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Chazelle Themes
Before looking into what I wanted to delve into personally, it’s worth re-establishing core ideals Chazelle revisits in his films. Chazelle is deeply intertwined with music, particularly jazz, and wants to present the hard work and dedication that goes into the industry. This is often overseen in cinema as music is taken as a consistent background success while the stories getting to that point are never told. Chazelle has been able to dive into his personal experiences overworking and causing physical and social injuries to truly address this. Drawing from personal events is something Chazelle does often to either begin or add to a story. Additionally, this theme of overworking in music ties directly to balancing a lifestyle with work and domestic aspects, something every protagonist in a Chazelle film struggles with. His films test this theme by putting them at odds with characters and objectives to distract from a central path. For example, Mia and Sebastian in La La Land have completely separate goals with their industries but fall in love and try to make it work, the hurdles eventually being too strong.
Furthermore, the other essential theme of Chazelle’s filmmaking is the dreamers. Chazelle’s work is design to inspire and present to audiences how dreams can go from that to reality or whether it’s too good to be true. This comes hand in hand with hard work and dedication but is usually designed as a test to see if a dream should remain just that or has potential to grow. Throughout his features, he plays with this by presenting characters who go too far in pursuit that this becomes obsession and also those who are swaid into different paths. Pondering on dreams is something that sticks with any audience demographic and gives them something valuable to consider and discussion when the feature ends. Filmmaking is a tool to deliver thoughful messages like this and give society an outlet to discuss.
Personal Themes
Having considered Chazelle’s consistent themes, I now want to draw attention to areas I which to add to this in order to make this short film my own. Since Chazelle draws from personal experiences, one of the central ethos I wanted to explore beginning this project was my visual disabilities in conjunction with music, although this can be taken further. I have always struggled with my vision. From a young age, we discovered my stigmatism and I’ve worn glasses for distance ever since. However, there was more to it that further assessments when I was 11 led us to discover. At that point, I was diagnosed with visual stress/ tracking issues. From my experiences, this means I find it difficult to read blocks of text, music sheets or any busy patterns as this becomes to bright and loud for my brain to process. A year or so later, following several more tests, I ended up with blue colour filtered glasses to wear when I’m reading, both generally and for music, or if a situation became visually stressful. Vision is something you don’t understand you’re different with as, in my case, it was always the way I saw the world and never second guessed it. However, having the filters has given me the confidence to complete tasks I had struggled with, such as playing music, so I can maximise potential. Using music as a vessel to present my filters for film, my object will be to raise awareness about this condition during my short film.
In my short film, I will use a black and white overexposed palette when the glasses aren’t being used followed by a full, calmer, blueish palette when they are to emphasise the difference for a wider audience who may not understand. Additionally, a point I would like to highlight in doing this though is that the filters haven’t ‘solved’ my vision. Even with them, I still struggle from time to time and must put in the effort and hardworking to make using them worth while. So, to clarify this, in my short film, the character will play music without them to an underwhelming degree. Following this, they will perform better with them but still make a mistake, emphasizing that the filters don’t fix the issue. This additional tie in theme of hard work is core to Chazelle as noted above.
To elaborate further, I would like to also bring in the theme of social acceptance. Society finds a physical difference confusing and isn’t always accepting of people receiving aid. In my case, although I felt happier when using the filters for my benefit, I’d always feel like an outsider who others would isolation due to my difference. A lot of times, this would make me not use them as to try and be ‘normal’ to be accepted. I often get questioned by my peers, which can be fine when they simply want to understand why but 3 time out of 4 this comes across as a prying attack, lowering my self esteem. Putting out a short film with someone using the filters will hopefully be a strong message. Seeing other people with similar issues to you in the media makes you feel seen and heard. Moreover, this theme connects why the character is reluctant to wear the filters at the beginning of the short film before feeling more comfortable over time.
Musical Themes
As well as using the short film to promote visual disabilities, I’m using it to promote my instrument of choice: the clarinet. I’ve always have a difficult time with the instrument as do so many I know that take it on at a younger age. Even by players, including myself, the clarinet is heckled for being an unnecessary instrument that does fit into a core group. For example, the wider public would associate trumpets and saxophones with jazz and violins with orchestra but there isn’t a clear definition to the clarinet due to its versatility. Created back in the 18th century, the clarinet has remained essential to the evolution of Jazz, contributing with vital counter melodies that bring the music together. However, if you look at a jazz band in this day and age, it is unlikely you would see one included following their fall from public eye in 1960s. The clarinet has an identity problem in the modern world so representing it in this short film is important. Just like how Chazelle took aspects of drumming that aren’t considered, I would like to explore the use of the clarinet.
Wider Themes
Particularly the final theme mentioned above can be applied to a global context: acceptance of the unheard. Cinema is a platform for voices to really be heard. Although the issues I want to bring forward in this short are personal and open eyes to a community, it is important to reference larger scale injustices and misrepresentation that impacts the context of my film. Representation in cinema is widely needed from every community including migrants, minority races, disabilities, pride, etc. In doing this short film, I feel I am doing a part in telling my story in an attempt to give others confidence in sharing their own.
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