ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXLive web chat with Director Sophie Fiennes Thursday October 3rd 11.30am
11 years, 10 months ago - Stephanie Walton
Director Sophie Fiennes will be joining us [right here] to answer questions from the SP community about her latest film 'A Perverts Guide to Ideology' and her other work.
You can watch the trailer online now for her second collaboration with the Slovenian psychoanalytic thinker, Slavoj Žižek or catch it in Picturehouse cinemas for another bit.ly/15ytZQ7
Post your questions below and Sophie will be online to answer them on Thursday morning from 11.30am.
Make sure you're online to join in on the day!
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11 years, 10 months ago - Howard Silver
Q: You've been around dancers a lot and shot a really beautiful dance documentary, Show and Tell. Do you have a philosophy or particular approach to filming staged works?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Howard Silver SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
I approach every film according to the subject and what I can explore through it, but for me there is something essential about performance as event. Performance seems to re-occur in my films, which surprises me. The stage work of VSPRS was quite a difficult and confronting piece, I felt that it through film it would be possible to go further into the themes in the work and take some risks. I was aware of trying to reconstruct the stage space, to bring the viewer inside that space, not at a frontal distance. There was an intimacy that was important to capture.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Ben Blaine
How do you see your role in your collaboration with Zizek? Are the pair of you working together to construct the best platform for your shared view point or is his thesis part of your separate project as director? Probably not, but if so, how would you define that project? A portrait of him? A portrait of cinema?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Ben Blaine SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
For me its constructing a framework of ideas that are important and even revelatory within the form of a film. Its definitely a collaboration.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sarah Chorley
It's been nearly 7 years since you made the Pervert's Guide to Cinema - did you always plan to make a follow on film with Zizek? And do you think this might become a regular collaboration between yourselves?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sarah Chorley SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
It took a long time to get this film financed. 5 years. We kept being rejected by Channel 4, Britdoc rejected the proposal. I went to Rotterdam Cinemart and won the Arte Frace Cinema award, and just kept developing the project and finally the then UK Film Council, under Tanya Segatchian, got really excited by the project and working with one of the producers, Jim Wilson, we got Filmfour on board. Slavoj wants a trilogy, so we are going to work on making The Pervert's Guide to Love.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Louise Salter
As a director I'm sure you are sent loads of scripts all the time. What is it in a script that you look for?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Louise Salter SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
I don't have an agent, I don't receive that many scripts, I've been too caught up making documentaries to turn my focus to fiction, but this is certainly something I would like to explore.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Stephanie Walton
Hi Howard, you've still got a few hours to post questions.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Stephanie Walton SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Mélissa Jean Woodside
What advise do you have to young First-time Directors and writers in the never-ending hunt for feature funding? What do you remember most from when you were starting out?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Mélissa Jean Woodside SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
Develop your film making by creating short films, shoot what is around you, edit and explore it to create small works that will make financiers excited to see what you can do. I always recall Bergman saying that film is a very seductive medium, do it only if you have something to come with. Every time I am starting out I have a lot of anxiety and doubt. This is an essential part of the process for me.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Howard Silver
I think we missed her by the time difference. Talking to the past
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Howard Silver SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
balls... sorry... 'boobies' - perseverance and a sense of humour.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
Absolutely. I find psychoanalytic theory totally liberating and thrilling. I am also interested in theories on child development and education.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
We shot on Alexa. The studio team was about 30. The location team was about 10 people.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
This is a big theme which probably goes beyond filmmaking. I just hope that my being a female filmmaker is an encouragement. But I have to say I don't think too much about my being a woman. I think its important to be ambitious in the work itself and take ideas as far as possible, and fight hard for them, (be prepared to be 'ugly').
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes
Communicating complex ideas through the medium of film is part of the challenge for me. I had seen Zizek deliver public lectures, and knew he had a rich use of idiomatic english, which makes the ideas approachable. I think people are ready to go further in their thinking, and this is hopefully what the film offers. I approached Slavoj when I wanted to make a film working with his ideas back in 2006, so this is how the relationship came about.
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Sophie Fiennes SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Louise Salter
What would you say the top three qualities that a director should have are?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Louise Salter SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur
What was it like working with Zizek? Do you personally have an interest in psychoanalytic theory or are there other contemporary theoretical approaches you'd be interested to explore?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur
Be great to know about what you shot on?! How big was your shooting team?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Melody Bridges
What do you think can be done to encourage more women to be ambitious and call themselves directors?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Melody Bridges SHOW
11 years, 10 months ago - Helen Jack
Q: How did the relationship between you (Sophie) and Slavoj first come about? And was there a fear that his ideas would be too complex to communicate to audiences?
Response from 11 years, 10 months ago - Helen Jack SHOW