Staff Pick Premiere: "Charlotte" by Zach Dorn |
In this episode of Staff Pick Premiere, forgotten folk singer Lena Black discovers her fifty-year-old track "Charlotte" is being reconstructed into a hit pop song. The film unfolds in the wake of the song's release. Filmmaker Zach Dorn explores how the influences of the original track is felt by Lena as well as her daughter Diane, and her 11-year-old grandson, Eli.
In a note addressed to the performer, Lena writes: "There is a far more serious issue than not remembering, and that's being lost." This theme is embedded throughout the movie as the song's triumph in recent times exposes past wounds. Through a collection of fragmented conversations , including Lena's letters, Diane's call, and Eli's tape record Dorn creates a touching portrait of a family starting to connect with each other by way of music.
If asked about his distinctive design for the film Dorn said: "I loved the conceit that we explore these relationships, yet never see family members in a relationship. When telling the story through the monologues of each character I wanted the film to appear as if all the characters have created each their own versions of the tune. It is true that there are generational physical, emotional and geographic gaps, but, hopefully something at the heart of their worries will eventually be the cause of the track."
This is a tune that's familiar for viewers who have witnessed family members break up however "Charlotte" differs from other family drama we've shared on the . With hand-crafted puppets and in addition to animated stop motion, Dorn encourages viewers to join with them in their experiences, stories, and imaginations for a deeply emotionally charged journey.
In the lead up to the release, we spoke to Dorn to learn the source of his inspiration as well as his process and design. Find out more about "Charlotte. "
Based on the film's origins:
"In 2019 I designed an animated show about the world's biggest sponge and also the cult TV show Gilmore Girls. Recently when I was shopping for miniature products in the faux flowers aisle at a Michael's Craft retailer, Carly's version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" heard on the speaker. It's an extremely upbeat track. delightful and bubbly, which is odd because the original song is rather difficult and empathetic. It was an awe-inspiring experience since I enjoyed it. Carly Rae cover so much. To me, the cover featuring pop songs, despite being more manufactured, had all the emotions that Joni Mitchell's version had. I was a bit embarrassed and confused by this thought and yet, I continued to think of Carly Rae Jepsen as also Joni Mitchell's version of "Both Sides Now" during a conversation. That conversation would eventually become the script for "Charlotte ."
In the process of creating the script
"I created the original version of "Charlotte" as an radio program, which was a kind of the Joe Frank voyeuristic drama, set inside footage of tiny worlds that were not populated by puppets. I wrote the lyrics from the perspective of eight characters that all felt a personal or professional connection that was centered around the song "Charlotte." After I spent some the time getting to know the characters, Diane and Eli were the ones I found fascinating, so I made sure to keep them on the same page together with Lena and the pop star T.Y.M. When I realized this and was able to understand the plot and the characters, I spent much of my time thinking about the best way to help their stories connect."
The music collaboration:
"When I wrote "Charlotte," I always thought of the singer Jenna Caravello in mind. As I was writing the song, I began sending the fictional Rolling Stone interviews including Lena Black and a few faux-diary entries. In light of that information, Jenna wrote the folk song.
Jenna's track was given to Zhenya Golikova who I met via the web. In the year 2020, Zhenya covered these voice memo melodies I wrote to a close friend. They were silly and sad songs about marshmallows and cats as well as missing someone in another place The following year, Zhenya changed my lyrics to incredible ballads. Her music has an earlier Magnetic Fields sound that makes it seem like they were composed by wild sea monkeys.. I sent her Jenna's song and she returned with her own rendition of the tune a week following. . "
On the talk-show segment:
"So many female folk musicians throughout the 1960s and 1970s were not given the respect they deserve. The artists like Vashti Bunyan Karen Dalton, Linda Perrhacs along with The Roches, were disregarded or put in categories that included "freak folk" and not treated in the same way as their male counterparts. It's a interesting contradiction that exists in the fact that folk music is associated with modernist ideals but is being involved in a specific type of subliminal gender-based misogyny.
While thinking about the artists mentioned above, I was imagining Lena at this strange moment of her career. To stay relevant, her career would require participation in the 70s Laurel Canyon lifestyle, party with the appropriate kind of people as well as take the right drugs. This was a world created and run by males. But I don't believe she'd want to do that. Maybe because she's a mother and perhaps she could see Through It All. It's difficult to know. She was simply grieving that lasted the span of a lifetime, mourning over the loss of her job. What do she do with her frustration? What happens to her grief? out for her daughter? Thinking about these questions and the possibility of writing the interaction between Lena and Sam as a precursor to the relationship she has with her daughter. "
On developing his unique visual style:
"In my 20s and in the early 20s, I worked as a puppeteer. However, I wasn't very proficient in this craft. It's like I'm missing an eighth part of my brain. I think it's led to a real absence of spatial awareness. Being able to manipulate or create objects in three dimensions was not feasible. Luckily, I fell into Toy Theater, a type of puppetry that was used in two dimensions in the late 19th century in England. I began making small dioramas using acrylics and matte boards like pop-up books and used live-projecting digital cameras inside them while I told tales of my landlord, or dead dog.
I get obsessed over the small details of stuff that I find fascinating, such as the barcode of a Doritos bag, or the shape of the shape of a McDonald's Happy Meal box. Maybe because of the missing brain, I'm unable create straight lines or form things realistically. So I'm a bit of confusion of a thing that is falling apart, and obsessive.
In order to create the puppets I worked in collaboration with stop-motion animators Oliver Levine and Lily Windsor to create a more gritty and textural look that matched the hand-painted world of the film. As I was directing this film at the time of the lockdown, we had to work long distance, Lily from Chicago, sending tiny boxes of llamas, as well as Oliver leaving head-sculpts to my door at Burbank . "
Next step:
"Currently, I am independently creating a short film about Livia Soprano The CGI Livia Soprano from Season 3 from The Sopranos, as well as the genetic disorder called BRCA2. I was raised in an Italian American family filled with many personalities and oddities however, at the close of my 20s , BRCA2 affected the family connections due to the early deaths of family members.
In the year 2020, I viewed The Sopranos for the first time. Each show felt as if I was in the conversation with my family. Now, I'm making the film which recreates family movies using stops-motion video and will examine Livia Soprano's death-death relation to my own personal experiences in grief . "
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