Arias With A Twist: The DocuFantasy R: Bobby Sheehan Land: USA 2009 Drehformat: DVCPRO HD Format: Hdcam, Farbe Länge: 88 Minuten Sprache: Englisch mehr Informationen

Joey Arias ist eine New Yorker Institution. Bis zu dessen Tod 1983 hat er mit dem legendären Musiker Klaus Nomi zusammengelebt und -gearbeitet. Doch lange schon ist er aus dessen Schatten herausgetreten und als Performance-Künstler, Cabaret Singer und Drag Artist berühmt geworden.
Der New Yorker Marionettenspieler Basil Twist ist auf seinem Gebiet nicht weniger populär. Seitdem er seine lebensgroßen Geschöpfe in seiner Interpretation von Hector Berlioz’ „Symphonie fantastique“ sogar unter Wasser und von großen Orchestern begleitet agieren ließ, gilt er weltweit als der bedeutendste Vertreter seiner Kunst.
„Arias with a Twist“ – so heißt ein Programm, das die beiden gemeinsam entwickelt haben: eine glitzernde Bühnenfantasie, die seit dem Sommer 2008 Zuschauer nicht nur in New York, sondern auch an der Westküste fasziniert.Der Film über das gemeinsame Projekt von Arias und Twist erzählt dessen Entstehungsprozess. [aus dem Berlinale-Programm]

How would you describe the aesthetics of your film?
A singular story with complimentary sub-stories that all share unique artistic sensibilities. The challenge and the pleasure was to mix the surreal fantasy of the subject’s art with the real life
sensibilities of struggling artists. I think the look of the film reflects both of these often diametrically opposed alternative realities.

Why did you choose to shoot on a digital format (was it solely for financial reasons, or did aesthetics play a role)?
I’d be lying if I said shooting digitally added to the aesthetics of the film. The advantages are purely financial and that extends to all aspects of filming – there’s a certain freedom about shooting with no
regard to budget. If I were shooting film I would have been much more calculating with my interviews. There are several concerns about this admissions: I think one must be careful not to become complacent while interviewing a subject; in other words, meandering interviews tend to confuse the purpose of the interview – if you have a large number of interviews (we had close to 50) and each interviews is its own mini-series you add a TON of wasted time to the editorial process which I believe can cloud the focus of a film or at least make it harder to find the real rhythm of the story. In terms of the visual layers, I did not waste time shooting more than what I needed. In fact, I WISH I had the budget to shoot film because the visual layers of the film were so extraordinary and bringing these images into a state-of-the art color correction platform like the Baselight would have yielded even more dramatic results. I love and am very proud of the images we created but I know far too well how much more creative latitude there is in a film negative over any digital platform. When I do shoot film I am always reminded how fantastic the stocks have become in terms of color space and pristine grain structure.

Which format exactly did you choose (MiniDV, DVCAM, HDV, HD...), and why?
Since we produce a lot of documentaries I had to choose a platform to invest in and I chose the Panasonic HD platform because I like the color spacing over the Sony HD platform. Also, it seems to look softer and less electronic than the super sharp Sony images.

What was special about shooting digital (e.g. compared to 35mm, was it your first time with dv or are you used to it ..)?
The only real advantage creatively is that the smaller HD cameras can be placed just about anywhere because they are so small and the flip screens allow for much greater flexibility for handheld work over looking through an eyepiece. I’ve shot thousands of hours of HD footage and I can honestly say it’s fun to be able to swing those smaller cameras around for great impromptu angles. My back and neck especially appreciate them because my crazy brain is always looking to crawl around or climb things for unexpected camera positions.

What was your shoot-edit ratio?
That’s a great question but because I’m guilty of not caring because we did shoot digitally and not on film I have no idea so I only have a terrible answer.

One good word about DV / HDV (or two):
Financial freedom

One bad word about DV / HDV (or two):
Not film