathew’s repressed desire. This will continue the experimentation with the intimacy of two shots that I felt was very successful when shooting the teaser. REFERENCE LIST Persona (1966) Directed by Ingmar Bergman [Film]. Sweden: Svensk Filmindustri. https://kelseyprofcomm.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/the-male-gaze-in-hitchocks-vertigo/ Continuing from my prior research into Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory, I was inspired to re-watch Vertigo (1958). Directed by master craftsman of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo is a taunt, mysterious thriller that explores the theme of obsessive male desire through an evocation of the male gaze. Detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James Stewart) retires from the police force after an intense bout of acrophobia, more commonly known as a fear of heights, causes the death of a colleague. An acquaintance of Scottie, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), then asks him to spy on his wife Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), believing that she is possessed by the spirit of her dead grandmother. Scottie reluctantly accepts the job and starts to fall in love with Madeleine. Declaring their love for one another, Madeleine tells Scottie about a recurring nightmare that takes place at a church. While visiting this place, Madeleine throws herself from the bell tower, Scottie unable to reach the top in time to save her after suffering from another attack of acrophobia. Scottie becomes catatonic, spending a year in psychiatric care unable to overcome the lose of Madeleine. When he is finally released, he starts dating Judy Barton (Kim Novak) who bears a striking resemblance to Madeleine, Scottie becoming ever more obsessed with changing Judy’s clothes and hair until she resembles Madeleine down to the very last detail. Both modes of the male gaze that Laura Mulvey defined, the voyeuristic and fetishistic, are represented in the key plot points of Vertigo. The voyeuristic male gaze is strongly evident in the first act of the story. Madeleine is unquestionably presented to Scottie as an object of his desire to be lured towards. Scottie spends a large part of the first act literally gazing upon Madeleine as he tails her, becoming more intrigued with the details of her appearance. In a scene where he follows Madeleine into a museum, he looks at Madeleine’s hair, tied back in a spiral, then up at the painting she is contemplating, noticing that the hair of the subject in the painting is tied back into the same spiral. She is unaware that he is watching him at all times. In the films third act, Scottie’s attention to the details of Judy’s appearance will take on a fetishitic form as he obsesses over every detail of it, turning Judy into a near perfect replica of Madeleine. Neither Judy nor Madeleine are allowed to exist as themselves in the shadow of Scottie’s desire, only as one and the same in his disillusioned fantasy. Vertigo is a film that has been carefully crafted to evoke the male gaze in a thoughtfully voyeuristic manner that can be considered far less crass than the over sexualization of the female form that many other films evoke with its use. Hitchcock’s attention is clearly drawn towards placing the audience within the psychology of the male who is gazing on the female form when designing the shots of the film. He achieves this by purposefully implicating the audience in Scottie’s gaze by merging both his and the audience’s perspective via camera movement. The first shot of the scene where Scottie first sets eyes on Madeleine shows him sat at the bar turning his head to look into the dinning area. The camera then pulls back and away from him in the direction he gazes towards until the camera is now among the dinners then dollies forward through the crowd on Madeline sat at one of the tables. This creates a sense of both Scottie and the audience’s perspectives coming together, as well as a sense of voyeurism as we move through the dinners who are unaware of the audience’s presence. With In Your Shadow, I would like to evoke the male gaze through plot and cinematography in a similar manner to Vertigo but direct it towards Mathew, inverting the gaze through which he captured the photo and the hardline perspective of the public that he has offended. REFERENCE LIST Vertigo (1958) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock [Film]. USA: Paramount Pictures. |
AuthorMy name is Clay Sandford and I am currently studying an FDA in Film and Media Production at University Centre Weston. I have a keen interest in directing, writing and cinematography. ArchivesCategories |