Hello darlings

Here you have a post where I am boasting…WHICH NEVER HAPPENS.  It’s because I have received more and more questions regarding my filming skills.  And this thrills me!  Thank you!  So here’s my tips:

1/ Do what pleases you – ACTION

About the marketing, I studied commercial courses at the university.  For color, I landed a certificate in one of the most renowned French art school and for the video, which is however my main source of income, I haven’t follow any academic studies.

I learned on the spot by practicing.  Filming and editing.  My desire to film and tell stories on video.  So the important part is not to be validated by a diploma or your entourage.  It’s just to do it.

Go GO GoooOOoOooooo

2/ Do what pleases you – CAMERA

I need a natural, luminous image and a handy, light camera.  Because I only shoot live on the spot.

Many asked me what equipment do I use.  I use Panasonic camera GH4 with two Leica lenses (more or less close up in the frame.)

I do not use the Canon 5D because I find the image “too beautiful,” too smooth, too sophisticated.  It’s great in low light, it’s really beautiful.  But generally speaking I find the image to be taking me away from the realness and I love the beauty of the realness.

And also that it’s so heavy, I wouldn’t be able to film for a long time with it (which sometimes I need to do.)  Mine is almost twice as light.

3/ Do what pleases you – SHOOT

I assume that it’s good to have some kind of film culture; I don’t have any (except what I find in “every frame a painting”)  What I know is that I like certain camera shots, I like a certain light, I like a certain balance of tones.  I am a sensitive person HAHAHAHA!

Today I am working on my long feature and therefore the storytelling has become important BUT up until now many of them were simple.  What counts is the emotion.  The communicated emotion and the lived emotion. Therefore I don’t shoot significant images:  to tell that a person went from the kitchen to the living room, you can shoot while traveling from one room to the other, add images of the boiling tea pot then the fireplace etc.  All this is significant.  I don’t do that.  Sometimes it gets boring during editing stage and yes it is limiting and I can never deliver a storyboard to a client, BUT that’s the way it is.  The more I progress, the more my writing desires are changing and I’ll certainly move toward more sophistication.  BUT to begin:  shoot whenever you feel like it, whatever you feel like filming (a specific composition, the wind, the texture of neck, what really makes YOU happy.)

Oh yes, and I don’t do it because “it works” or because it looks pretty, BUT because the moment moves me and I try to transpose it into a shot.  Do you follow me?

In a certain way I have a very ”impressionistic” approach, organic and meditative.

4/ Do what pleases you – UNTIL SATISFIED

They asked me if I spend my life filming.  It happened.  I found that everything was beautiful, that I “had to” capture it.  And then I got over it.  There’s a time when you understand that beauty doesn’t stop.  That if you missed a shot, another one will present itself.  That it’s not important not to have memories from that moment or another.

I satisfied myself, and therefore I shoot whenever I want… Yes you get it, whenever it pleases me.

Still, note that sometimes when you are in the “non-satisfied“ phase, it can create conflict with your entourage.  It’s a little strange and at times really irritating to have to live with someone who shoots everything.

5/ Do what pleases you – EDIT

My brother Lâm was telling me that there is nothing more painstaking than video, indeed once you are done filming you have yet to do anything (as oppose to photography for example).  The editing stage is the time when you find yourself in the front of a mountain of pieces of textiles.  You must sift, throw the rejects, unearth the beautiful threads and most important figure out if you are going to design a jacket or a pant.  It is in my opinion the most artistic part.  I heard Chabrol say that it was the time when you were in the matter (cinematographically for him)

That’s about all of it, you know it all.  I mean I believe so, don’t hesitate to ask me more questions!  I kind of like answering you all!

Lots of kisses