A Proposal

...and some tests.

The city of Detroit is a collision of histories and presents. Its recent desperate and abandoned façade is as real as the soul and exuberance its history holds. To the outsider, the abandoned buildings and empty lots tell a certain story, but once the top layer is scratched, a whole new Detroit is revealed. I hope to conduct a project based around this layering of collisions that, when viewed, can help to peel away that top layer (or perhaps just flatten it) and let the stories of the past live again. I am proposing a short film, a documentary of sorts, which uses drawings as characters and the current Detroit streets as the backdrop and soundtrack.

  The figures will be made out of a durable material, such as wood or cardboard. Drawn on and cut out, these characters will stand upright; their poses, costumes and expressions will be determined by the location they will be placed in. They will be drawn in a simple, black and white line, humorous way. Abandoned buildings, empty streets, and deserted lots will once again host the people and tell the stories now seemingly forgotten.

  The figures will be filmed in real time, allowing their lifeless, stiff postures to combine with the movement of a live city. Their distances apart, however, will be calculated to be in direct correlation with their actual size; the intended effect is that the space that they sit in, once photographed, will flatten- or perhaps be given depth. Regardless, the perspective will be awkward and the image, hopefully, will be jarring. Once these scenes are edited together and combined with sounds of the city, it is my hope that a simple film, telling the simple story of a complicated city, will emerge. 

-Ben Bunk (September 2009)