A Film Update of Plato's Cave?

Special news item, November 2000.

A student group at UC Santa Barbara is now engaged in a project making a film version with an updated allegory of Plato's Cave. I have agreed to help publicize their interesting project here. They are seeking any financial assistance you might wish to make as well as expressions of interest from teachers or professors who might eventually want to purchase a copy of the film/video.

A description and synopsis:

EiKasia, written by Corwin Screenwriters Award winner Jeremy Eric Platt (1999-2000), is a contemporary adaptation of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." It takes place during a time when the entertainment mediums have taken over our world. Mixing drama and comedy, the film centers on an older man who eventually breaks free of this technological empire and how he copes with seeing the real world for the first time. He then returns to the theater where the human race has been held captive, and attempts to free his fellow prisoners. Together the comedy/drama genres are used to teach us about finding our own worlds and making event happen for ourselves. The film was pitched to a panel of distinguished individuals from the Hollywood Industry in late September, and was the only live-action project (of nine pitches) to be voted in unanimously to be made by the department. Our film studies office has limited production opportunities: our production materials and equipment are over 50 years old. However, we look forward to the experiences and opportunities film production as a crew can provide for us. Part of the reason out project was picked is its double motive. One motive is to teach students and learn about the process of working as a crew, and the other is to experiment with entertainment mediums. In efforts to cross film and video we will be editing segments of Digital Video in with both Black&White and Color film. In this effort we not only hope to successfully cross breed two competing mediums, but to add to the overall effect of what it is like to look at an image through someone else's eyes (the escaped prisoner) as opposed to what we generally see on the screen. I am writing to you in search of any support you could provide us with. Through tax deductible donations we hope to raise a portion of our funding that will aid us in our goal of producing and distributing this film to festivals this coming spring. Also, we are looking for individuals who might be interested in obtaining a video copy of our film, as a current look at what Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is trying to express.

Here is further information: "The film will cost about $16,000 overall and all production will be complete in March of 2001. Actual shooting will be complete by the second week in December. We will reshoot any scenes that are not complete during January, and post-production (visual and sound editing as well as packaging, etc.) will run until March. I am not quite sure the actual length of the film (we won't really know until after the editing process) but because it is a short, it should definitely not exceed 30 minutes. It will most likely be much shorter than a half hour (18-20 min). Professor Dana Driskel [the project supervisor] is a film teacher... who runs the production division of the department. The film is being made in conjunction with a film class (film studies 106).... Jeremy Platt (screenwriter/director) is an award-winning adaptor.

For further information, contact Anne Schmidt.

revised November 12, 2000