Charles Borg is the co-producer of the upcoming Amir Motlagh feature films MAN and Three Worlds. Borg is also the co-writer and co-editor of MAN. The two films screen on 4/21 at Chicago Filmmakers.
MAN is a film that explores the relationship between ‘man’ and technology and how that’s grown to the apex that it is today. The film hits on modern romance, which (in many cases, for the millennial generation and those to follow, at least) is shaped by tech. Simply put: this is a new world. Amir and I seek to create content that reflects that – in a realistic, gritty way. “Realism.” You may have heard this term as it’s related to filmmaking, but the idea is to never emulate other work. It’s about thinking outside the box. “Realism” was a movement. MAN isn’t trying to be that. It needs to be it’s own thing. Everything about MAN defies the ‘norm’ that most other films follow.
A lot of talk surrounded the creation of a movie that needed to feel hypnotic. Amir came up with the idea of telling the story in POV. Even the POV perspective in which the story is told reflects an active perversion of the aesthetic. POV is for video games and VR, right? Yes, but no. It has a purpose in MAN, beyond interesting. It allows the viewer to experience the day-in-a-life of a character more intimately. Beyond anything else, it’s necessary. And, just like the filmmaking process, the location (Laurel Canyon, where the film was shot) – also plays a major factor in what the film is trying to say. It’s a unique terrain, which is associated with being tucked away from the city, yet very much a part that defines Los Angeles. Telephone lines cutting through brush – this is just one example of how TODAY is - our present time. Those telephone wires didn’t exist 150 years ago. And maybe 150 years from now they won’t either (replaced by future technology). If MAN is boiled down it can be called a time capsule piece. Something a person could watch 100 years from now and understand, “Oh, that’s how a westernized male lived during this period. In this city. That’s how he communicated. That’s what he spoke about, worried about, etc.” In short, a man of this time.
The Falls, Paper or Plastik, Café Demitasse…
These are just a few of the places Amir and I would frequent to develop our ideas. Everything mentioned thus far, and everything I’m about to talk about was discussed over an IPA, or a cup of coffee, with leather bound notebooks out and ready to work. Most ideas came to us by simply talking them through, discussing, debating, going over and over what REALLY matters and what best caters to the overall concept being designed.
As collaborators, Amir and I lean on each other for different needs. Amir brought me aboard Three Worlds to help him marry his many ideas for the film. Much of the want or desire to tell this story stems from Amir’s experiences growing up. He wanted to use the captured footage (his memories trapped in time, yes “Time”) – to be used in contrast to the life he was currently living while this film was being made. Three Worlds became a self-reflecting story, in that Amir would take a job directing and knew that he wanted to document the job, beyond BTS, but rather to use it as footage in the movie. It’s a classic case of life imitating art, or is it art imitating life? Blurring that line is precisely the point of the film’s development and execution. The idea being that life is all about time and memories – and what if we could tell a story about selling memories – that which is most sacred to us. Memories aren’t a thing. You can’t touch or smell them. One might feel guilty about selling a car, jewelry, or a piece of furniture, but the guilt stems from one’s association with those objects, (association being memories). Needless to say, if one sold their memories it would be like selling you’re soul… at least a little bit. Are we defined by our memories? Or do we define ourselves based on what we choose to remember? Isn’t that the fine line we toe today with social media platforms? All of these questions are up for debate in the film.
On the visual front, Three Worlds was shot with various cameras, as well as used source material, (VHS footage). So, it is the medium, in this case, that creates the nostalgia. Had scenes of Amir’s childhood been reenacted and shot on a medium of today, the memory wouldn’t just lack authenticity, it would lack identity. On that note, I was brought aboard the project as a co-producer to help craft the project in postproduction. Given our similar creative disposition, Amir and I worked in tedious fashion to balance ‘narrative’ and ‘art’ through editing, music, sound effects, etc. Now, that is a dangerous notion – an ‘art’ piece… but it’s very important to us and the ANIMALS brand that the film represent something beyond a throwaway narrative. Again, non-fleeting.
MAN and Three Worlds both carry a style -- a unique style. And it can be identified beyond the ‘conceptual’, but in the mix of visual aesthetics, the kind of music that’s used to elicit mood, the choice in sound design that not only sets a mood but literally carries over from one scene to the next, (with seemingly no relation), e.g. footsteps from a rooftop photo shoot playing over a time-lapsed freeway driving scene (Three Worlds), or the beep of a construction zone carried over into the confines of a relaxed bungalow (MAN). Even cutting to still shots as people are talking are used commonly in both. Weird, right? But, is it? Maybe it’s just different. Yes, and that’s really the best way to describe both films, as different.
Like MAN, Three Worlds is a time capsule piece – not in the linear sense, but it begs for the viewer to reflect on their own experiences and the tangled web of happiness and sorrow that is one’s memory. Despite Three Worlds being a more expansive, complex piece, with faster cuts, and MAN being a more quiet and contained film, they are of the same blood; cousin films. And we designed them to be so.
We can only really hope our work provokes viewers to say, above all, “I’ve never really seen anything like that before.” Because that’s not easy to do. And it never will be. Not this time, nor the next.
A vision of time – through two feature films by Charles Borg
Charles Borg
MAN is a film that explores the relationship between ‘man’ and technology and how that’s grown to the apex that it is today. The film hits on modern romance, which (in many cases, for the millennial generation and those to follow, at least) is shaped by tech. Simply put: this is a new world. Amir and I seek to create content that reflects that – in a realistic, gritty way. “Realism.” You may have heard this term as it’s related to filmmaking, but the idea is to never emulate other work. It’s about thinking outside the box. “Realism” was a movement. MAN isn’t trying to be that. It needs to be it’s own thing. Everything about MAN defies the ‘norm’ that most other films follow.
A lot of talk surrounded the creation of a movie that needed to feel hypnotic. Amir came up with the idea of telling the story in POV. Even the POV perspective in which the story is told reflects an active perversion of the aesthetic. POV is for video games and VR, right? Yes, but no. It has a purpose in MAN, beyond interesting. It allows the viewer to experience the day-in-a-life of a character more intimately. Beyond anything else, it’s necessary. And, just like the filmmaking process, the location (Laurel Canyon, where the film was shot) – also plays a major factor in what the film is trying to say. It’s a unique terrain, which is associated with being tucked away from the city, yet very much a part that defines Los Angeles. Telephone lines cutting through brush – this is just one example of how TODAY is - our present time. Those telephone wires didn’t exist 150 years ago. And maybe 150 years from now they won’t either (replaced by future technology). If MAN is boiled down it can be called a time capsule piece. Something a person could watch 100 years from now and understand, “Oh, that’s how a westernized male lived during this period. In this city. That’s how he communicated. That’s what he spoke about, worried about, etc.” In short, a man of this time.
The Falls, Paper or Plastik, Café Demitasse…
These are just a few of the places Amir and I would frequent to develop our ideas. Everything mentioned thus far, and everything I’m about to talk about was discussed over an IPA, or a cup of coffee, with leather bound notebooks out and ready to work. Most ideas came to us by simply talking them through, discussing, debating, going over and over what REALLY matters and what best caters to the overall concept being designed.
As collaborators, Amir and I lean on each other for different needs. Amir brought me aboard Three Worlds to help him marry his many ideas for the film. Much of the want or desire to tell this story stems from Amir’s experiences growing up. He wanted to use the captured footage (his memories trapped in time, yes “Time”) – to be used in contrast to the life he was currently living while this film was being made. Three Worlds became a self-reflecting story, in that Amir would take a job directing and knew that he wanted to document the job, beyond BTS, but rather to use it as footage in the movie. It’s a classic case of life imitating art, or is it art imitating life? Blurring that line is precisely the point of the film’s development and execution. The idea being that life is all about time and memories – and what if we could tell a story about selling memories – that which is most sacred to us. Memories aren’t a thing. You can’t touch or smell them. One might feel guilty about selling a car, jewelry, or a piece of furniture, but the guilt stems from one’s association with those objects, (association being memories). Needless to say, if one sold their memories it would be like selling you’re soul… at least a little bit. Are we defined by our memories? Or do we define ourselves based on what we choose to remember? Isn’t that the fine line we toe today with social media platforms? All of these questions are up for debate in the film.
On the visual front, Three Worlds was shot with various cameras, as well as used source material, (VHS footage). So, it is the medium, in this case, that creates the nostalgia. Had scenes of Amir’s childhood been reenacted and shot on a medium of today, the memory wouldn’t just lack authenticity, it would lack identity. On that note, I was brought aboard the project as a co-producer to help craft the project in postproduction. Given our similar creative disposition, Amir and I worked in tedious fashion to balance ‘narrative’ and ‘art’ through editing, music, sound effects, etc. Now, that is a dangerous notion – an ‘art’ piece… but it’s very important to us and the ANIMALS brand that the film represent something beyond a throwaway narrative. Again, non-fleeting.
MAN and Three Worlds both carry a style -- a unique style. And it can be identified beyond the ‘conceptual’, but in the mix of visual aesthetics, the kind of music that’s used to elicit mood, the choice in sound design that not only sets a mood but literally carries over from one scene to the next, (with seemingly no relation), e.g. footsteps from a rooftop photo shoot playing over a time-lapsed freeway driving scene (Three Worlds), or the beep of a construction zone carried over into the confines of a relaxed bungalow (MAN). Even cutting to still shots as people are talking are used commonly in both. Weird, right? But, is it? Maybe it’s just different. Yes, and that’s really the best way to describe both films, as different.
Like MAN, Three Worlds is a time capsule piece – not in the linear sense, but it begs for the viewer to reflect on their own experiences and the tangled web of happiness and sorrow that is one’s memory. Despite Three Worlds being a more expansive, complex piece, with faster cuts, and MAN being a more quiet and contained film, they are of the same blood; cousin films. And we designed them to be so.
We can only really hope our work provokes viewers to say, above all, “I’ve never really seen anything like that before.” Because that’s not easy to do. And it never will be. Not this time, nor the next.
