Who am I and what do I hope to achieve?

My name is Alex Jones and I am old enough to be your dad !

I live in Porthleven, Cornwall with my partner and son.
I graduated from Winchester University with a Degree in documentary filmmaking.
I am raising the budget needed for a Cinema Vérité style film shot in beautiful France.

I've been influenced by these three films:
Agnes Varda’s film SANS TOIT NI LOI (a.k.a. "Vagabond")
Jean Rouch’s film ‘Chronicle of a Summer’
Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (I’m fascinated with the marketing strategy behind this film…not as low budget as everyone thinks!)


So in essence, reality converges with fiction and yet the film is all shot so as not to differentiate the two! Basically the viewer will not be able to tell what’s real and what’s fiction.

The basic synopsis for the film:

A low budget filmmaker sets out from England to make a documentary about the Festival d’ Avignon. It’s his first real filming project since graduating from University. The filmmaker plans to hitch lifts, walk and jump trains in order to get to Avignon. Once he arrives in Avignon the filmmaker will shoot lots of footage of the festival, and interview lots of people including V.I.P’s and performers, that he has already contacted prior to leaving the UK.

PLEASE NOTE: THE ABOVE IS WHAT THE CHARACTER IN THE FILM THINKS IS GOING TO HAPPEN!

In reality, the journey takes longer than expected. He meets lots of people on the journey from England to Avignon…the filmmaker is waylaid by some good people and some bad! He enjoys the freedom of living life on the road! He shoots on his 16mm wind-up camera things that catches his eye...he finds himself in situations that have to be seen to be believed! He eventually makes it to Avignon!...from that point on-wards, the past events come back to haunt him...?

Some of the film shots/sequences will be planed out in Pre-Production. Some of the film is improvised on the spot-where ever that might be, and some of the film will be shot ‘by chance-by random using the point and shoot method’ this creates many possible outcomes!

I can visualise in my head what the overall film will evolve into!

So the overall idea of the film is to make a road movie about a filmmaker on the road from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. With quite a few twists and turns along the way. Include in the film some Horror, some Romance, some Comedy etc and you have the next ‘Blair Witch’.

The film's working title is:
Ne Pas Plier svp: Destination Avignon

MORE IDEAS:

The film is about a wondering filmmaker that shoots film when something catches his eye (gestalt theory), like a beautiful sunset, a pretty girl that looks twice, the heat shimmer given off from a tarmac road, the crowd that gathers around a running cold water tap on a red hot summers day, the sound of thunder and that 'smell' in the air. You can see it in their eyes, grey clouds and people running from the rain and of course the carefree and young who don't mind getting wet.


This wandering filmmaker is making his way to the Festival d'Avignon to shoot the performers there with his 16mm camera! He's waylaid en route! Side-tracked, hoodwinked by the 'lust for life' never knowing when danger is about to confront him, some say naïve some, say wise, at least he'll never regret the fact, that he had a go and tried.

 

Never look back you must never look back that's the rule of thumb when you've walked away from almost being mugged - saved by a dog and then his friend whom you met earlier on that week, you met him while he was begging for French francs in the streets. He knows where to score some dope, he shows you the ropes, you become good friends. Then a girl turns up...with a beautiful smile.
...that always seems to happen when you're out & about having fun.

Thinking salacious thoughts, thinking who's going to have her first!

So I jump the next train. That's what makes this life 'the life'! Always knowing that it'll work out all-right in the back of your mind - there's always something to drink and you can always find something to eat.

 

 

Alex J has a Degree, he also has a steady mundane, mind numbing job - in a town with high unemployment...he works for a local college. He hates his life!

He dreams that he's talking to a Winona Ryder at a cash point machine.
He looks at her and then begins to tap at the ATM numbered keypad.
Later that morning whilst drinking a coffee he remembers it. Mainly because of Winona, but he also remembers those numbers.

He writes the numbers on the kitchen chalk board. Alex looks at the numbers everyday trying to work out their significance.

Days pass by and Alex is watching TV. The Lottery draw happens to be on. Alex watches in disbelief as one by one his numbers that he dreamt are drawn.

What follows next can't be written here! Imagine how you would feel! This was Alex's moment, his one and only, and as far as he was concerned he had blown it big time! Alex would have won the jackpot. He beats himself up - as you would I suppose if you'd actually dreamt of the winning lottery numbers and done nothing about it.

Days turn into weeks, Alex has not been out of the house! He no longer works. He's un-shaven. He stinks. He is a wreck. He is depressed. He's let himself go! He drops out of life. Then one day Alex looks at himself in the mirror. "I can't go on like this" he says to himself. He looks out of the bathroom window up at the sky. "I could be under that same sky-but a thousand miles from here", he says quietly to himself.

He decides to leave his life behind

He grabs his Passport, rolls up a sleeping bag, stuffs some clothes in a rucksack, picks up his guitar and an 8mm movie camera and walks out of the house. (He came into possession when at university (no questions asked), of some 8mm Kodachrome film stock cartridges, so what better time to use them)."No rent and no possessions except for these"...looking down at his cine camera and guitar.
"That's all I need...no TV... no 4 walls...no more 40 hour working bloody week ...I'm gone, off to wander the streets of France or where ever I end up!"
Alex's journey of self discovery has started.

He decides to travel down to Avignon to film the festival there. That's the plan anyway. His degree was based on documentary filmmaking, so why not. A train ticket is bought, the train to Poole. He catches a ferry to France. As he disembarks the ferry "This is where it all begins", he says to himself. He walks of into the aromatic warm French night.

The red cross are useful for food and hot drinks. In fact there is a lot of charity for the homeless in France. Alex found this out the hard way after going hungry for 4 days!
Free cigarettes, chocolate, coffee, baguettes, etc.etc
He meets other wonderers on his journey. Some are real dodgy, most are friendly. He listens and takes in what they say. Alex is starting to survive. He is becoming street savvy - street wise.

Sometimes Alex washes in the streams and rivers. Sometime at the charity homeless shelters. He jumps trains and burns the paper that the fines are written on - if the French Police stop you with one of those then your in trouble- deported!
The first couple of weeks sleeping under the stars was very hard. Never quite knowing where a safe place to sleep is. Eventually tiredness kicks in and you end up sleeping basically where you drop. "Never zip up your sleeping bag" if your set upon when your asleep then you don't stand a chance if your cocooned inside a zipped sleeping bag, more like a punch bag!
Train stations are fairly safe to sleep. Lots of ordinary people miss their last train and end up waiting in groups for the first train of the day!
...makes for a safe place at night as you talk to the rent boys waiting to get picked-up. They are not so bad when you get talking to them. You can always get a toke on a joint if you say hi!

Alex has spent weeks on the road, he has to put cardboard into his boots to patch the holes that have appeared. Every now and then he gets his 8mm cine camera out and starts to shoot what pleases him! Sometime fields of corn swaying in the wind, looking like an ocean, rippling and alive. Other times he secretly films the people as they pass by.
Alex begins to find himself, he's starting to enjoy what he's doing!Weeks pass by and Alex is now in Freiburg - Germany. He's built a bender in a forest. It's secluded. Wild boars live in the forest and there are warning signs all over!

When Alex sleeps he hears noises inches away. Scared stiff he falls asleep inside his tarpaulin motionless...not daring to move a muscle in case whatever it is out there decides to attack! Lightning and thunder immediately overhead when sleeping in the forest is also extremely frightening! So loud and such a bright white light!
On the other hand there are the beautiful fire fly's. What a mesmerizing site on a warm dark night. Catch one and you can see how they work. Get through all that and you lived a life that's worth living!

One day as Alex is emptying himself, he notices something shining a few trees away...just visible under the leaves. He finishes and fills in the hole with his foot. He washes his hands. He wanders over to the place where he saw the shining object. He bends down and looks at it but doesn't touch. He slowly (with his para boot), moves the leaves and soil away and uncovers a silver edged book. He picks it up and forces it open. The book appears to be an old address book. Names and numbers - some French, some German and some written in Spanish. On the inside cover is a name and number written in blood red ink. M. Pallot. 77.98.09.89.36.??

Without knowing it Alex has uncovered something that men have killed for!

...but in the mean time Alex smiles to himself, he says in his head " just like Ameli and that photo album" .

He stuffs it into his pocket and walks through the forest into town - breakfast, a wash, make some money with my guitar and perhaps meet a pretty girl who can put me up! Who knows.

 

The above should give you some idea of the film and its motivation.