Working with the Bell tower Footage - Moscow

 

Following on about The Bell Tower footage. At the moment I am colour grading the footage and gradually getting an edited copy which can be integrated or used in the film Eisenstein and the Russian Avant-garde I wrote a post about this small monument in Moscow, an old bell tower

This is the belfry of the lost Old Believers Church. This building in the XIX-early XX centuries was in the possession of the merchants Karasev, known for their attention to the fate of the Old Believers in Moscow.  I will probably use this footage in the Ivan the Terrible section of the film and perhaps in other sections of the films if it is appropriate. Very much a phase of slogging through the material for the whole film, colour grading, repairing and computer enhancing some of the graphics. Not surprisingly I have  learnt a great deal about Eisenstein and the milieu in which he worked and which I will write about later especially in relation to the Russian avant-garde which is the main focus of the film and which will become part of the film series.The Russian Avant-garde Revolution or Renaissance . It will be the seventh film in the series.

There has been a definite shift in the way I am working and editing. With this film, Instead of trying to work through things logically I am letting the work take me along with it and seeing where it goes. This is having much more positive results. I have established a basic framework , a base outline or structure so to speak which can now be embellished and developed and this is working well. I have stopped worrying too much about the logical narrative and just going where the images and ideas take me. I can then reconnect this new material back to the main body of the film not necessarily in the order I expected. However the main thing is the material is growing and developing in a way which will enrich the film in its entirety. This is an  unexpected move for me and a new approach one could say to my film making. I am beginning to break out of some of the rigid patterns which I had set for myself earlier. This I think will feed into other film projects some of which have stalled or for the time being put to one side.