Open CallOpen Call: Rough Cuts
Voting Schmoting (Previously Titled: The Decision of Whether and How to Vote) (4:27)
Chris Metzler + Josh Kurz - San Francisco, CA
The Pitch:
An artistic and impressionistic pictorial of an unordinary life in an ordinary environment.
For many years, economists have thought about the logic of voting and many have concluded, why bother? At the heart of this story is one of the world's greatest living economists, Public Choice theorist, Gordon Tullock.
This loveable curmudgeon just doesn't believe a rational person would vote - and vote Tullock does not. At the same time he believes that democracy is the best form of government. How can it be then, that voting, the very thing without which there would be no democracy, is merely an irrational exercise to him?
So, what is behind Tullock's thinking? Through pixilated animations, arcane historical footage, and disembodied interviews, this piece puts into pictures, the reasoning in Tullock's mind. The point at which the sheer mathematics of rational abstention meets real life, is where this surreal tale begins.
This 3-minute piece explores the public choice branch of economics that focuses on the choices that people make in the political marketplace. But more importantly, it'll be an offbeat portrait of this unknown man and his breakdown of why it makes sense that people decide not to vote.
By utilizing a fresh and unseen approach to documentary we will provide a brief, but substantive depiction of the surreal in an ordinary environment. Following in the tradition of the Errol Morris documentary - "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control" and Todd Haynes' "Superstar," but with a stylized aesthetic similar to Terry Gilliam's "Monty Python" animations, this project will be based around faux-cinema verite technique alongside strong visuals. Going beyond just a sociological investigation, the film will be characterized by a funny and intriguing human pictorial of Gordon Tullock, fully realized by interweaving historical footage, interviews, pixilated animations, and personal observations. One big collage with a keen eye and an unexpected point-of-view.
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Comments
Cut Down Suggestion
Hey Chris and Josh-
I would try the following cut to shorten the film (time codes are approximate); go from 00:52 "how does a rational economist come to this conclusion" right to "02:28 Tullock's argument for not voting...Division." The content in between these two points is fun but doesn't provide vital story points.
Does the majority of the
Does the majority of the country abstain from voting because they feel that their vote won't affect the outcome? I think its a critical question and love how you develop it using irony. I agree that you should drop the gimmicky burp and move forward with the satirical witty narrative style. If you heighten the absurdity, your commentary becomes more poignant.
Camille, POV
Nancy Bolton I would not use
Nancy Bolton
I would not use "nutcase" , a dif. word or phrase.
Audio
P.S. - And in regards to audio. All will be cleaned up, as the particularly noisy audio is a shotgun mic, where good lav mic sound available. A faux pax on our part when exporting.
Suggestions for trimming it down and making it shorter?
Thanks for the comments folks, as they're helpful and get us thinking about things as we finish it up.
And a quick request. Suggestions that would be particularly helpful would be on how to trim this down, as the current running time is 4:30 minutes and given the guidelines of the Open Call, we're trying to get it as close to 3 minutes as possible.
Lates.
Chris
I think Chico's comments
I think Chico's comments were dead on here. This piece is educational and offers an interesting perspective, but a response outside of that of Tulluck's and the narrator's might be in order.
The graphics and style are fun and make the piece more interesting -- I don't think that you've chosen style over substance as dontbeatool suggested, but you've clearly kept an eye on style. I do think there is space, however, for a bit more substance, that is, at the very least a bit of reaction. I enjoyed the graphics, though, and I think the information was presented clearly in informative and interesting ways.
The audio definitely needs some cleanup. I'd suggest raising the levels on some segments of the interview and using a noise removal filter to hopefully get clearer sound -- at the moment the noisy audio doesn't fit with the disembodied, clean look of the interview.
Overall, good job and I think with a bit more polish this could be a very good piece.
problems
First of all, it seems that you are vastly more interested in style over substance, which I think is silly. If you are devoting so much time to some superficial effects rather than the point at hand, why don't you do just one as best you can and leave the other for another day. If you aren't really interested in the topic and would rather just show off, you are making this into some kind of playground self-attention fest. I really think that would be inappropriate in this context.
errol morris meets mtv.
errol morris meets mtv. potentially interesting as a timely/educational piece that appeals to a young audience. i'd recommend presenting voter responses... allowing the audience to spend a day in the life of your economist. it's the kind of position piece that requires some counter balance or slice of anticipated indignation.
good luck,
chico
chico colvard
www.c-linefilms.com
Voting Schmoting
I like the pace of the narration, however, unless your target audience is the sesame street crowd I would drop the belch and the SAWINNG.
But one does get the message that Tulluck is a control freak that must be center stage and captain of the team, or he will not play at all.
Voting Schmoting
Really good.
The sound is definitely rough. You might want to add some motion to the talking head shots.
I like it