Profile (a videopoem) By R.W. Perkins

Kiss My Wife - R.W. PerkinsThere are several stories behind this film. Let's start with the genesis of this film poem. A friend had looked over some of my past written works, then started comparing it to my new films. He made an observation; that much of my older written work would be considered stream of consciousness, and that I should try implementing that style in some of my film poems.

As the conversation evolved, this suggestion became more of a challenge; as we then tried to implement rules as to how something stream of consciousness could or would be filmed. My first thought was the film would have to be written, shot and edited simultaneously, I still like the idea, but for my first attempt I decided it was a little ambitious. So we decided that the rules would be based mostly around the written word. There were only 2 rules, but they were tough. I had 30 minutes to write, then 30 minutes to do a reading. Whatever I came up with in that hour would be the gospel, no edits or rewrites. As soon as my friend and I had finished with our conversation, I started my iphone timer for 30 minutes and went straight to the keyboard and started banging away. 

Profile By. R.W. Perkins from R.W. Perkins on Vimeo.

Both the subject and name of the poem where directly influenced by online social identities, blurbs about Lost In The Supermarket - R.W. Perkinsone's life creating a narrative of their day. I feel as though many people have begun to reveal themselves through still images and abbreviated phrases, it's almost as though brevity is becoming a new language. This "abbreviated language" in many ways reminds me of poetry. I started thinking of William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just To Say" as a text, a tweet, or blog post. Then I started thinking of the ridiculousness of someone sharing every waking moment of one's life. "Holy shit!" I thought. Sounds a lot like a poet or a writer. What great inspiration for a poem.

The time constraint was much harder than I had ever anticipated.  I had first thought that written piece would be the hardest part of this new process, but getting a proper reading proved to be the most difficult part of creating this piece. My half hour practicing the reading and eventually performing,  proved to be an eye-opening experience. I had always been aware of my need to recite a working piece over and over again, mostly aloud but sometimes in my head. This time constraining process made it much harder to have as confident a reading as I'd like. On the upside, this exercise made it clear to me that the auditory aspect of my process is just as important as the written word.

What I thought was going to be a quick process, turned into the biggest production of all my videopoems. I wanted something that felt very gritty and real, like something that you would shoot and post on your facebook page to laugh at with your family and friends.  So I started filming and shooting pictures from my iphone. I had just recently fell in love with my new hipstamatic app and I was just dying for a reason to showcase that as well. If you've seen the poem then you know that I made good use of the iphone footage, and Hipstamatic shoots.

Things quickly began changing as I was trying to force myself to sleep one night and having no luck at all. I was flipping through the stations trying to find something that I could ignore, hoping that the noise would lull me away to the Sandman's hand. I settled on the 1968 Boston Strangler film. I know not a film easily ignored, but I immediately remembered how much I had loved this film the first time I'd seen it years before. I was struck by the movement of the film, it was very cloak and dagger. My mental wheels began turning, I had always thought that online social interaction was a bit voyeuristic, both the act of participating in it, and the subjects people choose to post.  Within a few sleepless moments my entire concept had been totally changed, I was now shooting a 1960-70 action, adventure spy film inspired videopoem.  

The next morning I had a plan and put it into motion. I enlisted a few of my neighbors to play the parts of "The Runner" Leo Alvarez , "The Mother" Kristen Vogt  & "Man Man On Stoop - R.W. PerkinsOn The Stoop" Brian Bonner. Sorry to say that "Man On The Stoop's" part got completely cut except for the last sequence. Thanks Brian. I had talked to everyone by mid-afternoon on a Saturday and we were able to shoot the very next day. The shoot lasted a couple of hours, on the last sunny Sunday of fall. The next day in the early morning hours a major snowstorm moved in and knocked all of the beautiful foliage off the trees. I was quite lucky that we were able to shoot on the day we did.

So, last but not least; the quotes. I have been asked several times now whether the quotes we're actually recorded during the written portion of this exercise. The answer is kind of. The Kerouac quote was thought of and was marked with a simple note (see Kerouac). Locomotives and trains have always reminded me of Kerouac, not just because of "On The Road" which is where I obtained the quote from the poem, but because it seemed to be a running theme in many of his poems as well as the Beats. The Nietzsche quote seemed quite fitting because, I vaguely recalled the quote, and as I didn't have time to stop and look it up, I simply marked (something Nietzsche). As for including my own quote that was a bit of fun, I hope you all had a good laugh.

R.W. Perkins

This videopoem has been featured on VidpoFilm, Moving Poems, The Atticus Review The Denver Egotist and was featured in an article on The Huffington Post Denver. On March 15th "Profile" was screened for the first time @ The Lyric Cinema Cafe in Fort Collins Co. You can find the published text version of this poem on, and only on The Atticus Review.