scripted reality
I watched the film Four Eyed Monsters last night at the IFC Center. The film is an autiobiographical account of the romantic relationship between Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, who are the film’s writers, directors, producers, and main characters. Susan and Arin also created a series of podcasts while they were producing the film.
In Four Eyed Monsters, Susan and Arin closed the gap between thinking and doing. Often I find myself thinking and not doing, creating ideas in my mind that will never leave my mind. Susan and Arin had an idea and followed through with it. I have a lot of respect for people who actualize their ideas.
I imagine that the film had a script, but the film does not seem scripted. It seems real, but it is not one-hundred percent real because they did recreate past events for the camera. Thus Four Eyed Monsters falls between reality TV (completely scripted) and reality (completely ad-lib).
But actually, come to think of it, reality isn’t one-hundred percent ad-lib. We script and practice for our own realities. For example, you practice how you will ask your crush out on a date, or you practice for a job interview. Thus even real life is scripted. So perhaps “scripted” isn’t the opposite of “real.”
I just thought about it for a few minutes, and I can’t think of an antonym for the word “real.” My dreams are just as real as a movie that I watch, which are both just as real as a conversation that I have with a friend. Maybe in my reality there is no opposite to the word “real”…
I figured it out. If I were not real then I would be dead. Thus the opposite of my reality is my death.
September 24th, 2006 at 5:10 am
Hey,
Here is what I think about your questions: I think reality TV is a constructed situation, almost like a game and then a real portrayl of how people act in that constructed situation. A documentary is a very hands off way to capture real life and always tries to not let the fact that it’s being documented change the out come. And our film is just a portrayl of some experiences we’ve had that uses both real footage of when the events were actually happening now and then, but for the most part uses footage we’ve created to try to convey to the audience as much of the reality and honesty of the experience as possible. Most scenes are not really real time simply capturing what could have been reality, most the scenes are designed to show an individuals perception of reality.
Anyway, it’s all pretty confussing and we aren’t sure if we completely understand what we’ve made either. But thanks for spreading the word,
Arin