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Our Final Cut:
Script:
Bertolt Brecht once described the art of theatre as a mirror held up to society: he aimed to be the hammer that would break it. Through the whips and scorns of time, many a man has attempted to do this: always, he has failed. Whenever a great leader, a great entrepreneur, a great practitioner in any field, attempts to remould the world into a better place, it is always in his own image. The most unpleasant examples of this are obvious: one need only flick through any history book to see atrocities of unimaginable scale, causing unimaginable suffering. But always, it is an attempt to change the world. Even today, a two-minute conversation with the average person would have you believing the world is a tragedy: a firey state in need of drastic change, an overhaul — interestingly, however, this, once again, relies on the world agreeing with them. They may want to fix the world, but the world may not want to be fixed.
Look around: suffering and misery seems microcosmic of society at large; an easy nihilism to fall into. Perhaps every other street corner has at least one human being sitting down, shrouded in a dirty blanket, maybe with a dog at their feet, without a home; or else, someone pretending to be. Whether a victim of their own self-fulfilling downfall, or someone abandoned by the state, it is always easier to avert one’s eyes than to confront the uncomfortableness with which we are faced. It is a common belief to say that life goes on. But critically, and perhaps more poetically, Kafka once wrote in a letter to a friend, that “the meaning of life is that it stops.”
Look around: life does go on, yes, but also, it stops; and how tragically beautiful an observation. Life is made evermore precious by its inevitable conclusion: like the last few chapters of a good book, the visible end is what makes it valuable. London may be filled with cigarette smoke and the litter of a thousand years, but simultaneously, it is filled with love, and hope, and happiness.
To adapt the words of Hugh Grant in Love Actually, “whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Euston Station. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.”
And perhaps this goes too far the other way — but it is certainly true to say that, if you look hard enough, you can find both light and dark anywhere you go. While the news may be a constant downward spiral of desperation and uncertainty, the world at large is a far more nuanced place. Perhaps what is required to achieve true neutrality, a formal state of clear, is a stereoscopic view of the world: one that ignites the Brecht and the Kafka in all of us; one that encapsulates both sides; that acknowledges the awful reality of suffering, and works to change it, but simultaneously, one which appreciates the wonders of the world, the childlike glee of finding someone you thought you had lost, the sense of belonging that runs through us all, and the overwhelming desire to just be.
FINAL CREDITS:
Director: Noah Read
Production Manager: Hannah Blackwell
Artistic Direction: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nattan Ralph
Art and Graphics: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Daphne Wilson
Storyboard Noah Read
Script: Noah Read
Director of Photography: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read
Cinematography: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read, Daphne Wilson
Stills Photography: Noah Read
Pre-Production: Caitlin Beaumont, Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read
Post-Production: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nattan Ralph, Daphne Wilson
Edit: Noah Read
Edit Advisor: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph
Mixed-Media Production: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nathan Ralph
Graphic Design: Noah Read
Motion Graphics: Noah Read
Research Analysis: Noah Read, Hannah Blackwell
Permits and Permissions Liaison: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read
Voice: Noah Read
Sound Engineer: Emily Eagling, Ellie Holmes
Music: "The Broken Clock"
Composed and Performed by: Noah Read
Production Manager: Hannah Blackwell
Artistic Direction: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nattan Ralph
Art and Graphics: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Daphne Wilson
Storyboard Noah Read
Script: Noah Read
Director of Photography: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read
Cinematography: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read, Daphne Wilson
Stills Photography: Noah Read
Pre-Production: Caitlin Beaumont, Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph, Noah Read
Post-Production: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nattan Ralph, Daphne Wilson
Edit: Noah Read
Edit Advisor: Hannah Blackwell, Nattan Ralph
Mixed-Media Production: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read, Nathan Ralph
Graphic Design: Noah Read
Motion Graphics: Noah Read
Research Analysis: Noah Read, Hannah Blackwell
Permits and Permissions Liaison: Hannah Blackwell, Noah Read
Voice: Noah Read
Sound Engineer: Emily Eagling, Ellie Holmes
Music: "The Broken Clock"
Composed and Performed by: Noah Read
ORIGINAL CREDITS:
Caitlin Beaumont: RESEARCH ANALYST, PRE-PRODUCTION, TRAVEL CO-ORDINATOR
Hannah Blackwell: PRODUCTION MANAGER, CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDIT ADVISOR, PERMITS AND PERMISSIONS LIAISON, POST-PRODUCTION, PRE-PRODUCTION, TRAVEL CO-ORDINATOR, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Nattan Ralph: EDITOR, CINEMATOGRAPHY, ARTISTIC DIRECTION, MIXED-MEDIA PRODUCTION, POST-PRODUCTION, PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM PHOTOGRAPHY, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Noah Read: DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITOR, STORYBOARD, SCRIPT, VOICE, RESEARCH ANALYST, MIXED-MEDIA PRODUCTION, PERMITS AND PERMISSIONS LIAISON, POST-PRODUCTION, PHOTOGRAPHY, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Daphne Wilson: CINEMATOGRAPHY, STORYBOARDING, MIXED-MEIDA PRODUCTION, ART, PRE-PRODUCTION, POST-PRODUCTION
with
SOUND ENGINEERs: Ellie Holmes and Emily Eagling
MUSIC: ”The Cursed Clock”
COMPOSED by: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
PERFORMED by: Nine Inch Nails