I wanted to share with you the latest poetic film script, which was inspired by the current lockdown and social distancing rules, while also continuing with my experiments using food and its ingestion as a means of transportation into interior worlds.
I am very interested in the creative process and therefore find sharing different steps of the process important.
In the next post I am planning to share some of my thoughts on this particular filmmaking process, while exploring some its unique “self-isolation” challenges from the point of view of my ongoing research interests in embodiment and disembodiment, sensory perception and haptic visuality. It’s been a fascinating process and one worthy of reflection.
Self-isolation Dinner for Two: Voyage Extraordinaire
Script for a short film, made in current lockdown in London.
Images are stills from my film rushes, which I am currently editing.
Prologue:
When we are stuck at home during a lockdown, at a time of a pandemic, our universe contracts. No longer able to shake off the lethargy of the daily drudgery, deprived of travel or close contact with our fellow humans, we long for new adventures, facilitated by means of imagination, triggered by sensory seasoning.
Introduction:
A long shot of a man at the end of a large dining table.
The man is wearing a “safari outfit”, as well as a face mask (scarf) and rubber gloves. He is alone.
The table is covered by a large map of the world.
Opposite him, in place of a second diner, there is a large computer screen.
Inside the screen we see a woman approaching and sitting down. She is also in a “safari outfit” and wearing a surgical mask (or a scarf?) and gloves.
The two nod to each other and proceed to take off their scarfs (put on the neck), as well as gloves, laying them carefully next to the plate.
Awakening the smell receptors (post Covid-19)
A black plate full of spices and herbs, laid out meticulously, like tiny allotments.
The diner proceeds to smell each herb, crushing some between his hands to gain maximum benefit.
He presents the screen-woman with each. She leans over to sniff, with great pleasure.
Expanding Universe (or using up quarantine reserves)
A black slate plate in the middle of the table.
The man plunges his hand into a bowl, grabs the content, then stands up and drops it onto the board. The universe explodes in a constellation of couscous.
The man takes another handful from a can and drops it again.
Yellow suns scatter.
The man takes a fork and combs through in a movement of a spiral.
Galaxies form.
When finished, he picks up some and feeds the woman in the screen, who leans over as close as she can.
Adventure in a Faraway Land
Tools: magnifying glass, torch
A large plate arranged as a landscape, contains forests, mountains, lakes, sand dunes.
Placed into the middle of the table to be shared.
The diner leans close. The camera enters the landscape.
We are inside it, having escaped the everyday reality of the lockdown.
We see the computer screen through the vegetation, on it the woman exploring in delight, using a magnifying glass. The man uses the magnifying glass and torch to look more closely. He then takes a fork, extends it to feed his fellow diner behind the screen. She chews with pleasure.
A walk across a mountain range
A wild meringue full of peaks and abysses. Laid on a bed of green herbs, scattered with nests and quail eggs.
Like a walk across a mountain range, with green lush valleys below.
At first, the camera skims across in close up.
The man picks it up and plunges his little chisel (toothpick) into it. He proceeds, like a true mountaineer.
Inside one of the caves he discovers a crystal.
Looking through it world breaks into fragments.
The dinner is over.
The diners put their mask (scarf) back on, in synchronised movement.
The woman gets up and walks away, leaving an empty wall behind the computer screen.
The man turns the computer off.
END
Cinesthetic feasts 