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| Last updated: 16 June 2003 |
| The Verisimilitude of All Literary Endeavours Part 3 In tandem with the creation of the storyboards, Stephen was also busy writing the monologues. While the lengthy monologues to be recited by Reader were simply a matter of trial and error to find the right quotes to fit together, with relevence being essentially a secondary concern, the shorter, more specific pieces were the real challange. They had to mean something in relation to the visuals, and also had to be contextally relevant. In the end, Stephen decided to use three poetry quotations in the opening dream (from Blake's 'The Poison Tree', Eliot's 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night, and Milton's Paradise Lost) , a quote from Joyce's Ulysses when Reader wakes up, a quote from Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman as he becomes frustrated with his day, a quote from Auden's 'The Shield of Achilles' in a later dream sequence, a procession of author names in a vision scene as literature begins to take over Reader's very soul, and a quote from Dante's Divine Comedy to convey Reader's satisfaction at the end of the film. All of these specific quotes had their own relevance, although some (such as Ibsen and Dante) are probably more obvious than others (such as Auden and Joyce). It was also at this stage that Stephen came up with the title. He wanted it to have as long winded and pretentious a title as he could possibly think of, yet he also wanted something relevent to the content, and it was with this in mind that he called it The Verisimilitude of All Literary Endeavours.Thus, with the storyboards designed, and the monologues written, it was time to begin the preproduction work in earnest. Preproduction: The main area to tackle in preproduction was the casting of the film. With only two roles to fill, Stephen was hopeful that he could get the piece cast quite easily, and in the end, he did. He approached Andy to play Reader, and Martin to play Wanker, and both agreed. The three met in the week between Christmas and the New Year to iron out any problems, but essentially, once locations had been decided upon and a date agreed to, it was simply a matter of waiting to shoot. What did come about during preproduction was the idea of having Reader have a different book in every scene, having Wanker acknowledge the camera in the park scene (hence sharing his mockery with the audience who he represents), and having the Cliffs Notes that Wanker reads be Notes to Oedipus Rex (an in-joke reference to Oedipus: A Context). Production: Shooting took place in its entirety on Wednesday January 3rd, 2001, and never had the CherryPie team been so lucky. Locations for the shoot ranged from Stephen's house, to St Pat's College, to Johnstown Park, to the 40A bus, not to mention the recording of all the dialogue, so there was a lot that could go wrong. Furthermore, the whole film, except two scenes, was to take place in the day time, so with only about 8 or so hours of daylight on any given day (less if it was cloudy), it was going to be a tight squeeze. Luckily however, it was sunny that Wednesday, and so the team met at the gates of Pat's at 10 in the morning to begin the shoot. The team worked in Pat's for an hour or so that morning, recording everything from Reader entering the gates (yes, Wanker was beeped whilst making the wanker sign), to Reader walking up the stairs (notice he has a different book after he reappears), to the entire library dream scene. They then moved to the park down the road, where they shot the brilliant bench scene, afterwards catching a 40A back to Finglas. This was where they really got lucky, as they needed to shoot Reader on the bus, however, if Stephen pulled out a camera on a 40A bus, not only would he have a group of poorly moustachioed youths suffering from post-millenial angst shouting 'YOUR MAAAAAAAAAAAA' and asking in a barely audible drug enduced daze 'are yous makin a film?' in shot, but his camera would probably be nicked. As such, it was sheer luck that with four or five stops to go, the entire back of the bus was deserted, and they were able to get the footage they needed. They then had more luck with buses (a rare ocurrance in Dublin city as luck usually involves a bus actually turning up and the completion of a journey without having to part with your wallet) when they shot the scene where Reader is at the bus-stop, as three or four buses arrived in quick succession to allow them get maximum coverage. It was then on to Stephen's house to shoot the remainer of the piece. on to the verisimilitude of all literary endeavours page 4 back to verisimilitude page 2 back to products links page back to home |