The
watcher sees 1:53 of a 17 minute film.
It
is on
and
other websites, including YouTube.
It
is not a trailer, more a single in a mini-series. It is an incident
in the movie of our world, echoing
many of the existing images, texts, songs and movies of our world.
The
watcher sees a white man, clean-shaven and bare-headed, sitting in a
pick-up truck, possibly a Toyota Land Cruiser. The mise
en scène
is
dusty scrub-land, desert, modern-day
outback.
The watcher wonders if this
is
Arizona.
The
truth is that reality takes too long to put on screen.
The
man seems calm in a close up at 0:18. He speaks to another man, who
leans in the window of the open door of the vehicle. This other man
wears a head scarf. Another man, similarly dressed, standing off,
carries a machine gun.
Don't
make programmes for your eyes only – that's the province of some
experimental 'art' directors. But do make programmes that you want to
make and you yourself want to see. There's not much point doing it if
your hearts not in it.
A
voice-over in a language the watcher cannot understand – Dari?
Pashto? Arabic? - runs from the start. A logo, such as appear on TV news channels,
is seen in the top right hand corner of the screen.
At
0:31 the
bare-headed man stands
outside the vehicle. He is guarded by men with their heads covered, a
number of them carrying guns. The camera pans upwards to a
cloud-filled sky. The watcher hears and
sees
the distinctive sound and silhouette of a US-built Black Hawk
military helicopter.
The
camera moves and sweeps across the ground. There is a cut at 0:42 and
the helicopter lands in a cloud of dust. The Black Hawk is down, yet
safe.
The
voice-over ends and, from this point on, the audio is provided by the
rotating blades and the stuttering engine of the Black Hawk. The
camera leaves the helicopter and, at 0:50, the watcher sees one of
the cowled men carrying a stick with a white cloth on it.
The
watcher wonders at the origin of this gesture. There are many songs
about it, including religious ones.
The
watcher is not sure if singing songs about crosses, war, surrender to
a god, while waving white flags, is helpful.
The
breaking of weapons and other such
gestures
often accompany scenes like
these. The watcher remembers the films Broken
Arrow
and The
Battle of Apache Pass.
The
watcher senses we could be in Arizona in the late 19th
Century.
At
0:54 the bare-headed man is led forward. Three men, dressed in
civilian clothes, come from the helicopter. They raise their palms in
pacifying gestures of greeting. They extend their hands and these men
cautiously shake hands with the guarding men. The bare-headed man is
passed to the three from the helicopter, who lead him away. Uniformed
soldiers receive them.
The
bare-headed man is patted down at 1:25 and they are all helped
aboard. It is a comically tense moment.
In
the end directing video and film is selecting your version of reality
and putting it on screen. To paraphrase Degas, the Impressionist
artist: it's not what you see that matters-it's what you make others
see.
The
helicopter rises off the ground at 1:45 and clatters through the
dusty air. Two men dangle their feet over the edge of the side
doorway of the helicopter. They wave at the people on the ground.
The
helicopter bears the number is 41. It's close, but not the ultimate
answer.
"The
Answer to the Great Question …" "Yes ... !""Of
Life, the Universe and Everything ..." said Deep Thought. "Yes
... !""Is ... " said Deep Thought, and paused. "Yes
... !" "Is ... " "Yes ... !!! ... ?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and
calm. … "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all
you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?" "I
checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that
quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite
honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the
question is."
The
watcher knows that the images are from the point of view (pov) of a
man on the ground. The watcher is confident there is a camera on the
helicopter, taking images from the Black Hawk's pov.
The
camera can't be objective either. Someone has to operate it and
operating it involves choice, choosing where to put it and which way
to point it and when to start and stop it and what to leave out as
the action develops.
Directing
on Camera:
Harris Watts; book; Aavo Media; London; 1992
The
Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy;
Douglas Adams; Pan Macmillan; London; 2009
www.facebook.com/DaveDugganWriter
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