After watching "Mysterious Object at Noon" (The first feature film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) again a few months ago it influenced me to go out with my small HDV camera and experiment. If you have not seen the film in a nut shell Apichatpong Weerasethakul went around the rural areas of Thailand asking people he encountered to continue a made up story about a disabled boy and his teacher. The film was obviously more of an experiment than a gimmicky concept for Weerasethakul and resulted in an effective exploration of the human imagination. As you watch the people he encounters add to the story you soon realise the overall story is no longer that important, it's that bit of themselves the storytellers add to it that stays with you.
The film is no longer a story about a boy and his teacher but the personalities and essence of those telling it.
The technique for me was a great way to have people tell you about themselves, without them really telling you anything.
Early this year I started asking people I know and people I encountered to add to a continuous story I started. It's very rough and will end up being a video blog I'm sure, but it has been so far a very interesting a rewarding experience.
I'm now going to "borrow" Apichatpong Weerasethakuls technique for a short film I'm making about type 1 diabetes. I've been type 1 diabetic now for nearly three years and for me this technique would be a perfect way to capture the essence of peoples experiences with the disease.
The Black Country Cinema team and I are going to have several people from a clinic continue a story basing each of their inputs on their experience with type 1 diabetes.
hopefully the overall story will be of little importance and the essence of the people we ask will stay with the viewers.
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