Getting Physical
Our HQ turned into a madhouse, literally, with people walking on the roof, some people climbing up the walls, other people digging holes through other walls. I don’t think the three floors house has seen so much action on it in 30 years. And that’s only the exterior of the house.
Inside the house there’s just as much action, Jac moving lots of furniture, much of that bookshelves, so, before moving a bookshelf he had to move everything in it… all by himself, yes.
He moved all those books, VHS tapes, DVDs, magazines, MINIdvs… from one room to another, to clear up for the painting of walls in most of the rooms. And while all that maddening activity goes on, Jac is still advancing with the work for the films to be made, but not with the concentration he wants to put in his tasks because, although his mind is in the projects full time, his body is moving around a lot. Like this video by the late Olivia.
Last Wednesday Jac had Mila, Simonne and Dani join him at HQ to rehearse a couple of scenes from 69 Année Érotique to put Abel, the aspiring new DP, to the test.
Simonne was the first to go. She has two characters in the movie, one of them is the singer in an all women band and the other is a much younger woman, a young hippie from the 60’s. Literally, a hippie from the 60’s. Although the clothes are still being made for that role, she dressed the part, put on a wig and she acted bits of her first scene where she sings “… and now I wanna be your dog” the famous The Stooges song from 1969.
While she did her part, two cameras were pointed at her: Jac’s Canon OES 4K Mirrorless and Abel’s Blackmagic Cinema 6k Pro. Jac was shooting in 2K, while Abel was going full 6K raw. Maybe I’m getting too technical. But you can see the difference in the picture below. You should know that there’s little correction on the big 6K while the 2K image inside the frame of the 6K is as it was recorded.
The different size in the pictures is the difference in resolution. The 6k is huge. If that’s becomes the camera we will use for Seditiosa, the image will be amazing, with a panoramic view worthy of Star Wars… Just imagine that, a spectacular and panoramic view of the three crucified women!
There are comments, too early at this stage, about what the film will show. The basic story line is as I said before, the basic story of Christ’s last days, with some changes in the paradigm, most importantly, the gender of the protagonist.
I mentioned before how the deal was described to the female protagonists and I quote myself:
How would you feel being scourged, viciously, then taken to be exposed all bloody and naked to a bunch of people, then made to pick up your patibulum and forced to walk, carrying that heavy wood on your shoulders, with people jeering at you, maybe throwing things at you, and a torturer or two flogging you to make you walk faster and then, after your reach your destination, to be nailed to the patibulum… to then begin your torture …. with an emphasis on… In front of lots of people.
I bring that up because there appears to be some concern about the amount of blood, the details on how it will all happen and so on. That’s not something that can be discussed in detail at this point in the stage of the development of the film. But I can respond to some comments like to the following:
(as a start, for goodness sake, please do not have the victims hair and tons of fake blood cover their frontal assets. I defy anybody to be able to locate Amy’s breast through all that),
wanttoknowmore
Well. Let’s see. Amy’s breasts in Justine after she receives 36 lashes, out of a total of 50, during her public flogging.
Maybe our inquiring friend is referring to the end of the film when all three beautiful women, Justine, Omphale and Rosalie, end up crucified.
In all three cases their breasts shine prominently under the hot sun.
In the case of Seditiosa, I believe all three condemned will receive the traditionally prescribed 39 lashes that, according to some records, are one short of the number of lashings that might kill a person. But, I think that so exact number has to do with the numerology tradition in ancient cultures. 40 days in the desert, 40 days of fasting, 40 days of temptations, even the Noachian Flood lasted for 40 days… so… 40 seems to be a favorite number for a divinity. Thus, it has to be 39, they don’t deserve a divine number of lashes, do they?
Another argument could be that if they don’t receive the 40 lashes of death, they could be whipped again later.
In any case, the three Seditiosi will not get as many lashes as Amy and Mila received in Maleficarum, or as Amy received in many of her films where, regardless of how many lashes, her breasts are still visible. Same for Dani, who is lashed so much that maybe her entire body should be an open floodgate of blood, but it is not.
I viewed Monxa Mala. PLEASE – get Jac to stop covering the gals with that fake blood, at least on their front. You ruin the beauty of the ladies with that stuff. The intensity of the whiping can be had on their backs.
wanttoknowmore
In Monxa Mala Simonne is whipped, and whipped, and whipped, and burned with a hot iron and whipped some more, and then stabbed, and then whipped again, and then nailed up, and then a crown of thorns is pressed on her head… so she bleeds… and bleeds …. a lot. But you can still see her breasts.
The solution would be light flooging, no thorns that cause people to bleed. No bleeding.
I cut a finger not long ago, a tiny cut, with a shred of glass, not a big deal, but there was enough blood to write my name with it on my forehead. I stopped the bleeding right away but If I hadn’t, if I had let it flow down, nicely, and let it drip on some other part of my body, like my breast, I’m sure it would’ve cover a lot of it. Really. When I first washed the wound, the sink had more bloody streaks than Dani’s chest on any of her movies.
Another issue is that in all those movies made by a two people cast and crew, Jac and Dani, for instance, all the work is done by mostly ONE person, Jac. He does the camera, the lighting, the sound, the acting, the directing, the make-up effects, and so on. Dani… or Amy… or Camille… do all the proper suffering times 100.
In the Big Production Value movies Jac hires other crew members, like a DP, Sound person, Gaffers,… make up people, assistants, and so on. In Seditiosa there will be at least two make-up people, not only to make the beautiful ladies look even prettier, but to cover the tattoos, work the beating and whipping effects on their bodies and so on.
I hope you don’t mind but I have written my opinion below about how the crucifixion scenes from the Female Christ project should perhaps look. I am hoping for a female version of the 1977 Jesus of Nazareth film crucifixion. I say have it where the arms are nailed to the horizontal beam and she is raised to a scaffolding then feet nailed just like in that film. And if hands are nailed instead of wrists then ensure that the upper arms are roped as additional support or else it is unrealistic as it wouldn’t support the body if it were real. Otherwise wrists would need to be nailed or both hands and wrists is an option. Robes need to be off early. I don’t mind a loincloth but just please ensure we get a bare-breasted female Christ and female thieves. Yes please crown of thorns and whipping but a whipping both front and back is needed or else we don’t see any whip marks when the victims are on the cross if the whip marks are on the back only. Also for this project, outside is better than inside. Also it is important to ensure she talks from her cross if she is Jesus. And what name would you give her as a female Jesus name? Jessica is too modern for example. Thank you for reading my views and opinions about this project. I look forward to it and wish you every success. Good luck!!
Crucified Life
That’s quite a list of suggestions, most of them are similar to what others are suggesting, most importantly, they don’t differ much from what the early backers of this project have in mind for the film. They are truly committed to make this film happen with hard cash, very hard cash, and they had more than just suggestions, they had a detailed roadmap, almost a script, full of ideas that are under constant discussion and with enough frequency and a healthy exchange of ideas.
All the technical and creative aspects of the film are under discussion, the possible scaffold or no scaffold, the whipping marks, where the nails go, the wrists? the hands? Will the three protagonists wear loincloths all the way to the end? Crown of thorns anybody? And, of course the names of the characters. Jac already decided many of the names in the story.
I’ll give you one name. Judith. Judith is one of the two sisters who end up nailed to a cross next to our Female Christ. Judith is the person that makes it all happen the way it happens. Her actions and words cause their downfall. She’s is, in a way, like Judas and like the ‘bad thief’, a mixture of the two in some ways, but she doesn’t betray her Mistress, but she is, in many ways, just as guilty… and yet…
It might help with fund raising if a high level script describing the various scenes is provided.
wanttoknowmore
As with any big production movie, everything is possible if the money is there, so we want to encourage people to join us in this.
The principal backers, so far, have outlined their preferences for what the films should include. As the script progresses, Jac will be discussing it with the hard core supporters who will be able to make suggestions; however, as Spike Lee said when he released Malcom X, “I don’t make films by committee“. He expressed those thoughts because many people from different organizations were being critical about the film because it didn’t show this or it didn’t show that… and so on and so forth.
Ultimately a film is the result of the vision the director has, whether there were a million discussions or it just came up to his head one night. What is totally sure is that the original story, the roadmap, the outline… or whatever one wants to call it, which came from the backers, is the basis for the script.
What is plain and clear is that, early in the story, the two sisters get arrested, soon after our Female Christ is also arrested and taken to face the authorities. All three of them suffer the scourge. One of them gets the crown of thorns, all three of them are pushed, punished and practically naked, before the hostile crowds, all three are condemned to death on the cross, all three painfully walk up to the skull shaped hill (calvary) to be crucified carrying their patibulums.
My 2 cents on the FJ Crux scene –
You don’t need scaffolding, 3 posts with ladders will work fine.
If the women will be naked, may i suggest that they carry the crossbeam with a loincoth on. Once up on their crosses, the loin cloth is removed as a final humiliation, Humiliation is a core tenant of the crux process.
Some camera shots from the cross level looking out at the crowd, and the FJ and her companions looking at and speaking with each other.
wanttoknowmore
It would be lovely if those 2 cents were more like 5 bucks or 10 bucks, or 30 bucks by becoming an intricate part of the production process. With many people joining us we would get closer and closer to make the film we all want to see.
Some people already put in their 10 or 30 bucks on the film.
Just as a clarifying note. It is difficult to put a ladder against a post, unless the post has something to hold the ladder, like a scaffold. The ladder might rest on the crossbeam once it is attached to the post; however, how do you attach the crossbeam to the post without the ladder? It kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Jac had a step platform ladder to attach Dani’s cross beam to the post. So… maybe he’ll devise some kind of movable platform… or build a platform behind the posts for the job to be done properly… who knows.
Thank you Margot for yet another great update!!!
You work in a very professional way with this and other projects, so I feel convinced that you will make the ‘Female Christ’ movie a huge success!
One indicator that you work professionally is that you take time to comment feedback, also ‘negative’ feedback. As I am sure you already know, feedback is one key factor on ‘the road towards success’. Thank’s for doing that!However, I think you Margot summarise the two key factors in order to be able to make a great film very accurately:
1) Sufficient funding. The more, the better end result!
2) Sufficient time…….and I would like to add the factors commitment and luck…….
xso
The commitment is there, from our part, of course, the sufficient time for the production will be set when everything is in place, specially the script. The completed script goes through a nice breakdown and with that we can have the proper scheduling. But we cannot have a proper scheduling without having ALL the elements we need in place… like costumes, locations, cast, crew… etc… and ALL of it needs sufficient funding!
Our IndieGoGo campaign to raise $20,000 will begin soon, we are working in the details. Nonetheless, by joining our Patreon page you can help with a bit of cash that can move things ahead and you can definitely put your two cents, or ten bucks, or 30 bucks to anything or everything in the story.
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