Figueirense short film about the story of a dancer entangled in the webs of perfection.
This project aims to convey several important messages at the same time. Some of them will certainly be clearer at first. Soul. A young woman, imprisoned in the reins of perfectionism that her father imposed on her. Imprisoned in rules, impositions and control, Alma lives without a soul. Concerned about the absence of failure, it is as if she forgot the passion of the art of dance, and all her movements were perfect, but mechanical. The degree of anxiety is so high that your brain starts playing tricks on you and your thoughts are often projected outwards. We decided to give these projections a physical form in order to place special emphasis on the power that our mental constructions have over our lives. Many times what we think becomes, in effect, what we believe in, and totally conditions our way of living. Consequently, we believe that this project has a strong psychological value, and shows the power that the mental sphere has in people's health.
We chose this “young woman” because we think that her reality is also the reality that many young people are currently confronted with. Young people deal with a constant pressure of illusory and hypothetical perfection. And the more we fight against them, with all our strength, the more it seems that they unite with us and against us, in an invincible force. The truth is that all of these processes are part of us. But only as a prop. Just as an illusion and a projection of what we think we should be. The perfect place is built by us, by the best we can give of us, for us and for us. That is why, in the end, we symbolize the DROUGHT of self-criticism, of insecurity, of suffocation, when Alma runs off to the beach and lets herself sink.
This story aims to show all young people their value, regardless of everything else and all the cruel “voices” they face in their daily lives. Our unconscious manages to be the cruelest of all, but there are many others. But these insecurities can be overcome. Because we are all perfect in our own way.
We don't all live in our perfect place. But we certainly all dream and fight for it. As best as we can. For the realization of this project we hope to count on the collaboration of professionals from the field of classical ballet and music, without ever, obviously, neglecting the representation skills of our actors. We intend to build our piano musical pieces (the project's own soundtrack) and ballet choreographies, so that the project can also cover these artistic branches, since, in our view, art is a web that interconnects various knowledge that come together in a common objective: to enrich those who live with it.
About the author
Ana Carolina Freitas Pascoal: Psychologist at Figueira da Foz, linked to the seventh art through script writing (film "Viriato" by Luís Albuquerque) and participation in films (film "Beyond Memory"). Also linked to writing, having published a novel "Forever is not a long time" and about to launch a collection of children's books. Ana Carolina, together with Adriana Mendes, are responsible for writing the short film's script, as well as its direction and direction.
Budget and due dates
The schedule for this project was as follows:
- On October 25, 2018, between 9:00 pm and midnight, scenes 5 and 6 were recorded with the characters Alma and Pai in two different scenarios (individual house / individual double wc)
- On February 9, 2019 between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm and between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm, scenes 1, 2, 4, 7, 8 (morning) and 9 (afternoon) were recorded with the characters Alma, Pai , Pedro, Maria, Ballet Teacher and Extra in two different scenarios (Associação Figueirense and Mirror of water Figueirense - Exterior)
- On February 10, 2019, between 6 pm and 7 pm, scene 22 was recorded with the characters Alma and Pai in a setting (individual house)
- On February 14, 2019, between 9 am and 12 pm, scene 9 was recorded with the characters Alma and Pedro on the exterior stage of the Water Mirror of Figueira da Foz.
- On March 3, 2019, between 2 pm and 6 pm, scenes 3, 20, 21, 10, 11 and 12 were recorded, with the characters Alma, Pedro, Maria and extras in four scenarios (private house, Escola Secundário EB 2 / 3 Dr. Joaquim de Carvalho, Praia, Figueira da Foz Train Station).
- On April 6, 2019, between 9 am and 1 pm, scenes 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19 were recorded with the characters Alma, Pai, Maria, Pedro and extras (ballerinas + juris) in 2 different scenarios ( Praia and Teatro da Trindade in Buarcos, Figueira da Foz).
- On June 20, 2019, between 3 pm and 5 pm, scenes 18, 11 and 12 were recorded with the characters Alma and pai in two different scenarios (private house and beach).
- June 2019 - March 2020 - Project assembly and editing phase.
With all this we try to obtain a financing of at least 2000 euros, to justify the following budget statement:
- Expenditure on actors:
- Alma (played by Bia Laschi), recorded a total of 23 hours, receiving 15 euros / hour, thus making a total expenditure of 345.00 euros;
- Father (played by João Damasceno), he recorded a total of 16 hours, receiving 8.5 euros / hour, thus making a total expenditure of 136.00 euros;
- Teacher (played by Alexandra Curado), she recorded a total of 6 hours, receiving 8.5 euros / hour, thus making a total expenditure of 51.00 euros. Alexandra also participated in the soundtrack for the Short Film, thus entering the costs of the technical team;
- Pedro (played by Pedro Martins), recorded a total of 17 hours, receiving 8.5 euros / hour, thus making a total expenditure of 144.50 euros;
- Maria (played by Francisca Freire), recorded a total of 14 hours, receiving 8.5 euros / hour, thus making a total expenditure of 119.00 euros.
- Spending on technical staff: Overall, for the entire team that accompanied us and helped with this project, a total expenditure of around 850.00 euros was required. The project was created entirely from scratch and as such implied the creation of a soundtrack (Luís de Sousa, Adriana Mendes, Carolina Pascoal, Alexandra Curado and Maria Callapez) that has temporary and economic expenses. It was also necessary the intervention of an artistic make-up professional (Gabriela Amado). Of course, other extremely important and qualified professionals were needed for the image and sound part (Adriana Mendes, Catarina Ramos, Gabriel Góis and Rafael Saraiva) who demanded a higher monetary investment.
- Props / Materials: It took about 250.00 euros to be able to buy some accessories such as a mirror, dance clothes, artistic make-up, batteries for sound equipment, external disc, memory cards, etc.
- As in almost all cinematographic projects there are always some unforeseen events, we also had them, namely with delays and postponements of recordings due to weather conditions, repetition of scenes and other expenses related to the project's logistics. About 100.00 euros were spent on these unforeseen events.
