Last night I had a long discussion about my project with one of the young artists I'm following (off-camera; my bumbling Vietnamese when it comes to semi-in-depth, -intellectual conversations is too much of an embarrassment for me to be reflexive on-screen). I'd never intended for my video to be plot-driven but since keeping up with everyone's posts and remembering the lessons from class, I feel a strange need to find the story or narrative arc typical of classic docs. From Jeff and Julia and others I have an idea of the types of shots needed to build this kind of work. For an essayistic piece, I have no clue! The young artist (whose opinion I respect) responded with his reservations about my drive to follow a person or people "at their heels" to get a deeper sense of their world. He explained that it was extremely difficult and inconvenient for artists and poets because they don't have a regular work routine and wouldn't work from the heart if there is a stranger following them with a camera. Also, life here is leisurely, often full of uneventfulness. The thought of me trailing someone to their morning coffee or taking siesta or having a meal (there's a saying that even when the gods strike, they avoid mealtime; meaning, no business at this precious hour!) makes many people raise an eyebrow or just plain chuckle dismissively. The artist said it'd be a different situation if I were to follow a craftsman, like a weaver or someone like that, who had regular, sustained work. He said he used to do a kind of fieldwork for his art pieces too, sometimes, traveling among the hilltribe people and eating and sleeping and living with them to observe their routines. So, he understood what I meant. But it was different with city people. Agh. I started to think of how very much like anthropology his description was. And I thought about how messed up the pursuits of anthropology and its bedfellows were. Here was another example of a 'developed' urbanite following some more 'pristine' or 'traditional' ethnic groups to further his/her own worldview or understanding. Nothing inherently bad in that I guess but it makes me cringe because of histories of domination and subjugation that are easily erased when one moves from the level of society to the individual.
Anyway, I don't want to do a cinema verite type doc. But I feel compelled to look for the elements of that genre because that's what's discussed most often with regard to documentaries.
So, what are the basic/essential building blocks for an essay piece?
Thus far, I've gotten images of the landscapes and sites around Hue that catch my attention. I've also filmed artists at work and then interview-style. I intend to use the interview sound clips as voiceover in conjunction with interesting visual images. But I guess I'm waiting for the focus or 'golden thread' to emerge out of review of the footage. I had a vague idea for a structure: start off with the 3 artists I'm following by establishing their ties through the gallery owner I met, then move to my reflections of their commentary/work and incorporate my own poetry on related themes, then move to the 2 Hue poets. It's not clicking just yet. And I have only about 3 work weeks left!
But on a more positive note (despite my comment to Ty's latest entry), I think I've been won over finally! Jeff was concerned during the semester that I didn't like what I was doing or that I didn't feel like I was making progress. Now I can say that somehow I've gotten over my repulsion at the tech aspects of the camera and I feel much more comfortable using it. Also, I am slowly beginning to understand what Jeff means about being in a different state of mind or element when behind the camera. I no longer feel it's a huge obstacle to being in the world and instead feel that it's just a different way of being. Perhaps that's because I do have another body with me when working many times.
Overall, I keep pulling on Julia's directive to "have fun!," which really helps with the sanity.
But any thoughts on elements of the 'essay' will really be appreciated!
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When you say "essay film," what films are you thinking of as models? Those of Chris Marker? "Of Time and the City"? I ask because I'm not clear what you think of as an "essay film." For my part, I'd say that the most important element of the essay film is a strong, distinctive, even eccentric narrative voice because it is the viewpoint of this voice that forms the "thread" you've been talking about and takes the viewer through the film. "Voice" is metaphor too, since it must also be inscribed in the shots, which need to express the same viewpoint. The relationship between what is said and what is shown is crucial: is one is simply illustrating the other, there will be no liveliness. Essay films are hard to make, probably a lot harder than documentaries. The good ones are fewer. If you want to take this route, I think that the originating question is: what is the subject of the essay? I'd urge you to get to work writing the narration while you are in Hue, since it will affect what you shoot enormously.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps.
ALFRED
Hi Anh-Thu!
ReplyDeleteI'm blogging from the BOLT bus in NYC on my way back to B-town (and running on zero sleep, so if this is incoherent, my apologies)! But your words ring true... as you may remember, I kept expressing that I didn't want to make the "traditional" observational film, but I still find that I don't know what to do when behind the camera to shoot for an "art" film or an "essayistic" piece. I ended up shooting what looked good, and for content (thematically and character driven). I wanted to find many more images that had "metaphoric" potential but failed to really see these (although sometimes you don't notice them as such until the post-production stage). I think Alfred's suggestion sounds like a good plan of attack... but I've never tried writing an essay or script and then shooting to that.
I'll think more on it and write some more after a few solid winks.
in the meantime best of luck!
Julia
Thanks, Alfred & Julia. Last night I had a flurry of brainstorm ideas for the script, based on the footage so far. Will def. work on that while here.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to the problem of an organizing logic. I suspect that the shots you will need will be the same in many ways... there will need to be a logic, even if it is a poetic sort of logic, so you will still need the same building blocks. So perhaps this will allow you to choose shots following some sort of narrative arc, but utilizing images more abstract than those in a "conventional" documentary...
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