‘Blackout’ – Exhibition Space

My exhibition space attempts to visualise the mood of ‘Blackout’ The back wall behind the film itself has been painted with black and white to create a dirty, black and dystopian texture which reflects the environment of the film. Also on show is the teddy-bear, the clothing that ‘Kid’ wears throughout the film, a book of frame designs and my business cards.

F.M.P Reflection

My F.M.P expericne has been stressful to say the least. However, I am extremely grateful for the experience as I have had the chance to test my skills in communication when confronted with a barrier. I discovered that I almost work best when more pressure is applied to the scenario – and re-writing an entire narrative which took a month to develop in 7 days is not a simple task.

The biggest problem I encountered as that the ethics committee at CSAD rejected my proposal because of the inclusion of younger brother Arthur. Because the subject of the video was surrounding drugs and drug abuse the committee didn’t want to be associated with the advocation of child drug use. Furthermore, because Arthur is MY brother this technically means it is impossible for him to say ‘no’ to participation which is unethical. This was a huge fork in the road for me as my entire narrative was structured around the use of a child main character. The commitee said that I should only be able to use a child in a film if done professional i.e. hiring a child actor. At this point in the project (3 weeks until deadline) i didn’t have the time to hire a child actor and hold auditions etc. I theretofore had to reconsider the narrative using symbolism and suggestive imagery rather than explicitly showing that the issue is regarding children. This is why I introduced a teddy-bear as the main focal point of the narrative. The teddy bear is an automatic symbol of childhood making it easy for the audience to make the connection between the bear and the main character. Also by using a teddy-bear as the symbol for the child it leaves room for more creative freedom and communication. Film is such a great medium to work with in graphic communication as you can say so much in a single frame that the potential is endless. In each and every frame of Blackout there is precise consideration to the aesthetic, composition choreography and timing and editing so that the message I want to convey is shown clearly and aesthetically.

Overall, while this barrier halted production for a short while, i managed to pick myself back up and put together something I am truly proud of. Furthermore, the outcome using the teddy-bear has actually become my preferable option over the use of a child – the moods created are a lot more sinister and unsettling which reinforces the aim of my whole project.

I had just seen T2 Trainspotting, and heroin was lingering on the fringe of my
brain. What it does to people, their minds, bodies, relationships. I found it disturbing
yet fascinating. I knew then that I wanted to do a project on the subject of heron addiction. What drew me this specifically was the dark and gruesome elements of
it in particular. Such as side effects and their disgusting attributes, hallucinogenic experiences, overdosing, squatting etc. Initially my research into the habit of heroin addiction led me to a few documentaries about heroin addiction in
Wales. ‘Swansea Love Story’ (pictured) is a short documentary film about heroin
addiction in Swansea, Wales – its simply the lives of a group of heroin abusers
and what they get up to. Furthermore, the documentary doesn’t focus on the use
of heroin specifically or their addictive tendencies – the film takes more of an
approach towards the personal lives of the addicts. Some of their stories are so devastating that it’s hard to believe.

What drove mt to focus a project on this subject was a combination of the fact
that heroin addiction is a real, current problem which needs to be addressed and that drug-related issues tend to offer a boatload of creative potential. Films like
Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting utilise the grim and dark nature of heroin
addiction to create truly shocking imagery – in effect, i wanted to achieve the same
thing with ‘Blackout’. At first, i was interested in people’s stories and experiences – what they went though, why it happened, where are they are now
etc. I thought about making a series of frightening dramatisations of bad trips
and overdoses from these stories. The nightmarish imagery would reflect the
psychology of the addiction making it all the more frightening and dissuades use of
the drug. However, my research led me to discover that 90% of Britain’s heroin comes straight from Afghanistan where heroin addiction is almost in saturation.

In my research into the heroin crisis in Afghanistan I discovered many truly
outrageous things about the current state of the addicted-population.
In November 2001, the UK contributed to the US invasion of Afghanistan which
continued until 2013. The invasion led to an increase in child heroin addicts after
exacerbating an already flourishing heroin and opium industry. Rehabilitation centers
for children in Afghanistan are scarce and socially taboo. Only one in Afghanistan
is funded by the U.S. Military. The UK has zero participation in funding help for these
victims despite having contributed to the countries’ current struggles.
I think that considering the UK’s participation, it’s a disgusting legacy
to have left behind in a country we devastated with war. In particular its the
fact that generation after generation of children are growing up addicted to heroin.
Lives are being ruined before they’ve even begun – and worst all NO-ONE is talking
about it. NO NEWS MEDIA is covering it.

In terms of the symbolic nature of the cinematography, it was mostly my own
imagery and creations. However, there was one film called Le Jette directed by Chris
Marker in 1962 which was a key inspiration. The film uses a series of still images
captured at key moments of certain scenarios such as a murder. Th film is all
black and white which highly adjusted levels and RGB adjustments to achieve
extreme shadowy effects and dimmer, more dystopian surroundings. Similarly some of the camera angles and still shots in my own film were inspired by the static nature of Le Jette and the dark feelings of uncertainty and fear that these images create.

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The original narrative was going to feature little boy – it was going to be edited in a
similar way to Save The Children’s video work to emulate that quick, tense feeling.
The story differs in that we actually see the boy (a younger version of the character
in ‘Blackout’) living and playing etc in his war-torn environment. These segments of
footage featuring the boy act as memories – similarly in the final cut, the same idea of
memory is attributed to. The junkie is confronted by an unsettling
image of a teddy-bear. The teddy-bear essentially transports our main character
to pivotal moments and locations in his childhood where the bear becomes a
younger version of the main character. He sits and experiences memories alongside
his younger-self unable to escape or change what has happened to him.
I have left it open to interpretation whether or not the bear is a figment of his heroin induced imagination or whether its one of the only things from his childhood he has kept with him after all these years.

In summation, my F.M.P was a very successful and extremely dense project. I constructed and developed a detailed and high quality piece of work ( a film) despite being obstructed countless times – when confronted with a problem involving ethics it was resolved quickly and efficiently. ‘Blackout’ has become by best film et in terms of how happy I am with it and its overall quality and messages. I have submitted it to many film festivals across the UK and one Human Rights Film Festival in Kabul, Afghanistan. I’m hoping that I can spread ‘Blacout’ as far as I can – it needs the attention it deserves so that more and more eople cn be informed on the current state of affairs in Afghanistan.

Blackout – Short Film {2017}

Here is the final cut for Blackout:

‘Blackout’ – Screenplay

Here is an extract from the screenplay:

1. OPENING SHOT:

MEDIUM CLOSE UP of a young child (Arthur Coutts, aged 8)looking out of the window. The child is white/caucasian with strawberry blonde curly hair and a few freckles. The camera is close enough to capture these details but is stationary.

The camera sits in-front of the window which ‘Kid’ is peering out of. We see his face through the glass only partially obscured by the window frame. The time of day is night/late evening as the sky is a rich navy blue.

‘Kid’ appears highly interested in watching the night sky. His child-like curiosity keeps his eyes jittering left to right scanning the night sky as if eager for something to happen. The only sounds we hear are ‘Kid’s’ small movements and a few indistinguishable ‘BANGS’ which sound far off.

After about 8-15 seconds of watching ‘Kid’ observe the night sky we begin to notice a few small flashes that reflect off the window. The distant ‘BANG’ sounds sync up with a few of the flashes.

A brief moment of silence causes ‘Kid’ to press his face closer to the glass ever more curious. As a huge white flash drapes his face in bright light, ‘Kid’ jumps and  swiftly backs away from the mirror. An extremely loud and close sound of an explosion is heard and ‘Kid’ runs out of the room – the camera remains stationary.

CUT TO BLACK

STATIC TITLE – APPEAR: ‘Black Out’ [white font]

CUT TO BLACK

To read the full screenplay, just click the link below:

Black Out – Screenplay

‘Blackout’ – Storyboard

Save The Children’s film pieces from 2014 and 2016 work really well at mirroring Syrian conflict through a little  British white girl – they helped challenge morals and re-evaluate our humanitarian ideas. Seeing as a can’t very well jump on a plane to Afghanistan anytime soon (unless you have 845 quid spare) it seems that to mirror the conflicts and trouble surrounding heroin would be a really good and really simple idea to use. Developing a coherent story for a film is hard – and it takes some serious time. For me, my main problem was trying to sculpt a narrative which communicated the struggles of child-addicts in Afghanistan through British culture and environments. After about 5 days I finally managed to create a narrative through a storyboard and screenplay.

‘Blackout’ follows the life of Kid – a boy who falls to the addiction of heroin after being exposed to conflicts and traumas of  hypothetical war-torn Britain. ‘Blackout’ refers to the central light-bulb image which appears in the film at key moments – in particular an older heroin-addicted Kid see’s a lightbulb in a squat which triggers memories of his childhood.