Today, I borrowed Nate's camera, brought some props for myself, and shopped for food for the apartment. I took a nap on the couch and worried about the noise from the fridge. Francesca arrived around 4:30 and we started shooting without much direction or idea of what we were after. Jacob came next and we tried being ourselves on camera (no chance of being good). Aurora arrived with Sriracha, chocolate and my toolbox, then Evan showed up and we ate fried rice on paper plates.
Evan brought sheets and we started shooting in earnest, starting with the idea of a cheesy ghost but veering off immediately. At first, I was under the sheet and it felt more like modern dance or a movement exercise. Travis, CJ, Ariel and Jen arrived and two scenes developed. First, with Travis and I in bed, he asleep and me thrashing around under the sheet like I couldn't sleep. Second, with Evan trying on different sheets while Francesca asked him about a comment he had made about her appearance (we also tried reversing roles with Evan speaking and Francesca under the sheet but they suddenly became teenagers and I freaked out). Both scenes veered quickly towards relationships where people are separated by the heavy symbolism of the sheet -- good or bad?
When people began to get tired, giggly, frustrated, etc. we decided to have a discussion about what we liked and disliked and how to proceed. There seems to be a majority of people who think we need to decide on a plot at least to begin moving in a direction and Travis brought up a good point that most to all of the people working on the project are statistically the same, that is, in age, background, education, class, interests, etc. and what kind of plot could lead to the situation that we are all stuck together. We brainstormed (not a good method) and came up with the idea of a flop house or safe house where people on there way from one place to another are temporarily staying. We thought it would be good, assuming everyone wants to act, for each of us to work out a costume and package of belongs that our characters bring with them into the space and tomorrow we will begin shooting interactions between these nascent characters, helping each other with ideas, pinning down relationships. We are also looking for mattresses and props to fill out the space which everyone should feel free to bring at anytime. One of the dangers of this idea is that it relies heavily on people concealing and revealing their back stories instead of, as Casey talk about on Sunday, a dramatic scenario (something actually happening), but it's a beginning and I think we should go with it and see what happens. We talked about there being a owner of the space who is separate from the the group, which reminded me of the Dardenne brothers' La Promesse in which a sleazy landlord and his son run a apartment building for immigrants but I imagine it more like replicants running from bladerunners, or time travelers waiting for rides, aliens waiting to be picked up by their mothership, clones escaped from organ farms OR weather underground-types hiding after a big bombing, a radical religious sect preparing for the rapture. I'm going to imagine a character for myself, bring some lamps and mattresses and food for the apartment, keep organizing cameras and think about other definitions for the space.
Jacob and I will be at the apartment by 2pm, Travis and Francesca at 3pm, Evan at 8pm, everyone is welcome. Dinner at 7pm tomorrow will be pasta with red sauce, boring I know (but exciting without a big pot).
From an email from Aleksei:
"...i think it would be interesting to be more intentional about it- basically i'm into your manifesto idea that i don't know if you actually are into. i don't think there is much time for it at this point, but i would have been interested in exploring the motivating idea behind the project, and the one dimension of the project that is agreed upon by everybody- collaboration and community- as a starting off point for a statement of intention, which would in turn inform the process and content of the project. i think we should do more to answer the question of why this is something we want to use as the beginning of a project. what do we mean by collaboration and community and why is this interesting or important to us? for instance exquisite corpse was mentioned as a model of the kind of collaboration we might use. the surrealists used this because of an interest in (and a privileging of) the (collective) unconscious, chance and play over reason. are we doing this because we share this value/interest? and if not what does it mean for us? when we figure that out we need to structure the process around it."
If you can't come tomorrow, think about Aleksei's questions/ideas and try to respond in writing in your own post here, in the comments or by email and I'll post it later. NB I don't have email during the day so give me a call if you need to get in touch.
2 comments:
One important thing that George didn't mention - and relates to collaboration - is how to go about being a constructive creative community, and not just a bunch of critical people who are dissatisfied with preliminary efforts.
George had the idea of focusing on what we thought was working, and then building off of that - I think this could work. Last night we seemed to all agree that we got interesting movement, lighting, and a consistent (dark/slow/menacing) atmosphere.
Other good things were: new people on camera and on screen, and how many people are going to be involved.
I was always the kid who would crumple up a drawing if it didn't look lifelike enough- for a whole year in first grade, I only drew ants.
I think this movie will be better if it has sloppy antelopes than perfect ants.
I think we definitely have to be willing to make more and more sloppy antelopes. That isn't to say that the sloppy antelopes will remain in the end (what end? oh jeez) but we'll keep getting more and more stuff that works, that can be joined together.
We've all got hypercritical eyes, but also are totally supportive about things that work. I think as characters start interacting and developing scenarios, we'll keep focusing on the stuff everyone likes, the chafe will fall away, and we'll start to get something that is workable.
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