January 2007

"It must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people."

 Col. Girffith J. Giffith

contact: forthemasses@corriefrancis.com

Synopsis :On any given day, city-dwellers flock to an urban wilderness looking for a brief escape from the constant presence of the city. Though tamed and tied by its surrounding metropolis, the mountain is not passive. It struggles against its captivity as it attempts to release the city-dwellers from their habitual, frenetic pace with moments of savoring the richness of life. 

Production Info:

Title: For the Masses

Direction, Animation, Sound Design: Corrie Francis

Re-recording: Shawn Hinds

Running Time: 4 min 30 sec

Screening Format: HD CAM 16:9 and Beta SP / 3:4 letterbox / Color / Stereo 4.0

Preview Video: DVD NTSC/PAL / Color

Distribution:

Allison Melanson

Coordinator of Festivals and Distribution

University of Southern California

850 W 34th Street, Room G132

Los Angeles, CA 90089-2211, USA

Tel: 1.213.740.4432

Fax: 1.213.740.5226

Email: allisonm@cinema.usc.edu

 Director Bio: Corrie Francis is a freelance animator and photographer based in South Lake Tahoe, California.  A classically trained animator with an MFA from University of Southern California in Los Angeles, she has recently shifted her focus to documentary and is exploring how drawn images can imaginatively compliment documented reality. Corrie’s animation emphasizes the integration of digital and traditional mediums and a dialogue between technique and mediums. She has worked with sand, paint on glass, cut-outs and hand-drawn mediums. She recently spent 15 months in New Zealand as a Fulbright Fellow while working on an animated documentary about the wilderness experience. She enjoys wandering in and out of the world’s beautiful landscapes as she creates her films. For the Masses is her attempt to fathom her experiences as a nature girl in the heart of Los Angeles.

Filmography

Artist Statement:

This film is based on my experiences in Griffith Park, an urban wilderness in the heart of Los Angeles. On December 16, 1896, Colonel Griffith J. Griffith gave 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz estate as a Christmas gift to the people of Los Angeles. The gift was given with the following mandate:  

“It must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith said on that occasion. “I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered."

             Today the park is the largest municipal park and urban wilderness area in the United States. It is also hemmed in by thousands of acres of urban sprawl and is so deeply entangled in its urban environment that few park-goers can escape the hold of the city.  Rusted pipes from an era of industrialization puncture the earth, leaving the impression that only once nature is sucked dry of all commercial purposes is now fit to be thrown as scraps to the masses.  Hikers can enter a fold in the hills and momentary lose sight of the surrounding city, but the sound follows them into the deepest recesses of the canyons. Sirens, planes, and the hum of traffic are as much a part of the soundscape as the subtler birds and breezes whispering through the California oak, sage and manzanita.

I spent day upon days in the park, wrestling with my own personal need for a natural environment and inability to truly find it within Los Angeles County. But in my explorations of the winding fire roads, eroded trails and hidden groves and gardens of the park, I discovered the landscape is not passively captive to the urban environment. In the midst of the urban-natural tug-of-war, people are exploring, touching, smelling trees and flowers, children and dogs run freely on grass and dirt instead of concrete and asphalt. Families gather to celebrate birthdays, weddings, La Quinceañera or to just be together and grill something tasty without having to pay for the privilege. In these moments, urbanites are, for the time being, released from their habitual, frenetic pace.

My approach to the animation and sound design was to capture this tension of urban and natural and punctuate it with moments when time slows down to allow the audience to savor a moment of beauty. I used time-lapse footage from the park and combined it with rough animation of certain motif characters that represent one experience among many. We follow the course of a day in the park from sunrise to sunset and within that day, the activities of one family as each member finds a moment to take a deep breath and exhale.

Griffith Park Website

Structure:
The film is divided into a prelude and three acts:

Prelude: The creation. The day dawns on the mountain, spilling over it with richness of color. The sound of far off urban noises gradually fades in as the city presents itself in de-saturated, linear angles. The city and the mountain are show in reverse angle long shots. A wide expanse of “no-man’s land” separates them, creating the sense of opposition.

Act One: Man Conquers Nature. From the city dark, pipes lines bursts forth in a threatening manner as the city landscape spreads forward to cover the foothills. These pipes attach and constrain themselves to the mountain like guy-lines holding down a circus tent. The mountain resists with animalistic ferocity, but it is ultimately subdued.
 

Act Two: Man Imprints Nature. The restraining pipelines morph into concrete freeway structures filled with cars rushing towards the mountain. Movement in this section is frenetic, often pixilated, giving the impression that people are going to the mountain to get their ‘fix’ of nature before rushing back to their busy lives. Cars are pumped through intersections like blood through arteries. Cars drive up a concrete incline spewing exhaust. There is a brown haze in the sky. People pile out of cars, shuffle by in groups. Children play tag and trample grass and flowers. Hikers carve scar-like paths up the face of the mountain.  A dog chases a squirrel past a group of picnickers and up a tree. The picnickers scatter crumbs on the ground.  Amidst the frenetic groups of people a few individuals move more slowly and smoothly, savoring the experience.

At the top, people move in a pixilated fashion pointing at the city in the distance and then heading down. Finally, the sun begins to set. Car doors slam, engines start and drive off, conversations fade. One grandma lingers at the top of the mountain as the sun disappears. She turns and hobbles back.

Act Three: Nature Regenerates. The old woman walks slowly through the park as evening ambience fading up. Movement becomes slow and lyrical, one scene flowing into the next. A squirrel slowly descended a faded tree, color returning in its wake. Granny walks past the picnic area, stoops to pick up her grandaughter’s hair ribbon. A bird picks up the ribbon and weaves it into its nest

The sound design is meant to amplify and specify the tension between urban and natural landscapes. Each scene has a distinct ambience, with certain constants (such as a low ominous rumble) running throughout the film. Realistic hard effects and foley are complimented by surrealistic effects that capture the emotion rather than the reality of the actions. There is no dialogue, but snatches of muted conversations in various languages blend into the background ambience. Synthesized mechanical sounds are juxtaposed with natural sounds and ambience. Layering will play a large role in keeping the viewer aware of the presence of the city. Surreal motifs matching certain visual motifs (pipes, pixilation, dissolves) will add continuity.