This report documents the making of the short film Post-Racial, through the eyes of its filmmaker. Post-Racial was produced as my third year thesis film, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. / text

The following thesis describes the lessons that were learned during the process of making a short film, covering the areas of pre-production, production, and post-production. The shooting script is included in the appendix.

This thesis provides a commentary on three films that I have made on the subjects of childbirth and death; Born (Lawrence 2008); The Lover and the Beloved: A Journey into Tantra (Lawrence 2012); The One and the Many (Lawrence 2013). I discuss these films as practice-based research within the discipline areas of anthropology, media and performance in order to suggest an innovative way in which intersubjectivity may be explored and evoked through a method of ethnographic filmmaking. After a brief summary of the content of each film, I present my research methodology and associated techniques of filmmaking for fieldwork. I identify these as being different to those employed by Robert Gardner in his much discussed film about death, Forest of Bliss (1985). I elaborate on the methodological importance of intersubjectivity in filmed fieldwork by using two words, ‘confusion’ and ‘catharsis’, borrowed from reviewers of my film, Born. I argue that these words help to explain how the dual processes of perception and expression operate for all parties involved in the filmic encounter, including here the filmmakers, the subjects and the audiences. Drawing on ideas about how subjective experience is narrated by Turner (1986); intersubjectivity in ethnographic story telling by Jackson (2002; 2012); the conditions under which a film might provoke a cathartic response from a viewer by Scheff (2001); I consider how a filmmaking method can focus on the confusion in human experience, to become a new but related experience for the audience of a film. The objective of this methodology is to understand how subjective confusion becomes narrative coherence through the empirical lenses of childbirth and death. These ideas provide a basis to explain four areas of filmmaking technique that I use to produce anthropological films. The first relates to proximity: here I describe how I become a participant as well as an observer in action as it is unfolding and thus also a part of the story myself. The second looks at ways in which camera and microphone movement produce an “expression of experience by experience” (Sobchack 1995, p. 37). Thirdly, I outline a technique for the close examination of field experiences as they unfold and before they are fully comprehended that can also facilitate the production of high quality recorded material from which to craft a film. Lastly, I look at how reflexivity enhances the role of all the film’s subjects, including myself, to develop a useful context by which viewers of a film can engage with the protagonists of a story. In conclusion, I evaluate the success of these techniques in realising the methodological objectives of the work.

This thesis book details the conception and production of The Taxidermist, a narrative short film shot on 16mm color film. It tells the story of a loving father and his daughter who live in an isolated rural area. The over protective taxidermist tries to protect his daughter from all the ills of the world, but this also keeps her from experiencing the wider world. All aspects of the production from writing through post-production are covered within the thesis. In particular the challenges and advantages of location shooting are covered. Postproduction issues in the digital age are also covered in some detail.

This Master’s Report chronicles the process of inception, pre-production, production and post-production for Who Is Paloma Carter, a thesis film made as part of the MFA in Film Production at The University of Texas at Austin’s RTF Program, as well as the insights gained through these stages and the course of the entire program. / text

"The nature of being 'A wake'" documents the inglorious genesis and evolution of the feature film, "A wake," as it exposes the personal defects and character flaws of its writer, Jeb Sherrill Kendrick. / text

The following report describes the pre-production, production, and post-production of my short-narrative thesis film. Auto X is a short fiction film about the ramblings, arguments, and strange encounters in a day in the life of a south-side Austin auto body & tint shop. It was devised and developed through improvisation and collaboration between its four-person cast and the director. Incorporating both elements of realism, character-driven fiction, and documentary, Auto X utilizes an unconventional approach to narrative filmmaking to present a unique and textured world of characters. The report recounts the production process in a day-by-day first-person narrative. The production account is preceded by a description of the initial planning and conceptualization of the project. In the latter half, the post-production process is presented as well as final conclusions drawn from the entire life of the project. Particular attention is paid to key filmmaking concepts and stylistic approaches that are discussed alongside the stages of production they pertain to. / text

The following report details the formative experiences that led to the creation of the thesis film, Lock In. Each chapter reflects both a major film influence and a different stage in the filmmaking process. / text

No description available.

This thesis is an ethnographic study carried out with the Bororo people in Central Brazil. It focuses on how Bororo people’s moral experiences are transformed through modernisation, evangelisation and globalisation. It will demonstrate that in spite of the cultural and communicational transformations entailed by the villages’ global interconnections, the significance of two cultural prohibitions—moiety endogamy and the aije spirits (men’s secret)—continue to inform the moral actions of contemporary Bororo. Through the use of filmmaking and film elicitation methods, the thesis investigates each of these prohibitions and contends that they are constitutive of the Boe gendered person. The study argues that in the midst of radical cultural and communicational transformation, it is through the construction of the gendered person that continuity is ensured. The thesis describes the radical transformations in two Bororo villages with particular attention to the youths’ participation on social media networking through the Internet. It also stresses the importance of the notion of ‘romantic love’ in contemporary village life whilst also demonstrating how the prohibition on moiety endogamous marriages continues to inform the experience of Bororo multividuals. In order to investigate this issue, I explored the themes of ‘romantic love’ and moiety endogamy through the making of the visual ethnography In Search of a Bororo Mr. Right which accompanies the thesis. Whilst I investigate moiety endogamy through the making of a film, the significance of the aije spirits emerged in a process of feedback screenings, which unexpectedly turned into film elicitation sessions for the film medium, brought to the surface the strength of women’s fear of these beings. Drawing on the analysis of the two prohibitions taken together, I argue that the Boe gendered person is constructed through the mediation of village relations with ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ others. In this sense, women are responsible for the manipulation of marriage alliances and the inspection of new babies (who are dangerous ‘others’) about whom they have the power over life or death. By the same token, men are primarily responsible for mediating relationships with ‘outside’ others (spirits, animals, non-indigenous peoples). They are in charge of unmaking dead bodies and conducting new souls to the village of the dead. Whilst the Boe gendered person is what ensures continuity in the midst of radical change, the village relations with the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ are in the process of transformation for the presence of the media, and the Internet in the villages is multiplying otherness and the spaces it inhabits.