This storyboard charts the character of Saleye, an unsuspecting girl, played by Sandra, who comes to earth from PLANET BOLLYWOOD- a planet where life is pre-scripted and uneventful. As she discovers how life on earth works-- that one needs money for everything, for example, and that this money has to be earned-- strange things happen around her. At crucial moments of tension her reflexes take over, she can't help but do a weird sort of dance, only to see the attitude of the person in front of her change suddenly.
She will discover that she has a superpower-- which is to dispel stereotypes in the eye of the beholder....
Saleye also intersects with the Ruwaxi character of Cynthia - the exact point of intersection will need to be finalized.
The video unfortunately is missing one section of sound (the immigration part)- also the sound on this draft is low - so the script is below.
Password: saleye
Saleye Storyboard Assign 5 from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.
Feedback questions:
1) Which parts of the story do you find most compelling?
(2) Does the storyline make sense? If not, at which parts does it need clarification?
(3) Do you have suggestions for translating this into live performance?
(4) Which movement motifs that I tried to sketch at certain parts work for you, which don't?
(5) Do you have any suggestions for incorporating live feed?
(6) Do you have any ideas about clarifying the connection?
(7) Any other comments, suggestions, ideas?
Script:
Saleye- Origin Story
Not too long ago on a planet far far away, there lived a girl by the name of Saleye. She was a
quiet girl, living in her own world, while her family was a mainstream, busy, beautiful, successful
Bollywood family. Their life was picture perfect: father and mother happily married, with the
customary ups and downs to work through. They were living in a big suburban house, with too
many rooms, furnished straight out of a catalog. Saleye was an only child, and was living in her
own flat in the parents house. The relatives of the extended family were living in the surrounding
houses. They had everything they needed, and more: living in luxury and harmony, with a healthy
dose of solvable conflicts that were blown up to melodramatic episodes to spice up their lives.
The lives of their friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and colleagues were similar: predictable,
uneventful, stable, fixed.
But Saleye was growing increasingly anxious. She did not trust the outward contentment and peace. She was bored of the melodrama, of the predictability of all of their lives. She was longing for something “real”- “real” life – not sugarcoated, melodramatic luxury problems: and she was longing to be looking for it on PLANET EARTH, because she heard that that is where one could still find “real life.”
In order to reach her goal, she proceeded to go out more frequently to hang out in the vicinity of one of the big stars of the planet, who can travel the neighboring planets like planet earth for public relations: The stars contribute to the fame of the planet.
As was the purpose of hanging out with the stars, Saleye manages to sneak in with the entourage of the big star as someone to iron his undershirts. As one of his entourage she gets permission to travel to planet earth. And they are about to leave on a trip. Secretly she packs and sneaks out to the interplanetary airport...
As they arrive on planet earth, the star and his whole entourage are stopped by immigration. The star is the main focus of attention, but not because the officers are starstruck-- but because they don't recognize him and think he is a threat. They don't want to let him in.
Saleye gets nervous. She is not even supposed to be there, and now she is stuck in this situation!!! When the officer comes to her to question her, her heart is beating, her hands are shaking (but she can hide it), she feels as though sweat is running down her back. To mask it all, she decides to follow the melodramatic conventions she grew up with and is overly nice. She has a huge smile and is her most charming self, to not arouse suspicion.
As he questions her about her passport and permission to enter planet earth (even though he has her complete papers in his hand), she suddenly is taken over by reflexes. Before she realizes, her reflexes take over. She cannot control it, but finds herself looking him straight in the eyes, lifts her arms to frame her eyes and moves her neck and eyes right to left-
The officer's expression suddenly changes to open and friendly. She returns her papers and says “enjoy your stay on planet earth”! Confused about the sudden change in attitude Saleye takes her papers. Quickly she takes her belongings and swiftly proceeds into the world of planet earth.
But she remains to be confused.... what just happened? What caused his change of attitude?
Venturing out of the airport she gets confused where to go, she dances about the city, here and there until she is attracted by a store, that has familiar sounds, images, and smells--- an Indian grocery store.
As she wants to get something to eat and find out about a place to live, she finds out that she needs money for everything.
Saleye: Money- where should I get money from?
Shopkeeper: are you joking? You have to earn it!!!
Saleye: Earn money? How?
Shopkeeper: Uff, try getting a job! Here is the paper- here are the ads. I will even let you make a phone call!
So Saleye did. She found a job as a domestic help-- even with accommodation! Sooner than later she was on her way to the home of a rich immigrant family in the City of Angels. She commenced her job immediately.
On the first evening itself, the family sent her into the room of their daughter Ruwaxi.
Since she had not met her yet, she slowly quietly opens the door to Ruwaxi's room. Ruwaxi
jumped-- she had been lost in her books and studies or writing....
She turned around and stared at Saleye—thinking “who is this stranger in my room?” Ruwaxi got
shy, being looked at. (NOTE: it's to be worked out if now and here, or when they are elsewhere
together.)
Suddenly Saleye's reflexes took over again.... she started moving involuntarily... framing her eyes with her forearms, moving her eyes and neck side to side--- only to be witness to a wonder-some transformation in Ruwaxi.
What just Happened??
As they continue their journey, they will find out in due time....
TO BE CONTINUED....
1) Which parts of the story do you find most compelling?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean the written story or the storyboard? In the written story, I like the wordplay (planetary and movie stars), which I think you could push even further. There are lots of names for stars - white dwarf, blue giant – there is even a type called super giant star! Maybe they are all members of RSK's entourage? http://www.universetoday.com/24299/types-of-stars/. I also like the potential for political commentary for the immigration border and how you describe Saleye falling back on the "melodramatic conventions" of Planet Bollywood only to have her anxiety propel her into something unexpected...this seems to reveal something about her personality and dissatisfaction with Bollywood.
(2) Does the storyline make sense? If not, at which parts does it need clarification?
I have a bunch of questions - these don't all necessarily need to be written into the story directly, but might be good to think about.
Narrative Inconsistencies:
Planet Bollywood is “far far away” but you also say that PLANET EARTH is a “neighboring” planet?
Also, as Shy pointed out, Planet Bollywood is filled with contentment and peace but also melodramatic?
Questions:
Saleye seems to be from a privileged Bollywood family, but somehow she is adept at “ironing shirts” for RSK and becomes the domestic help for the Wu family. How does she acquire these skills? Does she hang out with the servants in her own house? On Planet Bollywood do they have servants (as they do in the films)? What do you – or Saleye – make of the switch in socioeconomic class that Saleye experiences when she comes to Planet Earth? Is she even aware of it?
To me, Saleye’s longing for “real life” seems somehow parallel to the ways in which people from the 1st world often romanticize the 3rd world as being more “authentic.” Is this something you want to either exploit/critique or to avoid in your story? Or is Earth the place where people can live unscripted lives? What is the relationship between stereotypes and scripted lives?
It might help to identify why immigration finds RSK suspicious. Is it the color of his skin? The way he dresses? That would help set up the idea of stereotypes, without necessarily spelling it out entirely.
Why does Saleye have the particular superpower that she does? Is it that she sees beyond “surfaces” to the “real”? Does it only appear on Earth and not on Pl. Bollywood? Does Saleye have an alter ego “ordinary” self and a super heroine self, or is she always the super heroine? If so, do they have the same name? The version of Saleye in the glasses and silver cuffs looks kind of super-heroine as compared to the "ordinary" views of you walking through the airport and the close-ups on your face, while the "cartoon" of you with dupatta over your head and the Bollywood scratches images reference are somewhere in between.
Wouldn’t a protective Asian-American family living in a gated community do a pretty extensive background check on Saleye before hiring her as live-in domestic help? Does Saleye engage her superpowers to persuade them to hire her, as she did at immigration?
Why would Saleye’s gaze make Ruwaxi uncomfortable if Saleye is free of objectifying stereotypes?
Why does Saleye dance about the city? Is this a Bollywood number? Does Saleye teach Ruwaxi to dance? What is Saleye’s relationship to her own gender and sexuality, and how does dance fit in? Is there a way to establish that Saleye and Ruwaxi go out clubbing (or dancing) together?
(3) One idea could be something parallel to Super Ruwaxi, with a narrator telling the story and the main character acting out key actions. You could also make the whole thing a Bollywood movie with song and dance numbers. Or maybe the performance is an "filming" on set of the Bollywood movie story of Saleye visiting Planet Earth, with breaks and a director yelling. I would also be curious about researching Bollywood narrative structures. It might be fun to play with time, flash-backs and flash-forwards?
ReplyDelete(4) I see three main movement motifs: the use of close-up abhinaya, the Bollywood scratches movement material, and the wonder-woman type dance with the sunglasses. And there is Ruwaxi's "shy" dance. I think all the movement could probably be further developed. I like that the abhinaya is slightly more exaggerated than you usually do, and the repetition of the same movement 3 times in the beginning, which both shows a progression of Saleye getting increasingly discontent with Pl. Bollywood as well as the repetitive, scripted nature of things there. The movement in the silver cuffs is fun - I'd love to see it set to a rhythmic composition such as a jaathi - and it also reminds me of Wonder Woman's "blocking bullets" dance. What is the purpose of the cuffs? Does it block the objectifying gaze, and then Saleye's own gaze neutralizes the evil eye of the perpetrator?
(5) It might make sense if the video/live feed is associated with Planet Bollywood (and miraculous otherworldly occurrences) and Planet Earth is the simple live body. It could be funny if the camera is at the immigration border (since they have cameras there sometimes) and you do your movement into the eye of the camera, which appears huge on the back wall.
To underline the fakery of Planet Bollywood, we could have little figures (like GI Joe figures) acting out the different characters (mom, dad, etc) in the live feed. Or something like the video you did with Adnan, where the hands turn into puppets? Or we could use mudras like in Super Ruwaxi, but see if there is some kind of Isadora filter that would make it all crazy hyper-color? Or, we could use live feed throughout, but have Bollywood in color and Planet Earth in black and white, or vice versa. (Again, something I don't know how to do on Izzy yet.)
I love the "cartoons" of you and Peter as the immigration officer, but am not sure how they could intersect with live feed - this might be slightly beyond our technical capability.
(6) The connection? Do you mean with Ruwaxi, or something else? Probably my questions to #2 would help answer these. I also noticed that both Ruwaxi and Saleye have a propensity to sneak behind their parents’ backs.