Personal Issues: The characters struck the most responsive chords in me. Because intimate truths were revealed about each person through the method acting workshops, I understood deeply-rooted factors about each person in the film. My strong emotional response was caused by the fact that the people in the film were so transparent and that I connected to some of their tragic memories that were revealed. I also tend to be empathetic so I felt deep sadness for the man that is counting the days until his suicide. I also was quite intellectually stimulated by the concept of identity and the redefinition of identity. I was intrigued to see how the deeply-rooted struggles that these characters experienced could surface and translate into how they act behind the camera and in everyday life. I’m very interested in social science. I can try to explain my response to the film with words but I don’t think that it can be simply generalized to other viewers. I think this because the only way that one could truly understand my response to the film would be for him or her to see it for themselves. It’s hard to articulate the thoughts and emotions that good art evokes.
Technique: I was impressed that there was little music in the film. There was a lot of dialogue and chanting from the method acting workshops that was used over B-roll— the result was powerful. The story took an interesting shape through dialogue. The participants in the film were chosen from a number of people that had responded to an advertisement that read, “Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character.” The film showed a small group of people in a method acting session while they sat in chairs and rolled their heads around while screaming, crying, chanting, laughing, and even reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Through dialogue and sound the audience hears what these people say and how they express themselves while doing the method acting exercises. All of this led into the individual short scenes in which the participants in the film played fictional characters and tapped into real life experiences to convey genuine emotion and expression to a fictional script. After the short scenes were shown, the film showed a behind-the-scenes type viewpoint on what the actor or actress what thinking of while shooting. Dialogue played an imperative role in the film. The camera work was eloquent. Scenes were smooth and connective. Transitions were often cuts between shots— which worked effectively. There were no special effects. The strengths to the film were sound, lighting, dialogue, and content. I honestly did not see any weaknesses.
Acting: The principal roles were nameless people being truthful and open about who they are and what they’ve been through in life. The fictional characters that were performed by the participants in the film also had truthful elements to their portrayal. I saw a lot of truth in the film; this is why I was so responsive to it. The actors were typecast. Their performances were quite credible.
Plot: The plot was both layered and simple. Participants responded to an advertisement about being in a film. They went through many method acting exercises. Method acting is when “actors try to get in character by identifying personally with the role, making emotional connections between their character’s plight and events in their own lives, drawing on genuine feeling rather than relying on external acting techniques,” ( Costanzo 315). The deep emotions that surfaced along the way varied by each person’s individual identity and life experiences. Whatever was revealed through method acting was used to create a character in a short film segment. Each person in the film had their own short film segment where they played a fictional character based on something from their own life. They created the character they wanted to portray. One person channels his rage and past experience with child abuse by playing a character that randomly kicks a pregnant woman in the stomach on the street. Another person plays a role of an old spinster scared to fall in love. Another person plays the role of a man that goes outside to quiet some rowdy adolescents and ends up stabbed. There is no coherent plot but the film is connective in its form. Each person’s individual stories overlap and intertwine. The piece is layered and intricate. The concepts raised in the film were extremely compelling and powerful. Because the plot did not follow a traditional storyline, the film was completely original.
Themes: The main idea of the film surrounds the concept of identity and the ability to redefine identity. The film brings about the following things: child abuse, loneliness, heartache, suicide, depression, mundane work-life, suppression of emotion, unhappy marriages, longing for children, perception of self, perception of others, communication, expression, acting, psychology, random violence, violence in general, bullying, peer pressure, insecurities, hidden emotions and thoughts, and more. It makes more of a statement about oneself than about relationships with others. This film was so intriguing because the individuals got to know themselves better and the audience got to know them better as a result. There are hidden messages that the viewer constructs in their mind as they watch the film because there is a lot that is unsaid that the viewer must grapple with. The concept of identity was blatant in the film but fit well with the unique plot.
Genre: This film belongs to the conceptual art genre as well as the documentary genre. It deals a lot with identity and is told through a neutral omniscient lens. I don’t think that these genres tend to be the most popular but I enjoy them the most and I wish more people invested time and thought into films with these superb qualities.
Representation: The film has fairly equal representation of men and women in it. They are not particularly gendered but instead are shown as individuals with individual concerns and life experiences. The middle class is mentioned through one character’s perspective of what a middle class father, mother, and son are like. This was only included in the film to show more about the character that explained his perception of these people but this also raised some common thoughts regarding middle class people in general. I did not see a lot of diversity in the film. I do not know what the U.K. is like diversity wise, this is where the film was shot, so I do not know if the film gave equal representation to the real ethnic diversity in that region of the world. I think the over-arching goal of representation in the film was for the audience to understand the individual participants in the film and how they identify and project themselves.
Ideology: The ‘ideal’ middle class family is challenged as ‘ignorant’ in the film by how one person expressed how he perceived them. (It was an accurate portrayal of what many people perceive of middle class families.) This film did not deal a whole lot with culture, politics, or family but was more focused on individual people and their struggle to deal with their past, who they really are, what they really feel, and how they think of themselves, others, and life in general.
www.selfmade.org.uk
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