Last night the Strange Factories technical whizz kids (Mr Punch and Yiannis to be exact...Punch insists on a credit...) once again proved their versatility by providing entertainment for the masses; setting up an outdoor cinema at Stronheim's settlement and beaming Aussie indie flick Bad Boy Bubby onto the wall of our beautiful new home. What better way to spend an evening's break from a hardcore shooting schedule than wrapped in blankets under the stars, eating out-of-date popcorn and working our way through a crate of local Czech beer? We look forward to sharing our new screening setup this weekend with our latest arrivals - the winners of the Strange Factories Secrets, Dreams and Storytelling Competition.
As we move into the final stages of our gruelling month of what can only be described as guerilla filmmaking, the transformative nature of our working progress becomes ever clearer. Art and life seep further into one another; a new reality (or rather, surreality?) has been born. Over the past week we have seen actors going missing, animals behaving very strangely, costumed archetypes trudging up hills at sunrise, long journeys with wheelbarrows full of equipment, all events tainted by sleep-deprivation induced delirium. There's something distinctly odd about living on our own filmset. Odd in a good way. We ask ourselves daily, where exactly do we end and our characters begin?
We have been blessed with a technical crew so aligned to the FoolishPeople vision that they are able not only to participate in this month long ritual, fulfilling the most vital roles with a complete understanding of both performative, aesthetic and practical aspects, but also to serve as our audience too. In this sense the camera has become something of a voyeur, a key player in the live performance aspect of the work. The nature of the Strange Factores experience has been, from the outset, defined by such blurring of boundaries, masks and role play, revelations of truth within fiction and vice versa.
Already this film is very much alive. The switch has been flicked. The curtain well and truly lifted. The words cannot go back on the page. And audentia, we are so incredibly excited about sharing our manifestations with you...
(Photo by Yiannis Katsaris)
Recent Comments