THE STORY OF A _ production

THE STORY OF A

(EVERY PICTURE
TELLS A STORY)

"We are now in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed…our experience of the world is less of a long life developing through time that that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein…"

Michel Foucault, Dits et ecrits. Selections, vol. 1 (New York: New Press, 1997).

THE PRODUCTION
BACKGROUND

ETT INTERAKTIVT FILMISKT PROJEKT

Detta filmiska projekt är en konstnärlig undersökning av hur det digitala mediet förändrat det filmiska berättandets former. En undersökning som kommer att resultera i ett interaktivt berättarverk, där filmmediet är själva basen.

THE STORY OF A tar fasta på att den digitala tekniken har öppnat nya möjligheter för berättandet, en historia måste inte längre byggas som ett linjärt förlopp som utspelar sig under en begränsad upplevelsetid på en biograf eller framför en tv. I en DVD produktionen kan betraktaren styra när och hur länge man vill fördjupa sig i upplevelsen. Tiden är flexibel, både i det filmiska verket och för betraktaren.

THE STORY OF A kommer att i sin slutgiltiga form visas som DVD, webb verk och / eller i ett utställningsrum med projektioner.

Den digitala CD-rom produktionen SPEED ( en interaktiv filmproduktion av Thore Soneson / Per Linde ) undersökte några aspekter på filmberättandets konstnärliga möjligheter med den digitala teknologin. Vi arbetade med ett filmmaterial som kunde sättas samman i nya sekvenser, slumpmässigt valda i en JUKEBOX. Betraktaren tog en aktiv del i berättarstrukturen, styrde en egen väg genom historien. SPEED baserades på en existerande novellfilm skapad för traditionell visning.

Med berättarprojektet THE STORY OF A har vi arbetat från grunden och skapat en interaktiv filmisk berättelsevärld. Berättelsen har en collageartad form där filmade spelscener kommer att möta iscensatta stillbildssekvenser, inre monologer möter dramatiskt berättande.

Vi tänker oss följande scenario för berättelsen -

Allt kretsar kring ett centrum som är A - en fiktiv person. Vi möter personen genom ett antal individers bilder och berättelser. I konkreta filmade scener, drömmar, texter och vittnesmål, växer olika bilder av denna fiktiva person fram. Scenerna är en blandning av dokumentär, ren fiktion, av video och ljud, av text eller stillbildsbaserade tidningsartiklar. En slags öppen collageform där basen är den rörliga bilden.

I fokus för berättelserna står identiteten, den moderna samplade / föränderliga / omformade identitet som den digitala tidsåldern ger utrymme för i fiktionen. Utgångspunkten i alla dessa berättelser är ett mysterium. Ingen vet om denna person A existerar längre. Ingen vet vad som hänt. Men alla har ideer, teorier, minnen och händelser av denna person eller förhoppningar att meddela.

Genom denna multidimensionella form av berättelse skapas hela tiden en skiftande berättelse om en person.

En version av/en vision av/en edition av.

Ett collage berättat i första, andra och/eller tredje person.

Varje berättelse skapar en bild, en film.

Every story tells a picture.

Produktionsplan

THE STORY OF A kommer att ha en produktionstid på ca ett år.

Medel för första delen av produktion har beviljats av Konstnärsnämnden, Sweden. Medel för fortsatt produktion söks från Svenska Filminstitutet, Konstnärsnämnden, Film i Skåne m.fl.

THORE SONESON / PER LINDE

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"The novelist´s imagination is "probable"; a novel is something that might happen, all things considered. It is a diffident sort of imagination (even in its most luxuriant creations), daring to declare itself only aganist the seurity of the real.

The poet´s imagination, on the other hand, is improbable; a poem is something that could never happen under any circumstances – except, that is, in the shadowy or burning realm of fantasy, which by that very token it alone can indicate.

The novel proceeds by chance combinations of real elements, the poem by precise and complete exploration of virtual elements."

from The Metaphor of the Eye, an essay by Ronald Barthes.

AN INTERACTIVE FILM PROJECT

The starting point for THE STORY OF A is an investigation in how the digital media has transformed the fundamental boundaries of narratives in the moving medias. An investigation that aims to create an interactive film piece. Presented on webb, dvd or in an exhibition setting using video projections. The choice of final media / medias will be taken during/after the first phase of the production, the script writing.

The world of new media and digital technologies opens up new possibilities - and challenges - for storytelling, for the moving images. The linear structure of traditional film / video media has transformed with the possibilities of interactive narration based on hyperstructure and association. A cd-rom/dvd based production can be controlled by the viewer. The time can be flexible, both in the narrative work and the viewing conditions. Our identity in the narrative context changes when we move from a passive role as reciever, into taking an active role in shaping the narrative structure.

Our prior interactive work, the CD-rom production SPEED was based upon a 30 minutes short story, a serie of personal written notes, still sequences and sounds. We devised a metaphoric model which we called a "a memory machine"; the main strategy behind this was to leave choices of viewing order to the computer. A central tool for this was a JUKEBOX, a narrative machine that created an everchanging story based on an initial choice. The outcome was a visual storycollage, a mixed/media production.

For the new project THE STORY OF A we are creating a narrative from scratch; we are building a dramatic framework for the story before the actual work with the script. This means that we can build a narrative world of different fictionalized media, story languages; documentary / reconstruction of reality; evidence / witness stories / memories / mixed media; fictionalized news footage.

A scenario -

Everything circles around a centre : A - an imaginary character. We meet A through a series of individuals images and stories. Through moving images, dreams, written testimonials, different images of A grows in our minds. The sequences are a mixture of documentary, of fiction, video and sound, text and still images. An open collage based on the moving image.

In focus in all of this is the Identity, the modern sampled / transformed identity that the digital age introduced in fiction. The starting point for our stories is a mystery, an enigma. No one seems to know if this character A exists anymore. No one knows what happened. But they all have ideas, theories, memories of A.

Through this multdimensional narrative form, a diverse and ever-changing story of an individual is created.

A version of / a vision of / an edition of.

A collage told in first, second and / or third person.

Every part of the story creates an image, a moving sequence.

Every story tells a picture.

Production outline

Funding for the first part of the work has been granted from Konstnärsnämnden, Sweden. For production funding will be applied from Svenska Filminstitutet, Film i Skåne and others.

THORE SONESON / PER LINDE

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THE STORY OF A (EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY)		synops
AGENT 2002_a story about hidden / change of / identity A woman in a closed room, we don´t know her, she doesn´t tell us anything personal. Through her memory, images make a starting point for stories. We reproduce places, events, objects. A path that leads to a beach. Gray mist over a sea. A house that overlooks meadows by a seaside. A garden with traces of children, an abandoned sandpit. A woman alone by a window, overlooking the view. The house is empty, deliberately emptied on its content. Whitewashed rooms. A sofa. A table. A bed. The virtual image of the same house / rooms. Stories, events, experiences – fill and change the rooms.	Actual background : • Travelling saleswoman of garments / fabrics on local markets. Caravan and play-pen for her children. • A cook in a school kitchen. Signed on a freighter, travelled around the world. • Her husband / man worked with fastfood / franchiseowner of hamburger restaurant. • Teenage daughter, wanted to make a career as a model. Alter–ego : • Tight-rope walker at circus. Physical. Higher and higher balancing. Struggle for equilibrium. Challenges. • Free climber / bicycle messenger. Mobility. City landscape / Mountain scenery. • Artist model. The gazes. Freedom. Pride. Body.	Events : • The husbands extensive business enterprises. An expansive character. Bought a giant stock of used clothing. Started a flea market. At one point he owned a chain of fastfood caravans. Turned to drinking with the same energy. Had a traumatic experience during a night of drinking, his front teeth were extracted. Remembers nothing. Disappered to Thailand. • A:s early years. Nothing much is known of her childhood. She has flashes of memories from City Life. Large apartments. Huge dinner parties. Her best friend was killed during summer camp. • Life on a freighter as a cook. The escape from Marseille. Ended up at photographer on Cote d´Azur. Drugs and confusion. Night life in Paris as a model for photographer. • Travelling saleswoman on markets. The caravan burned down. Without housing for two small children. The garment stock disappered. • The Paris fear. Panic in the Eiffel Tower, fear of heights strikes. The failed contract. The graveyards. Jim Morrison. • Oldest daughter escapes from foster family. Hides in big city. Finds mother at hospital. Unclear what happened, suffers from several phobias, including severe agoraphobia. Burial of her daughter.
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THE STORY OF A (EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY)				keywords

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THE STORY OF A (EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY)				storyboard


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credits

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All pictures used in this site are sampled from image sources on the web and in real life. A large part of the images are by Man Ray, an artistic inspiration extraordinaire. This site is never to be used in any commercial manner. Strictly as an sketch book and tool for viewing and valuating the project The story of A.