#creativediary

I don’t live a wild life.I mean, I could, I suppose. But I’m more of a “latte and low-stakes gossip” kind of person than a festival girl. Even when I tried to be, I never really was. Dancing in public? Love the idea, hate the execution.A few weeks ago, a 61-year-old man approached me in the supermarket. He told me, with great enthusiasm, that he still goes to music festivals. When I admitted I…

Some people wake up, blink a few times, and let the day come to them. I am not one of those people.Before I even roll out of bed, a quiet yet slightly urgent committee in my brain has already held a meeting. There are bullet points. Subtasks. A loose itinerary. All invisible, of course, I don’t actually write it down. But it’s there.08:00: Pet cats. Feed cats. Apologize for automatic feeder…

There’s something quietly luxurious about a weekend without plans.Not an empty weekend — just one with soft space. Unbooked hours. A wide morning that doesn’t demand anything from you except socks and a decision on your coffee. Some people love a fully stacked weekend. And truly — if it makes you happy, bless your itinerary. But when I scroll through those ‘April in 9 squares’ highlight reels, I…

(But Might Write an Entire Blog Post About)There are people who thrive at parties. Who love the buzz, the hugs, the effortlessly cheerful small talk, and the “You have to meet my friend from yoga”-type introductions. I am not one of those people. Unless, of course, I feel entirely at home with the people in the room — people who don’t blink when I say something weird, who don’t weaponize…

Anything new you want to start in your life, demands even more energy. And, believe me, it’ll to demands even more. The difference later is that you know a little bit more where and when you need to put your energy harder.

The moment I started writing the project, we had just the intention of keeping us busy and artistic creative during a catastrophic moment in the humankind. Artists, definitely and specially the performative/dramatic ones, suffered a lot from all the social restrictions. Actors were incredibly impacted by all this prison. Actors need a stage, no exceptions.

Without this possibility, we had to move ourselves to a “new” stage. The online stage. But our idea, at first, wasn’t to create a play to be performed on camera. We thought that we could create a series of videos where everyone in the group might perform. As I was studying cinematographic genres, I was really interested in the film diversity.

So, these were the three first drafts of plots that we might perform:

COMEDY- 8 actors who want to make a desktop movie and have no idea of how to do it. They wrote their own scripts – monologues – with one premiss: they have to be based on each other impressions. When they start the rehearsals, they feel themselves exposed through their scripts and conflicts installs.

DRAMA– A jury has to decide the destiny of two children in the middle of a couple divorce. One group supports the father and the other one the mother. As the discussions gets warmer and warmer, they lost the civility and start arguing not more about the case, but about each other’spolitical and social judgements.

THRILLER\MYSTERY - An indoor online funeral in the middle of the pandemia. 8 people, between parents and friends, share their stories about the person who is just dead. Throughout the relates, they start suspect that the person can be not the same. Can it be a strange?

I can’t remember exactly why did we like more of the third one. The third one looked like easier to share the roles between everyone. The moment they choose this one, I started working deeper on a plot. So, one more time, the moment I’m writing this diary (tired, lack of sleep, like many adults between 25 and 60), I can’t remember how I ended up on this project, that follows (update: 23/07):

A good man is dead

START: A COFFIN… 8 PEOPLE RELATED TO THE DEAD… AN ONLINE FUNERAL… A STRANGE ULTIMATE STREAMING SERVICE OFFERED BY A VIDEO PRODUCTIONS COMPANY.

Synopsis

WinstonLumiére (George Orwels’ 1984)is gone. Nobody knows the reason, but most people think is related to the coronavirus outbreak. He was only 36 and afamous Englishphotographer who travelled around the world taking pictures of normal and famous people.

He was in love by the human nature and its variety, unpredictability and idiosyncrasies. With only 31, he won his first photography award, and this became a sequence of other ones in a row, year after year.

Besides, Winston was a journalist devoted to talk to strangers, create unusual friendships and trip into different and contrasting social levels. He went into the poorest one to the high stakes of society, in a charming, lovely and charismatic way. This exciting and free way of living allowed him to meet loads of people.

On the other side, it had its price. On this funeral, 8 people were invited to pay a tribute to him on a live recording. However, they have no idea who is behind of this invitation and which company is this.

The background story of each character is a story itself, in a particular way. I wanted to explore and use different personal, cultural and intellectual references in each one’s development and personality. Thereafter, as the project has been growing, obviously, I had to change some points on each one’s biographies, but, essentially, they remain the same so far.

The reason from most characters are Irish is that most of the cast met themselves in Dublin and are currently living there, though, afterwards, this territoriality was an unnecessary point.

Plotline:

Eight people are invited to pay a tribute in an online funeral to Winston, a young famous photographer, when they suspect this is a plan to get their personal informations.

Hiswife just discovered she istwo month pregnant. Simone Capitu (de Beauvoir, French, Capitu, the Brazilian Machado de Assis’ most famous character)met Winston when he was travelling to France.

They met during a contest in the middle of the Paris streets. He took pictures of her and then they started to date. He felt in love for her strong support to the feminist ideas, her passion for a cause, for human rights and against poverty.

She loved his adventure and wild way of living, his sensibility and always empathetic perception. She had no time to say about the pregnancy,regarding is unsure who the child father actually is.

She wonder if the father is Dorian (Gray), an Irish bohemian buskering singer that she met during a terrible performance of him at the Dublin’s Grafton Street. Dorian’sdream is to be a professional singer and make a living onthis. To get some money, he works calling people to eat in the restaurant where he works.

Dorian wants to be the father of Simone’s baby as a strategy to get public notoriety, but he is confused about the ethical problematic about that. At the end, he will regret of his pursuit and start studying on an arts school in order to improve his artistic skills, when finally he’ll figure out his path to the fame. (this subtext is still being developed – update: 23/07)

One of this mates was Jane(Baby Jane), a frustrated musical actress who feels miserable to be forced to have a meal in a popular restaurant. She was portrayed by Winston and feel sorry about his dead, evenshe complains about his preference for other famous actress that avoids to mention hername.

Jane is in love for Oscar (Wilde), who was portrayed by Winston as well. He is a young transgender bisexual male model, who is just starting his career at the fashion business. He uses his personal charm and sex appeal with the objective to go further into this industry, and has no reserve in talking openly about what he got used to refer as his “flexible” ethics.

Oscar is divided between the love of Jane and the love of Wendy (Torrance), a weirdo hotel director who promised him to get in touch with the most celebrated models agency in the world. Wendy uses a strange technology that allows him to watch inside all his guests room, in order to satisfy his voyeur desires and get personal details to theultra-secret company where he works to.

This corporation sells algorithms to other companies in order to manipulate populations consume and emotional trends and was Wendy who offered this “online funeral service” looking to get private informations.

One of Jack’s guest was Laura (Mulvey), a provocative Brazilian ex-politician, that moved to Europe after a disastrous career and started to get evolved withexcused business. She is hidden on the hotel, as she met him before his death, running from a dangerous mafia that was using her to get favours from its targets with lobby, extortions and similar crimes.

She is tired of having to "use her body" to manipulate men and reach what the mafia wants, but wants to use public notoriety to her self benefit. As the hotel is a phantasmagoric place, she got possessed by a spirit that is trying to dissuade Wendy from her connection to Winston’s businesses, but actually desires her sexually. Wendy will be murdered on the last episode and crime will be expose 225Flix and Cookies and Donuts into an ending crisis.

In the middle of those impossible connections, there is Benjamin (Private Benjamin), simply the sister of Wiston, who has no idea what all those people are doing on this online funeral and why she accepted the strange invitation to do it, despite she knows her brother’s notoriety.

She is a school secretary and an auspicious scriptwriter with two children that dream to be Youtubers and live the adventures as his dead uncle used to live. She uses her epic imagination to distract them with adventures while complains about her husband absence and incapacity to be a father.

And last, but not least, we have HIM, a negationist, who clams to have dangerous informations about Winston. Slasher films addicted, he is a reactionary fanatic that wants to prove that Earth is flat, the History is wrong, and everyone is just manipulated by external and fantastic forces. He lives with his parents, is addicted to the Powerpuff Girls and uses this nickname because of the homonymous villain.

Is there and end to this “story”? The correct answer is: we don’t know. There are short stories directly or indirectly related to the same guy. We have an ending with all the characters singing together and showing the process of making a film this way. (about this, we changed, as the story, as any other, needs an end; so, even the end might not be the “final” end, is an end “for a while”_update: 23/07)

As you can see, the plot is mixed with different influences that don’t have a clear or logical connection. As I mentioned, I wanted to use the academic knowledge in a practical way. I wanted to “transform” the discussions and classes in an entertainment product. And that’s the result so far. References keep growing and changing and I'll explain better each one in the next chapters.

With this plot, at least, we had a story. Not “perfect”, but we had a starting point. Amateur or not, we could, again, TO ACT.