The product of this project will be a documentary somewhat singed by the heat of the subjects it explores. Our ostensible subject is John Zorn's violin concerto, Contes de Fˇes, and our video will, more than anything, document how we approached the fire of the composition. The project documents the time and effort leading up to the performance of the concerto by the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra (with Maja as soloist) at the opening night of the World Music Days 2003 as well as the opening of this orchestra's season in September. On the path to the collaborative interpretation of this concerto for this occasion, we will encounter John Zorn and some of the sources of his inspiration for the piece÷most significantly the works and worlds of Joseph Cornell, but also Antonin Artaud, Aleister Crowley, the myths around the violin (they're all true, by the way), black magic and metaphysics, the experience of being inside and outside a box (whether it's a violin body or a concert hall) and, of course, Cornell's fˇes, including Shirley MacLaine and Lauren Bacall.

The format of the documentary will be a digital video, roughly the length and speed of a Merrie Melodies cartoon (ca. 7 minutes): it will be fast-moving, full of content, and ideally pretty funny. It will have two sets of structural parameters determining its shape. The first will be modeling the shape of its visual and sonic content on Zorn's composition (three "movements," "cinematic" gestures, etc.); the second will be an ongoing process of sound becoming formally inappropriate for image and spinning the narrative out of control (see below). We'll be creating footage of Douglas as the "host" of the documentary, Maja practicing and performing the concerto, streets and spaces of Downtown New York and Flushing, boxes both Cornell- and otherwise, sites of worship, the inside of the violin, Prentis, interviews with experts· We'll also include some "found" footage from movies and documentaries (yes, we'll ask for permission), and there might be a surprising apparition or two popping up.

Here's a first draft of a scenario:

SPEAKING PARTS
MC: the dreamy artiste
DW: the slightly-too-earnest journalist
Zorn (on the phone)
plus several interview subjects

OVERALL STRUCTURE:
It's filmed like a documentary, and even when a couple of absurd images start popping up near the end, everybody has the serene demeanor of a documentary subject--except for, sometimes, DW. The sound is synched to the image throughout, but increasingly inappropriate for it over time.

THE PLOT: DW is "hosting" a "report" on "CdF," which MC is rehearsing in preparation for a performance. He asks her what it's about; she calls Zorn to find out. Zorn's answer is somewhat cryptic; he reveals, however, that the composition is inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell, and one specific box (of the same name) in particular. The search for a "Contes de Fˇes" box begins.

But who is Cornell, and what does "CdF" mean in the context of his creative output? DW investigates and interviews a couple of experts, and we find out some stuff about the piece (and MC's approach to performing it), Cornell, his work with and relationship to music (and film!), and his obsessions, especially his "f¸es." MC and DW try to figure out where the mysterious box might be located; in the process, we restage a couple of Cornell-related images, including shots of his favorite movie stars. It turns out, in the end, that the box is MC's violin, which has a big post, a bunch of fairies, and possibly MC herself inside it. Then see notes on the final two shots, below.

BUT THAT'S NOT THE ONLY THING GOING ON: The sound is designed to have an increasingly abstract or "incorrect" relationship to its synched image. (Ideally, this will be a formal interrogation of the idea of a "correct" relationship between sound and image; the plan is that it will be deadpan serious at first and build to being laugh-out-loud funny by the end.) Some sound/image relationships change in a linear way: all of MC's dialogue, for instance, is cross-faded over the length of the film with a recording of MC more or less matching her voice's pitches and tone-lengths on the violin. Others change in a discrete way:

STAGE 1:
"Normal." Voices match talking heads, room-tone is normal, sound effects are as one might expect them to be, instruments produce the right sound.
STAGE 2:
Voices are processed to evoke an inappropriate location and sound transferring medium; room-tone is off a bit; sound effects are slightly wrong (e.g. window-roll-down image with window-roll-up sound); when MC practices alone, one can faintly hear the orchestra.
STAGE 3:
Voices of people whose heads we can see on screen are overdubbed with "wrong" line readings--inappropriate emphasis or emotion; room- tone is gently but distinctly off (e.g. an interior scene has wind and cars vaguely audible); sound effects are more wrong (e.g. gentle door closing has door-slam sound); when MC practices alone, one can distinctly hear the orchestra.
STAGE 4:
Voices are doctored so that words appear in slightly wrong order÷ one can still make sense of the meaning, though; room-tone is badly off; sound effects are right-category-but-wrong-thing (phone ringing is a busy-signal tone, for instance); when MC practices we hear pizz instead of bowing and vice versa.
STAGE 5:
A few words in each spoken sentence have their phonemes scrambled or are reversed; people are trying to shout down the room-tone, which is "CdF" at medium volume; sound effects are cartoonish exaggerations of what they should be; when MC practices one can hear her singing her parts (instead of the violin).
STAGE 6:
Spoken dialogue is completely scrambled (and DW is noticing this and getting more and more perturbed); room-tone is now overwhelming the dialogue anyway; sound effects are human-beat-box or violin approximations of what they should be; when MC practices one can hear a ukulele or French horn or something. (Captions may be explaining some of the factual stuff we need to get across at this point.)
STAGE 7:
Spoken dialogue is replaced with non-verbal sound effects; room- tone is totally kerblooey (marching bands, electronic bleeping); sound effects are uncorrelated (hand-clap goes aaaOOOOga or triggers the soundtrack of a MacLaine movie, etc.); when MC practices one can hear honky-tonk piano playing something else.

NEXT-TO-LAST SHOT DW is visibly frustrated beyond belief, trying to make sense of anything at all, trying to talk as a steady stream of non-verbal sound effects comes out of his mouth, shaking his fists at the heavens.

LAST SHOT The previous shot plays on MC's video monitor in the DMC, where she's editing the piece we've been watching in FinalCut Pro. She turns toward the camera and laughs.

HERE'S WHAT WE NEED: Both of us are scheduled to learn Final Cut Pro with somebody at the media center, and we're both familiar with some sound editing software (ProTools, SoundEdit Pro). Neither of us have ever made a film before, though, and we're going to need a lot of advice on what equipment, lighting, mics, etc. will be appropriate for us to use in different environments. We'll be hitting up some friends for assistance with lighting, recording, choreography, editing (the piece will be very sound-editing-intensive), etc., but we could certainly use all the help we can get, and we'll definitely need a hand getting access to the appropriate equipment.

Our project will still be a work-in-progress at the end of the semester, since some of what will appear in the final version isn't happening until the fall. We'll have a shorter rough cut ready for people to see (possibly with provisional fillers in it). We'd like to ask for advice on how to make what we've got presentable and effective, even as it projects what the final stage will look and sound like.