Film opportunity this summer

Hi dudes.

I got this message from No Shame alum and current MIT student Bill McKenna. I guess the filmmaker is from LeMars, Iowa, originally, but now is a facultymember (?? grad student ??) at MIT.

I don't have dates for this project yet, but from what Bill tells me, the guy will be in Iowa City this summer and wants to shoot some footage and needs actors. Contact Dan Van Roekel at dvr@mit.edu if you're interested.

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MIT Arts Council Grant Proposal
Contact: Dan Van Roekel (dvr@mit.edu)
Project Title: DRIVEN

Project Description

Driven will be a lyrical narrative film, which follows the nascent
driftings of a mid-twenties transient. For the production of Driven,
MIT students and staff and independent filmmakers from Boston will
form a collaborative group where members will serve as both cast and
crew throughout the production. The finished film will be
approximately 35-45 minutes in length. Scenes will be shot in an
episodic fashion, building and playing off of each other. This loose
narrative structure will be a vehicle for performative events that
explore transience/dislocation, familial isolation, quotidian
struggles, sexual longing, and the "inexact haunting communication of
feeling" to quote Dennis Cooper.

Within the basic story premise of Driven, the drifter character
passes from one place to another (as drifters do). Starting fledgling
relations with people he meets at convenience stores, odd jobs,
hotels, laundromats, and barbershops before he moves on. His more
intimate correspondences are with those not immediately there. They
are also often delayed and filtered. Packages of shirts received from
his mother, comic books and mix CDs received from friends, and
articles ripped out from magazines.

Stylistically, we will be experimenting with structural forms and
processes of filmmaking as well as the materials of the media (film
and video). The performed scenes will be repeatedly improvised and
then scripted. The same scene will be played in multiple styles, with
all styles potentially finding their way into the film. We will use a
continual process of shooting and editing, which will allow for an
organic and quicker development of character through immediate reveiw
of the footage. In addition, we will explore extensions of the
emotional space of the characters throguh various techniques. Some of
these techniques include: Playing with real time versus compressed
time - improvisation and reenactment - rear screen projection and
blue screen to collage character and location - communication
filtering and disintegration by degrading and transposing the image
and sound through re-filming of projected images and video monitors -
prosthetic devices and make-up as extensions of character.