THE INNER CARRIAGE METAPHOR |BY JAMES GEORGE OSHOBA (Coming Soon 2016)
The Inner Carriage Metaphor is George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s (Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев) Analogy of the Master, The Driver, The Horse and The Carriage represented in a modern key that tells the time when the mind struggles to communicate with the spirit.
The Inner Carriage Metaphor is the title of the Narrative Music Video/Experimental Short as part of my second year university assignment.
On receiving the briefing I started exploring different concepts and genres of music videos in order to canalize everything into a unique format.
The first concept I came across was the society of Nowadays, Where do we live? How do we live? These were the main questions to define the scripture of what I was going to create.
I firstly began thinking about this project as a reflection of the human being who lives in a complex society focusing mostly on the overload information factor.
My idea was to create something that would raise questions about us as human beings rather than giving answers.
A visionary artistic and contemporary abstract representation of the human being, operating as a machine with machines.
I began by focusing on whom in the 60’s and 70’ decided to escape from this world and create their own simple society with their rules, even in some cases without any rules. This brought me into the fascinating and controversial world of the communes.
The original title for my music video was “ Entitled Circle”. As I began working on the visual concept, images and passion captured my fantasy so creating the first narrative and storyline.
My first idea was a vivid concept of freedom and life enclosed in a simple girl, posing naked on a huge cube, An iconic image, representing Mother Nature, the naked truth, the searching soul.
In this first narrative the girl stands on a cube observing different people passing by without expressions or emotions, a circle of life enclosed in a boring, scary routine.
This was the moment the idea of combining the overload information factor as a creative and controversial element downed on me.
The 8th December 2015 my producer, Lucy Coates and I started an intensive pre production process. The 17th of the same month we did the first voice over recording session at The Nottingham Confetti Studio, collaborating with a talented fellow student producer Andrew Hasford and subsequently organizing just before Christmas the first and last Casting session which gave birth to “The Inner Carriage Metaphor” as it is now known; It was a great success, it enabled us to bring together all the necessary characters to give birth to this film.
Something very important and emotional then happened to me during the Christmas vacations; for the first time in over 10 years I spend some quality time with my older brother.
He became a great source of inspiration and comfort. He also went on to be an influential figure in the creation of the entire project.
He’s arrived in Nottingham on the 22nd of December brought me out of a fixation which had entered my thoughts, I was going round in circles obsessed with all that was related to the film. I had strong feelings there was something missing but could not pin point it, I was in need of help. My brother felt this frustration and asked if I could talk him through the project, immediately we began to engage and our fantasies became one, I felt liberated and ideas flourished as we ate minded pies and drank wine.
As the days went on we both felt a metaphor was missing in the project, an analogy to combine the narrative and give power to the story, also giving meaning and a unique concept to the entire structure.
It was my brother who came up with an incredible concept referring to a great mystic Philosopher, Spiritual teacher, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff.
The Spiritual Analogy of the Master, The Driver, The Horse and The Carriage.
Finally we had a unique concept and from now on it was down hill, we spent the whole Christmas vacation and the following weeks, researching, drawing storyboards and combining the two concepts, creating a unique product ready to be filmed the following February.
The Spiritual Analogy of The Master, The Driver, The Horse, and The Carriage
Man is a complex organization, consisting of four parts, which may be connected, unconnected, or simply disconnected.
The carriage is connected with the horse by shafts, the horse is connected with the driver by reins, and the driver is connected with the master by the master’s voice. But the driver must hear and understand the master’s voice. He must know how to drive the horse and the horse must be trained to obey the reins.
As to the relation between the horse and the carriage goes, the horse must be properly harnessed. Thus there are three connections between the four sections of this complex organization.
If there is a weak link in one of the connections, the organization cannot act as a single whole. The connections are therefore not less important than the actual ‘bodies.’ Working by himself. Man works simultaneously on his ‘body " and on his cognitive response.
Working on oneself must begin with the driver. The driver is the mind. In order to be able to hear the master’s voice, the driver, first of all, must not be asleep, that is, he must wake up. Then it may prove that the master speaks a language that the driver does not understand. The driver must learn this language. When he has learned it, he will understand the master. But concurrently with this he must learn to drive the horse, to harness it to the carriage, to feed and groom it, and to keep the carriage in order because what would be the use of his understanding the master if he is not in a position to do anything? The master tells him to go yonder. But he is unable to move, because the horse has not been fed, it is not harnessed, and he does not know where the reins are. The horse is our emotions. The carriage is the body. The mind must learn to control the emotions. The emotions always pull the body after them. This is the order in which work on oneself must proceed. But observe again that work on the ‘bodies,’ that is, on the driver, the horse, and the carriage, is one thing. And work on the ‘connections’-that is, on the ‘driver’s understanding,’ which unites him to the master; on the ‘reins,’ which connect him with the horse; and on the ‘shafts’ and the ‘harness,’ which connect the horse with the carriage is quite another thing.
Ouspensky, P. D. "The Spiritual Analogy Of The Master, The Driver, The Horse, And The Carriage". the unbounded spirit. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
The Inner Carriage Metaphor is Gurdjieff’s Analogy representation in a modern key that tells the time when the Master invites the Passenger to sit inside of he Carriage and begin their journey.
At the same time in a different concept they are both protagonists of the adaptation and renovation of the metaphor itself, crossing a stream of temptations with an obscure mood and erotic nuances. The protagonists are both fighting, controlling their emotions and finding their way to reach the “I” .
This dark adaptation is the path that the human being deals with, in order to control the emotions, escapes from temptations desires and listen the Inner voice to find it’s way in life.
The 18th January 2016 I went for the first location scouting, looking for a carriage with horses and a studio to create the adaptation sequence.
Just few days before the shooting dates I decided that something else was missing again; the Mise en scene was not complete and I did want something meaningful for the entire concept, and if the characters in my story were resisting and escaping from the temptations, what was better than having apples floating everywhere in this dark inner space as a symbolic element?
As soon I have mentioned this new idea to my brother we started planning an art installation, we firstly created a miniature studio at home using tape and fishing wire for the apples and we just experimented what was subsequently our first Art installation of floating apples.
The Apple installation changed everything from the first time...
On January 29th 2016 we started shooting the first scene of “The Inner Carriage Metaphor”. We booked a studio space at the Nottingham New Theatre with a fantastic collaboration of the fellow student director Theo Gee and the University of Nottingham support.
Directing this music video is been an incredible and surreal experience, it was simply magic; cast and crew were just excited to be there on set in such a cinematic and surreal atmosphere.
Coming Soon 2016, The Inner Carriage Metaphor
https://vimeo.com/jamesgeorgeoshoba
vaporwave
2087
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner
stormborns