IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

I have a problem. I'm going to make a film about my clubmate's wife Winny who is an artist.
She makes extraordinary paintings. Each painting has its story. Winny is a very cynical lady sometimes. She has made paintings about the destruction of the globe for instance, about the loss of nature and culture. For instance she has painted a pregnant woman. That creature is deformed and has already given birth to some deformed babies. I asked Winny the meaning of that painting. She said something like : "Well, it's clear, isn't it ? Adolf Hitler's mother also gave birth to a monster and it's not her fault... !"

After a prospective visit to Winny I started to write my scenario. I made a list of questions and possible answers. In my film Winny would be interviewed. After having done this the problems started. Winny wanted to change my scenario. She suggested things. OK. But she kept on sending messages to me with alternations. She didn't want to say the thing about Adolf Hitler anymore. It's not good to say this in a film, she told me. She didn't want me to film in different rooms where paintings are hanging on the wall. I think she fears burglars in her house. I tried to find a solution, but I fear that people will say that my film is too static.

I cannot take enough long shots or establishing shots. I tried to find a "modus vivendi". However, Winny kept on writing messages. I told her that it would be a never ending story and that I also want to make other films. She asked me to choose the interviewer herself. Her best friend. But in the mean time that friend has told her that she has no time for it. Winny said that actually she wanted reflections about her art in the film... She also wants to tell things about the painters and poets who were her sources of inspiration. About Cranach,Rossetti, and other ones.. I told her that I was not sure that a wide audience would appreciate it. "Everybody knows Cranach and Rossetti, " she said ! I replied : "Do you know who has written 'Elegy written in a country church yard' " ? I knew this because I once visited Thomas Gray's gravestone in Stoke Poges. Winny had to look at "wikipedia" in "google" to know about Thomas Gray.

In my last message to her I said that people will find her paintings extraordinary, but they will find my film awful. I said that I wanted to be creative myself with film and hope that she will not put any pressure on me while editing and adding music to the film.

My wife Vera already suggested to stop that project. What would you do ? That's a problem, isn't it ?


Now I understand why her own husband, who is also a filmmaker, doesn't want to make a film about his wife Winny.

My feeling to Willy's dilemma about deciding to making his film, is only a conclusion which I think I might arrive at myself.

You are a more accredited film maker than myself, and apart from meeting you once at BIAFF once, I can only draw from the postings you have made on this forum between ourselves.

So, my feeling would be, not to do the project. I think that if you are hesitating, there are niggling doubts before you start. With limitations being placed on you, you may get frustrated and unhappy during the course of the shooting.

I am about to embark on a film project with a club here in Lyon and without the support of Christine, language apart, I don't think I can do it alone.

I have in the past started a film, hoping it would turn out alright, but my earlier doubts have proved to be right and I realised I should have listened to myself.

I am not taking about the ambition of a film, If you want some rain somewhere, you'll try and get the pompiers on scene with their hoses. If you coud not get a pink elephant, walking down the street, you would settle for a white one.

But that is me, at the back of your mind you probably know what you want to do. Regards, Patrick 69100 Villeurbanne.

[Have you seen my post about my AZWERTY clavier, I now spell my name pqtrick! I have a problem typing my 'a' and 'q' - so Dave reset my signon].

Willy ... have you considered shooting the lady's pictures against a green-screen? That way you could drop in any sort of background you wanted - still, moving, real, drawing etc. It would preserve the privacy of her home too.

If you also persuaded the friend just to talk for 15 minutes while you recorded her words you could probably snip out enough interesting bits to assemble an abstract-style collage of images and ideas ... add in a few sound effects, clips of Hitler's speeches and so on ...

I understand Pqtrick's warning: he suggests if you have doubts don't drive yourself crazy about the project. On the other hand I know you like a challenge !

Dqve

Hi Willie, I think you should not go ahead with your film under in the present circumstances. Put your script on one side but if you can go ahead with the interview do so. Even if this cannot be filmed, once the opportunity of direct contact is lost it may not return. Would the Lady in question be willing to write her own dialogue or notes about her paintings which you could use? Discuss this with her husband and if he were present thing might be easier, you are both film makers. Put it all one one side and see what happens, the situation may change but don't go ahead if either of the two are unhappy. Let them think about it, they may alter their views. This is the best advice I can offer but I don't think you would be very happy wilh your film if it caused offence to those involved. Arthur Bates

I think I would be tempted to point out to her that she is a recognised and very highly respected artist, and that you are a recognised and very highly respected film maker. But, if she wants to reverse the roles - and tell you how to make your film, you'd be more than happy to reciprocate and tell her how to paint those pictures your way. You did edge onto that approach with the 'artists and poet' analogy.

I can quite undertstand her not wanting paintings shown in her home, but as Dave has pointed out, there are ways round that. One should of course honour and respect wishes of that nature. But on the structure of the film - as long as it is (and I know it would be) complementary, she should allow you the freedom (IMO) to show her skills using your skills.

She should be honoured that you want to portray her and her work on film. Until she appreciates that honour, I think I would be tempted to say - (politely, and not using these words of course!) 'my way, or no way!'.

But then, I'm a hot head. I see no point in me making my films the way someone else wants*

Unless they're prepared to pay for it...

*(That's not the same as listening to advice from experienced and talented film-makers on putting a film together!)

Many thanks my friends, but I have not taken a decision yet.
Something more about my clubmate's wife. She has made a selfportrait. She doesn't look happy in it. Under it she has painted : "My Name is Might-have-been. I am also called No-More, Too-late-Farewell". It's a verse written by an English painter and poet called Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

In my scenario the interviewer asks her the following question : "It seems that you are not happy ?"
The reply : "Everybody has to make choices in life. I wonder if the choices that I made were right. In fact there were no options. I had to accept them. That's life."
I told Winny that I would like to make a crossfade from her selfportrait to her real face. She refused. "The selfportrait was made in 2006 and now I am older", she said. "There is some difference".

An other painting is called "A la recherche des pommes perdues". It parodies the story of Adam and Eve. In it you can see Eve and Adam. Adam has a stiff penis. He is looking for the forbidden fruit. Not Eve. She accepts it. She is coquettish.

A painting shows individuals who are hiding their faces behind masks. They are holding a mirror up. They are also "puppets on a string." (marionettes). It shows manipulation. "It starts when you want intellectual superiority" Winny told me.

In the final painting you can see a game of goose. In every space you can see a man dying. Each time in a different way. One is committing suicide by jumping in front of a train. An other one is killed in a fire. A third one dies in a road accident. Winny was looking excited when she said "There are 112 ways to die ! Yes, even more than 112 ! "A funny painting, isn't it ? Death is a taboo in life. We must trie to break it." In the final space people are drowning in a tsunami.

As you see Winny is a strange and colourful person. She used to be a psychologist who worked in a Medical Centre.
Yes, Dave, you are right. I like challenges. She is not dull, or let's say colourless. She doesn't make stereotypical paintings with landscapes and windmills and cows in the distance. In a week or so I will have to make a choice. But which one is the best ?

Your way. Or no way.

Your films win awards: I would definitely choose your creative judgement on making a film over hers.

And steer clear of doing any painting in her presence!
(They sound very strange btw - very thought provoking though).

Run Willy, run!

On Saturday and on Sunday I filmed my clubmate's wife and her fascinating works of art ! It was quite a challenge. I did it and now I am happy with the shots that I have taken. From time to time she said : "Oh, please do not film that mask ! Don't film that corner of the room ! The corridor on the ground floor is like a museum. Therefore I wanted her to go through it up to the first floor ... but she looked back. She was worried and suspicious. Winny - that's her name - was a bit nervous, but she was not so bossy anymore.

Afterwards she told me that she was surprised. She didn't realize that a filmmaker must apply all his energies. He must be concentrated all the time. I had made 75 drawings. For each shot one drawing. I only showed her this storyboard with drawings on Saturday morning so that she could not criticize it. There was no time for a discussion. Her husband had already seen it. So he knew from which angles I wanted to film.

Winny had learned the text of the interview by heart. Actually that was not so good. I told her to tell everything in a more spontaneous way. I had to do some interviews 5 or 6 times. The interviewer - a friend of Winny - was much better. Kitty was very relaxed.

When filming the works of art I was really very fascinated. They show some cynicism, sense of reality. She expresses concern about the future of man, of nature, of culture etc.... But I also discovered some humour in her paintings. For instance she painted 7 men with different characters: the first one had a nose like a penis, the second man's head was a pig's head, the third one looked like a wolf. He had a struggling body in his mouth, etc...

In one of my previous messages I told you that Winny painted a woman that had given birth to little monsters. "You can't blame Hitler's mother because she had to give birth to such a monster", she said when walking around in her house. Perhaps you remember this. Afterwards she decided not to say this while showing the painting in the film, but eventually she did. Moreover I discovered that one of the little monsters had a head like that one of Adolf Hitler. His haircut was very similar. Of course the baby didn't have a moustache yet.

Winny's masterpiece is called "Memento Mori". A game of goose but every picture showed a way of dying. "Here you can see 112 ways of being killed", she said. One picture showed a girl surrounded by twelve stiff penises that were bigger than the girl herself. A shocking picture. Obviously the girl had been raped by twelve men. The final picture shows some skeletons disappearing in enormous waves. The tsunami ! Etc...

After all it was an interesting experience. I asked her to be patient now. This morning she sent me a message. After these two days she felt exhausted, but she was impressed. On Saturday and Sunday four clubmates helped me. One had to use the microphone. One had to watch the monitor. One had to help me with lighting. Winny's husband had to do other little things, but he was a bit handicapped after an operation on his knee. He was also the "script boy". My wife Vera had prepared rolls for lunch... Etc...

I have almost four hours of film now. The period for editing is late summer, autumn and early winter. Now I can concentrate on the next project : a short film about an asylum seeker. I am also preparing my film called "Say Wensleydale Cheese". Luckily I am helped by Geoff Harrison and the Preston Movie Makers. I have written messages to the locations, but there is still one who has not replied yet. Geoff already called him. The man first said he had not received my messages. He's the landlord of a pub and restaurant in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. If he is not willing to help me then I must use my Plan B. I have it in my mind already. I will tell you more about this project later on.

After all there is still good friendship between my clubmate's wife and me. It turned out well, but it was very risky. All's well that ends well, but the real end is in November or December when the film is finished.