What saved me (and still is) from insanity as I have to rest and rest and rest for recovery, is my creative process still being stimulated:
- through the articulation of this blog
- as well as all the short films
- video/audio exercises
- soundscapes
- photographies
I have been creating in the meantime…
Found objects used in exercise at the end of this blog
My Own Concrete Actions
In preparation for my long recovery – and to keep my creativity sparked even in regular time – I followed filmmaker Robert David Duncan’s first recommendation:
Filming mini events ALL the time.
(in his book “Micro Short Filmmaking: a guided learning journey”) • FatPunkProductions.com
Have your phone with you and film, film, film!
Very short sequences: 10 to 60 seconds
Keep an eye open for what interests you and is linked to your art:
I film what sparks movement, poetry in motion, imperfection, vulnerability…
So before surgery, I packed up as much footage of
nature events,
objects and their micro installations in space,
sound walks,
short poems in motion,
movement improvisations outdoor and indoor…
Most of them without a specific plan in mind.
Now I have all the time in the world to create with them. Short and Micro-short films.
(I started to film again on a smaller scale and add these to the mix…)
Sometime for me, these also become micro performances.
Micro-short poems in motion.
You can do the same in order to keep your creative mind in action.
Creating Micro-Short Films
Robert David Duncan’s second recommendation is to use what you have at hand.
Your phone camera
Free editing app like Videoleap or IMovie
Free sound recording app like Voice Memos
Then follow his simple but very efficient recipe summarized here:
Film all the time: 10 to 60 seconds sequences
Look for things that inspire you or catch them when they unexpectedly happen
Choose 1 to 3 sequences you like
Write and record a sentence/text around what you experience in these sequences
Add these things together using a free editing app
OR
Think about themes, ideas you care about (your art can be in the center of it all)
Look for these themes happening around you
Film 10 to 60 seconds sequences of what you find
Choose 1 to 3 sequences you like
Write and record a sentence/text around what you experience in these sequences
Add these things together using a free editing app
From a dance point of view, I will add:
Look for and film what inspires you movement / things dancing in nature / yourself moving in short poems in motion inspired by your themes / yourself and others responding in movement to elements around you…
Below are 3 examples of raw filmed material that inspire me:
My Screendance Creation Exercise
Find an object
Film it becoming (alone or assembled) 10-60 sec
Film yourself moving – with or without the object – but inspired by it 10-60 sec
Write a sentence or few words that speak of what you experienced
Or about what the video footage or object makes you think about
Record your voice and/or ambience sounds – choose royalty-free music
Edit all these together
(You should have no longer than 2 minutes of film)
Give it a title
(I used the objects you see in the first pictures at the top of the blog…)
NesteS
by Geneviéve Johnson
le joug du calcaire
oublie la porte
et son secret
caterpillars nest
bégaiement
until dawn breaks
en corde de violon
braquée
j’éclabousse
motionless
ver à soie
ébouillanté
dans son cocon
until dawn
