Abstract images and Haneke

The other night I decided to watch Haneke's The 7th Continent again. Based on a true story, a typical middle-class Austrian family find life does not offer anything more than a series of an emotionally-empty, mundane events. They decide to destroy their lives and commit suicide (yep, not the most upbeat of stories). The 7th Continent refers to Australia, but in an abstract sense, a image of another world, perhaps where what is missing in their lives will be fulfilled? It is probably not that simple.
(In the film, when their bank asks them what they need all their money for they tell them they are emigrating to Australia.)
This image Haneke represents with an impossibly beautiful visual of a beach with waves crashing against the shore. The picture is so artificial it is almost becomes disturbing in its own right, and I would guess that if this image is what the family believes is missing in their lives then Haneke is saying this too is false.
Well, I had forgotten all about this picture when I was discussing my questions of the 'blackouts + sound' these past few weeks. Of course this picture acts in the way that I intend my blackouts to work, as an abstraction of a state, expressed at key points in the film. I can't remember if I had already said that JC, my DOP, thought these blackouts would act as an alienation effect, that the audience would suddenly be made aware of their presence in the cinema. This is not to say this is good or bad, just what would happen. But now, after seeing The 7th Continent again I have to think that this is not the case. Or perhaps in a conventional film this would be the case. In film structures like Haneke's, or what I am attempting to pull off in Tidal Barrier, these abstract images act in another way.

Casting for Claire

I am closing to finishing Reconciliation, which will be a great relief. It is hard to focus on the new project when you are preoccupied with the practical problems of sound design and grading.
Still, this past weekend I sent out a casting call for the character, Claire, in Tidal Barrier. A week from today I will begin to meet some new actresses.
There are so many reasons I find casting difficult. First, there are so many conventions that I find pointless. Most actors expect to have to prepare and present something. The last thing I am interested in seeing is a Shakespeare monologue. What's that got to do with my script? I suppose the real test is how they react when I throw out the rule book.
The other big question is how they react to a lack of a script. I work from an outline. What do I need a script for? It is a document for producers, so they can't calculate running time and create budgets. There is no budget. And we will be shooting the whole story on DV and editing it. I will have the clearest possible idea of running time and production problems from this exercise.
And there is no dialogue either, the other reason you create a script. So no script, another real test.
And then what do you have them do? In the past I spent a lot of time talking. Finding out about the person and trying to gauge where this person is a capable of going. At the same time you are seeing them react and be, and you capture this on camera.
But recently I have been less inclined to speak, and more inclined to do, and capture the scene on video. Here I interested how they can be on camera, where they can start from, and where they can go, eg. take direction. I am really looking to see how effectively I can get them to not act.