First, apologies for it has been a while since my last post. The reason behind it is that I started a small simple project that ended up being a 10 minute video.
A week ago I watched some shorts from underwater documentary filmmaker/artist Jean Painlevé that brought me an enormous amount of memories from my first flirtations with the documentary form back when I started my degree in Brighton. It was then that I went to see these short films projected on screen with a live soundtrack from Yo La Tengo.
From then I drifted to memories of my arrival to London, specifically of some shots I had taken three years ago, still with my handheld DV camcorder, in the aquarium. Back then I had the idea of using that footage together with some shots I had from a previous trip through Norway five years ago, when I visited the Bergen aquarium. In a matter of minutes I had traced a line between my arrival to London, my first holidays after my first work in a feature film and my beginnings in Brighton, all through the isolating images of the deep sea...
The sea has always produced a feeling of respect, fear and attraction in me. To see it in the peacefulness of an aquarium, a cinema theatre, or my own sofa has been a coward way to discover a little of it. The production of this video for me must be some kind of homage to all cowards. I constantly see a glass between me and the water. Speaking about it now doesn't make me braver but it does make me feel more secure, perhaps more confident. I don't know how brave or how coward Jean Painlevé was. All I know is that his films inspired me to work in a poetic approach to reality.
The music is from soundtrack artist, and friend, Fur Voice. He contacted me after seeing my last post and this is a kind of answer to him. Going though all the tracks that I have from him I found this old one that stayed with me for days. I frequently use music to give rhythm to sequences in montage. However, I nearly always get rid of it and start working on sound. This time the music stayed put. I came back to him to ask him for permission to show it before he sees it and it turned out that he had forgotten about this song that was written five years ago and marked a decisive moment in his life. Well, that is memory for you.
I leave you with a quote from a filmmaker I have been reading about that seems to be having a profound effect on me.
"It's not hard to tell things about myself personally. That's the easy part. The hard part about making personal work is not to make it one man's problem -not to make a film that just refers to my own grief. Who cares bout that? I want people to enter the film through their own lives... But by myself being open I think they can be open to themselves. That's what I think a personal film has to do -it has to show a trust but then it has to become more meaningful than what the story is about. It has to be bigger."
(James Benning)
Hope you like it and again, comments are welcomed!
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