FEATURE DOCUMENTARY : INDECENT XPOSURE - Coming Soon!

Journey through the eccentric and dramatic life of the mysterious and reclusive outsider artist, Christina Conrad. The film, in keeping with the artist herself, is an exception to most of the rules - a surprising and confronting mix of odd and original characters, tragic/comic monologues and bizarre improvisations counterpointed by fetishes, masks, icons, paintings, sculptures and photographs, punctuated by an original soundtrack by C.W. Stoneking and Steve Grant.

Accompany Conrad on an unforgettable odyssey of discovery as she exposes the characters behind the legend of her multifarious personality – the child, the barbarian, the earth mother, the misogynist and visionary. Conrad's life-long rebellion against "the art world", conventional wisdom and phony respectability, is waged with a freshness and humour that makes talent - though rare - seem so usual a thing.

For anyone that has ever struggled with the competing demands of domesticity and the tearing ruthlessness of the obsessed artist, here is a saga to inspire courage and confirm the insight that the creative life is always within reach so long as one is prepared to hoe the wilderness of one's own heart and mind. For Conrad it has never been a matter of choice. Indeed, at times, her life has been something of a sentence, she muses; made more difficult by the plight of being a woman.

Midst a seemingly endless juxtaposition of words, images and music, carried along by the on-going avalanche that is her life, Conrad strives to find the means to express and conduct the tumultuous energy that has torn through her since birth. In the process, she conjures a startling and unforgettable documentary that proves once again that the best nonfiction films are "best" not because they are the most informative, or most persuasive, or the most useful, but because they are the most creative, effective, and valuable human documents that can be made from the circumstances represented in them. Running time: 75 mins

Directed by Agnieszka Baginska & Christina Conrad

Written, Produced & Designed by Christina Conrad

Cinematography by Zachary Peel-Mcgregor

Edited by Agnieszka Baginska

Original Music by C.W. Stoneking

THE SET-UP

Plot : The First 5 to 10 Minutes

Effective screenwriting involves a certain degree of promiscuity fuelled by an unerring obsession to seduce and be seduced. The initial dalliances with character and story might not take place on a computer screen, but at some stage that becomes the metaphorical boudoir in which a lot of the creative energies are developed and exchanged. When it comes to producing a compelling set of relationships, The first evidence of a compelling relationship or set of relationships should occur as early as possible in the script, hooking in the audience with a collection of images and actions that is conventionally referred to as “the set-up”.

The setup is simply the situation, person, entity, institution, or event that gives provide hints about the nature of the of the story world and what the protagonist will ultimately have to contend with in striving to achieve his/her objective or goal.

Take for instance, The Verdict. It is during the set-up we meet the protagonist, the lawyer, Frank Galvin, who plays a desultory game of pinball whilst sipping what’s left of a beer. The outside world through the windows of the bar is cold, grey, and Galvin plays with a complete absence of enjoyment and enthusiasm. He is in fact a layer, down on his luck – a virtual ambulance chaser with a bleak past and a seemingly bleaker future.

Every screen story begins with plot, the course by which the characters – including the writer – navigate the action of the story that is being dramatised. Plot is what we see – it is the structure by which we move from one part of the story to the next.

The thing about structure is that over-plotting will stagnate your creativity and spontaneity, whilst lack of it might very well create confusion. The way to find the middle ground is to follow the characters. It is their journey, a journey in which the writer and audience and tribe have an interest to be sure, but not to the degree that their hopes, expectations and fears usurp the convictions, values and needs of the dramatis personae.

With that said, the set-up generally occurs during the first three minutes or three percent of a script. The set-up allows the audience to get their bearings as they develop a feel for the tone, setting, and pace of the story. It occurs in many forms, but some common ones are:

Back story – think John Carpenter’s The Fog, When A Stranger Calls (1979), Vertical Limit

Present-Life Problem – Inner or Outer conflict. For example, the abusive husband in Sleeping With The Enemy

A hook – intense, dynamic action or situation 

Theme – The pimp’s opening monologue in Hustle and Flow, and the intro to Magnolia

Impending Danger – War Of The Worlds, Arachnophobia, The Conversation

A question to be answered/mystery to be solved as in Breakdown, Nature of the Beast 

Like a first date, the set-up will get you through the door with your audience. Intrigue them enough and they will stick around…for a bit. Like the props used in a first date, the set-up will get you through the door, but a good story will keep you there.

The 12

Stoneking's adaptation for screenwriters
of Michael Shurtleff's "12 Guideposts"

Not dissimilar to the actor's quest to "build a character" is the screenwriter's quest to inhabit, and be inhabited by, those characters whose story is slowly coming to life in the evolving screenplay.

Fundamental to this task is the writer's willingness to surrender all claims to preeminence over the action as well as the power to manipulate the characters as he/she sees fit solely in service of the writer's particular needs including the "needs" of the plot as the writer alone understands them. The chauvinism perpetrated by insecurities that preclude a living relationship with the characters, and the writer's refusal to be open to the characters and entering into an authentic engagement with them, is the most common vice of the complacent, mediocre screenwriter. The avoidance of such emotional honesty (or emotional intelligence) is almost always characterised by writing that is actionless, stale, and predictable.

Part of the job of every dramatic screenwriter is to re-write him/herself as ruthlessly as he/she re-writes the characters in the script, which means transcending his/her own prejudices, assumptions and expectations - maladies that mask or dissipate the emotional energy implicit in the characters' problems, goals and actions.

In cultivating ever more intimate relationships with one's characters, one can usefully apply some guideposts. Here are 12 formulated by casting director, writer and teacher, Michael Shurtleff, and adapted so that they might better serve the needs of writers and dramatic filmmakers.

1. Relationship - based on NOW.

a. What is the character's relationship with the other characters?

b. What is the character's emotional attitude toward each of the other characters?

• Does the character love him/her?
• Does the character hate him/her?
• Does the character resent him/her? How much?
• Does the character want to help him/her?
• Does the character want to get in his/her way?
• What does the character want from him/her?
• What does the character want him/her to him or her?

2. Conflict: what is the character fighting for? Same as "beats" or motivation.

a. What is the positive the character is seeking?
b. What is the character DOING to get it? Find as many ways as possible.
c. What actions might the character perform in order to get what he/she wants?

  

3. The Moment Before: each scene is the "emotional middle" of something.

a. What was the character just doing - BEFORE - that provoked or stimulated the action that is NOW occurring?
b. What does the character do that shows he/she is committed to his/her objective?

4. Humor/Hope: what is it that keeps teh character from giving in to despair?

a. What gets the character through the day?
b. What does the character find absurd about the other character or the situation?
c. Is there a moment where the character attempts to lighten the burden for him/herself or the other character?

5. Opposites: is the other end of the spectrum present?

a. Where are both the love and the hate?
b. What extremes does the character feel about the other character?

6. Discoveries: things that happen for the first time. Surprise

a. Avoid the routine, the humdrum. What makes this moment different?
b. What does a character learn about him/herself in the scene?
c. What does the character learn about the other character/s?
d. What did the character learn about the situation, both now and before?

7. Communication and Competition: communication is a circle.

a. Is the character sending out and getting back feelings?
b. Is the character "just talking at"?
c. Is the character open to hearing the other character/s?
d. What does the character DO to show he/she disagrees with the other character/s?
e. Where/when does the character show "I am right and you are wrong"?
f. How does the character say you should change from what you are to what I want you to be?

  

8. Importance: the truth is not enough if it is neither dramatic, nor interesting, nor unique.

a. What is important to the character right at this moment?
b. Is that the same or different as a moment ago?
c. Is the character making the trivial important?
d. Is the character making the important trivial?

9. Find the Events: what happens in the Screenplay?

a. Is this a change?
b. Is this a confrontation?
c. Is this a turning point?
d. Could the character win or lose something right here and now?

10. Place: where is the character and what does he/she feel about it?

a. Can he/she see it?
b. Can he/she feel it?
c. Can he/she smell it?
d. Is he/she comfortable with it?
e. Why is he/she here/there?

11. Game Playing and Role Playing: the "me" I am now.

a. What role is the character playing?
b. What is the game the character is playing?
c. Who does the character need to be to win the game?
d. How far will thge character go to win?

12. Mystery and Secret: what we don’t know.

a. What can’t be explained?
b. What would the character never tell another?
c. To what lengths would the character go to keep it a secret?
d. Why might it hurt me - the character - if they found out?