An Interview with “Florescence” Filmmaker Mya Beauvais
When it comes to the form of a film, what excites you? Where do ideas such as the splitting of the screen into four quadrants come from?
When it comes to the form of a film I find excitement in the visuals that I capture. I typically try to follow a specific shot list but usually go completely off script and start shooting images and scenes that I think would be fun to manipulate in post. The original idea of a split screen in general came from a film called Timecode. I really enjoyed the split screen effect and how the timeline worked in that film so I played with a similar idea in my work. With this film I really wanted to deconstruct the perception of what it means to feminine and I felt that with that inclusion of a split screen it allowed me to explore that deconstruction in a visual sense.
As a micro budget filmmaker, how do you go about embracing your limitations?
I feel that being a micro budget filmmaker really enhances my creativity. Although sometimes it's frustrating to not get something I exactly pictured in my head, I enjoy the challenges it presents and sometimes it creates an entirely new picture that I hadn't envisioned myself. It's sort of thrilling sometimes not knowing exactly how something will turn out because of the limitations.
You rely entirely on ambience and simple sound effects in this film. What about that do you prefer to using music and how did you come to that decision for this project?
For this piece I really wanted a major focus on the visuals of the film. I liked that it had sort of a more quiet lull to it. I find that sometimes music can drive the narrative of a video or film too much.
How do you envision a project as formally complex as this while shooting it and how much of it is left up to experimentation in the edit?
Honestly I am really bad with following the plan when it comes to my own projects. This was actually a senior thesis project for my Studio Art BFA at USF and there were many days we had to write our plans and thoughts while creating a piece to exhibit. So even though I had a "plan" I pretty much just started shooting whatever felt right to try. I think for me the best part of making the film was editing. When I edit it very much feels like a stream of consciousness and I just start doing things and piecing images together. I have a bad case of "starting anxiety" so I find that just forcing myself to put clips to a timeline helps relieve some of that pressure and actually start constructing something. I just give full trust to my subconscious and it's fun trying to decipher what comes out in the end.
What do you hope to do next? (Any themes you want to continue exploring, genres you want to work in, mediums you want to experiment with? etc...)
I want to keep exploring the use of split screen and the use of mixed media techniques. Besides filmmaking I enjoy the art of printmaking, specifically this method called cyanotype. I hope to combine that technique with video editing to create an animated short, inspired by an artist named Edd Carr who has done this kind of method before.