Behind the Scenes of Night Soliloquy (#1)
A collaboration with Agatha Yim and Maria Zhdanovich.
Performance by Maria Zhdanovich on flute and Aidan Boase on piano.
Featuring Kent Kennan’s Night Soliloquy.
Director / Cinematographer / Editor – Agatha Yim
Audio Engineer - Nathan Ellul
Produced by Polyphonic Pictures
Special thanks to Liam Pilgrim (and his arm)
Presented by Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)
Night Soliloquy is the second of my ANAM video collaborations, this time with the supremely talented flautist Maria Zhdavonich. You can learn more about my ANAM collaborations and check out the first one I did with pianist Ronan Apcar here.
The Concept
From our early conversations, I learned that Maria chose this piece by Kent Kennan because she’d always felt very connected with it. She loved how self-contained it was and she was interested to see how it could be expanded beyond what it was musically through the medium of film.
This piece also evoked for her a strong memory of waking up in the middle of the night on one of the hottest days of summer in South Australia. It was during the time of the bushfires in 2020/21. The air was the same temperature as her skin, and she remembered being in a dreamy daze, unsure of whether she was actually awake. There was an uneasy stillness that felt chaotic at the same time; and with the bushfires happening nearby, she felt unnerved, that beneath this beautiful stillness lurked something more sinister that was beyond one’s control. Her recounting of this memory was very visceral, and it was something that I frequently referred back to during concept development.
Plotting out the film
Between the characteristics of the composition and Maria’s visceral connection with the piece, it felt right that our music video should explore the allure of chaos via a journey through a dreamscape – where the line between reality and dreams is blurred.
The music by Kennan served as a blueprint to the emotional points and story arc of the music video. Maria and I went through the score together and highlighted notable phrases and motifs, and assigned visual descriptions to them. Many of these descriptions became the inspiration for the visuals. For example, we associated the string of notes that rise and fall preceding the climax with someone traversing flights of never-ending Escher stairs. Just as the music reaches the climax then falls into a heap, it felt right to convey Maria’s character falling down ‘the rabbit hole’. The lilting quality in the flute cadenza sounded like a marionette trying to find their footing and having an out of body experience.
When the original theme returns after the climax, we wanted to show that Maria’s character had transformed in some way. That she’d finally given in to the chaos. To visually get this across we incorporated more slow motion and reversed shots to make this section of the piece feel more euphoric, free, unsettling, and like she’s suspended in time.
Location Hunting
Location Scout at Surrey Hills Home
There were three locations that we needed to source – a home, an outdoor garden/bush area, and a staircase. We fell in love with one of the old staircases at Abbotsford Convent during a location scout, so that was one location sorted. As for the home, I found a place in Surrey Hills that ticked all our boxes. This house had architectural history and character that matched the staircase at Abbotsford Convent, it had an interesting layout and interior such as a rooftop hatch, stained glass window, a large dining area, a great mirror in the bathroom; and most of all it had a bedroom with large windows that we could light from the outside. The bedroom scene was important to get right, as it would set the tone for the music video.
For the outdoor nature exteriors, I came across a luxury accommodation called Eden Yarra Valley that again, ticked all of our boxes (and more!). Suzanne and Lisa from the venue were incredibly accommodating, and even helped us find obscure spots on their property that we could use for our film.
I had a few restless nights trying to figure out how were were going to convincingly film ‘the fall’. I considered using a trampoline, but I had no idea where we were going to find one. Jump to the day of our location scout at Eden Yarra Valley, and guess what we saw on their lawn?! #maybeitstimetobuyalotteryticket
Stay tuned for the next post where I go through the production side of things for Night Soliloquy.
We made a day of our location scout, stopping by a few op-shops for props and costumes.
Location Scout at Eden Yarra Valley