Two out of three. This is a reply to the reactions generated by my previous piece.
This moment
Sunday night, Paz had just arrived from a dinner party. I asked her to direct me in front of the camera. No planning.
The video
After our previous shooting was over, while we were still exalted, Paz and I talked, among other things, about her performance. She was not happy to have this conversation. She was actually angry, for which she let herself say some truths about how much she dislikes me when I direct her because I am too demanding and she is not an actress. Paz’s anger added tension to the scene.
I had been playing with the idea of switching places between all the collaborators during the rehearsal period in order to find different points of view on everything regarding the film: What input would this actor bring to this scene’s production design, what could the DP come up with in relation to this character. Good playfulness.
There are several reasons why I wanted Paz to direct this video:
- It would have been hard for me to convince her to let me direct her right after our previous film.
- I wanted her to deal with directing, for her to empathize with the job in the future.
- I wanted her to experience the role of the director, so we both could see if she would take an authoritarian position.
- I was curious on which directorial and narrative decisions she would take.
- I had no plan on how to behave in relation to her or the camera, so I was curious on how I myself would deal with the situation.
- I had no other ideas that I wanted to shoot, so I wanted to open myself to what life (in this case, Paz) would provide.
The outcome
I am pleased with the way she handled the camera and her rough attitude while recording me, the person dealing with that attitude. I reacted to her orders with a certain level of resistance in the beginning. She then broke my rebellious spirit when she says that I must take off my beanie and my sweater because I do not need them. She was right and those were directorial decisions I respected. In my mind there is tension in the way she comments on my actions, but humor in our interactions: “Can I whistle?”, “Yes.”, “I don’t want to.”. Demonstrations of power. Afterwards, she was indeed conscious about her authoritarian approach, and how positive it was to the production.
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