I am afraid I have to cheat. No posts between 93 and 88.
It’s not that nothing happened: I have some first train shots ready. On friday I went to Paris for a Work In Progress meeting with Hélène Vayssières from Arte. Arte is one of the co-financers for Chase. I must admit that I was a bit hesitant towards the idea of having to discuss the work in progress with financiers. It might confuse things, after all every fund has it’s own ideas, taste and interest. If we ended up with all the financiers (for Chase we have 5 different ones!) around one table to discuss in which direction the film should go, the result could be a grey and dull film. But after considering that Arte is also co-producing and that I think Hélène’s opinion is worth listening to, I decided to step in with an open mind. And with reason: Hélène and Nicolas both had clever and spot on remarks. They helped me a lot in trying to find ways to make it easier for the audience to follow the story. I always considered the scenario for Chase to be a track on which the train rolls. No more no less. If people lose track along the way: no problem, as long as they cling themselves to the visual elements and music. But if that would be true, introducing a storyline in my work, which I have never done before, becomes a bit useless. If the audience can understand what they are looking at, even when things become more or less abstract, the interest in the film might even be bigger. The disadvantage is that to tell a story, you need clearer visuals to understand what’s going on. And to arrive there, the images become less abstract. To find a balance between clear storytelling on one hand and using the fewest amount of figurative elements possible on the other is the biggest challenge I am facing with Chase. Fortunately I can borrow the creative minds of others from time to time.
During the ride back from Paris, I died with boredom, so I started to play with my iPod’s camera….
