REFLECTIVE PRODUCTION JOURNAL/FILE

INDEX

A..  SPECIALISM 

B..  REFLECTIVE LOG

C... NOTES

D..  REFLECTIVE TABLE 

E..  RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

F..  VIDEO DIARIES

G.. LITERARY REFERENCES

 

 A                                 SPECIALISM......Imagine to Image

         Reflective production journal/file

This assignment and all the activities concerning developing it, from start to finish, will prove to be extremely rewarding.

The varying environments depicted in the film will play a big part and impact on conveying ideas to the viewer. From the relaxed country home of the sole character, enduring inner torment due to extreme stage fright through flashback type nightmares. Developing gradually the power shift in her own thoughts from mental instability to realise a type of spirituality in her quest to perform.

The imagine to image aspect has helped me relate to Time.Space & Place and opened my eyes to investigate ways to create a scene encompassing various techniques , which I will embellish on further below.

The filming side of this module is 90% as a single-artist with the actress and myself in the studio theatre and a lengthy time at the Barbican Theatre and myself on many filming trips to Cornwall to capture the landscape and other features ( especially when the sun was out ) and at the very end of the project I was assisted by Kandemir Esmer as camera operator for the concluding three clips dealing with the transition of the character’s elation.  The academic evaluations are 100% mine. Having Kan with me proved to be very valuable as it enabled me to work with the actress and her performance in a more ‘hands-on’ directorial way.

Taking responsibility for my vision to mix fear and passion with a subtle spiritual journey is coupled with my own reflection path and the character’s struggle to escape her demons.

My strengths for this project are my willingness to try out new approaches to filming. The intended use of the Canon 7d with a fast lens F-stop 1.4 to capture psychological introspection was a success. Especially developing the attributes of shallow focus alternating with the opening barn scene barn scene and with the shots with the paintings to signify a troubled mind…and shooting some footage with the Canon 7d set at 50 fps to have some good slow motion in post. The addition of incorporating black and white stills into composite mode, with shots of the character’s country habitat, was inspired directly from the transition exercise we undertook in one of Andy James’ lessons. I chose ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ with their journey from New York to Bolivia depicted in a series of photographs as a transitional device by the director. I researched this film in depth to evaluate the artistry deployed. When their production team were unable to use the intended ‘Hello Dolly’ set to film… so devised this alternative by photographing the three major stars there instead and using similar sepia techniques to the earlier part of the film, to show them progressing through a gradual time and geographical shift.

31/01/12. I arranged with Stuart for an appointment tomorrow morning to go through some technical aspects of Final Cut Pro.

I watched parts of Tarvotsky’s ‘Nostalghia’ again and I’m so inspired by his use of spirituality conveyed through the poetic cinematography of time and space. His well-documented use of long takes is guaranteed to let a scene unravel and the viewer to fully appreciate and develop a sense of real time with the characters motivation and dilemma. The main male characters seem to be always going through a crisis or type of evolvement.

I’m specially drawn to representing Adriana observing and being observed as of the present moment akin to Tartovsky’s favoured method.  My slow probing camera of the timelessness country environment would reassuringly contrast with the intended cutaway shots to Adriana in the series of infinite zoom shots planned. Inspired directly from the opening scenes in ‘Limitless’ by my using three cameras filming the same information with different lenses and creating a terrific sense of isolation for her, by techniques in post. (But not necessarily to be concluded and used here)

There are so many sequences in my short film that relate to Tartovsky’s penchant for portraiture of the human face, as a lingering landscape of anguish. I have used paintings in my scenes as a way to articulate a building up of the character’s dread of performing with a hint of an unbalanced mind about to experience extreme nightmares. Not intentionally borrowed from the Russian master’s medieval icons in ‘Andrei Rublev’, Leonardo da Vinci in ‘Mirror’ and others …but I must be in good company to offer similar here.

The same with my inclusion of black & white juxtaposed with colour shots.  Not intentionally borrowed from his style of use. I was captivated with the way they were used in ‘Butch Cassidy….’ As a transition from New York to Bolivia and coerced Adriana to strike those poses and I am always attracted to composite mode in Final Cut to weave in those inlays. This is something that I love using …sometimes intentionally and instinctively realising the outcome …but often there will be that magical combination of images and serendipity looms out and holds the attention and conveys my own search and replication through film, of a sense of spirituality.

The character here in my film is highlighted several times, and my intention is to search with the shallow focus lens technique into her psyche to confront herself and eventually to triumph over her demons. . As in ‘Solaris’ where the hero derives a certain amount of peace. I am totally in debt to the works of Andrei Tartovsky as he in turn must have been to Ingmar Bergman. …And I respect in my work the same ethic of Tartvosky in “…faithfully recording on film the time which flows on beyond the edges of the frame, lives within time if time lives within it…”

01/02/12…the meeting/tutorial went well with Stuart today. The first problem I had was to try and find out the best way to create an infinite zoom. The conclusion was that the actual embedding as perfected by 20 technicians for the ‘Limitless ‘ film was probably a bit ambitious and the best way forward is through the use of still photos. Because of the quality of the Canon 7d and the varying pixel rate from the still to HD for film. - There is a lot of potential to zoom in a lot further with prolonged resolution use and to achieve similar minded results with multi stills.

The second problem to be addressed was my intention to use projections in this brief …as per Pipilotti Rist with her merging of two films to with ‘fade to black’ at the centre of both images.this can be accomplished with the aid of photo shop

The metal plate I had created in the Metals department of the college to my specifications has been seen by Stuart and with further tests on the ‘Whitworth’ and ‘UNC thread’ compatibility it can be considered for further experiment for three Canon 7d’s on one tripod.

12/01/12…. Filming of Adriana went well at the college studio theatre today…. I work well on a one-to-one basis …and because there was just the two of us for the duration of the shoot. I was able to shape Adriana’s response to my creative directions to produce some really interesting introspective poses and I was able to practice with the shallow focus technique with a fast lens and 1.4 F-Stop. Utilising the room furniture and personal belongings as props in the set design.

We spent two hours of testing different poses to practice the shallow focus technique of her being in focus and the surrounding image not to isolate her in a picture of being swallowed up in a big-bad world of loneliness…and to vary these test shots of gradually focussing in and out trying variations and with pull-focussing. I learned a lot about coaxing an actress into a workflow rhythm with integrating her instinct in with the intellectual interpretations of her role that I explained to her…. Also the use of shallow focus is something that I will now develop …indeed with many areas of focussing and varying lenses to influence a particular viewpoint to the audience. Take them somewhere in the storyline that otherwise would not be so readily effective…. More research and practice …especially with the canted framing that I didn’t really pull off this time.

First recce of the location of the country setting in Cornwall was success. Ten acres of fields and woodland and this fantastic barn/type structure and found objects to be incorporated as a ’ character’ of the film in its own right.

15/01/12…?    I asked several technicians in the ERC concerning my idea to have a metal plate made to support three cameras on one tripod. Stuart suggested we could use the fig-rig and adapt its use. Dave and Phil then came up with the fig-rig combined with some lighting stands to be structured together with various connectors and the first prototype was born. …. That evening I filmed with three cameras simultaneously at 12 different locations on Plymouth City Centre’s streets…with the intention to use the footage in the way of ‘Limitless’ to speed the way through an urban landscape to isolate my main character in the film as a contrast to her tranquil country habitat environment. (Through a series of inopportune malfunctions of the design two of the 3 chip cameras’ undercarriage thread holes were damaged later and that idea was shelved)

02/O2/12 Following Stuart’s advice to take some still photos with the Canon 7d because the quality would be good to zoom I with. So early evening I started from the top of Amarda Way near the entrance to the Railway Station and started to shoot stills zooming in as far as I could. . Moving onto the next position under the pedestrian subway and take another few shots from on the tripod. I continued all the way down Armada Way ….as it was designed as a boulevard type straight-line all the way to the Hoe. I always knew of its long stretch in one direction to the sea but it became apparent to me to use it today when Sergei, a film arts graduate that I knew from my first year at college, came to lecture the class on several techniques and motivation with employers…. because he showed us an aerial clip from his Hovercam flights and the footage was a spectacular shot over Plymouth Sound heading inland and the whole ‘Roman’ style grand spread of Amarda Way became evident. And I thought immediately I could film that stretch in several sequences to try the infinite zoom effect again.

                                                           

03/02/12…. Up at 6am.ready for a couple of hours daylight shooting of stills with the Canon 7d…Freezing cold waiting for the sun to come up on the Hoe with camera and tripod in position.  Finally enough light to start the multi-serial photograph shoot .I took the first one facing the sea and turned around to face into city centre down to the straight line of the ‘boulevard’ type direct line of Armada Way. I repeated the same procedure at about 20 locations along the perfectly programmed straight line right up to the top entrance to the railway station.

These images are to be used to zoom in to it’s maximum compatible resolution and then join up the next sequences recursively to try and achieve an infinite zoom effect. Inspired by the opening sequences in the ‘Limitless’ movie.

 B....  REFLECTIVE LOG          

I really valued working with a good theatre performer who was stage-intelligent and able to demonstrate her strong passion through facial expressions as well as body movements.

 To have Kan along as camera operator for the location shots in the Barbican Theatre was a real advantage …as it freed me up enough to work on the choreography of Adriana’s elation scenes…and to have more time to try test shots trying further shallow and pull-focus shots, invaluable experience to take into my future practice.

Understanding the performer’s personal history of living in Latin America and her belief in effecting changes in small ways by empowering herself and others helps me now and in the future to empower myself and try to install a similar ethic when working with others.

Reading up on Analysis of the Cinematography of “American Beauty” gave me inkling into the reasons to use framing and the placement of objects to create a mood and direct the viewer’s focus. The use of deep focus, pan, shallow focus, slow motion in the movie are techniques I have tried to implement on this project…. and also tracking, aerial shots, and soft focus from American Beauty are themes I will pursue in the future.

I also like the ease of which the film used door openings etc. to weave a narrative and vary the perspective on realities and I tried to convey the barn door openings and the gate to the field in a similar textural feel.

I would also like to explore the use of deep focus more in the future.inspiration coming from Gregg Toland in ‘Citizen Kane’ …well at least the basic way of closing down an aperture and feeding in more light and lenses with better light transmission.

I would also like to practice with shooting a black & white film in an artificial lighting condition where a character is lit in the background and walks through dark areas to the foreground, where his arrival triggers, off-screen, a light not on before…consequently producing a visually dramatic effect from this low-key lighting …and my introduction to a film-noir type film.
The use of pessimism and nihilism by the Coen Brothers in 'No Country For Old Men' is expertly offset by the good guys never meeting the bad guys ..with special portrayals of the three main leads that are always alone in a frame.They all have their individual motif which I try to bring to Adriana in my film quite quickly when she appears.

A book I would like to read in full is David Bordwell’s ‘Figures Traced in Light’ where he is really inspired by the terrific opportunities afforded by Deep-Focus techniques and corresponding evaluation of cinematic staging.



 C

NOTES FROM LESSONS AND MY RESEARCH TO HELP WITH THE PROJECT

    SOME MORE NOTES THAT HELPED ME VISUALISE THE PROJECT

D

TIME, SPACE & PLACE

DATE	WHAT HAPPENED	WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT IT	WHAT I COULD DO WITH IT (Plan /Action)
Oct 4  2011	Read the Time, Space & Place assignment brief	Thought it was a very challenging but well laid out set of ideas that I liked	There are a number of things I can do with it...I’ll play around with a few scenarios
Oct 18	Met Adriana. a music colleague again , talked about our music practice and performance,	Realised that she would be ideal for my assignment	I’ll try and work out how she can be best be incorporated into the project
Nov 2	I read the brief again	Toying with the idea to show Adriana dancing in the woods and develop a drama story	I could arrange for her to come with me to see the proposed location
Nov 10	Watched a film clip of ‘Apache dance’ in Paris	Thought it was brilliant and would like to film a hip-hop version	Made me realise that drama unfolding in the woods is not the way forward
Nov  18	A BRAINSTORM  about fear in a performer	I knew immediately that my new idea was perfect	I will work on showing her in a state of anxiety, with stage fright   etc
Nov 22	Visited the field in Cornwall	Thought the area was fantastic and can do so much from there	The beautiful view and the use of the barn will be a huge asset for filming
Nov 27	Met with Adriana and discussed filming possibilities	She is so adept and passionate about my ideas that it only can make me positive about the project	She’s unable to go to Cornwall though so I’ll work on how best to get around that
Nov 29	Started storyboarding for the project	Coming on alright...visualising the scenes is helping with the way to connect the scenes better	Will continue to work out which way to highlight her change from extreme fear to elation …toying with another character as in ‘Black Swan’
Nov 30	Visited outside location again to just relax into the feel of the place and visualised camera positions	I thought that I could compose some really good shots of Adriana…but will keep those ideas for the future	Made a permanent mental note on how certain camera angles an pan and tilt shots could be achieved with Adriana of other actors  (especially a shotgun sequence) for the future
Dec 1	Completed storyboarding?	Careful to try to not deviate from my original idea, but felt the need to change direction a bit	Not having Adriana in the field leaves the way open to invoke some Tartovsky ( in this case ‘mini-long takes) and the spiritual use of the country and contrast with lingering close up of face
Dec 3	Practicing in Final Cut with crop and distort  with Jocelyne’s and Jessie’s images into their photos and paintings	Thought that I can represent the distressed perception of Adriana’s character in paintings placed around the outside location scene	I have some good paintings to use and could take them in the suitcase I used for our U1Artist Collective exhibition (maybe use the side of the case)
Dec 10	Took out the Canon 7d and went to the field and filmed	Couldn’t wait to see the results back at college...I realised how I could contextualise the idea of her anxiety...even without her in the field	I’m going to film her in an over-the-top state of psychological damage as though she was in a living nightmare
Jan 13 2012	Brought Adriana into college and filmed her in the studio theatre	She responded brilliantly to directions but had to leave early so I thought out quickly how to maximise the time with her to represent her isolation	I used a 1.4 F-stop fast lens to utilise shallow focus in showing Adriana with stage fright  and in a state of pensive thought , extremely worried….if more time would have green screened her properly
Jan 14	Started rough edit of Adriana’s shallow focus shots	Thought that this could easily develop into a 30/40 minute film	To concentrate on some more quality shots , this time with her elation shots
Jan 16	Arrived at the pre-booked Barbican Theatre and met with Kan ( my Film Arts peer at PCA) who is a welcome addition to the project as my camera operator for this 1 and a half hours session	I was glad Kan from my college class came along to help and was able to use the 1.4 Zeiss and the Sigma 70-200 lenses with the 7d  and freed me up to work closer with my actress	The time saved by not operating the camera was invaluable and I was able to plan and choreograph her dance movements to Kathak type hand movements .I was able to be director of photography , costume and set designer, choreographer , producer and film director at the same time.
Jan 17	We had a class lesson with Andy James and each of us took a turn to screen an example of a way of evoking a transition in film	I thought of a few different clips that I had researched previously but the multi- still photograph sequence from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was my particular favourite.	During the lesson it became apparent to me that I can really use this type of method to convey Adriana’s angst with a composite mode backdrop of the countryside scenery as a visually beautiful metaphor for her rapidly declining mental health
Jan 18	Started some rough editing the elation footage from the Barbican theatre	I wished we had more time to develop the spotlight above Adriana to highlight her on stage more	To overdub some of Adriana’s vocals as a parody of her now-forgotten fears  (with her new found confidence apparent from the audiences hugely positive reaction)
Jan 18-21	Invention of a combination of fig rig and lighting satands and connections to come up with a way of fixing three cameras in a line with different lenses	The idea came from the opening shots of ‘Limitless’ I researched it meticulously to mull over the techniques deployed	I filmed all night...up and down Royal Parade and Union St with 3 x 3 pin video cameras with 3 varying lens settings…filmed the next morning in the same locations in the daylight …the idea being to capture the same scene simultaneously with all that information … and repeat in many times along a sort of straight line … to create an infinite zoom in post, by embedding the zoomed in images from the wide angled scene with the other two so as not to break up resolution when zooming in to the max.
Jan 21	More editing time on the project	Coming along fine	Will contact Josh again about working with me on composing parts of the soundtrack
Jan 26	Fell in love with my own efforts on depicting Adriana in Black & White stills and backdrop of countryside	I thought these were the most beautiful soulful images I have ever concocted…especially the use of her penetrating eyes peering behind the branches	To complement these fantastic images with a haunting audio/music
Jan 26-3 Feb	Filmed with 3 Canon 7d’s with wide ,medium and zoom lenses on 3 tripods huddled close as possible together at the same heights and the same procedure all over again as with the 3 chips ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Took out the one Canon 7 d with an 18-200 Canon lens to capture stills only as raw j-pegs	I realised that the trial rig built by Phil and Dave from ERC was not working well with movement of the camera slightly during filming. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, This was a great idea inspired from asking Stuart about the problem and he explained that because of the 18 mega pixels from the Canon and the 2 mega pixels zooming into the video HD would provide a far bigger area to prolong the resolution	So working with these 3 good cameras afforded me a really good amount of footage in about 16 locations ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The plan with all these experiments was to try and come up with a fast infinite zoom type continual shot of Plymouth’s city life, … then to refilm Adriana or use a composite mode of her to link her complete isolation from her ‘nightmare scenes’ with this zoom effect and back again… this would suck the viewer into an immediate understanding of her plight
Jan 3-7	Working on the original idea of screening two intertwining projections of my film artefact and zoom like effects... side by side	I was always thinking this is a brilliant way of describing visually the connections arising from her psychological damage and the neurosis of an impending abyss in unforgiving apodictically urban setting	This arose again because Stuart was able to let me know a possible way of achieving the fade to black of touching edges to enable the bleeding of the two images rather than a clear demarcation… We shall see!

E
   

The ability to tell my story cinematically with attention to Time, Space & Place was illuminating some of my thoughts and deeds  are reflected in my evaluations and activities below

TIME, SPACE & PLACE………RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

1st Paragraph - EXPERIENCE

2nd Paragraph- ALTERNATIVE THEORIES/INFLUENCES

3rd Paragraph-  PLAN OF SHOOT

4th Paragraph-  PROFESSIONAL WORKING PRACTICES

5th Paragraph-  INSPIRATION

6 th Paragraph- CONCLUSION

1..   For this assignment I will bring a wealth of personal experience with me to create a well-crafted film artifact. My professional background as a builder in construction always serves as a process of pre-thinking a project. This usually took the form as how to make things easier. However the transferable skill here is not necessary avoiding difficulty but enabling the foundations to be laid on solid ground and creating layers to intertwine together to grow eventually as one.

Later endeavours in the musical performing arenas and promoting various events gives me a professional understanding …. but for this project the personal realisation of sharing creative thoughts with other artists in the past helps to identify common ground with my actress here for her character embellishment.

The following are some of the relevant issues and events that led to this film being made.

2 ..To gain an overview of how Time. Place & Space can work for this project I researched various theorists and alternative view and below as Video Diaries are also my theoretical understanding of some directors philosophies/techniques and their inspiration for me.

please watch the following:-

F

3....I planned the shoot by visiting the first outside location (from college) many times. This was a pleasurable time in relaxing with nature in some fields and a stream running through the woods.  Usually the best moments for me tend usually to occur when my body and mind are stretched to the very limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and fulfilling... but I was at the preliminary stage of just taking the whole view and feeling of the space I was in and the view of valley upon valley, with the moors on the horizon.

The main camera angle hit me immediately as I entered the huge barn-type single enclosure. Relishing the idea of a luxurious tilt and pan shot from the trees to the rope nesting on top of the wooden frame that fronted part of the entrance.

The tracking shot of peering through the gap in the side of the barn to reveal the country landscape in the distance proved to have an eye-catching moment later in the film.

My planning of the development of the story culminated around the way to convey Adriana’s country habitat, without having the chance to film her actually there. So the placing of the paintings to represent her declining mental ability, in snapshots of despair, proved invaluable.

4...In keeping with professional working practices, I booked the college studio theatre and the camera and lenses in good time for the actress to appear calm and collected in readiness for her role. Taking responsibility for the whole shooting processes and realising that the production is there to serve the film…and as film making is a collaborative process, I took steps to put Adriana at her ease… and noting how this enhanced her performance and her ability to take direction…and noting how the efficiency of the shoot can help my development in staging future sets.

5..In trying to bring a fragmentation of time and space to the screen in my film I take great comfort in how other directors of films are inspired by other writers. For example, to have Tarentino inspired by the writer William Faulkner as indeed , was Jean Luc-Godard gives me credence to disassemble the base of my story to try and represent the character’s act malaise  portrayal as a very over-the-top potentially madness in all of us.

 6..The filming of Adriana’s elation scenes went as planned in the Barbican Theatre . Having Kandemir Esmer (my class colleague) as my camera operator was a good move . It created more time for me to take a hands-on approach as the D.O.P. , Choreographer and the Director all rolled into one.

Literary references

G

What give me heart for the future are, for example a film ‘It Happened Here’ (1966)… and the book of the same title written by one of the film’s directors Kevin Brownlow. In which he explains how it was such an amateur film, made on half-a- shoestring with the barest of technical resources and volunteer personnel…. but the finished product is simply a good film at any level and by any standards. Shot in black and white on 16 mm with a real grainy look (with no stock footage used) by, at the beginning a couple of teenagers (it was actually in the Guinness book of Records as the longest film in production at 8 years). The use of an actual far-right political group as the fascist authority in England during this alternate history story gave it a reality edge and involved a cast of hundreds of volunteers.

The book ’ Lindsay Anderson’ (1969) by Elizabeth Sussex has had a huge influence on realising that anything with filming is possible even if at the beginning, you learn as you go along making your first film… such as the director of the same name as the title accomplished with his first film... ’Meet The Pioneers’. But he eventually progressed to be a leading member oh the New British Wave of film makers and hugely inspired by Jean Vigo an exponent of poetic realism in 1930’s film who in turn was a

Posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

The films I make in the future with the current practice of utilising lenses and various depths of field will enable me to evoke a certain mood in my storytelling. This particular style, or indeed parts and mannerisms of it can elude my personal analysis right now... but could be easily recognisable by others in describing my fashioning of a subject…. such as my own recognition of an earlier director in Europe... what fascinated me was the   content of a book by Raymond Durgnat, called ‘Franju’ (1967) about the cool expression of the Seer and the Scene amongst other reflections on the artistry and craftwork of Georges Franju. He was a French filmmaker starting out in the first half of the 20^th century.

He definitely focussed on the visuals which marked him as a true auteur…and although without a story writing gift was focussed on what can be described as ‘putting into form’ of film.

My near- redemption as an accident-prone, camera accessory inventor myself is endured after I read about the unsuccessful three-colour projector of 1901 by Edward R. Turner and F. Marshall Lee.  In the book ‘The First Motion Pictures’ (1969) by D.B. Thomas, I felt vindicated when reading about their failed efforts to project three consecutive frames of a film on to the screen simultaneously by means of three’ sawn-off’ projection lenses placed very close together. This proved to be overly complicated and was not pursued but they still went on to be successful.

A book in my possession is ‘THE CINEMA OF ALAIN RESNAIS’ by Roy Armes. …And reading it enthuses me with the way he interacted theatre, music and other cultural forms with his filmmaking. Also unconventional narrative techniques to deal with themes concerning the ordinary person with identity problems, troubled memory and the imagination. I try and deal with them similarly here in Adriana’s tortured soul.

 Further research into different ways to represent images and figures in film led me to try and understand viewing sculpture .As in the book ‘DEPTH OF FIELD ‘ by The Henry Moore Institute. Reading it helped comprehend that the transfer of a restricted number of objects from a very large to a very small place always help the eye and the mind to reconsider those objects in relation to a number of other questions as well.

Finding more on the subject of various techniques attributed to lure the viewer to whatever the director has in mind…led me to the book  ‘THE ARCHITECTURE OF IMAGE. Existential space in cinema’ Juhani Pallasmaa in 2001…again to be mesmerized by Andrei’s Tarkovsky’s method of not wanting the actors in his films to be too expressive or clear, in order to make the audience imagine the character themselves…. In my film this led me to deliberately not spelling out the character’s reason for the distressing images. So the viewer will imagine her dilemma with more intensity. This fuelled me with the idea to utilize prolonged camera shots, and tracking parallel to the picture plane and the depth direction of the horizon but narrowed through the gap in the barn.to keep the viewer on the edge of the painterly image, never rushing into the depicted space.

In my film the idea of showing Adriana being alienated from her normal safe environment is paramount. I succeed with the interaction of inner (the mind) and external landscapes, belonging and isolation, subjective and objective realities…and searching for identity. Scenes of utter panic and distress with layer –upon-layer in composite mode enables her to echo the expanding existential vacuum of her mind. The films by Michelangelo Antonioni help me to decipher this type of manoeuver used in ‘Blow Up’ and ‘The Passenger’.

I used Adriana peering out behind an overlay of a waterfall type effect …this helped symbolize the potential life-threatening mental state as a feminine, maternal element. Also serving as the most potent image of the imagination…. water acting as complete poetic reality…. and because water is the natural element associated with time, in this case the running water illustrates time running.

Using the alter ego-type images of distress in the paintings occupy an altered space for her malaise to transit from and disappear rendering the need for an identity of hers to build or collapse…adding to tension of her outcome and substituting the need for her actual presence at the film location.

There is a director who infuses me with the confidence that my own individuality (which always seems hugely more manifested than my peers) won’t necessary hinder me in making films…and that is Nicholas Ray, (in turn an influence on French New Wave Cinema) which is also the title of a book I have that defines him (and possibly myself) that a script can sometimes hinder a film. My artefact here embodies the same awareness, intensity of feeling, inner torment, solitude and despair that he is well known for and he represented a triumph of the individual over the safe, bland conformity of the system.

Another book I possess is ‘Pier Paolo PASOLINI’ by Paul Willemen and elements used in my filming techniques are echoed with his often-appropriated peasantry or ordinary folk in his films…and as a poetic transformation I also like the Latin-American common woman undergoing an innate catharsis journey.

I also have an interesting book called ‘The Cinema of Alain Resnais’ of troubled memory and the imagination. I try and deal with them similarly here in Adriana’s tortured soul.