Daughter of Godcast
Episode 081
Drawer
Feedback Creaky
A woman peers out from a door ajar. A prolonged creak as she slowly opens the door, revealing an enigmatic figure, half smiling. She seems to recognize him, calling him by name.
The feedback question – What emotions does the woman experience as she opens the door?
Timothy via Facebook, "Best door opening sound effects ever!"
I resisted the temptation to look up the world record for longest fart in the Guiness Book. Door creak as fart was also corroborated by Seamus, which may say more about Timothy and Seamus than about this sound effect. And perceiving the door creak as a super long fart might be a happy accident, Seamus called it a "comedic moment".
Tim likened her door opening to "pulling a band aid off", he wanted her to just yank the door open and get it over with. Which implies the woman has a wound, the guy in the hall is somehow involved with her wound, and now she's gotta do self care. Tim's experience is packed with inferences, which demonstrates a connection to the woman, she's not doing what Tim would do and so he's feeling annoyed. Tearing off bandages is probably not standard first aid practice, so Tim's really talking about how he would open the door, which is wonderful.
This feedback process is so amazing. I think I've just learned something new about the woman from Tim. I wrote her lines, I directed the actor. There shouldn't be anything I don't know about this woman. Yet, Tim's band aid metaphor is rich with insight. Wounds and self care, wow. Thanks Tim and welcome to the Crowd Creation!
Seamus via dog.movie offered a wide spectrum of emotional experience...
"She looks like she experiences hesitation, then mildly alarmed puzzlement, then bemused acceptance."
...and then dropped a wild card.
"It looks like she was expecting him to show up, but didn’t know when."
That's feels resonant for me, here again, new insight into the woman's character. How long she had been waiting - minutes, weeks, years? Perhaps she's been in a kind of suspended animation, as if aboard a sleep ship sent to colonize a distant star system, the crew revived just before planet fall. Returned to the busy-ness of waking life. Has she been activated after a long dormancy? Coming on-line? Nice one, Seamus!
Joe via Facebook offered this poetic impression about the woman's experience.
"Serenity then arousal (slightly sexual) and then genuine joy. The door creak made me think of the way when we're entranced or focused we can utterly disregard something otherwise awkward or annoying. Also made me think of how reality moves so slowly compared to memory or thoughts or dreams."
and this from James via dog.movie
"She looks calm, mellow, quietly awed, friendly, tender, curious, and spellbound."
I responded thus...
"You bring up a great point that I've been pondering. As you already know, we are inventing this Crowd Creation on the fly, we meaning me and everyone who's offering feedback. I want feedback that's pure, uncontaminated by my preconceptions about what the scene is about or even any context of surrounding story. The less I can say about the scene in the way of setup, the better.
Feedback can be emotional responses, associations, triggered memories, guesses about what might be going on and interpretations of what the characters could be experiencing. I especially dig when folks riff on the themes, spin off variations and totally new scenarios, like Allison and Seamus have done for past scenes.
From my perspective, feedback hints at whether the effect of the scene...
a) matches my expectations
b) exceeds my expectations
c) is problematically dissonant from my intentions
d) is catastrophically dissonant from my intentions
e) deliciously subverts my intentions, introducing exciting new possibilities
I haven't disclosed what I've learned from the feedback so far because I haven't wanted to contaminate feedback from folks that might join us in the future. However, (snip) I've got to share the evolution, somehow.
So along with new scenes, I want to start reposting scenes with feedback inspired revisions and request impressions again. Somehow this would include a discussion of changes and the rationale for same."
The Crowd Creation is shifting. I've felt a yearning for more and Scott tuned into this cosmic vibe. More soon.
Drawer
Relations have gone from awkward to incoherent between our the two seemingly mismatched people. Both seem frustrated and slightly on edge, but a drawer of vintage paperbacks points to an epiphany.
Feedback question - Besides the man and woman, what other characters are active in this scene?
That's our episode, 081 Drawer. Thanks for listening and we look forward to your observations, insights and grousing.
The Daughter of Godcast Crowd Creation is such a cinematic innovation, we might as well be speaking Francais. Auguste and Louis Lumière, Georges Méliès, and Jean-Luc Godard have nothing on you all! Even though I'll be in the credits for Daughter of God as writer, director and special effects supervisor, YOU are making this movie. Your feedback yanks my strings, helping me to lollop and cavort like an ecstatic puppet, almost a real boy. Your feedback is my soma, my rocket fuel, my blueprint for awakening the hearts and minds of the sustainable civilization. Just as Harleys are more brand than bike, Daughter of God is way more movement than movie. Art is the answer, ecstatic dance our revolution, to paraphrase that sexy bitch, Emma Goldman. Or Michigan's own Voltairine de Cleyre, a total babe.
14 Comments
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on March 14, 2018 at 12:28 pm
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on March 14, 2018 at 3:59 pm
This addition furthers my curiosity from the rabbit and dog segment. If I put “you remind me of someone…” and “it’s God” together, mixed with “look, we just have to…” and your feedback question for the previous scene, it really leads me to think that they’re offspring would be the Daughter of God or she is referring to him reminding her of her father(God)…
I hope my previous feedback didn’t come off the wrong way, I wanted to know more about the characters in hopes of
not continuously misinterpreting things and providing feedback that doesn’t really help.Anyway, the man’s responses are a bit strange and kind of feel a bit forced. It seems like he isn’t interested or wants to avoid small talk, or maybe just wants to get right into bed. It appeared like the man was swallowing nervously at the end and lead me to think that he was worried or concerned about her figuring something out or having the epiphany.
Sorry if this stuff sounds overly critical, but there were also some technical issues that I noticed..
The audio could use some adjustments. Some sounds seemed exaggerated and also a bit rough at times. And other times(the drawer opening at the end) needed more sound.
Also, the key framing could use a little touch up if possible. During the first angle shown in the video it was the most visible, the man’s legs was where I first noticed it. There were also some minor glitchy elements/fragments (the woman’s hair during timecode: .33 to .34 is what I’m referring to) that were distracting for me. However, I must say that beyond that, you matched the lighting up with the room pretty well.
Just out of curiosity though, why did you choose to green screen them into the scene instead of just shooting them in the room? Or is it a mixture of both?-
Kirk, thanks for coming back! Standby for a long answer…
ANY contribution you offer is helpful and much appreciated. You can’t make a mistake here or waste my time. Every answer is right, because I’m asking for feelings, intuitions, impressions.
Try and approach each scene as a stand alone experience. You might make connections as more scenes show up… that’s fine, but not essential. I love reading about what pops out spontaneously- without context.
I definitely liked your feedback on Rabbit and Dog, really helped me to get more clear about what I’m doing with this feedback process.
You bring a keen eye and ear as an artist and filmmaker yourself. I expect you’ll be tuned into technical things, like the compositing and sound mix… slapdash!
I kind of ran out of time on this scene, I didn’t do the minimal polish that I usually do for previous scenes. There’s a lot of ragged edges. Your technical critique is totally valid. I might update the Vimeo version over the weekend, or maybe not. My painter friend Joe rejected this scene outright because the polish was lacking. S’all good.
I’m trying not to be too precious with polish. Releasing this scene in the rough felt a little uncomfortable, but I’m down with pushing my own boundaries. The objective right now is to find out whether the scene functions, achieves the desired objectives – overcoming glaring technical gaffs. Once I know the basic functionality is solid, I can clean and polish. Do I have the hutzpah to not obsess? I went ahead and threw this out there, and the sky didn’t fall. I’m actually kinda of proud of myself.
This scene and pretty much all the others are composited in the original locations, if that makes sense. Hardly any green screen yet, but lots of roto. The reason is – the boxes. I separated the actors from the sets so I could insert more story in between, starting with the boxes. Take a look at the scene Date Dance. All the boxes in every scene are going to be doing what those boxes do. Once I polish the compositing, the integration will be seamless. An interesting outcome from my lack of polish is you saw the compositing… and asked this question.
Really good to have so many perceptive people getting involved and super fun to have YOU in the mix! In the most recent episode of the podcast, I was prodded by (not your) Scott to open up the process even more and talk about how the feedback is driving changes. Getting there.
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Thanks for the explanation Dan, I’m definitely starting to get better understanding of the whole experience you’re providing here. Your strategy is pretty effective because the small glimpses really make me want to see what happens next.
Your editing process and techniques have me really intrigued and I’d love to know more, but I don’t want to muddy up your comment section too much so I’m gonna send you an email.
oh and by the way, that image of the guy riding the bike in the website’s header is awesome!
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on March 18, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Well, the obvious answer would be Mr. Old Man Hand from a few episodes ago. The P.K.D. novels are a giveaway. I’m starting to gather that he was Uncle Joe, and the little girl was Christina. Then, of course, there’s God, whatever that means, who Christina mentions explicitly.
But let’s get more creative than that, shall we? She says he reminds her of someone. She may be referring to Uncle Joe, which, in context, might make the scene even more awkward, but then again, she might not. Who is the mysterious person he reminds her of? Some former lover, like the man thinks? Someone else entirely? What about the owner of the pink shirt? Is it his? Is it hers? Is it someone else’s? I don’t recall her having it in the rabbit and dog scene, and I’m not sure this guy’s into pink. Why is she sniffing it?
The audio needs editing, but I think you’re probably aware of that.
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Is she sniffing or burying her face deep in that pink shirt? Why would anyone inhale through another person’s clothing? What can we learn from smell, how are women uniquely effected by scent?
What are you sensing about this guy that tells you he’s not into pink? I’ll admit to a very slight continuity gaff, but perhaps the pink shirt does make an appearance in Rabbit and Dog? Are these questions I am asking or answers with question marks at the end?
You’ve hit the nail on the head but which nail I’m not a liberty to say. Who he reminds her of and who he thinks he reminds her of are possibly at odds, you seem to be hinting thus. Why would Uncle Joe be active in this scene, just because of some books? You mentioned God as a possibility, but I notice you didn’t mention PKD, just his books… maybe you’re hinting that PKD and God are one and the same. Plenty of PKD fans would agree with you!
Once again, scintillating feedback Seamus!
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on March 19, 2018 at 2:29 pm
“You remind me of someone…” There is someone unknown there. And the characters on the books. That’s all I can see and hear.
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“You remind me of someone”… who would that be? Will we ever find out? “The characters on the books”… Who do those books belong to? Probably not the woman, as she seems to discover them. If the man, and assuming he’s read them, do you think these fictional characters might be influencing his actions and perspective? That’s what I’m getting from your comment, James.
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Like Pam, Tim and Seamus, Scott via Vimeo identifies a harsh initial emotional state for the woman "her face begins in a cautious, barely recognizing gaping stare, then blossoms and grows luminous" (snip).
Both Scott and Pam remarked favorably on the Dead Birds Carry Contagion poster behind Uncle Joe. With all Scott's erudite commentary, his key contribution this episode was a more meta inquiry.
"you discuss the many ways that comments have helped shape the movie.... might you soon be able to give an example of an instance that feedback (snip) has resulted in you editing a scene differently, adding/subtracting something from a scene [?] (snip) how's it REALLY effecting change in your process. [?] "