Bodyfilmmaking is a bodily technique that increases the comfort, efficiency, safety and creativity of the operator and the camera operator – professional or beginner – on shoulder or handheld shoots.
Bodyfilmmaking allows you to learn or rediscover the basics of cinematographic language through a fun and participatory method while stimulating productivity, exchange and interpersonal contacts at the heart of the practice.
“Developed at the very beginning of synchronous cinema by renowned filmmakers such as Jean Rouch and Michel Brault, the technique is inspired by yoga, mime and dance and allows the operator to reproduce all the movements of film grammar in a shoulder or handheld shooting situation without any additional accessories.”
The purpose of bodyfilmmaking is to harmonize the body with the work of the camera operator and to involve it in the narrative creativity of the shot. It allows to take perfect fixed shots and long sequence shots with ease and without any other accessories than the camera.
The learning is based on the mastery of relaxation techniques, postures and specific body movements that allow you to be one with the camera and the filmed scene.
The training emphasizes experience as a starting point for learning. It alternates practical exercises, moments of viewing, sharing ideas and analysis in order to connect the method to the expression of a personal point of view.
Through the constant exchange of roles within the group and the direct application of what you have learned in the form of filmed theatre or micro-shooting in reality, you develop an instinctive ability to interact and stage reality on the spot.
It was at the very beginning of cinema, and even more so with the appearance of light 16mm cameras, that the self-reflexive and emancipatory virtues of the shared camera were tested. One of the milestones of participatory video is the experience of the eminent filmmaker and ethnologist Jean Rouch, a researcher at the CNRS, who, with the teenagers of the Abidjan high school in the early 1960s, created an experience of shared and improvised cinema. It was to give rise to the film “The Human Pyramid”, but above all to the reunion and overcoming of the racial problems specific to the time in Côte d’Ivoire.
“Cinema, through this experience, through this fiction of reality, has made it possible to create another reality in which these young people have been able to explore and express fundamental issues. The experience of sharing cinema made it possible in a few weeks to reconcile these young people and to do what years of life side by side in high school had not succeeded.”
The purpose of participatory video is to stimulate and explore the expression of oneself or a group in a dynamic of co-creation and co-production of a collective result that aims at personal or social change.
Participatory video is a great tool that reveals individuals and groups to themselves. Through constant exchange of roles with audiovisual mastery, they develop their self-confidence and strengthen their ability to express and share their points of view, regardless of their age, gender, situation or level of education.
Participatory video is a valuable method for providing information for decision-making. It is useful for the evaluation of development programmes, social science research, or any objective that requires a detailed knowledge of a particular issue, group or territory.
The process of participatory video is carried out in successive participatory workshops, structured around loops of various phases that combine fun, cooperation and feedback to the community through community filming, screenings, reflection, action and debates that lead to a virtuous dynamic that promotes change.
Participatory video uses the video tool to explore issues that concern individuals or groups. By giving them the opportunity to film their own points of view and witness social or personal changes, it amplifies and resonates externally the own voices and representations of participants and communities.