Proposal Organiser Working title: Lookalike. Format:
Director: Robbie King Camera: Matt Taylor
Sound: Editor: Robbie King
Production Designer: Steven Elmes
1. In life I believe that we should strive to retain an objective eye and carefully evaluate and consider all elements before making judement. This principle is most relevant when juxtaposed to what is commonly known as "public opinion". My film will show this in action by exploring the manner in which the public judge, view and interact with a celebrity and his respective lookalike who together are representative of the concept of celebrity. My film's main conflict is between those who are blindly impressed by celebrity-most members of the public, celeb and lookalike-and those who aren't: the interviewer of the celebrity and the minority of the public. My film's point of view will be of the interviewer and the interviewer's investigation will provide the structure. The subject and point of view suggest a style that is thought provoking, satirical and edgy. Ultimately I want the audience to feel the banality of today's celebrity culture and to understand that just because someone is famous, they shouldn't command our immediate love, respect or attention.
2. The film is set in an unspecified urban setting, where we are given a glimpse into the characters and lives of primarily a lookalike and secondarily his respective celebrity. The celebrity and the lookalike command equally minute amounts of respect due to their arrogance/stupidity e.t.c and their combined banality juxtaposed with their equally banal treatment of them by the public highlights the overall stupidity of celebrity culture.
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Colin: the lookalike
He is the main focus, he is giving the interviewer an insight into the lookalike industry and is unintellegent, loyal, passive-though his ignorance of the forces acting on him-not through lack of confidence and he is totally innocent. He therefore commands no respect. He provides one half of the depiction of the banality of the industry that surrounds celebrity and he is a metaphor for the worst excesses of celebrity culture. This character doesn't want much other than to show the world the marvelous wold of the lookalike industry. A quote which shows his character will is when he ignorantly and innocently declares: "I love my life now, and I'm just so grateful to Mack for giving it to me. Thanks Mack! [cheesy, childish, looking into camera].
Mac: the celebrity
He is a point of comparison to the interviewer, (the banality of) his nature and his life is designed to be seen by the interviewer in comparison to Colin's and the overall comparison of their lives as a whole is designed to be seen in comparison to the public's view of their lives. He is arrogant, ignorant and stupid and of course totally oblivious to all this and thus commands no respect. He represents the source of the stupidity in this world that people fail to see. Mack is stupid, Colin is an imitation of someone who is stupid who people waste their money on, the people are therefore the most stupid for paying for someone who's only reason for being paid is that they look like someone of no notable worth. Mack is the source of conflict in that it is because of him that Colin exists as he is and he is therefore part of the banality that the interviewer is trying to expose. Mack is a metaphor for all objects of popular culture that are unjustly and blindly given respect/attention. Mack consistently demands respect for nothing, something the audience and the interviewer can plainly see. I feel his idiocy is exemplified by his declaring that "once you've been to one of Elton's it changes your idea of a party, do you know what I mean?"
Interviwer:
Any identity the interviewer may have is only shown when you hear one of their questions; they are seen and not heard. However they guide the film by investigating the other characters. They are respectable, impartial, shrewd, calm and modest. They are in effect the protagonist as by the end of the film the audience, along side the interviewer is designed to have seen the banality of all other characters. The interviewer is a metaphor for reason and wisdom and ultimately a metaphor for my previously stated philosophy. The interviewer simply wants to uncover the truth behind the lookalike business initially but as the film progresses the interviewer very subtly probes deeper to make the lookalike show up the lookalike business and ultimately all celebrities. The interviewer's agenda is most obvious when they ask "what would be your response to people who see lookalikes as the worst excesses of a mindless, celebrity obsessed culture?"
5. Colin, after simply informing the interviewer is trying to advocate the lookalike business and unwittingly celebrities. Mac is advocating himself as a celebrity and thus advocating unwittingly celebrities. As the film progresses the interviewer tries increasingly to be critical of the lookalike business and celebrity culture. Tied up within this you have Mack promoting unwittingly elitism and general arrogance and Colin unwittingly promoting subservience and ignorance. In the last quarter or probably right at the end of the film the concept of celebrity will fail when an unpleasant situation arises from the lookalike innocently doing his job. This results in Colin's confusion and for the first time he is has a different set of emotions about him.
6. In a post Big Brother era when the prominence of celebrity culture is at a peak, this film will use the very same visual language and concepts that celebrity culture uses (and thus one that we are all familiar with) to enlighten people to the culture's defects.
7. I believe that celebrity culture is one of the primary causes of the western wold's discontent. Most fail to realize that celebrity culture is detrimental to us for two main reasons by creating firstly an unquenchable sense of desire and secondly a corruption of our emotions mostly through making us judge. If celebrity culture were to be dismantled I believe that there would be fewer anorexic girls, vicious drug lords and patients on psychiatrists couches.
8. My indented audience are people who already concur thoroughly with this film, stretching to simply inquisitive open minded individuals. I can expect the audience to know at least somewhere within them how stupid it is that Big Brother winners are celebrities but not to know that all famous people are just normal human beings. -----
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10. It will be a combination of talking heads, archived footage and fly on the wall and vox pops. The point of view will be from the interviewer and so it will be shot and edited so that it's subtly derogatory to the both Colin and Mack. The narrator will do a little voice over. Lighting will be kept simple, soft and well lit. There will be good use of backing music. The editing and general flow will highlight the juxtaposition of the idiocy in the celebrity world and that which combats it.
11. The film will be a light hearted satire until right at the end when the tone change to one of awkwardness and embarrassment.
12. The for the first 40% of the film we will be focusing on Colin the next 40% will be on Mack. Then we will go back to Colin for the Crisis that will cause the awkwardness and embarrassment. The Crisis will be an event mentioned at the beginning and therefore the film leads up to it. It will occur at the end and this will reveal the film's ultimate message. After the crisis there won't be much left of the film and it will be all about simply letting the audience absorb the change of tone.
13. The resolution of the film will occur during and after the crisis. This will involve an awkward and terribly true realization that the lookalike has no purpose or talent. For the audience it confirms their feelings that this is the case and suggests that this sort of idiocy and ignorance is present all around us.
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