These Fundamental Questions

All these little gracenotes about aesthetics (which as i maintain, does not exist, there being only Ethics) very little indeed about content, the so-called subject matter (or worse, "theme") of a film.
So let's elaborate: in this instance, by stating questions.
Can a man be broken, as we say a horse can be broken? In the human case, is this always definitive? Or is there ever remission? I would like to know.
Do we love a singular, individual person, or do we project abstract qualities onto them, which they do not posess? Is falling in love only the lack of opposition to our projections? Or (because I do know the answer to this one) is disillusionment inevitable as knowledge increases?
Are architectural objects sometimes ominous because we see them from underneath, when they are designed to be seen (and are seen by the architects) from above?
Is rain comforting because it approximates the sound of blood rushing around the womb, the last time we were perfectly secure/ Or is it that in the outside world, the rain washes away all trails and smells, so for at least the length of a rainstorm, the heavier the better, you are safe from predators?
Appropriate thoughts for a Sunday, i think. Good evening.

Dark

Almost home. All is gone. Some debris. No messages. I am too late. At least the rain keeps away the animals. More later.

Communiqué 1

I have often remarked that the vice most destructive to filmmaking is the number of wholly inapproriate people who insinuate themselves into a prduction. I believe the beat movement must take all measures to extirpate, then (in this order) eradicate such persons. As did this shoot.

Expeditron!

So, more of this you will in the following days probably seeing be. A murky as yet undefined expeditron (sic) into the heart of catskill darkness (despite the blazing sun, mosquitos, malaria etc) it's an inner darkness we are intimating here. Or, to put it another way, an essay at putting our bodies where our mouths were, and getting out there, looking around, then (mostly) coming back.
This is intimately linked to our beat project so - watch these airwaves. Other voices are emerging.
Nostalgie pour la boue? Vous plaisantez...

Mark 2, Blue

Frank at tuning, front projected 'no signal' holding pattern; over Emily dancing, left, over-exposed, vignetted square; & Lewis quizzical, vignetted 'Sergio Leone', both letterboxed thin. Matted onto white.
Well, you did ask...

Joy

The stuff below, recent, hinges on the word 'Joy'. Which is like fun turned up to 11 on the dial. because i think that's what we need to aim for. Fun always seemed so low-grade.
On the other hand, try googling 'joy' and look at the tsunami of born-again weppishness and general new age frippery you find. Zeus! I thought people had backbones. Apparently not in the rampant california of the mind. Molluscs.
The manifesto we are hobbling towards (to then abandon) is authored by PG (what singularly inappropriate initials the man has) and I add my grains of salt. As I believe all theory has to be the leisured activity of AFTER, it's really only to stoke the fires against inertia. talking is good. the English don't talk. the french talk you to death (from the smoky homeliness of the upstairs bistro). And what here? No cynicism, please.
Peter points out, in addendum to my 'more females' addendum, that more females usually translates into boys making films about the girls they desire (but are too shy or twisted to say)... so, let me addend I mean films BY females (girls or women, it's all the one), not girls as actors, objects, decoration or coffee cup holders. Ah.
My immediate concern is how to build a watertight camera box, to enable aquatic recon of submerged local towns. Oh, forgot, it's illegal. But a fellow was just arrested in London for wearing a jacket deemed 'inappropriate for the season'. Now he's on the terrorist lists.
The photo? Google 'joy' and look between kitsch squishiness and faked pornography, you will find the odd typhoon.

Smaller Joys

Such as this. Upon impulse I watched a dvd of one of Cousteau's films. beautiful. Clear and simple logic, a minimum of words and a maximum of dreamlike images. I know I grew up with his films, part of the landscape, as is his voice, thankfully, slyly not removed by the American producers, though the credits say it is... it's that voice, plus the gliding otherworldy underwater tracks that makes for the magic. Try it. Now, where's that saran wrap...?

To Manifest or Not to Manifest

Beat Film Manifesto

This is not about any gender, politic, ethno-product, but ideas and the form of events documented as they happen and made meaning of in their review. This is history invented. Beat Filmmaking is the following (guidelines rather than rules)

The experience must be fun. No torture for art, no limiting movement in some attainment of pure ideals. Things change, life happens. Movement must not be prevented.

The work must contain whatever moment is presented. Go with the rain storm that shows up. Take advantage of the ugly guy on the train. Movement is the life around the camera.

Work quickly
Edit soon after the shoot
Present the film soon after that

These are the three stages of beat film: shoot, edit, show

Don’t wear out your idea with repetition to ‘get it right’
Change something to make it righter.

The story is evolving. Come up with certain ideas. Plan a little. Abandon the plan when needed. Invent dialogue. Don’t bring this into improv.
Hand total strangers scraps of paper with topics, lines, instructions, questions.
DEATH to SCRIPTS!
There are truths, ideas, stories that will unfold and set a direction. You will know when this happens. Movement is a gut reaction to the invention of narrative.

Nothing is written in stone
Roles can change

Let the narrative move

Old Iggy Bergman – NEVER BE BORING

Do not break laws. Bend them. Tamper with the field of vision. Toss the camera back and forth to others. No camera man, no director alone. Who makes this work? The editor.

A clump of filmmakers

Be kind. Don’t film against people’s wishes, however, sometimes you just can’t turn the camera off in the face of authority. Don’t forget to remove the lens cap.

CHARGE ALL BATTERIES

Put in an element of Dogma, for the fun of it. Pick a number at random.

Include others. Especially those who do not expect it
or who want it, but don’t know how to ask.

MORE FEMALES – films made by men about men turn into films made by boys about boys

Poetry? What the hell. Can you write a poem with the camera without getting knee deep into art film crap?

Old Bobby BRESSON – poetry seeps in unaided through the joins

Keep it simple. Don’t think too much. Don’t expect too much.

Watch everything or watch nothing

Cameras move
Eyes move
Looks move
People move

Go somewhere else

Never ask permission to film on someone’s ‘property’
Always ask permission to film someone

Only the cameraperson decides when to turn the camera off.

Try to listen. Use silences, too.

Old Larry Trier: nothing is easier than making a film.

And then, this

i'm standing there watching the parade/
feeling combination of sleepy john estes.
jayne mansfield. humphry bogart/morti-
mer snerd. murph the surf and so forth/
erotic hitchhiker wearing japanese
blanket. gets my attention by asking didn't
he see me at this hootenanny down in
puerto vallarta, mexico/i say no you must
be mistaken. i happen to be one of the
Supremes/then he rips off his blanket
an' suddenly becomes a middle-aged druggist.
up for district attorney. he starts scream-
ing at me you're the one. you're the one
that's been causing all them riots over in
vietnam. immediately turns t' a bunch of
people an' says if elected, he'll have me
electrocuted publicly on the next fourth
of july. i look around an' all these people
he's talking to are carrying blowtorches/
needless t' say, i split fast go back t' the
nice quiet country. am standing there writing
WHAAT? on my favorite wall when who should
pass by in a jet plane but my recording
engineer "i'm here t' pick up you and your
lastest works of art. do you need any help
with anything?''

(pause)

my songs're written with the kettledrum
in mind/a touch of any anxious color. un-
mentionable. obvious. an' people perhaps
like a soft brazilian singer . . . i have
given up at making any attempt at perfection/
the fact that the white house is filled with
leaders that've never been t' the apollo
theater amazes me. why allen ginsberg was
not chosen t' read poetry at the inauguration
boggles my mind/if someone thinks norman
mailer is more important than hank williams
that's fine. i have no arguments an' i
never drink milk. i would rather model har-
monica holders than discuss aztec anthropology/
english literature. or history of the united
nations. i accept chaos. I am not sure whether
it accepts me. i know there're some people terrified
of the bomb. but there are other people terrified
t' be seen carrying a modern screen magazine.
experience teaches that silence terrifies people
the most . . . i am convinced that all souls have
some superior t' deal with/like the school
system, an invisible circle of which no one
can think without consulting someone/in the
face of this, responsibility/security, success
mean absolutely nothing. . . i would not want
t' be bach. mozart. tolstoy. joe hill. gertrude
stein or james dean/they are all dead. the
Great books've been written. the Great sayings
have all been said/I am about t' sketch You
a picture of what goes on around here some-
times. though I don't understand too well
myself what's really happening. i do know
that we're all gonna die someday an' that no
death has ever stopped the world. my poems
are written in a rhythm of unpoetic distortion/
divided by pierced ears. false eyelashes/sub-
tracted by people constantly torturing each
other. with a melodic purring line of descriptive
hollowness -- seen at times through dark sunglasses
an' other forms of psychic explosion. a song is
anything that can walk by itself/i am called
a songwriter. a poem is a naked person . . . some
people say that i am a poet

(end of pause)

an' so i answer my recording engineer
"yes. well i could use some help in getting
this wall in the plane"

Parallelism

Though this has nothing to do with this, except a co-incidentally similar web domain, it's interesting. In its youthful way. You'll see where this is going, anon.

The Hardest Part

Frankie and Sammi wrote back a very polite letter saying how they liked their videos. But...
As ever when there's a few days' delay, I fear the worst, and usually, the worst turns out to be reasonable. They'd like some changes, some for the sake of image (i.e. more band and less dancers); some because of sound quality (I agree, but it may mean a complete re-edit); and some because of music cuts (I agree). So we push the deadline back a little, and knuckle down. Like climbing those rolling hills, the summit is always over the next rise.
the photos: more of the blue, less of the white.

Bobby Bresson

This from what is easily the wisest and most u s e f u l book on cinema ever written, 'Notes on the Cinematographer', by Robert Bresson. His skill and rigour marginalised him to the extent that even in France - where they lauded him - no-one dared finance any of his films for the last 20 years of his life (barring the one you see him shooting here, 'L'Argent').

"Someone who can work with the minimum can work with the most.
One who works with the most cannot, inevitably, with the minimum."
Amen.

Blood From A Stone

Is it only because I have now not had to get up at six a.m. every day that I feel relatively human? That some ideas are appearing of their own concorde? Whatever, it does feel something like coming out of a spiritual tunnel. It was a very good year, as the toupeed singer used to croon, but it was exhausting, too.
The last two weeks, Will and myself have been tackling the videos of 'Frankie'. Generally I hate pop videos, unless they are by Michel Gondry. And we had to do these with a wilful minimum of equipment or preparation. Some comments then, and one day soon i will find a way to stream the pieces, so you don't have to take my word.
These are concert films - i.e. we are more or less filming live and trying to make an interesting visual document out of that. The conditions are not an excuse for being shoddy, they are a deliberate gamble or putting ourselves on the line to see if we can - in the maxim of Robert Bresson (who to my knowledge never actually made a pop video) - 'create with the minimum'. I'll look up the actual quote from 'Notes sur le cinematographe' for a later post. So, not DOGME, but really just using what we (or anyone) have. A camera, a performance, and an edit deck.
My own wish is to capture the energy and flow of a performance. I know this means embracing the rough edges, and i am a little worried that the musicians (all musicians) rightly worry about appearing sloppy or less than studio 'crystal clear'. And, remember, bands NEVER see/hear themselves in concert, so it can be a shock that the 'blinding gig' which everyone agrees about, actually had a few bum notes or slack moments. Pheromones. I not only think this doesn't matter, I think it's the essence of a performance.Can we capture it on video?
The first rule would be not to interfere with the band. To work around them. this is a pain in the arse, if you have any scruples, but actually, the concrete effect is to remove all prudishness and make the camerapersons part of the gig. You dance with the music, and get up on stage, move around, and oddly, if you are riding the same wave, do not intrude at all on the musicians.
The opposite would be stopping and starting to 'control' the lighting, or make the band repeat small sections again and again. So here are some performance notes on the three vids we shot over two gigs.
'Kudos' was so impromptu (30 minutes notice!) that we only had one uncharged camera and one still camera. So that's what we used. It took place on a parking lot, under a yellow and white marquee with no sides, between rainstorms. We kept the live sound, which is a bit distorted, but not too muddied as there was no reflection (no walls). The images were cut up and interlarded with stills. I tried to get away from lip-synch (a, cos it's hard and b, cos it's banal) but it is oddly unsatisfying to always cut randomly off the beat, and sometimes - especially with stills - rhythmic cutting on the beat just feels good. There are a lot of short treated images too, generally I push the tone curve to heighten contrast and aim for decent blacks and saturation, and this seems to give a warmer feel to the whole.
Will went hogwild on split screen with 'Vinkermichael' and probably spent 30 hours on this 2 minute song. See where the sharp end of video is? I think his clip is remarkable, as evidenced by the two split-screen photos here.
This took place in an unbelievably boomy church hall, and there were no monitors. As sometimes happens, the resonant frequency of the room (hard walls, wooden floor) was pitched exactly in the singer's mid voice range, and the A,D and G strings of the guitar. The bass notes and drums echoed and removed any crispness, though the massed dancing bodies absorbed a lot of that. Really, Frankie must have been singing through his skull. A rotten acoustic, but we used it. However, enough is enough, so on the next one, I used a clean feed (studio demo from a month earlier) provided by the band. An inevitable (well, it IS evitable if you straightjacket the band and get them to mime, but you know, I don't do mime) is that the tempo varies between takes. Which means you cannot cut different takes together i n v i s i b l y . As if you'd want to! Pheromones again. So various pardonable (I hope) tricks have to be used to give the illusion that there's a continuous performance here. There is not. It's one studio sound. Two takes of the song from two cameras. Some pieces used in literal synch, others tweaked or displaced to appear in synch. If you look closely you will see that sometimes the drum pattern - though in beat - is not from the same part of the song. Then again, hopefully it doesn't matter, because the energy takes you past the mechanical. Also 'Jargow Jig' was me trying to get away from the black background, use a bit of multiple imagery (not too much) and integrate some non-concert element into the video. A week before the gig, I asked two people to do a dance sequence (one being Lewis Jargow, after whom the song is named, t'other being Emily, Lewis' companion). Haha, the shoot of that caused many raised eyebrows, because - yes - it was sexy. It was also fun. God, Americans! I mean, it's just a young couple dancing, fer Xsakes... We cut together a mute image track and projected it over Frank and Sammi while they played the song. Did it twice. Then I cut bits of the performances - the most interesting image-wise, more or less in time with the music (taken from a 'clean' demo track) and interspersed these concert shots with clips of Lewis and Emily dancing to the song (actually they were dancing to 5/4 by Gorillaz...). I used a lot of vignetted images and set them all against a white matte, not the usual black. I think it works. But it is a bugger doing all these little layers. As David Walliams might put it...'Computer says 'nah''.
I had one lovely sequence with a row of eight little Emilys dancing on top of the image you see above - the split screen strip - but as she's wearing a stripy French matelot T-shirt, it moired. Bugger. Which means the stripes are unresolvable by the screen and appear to float, wobble and shimmer. Actually it's a nice effect if just a little larger. Film doesn't do that...
So, after three weeks, we have three videos, lasting about seven minutes. They are all simple in effect, and were straightforward in execution, just getting from A to C involved a lot of digging, unpicking and redoing in stage B.
I handed Frank and Sammi a test dvd yesterday. I really hope they like it. News will follow.
The title of the post, btw, refers to the difficulty in getting or preserving life even through hours and hours of processing. I think Monsieur Bresson had something to say on that subject, too.