Duration: 1 hour – 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Objective: To establish the tone, style and direction of the podcast, as an experimental documentary storytelling form that will constructively explore the subjects of mass media and human psychology from a lucid and lateral, but highly entertaining and quirky perspective. If I can crack the code with this episode, the standards will be set for the following episodes.

Focus: To present the narrative of my history and education of film (pre-university) in order to establish the foundations and conflicts of my point-of-view in relation to the concept of willful blindness and why I am interested in looking at a bigger picture of the world in relation to mass media. The narrative of this episode is less about the films I reference and more so about how and why I engaged with those films as I was growing up.

Format: Factual documentary analysis using a combination of voiceover and performance material of myself to present the narrative of the development of my personality in relation to my education in film. Additionally, elements referenced from other media content will be utilised to illustrate my story and point-of-view (see ‘Media content to be reference’).

Structure: A mostly chronological presentation with the beginning and, especially so, the end of the episode utilising a non-linear presentation. The 1998 film Gods and Monsters will be utilised as an assistive framing device for the episode.

Pre-Intro segment – a brief illustrative audio example of stream-of-consciousness thinking and glimpsing into the cinema of the unconscious mind…

Podcast Intro (45 seconds) – Cave of the 8-bit Binary Organ theme music as combined with excerpts from other media texts to create a summative overview of what is the Breaking Cinema podcast.

Opening – A brief analysis of the conclusion of Gods and Monsters will set the theme of the episode and introduce the beginning of my story and my education of film.

Main body – This will cover the period of 1993 to 2009 and will be a combination of performed segments of incidences from my life (mostly in retrospective fashion) and voiceover analysis of elements of illustrative media texts. Gods and Monsters will be touched on at various points and the main body will mostly be a linear presentation which will skip over anything that does not support or illustrate the main focus of the episode, an engaging narrative requires a tight presentation!

Climax – Ultimately, the narrative of the main body will lead up to a summative illustration of why my point-of-view is the way it is and why that point-of-view sees cinema as being something vastly more expansive than just the 2D images on the screen. And then…

Conclusion: Jumping back into the conclusion of Gods and Monsters, the true nature of my first education in film will be revealed and how that relates to the concept of my arch-nemesis – willful blindness (all this material is in the Pulling Teeth & Breaking Blindness overview document). Basically, the entirety of this episode is an illustration of willful blindness a.k.a. ignorance in action… but this fact will not be revealed until the narrative of the episode all comes to a head in the conclusion, which will then nicely set up Episode 2: Triumph of the Willful Blindness and its Great Dictator.

Podcast Outro – a: “Thank you for listening to Breaking Cinema, like the Facebook page, leave a review on iTunes, etc.” message will play over the outro music.

Next Time on Breaking Cinema – a short teaser of the next episode.

 

Additional Notes:

• The pre-intro segment of the episode is not directly related to the episode content, but it is integral to the episode focus. Stimulation of expansive thinking requires exploration into the unexpected!
• Episode 1: My First Education will be the first episode I will create, but it will not necessarily be the actual first episode of the podcast, this will be determined once I have a batch of completed episodes.
• Regardless as to whether or not this episode ends up being the first broadcast episode, “Episode 2”: Triumph of the Willful Blindness and its Great Dictator will always immediately follow it, probably.
• I have already recorded some material for this episode.
• I really have to practice at performing different ranges and modes of audio performance and get it to a very high standard for this episode, this one has to set the standard for all the episode to follow.
• The likelihood that all of the media content listed below will make it into the final episode is unlikely, but the compiled list is also not exhaustive in regards to potential media content that may be used.
• Silent films will be referenced descriptively.
• For copyright queries on media content inclusion, see the Pulling Teeth & Breaking Blindness overview document.
• Lucid, lateral, entertaining and quirky – that’s that what I have to nail in this episode!

 

Media content to be referenced and included:

Gods and Monsters, film, 1998

Toy Story, film, 1995

The Mask, film, 1994

Back to the Future Trilogy, films, 1985 – 1990

Batman Burton and Schumacher series, films, 1989 – 1997

Empire of the Sun, film, 1987

Frankenstein, film, 1931

Bride of Frankenstein, film, 1935

Universal Horror, documentary, 1998

Dumb and Dumber, film, 1994

Chaplin, film, 1992

All the Little Animals, film, 1998

James Bond films, various 1962 – 2002

Live and Let Die, novel, 1953

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, film, 1979

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, film, 1982

Batman Begins, film, 2005

Dr Strangelove, film, 1964

Being There, film, 1979

The Dollars Trilogy, films, 1963 – 1966

Once Upon a Time in the West, film, 1969

American Beauty, film, 1999

Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space, television, 1970

Doctor Who new series, television, 2005 – 2015

Insomnia, film, 2004

Sherlock Holmes Rathbone and Bruce series, film, 1939 – 1946

The Terminator, film, 1984

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, novel, 1964

Terminator 2: Judgement Day, film, 1991

Dead Poets Society, film

Commando, film, 1984

The Naked Gun Trilogy, films, 1988 – 1994

Willy Wonker and the Chocolate Factory, film, 1971

Beverly Hills Cop Trilogy, films, 1984 – 1994

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, film, 1920

Nosferatu, film, 1922

The Usual Suspects, film, 1995

All or Nothing, film, 2002

Casino Royale, film, 2006

Laurel and Hardy filmography, 1930 – 1945

Quantum of Solace, film, 2008

Green Eggs and Ham, book, 1960