Dislocation in Game (Last of Us)

So while doing some further research on the theme of the film I looked at what is vastly being considered as a new media and the key story plot to my film... gaming!

This video is on the YouTube channel of a gamer I briefly talked about on the blog called RadBrad.

The game 'The Last of Us'  is a end of world like game where the majority of people are in the same situation but on their own entirely, with everyone they know either infected by a virus causing them to go crazy and attack others killing and eating them, or dead.

This clip shows a girl, Ellie, and her friend discovering they have been bit and therefor infected by the virus. It shows the girls being dislocated from a childhood they should have had and being forced to grow up fast and adapt in order to survive this brutal existence.

It also goes on to show how gaming is now becoming a media of story telling, similar to film, through techniques such as camera shots, cutting and editing, characters and story

The part I am referring to starts at around 8:10 and features an impelling speech:

"There are a million ways we should have died before today. And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight... for every second we get to spend with each other, whether its two minutes... or two days... we don't give that up. I don't want to give that up. Lets just wait it out. We can be all poetic and just lose our minds together."

 You can view the clip if you click here it starts at 8 mins 10 secs in. There is commentary through the clip.

Dislocation Art

In order to research the theme for my end of year film I did a Google image search for art on dislocation

The first image is a black and white sketching it has a girl alone, appearing to come out of the shadows, almost as if she's been abandoned. This image really makes you feel something and I feel it gives a strong sense of dislocation.

The next image is of what looks to be a soldier surrounded by monitors showing different images, just like the first image he is alone. What really attracted me to this is how this image reflects my story: here we have an individual alone, dislocated from reality in the world of his games (blankly staring into his screen) that he starts to believe its real life that he believes he is in the world he plays. The character in this image has become a soldier in the game he plays.

The next image when I first saw it I thought it was a man hunched over holding his hands in his face but after further scrutiny I noticed it was in fact a tree, alone on a hill, which still has an element of dislocation. The fact that at first glace I thought it was a person makes me think more of the story I intend to tell, a person lost between to worlds and you can argue that that's what this image is about.

My Voyage to Italy

In class we watched the documentary directed by legendary Hollywood director, Martin Scorsese, (Rated 12) to aide us in our own end of year projects.

The theme of the documentary was Italian Neo-Realism, which is heavily linked with our theme of dislocation.

Italian Neo-Realism came about just after WWII,it was what was happening in Italy at the time (1940's); they put on screen what was and what was happening around them, so this form of cinema had very powerful images. It was almost documentary like, although it was a fictional interpretation of the real life strife of the Italian people; it used real people, real streets and real locations.

Martin Scorsese said while watching these films as a kid with his family around him that he could see

"My family felt guilt and relief, that could be them"

They are also the reason he says he's never felt like a Hollywood director, Italian culture goes back thousands of years whereas American culture only a couple of hundred.

He feels Neo-Realism is about sacrifice, "sacrifice for freedom" and detaching and dislocation; "it sets up for something terrible"

"The soul of society is law, the soul of community is love. The power of simplicity is a hard thing to come across."

 

Gamer

The idea I have for my script is about a boy who becomes dislocated from reality by becoming obsessed with playing video games.

I got the idea from the advancement in gaming over the years and how the gaming industry now rakes in more than the music and film industry combined. Gaming is such a huge part of this generations culture that it can take up to a total of $10.5 billion a year and with graphics and games getting more realistic it would be say to see how so much people can get invested in them.

People are now making careers out of using Youtube to record themselves gaming and uploading it ganging thousands if not millions of views.

Some of these YouTube channels are:
RadBrad
PewDiePie - PewDiePie is the most subscribed to and viewed YouTuber in the world right now.
GhostRobo

A2 Film

For my second year at A-Level I wrote, directed and stared in a short that I feel relates strongly to the theme of dislocation.

It was about a young boy who experiences the same day more than once, one bad and one good. It was inspired by Groundhog Day.

I named it 'Fix You' and I believe there are a lot of elements of Dislocation in the short like: dislocation of himself and who he is as a person, of life as he seems to have given up, reality as he seems stuck in an infinite loop if the same routine.

The feel and tone and even the way it's shot has the feel of dislocation.

However I lost the original file type, so once I find it I will post it right up.

Can I Help You With Your Baggage, Sir?

We sat down to watch the artistic short Hotel Chevalier which had strong elements of dislocation (which is the theme for our end of year short). Written and directed by Wes Anderson; it stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman as former lovers who reunite in a Paris hotel room.

As an American in a hotel room in France it has that geological sense of dislocation which is backed up by the fact that the first piece of dialog coming from the character is French even though he speaks English. We also learn he has been living in that hotel room for quite some time.

There is also a lot of silent moments within the short, it seems to rely on action to progress the story, I feel as if this silence highlights his loneliness, his dislocation, he doesn't have anyone to talk to. Then there's that shot of him lying down alone on a double bed which amplifies his loneliness to the audience.

When Natalie Portman's character first enters there is a lot of space between the two, they each had their own domain in the room and this could be because the couple don't know where they stand with each other. The camera follows the girl around the room almost like she is taking in the new scenery where she is now a stranger, which is another hint of dislocation. Even the scenes they're together there is a lot of space between them.

I feel the film, like the characters, isolates the audience as we aren't aware or told what has happened between the pair. And I know that it's not always what you say or what you show but sometimes what you don't share or show, however I found it hard to invest into the movie or characters despite it being beautifuly shot and aesthetically pleasing.

It Starts Again

So last week we were giving the theme of what will be our new film, DISLOCATION (hence the name of the blog). At first I was unclear what exactly it meant or how I could tie it in with a film, but once we as a class sat down and disused it in a production like fashion the initial haziness lifted.

While talking we discovered we can interpret it in a number of ways; all completely down to us. We can write a script, either documentary or fiction, where the subject is dislocated emotionally, physically, geologically etc. I plan on writing a script/treatment on a character who is dislocated from reality (but more of that from another post).

I plan on using all the cinematic techniques I have learned over the 2 years doing this course as well as using my own interpretation.

I hope to write and direct my own piece, as well as helping others on theirs for whatever they might need me for.

The film has to be a total of 5 mins long (including slugs, titles and credits) as at the end of the year we will be having a screening in the Odeon cinema... which is very exciting!