You can watch ”Pierre et Colombine” in 360 on Vimeo
password : sydney
The mundane moments shared by young lovers in the metropolis of the mid 21st Century.
Production: Demophoon
Director: Marie Brokensha
Running time: 8:30 minutes
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Language: English
Production country: Australia
Date of completion: 15 January 2018
Shooting format: 4K. Virtual reality 360
Screening format: MP4. H264
Aspect ratio: 4036 x 2160p 360
Cast:
Emilie Calvo as Colombine
Barnabe Brokensha as Pierre
Credits:
Director: Marie Brokensha
Director of photography: Paul J Warren http://www.pauljwarren.com/
Production designer: Robert Herriot
SYNOPSIS:
A young bohemian couple in mid XXI century create their own universe. They invent their private “game”/ rules (only known to them).
Watching VR is one of their favorite distractions; it’s often a sensual way to play together. Their “game” is based on an unspoken trust.
In their microcosmic space Pierre and Colombine discover their unbridled fantasies.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
VR narrating is a totally new language. Like film over a century ago, this medium feels like an unknown territory I was curious to explore. My field is analogue photography, black and white images developed in my sophisticated darkroom. Why has virtual reality immersed me with the same kind of making magic? I don’t know. But it did. Suddenly through VR I had a 360-degree canvas to work with. What a dream!
Space became a key narrative element for my story – it became suddenly theatrical. This new concept of “mise en scene” in a VR context intrigued me. Theatre, photography and filmography became intertwined and I was keen to play within this milieu.
My first step was to reinvent how to tell my “love story” combining traditional and virtual formats. I experienced and realised that I had more creative freedom to develop my settings: unity of action, unity of place, and unity of time. Using a 360 approach became truly immersive: I could guide the viewer through space and time using a nonlinear format.
Voila! I had my play in 3 acts ready to shoot: exposition, rising action, and climax!
My young, bohemian couple build themselves a private world. Their shared space is a masterpiece of their own being. Their private game is to charm, tease, magnetise each other… They are able to move easily between virtual reality and real life. Watching VR, according to their unwritten, ‘recherché’ rules, is a game known only by them.
How do I approach my story?
My intention is to reflect idealism and captivation through the cult of youth. A youth which has absorbed the myriad of technological revolutions and enjoys the complexities of their uses and pleasures, individually and together! The only thing they cannot control in the real world is the pollution of the air, the noise outside, the repetitive thunderstorms… mid 21st century life. Set design, lighting and music is the background that characterises their chaotic universe.
The story of Pierre and Colombine originates from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte. Colombine is full of energy and fundamentally optimistic, although she has no illusions and is not naive. She is piquante and independent. She knows how to use men to achieve her ends.
Pierre is the metaphysical Pierrot lunaire, symbol of the French Romanticism, and lives within abstract notions and flirts with the science of the unconscious.
My actors Emilie Calvo and Barnabe Brokensha know each other very well. They went to the same drama school in Melbourne (Meisner technique and Howard Fine Studio). They have a perfect, unspoken palpable connection which was essential for their role.
Through the editing process I tried to find the right balance between viewer autonomy and narrative guidance. I wanted to take the viewer back to the origins of film, to a time where silent movies gave them autonomy to imagine or interpret where the camera was leading them. Dialogue can unwittingly serve to focus and narrow the viewers’ vision and attention. Without sound, imagery is more interesting to explore. The discontinuous voiceovers add a surrealistic perception of the universe Pierre and Colombine live in.
I hope viewers will be transported through this story and embrace Jean Cocteau’s vision of youth which is certain of what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.
Since finalising Pierre et Colombine in 2018, I have commenced work on a further project, virtually more sophisticated. My first experience as a VR filmmaker gave me a solid basis to understand what was possible and what I knew I could not achieve through VR.
My next adventure was inspired by the story of Dorian Gray – a reality bridging two distinct personas, one living in this world, the other in a separate dimension – yet both intrinsically linked. I am excited at the challenge of transmitting this vision to the viewer through virtual reality.
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