Experimental Narrative

I had only seen one David Lynch film before watching Mulholland Drive. I'm glad I at least had watched one to prepare myself for watching this film. I'm not a fan of Lynch's style. Even the most mundane things become a nightmare scape in his films. You can never be sure what is supposed to be real and what is a dream or hallucination. How many characters are there in this film? Are some characters in fact the same person split into different aspects of their personality? What must happen, or more likely fail to happen, in these characters' heads for them to do what they do. Why was a monster looking thing hiding behind the Winkies? What happened to that plot line? Will it come back before the end of the movie? The film leaves me with more questions than answers but to be completely honest I don't want to know the answers to most of the questions Mulholland Drive wants us to ask. I don't need to know everything, you know. I can be content to let the characters o...

Link This version of my screen test leaves out the music in favor of snippets of dialogue. I never meant to use audio for this video so the quality is not superb. My direction for this piece was meant to be indirect. I was looking for subtle emotions and expressions. I am not sure whether or not they can be seen more easily with their context. I am afraid that what you gain with context you lose as your attention is decided between what you are hearing and seeing whereas without the dialogue you only have visuals to analyze so you look more closely. I will leave that up to the viewer, however.

Link In this screen-test my goal was to capture genuine emotions during a conversation. I also wanted to practice lighting techniques. I excluded shots from the final video because I was unsatisfied with the lighting. Since my goal was genuine emotion and I was using a non-actor I gave her no prompt or direction, choosing instead to film for a long enough time to make her comfortable in front of the camera and simply have a conversation.

Alps ( Yorgos Lanthimos , 2011)  is a film that certainly falls under the categorization of "experimental narrative" The narrative is made intentionally difficult to follow by throwing the viewer from one scene to the next with little to no context of how they got there. The narrative thread is obscured by regularly diverting attention to side plots that lead nowhere and one can never be sure whether the conversations we listen to are sincere or an act. Characters come and go without introduction. Even now I'm not sure how many main characters there were. Plot threads are grown and then abandoned just as they start to develop. The overall sense this movie gives is that of a knot that doesn't want to be unraveled. You can see the middle of many threads but not their ends or the way they connect.

What does a self-portrait try to capture? The image of a person? The idea of a person? Something about the person? Does it contain facts or opinions? Is it meant to be comprehensive or selective in scope? I don't think any one thing can satisfy all questions so a self portrait must, by its nature, be very selective in scope. I am an aspiring filmmaker, formerly an aspiring chemist. Born in Texas 23 years ago, raised in Minnesota since I was 2. I enjoy editing, rock climbing, video games, and hiking in the woods. I've recently gotten back into reading. I got into filmmaking because I like storytelling. I think storytelling is an important part of what makes us human.