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pjguinen-blog · 8 years ago

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Here Comes the Sun Film Treatment

Act I

The year is 1957 in Liverpool, England. Chuck Berry’s single “Maybellene” is playing from a worn RCA record player. 12” record albums from Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley scatter the floor. A sixteen-year-old boy sits on his bed jamming along with the music on an old Gallotone Champion guitar. The boy’s name is John.

John’s aunt calls to him yelling for him to keep the noise down. John begrudgingly turns down the record player and puts his guitar away. He is a rebellious teen who lives with his aunt, uncle, and four female cousins ranging in age from 11 to 24. He runs down the stairs and storms out of the house while chanting something witty about revolution.

John walks down the street holding his guitar case. He meets up with his bandmates in his school gymnasium. They stand around talking to girls before going on stage. John and his mates play a handful of songs resembling music with American bluesy roots.

During the last song, John cracks some jokes and flirts with the pretty girls from the stage. John looks to his left making eye contact with the angry principal who is requesting John stop immediately. John jumps off the stage into the crowd, leaving his bandmates, and runs out the gym doors, guitar in hand.

John sprints off the school’s property and is stopped by a boy of similar age. He introduces himself as Paul and explains how he loves the musical sound John was going for. John enquires about any of Paul’s musical abilities. The two clique right away.

The two drive to the local music shop in Paul’s car. They each pick up the nicest guitar they can find and play. They play loud and fast. The store owner gives them an ultimatum to either turn it down or get out of the store. Paul offers John a ride home, but he declines and walks home.

Inciting Incident:

John walks through his aunt’s front door, announcing he is home. His aunt stands in his bedroom doorway, blocking his entry. They begin to fight about school and music. He has failed every exam for the second semester in a row. He defends his music over his grades, infuriating his aunt. His aunt informs him of his expulsion from school. John is taken back.

John sits on the back stoop, contemplating the news of his expulsion. His youngest cousin sits down next to him and asks why he is upset. John replies in a long philosophical argument on why music can change the world, but only if the world is ready for the change. His young cousin pauses as if she were contemplating the big ideas that John speaks of. She tells John what her mother told her once. She says that he can do anything he sets his mind to. John laughs her away but ponders to himself if he could.

John calls Paul asking him to join his new band. Paul doesn’t agree right away. He asks to meet with John to discuss the logistics of the band. John agrees to meet with Paul.

John goes over to Paul’s parent’s home. He meets Paul’s family at the door. Paul is in the next room with a boy a few years younger than John.

Plot Point 1:

Paul introduces his friend, George. John sits with Paul as they discuss who will do what in the band. John says he can sing and play. Paul informs John that he too would like to sing. He also mentions he knows how to play the bass. John, not initially on board with the whole singing thing, agrees thinking that Paul can be a real asset with his musical background and supportive parents. Paul asks if George can join the band. John thinks George is too young. George picks up Paul’s guitar sitting in the corner and plays better than anything John has heard. Stunned by how good of a player George is, John offers him the position of lead guitarist.

The band holds an audition for a drummer. They choose a kid by the name of Pete to be their drummer. They name the band The Quarrymen. They become the best of friends.

The band practices day and night. With very little options in Liverpool, they sign a deal with a man named Bruno. He owns a few strip clubs turned music venues in the red-light district of Hamburg, Germany.

Act II

The Quarrymen finish a show at Bruno’s club, Kaiserkeller, and hit the town. The four of them go out to the pubs to hit on women and have a good time. A few drinks in and everyone is having a good time. Pete gets a little too loaded and picks a fight with the bouncer. Coming to his side the rest of the band pull him out and take him home.

Night after night they play at the clubs and return home to their one window flats downtown for some slight rest.

John is approached on the street by a man claiming to be from Kaiserkeller’s rival, Top Ten Club. He offers them a slot in that night’s line up. John accepts, and The Quarrymen play their best show yet.

Pinch Point 1:

Bruno finds out that the Quarrymen begin to play at the rival club, violating their contract with him. He calls them into his office where he terminates their contract with one months’ notice. Bruno reports George to the authorities for being underage.

Not knowing what to do, George suggests moving back to Liverpool. John, Paul, and Pete follow him back home. Paul calls his dad’s friend and lines up a gig at a nightclub in Liverpool.

After the performance, the band is approached by a fellow named Martin. Martin explains that he is a producer for EMI’s Parlophone label. He offers them a recording contract.

John is ecstatic about the contract. John believes he has made it to the top. George is excited he can keep playing with the band in England.

Midpoint:

Martin brings the band into the recording studio. Everyone in the group loves the environment except for Pete, who prefers the dingy club scene. The band plays their hearts out for Martin. Martin critiques the Quarrymen’s sound. He gives Pete constructive criticism, but Pete doesn’t handle it well. Pete blusters out of the studio in a hot wave. John follows.

John and Pete talk about life over a drink at the pub. Pete explains that he doesn’t feel the same way about the band anymore as he did. John reaffirms his dream to make it big one day. Pete explains he is considering leaving. John is crushed but understands.

Pinch Point 2:

John and Pete return to the studio. Martin begins to explain that if they want to make it in the music business, then they will need to clean up their act. John, Paul, and George agree to toss away their leather jackets and jeans in hopes of propelling the band further. Pete refuses to state that he is who he is, and can’t change. Pete quits the band.

John, Paul, George, and Martin sit down at the recording table to discuss Pete’s removal from the band. George asks who will be the percussion, and so Paul offers to pick up the drums. Martin suggests using a session drummer for now. John has been silent the whole meeting chimes in, in favor of a new drummer.

Plot Point 2:

John, Paul, and George come into the studio the next day feeling skeptical about their new drummer. They are shocked to find Ringo, an easygoing lad who plays the drums backward. The band is so intrigued by the uniqueness of Ringo that they accept him almost immediately.

With Ringo, the group produces a handful of solid tracks that they release. Martin organizes the release of their first album. He also suggests that the band change its name. They decide to be known as the Beatles.

Climax:

The release of their first album goes over very well in England. They perform a few shows and really make a name for themselves as the Beatles.

John Paul George and Ringo all knew they were apart of the beginning of something great. Martin calls them up on the phone, requesting a U.S. Tour. Everyone is excited. John is nervous he is not good enough for the world.

It does not hit John that he has made it until he steps foot off the airplane in the U.S. with thousands of roaring fans screaming up to him and his bandmates. He now knows he can change the world.

The year is 1964 in Wisconsin, USA. The Beatles single “Love Me Do” is playing from a worn RCA record player. 12” record albums from Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles scatter the floor. A boy, the age of sixteen sits on his bed jamming along with the music.

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pjguinen-blog · 8 years ago

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Kubrick Auteur Analysis

Throughout the history of film only a handful of directors are able to turn out success after success. These auteur directors are able to craft their movie making skills into a tool that they can utilize film after film. Stanley Kubrick has perfected his film making style through his career. Stanley Kubrick is an auteur director by the way he uses visual and narrative language to express the gender power struggles between men and women.

Stanley Kubrick is enthralled by the power struggles between men and women, specifically the affect that women have on their male counter parts. In Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove” there is one female actress in the whole movie. Miss Scott is the general’s secretary. The film indicates that her primary purpose is to please the general’s most basic needs. She is first shot laying on a bed in her underwear tanning. This is to instinctively tell the audience she is to be looked at in a sexual manner. The general is said to be “tied up” working on paperwork when in reality he is post coitus in “the powder room”. Miss Scott, being the person who answered the phone call, is the one mediating the message to the general. This gives her power over the general because he is relying upon her to relay the messages in an accurate manner. Stanley Kubrick also shares General Ripper’s view of women with the audience. General Ripper speaks about the Communists when he describes women. He is struggling with the rise of second wave feminism. This is expressed when he explains to Mandrake that he is sick and tired of “the communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist aversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids”. The communist infiltration represents women entering the work force, and their demand for equal opportunities. The communist indoctrination signifies reshaping of the gender roles, where men are now being forced to see women as counterparts not objects. General Ripper talks about the communist aversion, and by this he is referring to the supposed hatred for men. This hatred comes from the years of oppression women endured by men. “The international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids” is pretty straight forward in its representation of his fear of women. Ripper believes that all women are out to sleep with him in order to control the way he acts. This is believable because of the stereotypical male agenda of thinking with his genitalia before his brain. Stanley Kubrick uses General Ripper to illustrate the drastic effects of denying second wave feminism.

Stanley Kubrick illustrates the power dynamic of men and women in the Shining as well. In this 1980 film, Stanley Kubrick depicts the frailty of women and the roughness of men. He does this through his portrayals of the characters. Wendy Torrance is depicted as a vulnerable, weak character based on the way Kubrick films her. She is often shot with high background light and medium to low key lighting. This gives her the effect of seeming lost and helpless. This feeling of loss allows the audience to see Wendy as a sad, defenseless lamb, so to speak. She is never portrayed as a strong independent character, even once she and Danny escape. This is primarily because she, in Stanley Kubrick’s mind, is not supposed to be strong willed. Wendy represents a side of women that not many people like to talk about. She is abused by her husband who in turn represents his own stereotype of gender. Jack Torrance represents the side of men that are driven by their basic instincts, survival and sex. He does this in the scene where Jack enters the room with the naked woman. In this scene Jack is supposed to investigate the room on behalf of his son and wife. When he enters the room his mood instantly changes because a beautiful, naked woman stands before him. Stanley Kubrick uses this scene to represent the hidden power that women may have over men. He believes women can control a man by pulling at the strings of his primal instincts. Jack begins to make out with the young woman. He is framed on the left while the women is on the right. This gives the woman cinematic power over Jack that Stanley Kubrick uses to represent the power women have over men. The young woman transforms into an old and rotting woman. This transformation can be thought of as a depiction of the hidden agendas women seem to have.

Through the lifetime of film industry very few directors can be considered auteurs in their field. These auteur directors create films using a skill base acquired through years of study and practice. Throughout his career, Stanley Kubrick has accomplished his filmmaking style by use of his visual language as well as his narrative style. He utilizes these tools to create films that tackle big issues. Of these issues one of the biggest is Stanley Kubrick’s stance on feminism and the female agenda. He uses his films to make a statement on second wave feminism and how women are able to knock men on their knees if they so wished. Stanley Kubrick is a film auteur because of the way he applies visual and narrative language to express the power struggles between masculinity and femininity.

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pjguinen-blog · 8 years ago

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Fellini Auteur Analysis

There are some film directors who are very good at what they do. They are able to see a story from nothing and make it into something the whole world is able to enjoy. It would be unwise to say that a film can be made by a single person; however, there are some directors who can turn a film into a product that is uniquely their own. Federico Fellini is one such director. Fellini is extremely specific when it comes to his films, and he is able to pour his own life experiences into them. Some of the aspects in his directing style that make him an auteur director include his autobiographical nature, episodic narratives, as well as his use of visual language.

Federico Fellini tends to involve some sort of autobiographical themes to his films. In his film “La Strada”, he is able to write about the toll that depression plays on the human soul. Gelsomina is bought from her mother by Zampano. Throughout the film Gelsomina is constantly depressed. She is unhappy with the way she is treated by Zampano, and just simply wants to find her true purpose in life. This very much so relates to Fellini’s personal life due to the fact that around the time of writing and film “La Strada” he was experiencing signs of severe clinical depression. With help from his wife Fellini was able to undertake a short-lived period of therapy. I believe it was this therapy with Freudian psychoanalyst Emilio Servadio that led Fellini to incorporate his own personal depression into his movie. For instance, Gelsomina confides in the Fool who in turn helps her understand that she indeed does have a purpose in life. Federico understands that his purpose is to create stories and films that can be understood by a vast variety of audiences. The film “La Strada” is very episodic in the sense that there is no real overarching story. The film, simply put, follows around Gelsomina and Zampano while they travel around street performing. Fellini utilizes this form of cinema so that he can draw the audiences’ attention closer to the characters Fellini is trying to portray on screen. With less story and more character development, we as viewers are able to connect better with said characters. In the final scene of “La Strada”, Zampano appears to feel great remorse for the way he treated Gelsomina. It is possible that without this episodic narrative the audience wouldn’t have found Zampano’s performance as satisfying as it turned out to be.

Fellini incorporates these cinematic tools in his other films as well. For instance, in “La Dolce Vita” Fellini films what he believes to be “the good life”. The film follows around Marcello, who is in Rome for work. “La Dolce Vita” is portrayed as an episodic narrative as well. Fellini abandons outdated plot devices and traditional character development. By doing so he is able to create a cinematic narrative that disregards continuity, gets rid of unnecessary explanations of plot, as well as the narrative logic. He does this in favor of 7 chapters of non-linear encounters between Marcello and the underworld of Rome, and all the people who make it up. By breaking up the film into chapters that revolve around the times of day, Fellini is also able to cinematically make the audience feel as I they are living day to day with Marcello in Rome. Fellini is beginning to perfectly integrates episodic narratives into the film industry. With Rome being such a Catholic city, there is no wonder why Fellini incorporates religion into “La Dolce Vita” as well. The film’s 7 chapters are divided up to hint at the 7 deadly sins. Fellini does this in order to show how Marcello experiences his week in Rome. Fellini even begins the film with a giant statue of Jesus being flown into Rome by helicopter. Being a film director Fellini would have firsthand knowledge of the way celebrities act in the real world. He is able to create this film based off his personal experiences with actors, film makers, and paparazzi, which was coined due to this film.

Fellini’s work builds off of each other. He begins with “La Strada” and “La Dolce Vita”, but he does not stop there. In “8 ½”, Fellini shapes the film similarly to the others. “8 ½” is almost an autobiographical film about Fellini himself. The film is about a film director who is struggling from writer’s block. It is safe to assume that Fellini underwent writer’s block himself many times throughout his career. However, he was able to turn that writer’s block into a meta narrative that is still able to follow suit with his other films. “8 ½” refers to the film being Fellini’s eighth and a half film. Up to this point Fellini had six feature films, two shorts, and one collaboration with another director, making up the half. The film is semi-autobiographical because Fellini had lost interest among creative and marital difficulties. The film has an overarching theme in which Fellini attempts to solve his personal confusion by creating a film to help others, just like Guido intended to do.

Federico Fellini pours his heart and soul into his films. He creates these films so that he may share with the world his unique interpretations. He utilizes episodic and meta narratives to show audiences a new way of making movies. He has created a number of cinematic masterpieces. These masterpieces are comprised of his own personal experiences with life and cinematography.

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pjguinen-blog · 8 years ago

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Aronofsky Auteur Analysis

Everyone knows that life is not like the movies. Life can be sad and depressing at times, which is why we go to the movies, to escape the hustle and bustle of life. Darren Aronofsky, on the other hand, likes to portray his characters in a darker light. He uses his character development and mood-setting skills to build a film that can be thought of as a slice of someone's life, often someone we pity.

Darren Aronofsky opens his film Requiem for a Dream with a mother and her son fighting over the TV. Now normally this could be interpreted as just family disputes over what to watch on television, but here Darren Aronofsky portrays a much more sinister feel between these two-family members. The mother seems to fear her son while the son seems to be taking advantage of his mother. Darren Aronofsky uses this to portray a duality in the scene. The frame is broken into two, one frame filming the mother hiding in the closet and the other following the son, who is stealing the television. Jared Leto's character reverse guilt trips his mother by saying she always makes him feel guilty for the way he lives. This is a classic card played by many who do hard drugs. They will throw the blame on anyone but themselves for the life they live. The mother, who has chained the television to the radiator to "protect it from the robbers", is portrayed as a weak old woman who loves her son to the end of the world. Aronofsky uses the weakness in the mother's voice to build audience sympathy for both her and her son. In this opening scene, Aronofsky uses his editing style to give the scene a slice of life feel. The scene is almost 3 minutes long, going back and forth between the son and the mother. Most other films could and would replace this scene with a 30-second clip showing the son stealing the television and the mom in the closet. However, Aronofsky stretches the scene out giving the audience the feeling that they are there to witness the actual events that went down. Aronofsky does this in his other films as well.

Darren Aronofsky opens his 2008 film the wrestler with another extended scene that lasts about four minutes and fifteen seconds. In this scene, we are introduced to our main character, The Ram, who is a washed-out wrestler performing in elementary school gymnasiums. Aronofsky utilizes this scene to portray the protagonist as just an old man who used to be something. We are able to understand this through Aronofsky's camera work in this scene and throughout the movie. This film is often shot in a documentary style, meaning the camera tracks behind the main character often just following to see what he does throughout his day. The camera follows the Ram as he gathers his things and walks out of the school. We see him sign an autograph for a fan of his hay day. This symbolizes to the audience that this man is a has been, indicating that the film will most likely be about his struggle back to the top.

Aronofsky ends both of these two films, unlike most Hollywood films. Requiem for a Dream ends in a horrific series of events where the four main characters have ruined their lives almost irreversibly. The mother is now certifiably crazy and will be lobotomized. One character is in jail, one is performing sex acts in front of dirty businessmen, and the last is in the hospital about to lose his arm. The camera in this final scene also portrays their fear through wild and sporadic cuts between characters and camera motion. Aronofsky utilizes this final scene to show that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes life will keep beating you down until what is left isn't even you anymore. This is similar to the ending of The Wrestler. Here the Ram decides that wrestling is more important to him than his health and his family. He blatantly ignores the doctor's recommendation to no longer wrestle, and when the woman he has been in love with the whole movie comes to tell him not to go through with it and come home with her, he ignores her as well to go out and wrestle. Here Aronofsky is portraying the side of humanity that is irrational. The final scene from The Wrestler leaves us with an ambiguous ending. We would all like to hope the Ram survives his match, but the truth behind it is he probably didn’t, and if he did, he would have no one to share it with because he has lost everyone.

Life can beat you down and never let go. Darren Aronofsky knows this can happen and uses his films to portray the underbelly of society. He distinguishes his characters as people that most of the audience would never want to meet. By utilizing character development and editing skills to set the mood, Darren Aronofsky is able to show a slice of life that we normally don’t get to see.

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