Dry, Deadpan
If you google Biggest Cultural Moments in America, you’ll be routed to a delightful web browser that lists everything from the advent of the copyright act in 1732 to the opening of Facebook before your parents found it—a list of profoundly impactful moments in time. But what exactly is culture? Is it rooted in the arts, a heritage, some snapshot in time? More importantly, what is it about this electrifying phenomenon that brings hoards of people together but also splits them apart?
While we wait for philosophers and Cardi B to further define it, how about we cut to the chase? So here it is, one more time:
Culture (n.) A pattern of shared basic assumptions.
a.k.a—brand marketing.
Let’s expand a little.
“Marketing is culture. Culture is marketing.”
Stolen in the name of research, this quote by Ron Immink rightfully encapsulates how brands have always been a force to be reckoned with. From Sony to Spotify and Motorola to Apple, our culture is sharply defined by thoughts, feelings, associations generated from a kaleidoscope of ideas rooted in products—except—these aren’t just products. They are powerfully crafted brands.
In this docuseries, we’ll explore culture through the lens of brands known and unknown, and examine their impact across generations. From a subtle “para-pa-pa-pa” inaugurating dreams of chicken nuggets to the cult following of an ordinary swoosh (sold for a mere $35 btw)—each episode will be a deep dive into the origin story of a brand and how it’s impact reverberates through time.
(Excerpt from a network documentary pitch)
Treatment Specific
Sound Design
Music plays a powerful role in carrying a narrative forward. In the case of this film, even more so. But let’s take the unexpected route and build a world around the quiet of the mind—a stillness of sorts that washes over the rider mid ride.
Imagine silence. The kind that makes you pick up on nuance of the world and the subtle shifts that live inside of us. Like your heart beat. Wind blowing past your ears. The vibration underneath your fingers as you rev up that engine. The role of sound will be to create a juxtaposition between the power of our bike, and the calm it brings to the rider.
This sonic atmosphere will be the headliner of our film. And we’ll pair it up with a percussive rhythm that builds excitement, or cue’s in the audience to our riders next big adventure—an original score that ebbs and flows with emotion of each rider. But to bring all home, we’ll work with 2-3 select tracks mapped across genres like Western, HipHop, and Electronic to make sure that for each featured rider, there is a distinct flavour that comes to life on screen via music, and is inspired by the lives they live off-screen.
(Excerpt from a treatment for David Darg, in partnership with Harley Davidson)
Cinematography & Edit
We’ll be using a combination of cameras for this piece. Hi8 or MiniDV, 16mm, and iPhone—each providing us a different perspective for capturing our talent. The Hi8 will be rolling constantly, and we’ll use the 16mm more sparingly for hi-res footage to capture b-roll, product, and portraits of our subject. iPhone footage will only be captured by our subject themselves, for added realism.
The goal is to shoot handheld, but our frames will be thoughtfully composed and remain fluid at all times. Despite going for a doc. style look & feel, we’ll forgo any traditional sit down interviews, keeping the camera in motion in a follow-along style, as if being invited by our talent to step into their lives.
This approach makes the edit an essential part of our process, as it’s where we see all of the unique camera styles get merged to form a cohesive piece. Switching perspectives from UGC to documentary should happen smoothly with a youthful and energetic feel, native to how transitions are created on social media reels and stories. As we begin to layer footage across narrative and soundbites, we’ll pay special attention to stylistic elements such as footage over footage, or split screens featuring moments that propel the audience into the next scene, or cue us in on contextual pieces of each of our talent’s story.
(Excerpt from a treatment for Lucy Sandler, in partnership with WhatsApp)
Colour Grade
Our concept is ‘exploring cultural flavours’, but colours are perceived differently across cultures. We’ll use that to our advantage and treat each episode through the lens of individuality vs. cohesion. In other words, each episode will be graded to elevate the colour story of that culture, with distinct palettes cuing in our audience into the overall energy of the diasporas we explore.
For example, stories of Indian Diaspora have a warmth to them, with shades of reds, yellows, and oranges being prominent in the homes of our talent, as much as they are visible across the markets of Little Punjab in Southall, London. Here, we will keep the contrast soft. On the contrary, our stories from Berlin have a sharpness to them—both in terms of immigrant stories and the backdrop of an eclectic art scene. This is where we’ll punch up the colours a little, embracing saturation across the cooler tones of greens, blues and teals found throughout the footage and into the night scenes. As for our Nigerian episode, we’ll take the artistic licence of creating artificial gradients where they seem right for the story, while making sure our talent’s skin tone retains their earthy, natural look despite the colour play.
(Excerpt from a docu-pitch to WhatsApp as their social AOR Creative)
Psychological Thriller
Legend has it, it’s her own thoughts that killed her.
Coming Soon!
Odd & Playful
Move along. Nothing to see here. Just Mr. Farooq dripping in diamonds on his way to KFC.
Coming Soon!
Personal
Time 1
Sixty minutes.
That’s how long it takes to fall in love.
To notice your pale blue eyes, the inconsistency in your pattern,
the momentary flicker in this quiet composure you wear so well.
I see them, inked black on your arm a series of bars and I wonder.
Are these just lines or markers of time, tallying thoughts of a story once close to your heart.
I hear you, when you ask for a pen.
Perhaps you’ll leave me a note and I imagine how you write,
if the words about to pour will form the colour of our sky.
But who am I kidding? I have done nothing but pretend to read this catalogue of safety instructions since you first arrived.
And now that the plane has landed off you go.
Never to realise that I’ve kept you,
even if only in the back of my mind.
_____
“How to Fall in Love in 60 Minutes”
-3/31/22, Alaska Airlines, Somewhere over the Pacific
Time 2
Two weeks. That’s how long it takes to get back at times.
It starts with small shifts. The mood darkens, your heart becomes twice it’s weight. The best way to describe it is as sleep paralysis. A part of you knows it’s illusory but the mind lacks control. Next thing you know you’re pulled into slow motion.
Time has a different texture here. Hours go by staring at the ceiling or counting cracks. You find yourself catching dust motes for as long as the light doesn’t shift.
Isolation makes it easier. It gives you time to push through misplaced thoughts and feelings and tuck them in neat little packages that tear at the seams. You tell yourself you’ll handle them next round. Just like you’ll handle those calls unanswered. Maybe you’ll lie, keep things comfortable.
Next, there’s intermittent crying. There’s always intermittent crying. But it’s distracting. The eyes get puffy the sinuses go whack. The walk from bed to grab a wad of toilet paper feels difficult, keeping you irritated enough to stop the sobbing.
Then there are sounds. Focusing on them helps. Muffled conversations, footsteps from apartment above. Wind chimes on a static afternoon are pretty.
When everything melts you grab your phone and get sucked into quotes by strangers. Pretty ones by Scott Fitzgerald mixed with shitty ones by Aubrey Drake Graham. But words feel like sunlight, like the kind of warmth you don’t realize you’ve been deprived of until it hits you. You read until they don’t make sense.
But mostly you just sleep. A little trick to fast forward time. Later you’ll notice shades of sky or flowers in concrete. You’ll sign up for a dance lesson even take a trip to watch the fireflies. You’ll meet strangers and turn them into friends, laughing with them the manic laughter of a carefree teenager . Till then you’ll sleep. You’ll sleep to make sure these plans don’t fade. Like a fleeting daydream.
_____
“Dark”
-4/30/21, 4 am