Steph Grant

Innocence of None

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Originally Steph had the vibrant idea of making a documentary uncovering the innocence of elderly people and showing their true colours, airing their opinions on the world they live in, the younger generation and share humorous and heartbreaking tales of their younger life. Her motivations behind the project through talking to her grandparents made her wonder about the fact that old people were younger too, except a very long time ago, she thought “I wonder what crazy stories elderly people would have about the good old days and whether that would challenge the social discourse around how elderly people are innocent and naive”. The overall project for Steph would aim to commemorate the lives of those who have had an incredible set of lives on this earth, inform many about their generation and about the past and also shed some light on their unique stories. However despite this really terrific idea Steph unfortunately couldn’t find enough subjects to be in the documentary.

Steph has reconfigured her idea towards two of her fascinating friends who are very spiritual. She discussed in her pitch of this new documentary proposal that she wanted to contrast the lives of two of her friends who went to the same school together but never knew each other but were united through some rather peculiar circumstances. They both tried out spiritual healing and being connected to their chakras. What they found was a whole new lease of live, being connected with greater realms and feeling incredible feeling towards their very own spirits. Steph is not as spiritually in synced as they are however she is greatly intrigued by their spiritual processes, how it works, how they came to be connected, what they feel, what they see, what their beliefs are, who else believes in it and how can others feel the same way? Steph wants to explore these questions through following the everyday lives of these true extraordinary people.

What I suggested to Steph was because she was vague on what to film, she should spending some time watching and absorbing their rituals, how they meditate, how they channel their energies by paying close attention to their body language and their facial expressions. A day in a life should determine their routines, what seems to take priority in their lives and gives you a greater sense on what to ask them and also what visuals to film.

Visually Steph is unsure of her visual style, I would recommend using some experimental shots in this documentary. As spirituality is what the individual feels and perceives, through Stephs line of questioning she can determine what the participants spiritual world is like and best represent it visually. As a voiceover explains their spiritual world as the subject in focus drifts off into their meditation, I suggested using some filters on the lens and filming places where the participants would escape in meditation. Even simplified more, Steph could film places that would be significant in the spiritual realm, this would have to be determined through research.

I recommended Steph to check out how to create a kaleidoscope effect through her camera. As silly as it sounds there is a very simple way to create a kaleidoscope effect, that is through eating a box of Ferrero Rocher. Yes it sounds utterly crazy but by removing the plastic lid from the box and put it in front of the lens and move it around. It is the cheapest and easiest way I know to create the kaleidoscope effect, it looks genuine and if Steph uses some cellophane she can change the colour of the picture, even mixing two or more layers of cellophane can create some amazing looking colours and effects. It’ll give the visual look of the film a real abstract experimental feel plus it’ll be perfect for a meditation trance sequence.

Finally, Steph was contemplating whether she herself was a participant in the documentary, being visible on screen not only asking the questions but actually learning from the subjects by participating in their meditation demonstrations. Her featuring in the documentary can have a positive effect as it shows that even the filmmaker can be active in the spiritual rituals but it all depends on whether Steph wants her participation in the film to be a distracting focus away from the intriguing subjects or whether it’ll be more effective to show them using their skills.

Overall despite not being able to run ahead with her original idea about the spritely elderly subjects, she has a really great idea in development about her two spiritual friends which through some consideration in experimentation can really be both engaging and very intriguing. A rare insight into these fascinating people’s lives makes me interested about what Steph can produce.

Michael Serpell