Josiah – Page 4

Alter Ego – The Purpose of Art

Having not actually filmed much and also adopting the Werner Herzog philosophy of having a broad idea of what I wanted to shoot and going to the locations to let the shots present themselves, in place of having a storyboard, I took quite a number of shots.

Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix. If you get used to planning your shots based on aesthetics, you are never far from kitsch.

Werner Herzog

Coincidentally, Sabina is against kitsch too. (More on that in the previous post)

I used the movie “Before Sunrise” as a point of reference for this film; opting not to be influenced by the movie adaptation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

These places have significance to the characters. Do they have any effect on anyone else without context?

Before Sunrise is one of those films that had a profound impact on me as a teen. I still go back to it to learn about filmmaking. One of the many moments that I remembered from the film was the ending where we see wide shots of places where the two protagonists had been throughout the night. Because we’ve been through the journey with them, there is a feeling of, perhaps, nostalgia. I can’t quite pinpoint the feeling with words. Maybe it is the feeling that these places have a magical hold on us. They are just places to everyone else, but these places are memories to us. Yes. That is what I am trying to achieve; or at least just a fraction of.

The difference is I am jumping straight to the epilogue and expecting the audience to fill in the blanks themselves. This will either show my confidence or failure as a storyteller.

After my research, I had to come with a story for what would be shown in the 1 minute of film. Keeping in line with the character not having friends, I went out on my own on Chinese New Year to film the places I used to hang out with friends. The story is an epilogue. Imagine a person having gone through so many relationships and now has no one. This person is reflecting on his decisions.

I made my way to Pasir Ris and started with the nearest place, Coral Secondary School.

And found that they had already slapped a new name on top of the body and essence that was my school.

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-05-06-pm — This was where my CCA was held most of the time.

img_5607-1 — Just a small part of it left

But I digress.

I walked the route from school that I normally took to get to the basketball court below a friend’s house.

img_5640-1 — I would have liked to film in the canal where we would foolishly play but the water level made that impossible

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-12-22-pm — The basketball court and house

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-17-10-pm — Occasionally we’d go to the playground just up ahead

Next I went over to Loyang point and Street 21 where my primary school was, and still is, located.

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-19-19-pm — This one basketball court in a church that we’d just casually walk in

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-20-17-pm — Another one of those basketball courts and playgrounds.

After all that I walked back to the MRT station and ended off the day’s shoot with the area near my house.

"Hallucinations" playing, the construction workers, and the sky without a star — “Hallucinations” playing, the construction workers, and the sky without a star.

The next day, I went to more crowded places for variety before heading back to school.

Places we used to go to think about impossible things

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-9-28-57-pm — The basement green table?

The feel I was going for was somber and I know that it will turn out coming off as some prick with a stick up his butt- BUT I wanted to try taking something seriously for once. I always talk about how philosophy seems pointless because there is no answer. That is because I can never bring myself to make a stand. I am trying to make a stand and because I am, I have to question myself endlessly.

With that in mind I ask myself, “Who do I make art for?”

A lot of times I don’t want to answer the question because an answer might define me and I am supposed to be “light”.

The next couple of shots are pick up shots that I hold no feelings or memories of, but I took them anyway because they evoked an emotion that I wanted to convey.

What is the purpose of my art?

To entertain? To express? To communicate?

Alter Ego – Sabina

from The Unbearable Lightness of Being; or some character (not even the main character) from this one book that you may or may not have heard of.

Before working on the inspiration file, I did some research on the character as I wanted to go beyond face value. Since this is really for my own use, I’ll dump it out here.

It starts out with my deciding if it was the main character TOMAS, or Sabina that I felt more affinity towards. I started with Tomas because protagonists get more “screen time”

Tomas or Sabina

Tomas: Womanising | Lightness or weight of being | I, too, struggle with the lightness and weight of life.

His character experiences the temporary sweet lightness of being when Tereza leaves him to return to Prague. Thereafter, he experiences the unbearable lightness of being that comes with his compassion for Tereza

Tomas reminisces about lightness and weight after a night of sex with someone else

Ideas: Sex vs. Shared Sleep | Eternal return (An interesting concept)

The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.

As free as you are insignificant

We make decisions at each point in our lives but we can never know what the other outcomes could have been. We can never know if we chose correctly. (To me, a very important epiphany)

So what?

I am standing at the window of his flat and looking across the courtyard at the opposite walls, not knowing what to do.

From here I started to research on Sabina and found that-

Betrayal is Sabina’s way of fighting kitsch – a word that keeps popping up in Sabina’s story

THE IDEA OF BETRAYAL IS BREAKING OFF INTO THE UNKNOWN.

Why does Sabina’s relationships always end in “betrayal”; i.e. leaving good people for uncertain and empty loneliness and freedom (Lightness).

Why is she drawn to “betrayal”?

Why am I drawn to “betrayal” and, by extension, lightness? (The main thing that connects us)

Beauty is a world betrayed

Sabina was searching for new beauty; to break away from kitsch

On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth

Repetition gives things “weight”

Nothing more magnificent than going off into the unknown

Es Muss Sein – It Must Be. (A song lyric that talks about things that are fundamentally the character or maybe even intrinsic nature)

The only way you can sufficiently guard your heart is if you live a life in which you have nothing to lose. (Trying to see how Sabina sees)
Take lovers, use them for what they are good for, let yourself be used, but remember to return to your solitude, always. I don’t know where this idea came from, that we need another person. Throw that idea out the window.

In death, you can only hope to become nothing. This is the ultimate beauty. There are times when I feel so empty, I am sure death has come for me. I imagine that is very much how death will feel.

https://litreactor.com/columns/advice-from-a-literary-character-sabina-from-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being (Source)

Sabina: Confidence | Choosing a “light” life results in her irrelevance in the world | While not confident, it is uncanny how the both of us always find ourselves feeling both alone and irrelevant. It is a choice we consciously make.

or;

Lightness of being | Too much lightness | I feel affinity towards her view on the lightness of being and also bear the unbearable lightness of being. Nothing matters: a dual-edged sword.

Does not hold anything dear to her; with the exception of her bowler hat

Lightness

Sabina holds that the ideal of one-voice-no-individuals is actually much worse than any violent or imperfect totalitarian reality.

She likes to be humiliated sexually by men (?) Backstory stuff

Sexual promiscuity = lightness

Commitment = weight

Of everything in the Inspiration file brief, I found the sentence starters to be the most useful in giving my alter ego, form.

I firmly believe that meaning has no place in what my idea of life is.

I would like to run away to America. / I would like to know what would have happened if I had chosen differently (weight over lightness)

I love being truly free.

I hate the kitsch of the world; the unoriginal and aesthetic ideology imposed on us

I have no problem with nudity

I know that my choice to betray (to break off into the unknown) will leave me irrelevant and unknown. This makes me uneasy.

BUT, that doesn’t mean that the pursuit of lightness is any less unbearable

I chose to focus on the lightness that Sabina has chosen. I feel affinity towards her views on kitsch and several ideas too. With the limited time that I have I want to focus on one thing only. Cramping in too many ideas into a one minute film is just too tall a task for me. Who knows, maybe our fight against kitsch will come through the film itself. That is the challenge.

Alter Ego – Beginning

Over the course of the 2nd week, we came up with a list of people we felt an affinity towards and while it was challenging, it was quite insightful.

5 Fictional

Archie from Archie’s Final Project
Johnny from Naked (Mike Leigh)
Sabina from The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Bojack Horseman
Steven Universe

5 Public

David Foster Wallace
Rene Magritte
Kenny Omega
Albert Camus
Bo Burnham

5 Known people

Tan Cheng Swee
Josiah at sixteen
Daryl Teo
Ragu
Kai YiAfter coming up with the list, we narrowed down the list to 2 per set. We then elaborated on each characters’ traits.

2 Fictional: Human/Mythical Qualities | Dilemma | Why affinity

Bojack: Self-destructive, self-loathing, bitter | Searching for happiness instead of being content | I tend to believe that attaining a certain things will make me happy instead of being content. At the same time, being content is hard because then I lack things to strive for and that goes against my own “purpose” which is to be striving for acclaim for my stories.

2 Public: Human/Mythical Qualities | Dilemma | Why affinity

Bo Burnham: Intelligent comedian | Struggling with cashing in on his “artform” as entertainment to live comfortably while other people actually have to work hard to earn a living | He holds a cynical view of the world that I relate to.

Camus: Philosopher | Absurdity – Physical Suicide, Philosophical Suicide, Recognition | I have spent quite a bit of time trying to find the answer to the absurd question “Is there a meaning to life?”

2 Known: Human/Mythical Qualities | Dilemma | Why affinity

Ah Kong: Creative with what he has, makes lemonade with lemons or in his case, sculptures with coconuts | Naiveté | We are both very shy but we enjoy telling stories, in our own ways.

Me at 16: Mind open, soul overwhelmed | Where do I go from here? | Echoes of these thoughts still plague me. Anything is possible and it is entirely on me to make decisions. There is no right or wrong, only what is meaningful and I am still trying to figure out what is meaningful.

In class, we wrote letters from the perspective of our alter ego. I chose my Ah Kong because it was the one I was most confident with in being able to get the nuances correct.

Josh I have some old cds I want to put some music in my phone. Can you help me? When you get back this weekend if you have time no rush.

Also I want to transfer the photos from my Samsung to the iphone. Can that be done? Can you help me?

I want to photocopy some old photos to put in my iphone. Can you help me?

Many thanks for your hard work kong kong.

However, I was not satisfied with this level of comfort. Because of this, I opted to work on another character instead: Sabina from The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Mr. Hercules | Final

Mr. Hercules

Artist’s statement:

My Kong Kong is Mr. Hercules.

Mr. Hercules | Fixing the end

This one ends with a special thanks to Kong Kong before the audio fades out.

I also try to do the putting in another photo so that the trophy photo doesn’t stay on for too long. Maybe it’s okay, maybe it’s not. I’ll ask around for opinions.

Artist’s Statement process.

Okay, not really. This was all done digitally but handwriting shows thought process so- there we go.

I really did not want to include “my” as can be see in the last sample sentence. It just feels so needlessly manipulative of emotions. I want it to be understated. I am going to go with My Kong Kong is Mr. Hercules.

Mr. Hercules

This first one is one of the final edits but with the title as Josiah Tan’s Mr Hercules. In the intro, he talks so passionately about his friend being Mr. Hercules that I thought it was a good set up for the rest of the film, hopefully, being me passionately presenting him as my “Mr. Hercules”.

Using Josiah Tan’s Mr. Hercules was a little quirky so I tried to just put Mr. Hercules. The idea is for people to form the connection themselves. Hopefully this one works.

I tried shifting the timings for the title and credits, but I think I will stick to the first one. It also feels like the ending is abrupt. I need something to end the film. I am really hesitant to do a film dissolve- I’ll try to find some other way around it.

I am considering putting in a shot of my grandparents with my father and his siblings during the part where he talks about his family going to see him at the competition. Will draft it out and see how it goes from there.

End of Landscape

And a new beginning.

This film is entitled Josiah Tan’s Mr. Universe with the idea that he is my Mr. Universe. (Yeah it’s cheesy, let’s move on) He was my hero growing up because he was so strong. Mr. Universe is a title given to a bodybuilder who has won the the Mr. Universe Bodybuilding competition. Hence- connect the dots.

From the interview, I had him talk about his bodybuilding “career” from a couple of photos. In all honesty, I chose not to use footage of the interview because I had to hold the camera up (refer to the previous 4D post). I feel that the way the interview was done gave off the atmosphere that I wanted and it transitions well to the final scene.

Okay this is in the same post, but I came up with this version (the proper version). There was a soundbite of him talking about one of his gym buddies posing together near the old Cathay building. He talked about how his gym buddy won the the Mr. Hercules competition during the release of Hercules (1958 film). After listening to that, I decided to include that soundbite into the start of the film before introducing him as my Mr. Hercules. Because I show his face towards the end of that one scene, it allows the audience to see him as a regular person before seeing him as I see him.

Maybe this is the last version?

Who am I kidding. I have one more day. Post-production never ends until the deadline.

Landscape of You | Changes

I decided to change the shots and feel of the film. It felt too much like I was working around with a found audio and that did not mesh with with the visuals. The damn laughter was disrupting the feel of the scene.

I interviewed my grandfather in hopes that something good will come out of it.

I faced many challenges in that it is not possible to get him to repeat lines in the way that certain documentary/corporate videos do. If I don’t have the camera already on him, I would miss certain soundbites that I just won’t ever get again. He does this thing where he talks as if he is narrating to someone instead of talking to me. It messes things up for me as I am trying to make this feel personal.

In my attempt to get the most natural soundbites, I have to face him; actually having a conversation with him. As a result, I can’t focus on the camerawork. Furthermore I don’t have a tripod and to add on, he keeps moving around. I have to hold the camera.

I might just use the audio from the footage which I feel was of decent quality, I feel.

In the post-production stage, I will having him talking over images/photos from his bodybuilding days ( I might cut to show him looking more plump and regular before cutting to him flexing his muscles in the garden).

I hope things work out.

Josiah – Ego

A Heartland Christmas

This was the first composition that I worked on and the beginning of my struggles. Up until now, I still think that I have a lot to learn about colours but this was a good start to have.

Colour Palette Choice & Meaning

I wanted to make use of traditional Christmas colours. I also foolishly attempted to use split complimentary colours on my first 3 frames. I made composed each frame in this set before adding the colours. I also made use of monochromatic colours to create shadows.

Other than the obvious relation that Red and Green have to Christmas-

Red was used to evoke a sense of passion and enthusiasm for the arrival of Santa Claus and the celebrations of Christmas. A deeper red was used to represent my mother for “a mother’s love”.

The colour green was used to compliment the colour red. The green used here is also meant to evoke a sense of life. Green was used to represent my father as he is the down-to-earth one. In this way, my parents compliment each other.

Blue was used to create a sense of quiet in the each frame. While the feelings about Xmas are quite lively and energetic, we spend time together in comfortable silence. This is especially true because we all sleep early. We treasure sleep very much.

Cream? Very light Yellow?: I thought about using white because it is commonly associated with Xmas, but Singapore does not experience a white Xmas. Instead, I opted for something different. I used this “cream” colour to give the composition a little warmth to contrast with the cool night sky and the cool living room.

The gold of the bells and baubles are such because that’s the colours that they normally come in. Also, the use of different colours gives off the sense of celebration and cheer.

David vs. Goliath (Bullies)

Colour Palette Choice & Meaning

For this set, I wanted to make use of triadic colours. The most dominant colour is red and it is used to represent the danger in the first two frames as well as aggression in all the frames. I had the blue which is used to represent uniformity and sadness. The yellow and blue were mostly used in tribute to my own primary school which uses the same colours. Yellow often represents cheerfulness but in this, it represents youthfulness. Next to the blue and red, it represents the sadness and pains of growing up.

Sesame Street

Colour Palette Choice & Meaning

For this set, I used mostly monochromatic colours with a a little use of analogous colours. Monochromatic colours of grey-ish green was used to bring out a sense of bleakness and depression. The analogous yellow was used to evoke a sense of hope, which was why it was used so sparingly. In addition, Oscar’s colour is in a particular shade of green, which represent trash and dirt.

The Perfect Pair

For this set, I used mostly monochromatic colours. I find monochromatic colours to be generally more harmonious to work with. To make other elements stand out, namely the character of me, the significant other, and the priest (and also sock Jesus), I made strong use of vibrant, bright colours for me and my significant other. Because the priest is part of the church, I used blue to make him not completely pop out in the frame; blue also represents faith and devotion. Sock Jesus happens to be white to represent holiness and purity.

After completing this assignment, I feel more keen to experiment with colours because I have still so much to learn. This was a good kickstarter and I hope that I will be more conscious in colour decisions. In film, colour grading plays a big part in setting the tone. I need to get better at this.

Things that I have learnt:

Live paint (Illustrator) is pretty amazing – Thanks Kim for teaching me how to use this.

Paletteon.com is great.

Shortcuts with pen tool. (I have become more proficient with Ai.

Good job, Highsock. Maybe you didn’t score, but at least you failed and you learnt. You learnt something and that is the point of school.

Egoism – To make an omelette

You have to break a few eggs.

And break a some eggs, I did.

I wish that I had taken screenshots of my first try at working on the compositions, but I was really just trying out the pen tool in Illustrator.

As you can expect, it didn’t work out so well.

I worked on the Xmas composition first, thinking that because of the usual Xmas colours (Red, Green, White), I would not have to think about the colours so much. How Rong was I? I was so wrong.

There was something about it that just looked bad. I could tell, but I just didn’t know what. I approached The Kim Nguyen of G2 for advice.

She brought to my attention the use of colours as tones – something that we had learnt in Foundation Drawing while working with pastels.

She also showed me a couple of illustrations that she was inspired by and that got me thinking about illustrations that I liked – namely Steven Universe (A cartoon show). I chanced upon the artwork of one of the art directors of Steven Universe, Elle Michalka.

With this newly acquired knowledge, I started working on the compositions, proper.