My Name Is Death: My Short Film

I know this is longggg overdue  and I know it has been two months since it was exhibited in the museum and five months since we created it, but  I said I was going to write about Your name is Death , so here it is. 

After many months I now introduce to you the greatest  piece of media you will ever encounter.

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Your Name Is Death

What is it about?

Your Name is Death is about a young ephemeral artist who wants to live a creative life but he is disgraced by his father. His father is Death and wants his son to go into the "family business" of taking people to the after life and disapproves of his son's desire to become an ephemeral artist. 

The criteria.

Back in January, we had three days to come up with our short film. This time included writing, blocking scenes, recording audio, and recording our scenes. We started days at 10AM and did not finish until 8AM, relying on the councils poor budget for our lunch and dinner. 

We had to incorporate ephemeral art and mention death. We didn't want to get real arty and create some type of ice sculpture like Nele Azevedo . We wanted to use our talents. The boys in my team were talented actors, and me and my friend were really good writers so we decided to collaborate our talents to create a performance.

What is ephemeral art?

I love the word 'ephemeral'. It means "temporary/lasts for a short time." and comes from the ancient Greek word 'ephḗmeros' meaning "temporary" 

It is a word my family has came to know when I squeal; "What is the use doing the dishes when the cleanness will only be ephemeral and I am going to have to do it again tomorrow?" 

Ephemeral art is a strand of art that fascinates me. If I was a level three art student at my college, I'd be specialising in ephemeral art. 

Ephemeral art is art that doesn't last. For example: it might melt, disintegrate, blow up, disappear, be consumed,  or other wise not last.

Works of ephemeral art includes: chalk(the 3D ones are fascinating!), nature , performances,   henna tattoos, food, sand sculptures, ice sculptures, snow sculptures, bubble art (my favourite), candle wax art, etc. 

A simple way to remember it is if it doesn't last than it will  categorized as 'ephemeral art' . 

The most famous ephemeral artist is Andy Goldsworthy. He creates ephemeral art from objects in nature and positions them into interesting arrangements. 

The word fountain at MONA is a form of ephemeral art because the words are only visible for a few moments before they disappear.

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SHORT OBSERVATIONS  ON SCENES. 

I am not going to write a long essay on each scene, I am just going to write a few quick notes on each scene  because "life is too short" .  

The decision to incorporate the red curtain came at the last minute.  We wanted to have a beginning that would introduce the audience up to the character of DJ, and what better way then to "open" him up then by literally opening the curtains and having him there.

Note: DJs appears faintly and with every curtain opening he takes a step closer until he is in line with the curtains. This was to reveal the mysteriousness of DJ and his life. 

 It is raining in this scene. You can see a tiny drop of rain on the left hand corner. 

Everyone in my team was standing underneath an umbrella looking through the lenses and yelling "come closer to the water", "put your head down",and  "put your head back up" whilst getting wet. 

NOTE: We had Death Jr "ponder" on a beach to build up his character. He is an introverted, artistic person who likes walking on a (rainy) beach to gather up his thoughts.

 No animals were harmed in the making of Your Name Is Death . All animals we found were already dead. This one was found in the accommodation our artist was staying in. 

NOTE:

Another "building of character" scene. Death is "conducting a funeral" for it because he disapproves of death. 

All the scenes with the dead animals were inspired by Emma Kisiel's art work At Rest . (Google it. She is amazing) 

This is the last scene to be recorded. 

NOTE: Death is painting 'LIFE" and it fades away, he repaints it with water. This is symbolism for the resentful attitude  Dj has towards life and Death. 

We wanted for the audience to receive the message that you can not repaint moments in your life because  it will always find a way to fade, 

 At the museum the viewers asked me what I was typing in this scene, to answer this question; I was typing "Jazz Frost" over and over again.  

 This scene is shot in an abandoned council chambers room. It is actually the old  mayors room but now it is used to store of ancient computer screens, phones that are attached with cords (it is like travelling back to the past!) and many, many artificial bushes.

The actor who played Death had the responsibly to draw up something useful to blue-tack onto the screen to use on this computer monitor. 

He drew up a YouTube tab  displaying a clip of  "Kung-fu Mayors fighting" (HE HAD ONE JOB, one job! )  We didn't have any time to change it, so we just went with it hoping that it would not show up on the big screen.

It did, but we were the only ones who noticed and we did not care because we were to occupied  with the media following us and asking for our photo and interview, that we did not pay attention to the "flaws" in our short film.

Due to my amazing acting skills, there is a delayed sign. Strictly due to the audio being recorded before the acting and my amazing acting skills.

NOTE: Miss Death never turns around. She also doesn't have a name, instead she is known as MISS DEATH  She doesn't reappear  and only gets a small mention "you mother asked me to pick up the shopping", witch is a stereotypical motherly comment.

.My friend was ruthless with this carcass. I refused to touch it and everything near it whilst she picked it up by its tail and throw it over, treating it like it was not once a living thing. 

We named him Kev: Kev the Wallaby. We found him on the side of the road. 

NOTE: 

We framed the shot on Kev first to introduce the topic of shot. Dj is "conducting a funeral" with it with his two friends. DJ is doing this because he disapproves of death and his father's occupation of taking life to the afterlife.

Can you believe this is the most time consuming scene that was recorded? (THREE HOURS),to make it worse, it was recorded on the hottest  summer day in Tasmania!

NOTE: The two friends look at the camera with a terrified look (they attempted 'terrified looks') and run away. They run away because they hear a musky, terrified voice belonging to Death. Both the girls are terrified of death because that is the social norm in today's society; to fear death. 

(Notice my pink hair? that is ephemeral art) 

I had to include this snap shot because as soon as  the person goes out of shot she  trips over her shoes and falls down. The milk goes all over her and she screams "keep going, I'm fine!" with milk spilled all over the floor, face, and t-shirt.

Our whole team thought it was hilarious and wanted to help her clean up but we had to keep going on with the show, and left her soaking in milk, in agony on the isle floor. 

When we were shooting this scene there was an employer  mopping this isle and we kicked her bucket out of the way so we could film up the isle. 

She had to re mop the isle because of us. 

We had DJ collect colours to imply that he is a natural born artist and being an artist is apart of who he is. 

If you look carefully at the top  left corner  of the trolley you will see that  DJ has his script there.

NOTE:  

We choose red because red is associated anger and anger is one of the   stages of grief. 

It took us an hour to put all the red things back on their shelves in the correct places. 

 It was lucky for the story that there had recently been a bush fire in Georgetown that created beautiful scenery of charcoaled trees

NOTE:  The scenery symbolises the aftermath of Death's rage.

We had seven different endings written up to go after this scene, such as Death Jr going to get his name changed, but we got to the cemetery to film this scene and we had run out of time.
 We didn't know what to do for our ending that would leave the audience god-smacked until I suggested  that we just take the mask of him, since no one in the audience would know why the mask was so important.

NOTE:  The mask is symbolism for being trapped.  Once Death takes off the mask DJ is no longer trapped by his father's desires and he is free to become the artist he wants to be, with acceptance from  his father.

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Other Notes:

Death

Death is never shown on film expect for a few hand gestures , this is because in modern society we do not know what Death looks like. Death is often depicted with a large coat that covers his face and a sharp scythe who mercilessly takes people away from their families  . He is often a bad villain who is responsible for causing so much pain onto others. Although, In  Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak in 2005, Death is portrayed as a compassionate character with "real feelings"  as he feels emotions towards the characters in the novel . For example: when my favourite character dies (I am not spoiling it!) he is sad and resentful.
....and he spend the whole book admiring the 10 year old, book thieving, kind hearted  protagonist, Liesel Memminger. So, that tells you that he is not as bad as what society pins him to be.

So, with my huge analysis on The Book Thief , (Seriously, be my friend, I do this all the time!) my team was unsure on how to portray the character of Death.
So we did not show him and filmed the film from his POV.

The Clay.
.  My friend created the tree-like clay figures in her own time, and it was our way of incorporating a piece of ephemeral art into out art piece just in case making our protagonist an ephemeral artist wasn't enough.
At the start of the film a hand comes  into view adjusting these tree-like clay figures in a large clear fish tank, and then towards the end of the film you see the clay figures drowning underwater, rapidly disintegrating.  This is symbolism for the crashing emotions felt by DJ. Notice how this scene is juxtaposed with Dj at his favourite place burned by his fathers rage.


My view on death and life.

Being apart of this amazing community enabled me to embarrass life a bit more. I know one day I am going to die. It is inevitable but that day doesn't matter. Honestly, it doesn't matter.
I do not care what my parents or family do with my body, providing they do something and do not leave my body to decay on the streets like I have contaminated the Black Plague.  The only request I have is that bubbles must be released at my memorial site and my plaque must read "Jazz Frost" not Jasmin Frost, and "once upon a time there was a girl who flew", witch is a reference to Struck By Lighting. 

To me, the end of life doesn't  matter, it is all about how I choose to spend the time before now and the time I die that really matters.
If I am not doing what brings happiness, joy, and clarity  then what is the point?
I am going to make a promise now to spend my life doing what brings me happiness.
I am  going to be like Dj and not let anybody stop me from achieving my goals.


Why not make our time on earth the best we can?
because life is just too short. 

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I think I just analysed my own short film in an act of procrastination to analysing a school text

#collegelife 

I am allowed to send links to people who want to view Your Name Is Death. I couldn't before because the museum  owned it, but now my group members and I have the lease back and we are allowed to spread it like Nutella.

SO WHO WANTS TO WATCH YOUR NAME IS DEATH?