With Intent Films

‘With Intent Films’ is the film making arm of Intentism.

Themes of intentionalism and the creative trail are inter-woven in the final pieces.

1. Film Director Dennis Bueso-Calix and With Intent Films have been working on a project. The film will be shown as a triptych visually demonstrating a film’s creative journey from initial conception to final shoot.

The premise was to create a finished short film that focuses on the creative process. One way of doing this is for the narrative to be about the creative process. There were several ways of doing this and there were many attempts.

Since the narrative would be about the making of the film, we chose three Intentists with an acting background. They were invited to discuss with each other how we could create a script that discusses how the film would be made. This very discussion became the script.

Here is an extract of that original script:

Syd: ok so the idea- sounds quite simple. Just to try and show the creational trail. Three actors filmed in three different ways ok all conversing at the same time together. Ok, but each shot will be edited in a continual line so if you use like —– premier you have like you can cut and paste the three levels , you can put one section of film which is one person

D: Do you mean side by side or alternating the screen?

Syd: Yeah, well yeah, changing the screen from..or changing the shot. So one person’ll be filmed, right solidly..

D: So you actually mean everyone and cutting between them as opposed to..

Syd: Filming single bits. Filming erm..

D: Yeah I mean filming everyone seperately, and cutting between them as opposed to having a three way like cut and paste people to make them look like they’re round a table

Syd: Yeah, no, I think

James: Because I mean if you were to do a tryptich of the three people, then you could see instantly when you’re looking at it how one, would look to the left or right where they’re looking to, and two, you could see how instantly how it’s changed

D: Yeah but, that might…a tryptich you mean having the three alongside. But that would surely decrease the emphasise of the contrast between the

J: How?

D: Well, if you keep them all side by side the whole time, you kinda get used to it, I think.

Syd: What the changing between each shot?

D: If you keep them all side by side, you’d kinda guest used to the idea that they’re just three sort of different looking people having a conversation

Syd: What they’d be filmed in different settings wouldn’t they? So it would look- with different cameras..

D: It would more like a video conference

Syd: What a video conference through three different time periods with three different levels of rehearsed…

James: It’s just more directly comparable that way

D: Yeah, but isn’t it more directly comparable if you see one and it switches to another and you say ‘fuck!’

James: Well the contrast’s increased, I suppose…

 

From this initial script the initial idea was refined:

1. Three actresses will be hired for a short film. At first they will not be given any more details. 
2. They will be invited to be filmed in a living room of a house where we can use artificial light to keep the light constant over different days.
3. When they arrive and are comfortable in the living room they will each be given an envelope. Inside the envelope will be the simple instructions that they are to engage in a conversation about making a short film without a script. The only rules are 1. They all contribute. 2. They do not speak over each other. 
4. The actresses will discuss this concept for five minutes and one actress will be filmed as a talking head.
5. The dialogue will be typed up as the script. 
6. The actresses will be invited back to the same room with the same lighting conditions. When they arrive they will be told this will be the read through. They will be given the script of their previous natural conversation. They will be told that the first read through will be the one used even if there are mistakes. A different actress will be filmed as a talking head.
7. The actresses will then be given the script to go away and learn. We will invite them back for rehearsals.
8. The actresses will return to the original set for the last time. The lighting conditions will be kept the same. The actresses will perform the piece and the final actress will be filmed as a talking head.
9. The three talking heads will be edited so that there will be one film. Although the dialogue will be perfectly clear, and to the viewer the setting of it has not changed, the discussion will appear unusual. This is because through the three talking heads we will be visualizing the creative journey.  One of the speakers (who was filmed first) will come across as a little more spontaneous. The second (even though she is reading from her own natural speech) will appear a little formal and mechanical. The third may appear a little too polished.

Below is a shot of filming:

2. Sam Christie: A Scribble of Intensities:  Intending Affect

Film maker Sam Christie has aired a live essay film (Christie reads as the film plays on screen) at a conference here called ‘A Scribble of Intensities: Intending Affect’.

The following has been taken from the abstract:

This paper may well be, at its core, about energies. Reassurances are given, however, that at no point will there be whale music.

When we create something to be presented to an audience, the capacity for that thing to elicit an affect(s) might reasonably bother us and if it doesn’t, perhaps it should.After all, it seems considerate to observe the affect of a piece of creative work, if that is possible, alongside the many other reasons why someone else should give time to it.

This paper will examine what we might mean when we talk of affect. With the help of an illustrative film backdrop, I will examine the possibility that there may be a way to look at affect as an energy that is closely intertwined with the intentionality of phenomenological perception.

Guided by, and drawing on, questions thrown up by my own research and my practical film project, I will seek to explain why this is particularly important when making work dealing with wider, universal issues – in my particular case climate change.