Tuesday 14 September 2010

"... Cannae Mind..." (Memory Over Imagery: Signatures)

I instantly think John Ford's The Searchers, Wayne framed within the door, a mere silhouette, a shadow of himself. Harry Lime sneaking out of the shadows in Carol Reed's The Third Man. Al Pacino staring down DeNiro in that cafe' scene in Heat. Chow-Yun Fat sliding a bannister in Woo's Hard Boiled. Chihiro on the train with no-face in Spirited Away. Timophy Spall letting go in Secrets and Lies. Book with Samual before he leaves the farm in Witness. Clooney with J-Lo, a snow ladden restaurant in Out Of Sight. Mifune pacing the town in Yojimbo. John Voight falling in love in Coming Home. Hackman as Doyle wanting to kick someone's ass in The French Connection. Wong-Kar Wai's Chungking Express. Patricia Arquette on a thunderbird's hood in Tony Scott's True Romance. Swatting up on your favourite sins in Fincher's Se7en. Coltraine gunning down Carlyle in a battle of minds in Cracker: To Be A Somebody....

A whole manner of cliche' book cover answers, but single frames that transcend decades of debate, analysis and influence and inspiration that I remember anyhow. Missing thousands of signature frames; a single image that epitomises a moment, from Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Seventh Seal, Drugstore Cowboy, Breakfast Club etc. etc.

Images that tell stories and marry together to produce a reaction. In imagery, it is all about providing 'information'. Through the tools we use, whether is be a super 35mm arriflex camera or a DV-50, fill it in with diffed 300w or whack a 4 bank kinoflo on a stand, the principal is the exact same. We are providing as much information as we possibly can. Only in those magical moments, do we get the marriage right. I've strived for a time in the films I have made to produce frames that epitomise a moment, certainly within the constructs of the filmic structure. These are the frames that illicit a particular response, different from the manner of closes to wide converage we're all used to. I may be plucking this from the air, without much grounding, possibly slightly patronising to the number of people already practising film but I can count a number of times having to remind filmmakers, film is a 'visual' medium, with a whole manner of freedom and exploration to define a process, however mechanical, with an emotional stamp.

In the writing stages of this project I have been detached from making decisions towards the visual aspects of the project. The scripts themselves have a strong visual sense of storytelling, although structurally strong with a meanderring quality of realism. From it's beginnings I had already mapped signature frames that define the stortytelling, tell the story through images instead of ladelled through lacking intracies. This is why I think, dedicating years of our lives to something, would we not want something that felt like it had some thought put into it? With The Job, I'm covering every base so we can illicit those responses.

More to the point...

The Job: "Auld Cloutie" (Ep.3) is currently being written, initially mapped from the 100-page feature script I had completed almost a year before, this is the story of Ian and at the halfway point in the series, where things get incredibly bleak for our characters. At a stretch I am living with these guys, 10-12 hours a day, writing their lives into further complexity or, in some case, writing them away. Although more on that when we get to Ep. 5. We're essentially halfway through with the writing and so the marathon continues.

But thanks for the support thus far and stay put, things are about to get better.



Ryan Jon Amey Henderson
Co-Creator/Co-writer