Medusa on a festival

Oh yes, this is a purely bragging post - we were on a festival, and it was great!

One of our smaller projects, "Supper bailiff" was selected by the MicroFAF official jury and we had a projection in the beautiful cinema called "Jugoslovenska Kinoteka".

The movie itself criticizes insistutions in our country and points that they are untouchable, like some superhero. One women, who had an accidental couch on her arm is saved by the Super Bailiff, but that comes at a greater cost. In return, he takes all of her furniture out while the woman is thankful as she thinks he is doing something good. It was a funny, one-day-shooting project which had it's time on the big screen.

Also, we had a time to speak in front of the audience about the importance of comedic approach to criticism in movie media. The discussion was focused on comparing marvel heroes to some government officials and how the film can portray them as a antagonists.

And that's it, we hope we will watch more of our little babies on the big screens and theaters soon. And we encourage you to send your works wherever you can, you don't know who will like it.

What is an independent art project really?

In culture, money is pretty big factor. Considering the field of art maybe it is the cheapest to be a writer, and the most expensive to be a movie maker. That's why it's important to see what is really possible to do as an independent artist.

First of all, there are professional and amateur artists. This is also a strange subject which deserves special set of blog posts, but if we focus on professional artists, independent means that they invested their own cash to make a thing they want to make. Right? Well yes, and no. If some camera rental company borrows you their camera and set of lights, they are spending their potential profit so you can have that for free. Is that really not sponsorship?

Ok, not to go into small details like this one, we believe that it is almost impossible to make a great product with no money or with your personal savings you kept for the new car. It's just not enough. Here we are mainly talking about moviemaking because it's the most expensive thing to do in art, and we are familiar with it.

Does that mean that every filmmaking project is sponsored in a way?

Yes! But that doesn't mean that it isn't independent.

For us, that means something else, doesnt matter if you are college-educated or just an ambitious artist. It means that your story is independent.

Real difference between "good" and "bad" production is in the choice of actions that are not instructed by the sponsors of the project. So even if you have a really good story in your hands that you want to shoot, it can turn into disaster if your sponsor (and by sponsors I also mean on movie studios) tells you to cut some scene because it's not appropriate or to limit the duration to just 100 minutes, or to remove violence scenes completely. Imagine your baby movie that you've dreamt about for years being massacred because you got some ammount of money. Would you rather wait a bit longer or shoot it as a no-budget movie? We would do a second one surely.

On the other hand, is it good to have a bad looking product because you didn't have enough money for that drone shot or some high-quality blood? Yes, it's sure a tough question. But, as long as the story is good, the chances of movie to succeed are greater, because deep in ourselves we are all children, just wanting to be entertained or taught. And that can be done with a simple story around a campfire, not a million dollar scenography behind the shot.

So, to conclude this part of the story: one of the main factors of independent project is the story, visual, musical, written or painted. It is important to be intact. Everything else is in the second place.

We will get more on to this subject, soon. Long posts are so passé.

(very short) Story of music video production on a very important location

When creating a music video, it is important to correlate song's lyrics to the cinematic story itself. One of our video production projects was for the song "Save me" ("Spasi me") by Michael Bob Vidaković. This is how we did it.

1. Initial meeting

First, we talked about the lyrics. What does it mean? What do we want to say with this video? What is the mood of the song itself? We came to a conclusion that the poetic narative of the song is related to imaginary relationship between the singer and the girl who doesn't even know that he exists. That gave us some ideas.

2. Script and casting

What is the goal of the girl's character in this story? It was simply to find the guy and save him. Save him from himself, actually. Then, the point of the video is searching. We needed the location and just one actress that will fill the requirements for rebelious, sexy girl the singer wants. The story would take place in some abandoned or rustic building full of hallways where the guy could call her with his song and she would go and search for him. But search for him how?

Through dance.

The next step was to write the actual script and to see what would be the culmination of the music video. In the end, of course, she will find him. And he will not have to call her through the song anymore. She would be wondering through the corridors searching for him, getting closer and closer, dancing more and more.

The dance was important. That's when Bojana, our choreography master came into the scene and we auditioned several actresses that fit the description we made. She tried her signature moves with them and we decided to choose one actress that is the perfect fit. The actress was not entirely free with her moves and she had that dreamy look we wanted, which was good as she would fit in the space itself and the story.

3. Location scouting and the final arrangements

We considered several locations for our music video production, but the one that was especially important to us was the "BIGZ" building in Belgrade, which was to be sold soon and repurposed into something entirely different. The building had great importance in Belgrade's history, and we wanted to make some sort of omage to it's hallways, vastness and all the stories that took place there.

The rest was just to go and find the exact locations for the shots that we will be using in the music video. We took several test shots, agreed on the camera angles, costume, lighting (decided eventually to go full natural with the light we already had there because of the unique atmosphere in the BIGZ building), and the shooting schedule. And what was left? Just to shoot the video!

4. Conclusion

The crew came and the shooting started. The details of the shooting are pretty borring, but what was interesting is that exactly the next day from the shooting, the "BIGZ" building was sold. It was not the part of Belgrade as we knew it anymore. We took the location that is very important for all of us and preserved the piece of history trough one music video which, ironically, has the title "Save me".

Of course we are proud of it. But the more important thing is that we included something with a greater importance in one "regular" music video. And that's why this story is special.

Oh and yes, below is the song if you're interested:

If you start it, the chances are you will finish it

I just finished watching Serbian movie named "Toma", which is, BTW, very good. In one scene, Andrija Kuzmanović says "Being in show business is like building a boat while you are in the water, it's leaking from everywhere but you must build it". And it struck me. Being in culture department (of all kinds) is just like that.

Many of us had projects that failed. And that is good because we learnt from those mistakes, became better artists, managers, became better people if you will. But the ones that hurt us most are the ones that we haven't even started.

Now, the same old story of "just go for your dreams" isn't that easy and we all agree that there are no money growing on trees just waiting for us. Also, art projects are usually pretty expensive. But is that an excuse?

Nope.

Actually, to start the project there are not a lot of financial requirements. You usually need a pen and a paper, and friends/colleagues which are willing to be involved. And it's all free. It brings out one crucial benefit: when you start it you will have bigger motivation to actually finish it.

What are the steps to start the project and boost your motivation?

  1. Write a plan on what you want to do. For example, you want to create a theatre play. Where? What will be the play? Who will be involved? What do you need?
  2. Start with the research and talk to people involved in the project. Find out if there are some better options. Listen to people's ideas. Correct the plan.
  3. Take real action towards your goal. Don't worry if you don't have the recources or you lack of participants. Go and speak with the theatre directors. Print a play and invite potential actors to your home for the casting. Have reading rehearsals. See if someone has that piece of costume you have in mind to borrow it. That will keep you motivated and project will already be in motion.

You see, our brains are wired in a way to be inert, so if you start doing something and create a habit of thinking that the project you're part of is your reality, your mind will naturally want to resolve it and finish it. We don't like to leave things hanging, at least things that are important to us. And I believe this trick is one of the crucial ones to actually increase chances of finishing something.

Do you have your trick for completing projects?

Where do ideas come from?

We believe that every human experienced that "A-HA!" moment at least once in their life. The magnificent idea emerged and we were ready to give up everything at that moment and to invest 100% in it. And the feeling was good, in the split of a second we thought we figured out the meaning of life. And then we just continued with our lives in most of cases, as if nothing happened.

But where dide that thought come from? What happened?

Some would call that faith, some would call it the message from the god(s), but the truth is actually pretty borring. Our mind combined all of the previous experiences in our life and came out with the solution to some problem in it's own, unique way. You see, as we all have fingerprints that are one of a kind, in the same way we all have unique experience palette. Even if two people with the exact same background and skills, experience one thing in two different ways.

We cannot reinvent hot water, and to come up with something new is pretty hard these days. But, we can combine the things we already know and put together some cool combination out of it, which will be unique. Even if we come up to a thing that already exists in many forms, it will have our own "stamp", something that is purely ours. That is what makes it unique.

As previously said, people minds are calibrated to think in problems. We are always searching for solution to something. From colonizing Mars to faster rice-cooking, we need that one thing that will bring us sense of achivement and satisfaction. So, should we run away from problems?

No!

We should not just face our problems, but we should expose ourselves to more experiences every day. That way, our mind will have larger ammount of data to combine and create it's unique set of solutions. Who knows, maybe some day one of those ideas will change the world.

Is creativity a priviledge of the few?

I think that all would agree - the most creative period of our life was our childhood. Playing in the sand with our buddies or spending an hour or two on that new video-game was not wasting time. It was crucial for forming our brains and developing the right-side brain structure. So, if most of us did it then, does it mean that we are all creative? Well, yes… and no.

The important question is to ask ourselves: when did we grow into adults? And what does that mean anyway?

Various things have an impact on developing our creative brains. Social status, the way we were raised, cultural differences, and many more. But when we take all of that, we played in any way we could. Some kids had the most expensive toys in the world, some were playing in the dirt. Charlie Chaplin was so poor as a kid that he made a cake out of mud and pretended to eat it. And he became THE Charlie Chaplin after that.

That leads us to one conclusion: wealth is not connected to development of a child's creative brain in any way. Than what is it?

It's growing up.

To be precise, it's abandoning the creative mind and focusing on the logical, survival-base strategies which are forced upon us as adults, taking more and more responsibilities and tasks throughout the day. Life moves on with or without us and very often we are forced to leave the creative, playful mind behind and focus on the bills. Some of us snaps under that adulthood pressure and BAM! You're 30 and turned into (or not) a boring, tedious person and you don't know why. What's the cure?

Play.

JJust play, have a hobby, do those little things that you've always wanted to do. Take that old guitar and play some tunes. Write a short story. Paint a picture on a kitchen wall. Find a way to take a photo of the moon with your smartphone and binoculars. Spend some time with your inner child. If you don't do it, no one else will, and why the hell not? It can be a lots of fun!

Creativity is priviledge, but not for the rich - for the free.

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