The workshop - where we stand at the 3/4 mark

In a case of unfortunate timing JC is off to Hong Kong for a month, so I wanted to have come to at least some conclusions this weekend about how we might shoot the film. We still have one day to shoot, and we are missing some other parts, but I have edited what we have already shot, which was quite substantial, and put it onto DVD. JC was set to come over on Saturday so might get an objective look at where we were.
By chance my friend Fergus was in London for the weekend for a shoot. Now Fergus has not been involved in this project at all. If he were around a bit more I would've probably asked him to take a look at the script. As it was it a was great opportunity to get some quality, objective feedback.
So after struggling to connect the missing bits, and squint in the too-dark park scenes Fergus gained a pretty clear idea of where we going. His feedback?
Dialogue. Too often the little dialogue there was too loaded and not necessary. Now, I am always very happy to get rid of dialogue but it was great to hear it from someone else. Fergus just felt that so much of what was either clear visually or actually acted to restrict what he thought was happening.
Visual language. That this was strong enough or could be developed enough to more than compensate for what the lack of literal information. So, as I said in my last post, this is something I will develop next week when I meet with David.
Information. That there is too much plot so that the story is weighted down by the dialogue. It is not that important. He suggested an alternative way in which the exposition could unfold, but I am not sure that this would not create an entirely different film. Still, his point is well taken. In the first park scene, where Claire first meets Nick she explains about Natalie and how she has always been irresponsible. But when we shot it, due to the distance from the camera we could not hear what she was saying. Fergus did not miss this dialogue at all.
JC made another good point, something that I had suspected before, that we are missing steps in the relationship between Claire and Nick. We see the beginning and end of their relationship, but not the lead up to it, and not the centre of it. I wondered if we need at least another incidents between them to round out their relationship.
Before JC left we managed to agree that the original idea we had for a shooting style still seemed to be sound. That is the majority of the film is composed by static shots, but that we find those places where might move the camera.

inserts versus codas

JC has this dislike of inserts and I feel the same. By inserts I think of shots that are there purely for information, as in the actor is looking at their phone. Insert: CU of their phone and we see who is calling. Sometimes you have no choice but when you can...so I managed to get rid of just such an insert.
It was the park scene we shot the previous weekend. Here we see that Claire has made contact with Nick, and enough has transpired between them that we see they are comfortable, even intimate together. The setting, and the weather on this particular shooting day, amplify what Claire has achieved in making this leap to become someone else but starting a relationship with Nick.
But still it is a lie, and it is Sophie's presence, in the form of a series of phone calls to Claire's mobile that gives it away.
After we have established Claire and Nick's relationship and setting I have Claire sneaking away from Nick to check her phone messages.
Then the dastardly insert of Claire's mobile phone: Missed calls: Sophie (7)
But I realised that what was important in this scene was that Claire had broken away from Nick and in effect the whole construct to check her phone. It was the fact of the lie that was important, not the content of the lie.
And in the next scene we find out who it was who called and the substance of her calls.
The insert is unnecessary.
Now what I don't mean by inserts are those abstraction you see in an Ozu film or Kieslowski and so many others. I have read these referred to sometimes as codas which made little sense to me at first. I thought of that word in reference to music, the concluding part of the whole piece of music. But coda can refer to something brings to an end the preceding part, not just a whole. If you thought of Ozu and his static shots in The End of Summer you can see how they end and summarise the preceding scene or scenes.
In a coda there may information but there is something more. Kieslowski creates abstractions as a layer of the story's language. I think of Blue and the scene where Juliette Binoche is having coffee and we cut to a close-up of the sugar cube, held just at the surface of the coffee, absorbing the liquid. What does this mean? It is hardly necessary for information. Do we need to know that the character takes one sugar cube with her coffee? Kieslowski talks about this himself in the DVD extras. He wanted to show how the character was looking inward, in her own world. The lighting, which was high-contrast, and the focus, which was shallow, added to this effect.
And so far this is one of the weaknesses of the Claire part of this project - and I am certain that I have said this in previous posts. I have not developed my codas, or the layer of abstractions sufficiently. So, I need to get on to it.
Next weekend I am planning to work with David to develop just this.

Workshop - the park location

This past Sunday Flora, Phil, JC and myself went to Snaresbrook to shoot the park segments of the workhop.
The day started out well as you can see. As I was waiting for the others to show up I did some thinking. I deleted two shots and added one.
This is a still from this new shot. In this part of the story Claire has joined up with Nick, her sister's boyfriend. Here, in this place, they have managed to create a level of intimacy. The story has opened outwards, at many others enjoying this day, looks up at the trees and the sky, and down at the grass and the water.
But it can not be sustained. Claire sneaks away at one point to check her phone. We don't find out until the next scene why, but we know that somehow the truth has not been told.












Later we moved to another location where we worked on the other park scenes.
There is one, where Claire first meets Nick, and another where they end it.
And there is the final scene, where Claire realises that she is not able to change, and can find no answer for it anywhere.
Here we found it difficult. First, the location was not ideal. We could not stitch together all that we needed to create the scenes.
And second as we struggled to put it together it became too dark to find a solution.
We hacked something together for the workshop video, but we clearly have more work to do.















If I close my eyes perhaps he'll just go away.
Photos by JC.

Workshop

As always, the more I have to say the less time I have to say it.
I have been busy, these few weeks work shopping the script.
Two weeks ago I worked with my lead, Flora, shooting a number of scenes where she is by herself.
Last Sunday I had both Flora and Phil together for the first time. You always worry how people will get along but as it turned out everything was great fun.
Now looking back on it perhaps I should have done it the other way around? How would Flora have approached those scenes after she had a chance to be Claire first working with Nick? In the end it doesn't matter. The whole point of working this way is that we are able to go back and change and alter and rethink what we have done.
JC joined us this past Sunday, experimenting with a variety of ideas. This way the story, the acting, and the shooting style can all grow together. Unfortunately he is off to Hong Kong at the end of February, for one month, so we need to have done a lot of thinking between now and then.
This Sunday, weather permitting, we are planning to shoot all the scenes that take place in the park. I think we have one more day after that, to pick up the odd scenes, and then we have shot the whole story. I have already begun to edit the video, so I should begin to have rough edits of the workshop video in two weeks. Then it is time to call in friends and neighbours for feedback.