Alex commissioned this video to highlight his acting and presentation skills. He wanted to produce something which had the potential of being used by his special needs school and other educational establishments to promote an awareness of the issues faced by disabled people in everyday life and offer a degree of hope to those most affected. It became something of a small crusade for us both and the resulting film was screened in its intended environment to great acclaim.
Alex was also hoping to become involved with the "Scope" poster campaign and the video was also sent to the charity with this intention.
It is an intense, poetic, lyrical drama on what it means to live with severe cerebral palsy in today's age. Imagine "My left foot" filtered through the pen of Wilfred Owen, the lens of Terrence Malick and musical melancholy of Rachmaninov and you are some way close to imagining the effect I wanted to created.
I decided poetry would best serve the dreamlike atmosphere I was going to create. We sat down and discussed the areas of his life to cover and those to leave out. This was a difficult and demanding process, but we got there in the end with a bit of gentle creative anger and even a few tears. It seemed logical to represent disability head on and really give the audience a feeling of what it is like to be in his shoes. Therefore we open with an "attack" (during which the muscles of the body lock). This is expanded into what he may be thinking whilst lying on the floor. Thoughts of his school days, the recent loss of his father and even flying through the air are explored with sensitivity and depth. It ends on a positive note, as it should.
After scripting and photography I set about the pretty large task of writing the music score. This is another skill I have acquired. Copyright music was obviously going to be far too expensive to use. I wanted a full orchestral score, which I was able to achieve with the miracle of modern synthesiser technology. I have accumulated a lot of equipment over the years, including a Roland Synthesiser. I simply needed to buy a plug in sound card containing very realistic samples and multi track, playing each instrument's part separately. I am very pleased with the result.
I felt I didn't want to subtitle the film as it would have been condescending to Alex. Should you have any problems understanding it, the full screenplay is printed below.
This work is presented in it's original 1.78 aspect ratio, anamorphically squeezed for the highest quality available. If you are viewing on a wide screen monitor please select 16x9 mode to "unsqueeze" the film to it's correct aspect ratio.
SCREENPLAY
I lay here in vain
Trapped in the sanctity of pain
Every muscle locked in spasm
Far away a microcosm
Bustling outside, here I have to lie
Is there anyone at all?
If I can move to make a call
A friendly voice, a velvet calm
To carry me through this alarm
How typical, it's just my style
I've only one on autodial
But, Mum is gone, my only wager
For a week in central Asia
Dad, why did you move away?
To cast a shadow on my day
Now alas, it's far too late
I said they shouldn't operate
If God is love I can't condone
That many friends have turned to stone
I only feel their hearts engrave
The spirit of this sorry slave
Years of special education
Only shroud imagination
Every time I'm high on pain
I creep toward a sorry gain
The need to free the cloying grasp
Of nature's hold, and from my past
I really need to re-unite
My sorry friends on wings of flight
I'll spurn this hell and really soar
To leave my shell upon the floor
Through the air I'll fly away
To free the shackles of my day
Burying my medication
In a breeze of exaltation
But stop, before I drown in fear
Is my world so bad down here?
Many different ways to fly
Upon this earth, without the sky
When finally I gain remission
In the freedom of ignition
Standing at the phantom bar
Looking close but feeling far
Walking land but treading air
Because I'm never really there
Drowning in the giddy heights
In the midst of neon lights
It's fair to be a little pissed
When no one sees that you exist
Cheer up lad, been here before
Missed the step to strike the floor
Dancing down a one way street
That ends just as you loose the beat
Feeling proud and standing tall
As the writing hits the wall
Then I smile to face the day
In my own habitual way
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I think I have met you through my good friend Marcus Patrick. I have to say this piece is amazing. I always like the Studio 54 print my 1st BF Mark Walker bought off you!!
5Stars! Martin x
djskiiie 3 years ago
"Years of special education only trumped imagination." When in the fourth grade, my teacher could no longer tolerate my talkative nature. One afternoon I was sent outside to speak with a couple of women. "How would you like to be in a class where everybody else is just like you?", one of them asked. My conscience screamed at me and I thought, "My mom and dad didn't say I could switch classes...I might get spanked."
Thank God my father used the belt as often as he did or I might have said yes.
christocentriccrippl 3 years ago
this is amazing
hotlez008 3 years ago