PROJECT 2 PROPOSAL: ORAL DOCUMENTARY

I would like for my oral documentary to be as abstract as possible, influenced by my endeavors in numerous fields of creative work. The documentary will not focus on my day-to-day life but my work as a filmmaker, poet, novelist and film critic with a focus on how these ideas govern the way that I navigate the world, not only my academic and professional pursuits.

The piece, for the first 10-20 seconds, will initially sound like any other radio piece, introduced by a reporter who will be voiced by an actor introducing Sam Littman the Writer. The interviewer will speak in an almost nonsensical manner before accurately describing what I have done, leading fittingly into a non-synch narrative that resembles something out of David Lynch. The sounds I use will be all voiceover with an eerie, wind-like sound wave blowing underneath which is nearly inaudible.

The narrative will be broken into four sections: Filmmaker, Poet, Novelist and film critic, with the reporter changing his voice subtly for each section in a way that sounds very eccentric, jarring the audience as they still will recognize that it is the same actor. The voice change will reflect the slight variance in my passion for each facet of creative work, alternately intense (poetry) and humorous (film critic).

The more abstract aspect will result from a melding of documenting a combination of my accomplishments to this point and my aspirations, blurring the line between fiction and reality for those that are not familiar with my work. For example, I will be introduced as the film critic of the Daily Orange of two years before the fast-talking narrator progresses to note how I progressed, from my first job at the Newar Star-Ledger to my current position at the Village Voice. As a filmmaker I graduated with a B.F.A. from Syracuse University and made experimental films under an alias before landing a teaching job at SUNY-Purchase. These will be abstractly melded together by quotes from those that know me (some in reality, some in my imagination) that will be rendered almost blurry to the point that the listener can only understand fragments, some of which might not even be particularly meaningful. The listener will then be forced to decide why I highlighted those snippets of the interview.

The problem that I expect to encounter will be the abstract formulation of the piece; will I intend for it to be abstract, this proposal merely, admittedly, makes it sound eccentric. I have never heard any type of “abstract” radio program so while I am a little confused as to how to go about designing the piece, I am excited at the prospect of creating something somewhat new, an abstract, radio-inspired sound piece that is also very personal.