Process and Practice: Life and Times - Episode 8

Life and Times - Episode 8 was originally planned as a theatrical performance with sung text for the Vienna Burgtheater.  However, when a financial scandal there meant the project was cancelled, we decided to take whatever we had (the music was already mostly finished) -- and set it out of doors.  We had a residency scheduled at Bard College, where we were originally to make Episode 7.  Instead, we finished filming for Episode 7 early, and just kept going, using the naturally stunning landscape of upstate New York as a backdrop, and making two movies instead of one, using the time and opportunity given to us and the equipment we already had.

 

Our first test with steadicam, made in Berlin during a residency at the Hebbel Theater in 2013.  We had been watching the films of    and were inspired to try making this project with sung text in long extended takes.  This proved to be a lot harder than we initially imagined, and so we scrapped this idea for Episode 7, and instead saved it until we got a little more experience.  This idea eventually was used for Episode 8.

Our first filmed test using some of the text from Episode 7.  The inspiration for this test came from watching the work of filmmakers Jean Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet on Operai, contadini.  This was just an early impulse we had that we would like to work out in nature and remove ourselves and our work from the architectural space of the theater, the first germ of an idea that eventually became Episode 8.