Some early rehearsal work with Liz Jones. Trying lists of various lines, plus a poem by Gabrielle Eastwood Ellis (a part of which will probably be used). Very early days in terms of finding a way into working with and from a script. And very enjoyable to play with the nuance of words, and silence.
postedbysimon
Bagryana and I spend today’s rehearsal working on texts/ideas for a number of events that might form the backbone of Liz’s character’s script…
Being an artist
BP: I was hoping you might tell me about your painting …
LJ: aaaaahhh
BP:When you started?
LJ: I started as soon as I could hold a brush in my hand. I used to be painting nearly all of the time. I don’t remember any time when I didn’t paint. I loved painting.
The first painting that I what? …
I don’t think I do … no, I can’t remember
Meeting her future husband
I met him at a dance, it was a charity ball ..
In those days the Catholics had a charity every year. And the funds I think went to … what’s that society that they look after? St Vincent de Paul.
I met him at a dance, and I went home with him afterwards. Although it was someone else who asked …
and I felt dreadful about that afterwards I might have had the decency to go home with Pat Hamil he lived next door to us he was a nice boy a funny family but a nice boy
It was a charity ball, the catholics used to have them every year for that society that helps people. What was it called? Oh yes.
And we danced.
Swimming in River & Best friend
I haven’t thought for a long time about that. Maybe I did have one. Can’t remember. Yes I did. Yes, she was a good friend of mine … and her family was very good when they were going to the river for a picnic they invited me you know … cause I’d never have got there otherwise … not having a father, no car in the family. They were good, yes, she was very nice … she was a popular girl, wasn’t brilliant at school work, but she got by …
Death of father due to emotion
But he went up … they were having some sort of a … and I saw him off at the station never dreaming that I wouldn’t see him again. He got ill up there … too much emotion. And he … and he died. He was such a sweet man, but god he was hopeless when it came to emotion. I think it was the sadness of his life …
Childhood/Terrible thing he did
It was a terrible thing he did
Forever altered … It will never be the same.
He never found a place for himself.
He had a beautiful smile [pleasurable, not missed or tragic]
Birth of son
So long now I have known you
Felt your heart within my own
Limbs gathering strength.
I waited, breath held, till I
sensed you move beneath my hand,
an added heartbeat to my own.
And as you grew we watched and
both our hands
Touched in turn and marvelled
at the outline of your limbs
But still you grew
Why are you asking me these questions, maybe you should ask me what I lived for?
I want to leave myself.
postedbysimon
through line is states of contrast
Things Bagryana noticed:
curves of the back
fluidity in hands, fingers
shocks in the back (treading from heel to heel)
swimming in slow and in fast
joyous slow swimming
back to BP … feeling of pleasure or calm through body. quite still.
Simon’s back - turned to us
gentle sit
folding/unfolding fingers
spinning of a folded body … (fluid stuff from 26/11)
open arms revelling
fidgeting body (from 25/11)
shocks through body from 26/11
see SE’s face - with dedo. moments of looking
folded bare back?
postedbysimon
‘Gladys looking into the past future … when talking about change (“wouldn’t expect things to say the same”) - looks to camera - beautiful looking into indeterminate timezone (not blank looking at camera).’
Another note re Liz’s character: ‘qualities of warmth, of remembering, of uncertainty, of listening, of moments of sadness that you are sitting on.’
‘see-sawing of psychological dialogue between two (or multiple?) subjects’
22 November 2008
What might the camera represent? an organ? a missing body part? a passive observer?
24 nov 08
‘suggestions, but not full explanation of some kind of loss or event’ - suggestions of trauma, loss, complication … in relationships
Woman:
postedbysimon
Time in studio is currently split between forming some movement possibilities for the shoot and script-based planning, thinking and talking.
I’ll deal with the movement in another post.
In a previous post on being clear, I suggested very ‘plain’ relationships between the various protagonists. In the spirit of projects run on a (reasonably sized) shoestring with even less time, things have changed a bit …
Bagryana and I have been considering a type of warmth in the language, and ‘style’ of Liz’s character … graciousness. This is modelled on the footage of Gladys Eastwood from 2000. We seem to be less concerned about the relationship of Bagryana (and her character as the ‘interviewer’) to Liz. It seems clumsy given the shortness of the film to delve into this, to spend time in the film establishing and developing this, or to be too concerned with the ‘why’ of the interview. Having said that, it’s not implausible that Bagryana is family, or is known to Liz’s character (I suspect this will come out as the script materials become clearer) - again, the concern here is a sense of warmth and intimacy between Bagryana and Liz. I also felt that we don’t need to hear a lot of Bagryana’s voice … perhaps simply bookend the work with the ‘framing’ of an interview. The scenario will be very clear. This means we’ll be able to (more easily/fluidly) cut into Liz’s storytelling, drop into abstraction and then return to the beautifully everyday ‘what’s the weather like?’, ‘would you like a cup of tea?’ at the end.
We’ve also been considering the presence of the dancing person as perhaps being a concatenation of various men that Liz might mention in her narrative(s) … to not to be too specific, to glance across various permutations of a man (including the possibility that he is manufactured in Liz’s character’s mind). Having said that, the relationship that might be closest to the foreground of the film would be of mother and son (which was our original thinking way back when the treatment was written). This means that including a small fragment of Gabrielle Eastwood Ellis’ poem is plausible …
We are very focused on these extraordinarily subtle moments in which Liz’s character slips between knowing and not knowing. These gaps in her lucidity (that she hides so well): the blink of an eyelid, the turn of her head, the pause before she asks a question. Might these spaces become the ‘portals’ for the presence of the ‘danced landscapes’?
postedbysimon
Some of Bagryana’s drawings completed ‘live’ during improvisations.
postedbysimon
Cormac dropped into rehearsal yesterday (Tuesday). He’d been watching the footage of Gladys Eastwood. He noted the distance between the ‘eye’ of the camera and Gladys’ gaze (towards me – the interviewer). It is unusual this separation but it makes for a really spacious relationship between the subject, the camera and the off-screen interviewer.
We also talked about the space in Gladys’ responses, her graciousness.
Later, as we were talking, Bagryana suggested that, rather than leave the various relationships uncertain or ambiguous, we make the relationships very clear (and very soon) and then we are left with the option in post-production of roughening the edges of these relationships, or leaving them tight, or even altering them with additional dialogue/audio.
I like this idea - it will give the decision making momentum at this stage, and point the project without us necessarily having to be hitched to the stated relationships.
The critical relationships (I think) are between Liz’s character and my role, and between Bagryana (off-screen) and Liz.
As on offer, and staying very closely to the ‘setup’ of the Gladys interview, how about:
Liz is Bagryana’s grandmother (is this plausible given Liz’s relative youth?)
I am Liz’s unborn child. I never existed. Did I die at birth or am I imagined? What happened?
Bagryana would therefore be my niece (if I were alive/or existed).
Can this work?
postedbysimon
The gestures of speaking/remembering/forgetting.
Pauses.
Scratches.
gaps.
She adjusts her skirt.
She fiddles with her fingers.
She looks with great and sincere interest.
She thinks.
I don’t remember. I can’t quite remember. When was it? I am not sure now.
Did I?
Did you?
Were you?
She cleans her glasses without missing a beat.
She searches for the right answer. the true answer, and the answer he wants to hear.
She checks if it is the true answer.
She searches again.
Good Lord!
My Godfather! I’ll have to think that one out…
—
A man moves in the space with the innocence of an infant. He fidgets, plays, fold, unfolds, impatient for something to happen.
There are little moves, fast moves,
then there is a beatific, joyous opening, slow, floating-
this change is the change from one state of attention (little flurry of activity, like a little creature, busy and anxious) to another state of attention- revelling, open, breathing open air, in the moment, a ‘top of the mountain’ state.
Does this change as we grow older or is it modified by activity and vocabulary only?
Who is the man moving?
Is he real? Or is he in someon’e memory?
Is he always stuck in a moment in time, before being born or just after being born?
Is this the memory or the feeling about him? Like in the poem.
it’s a beautiful poem. It rings so true.
The savouring, the cherishing is so clear in it. The quiet and absolute delight.
postedbybagryana
Working with movement ‘frames’ today. I asked Bagryana to look with two sets of eyes: a) watching the edges of the body, the ways in which light caught the outlines; b) considering possibilities for the use of a single (dedo) light to ‘catch’ glimpses of the physical action.
It was a different kind of watching from what we have been working with/on in previous projects.
We worked on two activities:
tipping/slipping .. the shifts in state. See-saw - “going going and now I am there”. But I don’t know how it is that I got there. It is frightening.
postedbysimon