Performance

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the camera obscura from last week or Vladimir's performance Monday. Sorry, but it was either leave for spring break quick or go postal in the film office. Yep, stress had definitely taken a toll. Anywho, this isn't about me or my mental illness. In lieu of my slacking attendance, I figured the least I could was write about was one of the topics that Kerrie gave us today. Let's see....how about my favorite film so far--Lisa Steele's Birthday Suit with Scars and Defects and performance.

One of the reasons I loved Birthday Suit was because it demanded your attention. For the whole 13 minutes it was running. Because you wanted to know what was happening. In my Concepts class, Dr. Barker has us reading On Directing Film by David Mamet. Good stuff. Repetitive, yes. Boring sometimes, definitely. Essential to film making? Probably more than anything I've ever read. Mamet tells us that the audience wants to know WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. It's simplicity that matters, not creating a dramatic story to keep the audience occupied. And that's exactly what Steele does for us. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She gives us a date, a scar and a few minutes to digest what she just told us. That's it. And that's all I needed! From that I squinted in disgust when she showed us a finger that had been disfigured from a nail. She didn't tell us what happened before the accident, she didn't tell us what happened afterwards. There wasn't a story about how her mother cried as they rushed her to the hospital for stitches. Because it wasn't important or relevant. She told us a date and we automatically asked "What happened next?" And then she told us what. She cut her finger on a nail. The end. And one hell of a performance.