Developing collective films with drone in two hours!
First edition of “the beautiful May” festival
As part of the first “the beautiful May” festival (I saw a documentary) in Lorient, I led a one-day workshop on how to make films with drone, for beginners.
Functioning of the production workshop
The principle of the workshop is as follows:
- Discussion on the question of the robot, the automated gaze and its human impacts.
- Brief shooting with a drone, which I pilot. We immediately experience an impressive and unique experience.
- Then we look at the images, which are always very surprising. And we imagine together an idea for a film, which can be made in a short time.
- The working principle is that each person, successively, pilots the drone and proposes to the others a “choreography”, a “game”. And then we look at these images, what they “give”, what they evoke. Then another person takes control of the drone and gives directions to the actors to shoot their images. Thus the filming, with these regular and collective moments of glance, is both improvised and coherent.
- Then we do, as a group, a quick editing of the plans (I manipulate the editing software, which everyone sees on the screen). As we had watched the rushes as we went along, the editing was done quickly.
- Finally, we watch the film, which is silent. And then we prepare a soundtrack, which we all record live, in one go, during the screening of the film. Sound effects, songs, lyrics....
Within two hours a film exists, which we watch together. Then that same evening, as part of the festival, a very rewarding public screening took place. And the film is published on a dedicated web page, the link to which is sent by SMS to the participants, who can therefore share their film that same evening in their own network.
Cultural and pedagogical interest
What is most important here is not so much the film itself but rather the experience lived, the path followed by each person. The drone is a fascinating and disturbing object, and having control of it in May brings strong emotions, which produce images. These images are an ontological, unique trace of what happened, which is exceptional.
It is a creative approach that I propose, based on concrete actions and a look at what these images really are. We are in reality, in gesture, in sharing, in collaboration. And thanks to a very rigorous supervision in terms of time management, the film, this concrete trace of the experience, really exists.
Photographs by Jean-Baptiste Gibenol.
