Channels.com Web Video Shows - Clark: Gonzomentary

Added 08/03/11
10 Views

The TRUTH behind "Clark" - Notes from the director.

Added 06/20/11
4 Views

The TRUTH behind "Clark" - Notes from the director.

[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 02:47:08 06/20/11
Improvisation requires a lot more planning and writing than one may think. It does not mean that someone turns on a camera and the actors say whatever comes to mind at that moment. That would never work. You can’t create a story just from nonsensical anecdotes. Improvisation takes pre-planning, writing, character development and having everyone involved on the same page. All the actors should know exactly how their characters would respond given specific situations and possess a basic understanding of how their counter-part’s personality meshes with their own. Even with something like an "improvisation mockumentary" much has to rely on the director's ability to create the story, the situations and other things that happen during its progress while giving the actors a bit of wiggle room to throw in their own lines. But more so than not, even the "one liners" and quotable phrases in something like this are the result of weeks of discussion and even a preemptive input into the actors minds from the director himself. Clark had none of this. It was complete chaos from day one and I’m surprised I got out alive. This was never meant to be a “gonzomentary” a “mockumentary” or even a documentary. I commissioned James and William to play roles in a BIOPIC portraying MY LIFE. (as you can clearly hear me say in this clip from the first episode) But apparently James and William had ulterior motives before I even arrived at their home. We didn’t even do the script that I wrote that was supposed to be about ME. I spent 16 to 18 weeks with them and the entire time I was trying to get them to act out the script we had agreed upon. What you are viewing is what happened instead. I was completely taken advantage of and DRUGGED unbeknown to me for 4 ½ months. They did this so they could basically control me to film exactly what they wanted, abandoning my original idea altogether. After months of missed deadlines and worthless footage they had no use for me anymore. So they gave me a dose of hallucinogens that would have made Tim Leary dedicate his life to sobriety. They then committed me to a psychiatric hospital, which is not what I would describe as "up to Federal, State or local health standards" and from which this blog entry is being written. Over the weeks I was subjected to their constant criticism and incisive conspiracy to break down my personality to mush, then build me back up with the idea that I was a part of their group and that we all depended on each other. It was the basic methodical planning that is used for brainwash. They also measured my thetans and convinced me that I was unhappy with my life, which inevitably led to the unfortunate destruction of my marriage and the very fabric of my persona to turn to dust. I desperately wished to get back to my normal life and flee to my old church (as seen in the picture above) because I was slightly suspicious that these people had no real sense of reality. But when you are being brainwashed, you can't separate the facts from fiction nor does the thought to do so even arise due to the communal reinforcement of the tenets that remain void of dissent. The LORD thy GOD spoke of this in Ezekiel 22:28 in the NIV Bible. (not to be confused with the heathen KJII Bible) I knew I was in a strange group of people when they began having these weird parties where they all dressed in some new age way and colloquially called themselves "Clarksists." These parties consisted of cult-like rituals including a blasphemous reenactment of William being crucified like The Almighty Jesus Christ. They would smoke what you would consider a "peace pipe" which I had no reason to decline until it was later revealed that I was smoking "human brain." I felt afraid and alone, but I couldn’t leave because they had control over the strings of my mind. When I was no longer able to be controlled after the vegetative state they forced me into from the drugs they secretly induced into my system, they threw me into solitary confinement for what seemed like weeks. They kept me on 24 hour surveillance as well, as you can seen in the following clip. Just when I thought matters could not get any worse, William went crazy and began murdering people, cutting off their faces and wearing them as a mask. He would adopt their personalities like a twisted puppet show and I feared that at any day I would be next. Luckily they took me out of that basement apartment after my meltdown and left me at this hospital. It is quite disparaging for me, in comparison from being in this disgusting institution now, to think that my situation has actually improved. I suppose I am writing this blog post to ask to please excuse my name from any of the content that they may have made public. This was beyond my control and I feel that I, in no way, should be held responsible for it. All I want is to have my kids back. Sincerely, Daniel

Notes From The Actor On Method and Ritual (JC)

Added 03/07/11
0 Views

Notes From The Actor On Method and Ritual (JC)

[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:02:05 03/07/11
This is JC, the actor that plays Clark's manager on the series "Clark." (No small coincidence our initials are the same, eh?) As I said in this clip, we're finished production on season one of Clark. The final two part episode will run on Saturday, though you can sneak them here if you read on. Of course, there will be pick-ups for the DVD and movie length for festivals, and post-production on the sound (which has sadly been neglected in order to keep up our release schedule). We will be tweaking this and that while we have more time and aren't running episodes on an every 2 week schedule. We have to slow down, keep on top of our other projects, and make sure our brains don't come completely unhinged. I mean, except for Daniel of course. He's a goner. The line between fiction and reality has worn so thin for him that he's probably still wearing Tito's face and a straight jacket. I've been approached by a number of professional actors who've told me how realistic the acting in the show seems, to the point that it seems like we're not acting at all. I'd like to share a tiny bit of the occult method approach that I devised which, unsurrisingly, got me kicked out of Juilliard. (Assholes. I still get letters in the mail about my "student loans." For WHAT? Fuck them.) I talked about this in an interview here , but apparently some more details were called for. We only call it "acting" because what you see, as a viewer, is what is an act. If you wander in front of a camera and think a great deal, but stand perfectly still, no one is going to know what you're thinking. Ritual magic is usually entirely internal, so you pretty much have to toss all that bullshit out, unless if visualizing yourself as giant centipede is going to help you act a certain way. So a lot of actors derive this idea from that...that they should fixate on the act . I'm told this is the British style of acting. I wouldn't know. I haven't been to Britain, though you could ask the actor who plays Tito about that. (Hearing him talk with his native accent is so unnerving.) It's true, some days you can't get into the completely natural flow that is ideal and it's called for you to get angry, so you just yell. There's nothing behind it, you just do it because you have to. But those will never be your best performances. The best moments are when you connect with it, and it's not necessarily hard. Maybe you're angry because you can't remember any of your lines. Then use that anger. No one will know that you're angry because you stubbed your toe and not because your character's life is a total mess. "Enabling" the artist to transcend boundaries. That's basic method. Here's where you can take it a step further. Through embodying things that you may despise, or things that other people project on you, you can engage what Carl Jung called the "shadow self," and transmute them into something else. Let me mix some metaphors. The impulses and parts of yourself that you turn your back on, the fears other people project on you, take on a hidden life. But you can eat them alive. That's one of the reasons I chose to play "JC." He is a character who, through being a failed artist himself, has come to value absolutely nothing but money and cheap thrills. He's the quintessential cynic and there's really no hope for him. He'll take advantage of every situation and try to manipulate whatever is around him to manage to accomplish those goals. I think this is something that all artists have had to fight against, because there's a great deal of pressure not just to succeed creatively, but to turn a profit. And if you have no other means of income, the pressure can be unimaginable. The only way out is through. By the end of this process, I expect to be as empathic as a kitten, and as altruistic as Gandhi. A Purification Ritual. "JC" is the mirror of what I wouldn't want to become. But since I could , since the potential is in all of us -- to murder, maim, or invent the polio vaccine -- it's not usually as much of a leap as you might guess. It was incredibly easy to be him. The motivation is biosurvival fear, not greed. (First chakra rather than third, for those who are ready for some next level shit.) Or, really, his internal fear is transmuted into external greed. The whole season produces a mirror, from episode one where I tell Daniel (the documentarian) that the art is happening HERE , behind the scenes, rather than in what we give the galleries, and when we turn the table on him and give hm a taste of his own medicine. At the get-go we have a situation not unlike I imagine there was with Pollock. Who is to say the "creative break" that "revolutionized" his art from abstraction to paint splatter wasn't a bottle of whiskey? The line between substance abuse, mental and emotional instability, and the "myth of the artist" grows incredibly thin. And we all secretly want the artist to cross that line, and transgress against all societal norms so that we don't have to. Because to really go to that limit and beyond, as Hunter Thompson said, is not something that someone can do, and live. What's interesting is that when you play a character like JC, (or Clark for that matter), some people might be afraid about letting "in" that kind of persona. After all, any persona that you wear winds up taking on a life of its own. The more you feed it, the more it comes alive. This is where a little background in ritual magick may actually come in handy -- it is maybe one of the only places it is "handy" for anything other than alienating you from your peers -- you can readily draw a circle around the elements of yourself that you intend to maintain intact, for later. You could approach the process of invoking a persona as a concurrent banishment of those elements, at the completion of the movie, play, or whatever it is that you're doing. Or you could, as I said, instead look at it as the opportunity for a meal. Bring those parts out into the light, own them through acting them, and take charge of them. Consume them. When we begin the season, I'm a soft spoken but clearly enabling "art manager." By the end, I'm a monster. (For those paying attention, there are esoteric and occult symbols in the backgrounds throughout the episodes that will help you become a force to be reckoned with in the sack, and there are some pretty overt ones too, like Clark getting all Sadhu up in this piece in that clip above.) As a treat to those who have been watching the series, here's all 3 parts of the finale , before the official run date of the second two: Season Finale: Unmasking the Artist Within Part 1 Season Finale: Unmasking the Artist Within Part 2 Season Finale: Unmasking the Artist Within Part 3 It was, by the way, for bringing up ritual magick again and again that I wound up getting bounced from "proper" acting circles. Just because most occultists can't act for shit doesn't mean that there is nothing worthwhile in that domain in regard to psychodrama. (Check out what the Foolish People have done, for instance.) Well, OK. It was that reason I was kicked out... and the fact that I have never been able to memorize a single line in my entire life. I can only act on the impulses of the characters that manage to possess me. I'm like a conduit, and if ritual magick and BenzoDiazaVision don't avail me, you'll get nothing. Let me reiterate again: Fuck them. Watch the whole series on Gonzomentary.com or Alterati.com . And share it with your friends if you want to see more.