Seeing It Through

The last couple of days have been interesting in terms of creative collaborations. Firstly on Thursday in between meetings I called in at Q Studios where Jenine and the crew were shooting the opening video I had written for a banking conference.

It is using the Sue character that I like to think that I created because I wrote the first script in which she appeared a couple of years ago, but Jenine thinks of her very much as her creation because she had been working with the actress (Debra Da Cruz) for years before that, developing the unique characterisations that were folded onto the wordy outline that was the script.

Anyway...

The point for me sitting in on the shoot was once again how much a great piece of work requires so much attention to detail and a focus on the visualization to make it sing. The concept is key of course, and the script has to be tight, but even if those elements are in play, a piece of work that can transcend the page in the imagination of a reader can fail to do the same off the screen.

It's subtle, but in a review it's the difference between 'that's great, thanks' and 'can I get a copy!?'

Jenine is a master at these kinds of transcendent visualisations. I can see it in the way she sizes up prop options, costume calls, lighting states, hair styles, personal props and accessories, and of course creating the composition and composing a shot for the edit. Thinking right through the shoot out into post production.

The impact of all these (and many more) decisions can be felt on the set too. It's what keeps the energy and the focus of the crew geared up. It's what makes the whole team realize that what they are doing is important. It's what makes it more than an opening video for a corporate conference, it's how it becomes a delightful piece of cinematic storytelling for a small audience of a few thousand people.

I like that. I enjoy that level of care. Because if you're not making great cinema for mass audiences then you better be making cool productions for corporate ones. And who knows, maybe one leads to the other...

Back to the screenplay adaptation of Dirt for me then I guess.

What was the other collabortion? Ah, that was with master cartoonist Alastair Findlay. More on that later.