Artaud Scene

 For our scene, we tried to focus on the "Theater of Cruelty in order to reflect Artaud and his methods. In order to do this, we attempted to create unsettling and uncomfortable camera angles, with many up close and personal scenes as well as lots of dynamic changes on the volume of the lines being spoken. We also utilized sound, in order to highlight Millie's character's "descent into madness" the camera crept closer and closer to her face, as the realization of her actions set in and the sound of the crickets got louder and louder until it was just a cacophony of sound. This reflects the feelings Millie is going through, as well as making the audience uncomfortable and disturbed, in a similar way to how millie was. Another aspect we tried to key in on to emulate Artaud was in the placing of the audience. Theoretically, if the scene was not filmed, the audience would be placed in it, viewing the scene from different angles, and when my character would begin to yell and shout, instead of doing so into the camera I would walk up and yell I the faces of the audience members. And while the scene reflected a police interrogation, much of the fear that was attempted to be associated with my character was around more so the feeling of being yelled at by a partner, and an abusive one at that. The feeling of being called out or isolated unfairly was what was supposed to be triggered within the audience, and I feel in many ways that may have been elevated by the camera, as we many times feel safe behind a screen, but the feeling of having the fourth wall broken to be yelled at and accused of something breaks down that barrier and makes audience members feel exposed. I believe in this way we have executed “Theater of Cruelty” effectively.