21 grams of creation

After the first brief about Live project, I quickly  decided to work about video. I did not know what project I could realized, but I had a big desire to work with this tool. Since the beginning of the year I could experiment illustration, graphique design, web design, screen printing, photography. Because I do not really know what I want to do as a futur job, it is important for me to try to work with several mediums, to experiment a maximum of possibility. It is why, try to make a project in video, with some software like « after effect » and « final cut pro » was important for me. After have chosen the media, I tried to look for a live brief on internet, something which could interest me. It was difficult to find something that inspired me, which responded to the subject and with a deadline approachable.  I had no ideas about what work I could do before to meet Anna Robinson. She recommended me to look some festival, whose « filminute ». I really enjoyed the concept of this competition : To create a short-film, which have to last 60 secondes, not more, not less, about the subject that I want. It was a perfect answer to my expectations : a project where I am totally free, and only one minute, which is really good for experimentations, because a musique of 5minutes can be a lot of work.                 

I quiclky chose a theme : the illusion. This topic really inspired me. I found a quote from the book Life is a Dream written by Pedro Calderon de la Barca : « What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story, for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams. » This was my starting point. I reflected about what is illusion for me, and it’s only after all of that, that I decided to create a short-film which deals with duplication, dream, and the approach between reality and no-reality. The photocopier was my first idea, and after that I decided to shoot a personage who create letters, words with his body. The more difficult was to think about how his body could create lisible letter ! I spent a lot of time to try some « body typography » possibilities until to create a kind of  red « mini tee-shirt » where the charactere could make letter with these arms.  I wanted a particulary atmosphere with some colors, some drawings to remind the theme of illusion. I found a retirment place in the suburban of Paris, an oldster train station with many tags. I really rapidly regretted my choice when I began to work in post production with after effect, because the background is so complicated and is harmfull to the readability to the work. The shooting was quite simple, with a fixed camera and a friend for actor. The most complicated was going to happen after… I asked to a friend who works in the music industry to create a music for my clip. By this way I have no problems with copyright, and he made a music image per image, which is totally compatible with my film.

As I said before, the post production was a really pain. I decided to work with « after effect » and « final cut pro. » It would be really more simple to shot the character in a green studio and mix the both after. But I did not think about that and if I had to restart this work I would never shoot like that. I spent approximatly 10 hours per character (only for the affter effect layer), and I have 5 characters !!! I needed to move each key point, for each images. I tried some typography’s works to find a good typo which remind the humain presence, which is readable and have a good impact. I decided to put the back ground in black and white, because all these elements where so complicated for a good reading.

After numerous hours of work I’m not really satisfied about the result. I’m not sure about the typography and the mixture of colours in the background is not really satisfying. I want to work again on this project before to send it to film-minute festival, which the deadline is in august.

But even if this experiment was more complicated than I thought, I really enjoyed work in video, and it was a good practice. I learnt how manage my time and mainly I learnt that a project is never the same in the head and in reality. I improve the softwares and I’m now really familiar with « after effect » (more than 50H !!!). Whereas I learnt when I worked photography that is not that I want to do in my future life, video was an other story : I had fun to work with animated images, and I seriously think that it can be a interesting project of life, maybe my future job…

For the live project, I decided to work about "filminute: the international one-minute film festival".

FILMINUTE is the international one-minute film festival that challenges filmmakers, writers, animators, artists, designers, and creative producers to develop and submit the world's best one-minute films.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT ONE-MINUTE FILM? 

The best one-minute films will resonate beyond one minute. These are films that we expect to affect viewers the same way any great film would. The challenge, of course, is to do it all in 60 seconds, no more, no less.

"The Filminute festival has grown rapidly, attracting new and experienced filmmakers and audiences from all over the world with its very contemporary format, unprecedented reach across multiple media, and its high standards of filmmaking excellence. The 2009 edition of the festival attracted submissions from 58 countries and audiences from 122 countries who watched over 3 million minutes of festival films. Filminute continues to grow and rank among the biggest film festivals in the world by measure of audience reach and participation.

The 2009 Filminute jury which included pioneering web filmmaker Hillman Curtis, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Creative Director Tham Kai Meng, and the Paris based Chilean FIPRESCI film critic Pamela Biénzobas, awarded BEST FILMINUTE to UK directors Phil Sansom and Olly Williams for their film BLACK HOLE. The PEOPLE’S CHOICE award went to Canadian director James Cooper for his film LIFE. The 5 JURY COMMENDATIONS went to two films from Romania as well as films from Ireland / Germany, Argentina and Canada. Overall, it was one of the strongest collections to date and supported by insightful and enthusiastic commentary and extensive media coverage.

Over the coming weeks and months, Filminute will announce this year's jury as well as new partnerships and initiatives for 2010. "