For my final video project I really wanted to test my self and try something I definitely have never done before. I found that all of my previous projects have been very personal and centered around my beliefs and experiences and I wanted to transcend that with this final project.
The initial inspiration came from two lessons I had learned in Film Theory class I took here at Lafayette College.
- Hollywood agenda
- Lack of homosexuality but heavy use of homoeroticism
To go into more detail, it was the idea that basically the production companies on the larger scale are arguably biased and have only money as an incentive for their work. The second point is that non humorous portrayal is still very rare in movies, but movies like Die Hard and Rambo seem to sexualize men in very homoerotic ways. I heavily believed that both of these ideas were completed B.S. and that there was no validity to them at all. I love Hollywood movies and I don’t like Die Hard cause of all the guy hugs. But as I re-watched such pieces of work with this now in mind I realized there is truth to these points.
This is how I decided to come up with Breaking Point, a video art project that eventually evolved into a trailer for a movie called Les Amoureux (lovers). Basically I took what is my favorite movie of all time that definitely would fall under both these points and used my little editing skills to bring out these themes in the movie.
What I realized is unreal, after my first sweep of the movie I had 16 minutes of clips that without audio one may think they were from a piece of gay pornography. I also realized how Hollywood this film really was in its ideals that it portrayed for its characters. I was even able to take the title “Point Break” and redefine it as the breaking point at which a gay person would come out. The product was truly uncanny and unbelievable revealing to myself.