In this sense, work was almost intuitive.. I had the strong need to tell that story and go back to the place where I was born and raised. Of course, the odyssey of filming ‘No land without evil’ in S16mm was possible thanks to the support of a lot of people and the impulse given me by my classmates. My little filmography is crossed by stories of women and in some way, all of them occurred or are linked to the region Littoral at the northeast of my country. I believe that these characteristics are transversal to any story I make, because all of them, directly or indirectly, are impregnated with local identity and problematize the role of women in society. Undoubtedly, everything depends on where you look, and it is impossible to escape from yourself. I can’t speak beyond what I know and feel. I am a fervent advocate of honest stories. I think it is more important a movie with a soul than a perfect film and I believe, above all, that cinema is political, as it is any artistic expression. That the stories, inevitably, reproduce and establish social pacts. They transmit us codes on how to organize and teach us what is right and what is wrong. That is why, as I said before, I argue that stories build and legitimize violence, and that is why those who work in the media and cultural industries have the obligation and responsibility to generate new content with a
gender perspective that legitimize other configurations of life, love and happiness possible. I think that history can’t always be told by the same and that art should not be driven by spectacle and capitalism. It is urgent and necessary that other voices take their turn to speak. I believe that the role of art in these times is to assume the challenge of giving birth to new forms that are more egalitarian, plural, popular and inclusive. The film’s striking use of colors and lights depicts emotions and feelings in places where dialogue could not even scratch the surface: what were your main in terms of composition and shooting? I have a certain affinity for open planes that allow me to compose from various elements such as light, art, the disposition of the characters, the internal movements of the plane and, above all, the temporality. I try to convey a state of things, I like more how the storm is formed than the storm itself. I think the word is important, but I also believe that the cinema has multiple elements of staging that can reflect what one wants without the need to resort to the text. The sound of the ambience plays an important role in : according to media theorist Marshall McLuhan there is a ' ' that affects contemporary societies favoring , a shift that occurred with the advent of the alphabet as the eye became more essential than ear: how do you see ? The sound design of Xiomara Simple, which I worked with Eloy Brollo, was aimed at generating an atmosphere. The portrait of Xiomara is a simple, small and intimate story. To achieve this intimacy, we thought it was best to mark the sounds that made up her world. Therefore, keeping the direct sound was fundamental, the environments couldn’t be replaced because they are part of the portrait, do context, and the sounds that can be heard can’t be heard elsewhere. With this basis, we seek to incorporate or emphasize elements that allow the viewer to enter into the silence and intimacy of the day of Xiomara. I think through the sound it builds the tension of the scenes and the climate of the film. What escapes the camera can always be heard. I like to think that sound is the beating of images.
As a feminist, she always works under a gender perspective: so we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in cinema? In particular, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? I believe that in the history of cinema, and the world in general, we have more than one ancestress to whom to refer and to admire, I am of those people who think that to build a future we must have memory. I also feel that we are currently living the collective awakening of a gender consciousness. It is
true that today we can find many women who work in front and behind the camera and that there are some terrains that we have begun to conquer, nevertheless, women in the cinema and the media don’t stop being part of the exception's speech. Some studies claim that women behind camera account for only 19% audiovisual productions made in Hollywood and Argentine, according to a report by ‘Un Pastiche, Género y Comunicación’, for every 4.3 men there is only one woman working behind camera. So we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Here in Argentina we have an Association, of which I am a member, called The Woman and the Cinema, which in 2018 turns thirty years of its foundation and whose main goal is to spread and stimulate the work done by women. This current year, was also created in Buenos Aires, the group of Women Audiovisuals, which had the particularity of
spreading the need for action in women throughout the country, which is something wonderful for me because it is also necessary to decentralize production. However, practice shows us that there are a lot of women who study and are trained in the audiovisual but who later are unable to earn a living of this. It is also remarkable that in schools and universities (in general) when it comes to matters of national cinema history it isn’t studied the case of female filmmakers like Maria Luisa Bemberg that are relevant when thinking about our cinematography, or that they are merely named and passed. On the other hand, in my country, a woman is killed every nineteen hours. In this sense, it is urgent not only to discuss and make visible the problems of women in the audiovisual industry, but also to begin to dispute the speech. It is necessary to generate new stories with a gender perspective that take women out of the discourse of subalternity and place them as an example of other models of possible life. We have a duty to legitimize new speeches. It is urgent and necessary that new voices ingress, that we stop being narrated by others and that we narrate ourselves. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Fremdina. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I am currently developing the full-length film project ‘Northern winds’ (Viento norte), which has won the Raymundo Gleyzer Contest of the Argentinean Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute (INCAA). It’s a fictional film that tells how Marilí’s dreams break after the death of her mother, when she must return to her hometown to take care of her younger sister and the family business, the town poulterer's shop. ‘Northern Winds” is inspired by a theatrical production by the dramatist Ana Luz Kallsten and is intended to be filmed entirely in the province of Misiones under Luciano Pensa and Vecinas Company’s production. In addition, I find myself discovering new artistic expressions that allow me to play with the construction of characters and pour out in a story those things that appeal to me to but cannot be filmed. This is how I began to write ‘This is what happens to me’ (Esto que me pasa) my first literary novel.
5W is a captivating video by writer, director and photographer Solène Guichard that initiates her audience into an unconventional and heightened visual experience, drawing them through a dreamlike dimension, when contemporarily addressing them to investigate about the limit of the questions What, When, Where, Who and Why. We are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her captivating work. Hello Solène and welcome to WomenCinemakers: you are a versatile video artist: would tell us something about your background? In particular, how did your studies of Cinema and Philosophy influence your trajectory as a creative? First of all, thank you for this interview; it is such an honour to be able to discuss my work with you and to highlight the female voice in the film/video industry! meets An interview by Francis Quettier and Dora Tennant Solène Guichard I was born in 1993 in France. My first dream was to be a ballet dancer. I started ballet at the age of six but then stopped at 16 which was also the age at which I started to study film. It was an option available in the school I was attending in Reims, France. That's how I learnt how to make a film. The course was both theoretical and practical. So I graduated with my baccalaureat which is the equivalent of A-levels and then I didn't really know what to do. I knew I loved the cinema but I didn't know if I should try to have a career in the film industry. So I moved to Nancy and for a year I followed a specialised course in order to try to pass national exams, still with Film studies as an option. However, I didn't do the second year as I kind of realised that I was not interested in the National exams. So I just went to university straight into second year in Philosophy, which is a subject I have also always loved. What I really liked about my background in philosophy is that, because this subject is so wide and deep at the same time, I was allowed to go deeper in my thoughts to be able to explain them better. In third year, however, I realised I was missing film studies as it was the first time in four years I didn't have it at least as an option. So I learned about at film school called Institut Europeen du Cinema Audiovisuel (IECA) which you could start in the third year. So I decided to do this school at the same time as I was finishing my Bachelor in philosophy… and it worked! I had a very busy year but it was 100% worth it. The same year, to finish my bachelor in film studies, I had to do a two-months work placement. I didn't want to spend two months in
Paris so I decided to try to find a work placement in an English speaking country. And that's how I ended up in Belfast! I fell in love with the city and the country. While I was completing this very good placement I was hearing a lot about Queen’s University and its masters in film studies. I applied and I was successful. Now I have completed my part-time Master's at Queen’s University Belfast. So now I can talk in even more detail about 5W in order to show the link between philosophy and film. The film itself is about Philosophy and would not have come across my mind if I didn't study philosophy. It seemed perfect to make this film as my Master’s final project is it kind of shows a defining moment in my studies. Because this film was made for my masters, I had to show that I was not only able to make a film but also to give the reflection about it; what is a film? I was able to experiment a bit with the story and the filmmaking process. And I think my philosophical background helped me a lot, even in writing the script itself as I was able to speculate on irrefutable questions such as ‘what’ or ‘why’. I also refreshed my philosophical knowledge during the second year of the Masters. Indeed, the course entitled ‘Cinema, History and Memory’ questioned these three words and, to answer, I read the notes I wrote back in France during my Bachelor in philosophy. I think 5W finds its inspiration in the works of older philosopher’s like Plato’s two worlds theory, i.e. the world of reality and the metaphysical world which can be neither accessed nor known. By suggesting that sometimes answers cannot be found, 5W also presents a sceptical approach to the world, just like in scepticism, i.e the philosophical position that one should refrain from making truth claims and avoid the postulation of final truths. However, answers can be found through the existence of God. Studying some philosophers who believed or proved the existence of God made me realise that religion has its place in the meaning of life. As a consequence, I included religious symbols in 5W in the last draft such as the necklace or Adam’s bleeding stigmas when Julia is away. Adam is also a name taken from the Bible. interview
interviewTo me, even if you don't make an abstract or an experimental film, a film has to convey a message, a philosophical message. It could be about love, passion, work, religion, justice, which are actually real matters in philosophy. It could be about anything really, as long as it has a deeper meaning as it makes the audience understand or realise something important. That's why I think every screenwriter or filmmaker should be able to think about abstract subjects, and a film should have its own answer and its own voice. Philosophy is a starting point in every project and is what can sometimes drive me to create films. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, would you like to tell our readers something about the evolution of your style? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all your works? I try not to think about style really because I think it might put me in a state of mind in which I would not feel free to create. To me, each project is different. The important evolution through my projects is just to get better at it. I just make films that feel right to me, at that right moment, with the right people at the right time, with no special thoughts about my evolution as an artist. Maybe if I were to make a trilogy or series, I would think of keeping it consistent. Usually, the audience actually says to me that my work is, maybe not chaotic, but at least pleasantly inconsistent. It can be seen as a good thing to be able to switch style, to experiment with different genres. I hope for me it isn't a weakness! However, I think I would feel bored or restricted just sticking to a particular genre. I would not say that I have a central idea because as I said each film will mean something different to me. However, the more films I make, the more common subjects, symbols or objects I found I was using repeatedly. Putting into perspective 5W’s story to my previous work, Lady Angel, the main common point between Lady Angel and 5W
regarding symbolism is the use of religious objects or ideas in both films. Lady Angel is about a bad angel driving an innocent girl to madness. I used a necklace that symbolises Julia’s faith, just as I used a necklace with an angel. I like symbolism and using it is usually a strong part of my stories. For instance, I've noticed that the idea of the dream comes back often. There is a short film I made me the BBC called Surrealistic Self which is really about a character who has a dream. The short film before that called How do I know? uses flashbacks with a dreamy look, just like in 5W. I just think I wasn’t aware of that until someone pointed it out to me. I prefer the audience to do the thinking, or I guess it's something I will notice when I will have more films done. For this special edition of WomenCinemakers, we have selected 5W, a captivating work that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the intrinsic limits to the five w questions is the way you have provided the visual results of your analysis with a coherent combination between autonomous aesthetics and visual consistency. While walking our readers through the genesis of 5W, would you tell what did draw you to focus on this theme? The w questions occurred to me when I was writing this script because I had really to wonder why my main character was running and I just I just went deeper into reflection. To write the story I had to ask myself where the story took place, when and who was my character and what was he doing. So that's also when I realised that to me, either way, I had to contain the other four questions. The why question explains the circumstances, that are dealt with who what where and when. And these are questions we just use every day. For example, for an appointment or just for a meeting, we need to know where and when to go to. When you go to the dentist, you know that you need to go there on Monday at 11 am. You also know who you're going to see and what it is for. I know this is maybe a trivial example but it just shows that these are the questions that we use on a regular basis without thinking of them. Of course, an appointment with the dentist is a pretty simple situation. But what interview
interviewabout more complex situations such as crime, murder, theft and suicide? And by asking myself this question that sounds very simple, you actually realise that the answer is far from being simple. In a car accident, for example, you don't really know who the driver is or what he was doing but those circumstances combine at the at the wrong time and an accident happens. Then that's why the posters for the film say that it's just so hard to wonder why. Even asking why is too hard. The question itself hurts and then the answer will hurt as well. It was pretty interesting to make the flashbacks correspond to one of the five questions (or are there four questions as the why is the final scene) and to the story. Maybe it is a constraint but, in the end, I think each flashback shows the W question well. It also shows that in certain situations some W questions are intertwined and respond to each other. The what question corresponds to what happened, which is a pretty simple question but again in such an extreme situation is just takes a whole new dramatical dimension. The where question is associated with the sentimental breakup; where did she go? The who is put in an extreme situation as well by wondering who kidnapped her? The where is also included in this scene; it was hard not to! When in the film is linked to the wait and the pain. The when also shows in this scene that something important can happen at an impromptu time. Finally, the why, as I said earlier, is the result of all the flashback scenes because it is to me the results of all the other questions. And to mean the answer to that question why is that the main character saw a murder they shouldn't have seen and again captured his ex-girlfriend in order to get revenge, as they think he is the murderer. Escaping from linear narrative form, 5W features unique and nonlinear storytelling, capable of addressing the viewers to a multilayered visual experience: how did you develop the script and the structure of the film?
The screenwriting course I attended at Queen’s was the starting point for this project. Beforehand, I did not know about story structure. The screenwriting classes I took in France were only about writing stories that were liked by the teachers. I never heard about author's theory like Robert McKee’s before coming to Queen’s. This was an eye-opener. I discovered a new tool I could play with. That’s how I started to write stories and to reorder them. The first draft of 5W, entitled Run, was written around March 2015. It was entitled Run as it was already about someone running. From the start, the concept was for the audience to learn flashback by flashback why the main character was running. After spending a few days on the development, I left Run in a drawer for a few months to write Lady Angel instead, which is the script I worked on for the screenwriting course. After my semester had finished, I decided to keep this concept for later in my career. Then, when the opportunity of doing my final project came, I thought it was time for me to adapt this concept to my Masters’ requirements. Between Run and 5W, there were not that many changes. Indeed, the aim of this film in both versions is not only wondering why the man is running but also to open a reflection on what the W questions are: what, where, who, when, why. Even if these questions can be put to good use in order to write or at least start a story, I
wanted to write a film that shows that they can be harder than they sound. To do so, I had to change Run: indeed, by writing down Run in a script template, I realised that the audience might be confused. The idea of Run was to find plausible explanations for his running by giving the right answer only at the end. For example, the main character would have run to train for a marathon, or because he is late for work, etc. However, the non-coherence between each plausible explanation was too distracting and inefficient. I thought that a story was needed for the flashbacks to make sense. The flashbacks actually needed to have happened rather than maybe have happened. That’s the reason why I decided to lay the emphasis on the coherence of the story and to add some criminals in 5W. I also had a few references in mind: the most famous film to mention regarding the nonlinearity in 5W is Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane was voted as such in five consecutive ‘Sight & Sound’ polls of critics, until it was displaced by Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) in the 2012 poll. Citizen Kane eschews the traditional chronological narrative and tells Kane's story entirely in flashback. Citizen Kane also keeps the answer hidden from the audience until the last shot of the film. In 5W the audience wants to know why the main character is running, and similarly, the viewer of Citizen Kane only understands the meaning of ‘Rosebud’ at the end with a close-up, like on the necklace in 5W. Another reference to mention regarding nonlinear storytelling is the film Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2001). In this film, the flashbacks are shown backwards, in black and white. It is during the final revelation, in which the two timelines merge, that the film finds its meaning. It inspired me to create the twist in the story ending in which the audience finally understands the whole story. Moreover, this film belongs to the so-called neo-noir genre which I thought was very efficient in this type of storytelling. The film noir is a genre originally described by the French critic Nino Frank in 1946 as he noticed how dark the settings and themes of these Hollywood films were. Many of the neo-noir films correspond to films with the same mood made after the classical Hollywood period. I made the same choice of genre in writing the backstory of 5W as it deals with murder and revenge. We have appreciated your peculiar use of low angle shots: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, what was your approach to lighting? To answer this question, I’m going to quote my ‘mentor’ in lighting: Gordon Willis. Watching Gordon Willis’ last interview was very helpful in making this film. I learned that: ‘There are no formulas. Formulas come from you.’ Hearing from someone who made the most famous shots in film history that the lights’ most important job is to create meaning to the scene, no matter how you do it, comforted me in my choice of avoiding the copying of images or looking for ‘formulas’ to think of the cinematography. I think that most of the credit on this aspect of 5W goes to Rik Gordon, who helped me on this project and agreed to be the DP. He is also a very good film director based in Northern Ireland. However, I will try to answer this questions with the thoughts I had in preproduction of 5W. I went for a cold look for most of the film as that's how the main character is for some scenes. For example, in the breakup scene, it's only after a few hours that he decides to run after his love. In this scene, I wanted to represent a relationship like in Her (Spike Jonze, 2013). In addition to representing a plausible living
room, this scene was about having a big bay window to represent the coldness and the lucidity of the break-up. The audience is not sure of where the scene takes place. It symbolises the two characters’ relationship: they do not know either where they are or where they are going to. Most of the film sticks to this cold feeling: blue is to me a beautiful colour, one of my favourites, but it also brings a sort of sadness. I chose warmer colours for the gang scenes, with more shadows and only one spotlight to make the scene look uncomfortable. I wanted to make a reference to The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) and a similar atmosphere to present the criminals for the first time, with a warm light although I still wanted to use one light source. The aim was to make the audience assimilate more easily the criminals of 5W to a mafia because The Godfather is a famous piece of cinematographic art. Even if I think in the end the reference is not very obvious, I think the cinematography of this gang scene still stands out from the rest of 5W. Also, the film starts with warm colours to imply that the gang will have an important role; that indeed it is because of it that the main character has to run. The warm spotlights in the streets represent each member of the gang looking at him, or even just the pressure that the character is under from the gang. For the most part of the shoot, we had no choice but to do with what we had and what we could do. We didn't have a huge amount of equipment so I guess we were pretty much relying on the weather. For the ending, I wanted a pink sunrise but it's the rain that got the last word…! It actually brings a heavier atmosphere and makes the ending look very dramatic, but I will let you decide which weather would have been best because, in the end, I couldn't change it! Finally, in terms of shots, I have to say that I am a big fan of shots that only the audience can see, that is to say, shots showing details that characters can't see. I use close-ups because it allows the camera to focus on details. When a close-up is used on an actor, its shows and emphasises his or her emotions. When being used on an object, it tells something in particular to the audience, depending on the context and situation. For example, the shot showing the cross attached to the bag implies that this object will become important, even if it is something that Adam cannot see. As you noticed, I like to film feet running or walking; it's maybe a little strange but, to me, it's the perfect way to show movement and implying mystery by hiding the rest of the character, their body, clothes, face … I think that the low angles make the world of 5W pretty small in order to bring an uncomfortable feeling. It makes my character feel very heavy and down to earth. That's also why, in the end, the scene takes place on the bridge as if the characters understand the pain of the why question, at a little higher level from the ground. We like the way 5W also speaks to the subconscious sphere of the spectatorship: as you have remarked once, one of the aims of this film is also to show as less as possible in order for every single person to have a different understanding of the same images: what are you hoping 5W will trigger in the viewers? In particular, are you interested in addressing your audience to elaborate personal interpretations? You have just pointed out a very important aspect of my work. The audience needs to have its own perspective on a film. Of course, the film itself needs to be good, i.e. needs to have a good storyline, good characters, etc. But, in my opinion, the film isn't only good for the film itself, it needs to be good for the audience to be able to appreciate it and to put into its own words. It needs to talk to the audience, basically. But what I'm really interested in is not only to deliver a message as a whole, not only to consider the audience as a whole but to consider each individual mind that makes up the audience. I'm looking at several interpretations of the
same thing because that's what makes us individually. We can I apply this idea to anything, to any piece of art; a painting, a book, a song. Even if I know that probably one day I will just make the film for maybe the sake of its story, just to tell a story to the audience, 5W is a good example of my will to create something that the audience makes too, in their own way, by deconstructing or reconstructing it. The audience can effectively fill in the holes the way they want, thanks to the flashbacks and the structure of 5W. I hope to be able to show that everybody has their own experience of the world. I would like to encourage people not to go to the cinema just to watch the film, just for emotions but for the overall experience it will provide. I don't mean just watching this big screen with good quality sounds and images with crunchy pop corns but through the emotional experience and for their thoughts it will create, like an earthquake in their mind. Furthermore, regarding 5W, as I said earlier, I wanted to point out the five W questions and open a new perspective on this to the audience. When I first wrote this story, when it was still entitled Run, I considered this concept as a philosophical drama. I wanted to bring a little philosophy in video form. In order to
include some philosophy in my film, one of my inspirations is Woody Allen, who does this job with perfection, in a different genre from 5W of course. I definitely can say that I would like 5W to be an introduction to philosophy for people who don't know anything about it because I believe philosophy is asking questions people don’t really think of. It is to go deeper than expected and I guess that can be useful in a film, depending on what style you're going for. Each flash-back of 5W is filmed in slow-motion to get a dreamy look: how did you balance the equilibrium between the real and the imagined when conceiving your film? This question was pretty important to me as I was first thinking about 5W not in terms of scriptwriting but also in terms of directing. How to make the audience understand these two levels in the story? I knew I wanted a different look but it took a while to come up with what I really did in the end. I always try to avoid black-and-white for the flashbacks and colour for the present time as I think it can look very, I would say, cheap or unoriginal, even if it was done brilliantly in Memento. That is how I came up with this idea of slowmotion; first of all, just because I love slow-motion as it creates a very good atmosphere, as if time stopped. Secondly, because it seemed appropriate for 5W. Slow-
motion is a good way of exploring the flashbacks because it implied that these scenes were memories and not fixed in present time as the footage is not normal speed. However, slow-motion in itself was not enough. Here are also the other tricks I chose to use: the little lower contrast during the flashback is also intentional. It emphasises that it is a memory in which colours are fading away. Since I wanted to show that these flashbacks were subjective I had to use more artefacts than slow-motion and colour correction. Some scenes are sharply edited, for example, the scene of the murder,: to emphasise the fact that the flashbacks are seen through my main character’s mind;, the dead body is discovered via quick shots, almost like flashes to show the trauma and distress caused by the situation. The other tool I used was sound. At first sight, the sound appeared like a problem for me to resolve as I wondered how to portray the dialogue in slow-motion, how to make my characters speak during the flashbacks if they are in slow-motion. I was thinking about deleting all dialogue or slowing it down to sync the images, but then I realised that I could use this problem as a great advantage. The sound is intentionally not synced for the flashbacks again to accentuate the same idea of a moment captured in an instant and quite vague in the lead character’s mind. It looks/ sounds like the dialogue is actually coming from his mind, that the dialogue is actually only the words he remembers. Furthermore, there is sound design in each flashback. I found some creative common tracks on the internet that I felt appropriate for the scene. It is actually interesting to remember that we were shooting those flashback scenes as an actual scene, I mean live action footage, and to realise how much it changed in the edit and how you can transform reality with a few artefacts! So overall: slow-motion, colour correction, sound and editing are used altogether to show some memories through the main character’s mind. Flashbacks are not only about giving meaning to the story but also to show that memories are bits and pieces put together; you can sometimes only remember a detail or a word but never the overall situation. That's why I didn't want to shoot these flashbacks using a third person point of view. Also, the main character is so emotionally involved that I wanted this dreamy look for the audience to actually wonder if the scenes really happened or not, because I guess, when people go through a trauma, they tend to lose their grip on reality. The combination between footage and sound provides 5W with such captivating uncanny atmosphere: the ending sequence of your film reminds us of À nos amours by French cinematographer Maurice Pialat, for your brilliant use of opera singing: how did you select the music for your film? Moreover, how do you see the relationship between sound and moving images? I had no budget for this film. I would have loved to have had a composer on board, which I did at the start but he had to cancel his participation due to health issues. So I ended up using creative common soundtracks. It is pretty amazing to have so many soundtracks online; you just need to be patient to spend a good few hours to research and to listen on the audio web jungle! Some good tracks can be found and that's why I invite readers to check out the credits and the soundtracks (but not only!) And spend a little time on the artists’ SoundCloud. As I said in the previous answer, I used some soundtracks to highlight the dreamy effect of the flashbacks. Each sound design represents the
emotions of the scene, how Adam feels when these things happen. However, there is more to say regarding the soundtrack of 5W, especially for the ending. I will have to deviate a little from the question in order to fully explain the opera track. To me, there is a religious aspect in 5W. It is shown with blue Christian cross in the film but I guess I need to go back to the idea of the W questions. This whole religious direction came across my mind a little after writing the script. I realised that one of the plausible answer to the question “why” could be religion. If you accept the fact that everything happens for a reason, that there is a God, then all the answers to the W questions in whatever circumstances will be automatically there. This brings us back to the beginning of this interview with the link between Philosophy and Metaphysics and 5W. This idea about religion explains the use of an Ave Maria at the end of the film. Despite the religious aspects, I think Schubert’s Ave Maria is one of the most beautiful songs of all time; it makes me shiver every time I listen to it! I think it's a song that creates a very graceful and peaceful atmosphere to contrast with what happens on screen. I actually obtained a version locally recorded by a music producer in Northern Ireland, Declan Legge, who kindly let me use his track for the version I made for Queen’s University. However, because I wasn’t sure I had the right to use the piano part, I found a creative common version in order to put it online and apply to a few things. In the script, in the final scene, Adam was talking to the audience, explaining what the film was about and saying that sometimes it's hard to answer the W questions. However, I deleted this voice-over at the very end because I considered that the final score was enough to end the film. This soundtrack has its importance to me as it is a religious song and works with the atmosphere. However, I had to add some reverberation to soften the sound as the song originally sounded overpowering compared to the images. We want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in new media art. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however, in the last decades, there are signs that something is changing. What's your interview
view on the future of women in Art and especially in video making? I'm so glad you asked this question and I’m honoured to talk about this topic, as it is something important that helped me too, in a way! Even if my experience is centred around the film industry, I guess it's the same in the arts. As you said, there is a form of inequality in the film industry. Since the 1930s, female workers in the film industry have had roles like screenwriters, scripts, makeup artists… The film industry tends to be a conservative place, in which everybody had their place and things may move on screen but not really behind the camera. I guess only a few female directors are worldwide renowned compared to their male colleagues. Only a few females directors made it in Hollywood. It is hard to realise on an individual scale but I was very shocked when I learnt that fifty percent of entrants to films schools are women, but only about 10% of UK films are directed by women… and the number drops to 2% for blockbusters. Females are underrepresented in the industry as a whole, even if they have the same potential or interest in films as their male colleagues! The dream would be to say that the gender of an artist doesn’t really matter as long as the work is good. Unfortunately, as long as the inequalities will be there, it can’t be ignored and it needs to be fixed! The numbers are there. By trying to explain them we can maybe fix this but for now, I think that more opportunities targeted towards women are a fair solution. I was recently lucky enough to benefit from an opportunity for female directors organised by the BBC. It happened earlier this year and was called ‘BBC Two Minute Masterpiece’. Five films were made. I was fortunate to be one of the six filmmakers. I wrote and directed a two-minute film with some funding from the BBC entitled Surrealistic Self. It was broadcast in May on BBC2 Northern Ireland, in the Arts Show. It is available on BBC iPlayer with the other five films; I think if you just Google it you would be able to watch it! Anyway, it was a very good opportunity for emerging female directors and producers to get a film made with a very good mentorship and some funding! interview
I think this shows that, as you said, mentalities are changing. People are aware of the gap and that's the first step! We need more women’s perspectives in the world and as long as opportunities like the BBC Two Minute Masterpiece exist, I have faith! Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Solène. Finally, would you like to tell us, readers, something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? My plan is just to keep going, basically! I have a few other stories to tell on which I am working on. So I’m writing short scripts in order to make them. I think that will keep me busy for a good couple of years, at least!. However, my plan in the long term will be to stop writing and to focus on directing only, as I don't want to be a writer because I am sure there are some unique voices out there to write stories. My interest is in bringing the script to the screen. I think I would like to stick to dramas and fictional stories but I guess this is might change as my work evolves. My interests will probably stay in experimental films as well: there are so many visuals or cinematic techniques I have to try! I also know that I am not ready yet to make feature films but again if I come across a good story then I would love to tell it on screen in the future. I also have a keen interest in animation. I don't really know anything about it in detail but I think this will be something I will investigate for the future in order to make, perhaps, animation short films or even cartoon series, why not! As long as I keep on making videos and films in the years to come that speak to people, I will be happy! Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to talk about my work. As I am an emerging artist, it is sometimes tricky to get my voice heard so that was a real pleasure to share my thoughts with you. If you are interested in checking out my blog it is thaliiafilms.wordpress.com and I also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, loads of things for your readers to check out! interview
Hannah Ford Hannah Ford is a filmmaker whose work is often minimalist and satirical; her short film “Terry’s Last Intern” (2014) won Underwire's Best Under 25 Award, was nominated for Best Woman Director at London Short Film Festival and selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, alongside “The Menu.” She has also made work especially for Daata Editions, Opening Titles, Transition Gallery and recently completed post production for a short film funded by Institute of Contemporary Arts, as part of their STOP PLAY RECORD programme. However “turtleneck” was an entirely independent production and is her most narrative work to date. The film is an ode to anyone stuck in an entry-level existence and first screened publicly at Doomed Gallery at the end of 2016, followed by its online release supported by DISPATCH in the spring. hannahfordfilm.com turtleneckthefilm.com Lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada
Elegantly shot and featuring unconventional still effective storytelling, , is a film by Hannah Ford, that we are pleased to introduce to our readers. Hello Hannah and welcome to this special edition of : before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and after having earned your BA from the Rhode Island School of Desing you nurtured your education with a Bachelor's Degree of Communication Design and Illustration, that you received from the Glasgow School of Art. How did these experiences influence your evolution as a filmmaker and a creative? Thanks so much for inviting me to take part. I actually only went to RISD for one semester but being able to study film there, especially 16mm, definitely helped me have more conviction in my work. John Terry was my tutor meets An interview by Francis Quettier and Dora Tennant Hannah Ford there and he was so encouraging of these short comedies I was making. The rest of the time I was studying Communication Design/Illustration in Glasgow but I always struggled to get all of my ideas across in my work, plus to be in a design department, there’s always that element of problem solving that I just don’t think really motivates me. I’m much more led by small observations - satire, synchronicities and bringing those to light. I don’t really solve any problems in my work, I’m just trying to vocalise and share the uneasiness and hoping that’s enough for people to relate to. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://hannahfordfilm.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work. In the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? My writing process is pretty slow and steady - journalling is so integral but I’m mostly just writing small things here and there and after a while, some patterns start to emerge or I can’t stop coming back to a phrase that I keep rewording or a drawing that I keep sketching. Before naming the project turtleneck, I had been
writing a lot of phrases that all seemed linked but I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. Then I kept drawing the image of a character with a turtleneck jumper pulled right over their face and that connected all the words I was writing. Then things tend to pick up speed but as I’m writing in more of a script form, I still switch to drawing whenever I get stuck, then it becomes a process of figuring out how to lead the narrative to those images. As for my logistical set-up I’m so minimal but filmmaking can be a really dull process for anyone just waiting around, so I feel like a small crew is actually way more beneficial in a lot of ways. It’s so much more collaborative. After filming the whole process goes back to the beginning again with just me editing and thankfully I was lucky enough to have Rachael Grant (Cracked Hands) be the sound designer and Vlad Barin as the colourist. They definitely elevated the whole project and helped me make turtleneck my most refined film. For this special edition of we have selected , an interesting film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your inquiry into the consequences of living in an era of over-analysing is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with : while walking our readers through of , would you tell us what did you address to this topic? interview
interviewNot gonna lie, I just googled autonomous aesthetics. I’m not really someone who begins a project with a lot of theory, I’m mostly working intuitively. In art school I pressured myself into making work with this overly analytical frame of mind but it just led me to shut down a lot of my ideas and interrupted the natural flow of working. It’s hard for me to think of my work in an academic way, I’m too close to it and although I do like reading theory, I prefer when it just becomes subconscious. Escaping from traditional narrative form, features a brilliant storytelling, reminding us of Chantal Ackerman's early work: how did you of the film? I think I’ve always felt kind of daunted by the idea that you have to tell a story in a specific way especially with short film, there’s this expectation to have a punch-line and that was just the antithesis of what I was feeling at the time. turtleneck is really about not knowing all the answers, pretty much all of the characters are keeping something to themselves, or at least that was the intention. When it came to structuring the film I just had all of these scenarios written out on separate pieces of paper, along with some sketches I’d drawn and started moving them around. Once I started doing that some of the characters started swapping places and then after filming, the river sequences became these moments to breathe and hopefully allow the audience to just steep and see if any lines or moments were resonating with them. Those sequences were originally going to involve so much more action but I’m so glad they ended up as these quiet meditations, especially with Mt. Judge’s music. That was the first
day of filming and originally I wanted this summer blue sky but when it ended up overcast and raining that helped set the tone so much better. features elegantly shot temps mort and we have appreciated the film’s rigorous and expressive compositions: what were your when shooting? In particular, what was your approach to lighting? In the mood boards for turtleneck I sent out, there was a lot of photography by Jessica Williams, particularly a series she produced called Sympathetic Objects. She has this really beautiful way of capturing emotion in these mass produced, everyday things. I’d also been taking a lot of photographs in the area which ended up in the zine I made for the film but those were all taken without preempting a series, one of my favourite spreads is of this detached, drooping orchid and on the other side Slosi (who plays Jules) in a posture really similar. So there’s a lot of cases where plant life mirrors that of the characters, trying to thrive in environments that aren’t giving them all they need. The whole film was storyboarded, even the shots of objects or just scenery but that was really more to assure me that I had a plan since I was the Producer too. In the entire film we only really used lighting for the nighttime scenes, the rest was making use of an overcast London summer. I think my favourite example of lighting is the scene where Turtleneck is sitting with a beer, Matt Mead (the Cinematographer) chose to set up something super simple but the warmth of that light makes it feel so interview
interviewmuch more intimate and it’s a nice contrast to the blue light from phones or laptops in similar shots. http://www.jessicawilliams.info/ http://www.phasesmag.com/jessicawilliams/sympathetic-objects/#s-1 Dialogue play a crucial aspect in : however your film’s striking use of colors and light depicts emotions and feelings in places where dialogue could not even scratch the surface: how did you balance the equilibrium between dialogue and the messages conveyed by images? In particular, how would you consider the relationship between sound and moving images in your work? Colour palette was something I was really wary of, a few people have said that turtleneck feels like a mumblecore movie and I’m influenced by a lot of filmmakers that came out of that “movement” of just using DSLRs and not waiting for permission to make something. However, a lot of those films aren’t stylised in a visual sense and I guess I wanted people to be able to look at the film stills and to recognise it as part of one entity. In the film there’s a lot of pastel blue and green which was a way to create these echoes between characters but the palette was really dictated by my surroundings, which was the industrial estate I was living in at the time. When I was looking for people to cast, I sent them mood boards and reels, as well as the script, it just helps fill in the blanks. I think that balance between dialogue and images only really becomes clear in the editing process for me. There’s a lot of passive aggressive lines in the script and those tend to be followed up by quieter
scenes, where we get a more accurate glimpse into the characters’ mindsets. Sound is really where the whole thing begins to feel real to me though, maybe because when I’m writing at the beginning, I’m usually listening to music that resonates with the mood I’m trying to conjure up. Then when the film’s almost done, music is usually one of the final elements. With its characteristically clever attention to detail, addresses the viewers to such immersive visual experience: what are you hoping your film will trigger in the spectatorship? turtleneck is in no way a thriller, it’s subtle and attempting to critique the things we allow to get in the way of connecting with each other. I think there’s been a bit of a shift within the last couple of years though, of people being more open to vulnerability yet dating apps and or competitive work environments with pressure to be perceived as successful, can easily undo a lot of that progress. It’s interesting to me that a lot of what would have been labelled “over-sharing” a couple of years ago, is now getting vocalised on a regular basis through instagram, I guess as a reaction against portraying a perfectly curated lifestyle. I’m all for the next paradigm. What was your preparation with actors in terms of reharsal? Did you address your actor to act instinctively or did you methodically structure the process? In particular, do you like ? Despite being super controlling when it comes to things like colour, I love spontaneity. All my favourite moments in turtleneck are where the actors are working with something that went “wrong” or when I kept the direction really loose and they all just figured out something