User:Samira/proposal

What are you working on now?

Currently I'm working on a short-film script. It concerns death and mourning. Three young people run away under the influence of their (possibly cult) leader. They hitch-hike and camp. After a lovely night the campers go to sleep waking up to find their leader gone. Over the next day their concern grows, by evening they are sure she will not return. The two remaining people have to make their own decisions for the first time, as sitting around and waiting becomes futile. Over their last day the space of a person physically stands between them, this space will continue to expand until the two decide to separate.

This is what I currently have, knowing it will change.

Over the Summer I have been working in collaboration with Julia Kul to finalise a short-film script about the subject of female sexuality and slut-shaming. Having organised a very basic shoot schedule, we will shoot the film (roughly 05:00 minutes) in the first week of October. This project will be completed with the use of a crew:

Gijs Dierselhuis - DOP/Camera operator Suzanne Kleerwout - Production Design Giuseppe Marcí - Sound Technician Samira Damato - Director/Writer Julia Kul - Co-writer

Jolijn Meers - Main role Additional actors= one male (18), one female (50), one male (50)

Over the last few months I have been working on various scripts, ultimately focussing on a short-film concerning the subject of mourning. With the assistance of Daan Bunnick and Martin Bonnici, I will apply for the ‘Nisi Masa’ screenwriting workshop.

What are you thinking of making?

It is my ambition to participate in the Nisi Masa workshop as I feel this will provide an incredible amount of constructive feedback in order to bring the idea into fruition. In the case that I do enter the workshop, I hope to find a producer in order to create this short-film successfully.

In the case I am not accepted into the workshop, I will continue to work on this script independently and hopefully find an appropriate path in order to make this film with professional support.

How do you plan to make it?

Having had the experience of making a funded short-film, I have learned much from my mistakes. Having learned that short-film is a medium which predicates its own content, I hope to respect its demands of time, content and open-ended narrative structure in my next work. As well as minimising use of location, and removing the context of any specific culture. By use of various natural landscapes; water, trees, desert and highways.

At first I will finalise the script, with use of feedback from Daan, Martin, Steve, Ine and Simon. Having potentially relied too heavily on feedback with my previous project I will also force myself to not take everything completely to heart and do my best to trust my own instinct - although ultimately in the production phase this is completely unavoidable.

Once the script is in an acceptable state I will begin to organise the production phase. I hope to have the chance to work for at least 5 days on the production phase. As during my previous project I was limited to a very stressful 3 days - which may have hindered my ability to fully focus on the quality of various scenes.

At this point I will assemble a crew and cast, the quality of which is extremely dependent on the budget of the production. Once locations will be selected it will become possible to select a time period in order to ensure no serious weather issues. Ultimately a shot-list will be crafted.

I will continue to work on the script until one month before shooting.

It will be necessary for me to find a new editor, and I will force the process to be faster. I will be more direct and specific with the editor I choose to work with. Possibly creating the initial draft myself before handing it over to the editor of choice. The first rough edit should be completed within 2 weeks of the completion of the project. After the rough edit is completed, the following two weeks are necessary to finalise the edit of the film. Post-production will be completed within the following month, sound-design and colour grading will be completed within 1 month.

Why do you want to make it?

It is extremely important for me to continue in my practice of film, hopefully improving my skill-set and artistic sensibility with each attempt. I had planned to work on a completely different narrative but due to recent personal events I have felt compelled, not exactly by choice but by necessity, to write about death and mourning, specifically about the confusion, fear and disbelief following the death of a young person.

Who can help you and how?

I believe that Steve, Ine and Simon will be of great help to the conceptual development of this film. Depending on funding, Daan Buunick can prove extremely helpful in not only conceptual development but also support in finding a cast and crew, as well as overseeing my final edit. Martin Bonnici will assist me in finding funding as well as ultimate marketing for the short-film.

Relation to previous practice

During the previous year at Piet Zwart I had worked on a short-film. This had been an extremely turbulent journey, but over the summer months I was finally able to form the film into roughly what I had expected of it. This shift has encouraged me to continue my pursuit in film, having understood that many mistakes can be made when selecting crew members. Through this experience I have learned a lot from concept to execution about short film making. Hopefully I will be able to make good use of these lessons within my next project.