“When you starts a process , you never know how the it will end, but once you get the feeling, a sort of inspiration get to you and you have follow it. In doing so you encounter a world of possibilities and to attain the adequate results one must be flexible and persevere, because sometimes the ideas are to big or too small for the final creation to come to life. But no matter what, one MUST keep the conviction and the decision of creation.”
Objective: to exalt the process and its details for a more palatable learning experience.
Title: The process and
How to dig little deeper, clean a little bit, move it, leave it, keep it, improvise, research, learnt it , do it, return, Voliá
Before any sort of story can be presented, the director must bear to see the boundaries and the limitations of the tools that will aid the confection of his or her creation. Also by the light of creativity and imagination one must overcome the boundaries with the conviction that the idea must be born and must come to exist.
At first, I wanted my film to be about self discovery and as I wanted to create characters without using persons, my first idea was to use objects and, in their own utility, make them serve as a parlours and focal points to the main character which remain unknown for me at that time. Later the idea developed into the idea to personify architecture to make statements about life. After a research about the art behind architecture I came up with tons analogies, I stumble upon many precious insights about how architecture can elope with most of our human angst. One was that “As the buildings tend to sacrifice their ideal artistic intention for utility people also tend to avoid their own impulse of being for their functionality of society” There were also many others that seemed equally good. So I decided to cut down the chase and blindfolded picket one analogy. I chose the atemporality of the being and its decay and remerging through the passage of time.
I did some sketches for a possible introduction in which I would merge people and architecture to convey that analogy and exchange their respective adjectives into a well structured narration. I was inspire by Faulkner and Proust and use their styles as layouts.And as I wanted music in my film I research Tchaikovsky, Overtures and then septets. And after focusing more in the passage of time I stumble across a deeper indication on how time itself viewing it with another perspective can challenge conventions represented in social tendencies and mindsets. I brought in the notion on how telling a story from another point of view saves people as-well as ideas. There are moments when we say that some people have their "inner child" who doesn't age throughout the years. Or say that there are people that are wise beyond their years. We have all seen the special innocent smile that some elders sometimes wear, and we also have seen the deep and almost sage expression on some of the infants' gazes. When we see those details, they seem to captivate and almost tell an unspotted secret about us. In such times we presence an untold story...
Society is structured by time, everything has a date and an hour: birthdays, deaths, journeys, breakups, anniversaries. It helps us keep track of events and important things, but more often than not it also constrain us in the form of deadlines, stress and anxiety. People worry about getting older of loosing youth, people worry about ageing and about growing. People tend to forget about those smiles and gazes that once reminded them that there is something bigger and greater than time...
I took the challenge to remind the people about that something, The idea of turning that notion inside-out to the the people is to surprise and innovate by remembering. It is meant to make people see explicitly what in reality is tacit and veiled. It is a statement about how much real and how much weight our inner presence has and contrast it to the austerity and relativity of time and age with is often weighed and valued blackguards.
The film will be an experience that will bring the viewers closer to their atemporality and immensity. It is an honor for me to provide with the medium and the production of that experience as I know that reality sometimes portrayed time as something intimidating, I have dealt too many times with the idea of the passing of time and its inevitableness, I have seen the anxiety and even the depression that it brings. By reminding the people that there are some aspects of our being that never seems to be affected and by highlighting the people that some other aspects are in constant growth through the experiences, people can enrich their lives and be in state of wholeness and empowerment.
Getting more technical about the production, to express the ambiguity of time in the person as well as their enduring essence I was planning to shift my character's age on the visuals. For example for the character of the grandmother, which the narration will describe her using elements that revolves around anciently and decay, was to be be portrayed by young woman in the visuals, and her liveliness will be enhance on the angles shots. But as the product as not going to be presented in its full composition I decided that it will be to obscure and difficult for the audience to understand the whole intention in a couple of minutes of introduction.It was a great idea but the guidelines of the project fell short. In addition as I wanted to start with a stream of conciseness I was going to start the film with visuals that will mirror the disjointed thought pattern to add a sense of abstract realism. But alas, to the same cage the bird flew.
As you see, my production skills develop throughout this project by the means of trial and research, by self-reflecting on the content and most importantly the constant reminder of the purpose,. Thats how my product that originally was meant to be highlighting the objects, shifted to architecture, then to time and at last to a unique piece with artistic coloration and rich connotations. As one can see in the final product, my choices were entirely different from my previously planned ideas.
For the opening, the young girl holding the blue garment represented the mind holding the stream of consciousness. I glorify the ideas and the thoughts that one has inside the mind by the personification of the process itself: the muse of inspiration holding the stream of ideas in a surreal place.To accentuate the strength of such process I use the intense Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 by Schumann in the background…
Also I use tungsten coloration for the visuals and a various shot at different angles, mainly low and high angles to add space and height. Close ups and medium shot were particularly use to create that sense of intimacy.
After the Stream of consciousness, for the actual introduction the mise-en scene was settled in a white room. For better presentation and to signal the opening artificial light was used. I filmed the lights turning on as the non-diegetic music stated in order to physically present a dynamic beginning. I was blessed to have my grandparents visiting so I directed all my narrative to them as characters. I was careful in establishing the shots in a aesthetically pleasing manner. Close ups were specifically use as I wanted to capture their expressions. For specific symbolisms, the plants which they are holding are meant to represent life and the growing love, also they are used to evoke freshness and a object identification. Lavender is mean to present the soothing and feminine properties of the being, that makes sense as my grandmother is holding the flower. For my grandfather he is holding the marigolds, in aztec tradition they were use a transitional elements between life and death. It is an esoteric symbolism and It fits the narration and regardless of the audience understanding the context of them they are overall a harmonious choice for the visuals.
Also,music is used as a transitional element In the introduction the music shifts to a more lively stance as Consolation no 3. by Liszt is played, I chose the piece because it was a way to establishing a tone of comfort and sympathy, it lightens the penetrating force of the cello and in a way, as the visuals becomes more colourful the music lightens as well…
To include all these element into a constant production the integration of software was essential. I was thankful because many of them were part of the Apple system(iMovie and garageband) and the online elements for research were readily available in the search engine of Google. I recording the narration using Garageband (I edited my voice to have a radio format).I downloaded the music for a database of internet and then transferred them both to iTunes by export in them in an mp3 format and then I exported them back to iMovie where I locate the elements in comprehensive sequences. I used a Cannon Powershot SX30 in recording form using tungsten format.
Moving on to the narration, after so much thought I really wanted to reach out to my audience as loyal to my idea as possible, so I decided to produce the narration in my native tongue in order to add an original and more expressive presence. It was a challenging decision as I have to translate the narrative, into english as a template for a non-speakers to understand but it is worth the addition of work in the exchange of the easiness in which my ideas can be presented, moreover the possibilities of word choice and the flow of ideas will make justice to the novel intention that I want to share. My audience is an international one, and as my product is by no means commercially intended I would distribute it in a platform that welcomes foreign and artistic products without precedent. Vimeo and Netflix are well intended to that purpose. I wish I could expound more on the distribution but the process is rather simple, for Vimeo one can just create a username and upload any content, and for Netflix a formal petition should be stated as well as legal documents about copyright.
As director and producer I’am not particularly interested in the monetary gains the product gains. The productions was on a very low budget: I didn’t have to pay for my actors, the music was for the public domain and the software and products used were available at no cost.
If I should ought to contemplate any commercial use then I would have had produce an entire different product. I quite enjoy people gravitating toward my creation by the means of coincidence and destiny. I know is an idealistic and unrealistic way to cope with the distribution and audiences for any product at all, but I have taken the luxury to do it as it is a project that was almost a introspection to myslef, I molded it to contain a human element, a living thought. Besides, Cinematography needs variation of purpose to the entropy of the field to sufficient to maintain its state as an organic system. Art is Art right?
