Sculpture, more than a passion: Portrait of Zoé

First Year Directing Production Post-production
Made during my first year of BUT MMI, this project holds a special place in my journey: it was my very first video project where I took on every role, from production to post-production through directing. This formative exercise was meant to capture the essence of an artist's creative process, blending my early technical learnings with genuine editorial sensitivity during the interview.

The Concept: Immersion in the Creative Process

Our documentary focuses on Zoé, a 33-year-old clinical psychologist for whom visual arts, especially sculpture, are a vital outlet. The narrative challenge wasn't to deliver a simple technical tutorial, but to understand the psychological, liberating dimension of art in her daily life: the need to leave a trace of her anxieties and inner questioning in the real world. The directing intent was to visually translate the "bubble" the artist enters when she creates. We wanted to render on screen this trance-like state where time suspends and basic needs fade in favour of absolute concentration on the material.

"There is something deeply joyful about watching the work bloom on its own under our hands or under the brush, as if we weren't even at its origin."

AESTHETIC INTENT: Capturing Material and Intimacy

The main challenge of the shoot was filming as close to the action as possible without breaking the intimacy required by the artist's work. The mise en scène had to feel organic and sensorial. We favoured very tight inserts on the contact between hands and clay, or on brush strokes, so the viewer could feel the texture of the materials and the precision of the gesture.

Technical Setup and Post-Production

To enhance this hushed studio atmosphere, the lighting had to be handled with care to model the volumes of the sculptures without flattening their reliefs — a real challenge for a first production. In post, the editing rhythm was designed to follow the temporality of the creation itself. The audio mix, weaving Zoé's introspective voice-over with the diegetic sounds of the studio, reinforced this feeling of total immersion.

Outcomes and Skills Developed

Making this first portrait documentary was a major springboard in my training. It significantly refined my approach to audiovisual storytelling and made me face the realities of fieldwork. This project shows my ability to build trust with a contributor to draw out an authentic testimony, as well as my capacity to lead a video project from initial idea to final export.