Staff Pick Premiere: "Charlotte" by Zach Dorn |

This week's Staff Pick Premiere an undiscovered folk-singer Lena Black discovers her fifty-year-old track "Charlotte" will be reconstructed to become a popular music video. It is set after the release of the track the director Zach Dorn explores how the legacy of the song impacts Lena, her daughter Diane and her 11-year-old grandchild, Eli.

In her letter to the singer Lena notes: "There is something far better than forgetting or get lost." The central concept is presented throughout the film as the recent triumphs reveal past wounds. In a sequence of all but one conversations , which include Lena's letter Diane's telephone call, as well as Eli's tape recordings Dorn draws a moving depiction of a family which is beginning to recognize their fellow members through music.

If asked about his distinctive structure for the film, Dorn explained: "I loved the conceit of exploring these connections and not seeing the entire family interact. With the help of distinct monologues, my goal was for the audience to be as if the characters had created their own version of the same song. There are generational physical, emotional and geographical gap, however, I hope that some element at the root of their anxieties will eventually lead to the same melody."

This is a song that's familiar to anyone who has experienced dissolution of their families, however "Charlotte" is different from the other family drama that we've seen on the . With hand-crafted puppets and stop-motion animation Dorn invites us to join with them in their stories, experiences, and imaginations, for an incredible journey.

     Before the official release the album, we talked with Dorn to find out what inspired him to create his process, design, and the process. Check out the interview to learn more about "Charlotte. "

The film's source of inspiration:

"In 2019 I made a show with puppets about the world's largest sponge and the highly-rated TV show Gilmore Girls. As I was buying mini-craft supplies in the fake flower aisle in a Michael's Craft shop, Carly Rae's rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" came on the loudspeaker. The cover is incredibly upbeat an excellent bubbly pop track, which is odd because Joni Mitchell's original song is difficult and emotional. This was an amazing feeling because I adored this Carly Rae cover so much. For me, the famous version, even though it was more artificial was still full with the same emotions as Joni Mitchell's classic. I felt jaded and dismayed by this idea, but was able to imagine Carly Rae jepsen as well as Joni Mitchell's interpretations of "Both Sides Now" while they conversed. This conversation was later to become the lyrics of "Charlotte ."

In creating the script:

"I was thinking of the original version of "Charlotte" as an radio program, which was a kind of the Joe Frank voyeuristic drama, that took place within miniature worlds without puppets. The story was written through the eyes of eight characters, who had a professional or personal relationship that was built around the tune "Charlotte." While getting familiarize myself with these characters Diane and Eli considered as the most interesting which is why I included them in the mix together with Lena and pop singer T.Y.M. Once I was able to figure out this, I spent several time trying to discover the best way to let their stories connect."

On the music collaboration:

"When I wrote "Charlotte," I always had singer Jenna Caravello in mind. As I composed the lyrics I recorded the fictional Rolling Stone interviews featuring Lena Black and some of fake diary entries. With this data, Jenna wrote the folk tune.

     Jenna's track was sent to Zhenya Golikova who I met online. In the year 2020, Zhenya covered the voice memos I composed to a friend, silly and pathetic songs that were about marshmallows and cats as well as the longing for someone from another country The following year, Zhenya turned my tunes into a stunning ballad. Her work has this early Magnetic Fields look, like that it was composed at sea by horny sea monkeys.. I sent her Jenna's song and she got the pop version one week later. . "

on talk-show programs:

"So many female folk singers during the 1960s and 1970s were greatly under-appreciated. The likes of Vashti Bunyan Karen Dalton, Linda Perrhacs and The Roches were ignored or relegated to categories like "freak folk," but never given the same respect as male counterparts. It's an intriguing paradox that occurs when folk music is attributed to ideals of progressivism, yet are immersed in a specific sort of unspoken gender-based misogyny.

     As I listened to those musicians, I could not help thinking of Lena as she was at this stage in her career. In order to keep her status, her professional career, she'd have to be involved in the 70s Laurel Canyon lifestyle, party with the correct kind of people , and use the right drugs - all within the same society that is run by males. And I just don't think she would be able to handle it. Perhaps it was because she had a baby and maybe she could see Through It All. I'm not certain. But, I was affected by her grief - that took place over the course of her lifetime, mourning for the loss of her job. What happens to the anger of her? How does the grief manifest for her daughter? When I was thinking about these questions, I decided to write Lena's interactions with Sam as a prologue to her relationship with her daughter. "

On developing his unique visual style:

     "In my 20s, and into my early 20s, I worked as a artist, however I wasn't very good at the craft. I'm missing an 8th of my brain , and I'm sure that this contributed to a real inability to perceive spatial space. Making or manipulating something which was 3D wasn't impossible. This was why I could get involved with Toy Theater, a type of two-dimensional puppetry which was once extremely popular at the end of the 19th century England. I began building dioramas using matte boards and acrylics such in pop-up magazines. I manipulated live-projecting digital cameras within them as I told stories about my dog's owner or landlord.

     I am obsessed with the specifics of everything, whether it's the bar code on a Doritos bag or the design of an McDonald's Happy Meal box. Due to my brain's absence, I can't cut straight lines or shape things realistically. So, I have this style that is a mix-up with the decomposition of things and the obsession with things.

     To create the puppets, I worked with stop-motion animators Oliver Levine and Lily Windsor to develop a tactile and gritty style which fit the hand-painted world of the film. Since I made the film at the time of the Lockdown, we needed to collaborate on a distance basis. Lily was from Chicago, shipping tiny boxes of llamas to Chicago, in addition to Oliver making head-sculpts and leaving them at my front door Burbank . "

The next step:

     "Currently I'm independently developing a documentary on Livia Soprano who is the CGI Livia Soprano from the third season in The Sopranos, as well as the genetic mutation that is known as BRCA2. My family was an Italian American family filled with various eccentricities and personalities however, towards the end my 20s, BRCA2 caused a ripple effect on the familial connections by causing premature deaths of family members. family.

     At the age of 2020, I saw The Sopranos for the first time. Every show was like I were in the conversation of my own family. Today, I'm making a film about this experience that recreates old home movies using stop-motion. I will afterwards, I will examine Livia Soprano's posthumous performance as it relates to my personal memories of grief . "

Article was first seen on here