REMEMBERING, LEARNING (A METHOD TO LEARN FILMMAKING)

I believe that memory is a very personal process. I hold a deep belief that everyone remembers things in a different way. In this manner, by studying memory and using it as a tool for film education, I’m trying to find a path to explore subjective questions through subjective answers. It is, for me, an entrance to the core of the individual that I believe can lead to the development of truly personal languages and forms of expression. Yet, only throughout continuous work in classrooms and in educational institutions can these notions be put to the test.

 

I believe it is no accident that the concept of “memory” can hardly be defined; its conceptualization changes rather drastically depending on the author, discipline, and epoch. If extensive research were performed to investigate the concept, it’s likely that very few commonalities would be found amongst the myriad definitions available. Even within the same field, definitions tend to vary and point in different directions.

 

The notes and discoveries about memory scattered through these pages come from the practice of filmmaking. Although I´m not the first one to explore the concept of memory through filmmaking, my approach is completely personal. Thus, the discoveries can only be understood through the lens of an individual quest. Commonalities with other fields of study may be found in this research. Yet, if some ideas resonate with other texts, it may very well be pure coincidence.

 Since the beginning of this text, I have refused to form a clear definition of memory. Lots of questions are proposed and some answers are given through experiments. Yet, I don’t presume to hold a clear truth. This work and its exploration of memory are meant to be read as an unfinished process – in other words, an open research. 

What I have been describing throughout all these small experiments is, in a way, a method to learn filmmaking. Straying from traditional methodologies, my process involved the discovery of the craft of filmmaking using a conceptual quest as a starting point. Exploring the concept of “memory”, I articulated a series of questions meant to be solved not through theoretical or bibliographical research but by artistic practice. The techniques used to answer these conceptual enquiries, in turn, led to the development of a craftsmanship. In other words, my subjective understanding of memory led to a subjective method for the production of images.

 

All of this research can be read as a test case for the development of audiovisual languages that come from a subjective and personal inquiry. What my method proposes, in a way, is taking a core concept and exploring it through technique in order to develop and learn a craft.

Filmmaking education tends to be an extremely orthodox field. Film students are many times led to the craft of filmmaking through a series of “rules” and “methods” that most of the time come from industrial practices. These industrial practices serve as an introduction for the young filmmaker to future jobs in the industry. Although these motivations clearly have a reason to be, they should never be applied as a universal method to approach and learn the craft.

 

Filmmaking, throughout this research, is defined as a method to build meaning through the selection and arrangement of an individual´s experiences. The scenes that I have shot clearly reveal a very subjective interest and express a very particular point of view. In that way, the method led to a particular way of approaching the craft. In this sense, I propose that this work could be used as an example of a different path to learning filmmaking, a path that strays away from textbooks, “rules”, and imitations of the “great masters”. I propose to use filmmaking as a technique to explore subjective questions and, throughout the experimentation process, to produce an individual technique.