| Memo is one of a number of
collaborations I’ve made with artist friends Deborah Bell and Robert Hodgins. We have
made two other films, Hotel and Easing the Passing (of the hours); and several sets of
etchings. Robert was feeling
depressed. His mood put a pall over the three of us. We decided to make a film. Memo
was made over three days. The formal preparation for the film consisted of lunch at a
restaurant, in which we agreed not to think about the film until we started shooting, but
to concentrate on the food. First, we made some flip-book type drawings and some three
dimensional props – telephone, type-writer, fountain pen. On the first day of
filming, we started by covering a wall in my studio with paper and drawing an office,
checking it through the viewfinder of the camera. The minimalism of the office drawing
came from Robert’s paintings, I drew the lamp and Deborah drew the desk façade.
Robert practiced taking 45 seconds to move his hand across his brow. We spent the day
drawing and filming, without much sense of how the film would fit together or what it
would look like. The next day we looked at the rushes and made a list of other drawings
and filming we needed to do to complete the project. This we did two days later. We had a
day of editing and some time working with the composer, Philip Miller. The whole project
seemed so smooth and painless that we decided to make a whole series of films like this.
But all attempts to continue in the genre were dull and wooden and were never completed. |
