Theo and Vincent ( my parallels with van Gogh ) - Diary of a Filmmaker

Would a platform like Steemit have benefitted Vincent van Gogh during his life?

As a kid, I admired the work of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh ( 1853-1890 ). Not only were he and I from the same country, we also shared our first name. I never really got into painting, although I always loved drawing.

Van Gogh passed away when he was 37 years young, only a year older than I am right now. He died a poor man but his work and ( pretty dramatic ) life will never be forgotten. Did you know that he had a younger brother - named Theo - who supported his older brother, Vincent, by sending him money for paint and painting utensils?

The two of them sent each other letters and a bunch of them have been saved.

I just checked the above and found the following:

"the most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890." Source

When I started on this post - I realized something that I noticed before but had forgotten about:

Theo and Vincent

I am collaborating creatively with a guy named Theo(dore), Ted for short. Two days ago, he sent me some money to order a green screen.

I can't exactly say that I'm living on Theo's charity ( he's not rich enough for that ) as was the case with van Gogh. I also don't expect to become famous ( neither during nor after my death). We aren't brothers either and he is actually quite a bit older than me ( sorry for mentioning this Ted ) but Theo is definitely supporting me creatively. Especially on the mental side. He and I have been on a creative seesaw, rollercoaster or whatever you wanna call it since we first met ( on Twitter ) in 2013. We really need each other to feed on the other's creativity and creative input, output and energy. We feel like brothers and friends all at the same time.

Sharing our Correspondence and the Creative Process

Today I felt like sharing some ( filmmaking ) emails with you, that Ted sent to me. It reminded me of the letters Vincent and Theo van Gogh sent each other.

The reason why I wanna share these emails, is that I want to give you as much insight in the filmmaking process ( including the baby steps ) as I can. It also helps me, creatively. And right now, Theo is the one who is doing ( most of ) the work. In fact, I can't really do any filmmaking now, until I receive the green screen that I'm about to order. The green screen that I mentioned in my two last posts: Green Screen Test Interrupted by my 4 Year old Nephew and The Return of the Green Screen - audio post

Two days ago Ted sent me the following email:

Let's hold off on filming until you get the green screen. Another week of waiting for the delivery isn't a big deal. Once you get it - Let's do some non-acting test clips to see what "parameters" look the best with the least green screen edit work for me. It'll be a good learning experience for both of us. I haven't filmed myself in front of mine yet, so it'll help with our future stuff. I'd like to edit myself into your future footage too ;)

I was pleased by your overall performance, so no need to improve on that. Just a quick recap of things we should try. 1. Combed back hair 2. Little more body shown. 3. Small hand diamond 4. Humming chant 5. Oil & water face 6. 4k 30fps

This list will help me remember everything we spoke about too :) It's fun working with you again and I'm glad you're enjoying this creative venture! I'm sure people on steemit will enjoy this too - Keep me posted!

Ted

And yesterday he sent me a bunch of messages in a row, that I discovered today.

Went out to re-scout the area in the woods that I used for the end of the second episode, which is needed for the 3rd episode, after the viewers tell me what to do. Took me about 30 minutes to find the location. Got there and found various plastic ties around the trees. Will pull them off the trees and re-tie them after I film. Hope they’re not planning on construction there in the next few weeks... Off to scout out another tree - too many plastic ties near the 1 I wanted to use...

Broke my tripod

Forgot how hard it is to film in the woods sometimes, but the end result is always worth it! Home - Gonna duct tape my tripod and see if I can attach my camera to one of my lighting stands - The tree I want to use needs to be filmed at a higher distance than my tripod goes, which is why I broke it...

That's the good thing about scouting/filming - I tend to learn something new, which is amazing. I never would have tried to connect my camera to the lighting kit tripod stand if I hadn't gone out today. My camera actually connects to the lighting tripod - This will help in a big way when I start to film the shadow creatures because it will film me from eye level. Anyways, I'll stop emailing you - Just excited to be out in the field today, even if it was a grueling experience at the time. In retrospect, it was fun!

TTYL!

-Ted

Looked at the footage - Probably go with the tree near the plastic tags - It looks cooler - Will try and disguise the fluorescent plastic ties with leaves and maybe some tape - Probably head back to the location again tomorrow. Okay, I guess I'm done talking to myself ;)

I'm not sure how much sense all the above makes to you, but I think it's always valuable to get some insight into the behind the scenes of any creative process / piece of art. I might be a fan of David Lynch, but unlike Lynch, I don't have a problem with sharing the process.

TO BE CONTINUED

P.S. Theo and Vincent is the title of a 1990 film by Robert Altman that I don't remember to have seen. If you have, I would like to hear from you if it's worth a watch.

Recent filmmaking posts by me:

I Heard Music Coming Out of a Deserted Hotel in the Misty Mountains , A Perfect Location for a Scary Movie and Back to Filmmaking Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 - A Fun Project with Audience Interaction