I was talking about the alley theme with Sean last night and he brought up this guy who gives alley tours, which made me say “Alleyologist”. It rolled really nicely off the tongue, and I’ve been picturing a trailer:
A tall, good looking young man with a doctor’s bag walks through an alley.
He’s peering at small things in the alley very closely, an earnest look on his face.
A close up on his mouth as he speaks into a small dictaphone: “The city… is sick.”
A hipster girl, arms crossed, gently mocks him. “So what — a bit of garbage in an alley makes you panic?”
He responds intensely: “Of course not. Alleys are the lower organs of the urban organism. Garbage, grafitti, all these things are like flora in the lower intestines. They’re natural. It’s something else.”
I’m seeing alleyology as being this slightly arcane practise passed down from his father — they’ve been monitoring, and in some cases treating, the cities they live in for generations (I’m imagining a great great father who was an ex-flâneur in France). He’s slightly out of step with modern life due to his passion and focus, but the girl has a serious crush on him…
that’s a good title
and i’ve always liked this italian phrase “La Passeggiata”
http://goitaly.about.com/od/italytravelglossary/g/passeggiata.htm
Huh! Never heard of that. Finally, a reason to break out my fannypack!
For the role of Alleyologist, perhaps you’d consider Shawn Micallef?
http://www.visiblecity.ca/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=65
He’d certainly suit the theme! Susan and I were spitballing on the weekend and thought of John, her bandmate:
http://www.myspace.com/thejbadpoorexperience
…he’s got an intense energy and some acting experience.
For some reason when thinking of this idea of the Alleyologist and the notion of alleys functioning as “the lower organs of the urban organism”, I keep getting these kind of visuals stuck in my head.
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2008/11/tilt-shift-miniature-city-videos.html
It’s called tilt-shifting. It could be a cool way to do establishing shots. Don’t know, could tie into the idea of the toys a bit, as well as showing the city from a different, raised perspective which could help suggest this idea of the city as a living organism/model. Anyhoo, just a thought.
Here’s another example…
http://www.vimeo.com/1785993
And here’s a quick tutorial on how to do it (at least for single images)…
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2008/10/create-model-size-city-tilt-shit.html
That’s really eerie, esp the top one — really does look like a model. I wonder if there’s a way to reverse engineer it and make models look real with more conventional angles/focuses?
It would be cool if the alleyologist made his own model of the city. It could feed into his central struggle: staying distant enough to be effective, but not so far that he loses his empathy completely. Similar to many doctors.
Dave sez:
this guy dumpsters quite a bit; perhaps a possible tie-in to the alleyway theme…?
http://www.jackofalltradesmasterofdrums.com/