THE BALLAD OF THE GRACIOUS LADY

In "The Ballad of the Noble Lady", I had, as Director, to change my working process with the crew and cast due to the pandemic. Normally for the crew, I like to have face-to-face meetings, talk a lot about the concept, present film and photo references, set locations, listen to the department heads about their view of the project. Because of Covid, we had to stick to remote meetings, discussing both aesthetic and narrative concepts; doing script readings with screenwriter Flavia Guimarães and actor and producer Guilherme Quadrado to be able to fine-tune the dialogues and adjust the lines according to the locations visited. As for the cast, the procedure was identical: we had no face-to-face meeting with the cast, everything was done remotely: from the first reading with all the actors, individual conversations with each actor; the costume and make-up approval was proposed to me by the costume designer and make-up by boards and spreadsheets. All this unprecedented process was innovative and surprising, because it affirmed that it is possible to keep the flame of creative construction burning even without being connected in person. The film crew was greatly reduced, with each professional performing more functions, so that, in this way, we had a minimum of crew members on the set and avoided the possibility of crowding. The decoupage was done with me and photographer Pedro Iorio, in a spontaneous way. We wanted the actors themselves to give suggestions on how the characters would be alive in the scenes, it was a collaborative method of scene marking. The technical limitations, derived from the covid protocol, were managed with much competence and creativity by the crew and cast, in suggestions that would transform some impediment, for example, hugs and kisses, into a more refined symbolism of humanity between the characters.