Davids

I never posted about Wednesday's work: Ariel, Aurora and I had pasta with cabbage for dinner. Travis arrived and we tried redoing the Erin/Michael/lamp scene with Aurora puppeteering me and Travis "free," that is, without a puppeteer. Ariel left (we continued to shoot two cameras with no operators). We tried another version in which a tap from Aurora cued me to deliver a line about my diet and a scratch to respond to Travis -- this was fun for me because if Travis responded to me and I then received a tap I had to change topics to not respond even though previously a tap had initiated the same subject matter, example:

GEORGE (TAP)
I made kale for dinner tonight.

TRAVIS
How did you cook it?

GEORGE (TAP)
I still drink too much soda.

TRAVIS
Do we have any soda, I'm thirsty.

GEORGE (SCRATCH)
I don't think soda is good for you if you feel sick.

TRAVIS
Get me water at least.

GEORGE (TAP)
I make cookies because I like the process.

I don't know if that's clear, but I enjoyed myself. To create a scene with more shape we tried having a normal conversation (about setting fireworks off in the apartment), but when Aurora squeezed us we were to act as if we heard a sound coming from the guru's room. We forgot to decide on an ending for the scene beforehand and it kind of plateaued after a while without going anywhere. Again, I enjoyed this scene because I felt I couldn't talk about the sound except when I was cued so I would ignore Travis's inquiries about what I was hearing and continued to talk about fireworks.

Tonight, two Davids joined us. David M. brought two ideas to the moviepainting experiments, of which we only tried one. First, a scene that we wind up and let go, that has rules but no puppeteers, we tried this and created a funny scene in which a whole crowd ended up trying to help Jacob move Travis off the mattress. David's other idea is more controversial, to try moviepainting with voice cues -- so far we have ruled this out for sound reasons, but maybe we should reconsider: why hide the artifice? (Or, fix it in post.)

David W. brought the idea to create a apartment-wide scene (two wandering cameras) in which the characters whisper rules into each others' ears throughout so it changes over time. Somehow this led to us lighting the fireworks off in the bathroom (!). This scene was much crazier, harder to shoot, but more varied in tone (the kind of thing you want to do for an entire evening -- also a lot like a summer camp game, for better or for worse?).

After that, in a controversial decision, we ended the night early and made our way to the bar for Ariel's birthday (happy happy!) -- we are all tired. However, we continued to talk about the movie, always easier off-site (and away from the cameras). The conversation went a few ways but I think we agreed that so far we have lacked discipline and it would be nice to try for the last eight days(!) to stick to one thing. To this end we discussed ideas. Chris (with the hookah) is bringing a written scene on Saturday, I thought we could use it. Another idea, originally Erin's, to discuss one topic every night in the same place and combine the conversations -- very formal/conceptual, far from what we've been doing so far. Travis said his favorite part of the experience has been that we've had fun and been engaged doing so many varied things and he thinks we should create a scene over the next eight days that synthesizes everything, one scene that includes elements of everything we've done (tarot, blackouts, moviepainting, making-of, the guru, etc.). I thought it might be easier to redo one scene we've done over and over for the rest of the time, so I asked everyone what their favorite scene has been (I meant to ask what the "best" scene we've done so far is):

JACOB: 1) Moviepainting Erin/Michael/lamp, 2) Soundpainting
JOE: 1) Moviepainting Erin/Michael/lamp, 2) Moviepainting Joe/Lauren/Aurora/bag/door
MICHAEL: Moviepainting Erin/Michael/lamp
ARIEL: Music in the dark after blackout
STEPH: Eating burritos
ERIN: Making-of moviepainting Erin/Michael/lamp (shot of George puppeteering)
AURORA: Music in the dark after blackout
FRANCESCA: George reading Chris's tarot (for the awkwardness)
DOMINIQUE: Soundpainting

A number of people still need to respond -- I have no favorite scene but I think our best scene is probably one of the funny moviepainting scenes: Erin/Michael/lamp or Dominique/Joe/mess/clean AND as David W. observed I love talking/arguing about the movie. Therefore, my idea for shooting is this:

1) In bed in the blue room, Erin awkwardly reads Michael's tarot, they fight over the light (moviepainted, puppeteer also recorded), the power goes out, they make a song in the dark. 2) Afterwards we all eat burritos (and/or cookies?) and discuss the moviemaking process.

I propose we shoot this diptych (or something very close to it) everyday from now on. When Erin and/or Michael aren't available, we sub in other people for their characters (in the same costumes?). We eat the same food, sitting in the same seats everyday. At the beginning of the month we worried that seeing two characters in bed implicates them in some intimate relationship and that we shouldn't make a movie about movies -- I say, fuck it, let's embrace these things and go for broke.

That said, the basic tension that has run through the entire process has been between individuals making decisions and for us all to come to a consensus/compromise -- I would like for the group to decide on something to shoot for the rest of the time, but can we? How? Should we vote? Should we argue until everyone submits (and one subdues)? Can there be no decisions and must we continue without direction but with hope?

Please reply with comments and posts.

P.S. On the 27th we need to clean up somewhat and on the 28th Alex, Aurora and I are moving (all our furniture/stuff) in -- take this into consideration.