Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don't frighten me at all.
Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn't frighten me at all.
I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won't cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Tough guys fight
All alone at night
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don't frighten me at all.
That new classroom where
Boys all pull my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don't frighten me at all.
Don't show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I'm afraid at all
It's only in my dreams.
I've got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.
Life doesn't frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all.
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
(Angelou, 1993).
From details such as "that new classroom" and "on my counterpane" and "all alone at night", it can be seen that the poem is written from the perspective of a little girl who is laying in bed before going to sleep, thinking about fears in her life she has to face and conquer (Spacey, 2018). Therefore, the theme of the poem is courage.
However, the girl is not completely unafraid -- she is still human -- since she is sometimes frightened in her dreams. This implies that everyone is scared of something, no matter how brave they may look or seem. Some people just hide fear better because they have worked out ways to deal with it, such as this little girl and her "magic charm".
For this reason, the poem suggests that there is nothing to be afraid of in life, not if you have methods for coping with fears (Spacey, 2018). Therefore, the little girl in the poem is proactive -- "I go boo; Make them shoo" -- and although it is possible she may have been scared before, she isn't anymore (Spacey, 2018).
In the end:
"The speaker, the child, the girl, convinces herself that nothing life can throw at her, nothing her imagination conjures up, can truly frighten her. Her brave and strong stance will prevail; courage is best" (Spacey, 2018).This gives the poem a positive tone overall, which is inspirational and uplifting.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis as Marguerite Annie Johnson, but later changed her name in the 1950s by combining her childhood nickname with a diminutive of the surname of her husband (Waxman, 2018).
She was most famous for being "a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet" (Poetry Foundation, s.d). In her poems Maya Angelou covered a wide range of themes, the most prolific being depicting black beauty, women's strength, and the human soul (Poetry Foundation, s.d). She was also "a champion of women's rights and gender equality" (Sommerlad, 2018), evident in her poems such as "Life Doesn't Frighten Me", due to its proactive and strong female narrator.
Some of Maya Angelou's most important beliefs are evident in this poem, since she believed people shouldn't complain about their problems, but go out and find solutions to them, as courage is the most essential quality anyone can have -- just like the little girl in "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" (MayaAngelou.com, 2018).
She was also one of the first African-American woman to join the director's guild of America, making her directorial debut when she was 70 years old (Waxman, 2018). Shortly before this, in 1972, she was the very first African-American woman to have a screenplay produced (Poetry Foundation, s.d).
In 2014, she died at 86 years old (Poetry Foundation, s.d).
Influence on my film
I used elements from the poem, such as the theme of fears, a character having a "magic charm" to conquer them, and what type of person this character could be as the little girl from the poem turning into a strong female lead for the film.
From this, I came up with the idea of a physics student being afraid of a deadline, and a little of the world around her, who uses knowledge to conquer this fear. I decided on this idea because it is both a rational and irrational fear, since it is rational to be afraid of failure because of not making a deadline, but irrational as a deadline is usually only one day, just one day in a lifetime spanning several years.
I decided to make the character a student who takes physics because of how it can be seen as a male-dominated subject and career, even though there are women in the field. Using physics means shots in the film can emphasise and show the physicality of the environments we film in, such as motion and scale, creating possibilities to use rhythmic, tonal, and metric montage techniques to create an overtonal montage.
Opening sequence
In the opening sequence I took inspiration from the line, "lions on the loose" (Angelou, 1993), since my original idea was to open with my character running, as if from imaginary lions -- added in through sound design -- representing her fear. However, to link this idea more to the overall physics theme, I decided to use a volcano and clock to do this instead, as well as spinning shots of the character and a projector light since they emphasised motion, creating interesting visuals, whilst also being able to show fear, as well as panic.
Writing sequence
I also took inspiration from Maya Angelou and the quote from her about not just complaining, but doing work to find solutions to problems (MayaAngelou.com, 2018).
Therefore, I chose to include a sequence of the character writing and working over time, getting more and more frustrated as time goes on, since this shows to the audience that the character is trying, but struggling, yet doesn't give up.
"Don’t just complain about the problems you see and do nothing; roll up your sleeves and get to work finding solutions and remedies" (MayaAngelou.com, 2018).
Nightmare sequence
However, although the poem emphasises overcoming fear, I still wanted to show my character being afraid, since this makes her more human and thus more relatable to the audience since it shows them that she changes throughout the film.
To do this, I took inspiration from the line "If I'm afraid at all; It's only in my dreams", as well as "Strangers in the dark" and "All alone at night" (Angelou, 1993). This is why I included the sequence where it can be seen that the character is afraid of the noise outside, and is tired from struggling, so falls asleep and has a nightmare.
"Strangers in the dark" and "All alone at night" (Angelou, 1993), inspired the part where the character seems to be afraid of the outside world. This is because I wanted to emphasise how young she is and how unknown the world may be to her, as well as how far she still has to go.
This is somewhat of an irrational fear, since there isn't really anything outside the window, so there isn't anything she can be scared of. However, this leads into the nightmare sequence, about the fear of being labelled negatively, which is rational, but only if the character fails.
Therefore, I used this to show how complicated the character's feelings towards her fears were, as a way for the audience to see inside her head so they could relate to her more.
"Strangers in the dark" and "All alone at night" (Angelou, 1993), inspired the part where the character seems to be afraid of the outside world. This is because I wanted to emphasise how young she is and how unknown the world may be to her, as well as how far she still has to go.
This is somewhat of an irrational fear, since there isn't really anything outside the window, so there isn't anything she can be scared of. However, this leads into the nightmare sequence, about the fear of being labelled negatively, which is rational, but only if the character fails.
Therefore, I used this to show how complicated the character's feelings towards her fears were, as a way for the audience to see inside her head so they could relate to her more.
Nostalgia sequence
Angelou believed that love was essential to overcoming fear (MayaAngelou.com, 2018).
Therefore, I decided to portray this in the film through the montage showing the character's history with physics, emphasising how much she loves it, and representing this through the cardboard rocket she finds, which helps her to overcome her fear as she completes her paper. Maya Angelou also believed:
To come up with visuals for the montage I thought about images which emphasised physics, such as the experiments, one of them inspired by "Shadows on the wall" (Angelou, 1993).
I decided to include this because in the poem shadows are something which the narrator could possibly be afraid of. Therefore, I decided to subvert this, as something which is controlled by my character, so she isn't afraid, but uses them to develop her love for physics as a science project.
Therefore, I decided to portray this in the film through the montage showing the character's history with physics, emphasising how much she loves it, and representing this through the cardboard rocket she finds, which helps her to overcome her fear as she completes her paper. Maya Angelou also believed:
"Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself" (Goalcast, 2017).This is why I decided to make this a montage showing time passing as the character becomes more experienced with physics and develops her dream, which represents how much she loves it and how far she has already come.
To come up with visuals for the montage I thought about images which emphasised physics, such as the experiments, one of them inspired by "Shadows on the wall" (Angelou, 1993).
I decided to include this because in the poem shadows are something which the narrator could possibly be afraid of. Therefore, I decided to subvert this, as something which is controlled by my character, so she isn't afraid, but uses them to develop her love for physics as a science project.
End sequence
To emphasise the theme of using positive ways to overcome fear, for the ending I decided to have the character fail her paper, but use her nightmare, something perviously negative, as a positive way to deal with this.
This was inspired by the part of the poem where the narrator describes how she conquers her fears -- "I won't cry; So they fly; I just smile" (Angelou, 1993).
Therefore, at the end of the film, I decided to have my character look into the lens and smile, with a positive label on her head, as if she is looking directly at her fears, ready to conquer them.
For this reason, I decided to make my film silent, so it could focus on and highlight the character's emotions through shots, acting and imagery, such as the volcano and tight framing due to the mask.
The way Angelou uses repetition throughout the poem also influenced how I structured my montages. In the poem, it is used as the narrator seems to be convincing them self that they are unafraid -- "not at all; not at all" (Angelou, 1993).
This influenced my film through the building up of courage, since I used repetition to show this, for example, in all the different attempts at writing and all the different science projects.
I was also inspired by Maya Angelou's style of writing in her books, since it is arranged in episodes, which highlight different themes (Poetry Foundation, s.d).
Therefore, I arranged my montages around themes such as the nostalgia montage having the theme of love, and the writing montage having the theme of frustration.
References
Angelou, M. (1993) Life Doesn't Frighten Me. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
Goalcast (2017) 25 Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire Your Life. [online] At: https://www.goalcast.com/2017/04/03/maya-angelou-quotes-to-inspire-your-life/ (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
MayaAngelou.com (2018) Happy 90th Birthday Dr. Maya Angelou! [online] At: https://www.mayaangelou.com (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Poetry Foundation (s.d) Maya Angelou. [online] At: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Goalcast (2017) 25 Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire Your Life. [online] At: https://www.goalcast.com/2017/04/03/maya-angelou-quotes-to-inspire-your-life/ (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
MayaAngelou.com (2018) Happy 90th Birthday Dr. Maya Angelou! [online] At: https://www.mayaangelou.com (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Poetry Foundation (s.d) Maya Angelou. [online] At: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Sommerlad, J. (2018) 'Maya Angelou: The extraordinary life of the American writer and civil rights activist, and her poem 'Still I Rise'' In: The Independent. [online] At: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maya-angelou-remembered-poet-writer-civil-rights-activist-caged-bird-google-doodle-a8287691.html (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Spacey, A. (2018) 'Analysis of Poem "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou' In: Owlcation [online] At: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Life-Doesnt-Frighten-Me-by-Maya-Angelou (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Waxman, O. (2018) '5 Things to Know About Maya Angelou's Complicated, Meaningful Life' In: Time. [online] At: http://time.com/5226045/dr-maya-angelous-90th-birthday/ (Accessed on 17 November 2018).
Comments
Post a Comment