The Cult of the Masks

By Caitlin McCaul

Experimental film.When I hear this term I think of abstract visuals, bright colours and a unique sound design. All of which combine to create an unusual, creative piece of media. I feel like most experimental film pieces come in form of music videos or short 5-minute videos testing out different techniques.Michael O'Pray describes experimental or avant-garde film as an artisanal and personal mode of filmmaking usually created by individuals or small crews. They are financed by the filmmakers, by private funders or by grants from art institutions.
Avant garde films reject and critique mainstream cinema and their audience response according to A.L Rees. He describes it as a way of seeing outside the conventions of the drama-filled films and their industrial method of production.

For this module, I plan to create a short piece that incorporates animation and recorded footage to try tell the story of a group of individuals losing their minds.Over the summer holidays, I wrote a number of poems. Some were love letters, others were missing friends, others detailing fictional deities. The common theme among them is the narrator, an essential character, an anchor being of the universe. The poems follow his story, either told by him directly or through those around him indirectly.If you follow the Marvel films, you're aware of the multiverse concept, where each character has an infinite number of variants. This is true for this universe.
Our central character has a number of variants. One's a lonely spoilt king, another an extremist taking down corrupt civilisations, another is just a regular guy plotting world domination with his friend.
The one we're focusing on is an explorer. An anarchist with a desire to be the best father his kids could have. Truly a warrior with a poet's heart.The poem titled 'The Cult of The Masks' follows this variant when his friends and community are trapped on an island in the middle of nowhere to fight to the death. A game that only brings suffering to the residents.
The perpetrator, known as The Watcher, splits the residents into three teams. The green team consists of the best warriors in the town. The blue team consists of the mechanics and inventors who always find a way to cheat the system. The red team consists of the roleplayers, the life of the party, the ones that are semi-good at the other skills. And half of red team is MIA never to be seen again.
The poem follows red team and their decent into madness. Losing their belongings, their minds and themselves in the process.

My current vision for the piece involves the footage being in black and white excluding the colour red, which often symbolises danger, violence and agression. I also plan to use a combination of live action shots filmed with my cannon camera and 2D animated shots drawn using my 2 in 1 laptop.
As for sound design, the main source of audio will be the poem narrated by an actor playing the variant. I also plan to mix in a couple muffled screams, chants and shouting from the variant and the other characters mentioned in the poem.Does this sound ambitious?Yes.However, I'm planning to dedicate time and a lot of hard work to complete it. When I picture the final product, the blood, sweat and tears will be worth it.Besides, it's only week one. Who knows what this idea will spiral into...