The essence of being

Animals can smell fear, and although we don't often make the most of this sense maybe we could learn to hone it...

After all, there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread in the morning, toasty, crunchy, comforting; or the wonderfully spicy smell air when a thunderstorm is approaching (a personal favourite); the way a home-cooked meal spreads through the house around dinner time or the way the garden smells after a proper afternoon shower...

Oh and we can't forget the less than pleasant stench of a dark alley piled with rubbish and pissed on walls...

Then there are those scents that remain with you. You may have not made an effort to remember; but the years they will remind you of particular individuals or moments -time and time again! For instance my friend Matthias wears (or used to) a scent that is probably fairly popular, one that has made me turn my head around many times whilst in London.

Today another of those scents cross the path of my nose and memories of another of the men in my life came rushing to my mind... Not one that had expected to remember, but then again we don't always choose what we want to remember (or to forget for that matter).

...For some reason it does not work the same with girls...

My sense of smell is a far cry from that of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, but then again I don't think I'd want to be deprived of my own scent or become obsessed with finding one that would grant me my 'essence'...

Could we learn smell the essence of a person?

And I am certainly not talking just about body odour.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where my sense of smell trumped sense of sight... How would you go about first impressions? Can you smell selfishness? Rage? Hatred? Kindness? Love?

We can't always smell "pretty" despite our best efforts to mask any unpleasantness... It would certainly be harder to disguise contempt. Unless you perhaps became extremely good at controlling the excretion of chemicals by your brain and glands... Perfumery would certainly have to step up it's game to mask what we have grown accustomed to keep from others.

A part of me wonders if it would be a better, more honest world or whether we'd still find a way to hide; create prejudices and discriminate against each other... I would like to believe the former but I the cynic in me refuses that bouquet of possibilities...
 
One thing is certain, I will try to close my eyes more often (though not whilst walking -that would just be asking for trouble); maybe I can still teach myself to perceive the world with a whole different brand new sense of smell. It would make for an even more dimensional world beyond x, y, z and t (space-time)...

Tonight however, I will try to wash the woody fragrance of cedar off my nose... Histoire de chasser de ma memoire ces souvenirs pas encore assez lointains...

Lights! Camera rolling! Speed!

Almost everybody has at some point or another rejoiced in the excitement of hearing (or saying) those words... I am no film buff, and my appreciation of cinematography is at best basic. Yet I can say that the above words are very deceiving in and of themselves as they hide beautiful, exciting albeit technical and complex series of tasks. Long days, sore muscles and exhaustion are also part of the mix!

I can say that the height of my month of November was participating in Yann's and Anders' short film project.

For a film that is expected to be between 12-15 minutes in length the amount of work that went into it was formidable; and the people who partook in the project friendly, passionate and talented!

Notwithstanding the invested in the story creation, to the casting and organisation of the production. The actual filming was an quite a hectic project. One in which everybody needs to know the part he or she is playing. And no matter how insignificant a task can appear to be, it never is!

After all the all the actors have been cast and crew hired; after the costumes have been sorted and the preferred filming spots chosen -and permissions for filming obtained; after the order in which the scenes will be shot has been determined; (and I am probably missing out on chunks of work), only then can the "production" start.

The Condition (2010) film set. Photo courtesy of Yann Caloghiris.

Then there's the creative dialogue between the director and the director of photography before each shot/scene is filmed-which at times may appear interminable.

There's getting the right lighting; making sure the image is in frame and focus; that the actors get in the right mood to get in character and tell the story... Oh and then there's the "sound guy", whom from what I hear may at times be taken for granted, but who is responsible for catching not just the dialogues but all the sounds without which the setting would fail to feel real.

The whole process is art (technique) and creativity. But above all it's a fantastic example of what can be accomplished when individuals work together towards a common objective.

Now we just have to wait for post-production to come to a conclusion - Yann has to put it all together and allow us to relive the magic that went on behind the scenes...

And 'Action'!