Rebecca Thorn

The Old Guys is a British comedy television series that revolves around two aging housemates: Tom Finnan and Roy Bowden. The pair live across the street from Sally, whom they both find attractive. Tom moved in with Roy after Roy's wife Penny deserted him. Baby boomer Tom has little in life but his daughter Amber, who is dating Steve. Roy is a suburban pensioner who believes that he is one of the country's leading intellectuals.

An immersive film installation by Cally Spooner. In this work, a musical for six continuously rolling cameras, a black box soundstage and its inhabitants, are recorded in a single take. The mechanics of the shoot (cameras, microphones, mixing boards, chromakey screens and crew) remain as present as the performers they capture. Cast and crew become a constant-motion human backdrop, pragmatically recomposing scene-changes through lighting cues, voice, body movement, or continuous shifts of filmic apparatus and props. The semblance of a post-production edit arrives through the organisation and orchestration of bodies on set. Delivered by a chorus line of women, the film gossips about various celebrities, athletes and politicians who have outsourced their performances to different technologies.

A selection of monologues describe the lives of individuals: normal people. Who are they and what connects them? As the narrative progresses we learn that something has happened. There's been an event, something that has changed everything. But when did it happen... and where? There are suggestions; talk of bankers bonuses and bombs but nothing is specified. Has it happened? Will it happen? Then we see that the subjects of the narrative are from dedications on memorial park benches that are very real; covered in moss and graffiti, heightening the confusion between what is real and what is not. Monument appears as a low budget doc about park benches but its narrative poses powerful questions about memory, memorial and the way of things...