Here are some details about my short, 1st Session, that was originally shot and edited as a feature from which I later selected one segment and re-edited down to its current fifteen minute running time that has had much more success on the festival circuit.
1ST SESSION
15 Minutes – Digital Video
The Story Behind The Film
After recovering from my five and a half years making my first feature film, The Golden Ram, I decided to go the complete opposite way and see if I could make a feature spending the least amount of time, money and energy, and came up with the idea for 1st Session.
Shot in three days with a three person crew using three digital cameras running simultaneously, 1st Session only had two locations, my living room and Central Park, and the entire film was completely improvised.
My idea was to experiment with how comfortable I could make the actors and non-actors in order for them to tell a story in the most natural and truthful way without having to learn lines. There were no rehearsals (in fact, two of the actors I had never even met before), and no second takes. This was to be an experience as close to real life as possible.
The psychotherapist (not an easy job...)
Photo from: 1st Session
The final cut ran at 84 minutes and was entertaining but it had one main problem: due to its improvisational quality it didn't have a real structure and because of this, I felt it lacked focus. The couple of festivals I had submitted to didn't give any results so I left it alone for some time. Then at a later date, a fourth editor came on board and we did a re-edit cutting everything down to a fifteen minute version.
I gave them absolute freedom as to what they wished to say and do even if nothing at all (methinks there is some madness to this method...) All I asked the actors to do was to completely accept as true that they were at the first session between themselves and a psychotherapist. After the smoke cleared I wound up with twenty-five hours of footage which required three editors and six months of post-production.
The patient (a really nice guy or something else?...)
Photo from: 1st Session
The truth comes out... Photo from: 1st Session
In this shorter version, Peter Christian Hall, the actor playing the patient, had to absolutely believe why he came to see a psychotherapist (on the advice on his lawyer who probably just wanted to get rid of him…) and why he needed this therapist to write him a letter of certification – of sanity. All I had to do (as the actor playing the therapist) was to try to find out what this man's problem was - a man who could simply be just a little bit eccentric or…
1st Session cast and crew:
Peter Christian Hall Patient
Alain G. Cloarec Psychotherapist
Crew:
Director of Photography: Jon Thorn
Camera Operators: Jon Thorn, Alan Smith, Pascal Raymond, Eli Flugelman
Edited by: Christophe Durand
Additional Editors: Karen A. Rossi, Keith Sanborn & Christian Villa
Patient's story conceived by Peter Christian Hall
Improvised by Peter Christian Hall and Alain G. Cloarec
Produced and Directed by Alain G. Cloarec
1st Session was accepted at these festivals:
Riverside International Film Festival, California 2012
Improvised Film Festival, Canberra, Australia, 2012 - Jurors’ Commendation
Vegas Cine Fest, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2012
Carmel Art & Film Festival, California, 2012
Tiny Lights Short Film Festival, New York City, 2012
Golden Egg Film Festival, New York City, 2013
Yonkers Film Festival, Yonkers, NY, 2013
Davis Film Festival, California, 2014
VOB Film Festival in Brewster, NY, 2014
Canada International Film Festival, Vancouver, 2015 - Award of Excellence in Filmmaking
The Iron Pointe Film Festival, 2015
The Shorts Up Film Festival, London, 2015
The Frames Film Festival, Navi Mumbai, India, 2016
The TEXAS Ultimate Shorts Film Festival, 2016
1st Session on YouTube