Krystal driftwood trees Dec 21 7525sm.jpg

Writer

Plethu/Weave: Week Three

Passing the Baton

Plethu/Weave is a poetry and dance cross-artform collaboration.

Croeso (Welcome) to week three of my Plethu creation period!

This week feels like ‘passing the baton’ - to use Alex’s words. The poem passes from Alex’s hands and into mine to use as the framework for the filming and movement process.

Because of lockdown restrictions Alex hasn’t been able to be involved in the filming, but has offered such a rich piece of poetry to shape the finished work.

The Recce . . .

The day before filming I’m going to do reconnaissance of the filming location in order to plan ahead for a smoother and more efficient work day.

I’m in a family bubble with Gundija Zandersona, a performer, choreographer, and educator; she was happy to film the work for me and I was grateful to know that because of her own artistic practice she would understand my desires for the film.

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Together, we walked through a local area to ensure the space had all we wanted for this film and to give us even more inspiration about what the final outcome could be.

The backdrop of our walk through nature was flowing streams, moss-covered trees (and I love moss), and leafy vines weaving their way through the entire reserve. The two of us took photos of things that intrigued and inspired us and filmed sections to try a few things out for the next day.

After I had a clear image of the filming location, Alex’s finished poem, and my own imaginings of this hopeful tribute to nature I began writing the first draft of a script.

The Script. . .

I’m not actually sure if I enjoy script writing. At this point, I feel all the structuring hinders my natural flow of writing (and reading). However, I must say that I really enjoyed writing this script. It felt like the film was being played out before my eyes and my hands were in a race with my mind to get the words onto the page.

At every point in the process it’s so important that I’m open to large and small changes;

Refinement is essential to the creation process.

My weakness is that I always over-write. In some ways it’s my process – I write everything out and then edit it down after. However, it happens sometimes that I don’t reduce the writing either at all or enough.

So, my script for a 1.5minute film is literally five pages long!

In my defence, there needed to be three separate descriptions for each part – border one (left hand side), central space, and border two (right hand side) – and I also gave reasonably detailed descriptions of the type of movement I would be doing in each section.

For me, the most valuable thing I can gain from any commission is the opportunity to learn something about my process and practice and to develop further as an artist. The very act of writing and sharing this creation process has contributed to my development already.

Next, the edit.

Krystal Lowe