Participate in UNDO CoLAB Project REFRAME!

We are seeking collaborators from a network of filmmakers across the globe to create original audio/visual material to be used in a film being produced by UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art in Brooklyn, New York, USA and directed and edited by Bronte Stahl, Elijah Stevens, and Amir Shams – fellows in the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio.

In this time of global pause, we have been given an opportunity to reflect on a wide range of dynamics – from the domestic to the systemic. We have a chance to reframe our thinking and reimagine where we go from here.

*REFRAME is a short documentary that explores our visions for the world from within the confines of our current physical constraints. We are interested in how others are using this moment to fantasize, speculate, hypothesize, or reconsider. How are you imagining what things will look like for each of us when this is over? What will you take with you from this moment, when the storm passes?

With these questions in mind, we are asking each collaborator to create three shots which can either have a particular coherence and sequentiality OR each exist as independent moments. If you feel you need 1-2 additional shots to show what you would like to, we invite you to do so, but certainly do not insist. The following three shots should be conceived under the theme of REFRAME and with the above framework in mind(*):

An interior shot of an action – a domestic activity, a conversation, a movement
An interior shot that incorporates the window (either in frame or not)
An exterior shot taken from your window – of an action, or detail

While we – Bronte, Elijah and Amir – serve as the directors and editors, we seek to enable the vision of each collaborator and will inform our edit based on the creative path proposed by the footage – whether segmented, intercut or another form.

Our project is anchored in:

An attitude not to document this moment per se but rather identify which unique dynamics and possibilities exist today that we can harness to transcend the pandemic subject and speak about something universal.
Existing relationships with a diversely talented group of filmmakers from dozens of countries who are spending most of their time at home.
The potential of a creative request of these filmmakers that strikes a balance between being sufficiently concrete so as to feel creatively manageable for the filmmaker, yet open enough to allow creative freedom.

Technical specifications

IMAGE: Film in whichever digital format you have available. We encourage you to use a camera (DSLR, mirrorless, DV cam, camcorder, etc.), as opposed to a smartphone and shot with the use of a tripod or other means of creating a stabilized image. Though, if you only have a smartphone and no tripod, we encourage you to participate as well!

SOUND: With an external recorder (using a lavalier or shotgun where appropriate and available), or sound recording app on a smartphone, please record:
Accompanying sound for each shot (ambient and/or localized)
Additional ambient outside your window, asynchronous with exterior shot
Room tone for the interior shot

Naming protocol

Name the raw files as follows:

NAME_COUNTRY_SHOT NUMBER
or
NAME_COUNTRY_AUDIO DESCRIPTION (eg SHOT 1, AMBIENT, ROOM TONE)

Delivery

Open the link: https://elijahs.wetransfer.com/ and use the form to transfer up to 20 GB of your raw footage and audio files.