CONCEPTUALISATION
The process of creating INLUSTRATIO began with the initial pro-forma I submitted as one of COMM2890’s assessment pieces. It went, copied directly from the pro-forma, as follows:
INLUSTRATIO
A CHARACTER STUDY OF MADNESS, ART, AND VIOLENCE
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A character study of a painter. They used to be extraordinary, but have lost their spark, and are slowly succumbing to, what is essentially, madness. They’re a perfectionist, who can never finish a piece, and half-completed canvases are stacking up. Every time they attempt to paint something it never quite satisfies them, and they’re longing for inspiration. One day they are painting a portrait, but the model is not exactly the way they would like them to be, imperfect. They go into a craze, and fatally wound the model. After a while, they begin painting, with the massacre as their subject; it becomes their best painting to date. The majority of the film takes place in a single space, the art studio, which becomes increasingly more bizarre and grotesque.
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Writing the pitch, I was primarily relying on my love for films such as Black Swan or Whiplash – the metaphorical portrait of the artist, and the thought process behind creation, has always been a massive area of fascination for me. However, as an amateur painter myself, I decided to follow the direction where metaphor merges with fact, creating a portrait in both senses of the word. As well as the films mentioned above, a huge inspiration was the Polish game Layers of Fear, which similarly focuses on a painter descending into madness.
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Despite not expressing a disinterest in directing, it was my very good friend Patryk ZiÄ™ba who was chosen to be the director of the piece, whilst I became the editor. I was, however, absolutely satisfied in that decision – having worked with him extensively over year one, I had full trust in his abilities and vision (always ready to help and offer guidance, of course). And so began the process of creative brainstorming and pre-production.