ipoledocumentary2017

[ipoledocumentary2017]

final film

[ipoledocumentary2017]

photos - new york 2013

i took these last time i went to america (still obama administration days). they’re mostly observational without any particular agenda other than capturing what could be aesthetically pleasing.

i think the film needs to have some other kind of imagery, partially to more visually support some of the ideas within it, and also to reflect the attempt to keep the viewer fixated on what they’re watching with visual stimulation, to always keep their eye on the screen, so i’m going to use a combination of these photos and found footage and audio.

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las vegas pictures

i got my brother to take some photos of his las vegas surroundings. my personal favourite is ‘beef booze broads’.

i like how these fully exhibit the qualities of everyone’s preconceived notions of vegas, because it’s just the imagery that occurs naturally. you don’t really have to seek it out to portray a certain view of it because that’s what it’s actually like in reality.

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final script

[1]

america is a big place, and almost as sprawling as the range of feelings i have for it.

it’s like a bizarre parody of itself, and i’m pretty sure that it’s really just this weird 200 year old social experiment to find out what would happen if there suddenly came into being a society motivated almost entirely by instant gratification, and at some point in the future they’ll announce “ok thanks guys this has been great, very interesting but also very terrifying” and then just put the whole god damn thing out of its misery.

tthough…

while its institution and actions and history can be loathsome too say the least, i don’t actually mean to be very harsh or patronising because, underneath my frosty exterior and ironic attitude there lies a genuine sense of enthralment. for the concept* of ‘a m e r i c a’. note that by putting it in quotation marks I’m trying to separate it from the picture of visceral patriotism the phrase ‘i love america’ evokes, but also trying to use the dramatic image we’ve all been conditioned to conjure in our minds upon hearing the word ‘america’.

[2]

i more than often find myself enamoured by how its culture never fails to exhibit genuine emotion coupled with good intentions, regardless of whether those emotions or intentions are logically or morally sound (more often than not they aren’t).

and pop culture, oh my god the pop culture! very little satiates me in such a void-filling way than american entertainment, art, and the oeuvre that is its popular culture. sometimes all i want is to become a direct product of tv and movies and pop culture and kitsch, false intrigue and public emotion, so that eventually the only way i can get to sleep is by listening to the soothing tones of those sound effects they cram in all the way through reality tv shows. i love the commitment to always keeping you interested and exactly aware of whats happening, the constant providing of exposition. trying to keep you absorbed in everything visually stimulating, the ability to make you believe the mundane to be fascinating.                          

[3] so…

maybe the hatred is just me distancing myself from something I’m too afraid to admit that i love, and maybe i should let myself be all consumed by it, because it’s existence relies on being all consumed by me. and you, and everyone. because they need us to need them. how nice of them! they only want to give them people what they want they have my best interests at heart, just as long as i fit into a certain template. that shouldn’t be too hard, should it? they’re letting me think i’m the most important person in the world, and americana feeds right into my delusion of grandeur.

[this is like the kind of self importance rampant in america- here create mindset of the media viewer they want you to be]

[4] after all,

its easy to be patriotic, its easy to not question what you know you believe, and it looks pretty fun too.

it’s interesting, and i envy it.

when i was ten i visited a friends fairly liberal school in new jersey, and i remember being surprised to find that they did in fact say the pledge of allegiance more or less every day. when they were reciting it in an assembly i think i vaguely mouthed along, in the same way as when i unexpectedly find myself in the company of someone praying or singing a hymn.

i’m technically american myself, but I’ve always kept the kind of distance that made ever earnestly saying the pledge of allegiance unnerving, and at best real lame. i can keep the kind of distance where i feel more anger than guilt at its atrocities, but i always get pulled back in by its unrelenting and honest charm. it doesn’t think to have an ulterior motive because it makes all its desires clear.

[5]

you see, ‘america’ and i have something in common.

it tries to convince itself otherwise but its truly hedonistic at heart: uninhibited, unbridled and unthinking. and i think ‘it’ should embrace it as much as i want to

because ‘america’ is a state of mind, man. i’m wary of it but i aspire to it. the endless emptiness under a facade of purpose, and the neon lights reflected in a puddle of piss and rainwater. it’s lacking self awareness while hoping there’s a reason for everything. it’s not questioning if anything you do is meaningful, and it’s not knowing that all this ‘life’ shit isn’t as big of a deal as it seems. it’s wanting everything to be in its right place, no matter what that may come as a cost to.

it’s always running away from boredom. and my god, am i bored. ~~~~~~

[ipoledocumentary2017]

test footage

around the beginning of this project i bought an american flag on the internet for i think £4.99 (you could probably infer some hot take about america and capitalism etc from that) which i knew i would include in some way. here i settled on using it like a visual metaphor: like a visualisation of my desire to be completely submersed in americana, but it being less easy than it would seem, and not being totally possible in the way that it keeps falling down just for me to pick it up again.

this will be the main basis of the film, but i’m not sure if this and the voiceover alone are enough to keep it interesting.

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development

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Black Sea files, Ursula Biemann, 2005

having multiple elements of visuals and information to contribute to the same meaning

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interview take 2 highlights

redid the interview with my brother, mainly just reiterating previous most interesting comments.

this was very useful to build up an overall concept and to garner anecdotes and opinions to drive the film. but i don’t think ill include any of the actual interview because i think it’d disrupt the flow of it, and turn it too much into an ‘a day in the life’ type narrative, which would be less conceptually interesting.

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monologue writing

beginning of a script, is turning out to be a ‘stream of consciousness internal monologue spoken to anyone who will listen’ type thing. im also trying to develop something of a rhetoric within it not only to keep it interesting but also so it properly channels the notions i want it to and in the right tone.

also, despite the plethora of current events and material, i want it to be largely apolitical, because it’s more about escapism through an ideation of america while glossing over the actual reality of the situation.

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documentation

this is a sort of study done while brainstorming for a script: documents i’ve always had, some only recently discovered, and have mostly never needed to use. i found them quite aesthetically intriguing, as they’re designed in a way that’s very typically official yet have a simple consistent pleasantness and air of authority, like you can tell the design was very much taken into consideration. especially in the passport, with its dramatic illustrations and quotes from adequately heroic americans- just as you would expect something provided by the american government to have. this is the kind of aesthetic theme and consideration i want to include, to evoke a similar visual language.

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The Host, Miranda Pennell, 2015

this film is one of my main inspirations for this project so far, mainly because of the use of voiceover and still photographs which i think will be some of the best ways to execute my ideas. i also like how it can express certain sentiments, details and asides that would be more heavy-handed if done purely visually. a voiceover script will probably be the main focus of the piece.

[ipoledocumentary2017]

phone interview - ‘an american in america’

i decided to interview my brother, who moved to las vegas from london late last year, about what he thought about the cultural differences and the general way of life. i thought this would provide a more specific and interesting take on these questions because of the fact that we have american citizenships and family, and moving to america has always been an option. also because our whole lives we have been gladly imbibing and embracing american pop culture while also remaining aware of the myriad of ways in which it is an awful place. i see it as a kind of easier and more cynical way of pursuing the ‘american dream’.

[unfortunately due to some technical difficulty i can’t figure out the recording of the phone conversation is lost to the ether, but it can be easily redone and wouldn’t have been fit for a final film anyway cos of sound quality and its unpolished interviewing technique]

points and opinions raised included :

-everyone is generally really nice, will talk to you because they want to be nice, habits of good customer service and hospitality very prominent whether or not they’re aware of it or have an ulterior motive

-as a place it’s extremely visually stimulating, also mentally so in the sense that there’s always some kind of information being offered to you

-accurate to describe it as a place driven by instant gratification, so many things provided to you to satisfy your needs to the point where its almost instinctual. some people are aware of it 

-tv adverts are ridiculous but what is more so is that they are taken seriously and as the norm and to be expected, from afar its laughable but then you also have to live with it. watching tv is quite an experience

-found it easy to fall within the rhythms of the culture and can have a natural unironic appreciation for the place. still has an appreciation for pop culture

-life is largely impacted by the fact that you have to drive everywhere, virtually no public transport, ‘DUIs’ a frequent occurrence, met some interesting people when carpooling: people who were quite exuberant in their self-awareness of being there, and also very willing to discuss nearly their whole life story

-specifically las vegas: many people are tourists so it’s also very driven by pursuing an experience, eg in casinos many will be placing a bet just to say they went and did (you have to verbally announce when doing so rather than writing it down), and people very convinced they’re pursuing it correctly even if they aren’t. drinking culture is kind of more english than it is in the rest of the country because people will drink in the daytime more freely but often to excess (“becomes like an adult daycare”- quote from someone who works in a hotel/casino)

-people are nice and common courtesy is prevalent regardless of someone’s life/political views or if they know they’re differently opinionated to you. gets called ‘sir’ all the time. seems less like a straightforward ‘treat others how you’d like to be’ thing and more that it’s naturally ingrained and habitual.

- the weather has a very positive effect on life, is a main factor in deciding to move and stay there. the place is "militantly air conditioned

-scenery is beautiful, especially the view of the city from afar

[ipoledocumentary2017]

“In the devastating wake of the Wall Street Crash, artists sought to capture the changes in urbanisation, industrialisation and immigration that pulsed across the country, resulting in one of the most vital periods for American artists in the 20th century. This was a decade like no other that saw them search for an elusive ‘Americanness’ through realism, populism and abstraction, rural and urban themes, the farm, the new, the traditional.”

i went to see this exhibition, and it reminded me of my semi-ironic semi-truly genuine love for ‘america’, americana, and the popular culture it has produced in lieu of any real historical one. it’s a land of deeply entrenched flaws and societal problems, and one motivated mainly by the promise of instant gratification. but despite this, i find myself almost enamoured by the way it expresses and fosters an air of genuine emotion and good intentions, whether or not those emotions or intentions are actually positive, or morally or logically sound. it’s almost as if the id were manifested into a 200 year old country.