DIRECTOR’S FOLDER

Directed by: Screenplay by: Produced by:

Rodrigo González Nicolás Wellmann Benjamín
Larrondo Sandoval
Index:
STORYLINE 02
DIRECTOR’S VISION 03
VISUAL TREATMENT 06
MUSIC 11
CHARACTERS 12

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Storyline:
Martin has only one dream in his head: to find the last
indigenous of the Peikum southern tribe. In order to
do so, he applies for a research grant. If he gets it, he
must travel south, if not, he’ll stay in town. Both things
happen and two plots begin simultaneously. In one of
them Martin lives his dream surrounded by the forest
and writings, facing his expectations with a reality not as
perfect as he imagined. In the other one Martin becomes
a white-collar worker, systematic and routinary, in which
the non-existing expectations cover him with an apathy
that threatens to end him. In both stories there is Emily,
a woman with whom he will define which road, in this
journey of expectations, will turn out better.

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Director’s Vision:

Idiots’ Paradise is one story divided into two

plots, which simultaneously display two differ-
ent versions of a couple’s life, and their con-
nection with expectations.

In the plot located at the forest, the main char-

acter remains a nonconformist and an idealist,
while in the other one; he becomes a con-
formist and a very passive man regarding his
circumstances. These are contrary views that
try to talk generally about the expectations in
life and how these conditionate our behavior
and keep us living in opposite ends.

The key to all of this is to face a piece from

an objective point of view and with a realistic
perspective, combined with the sort of magi-
cal game generated between the two plots,
especially when there’s a crossover of the uni-
verses, thus proving, overall, that is the same
world but in two different versions.

Director’s Folder 03
Director’s Vision.

On the other hand, having a specific position,

not only about the subject of expectations, but
also about couple’s relationships and working
relationships, this movie unfolds upon itself a
social issue, regarding the anthropological.

So we seek for a representation of public

spaces, people in the streets, office colors,
traffic sound, etc., in order to reveal and high-
light different elements that illustrate today’s
life just as it is: with minimum space, success-
oriented, contradictory and tending towards
mistakenness.

Overall, this young anthropologist is intro-

duced with an obsession about investigating
a mystical indigenous, and the two possible
results of the grant that would allow such in-
vestigation are delivered.

Both plots end with a much more unbalanced

and negative Martin compared to the begin-
ning.

This shows that Martin’s life was starting to

lose balance even before the delivery of the
results, and while the movie progresses, this
will be visually highlighted by Martin’s life con-
text and his environment. Not planted as a vic-
tim but as a son of the circumstances.

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 Director’s Vision.

So, disregarding each plot’s changing curve,

the film communicates that, in order to reach
our center, we need to look past our circum-
stances and try searching inside ourselves.

It is also important to highlight that the Anainik

indigenous, the last one of the fictional Pei-
kum tribe (based on the story of the Selknam),
symbolizes that last breath of balance, the de-
parture from our own center, which leads us
to act over the edge, unwisely.

Director’s Folder 05
Visual Treatment :
Director’s
Proposal:

REGARDING THE CAMERA AND THE VIEWER

This film focuses mostly on Martin. Even though Emilia

is also a main character, it is based on Martin’s dream –
achieved and not- that we analyze the two options gener-
ated regarding the topic of expectations: one of them fills
himself with excitement, producing a confrontation with
reality that upsets him. The other one has very low ex-
pectations, which turns him apathetic and bitter. By pre-
senting these two options, I wish for the viewer to join
both paths, making every discovery while Martin does
too. Many are the changes the main character experienc-
es during the film, given the time of the story that occurs
in a very important time of his life, so while the viewer
experiences these changes with Martin, I wish to achieve
the needed empathy and the discovery of our proposals.

This way the camera becomes a living observer, an invisi-

ble spy with the possibility to feel even Martin’s breath. Is
an observer that steps back when facing something that
doesn’t concern him, or when he needs to be looking at
a more general picture; but he becomes the authentic
point of view (not subjective camera) of the main charac-
ter when he senses, like Martin, the need to know what
is going on. The hand-held camera will allow the recogni-
tion of such observer, and it will be complemented with

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 Visual Treatment.

a kind of “documentary technique”, established since the

neorealism as a language of fiction, needed to achieve
the realism in the depth of the represented universe.

It is common for the script to establish certain details

based on the plot, like a computer particularity. In order
to maintain the integrity of the script this will be solved
very subtly, maintaining the aesthetic over the detail,
framing it while avoiding major cuts.

When Martin is not in the scene, this look is neutralized,

highlighting even more the role of the observer that fol-
lows him. In these cases the camera will take a more ob-
jective look, without the intention of being part of some
other characters experience or getting too involved in
their findings.

The portrayal, especially of the city, that represents a life

style filled with contradictions and wrong decisions, will
be integrated to the main character’s path, conceptual-
izing the urban by interventions in the editing process.

The fragmentation into shots will be focused on including

external life to the story, giving the general tone of the
film, which is based on our temporary and social context.
We want to reliably capture a realistic world that brings
us, filmmakers and viewers, together.

Director’s Folder 07
Visual Treatment.

Cinematography

In terms of cinematography we propose to use a realistic

and contemporary aesthetic trend, similar to what Michel
Gondry does in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

On the other hand, closer to the digital HD capture mode

that we will use, with the entire film shot with a hand-
held camera, the use of natural light at night and a cam-
era adequate to a more objective observer, “Once”, from
director John Carney, is also a direct reference to Idiots’
Paradise.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

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 Visual Treatment.

“500 Days of Summer” is a dark comedy that attempts

to demystify the classical love of the “chosen one” im-
posed by Hollywood for decades, a goal that we share in
our film. In terms of aesthetic, we use it as a reference
for the elegant interaction between its art design and its
cinematography.

The use of realism in the case of “Idiots´ Paradise” causes

a constant visual paradox between the grayish universe
of the cosmopolitan city and the warm universe of the
suburban town like the beach or the forests of southern
Chile, until the main characters split.

Once.

Director’s Folder 09
Visual Treatment.

The characteristics of this aesthetics basically respond to

the use of a set or a location as an element that is free
of typical visual conflicts. The use of natural light sources
or simple artificial light sources, allow a certain freedom
on dramatic terms, essential for the story, giving more
autonomy to the actors, so they can create, choose, and
portray.

500 Days of Summer.

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Music :
The associations between the sound and the image must not be inter-
preted only as a simple add, but a narration that guides the plot and the
symbolisms in a conductive way.

For example, in the moment when Martin hasn’t received the results of
the grant yet, an environment of a tribe will be created, taking elements
of the “Selknam”, which will project dreamy and magical atmospheres
and a desire of yearning from the main character.

In the forest, instrumentation will be used to transport the viewer to a

place away from the city, with sounds of nature, nice and peaceful. This
will also be represented by music that longs to express beauty and exces-
sive emotion.

On the other hand, the office will be associated with a much more con-
trolled music, geometrical and even minimal. At times it will represent the
frustration, despair or boredom, symbolizing the monotony and problems
of his lack of romance with Emilia, which will always try to respond to
Martin’s search for meaning.

Synthesizing, the music works as another narrative element, contrasting

and differentiating both plots, while also maintaining the magical union of
being part of the same universe.

Director’s Folder 11
Main Characters:
Lead Roles:

MARTIN (28)
Of medium height, quite thin and angular face, his appealing is not re-
markable at first sight. He comes from a middle class family, currently
live in Concepción City, Chile. He, broadly speaking, has always been an
urbanized provincial. Martin is a guy who has postponed a lot in his life
because of the obsession he has to obtain an investigation grant. He has
a tendency to channel his life under one parameter. He has staked too
much into the grant application, coming even to refuse to think about a
future where he doesn’t obtain it.

MARTIN with grant

He has medium long hair and a beard that is constantly becoming leafier.
He is much more emotional and has a specific tendency towards impa-
tience and irritability. Determined by how things work out, his expecta-
tions enter a permanent conflict with reality. This Martin travels to the
south and after living with the indigenous that he was tracking down for
his research, he starts writing and talking about the experience he lived
there. Emilia becomes a kind of substitute parameter and makes him suf-
fer again when she fills him up with doses of contradictions. He is intoler-
ant, and idealistic who needs the world to become as he imagines.

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 Main Characters.

MARTIN without grant

He has short hair and he’s always shaved. He is rational, calm and patient,
perhaps too much. This Martin works in a generic office, performing a
completely invisible task. For this Martin, Emilia is a part of his routine,
someone who just showed up; even though there’s no doubt he has some
feelings for her. Determined by how things work out, he becomes a guy
that doesn’t expect anything from life. This quality protects him from a
hostile reality even though little by little it becomes a new apathetic per-
sonality. Martin becomes stiff, introvert; deep down he has picked up a
kind of phobia to any type of commitment. When he becomes aware of
his new state of mind, he makes an effort to react, but he is very unlikely
to succeed.

EMILIA (29)
She goes by an executive/casual look. Emilia comes from a middle class
family from the capital who consider themselves high class. She is strong
and independent. She is a very talented and precocious surgeon. Emilia
has always conducted her life in a conventional way. She has always done
what she’s supposed to do, in matters of education, work, and love life.
Nevertheless she hides a desire for adventure which is why she lives with
the feeling of something that is missing in her life. Emilia is very intelligent
and educated, but is drowned to light type of entertainment, like junk
television. She’s rather cold and ironic, although she’s much more alive
compared to Martin. The truth is that Emilia is someone who wants to
give something at steak but doesn’t dare, she needs to feel secure of her
decisions and the conventional is the best way to do that.

Director’s Folder 13
Main Characters.

Secundary Roles:

ROBERTO
A 29-year-old man, thin with a kind of “beatnik” look. Roberto is some-
one who has decided to take life without the problems of the majority,
although his way of being has allowed him to have enough commodities
for that. He is a party, alcohol and stimulants fan. He has personality al-
most completely opposite to Martin’s, which makes him the only person
with whom the main character feels supported and listened. He is the
only close friend of Martin. The funny thing is that Roberto doesn’t have
any problems advising him, given he knows how to “manipulate” him so
Martin himself draw his own conclusions, that is, he says what Martin
doesn’t want to hear, with the purpose of shaken him. In this way, he be-
comes someone pretty pragmatic yet also showing great concern about
his friend Martin.

AKAINIK / INDIGENOUS
A 40-year-old man, approximately. Of pure indigenous blood, he comes
from the Peikum tribe. When he meets Martin, suddenly Akainik finds
himself in his last phases of acculturation. He’s already equipped by some
remedies he needs and the commodity of certain occidental elements. In
this way, he symbolizes the lost of balance from the pure and natural state
of an indigenous. The loss of the center. This discovery provokes in Martin
the change of vision about his eternal dream, and the destruction of the
idealization he always had about it, leading that Martin to such levels of
non-conformity which, finally, turn against his goals.

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 Main Characters.

TOBÍAS / MARTIN’S BOSS

A 37-year-old man, of medium size and tough features. In general, he is
pretty standard in his dressing and looks. Tobias is Emilia’s former boy-
friend. He is sub manager in the company where he works and has a
small group of people in charge. He sees in Martin a person who man-
aged to make things work with Emilia, a thing that he could never do;
this way, he has a certain admiration for him. As it turns out, he is very
basic when it comes to personal relationships. At sight, it looks like he
doesn’t have much behind his eyes, as if he were constantly lost. But a
smile and a plastically emphatic attitude –yet, finally, nice- have made
him meet his goals. Surprisingly, he does things pretty well.

CARLOS
A 35-year-old man, of good presence and nice features. He has a similar
style with Emilia regarding sophistication and good taste. He and Emilia
were a couple a long time ago; after that, they ended up as friends, which
makes Emilia very comfortable around him; and is it understood that there
is a dominion of her over him, who will always feel a non-corresponding
attraction for her. He will always be unconsciously trying to please her,
and she will be delimiting her territory, state in which his friendship holds
rather well.

Director’s Folder 15
Director’s Folder www.paraisodelosidiotas.cl
 More Information:
www.paraisodelosidiotas.cl

Directed by: Screenplay by : Produced by:

Rodrigo González Nicolás Wellmann Benjamín
Larrondo Sandoval