Jujube/project-proposal-drafts
New Steve feedback ahead of 3/10
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/juSteveComments
demo
some edits: https://vimeo.com/364004194 (pwd: jujube)
shots:
draft for 17/10
I am making a documentary film. It is about the making of, exile from, search for: home. It is the discovery of home in oneself. For the ease of conceptualization, I have themed the storylines under the categories of homemaking, homecoming and home-carrying.
As a continuation from last year, I am devising individual situations for and with people. The current character list consists of: Marieke (peer from Piet Zwart), Tom (friend in San Francisco), Sören (tentmaker in Southern Sweden) and myself. I choose these characters because I have identified stories within their lives. (The list is subject to change as the project develops.) I place myself in the documentary and alternate my roles as a (metaphorical) host or guest. Through the process of creating these situations, I organize seemingly dispersed and often domestic activities into narrative events that carry the weight of meaning.
I work iteratively. I plan for certain scenes at a concrete level and use the outcomes of those scenes to develop further. At the moment of writing, I have shot the first story with Marieke, in which I offer Marieke a haircut in my living room. We share memories: me a book that has traveled with me and Marieke a childhood experience. Through the opening and vulnerability — through both speech and image — I hope to convey the safety and softness that comes with home. I use the shots to hone in the audio-visual language I want to continue using (aka. to develop a grammar of filmmaking). I am currently editing these shots into a self-contained episode, which will inform me about more nuanced story direction.
For my own storyline, I am creating a series of imageries that allude to the dream and return to home. I have traveled to the Hague and will travel to Antwerp to film myself in well-lived-in Airbnb's. For the shoot in the Hague, I brought daily objects I use at home, including a coffee maker, a toothbrush holder and an aromatic stone. I shot scenes of myself making coffee, reading, tidying and watering plants. I plan to do the same in Antwerp, with more focus on cooking. After viewing the footage from these two places, I will evaluate the meaning of the images and decide on future travels (or stay in Rotterdam).
I am currently communicating with Tom about the shoot in San Francisco, and will soon start plan for the trip to Sweden.
The general method I use is this: I film what happens within well-defined boundaries (with the use of script, storyboard and shot list). However, rather than setting these boundaries in stone, I am trying to arrive at a comfortable space with the characters through clear, open and ongoing discussions. Much like last year, I work with non-actors and communicate with as much care as I can to create trust. I have asked Cem to be my director of photography and cinematographer. We have collaborated in the past and established a great rapport. For this project, I have put more emphasis on pre-production where Cem can bring his insight to help shape it. In our meetings we walk through the shot list, sketch alternative shots and discuss the equipments and setup. Even though he cannot come with me for all the shootings, these discussions help me make decisions when I am shooting by myself.
why, relation to a larger context
I have been in search of form, just like I have been in search of home. Through reading, making and writing in the first year, I have started to own my practice with conviction and overcome an insecurity of not doing enough. [1] I have shifted the way I frame what I make and how I make them: what was once topical and typological have given way to the existential and spiritual. The documentary is a site of mourning and transcendence. I am concerned, formally, with the poetics of image and the permeability of memory. This project is my way of creating meaning and evoke feelings through the craft of image-making. I hope to evoke the tenderness of grief, the resilience of hope and the very solidarity of being human.
pragmatics: timeline
Sep, 2019: I have already shot the first story with Marieke, which I will use as a prototype for workflow, visual language and story direction. In this act: I offer Marieke a haircut in my living room, after we have tea.
Oct, 2019: 2nd story: I fly to San Francisco and stay at a friend's place. I will film him taking care of his plant. I am envisioning a voiceover of his reading part of the letter he wrote me in August, 2019.
?, 2020: 3rd story: I visit a couple in Sweden and film as Sören, the husband, shows me his tent collection.
Side experiments:
- Inhabit an apartment in the Hague for three days. I am a guest to a stranger's home, an analogy of the space that I once had and no longer do.
- Use the audio of a conversation taken place in friend's living room and make new visuals to go along with it.
pragmatics: support I need
- for storyboarding/planning: feedback after each shooting with Simon and Barend, ideally in slots longer than 30 minutes; looking at the rushes
- for shooting: depending on the scene: 1-2 cinematographers (or creative blocking so that I can manage to shoot the scenes myself), my guest/host, recordist
- for editing: ideally feedback from a professional editor (perhaps just one or two consultations, so that I learn new perspectives/potentially new ways of working)
- for funding: information and planning for available travel/project funding (esp. for Sweden)
draft 19/9
NOTES:
- readers with no prior knowledge will be able to assess my project based on the text
- develop the language regarding context in the way that I am comfortable with
what, how, relation to previous practice
I am making a documentary film. It is about the making of, exile from, search for: home. It is the discovery of home in oneself.
As a continuation from last year, I am devising individual situations for and with people to construct storylines. The current character list consists of: Marieke (peer from Piet Zwart), Tom (friend in San Francisco), Sören (tentmaker in Southern Sweden) and myself. I choose these characters because I have identified stories within their lives. (The list is subject to change as the project develops.) I place myself in the documentary and alternate my roles as a host or a guest, a constructive framework. Through the process of creating these situations, I organize seemingly dispersed activities into meaningful narrative events that illuminate one's interior.
I film what happens within well-defined boundaries, a method similar to what I used last year. I work with non-actors and communicate as clearly, and with as much care, as I can in order to create trust and safety. I have asked Cem to be my director of photography and main cinematographer, since we have collaborated in the past and established a great rapport. For this project, I have put more emphasis on pre-production where Cem can bring his insight to help shape it.
why, relation to a larger context
I have been in search of form, just like I have been in search of home. Through reading, making and writing in the first year, I have started to own my practice with conviction and overcome an insecurity of not doing enough. [2] I have shifted the way I frame what I make and how I make them: what was once topical and typological have given way to the existential and spiritual.
The documentary is a site of mourning and transcendence. While I am concerned, formally, with the poetics of image and the permeability of memory, this project comes from my heart. Through crafting the images and narrative in this documentary, I hope to evoke the tenderness of grief, the resilience of hope and the very solidarity of being human.
pragmatics: timeline
Sep, 2019: I have already shot the first story with Marieke, which I will use as a prototype for workflow, visual language and story direction. In this act: I offer Marieke a haircut in my living room, after we have tea.
Oct, 2019: 2nd story: I fly to San Francisco and stay at a friend's place. I will film him taking care of his plant. I am envisioning a voiceover of his reading part of the letter he wrote me in August, 2019.
?, 2020: 3rd story: I visit a couple in Sweden and film as Sören, the husband, shows me his tent collection.
Side experiments:
- Inhabit an apartment in the Hague for three days. I am a guest to a stranger's home, an analogy of the space that I once had and no longer do.
- Use the audio of a conversation taken place in friend's living room and make new visuals to go along with it.
pragmatics: support I need
- for storyboarding/planning: feedback after each shooting with Simon and Barend, ideally in slots longer than 30 minutes; looking at the rushes
- for shooting: depending on the scene: 1-2 cinematographers (or creative blocking so that I can manage to shoot the scenes myself), my guest/host, recordist
- for editing: ideally feedback from a professional editor (perhaps just one or two consultations, so that I learn new perspectives/potentially new ways of working)
- for funding: information and planning for available travel/project funding (esp. for Sweden)
draft 12/9
What do you want to make?
I am making a documentary. Perhaps right now it is useful to think of it as a single screen film. I have described it as "an essay." (I am aware of the term "essay film" but have not read anything about it. I will.)
I am currently writing a few scenes.
- intimate situations -
Some of them came to me during the summer, when I went on a long-distance hiking trip in Iceland. I met a guy named Sören, who makes tents in Southern Sweden as a hobby and used to serve as a pastor. His story, intriguing by itself (as prelimary research suggests, Saint Paul was a tentmaker), affirmed something I had been thinking about my own tent, the journeys I went on with it, mobility, nomadism, unsettledness, beauty. The tent became a symbol of a moving home. And home is a subject I seem to be obsessed with: the home I grew up in caused me much pain, I chose a new home later in life and lost it, I moved around the world, bereft, searching. Search, saudade, loneliness are a few recurring words. (Empathy is another one, but it is more of a process than a result.)
I also sketched out a (more self-contained?) film with a simple story. It was inspired by an instance when I went to the darkroom to develop an old roll, only to find no image showed up. In this story a female photographer documents beauty and cherished moments with her camera. The end scene hints at the unavailability of the images. I have not decided whether she is aware she does not want the physical images all along. In the knowing case she will open the camera at the end, understanding the void of film. In the unknowing case she will go through the development in the darkroom (like what I experienced) and found there was no image -- but even in this version she somehow feels at peace at the accidental (fateful) loss.
Depending on what I unearth during the process, I might produce a few side projects, mostly in the form of zines. One thing I have in mind already is this essay I wrote two years ago: https://medium.com/@bimoribaye/the-rule-of-novels-2f83fd0e0c95
See Jujube/scenes
How do you plan to make it?
I am going to discuss the scenes with Simon and Barend on Sep 12/13 -- mostly about the scope, the extent of iteration and how to focus best. I want to be better at production management this year -- to organize the crew, communicate the shots to cinematographers more effectively and not get caught up by editing due to the lack of planning.
Talk with Simon 16/09
- Filmmaking as bearing witness
- What is the form of the film?
- What is your mission statement/purpose of making a film?
- This film is not a steady state.
- Portraits
I have storyboarded a scene that takes place in my current living room. I am using a documentary method similar to what I used last year (non-actors and use of reality). And, like the scenes I made last year, I am setting up a situation in which the protagonists exist and take actions. This time I plan to be a protagonist in some of the scenes as well.
I have a few questions: when I am a protagonist, do I interact with the cinematographer? To what extent am I creating this world/framing the story? In my talk with S&B I also want to discuss these (definitely to come up with something I can create to help answer the questions.)
One scene I developed around "home" can be shot easily in my living room. Another scene will follow my action at the studio/fabric station and end at the living room. (It involves the making of two cushions, so will take a few days to shoot, which requires planning!)
I am going to visit friends in San Francisco for ten days in October. I wrote a possible scene that would take place in my friend's living room. Similarly, I see a potential scene in Sweden, which requires a great amount of research and coordination. I don't know if I will include (or able to make) them yet. I will decide once I know more about the scenes in Rotterdam.
What is your timetable?
Sep-early Oct: definitely shoot the scene in my living room, perhaps shoot the scene in studio/fabric station In the meantime: decide whether the scenes in SF are feasible
October holiday: SF, recalibration of the project
Nov 9: project proposal (at which point I would know better about the direction of the other scenes)
Post Nov 9: TBD
Why do you want to make it?
I have always been in search of a form, just like I have been in search of home. I call this feeling (with the help of some tutors): loneliness.
Last year I realized that, through reading, making and writing, film would be the form. (Keywords: narrative, autobiography, memory, transcendence)
I am able to have a true practice now with film, where the topical and typological become existential and spiritual.
I want to convey the universal through the personal (not necessarily my story but any one person's story).
Who can help you and how?
I need:
For storyboarding/planning:
- feedback after each shooting with Simon and Barend, ideally in slots longer than 30 minutes; looking at the rushes
For shooting:
- depending on the scene: 1-2 cinematographers, my guest/host, recordist
For editing:
- I have a general idea about the film, but would appreciate feedback from a professional editor (perhaps just one or two consultations, so that I learn new perspectives/potentially new ways of working)
Relation to previous practice
In a structural way, the film resembles something I wrote titled "The Rule of Novels." [3] I turned my focus to film last year, the medium of where I will ground myself for a while. The short films I made last year helped me understand image-making and the way I want to convey meanings through images. My previous of writing and playwriting have helped me in and around filmmaking. See Jujube/text-on-practice-2019
Relation to a larger context
making as existing
the everyday; realism
Theories (film or not, feminist or not, queer or not, critical or not) and historical analysis are only useful to me if they help me 1) understand the medium I am using and 2) define, clarify, further my own practice.
notes
Feedback from Paloma: how are the scenes linked?
For 19/09: theme thesis + annotated bibliography with 5 key texts (synopsis)+ a mini prototype/sketch/gesture in relation to your project proposal.