Bita Razavi

crew

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Sun, 01 May 2011 23:43:19 +0000

Performers:

The Judge

The - Bride Bita Razavi

The - Groom Jaakko Karhunen

The - Witness Salla Tykkä

The - Witness Kari Yli-Annala

The Orator - Seppo Salminen

Camera #1 - Hans Barck

Camera #2 - Antti Jääskeläinen

Soundman - Samy Kramer

Light techinician - Antti Janhunen

Still Camera - Hanne Granberg

Catering - Erika Erre

Assistant - Elina Tuhkanen

The Audience:

Sezkin Boynik

Diego Bruno

Hanna Bruno

Minna L. Henriksson

Juho Jouhtimäki

Irmeli Kokko

Nuutti Koskinen

Mira Käkönen

Minna Långström

Lauri

Svetlana Maraš

Risto Puurunen

Rosa

Leyla Nasibova

Ilkka Pitkänen

Heta Saari

Johanna Sipilä

Tapio Syrén

Erkki Tolonen

Pia Torvinen

Östen

thanks to:

Ray Langenbach

rehearsal

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:36:36 +0000

We had the rehearsal yesterday. It was easier than what I expected. Elina Tuhkanen was acting as the judge and reading the text that the judge is going to read so that we can practice according to real timing of the event. I decided to have this rehearsal because the ceremony will happen only once and it's not repeatable. So we had to plan everything carefully specially the movement of the cameras. We are using to cameras; one fix on the tripod for wide shots and the other of which is handheld will take close-ups and some shots from the audience. It's important that two camera operators coordinate smoothly and that they appear in each other's image as least as possible.

Photo by Hanne Granberg

the space

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:23:58 +0000

It was the most difficult week. We got the space on 16th and had to build everything in a few days. And of course people who left the space didn't clean it at all so the first couple of days we has to clean paint from the walls and the floor. Now the set is almost ready although easter and the closed stores made a disaster out of every single thing we had to do. Tomorrow we will have a rehearsal and test shooting to see how the image looks like in that space.

The storyboard and the cinematographer

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:19:55 +0000

Tomorrow we are going to meet the whole crew together. It's the first time we are meeting the cinematographer and I'm so worried about it. It has been so difficult to arrange a meeting with him and that gives me a bad feeling that other thing also might be difficult with him.

Arttu Merimaa made a simple but practical storyboard for the video based on the text that judge will read.

Next week is going to be really busy for us. The sculpture studio which is the place I will show the work in the final show should be turned into a marriage room of maistraatti in a few days. We will start shooting on Saturday.

meeting the judge at last

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:06:33 +0000

At last we have a judge who accepted to do the work. We met her today in Käräjäoikeus. She was really nice and she explained everything about the ceremony in details. I think she is going to have an active role in the work. She has even written an extra text that she will read before the main text. Probably it's going to be about love or something like that!

istanbul break

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:26:41 +0000

I had a one-week break from the work which i needed so much. Everything is in an acceptable stage now. I'm so happy with our sound designer and light technician. They are both so enthusiastic and good in their work. Ilkka Pitkänen-whom I got to know more in Istanbul- will help me with editing and technical problems. Although I love editing and I've been always editing my works myself, I decided to get help this time because we have only 12 days for post production of the video and at the same time we have to prepare the other things for the final exhibition. We got another little grant for the work which made us relieved! Now i'm less worried about costs of the work and the limitations we have because of that.

Istanbul is nicer than what I've always imagined and also colder! It's the city of satellite dishes!!

candle holders

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:33:25 +0000

This hangover doesn't let me focus on the text i have to write. How many times can one promise not to do this to herself anymore. But it wasn't all bad this time. Drunken talks with Diego ended up with the idea of using Festivo candle holders of iittala in the marriage room. I still have to think about it.

From my iittala archive for "An Observation On Inhabitants of a Utopia"

invitation card

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:00:27 +0000

Making the invitation card is becoming fun. We have dozen of romantic photos of white roses now!!

and this is the last test

We still have so much to change in the card but this last one is getting closer. the brown wizened parts of the flowers are more visible. We decided to repeat the boring grey color of the dress in the invitation card and maybe in the marriage room also so that's why that grey curtain is in the background.

thedress

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:47:03 +0000

We fixed the date and time of the marriage at last; 26^th of April at 5pm. Today they called from Helsingin käräjäoikeus and gave us the information of the woman who will come to our marriage. Now we have to think of a better way to explain the work to the woman.
We had decided that my dress for the marriage day shouldn’t be white or black, neither a strong color. It should be an office looking boring dress, maybe in grey. We had been suggested to check a store called ril’s, so we went there today. Most of the clothes were office looking and boring but we couldn’t find any grey one that can convince us at the same time. It’s so weird to try to ignore your own taste and to choose a dress for the work and not for yourself although you have to wear it yourself at the end.

the judge

bita.razavi@kuva.fi (Bita Razavi) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:57:19 +0000

Jaakko called the maistraatti today again. They were supposed to call us on Monday to say who is the person who will come to our marriage ceremony but they didn't. Anyhow, the man who was supposed to call us back told Jaaako that our case is problematic and they don't have anyone that can come to our wedding on 26th of April. When Jaakko asked what is problematic about our case he took his words back and said that they just don't have anyone who can work on that day. He suggested us to call Helsingin käräjäoikeus. He said they have young people there that their career is not shaped yet and they might accept to do this work. haha, I didn't know that showing my marriage ceremony in a film can be dangerous for someone's career.