[seen 06/05/17]
[shooting script]
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To be fair, MK Ultra is also extremely well choreographed, and [dancer] in particular is amazing. But Adam Curtis is still taken much too seriously in UK. I prefer my German friend’s assumption that he was a video artist, with a sensibility something more along the lines of Bill Drummond than Jon Pilger.
[shooting script]
V/O
This is a story about a dance piece
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Stock black and white footage of some 1950s dancers
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Static
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Stock footage of Miley Cyrus sticking out her tongue
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Stock footage of Donald Trump
Stock aerial footage of an anonymous American city
V/O
It starts in 2016, when the choreographer Rosie Kay has an idea.
She realised that no one ever wrote feature articles about dance,
because dance was thought to be composed of abstract movements.
She realised that to make journalists write about dance,
dance had to tell them a story they were already telling.
So she teamed up with Adam Curtis.
Cut to /
Stock footage of ballerina being caught.
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Stock footage of Fleet Street in the 1950s
V/O
Adam Curtis had had an idea.
He wanted to tell the British public stories they had already heard
But, he had realised that if you tell familiar stories in a way that appears to blame someone
but never really make it clear who
then your programmes will quickly gather a cult following,
And up and coming choreographers will want to work with you
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Crowd cheering at football match
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Nuclear explosion
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Beauty contest parade
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Justin Bieber smiling at the cameras
V/O
So Rosie Kay and Adam Curtis decided to make a show about the Illuminati,
a fictional organisation popularised in the novels of cult American authors
Like Thomas Pynchon and Robert Anton Wilson.
Cut to /
Stock footage of American dollar bill
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Stock footage of Britney Spears
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Stock footage of ballet dancer
V/O
Their aim was to create a new sort of dance. One where
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Grainy VHS format video of 80s TV programme
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Stock footage of Olympic athletes
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Stock footage of Saddam Hussein
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if you spoke slowly enough...
Miley Cyrus
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Justin Bieber
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Britney Spears
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and punctuated each line with rapid bursts of footage...
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Mickey Mouse
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Vietman carpet bombing
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Marilyn Monroe
V/O
some people might think you intended to be taken seriously.
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Black and white slapstick comedy routine
Russian jet figher test flight
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Old film of people reading newspapers in 70s Britain
V/O
Kay had realised, that if you made a piece about modern pop stars,
and made the choreography a mixture of recognisable classical ballet,
mixed in with recognisable quotations from pop music videos,
then the reward-triggering functions in the human brain associated with recognition
would make the choreography seem incredibly rewarding to audiences.
Cut to /
Vast cheering crowds in 1970s Iran, probably.
To be fair, MK Ultra is also extremely well choreographed, and [dancer] in particular is amazing. But Adam Curtis is still taken much too seriously in UK. I prefer my German friend’s assumption that he was a video artist, with a sensibility something more along the lines of Bill Drummond than Jon Pilger.
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