Nature, an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story 'So Much Water So Close To Home', Written by William Kirk and Dan Young.
With this piece having a heavy emphasis on The Photographer's psyche, I felt that it was important to look at the script in-depth with attention to the following:
Information that provides an insight into the character's background i.e. home-life. I found this an important aspect to pay mind to as it provides us with clues to why the photographer is the way that he is - for example, some form of explanation or justification of his actions/morals.
Information that provides an insight into the character's psyche/morals. I differentiate this with physical depictions of his emotional state as these consist of pieces of information that aid us in gaining a better understanding of the character.
Information that reflects/suggests his current emotional state. Looking at physical depictions of his emotional state can help me in constructing a sense of how he goes back and forth in thinking 'is this okay' to 'this is not okay.'
My aim with this task was to construct a timeline of how his morals/emotions waver from one side to another so that I can keep this in consideration when editing the film. As Will mentions in his pitch, Nature looks at 'To what extent can something be considered art' and 'How far will someone go to pursue their own desires and goal', therefore, a lot of thought must be put into constructing this character and his emotional battles.
In this annotation version of the script, I have also marked where approximately the pace will change. This was specifically decided after a conversation with the director.
When we are first introduced to the character, we instantly learn that he is a photographer, and are introduced to the idea of 'to what extent can something be considered art', seeing The Photographer taking photographs of a rabbit corpse. At this point in the film, we are unaware of 'how far' he will go, but towards the end, we see comparisons drawn between the corpse of the rabbit and the human.
The areas highlighted in green are important, as they are the only access we have to what kind of a person he is outside of this situation.
We are presented with questions of:
Why does he hardly have any contacts?
Does he have no friends?
Has his vision of art isolated him from everyone else?
His first reaction is to call his mother, is that the only person he relies on?
Why is he unfazed at the fact she does not pick up?
What kind of a person is his mother?
What this script does well here is that it uses this ambiguity to pique interest. We don't stray from the situation at hand, but we start to think... we're perceiving an insight into how he thinks, we're watching him fiddle with a crime scene and take photographs. Arguably, being visually immersed in his psyche, we may find ourselves conjuring justifications or reasons for his behaviour. Either way, it makes you think and question, which I feel is very powerful within a film.
After analysing 'Nature', I will start to consider the film through the lens of editing in my later blog posts by further looking at elements such as how the lack of dialogue will influence the editing process.
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