AW Week 3

Daria’s Feminist Internal Logic

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Sorry, Daria, that’s exactly how it works.

What impresses me so much about Daria is that it is a genuinely pro-female and intersectionally considerate show. What they say in regards to race and gender are equally important to what they don’t say, specifically what they never say about the kinds of women/personalities opposed to the heroine. The show never portrays vanity, being attractive, or lack of intellect with scorn which is always refreshing. Its social commentary is cutting and dark but rarely bitchy, its female characters never really pitted against each other for the attention of men.

There’s an interesting disconnect between how Daria is treated by her peers and how she is perceived. For sake of narrative action, I suppose characters HAVE to interact with Daria but since they do it so often, it makes it difficult to believe when Daria is spoken of as ostracised as an “other”. The writers could have easily made the show about Daria and her best friend Jane against the popular/normal kids but they don’t; including instead a significant amount of time dedicated to developing ditzy Brittany and narcissistic Quinn.

From Episode 3.2 where Brittany comforts Daria who realises that she does care about how people perceive her.

I love that the show never includes bullying or any other typical high school narratives. The pop culture high school hierarchy is present of course but the show is able to play around and subvert it.

Cleese-ativity and Collaboration

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I always find that if two (or more) of us throw ideas backwards and forwards I get to more interesting and original places than I could have ever have gotten to on my own.

John Cleese, 1991

A favourite collaboration exercise so far has been walking around RMIT taking action stills. I didn’t know the other two very well so I wasn’t sure what to expect but the slight discomfort of the situation was fun to initially bond over and created the atmosphere needed to just take funny, random shots based on some loose ideas. Honestly, we walked the fine line between overthinking and making fun of the exercise – feelings which are reflected in the final set of shots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Overthinking

We attempted to deconstruct how RMIT’s architecture could be interpreted for dramatic purpose, even going insofar as discussing how we felt about the looming construction sites that constantly surrounded us. I am pretty obsessed with quite a few RMIT buildings and atmospheres so it was fun to a) fangirl about them with other people, and b) delve into melodramatic interpretations of how being surrounded by construction sites can affect the consciousness. The easy transition into the latter was a classic example of on-brand Millennial unironic irony.

Those discussions inspired the themes of feeling overwhelmed and surrounded by tall, bold, and futuristic buildings. It was encouraging for people to agree with and expand on ideas  that were familiar yet unexplored. Someone in the group was really into including hints of the sites-in-progress which then inspired the concepts of being restricted and seemingly powerless against machines.

 

On Making Fun Of It

We found it easy to tap into the fun and joy of the exercise. Having been inspired to stick to a spy genre gave us the freedom to work within its constraints. We scouted for corners and locations that could potentially be exploited for narrative use, leading to my hiding behind plants and lamely climbing a green fire escape. Walking around in the group with a mission to take some ridiculous photos gave us permission to just go for it in a public space too – safety in numbers!

On The Technical

I’m not very technical on the camera so it was nice to be accompanied by someone who had an eye for angles and colours. It helps our ideas be realised in more aesthetically pleasing ways which will always be much more rewarding.