Honors thesis film

Documentation of the honors thesis film I have been making, August 2023 - April 2024, at Brown University

Surveillance, unlike looking or watching, implies the presence of an entity that has the power to oversee, judge, and punish. Surveillance is, in this way, a looming threat with no need for the consent of those who are surveilled. It is a system of power via the method of sight. Contiguously, we have understood the presence of “the man.” “The man” is the system of power animated by the person who most benefits from existence–a white corporate man with money. When we feel a camera watching us navigate a store, we feel His gaze identify us as a possible wrong doer. This is the effect of surveillance. It is to feel white supremacy incarnate tell us how we are, under its strict definitions, wrong or insufficient–weak, criminal, female, of color, poor, queer, mentally ill….

However, just as white supremacy exists, surveillance is within and without the body. The way we learn to see ourselves is warped as we are groomed by society to replace our eyes with surveillance camera lenses. Bodies, evolved to identify threats and poisons in order to survive, that are forced to live in a white supremacist society, internalize the gaze of “the man.'' The reflection of His ideals causes us to police each other and ourselves because we are taught that surveillance protects us from wrongdoers.

Step 1

Storyboarding

I created a detailed plan for the film, as well as blender models of each set I would build. I often called this plan my “crime wall” as it formerly existed as a full wall in my apartment composed of linked images and red thread.

The proposed film will dissect this understanding of surveillance as it manifests itself in the gaze, self-policing, and conforming to impossible standards. Specifically, the film will depict how these things undo the psyche and distort the ego.

It will all take place in one room. I plan to build a set out of flats that will be painted, sculpted, and rearranged as the film progresses. This process will allow me to build scenes as they come to mind, and continuously shift between building, dressing, and filming. Keeping the production simple will lay a firm groundwork for the complex. More important than anything is control. I will be able to control every aspect of the scenery and build upon my own wildest imaginings. With the tools I have developed working in scenic building, property artisanry, as a sculptor, and as a filmmaker, I can focus on visual world building. Surreal and consuming, scene design is the key to telling this story. I will distort the world in order to reveal its underpinnings.

Step 2

Set building

The first 4 months of the project was spent, solo, building an industry standard set. I started with an 8 foot by 8 foot by 8 foot black box. Then, I hand painted seamless backdrops to make the 19 scenes for the film.

The film focuses on the life of a camgirl who struggles with the repercussions of constant surveillance from the confines of her room. She willingly engages in a form of sex work that allows her to avoid physical touch. In a chatroom, she performs requests by her voyeurs. She thinks that she is safe from violence because she is not really with these men. However, stuck behind a camera, forced to perpetually perform for the male gaze in order to survive, the ever-mutating scenic design within the room will serve as a visual representation of the protagonist's deteriorating mental state as she is groomed to perform more heinous sex acts. She never leaves her spot, but the concreteness of her room completely falls away. Visual world building, abstract and explicit, follows the sex worker’s complete mental decompensation as the story unfolds. Reality becomes unrecognizable to the character. As the surveillance of the men behind her screen becomes increasingly internalized, being in her own body becomes unbearable. The lines between victim and victimizer blur. The body of this white female character will provide ample room for an intersectional approach to dissecting surveillance as a tool of white supremacy.

The sum of the film will be a series of vignettes in the tradition of many forms of surreal cinema. It will reflect how it was constructed. The film will also recall the history of endurance art as the protagonist reenacts misogyny upon herself for as long as her body can withstand.

Step 3

filming and editing

I am currently on this step