Imagined Landscapes In Clay And The Funk Brothers

The connections that one makes with the real or imagined landscapes reveals the need for individuals and society to feel a sense of belonging and unity. Melissa Harrison’s novel, Clay and the Funk Brothers’ short film, Looms represents this view of people and landscapes being inextricably linked. The novel, Clay explores how TC visits the park and secret garden as it is a platform for escapism and refuge. This need for escapism is stimulated by his fractured relationship with his mother, causing him to lack a sense of inclusion. Contrastingly, Looms depicts a farmer who contemplates between selling his farm or keeping it as it is filled with memories of his family. As a result, it is evident that individuals require connections with landscapes …show more content…
The fractured relationship between TC and his mother is conveyed through truncated sentences such as,” TC knew it was over between him and his mother.” The passive tone in this line communicates the neglect TC experiences from his parents. As a result, Harrison demonstrates TC’s longing for a fatherly figure to guide him through his real landscape by providing him with a sense of acceptance for who he really is. The only link that TC has towards his father is that, “the book had been the key.” Harrison through this line elicits a compassionate tone towards TC as his longing for his father’s return causes him to seek a place of sanctuary in the park and the secret garden. This in turn, allowed TC’s imagined landscape to have a calming effect on him which helped him to find his …show more content…
This is portrayed through the tracking shot of the farmer walking through his farmstead with a faded piano music in the background which emphasises that the farmer’s sense of identity has assimilated into his farm. Additionally, the responder is left with a despairing tone as the famer’s sense of loneliness evokes a dark, quiet and relatively sad atmosphere. Moreover, the struggling spirit of the independent farmer is further explored in the film. This is shown in the scene, in which the composer adheres to the rule of thirds and portrays the farmer in one third of the scene and the empty snow field overpowering the rest of the scene. As a result, the farmer’s sense of isolation is emphasised in order to express the vanishing breed of farmers due to future generations being reluctant towards experiencing the enduring nobility and harsh realities that farmers face. This in turn, leaves the responder with a compassionate tone as they begin to realise the deterioration of farming being caused by the rise of corporate agricultural organisations and genetic engineering production.
In conclusion, both composers, Harrison and the Funk Brothers portray how individuals seek landscapes due to their need to overcome their unfulfilling life with the hope of finding a sense of belonging and unity. For TC, the park and the secret garden acted as a platform for escapism