Extra Credit

            The Living Wake, a film by Sol Tryon in 2007 tells a tale about a man, K. Roth Binew who is a self-proclaimed genius, and his final living day (he is diagnosed with a sickness) in which he spends handing invitations to his “living wake”.  Accompanied by Mills Joquin, his best (and only) friend, he goes around the town, mostly being rejected at everything he does and everyone he meets, even his family.  They all show up at his living wake in the end though, most to try and ridicule him thinking that all of this is a hoax and is another one of his crazy acts.  As his time left in the world becomes less and less, he sees his dead father that abandoned him as a child and finally begins to realize about life and its meaning. 

            As his final performance begins, the band starts to play his song and K. Roth Binew begins to sing.  The camera cuts to a three-quarter cut of him beginning to sing.  As he jumps off the stage and walks between his audience, the camera cuts to a long shot of him walking and the audience staring at him confused.  The camera continuously cuts back and forth to medium shots and close ups between K. Roth Binew singing about stopping to dwell upon death and winning over death by living up to his final moment in his life full, happy, and as himself and the audience’s reactions to his words.  As his performance starts to come to an end, the camera mainly stays as a close up of K. Roth Binew, except for a long shot that shows the audience following K. Roth Binew as he marches and sings toward his open coffin.  As the song finishes, K. Roth Binew is shown in a medium shot where he folds his arms on him and dies in his coffin. 

            From this scene, we can interpret, based on camera, action, and dialogue that Tryon was trying to express K. Roth Binew’s last four minutes as fulfilling and extravagant.  The medium shots and close ups of K. Roth Binew as he sings shows the developing process within him of accepting death and his decision to live life to the fullest, even with only four minutes left.  The long shots and close ups of the audience and certain characters express confusion and amusement, showing us that no one really takes him seriously, and everyone still believe this is just him being crazy once again.