The Cure

"The government has created a perfect society. Through Citizens United to Revitalize Equality, or C.U.R.E., no citizen goes hungry: if citizens are struggling in any way with money, unemployment, or disease, the government provides food for them via N.U.R.S.E. Nancy, or Network Used to Ration Supplementary Eatables. A suffering family will receive a visit from a Nurse Nancy within the week. If they are ill, the food is enhanced with medical spray. The standard of living has reached an unprecedented high. Every citizen is healthy. Every citizen is equal. Every citizen is happy.

Except for one. Jess’s parents were on C.U.R.E. for over a year. Now they are dead. In terror, Jess runs. She meets Anna, a Nurse Nancy who has begun to question the food aid she has been distributing. Together, they must somehow untangle the web of government secrets to learn the truth about the C.U.R.E., and what is really happening to their citizens."

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This is our Dystopian Trailer Project, created by myself, Ravyn, Esther, and Song-Binh over the past month or so. We've had lots of fun and many adventures, which took us from school to Value Village to my house to the editing suite, and then to another computer when our computer literally died. The development of the story and subsequently the trailer was really cool to watch and experience: from our first story idea, which was terrible, to the final color-correcting and music-editing touches, we've learned a lot. We hope you enjoy the trailer.

Food, Glorious Food

"Today, agriculture is going far beyond nature, to produce new miracles, for an even better, more abundant life."

In this video, made in 1960 by the US Department of Agriculture, a voiceover describes the boom of supermarkets, the use of machinery in food production, and the ease, convenience, and abundance of food resulting from these changes. The utopian feeling of the society it describes fits our dystopian trailer perfectly: in our premise, the government has created federal aid programs wherein anyone whose quality of living is subpar to the national standard receives food handouts. In order for that sort of system to work--and in our society, with the bureaucratic control, it works--there presumably must be a highly efficient food production system. We have written in a short speech and voiceover sequence for our government official discussing the food aid program, and so could hopefully add clips from the video above discussing the intricacies (and miracles!) of the system. The quote above starts at 1:00, and preludes a discussion of everything awesome happening in the society. This video will be great for setting up the illusion of a utopian society in our trailer.

We are very wary of writing too many ideas into our trailer, for fear of it becoming too long, too wordy, or too complicated, but if we are able to, we plan on using archival footage to demonstrate other key features of our society. The disappearance of disease, poverty, and hunger; the yearly census to monitor the quality of living of citizens; the food preparation; even the ubiquitous Nurse Nancy (our chief distributor of food, who goes door-to-door with meals, announcing her presence with a little bell)--all can be introduced through stock footage of hospitals, ghettos, kitchens, government officials, paperwork, and nurses. Archival footage will be critical to the trailer's ability to immerse the audience in its world.

Children of Men

Children of Men. Alfonso Cuarón. R. 2006.
In 2027, after two decades of mass infertility have left society on the brink of devastation, Theo Faron (Clive Owen) must help get a miraculously pregnant woman to a safe place where scientists can use her child to save humankind from extinction.

The trailer for 'Children of Men' is exemplary because it clearly relates the dystopian premise through the use of voiceovers, clips from the movie with relevant information, text and images, all of which convey the terror associated with the society and the urgency in the hero's mission. The trailer begins with Theo, in a voiceover, stating the premise: "Since women stopped being able to have babies, what's left to hope for?" Shots of the world-at-large are mostly gray and black, reflecting the despair and numbness felt throughout civilization. Light and color enter when a catalytic character does: Theo's ex-wife, who introduces him to the girl and the mission that are at the center of the plot. A key shot of the girl's pregnancy, combined with a change in music and pacing (not to mention a character saying, "Now you know what's at stake"), helps the audience understand the focus of the movie. The given information, combined with the chaotic mob scenes, police brutality, and random explosions, makes it clear that the dystopian control is post-apocalyptic, with the infertility of women crippling the development of society. Theo, as the protagonist, feels hopeless and depressed; when he is given the chance to (as the text displayed throughout the trailer states) "fight for our future", it is clear he will do anything it takes to complete the mission, get the pregnant girl to safety, and save humankind. Though the premise my group is using is very different from 'Children of Men', I am hoping that we can relate information in a similarly straightforward but creative way: 'Children of Men' is shot with largely documentary-style technique, making it more realistic and therefore more comparable to modern-day concerns. Also, we will likely also use grim street corners and alleys to convey the corresponding despair of the people. The simple text appearing onscreen will be a good way of getting the meaning across, and hopefully our music, lighting, and cinematographic effects will lend the appropriate emotions to the trailer.