Indigo Lady, A Performance Art Movie (festival entry version)

 

INDIGO LADY, A Performance Art Movie

"Indigo Lady, A Performance Art Movie" is currently in progress. the movie is montaged, 'mostly teched" improv scenes by the actors. Sylvia gives the actors the underlying facts of the scene in advance and the actors create the characters through long form improvisation - and the characters create the scene and tell their story their way. It is an exhaustive process, but extremely rewarding. 

This version of my movie-in-progress was created to be a festival entry version. INDIGO LADY is projected to have a final length of 50 minutes and will be completed by October 31, 2012. The final cost of this movie will be approximately $3,000 to $4,000. 

our process & progress is blogged at sylviatoyindustries-indigolady.blogspot.com. 

two of the previous live-action not-an-animatic pre-production storyboards for 'Indigo Lady' were part of KAPAS 2012, El Festival Internacional de Cine Performance y Cine Antisistema, kapasfestival.blogspot.com.es/p/films-en-proyeccion.html, in August 2012. 

thanks for watching!

- sylvia

The Indigo Lady Storyboard - August 14, 2012

Indigo Lady, A Performance Art Movie - the storyboard from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

our "live-action, not-an-animatic storyboard" will continue grow as the characters create scenes & story in front of the camera

Indigo's Baby Dress

Indigo's Child-baby dress from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

the white dress is an icon with so much power. 

this scene and two other scenes in which the white dress

serves as a backdrop to the scene, and which occur

at different plot points along the story arc and

the development of Indigo Milazzo's inner conflict,

will be added to the new Storyboard soon. 

Nick the Writer's first interview with Indigo Milazzo

Indigo Lady A Performance Art Movie, Experiment 6: Nick, a Writer from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

Indigo Lady A Performance Art Movie, stills from our live-action not-an-animatic storyboard

Trailer Version 2

Indigo Lady, Experiment 5: Trailer version 2 from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

Actors are Sapna Gandhi as Indigo Milazzo, and Diana Slampyak and Nima Nejad, who play Indigo's dead parents, Violet & Blackie Milazzo in my in-progress performance art movie, "Indigo Lady." All of the scenes are improvised. There are more story, scenes & characters to come.

Our designer is Tyler Cohen and our special effects master is Michael Lewis.

two of the live-action not-an-animatic pre-production storyboards for 'Indigo Lady' will be screened in KAPAS 2012, El Festival Internacional de Cine Performance y Cine Antisistema

Indigo Lady A Performance Art Movie, Experiment 4

Indigo Lady A Performance Art Movie, Experiment 4: Violet and Blackie Milazzo
from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

37:36 minutes of "Indigo Lady" pre-production videos

thanks for watching!
- sylvia

Indigo Lady: Our first trailer

sylviatoyindustries: Indigo Lady Experiment 3 from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

Update - July 29, 2012

Indigo Lady: Experimenting ...

Indigo Lady special effect experiment 2 from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

Experimenting ...

Indigo Lady special effect experiment 1 from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

Sapna Gandhi, 'Indigo Lady'

Ms. Sapna Gandhi

British born Sapna Gandhi grew up all over The States, speaking five languages, singing in a musical group called Cosmic Kids, training as a martial artist, and balancing classical ballet with Bollywood (among other cultural conundrums). It wasn't until after graduating from Saint Mary's College of California with degrees in English and Women's Studies, that she realized her passion for acting and went on to study at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

Ms. Gandhi has played a slew of ethnically ambiguous characters, including an Iraqi farmer's wife, a Columbian boxer, an Indian bride-to-be, and a Puerto Rican cop (to name a few). Her favorite stage roles include Harper in Angels In America, Prudence in Beyond Therapy, and Susan in Do You Want to Buy My Brain? As a member of the groundbreaking Jump! Theatre in San Francisco, she wrote, produced, and starred (as an actor/singer/dancer) in the moody, mixed-media production of Terminally Female: A Cabaret. She also appeared in a few features and several short films, including starring in ifilm winner, Thou Art That, before migrating to Los Angeles.


Sapna Gandhi most recently co-starred on NBC's Awake, can be seen in the upcoming Indie cult feature, Dust Up, and stars in the performance art film, Indigo Lady, which has its premiere screening in Madrid, in August 2012. 

Ms. Gandhi's own short film, Once It's Taken Shape, (co-written and co-starring Chris Frederick) is presently in development, and she is redefining the term "short" with her comedic series, 12 Second Broad Strokes (in development with Amanda Lipppert and Elan O'Connor). She is also writing the psychological thriller, Stain (with Andy Gates).

Sapna Gandhi is Editor-In-Chief for We Make Movies, as well as a columnist, event coordinator, and DIY actors’ advocate.

Indigo Lady's First Film Festival: El Festival Internacional de Cine Performance y Cine Antisistema

http://kapasfestival.blogspot.com.es/http://kapasfestival.blogspot.com.es/

Presentation, style and format

Format of Indigo Lady

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Nena Sylvia St. Louis 6:12 PM (11 hours ago) to Sapna, Diana, Rebecca, tyler, indigo ladies, i now have a very clear picture in my mind as to the presentation, style and format of the movie. i have been exploring and experimenting, and came up with 4 videos that have the format that works for what i want to do: "performance art videos - silent montages exploring the performance of simple acts in familiar, stripped down settings - formalistic presentation, multiple sensory and emotional layers." possible settings: Violet's sewing room, Flavia's house, a gazebo (for Violet), an empty diner on the highway (Russel's mistress), a prison visitation room (Indigo), a small empty Catholic Church (Violet), a barn (Indigo), a coffin or under weathered floorboards for the Great Great Grandmother, Flavia, etc. these are coming off the top of my head, but most likely the settings would all be based on/lifted from Tyler's drawings, except for the interview with a reporter that each of you will have. i am seeing the movie as about 50 minutes long, divided into scenes that all begin with a drawing and dissolve into a scene complete with actors, props, etc., - it is likely that the actors playing the action scenes will speaking extras, one of whom would be a "doppelganger" of the main character that the scene was about (i.e., Violet's argument with her husband about the husband bathing/dressing Indigo; Russell's telling his mistress that he was getting married; the murder scene, inter alia). i would really appreciate your watching at least one of the videos in this Vimeo Album:https://vimeo.com/channels/insideoutoutsidein. this is the format of your movie. while the presentation is very formalistic, each one of your beats will involve a main frame monologue completely improvised by you based on the story facts and a memory/sensory/emotional secondary monologue. this will definitely be a chance to knock yourselves out as actors. R, i will work with whatever time you have available - we'll talk. once i have clips of each of your monologues, and a "drawing come to life" clip, i will make a trailer and begin soliciting funding.

Revised Concept & Process

changing my concept for my performance art movie, Indigo Lady: i now see it as composed of monologues by the female characters (Indigo, Violet, Russell's Mistress, Flavia) montage style the way i've been working,

kabuki geisha from Sylvia Toy on Vimeo.

but with each monologue telling the story Rashomon style; and intercut in such a way that the story is arc'ed, and so that the audience can decide for itself what really happened. i have told the actors that they really really really will have to trust me, because we will work one on one, with each actor only knowing what the other characters have said from rushes (viewing rushes is optional and up to each actor). i want a sense of isolation/persecution/victimization, self centeredness and trying to get the audience on one's side as if each character was telling their side of the story before anybody else's side of the story was told.

Designer Tyler Cohen

Tyler told me she hadn't done much work for the movie - wow! i wonder what will happen when she gets serious. - sylvia

Indigo Lady A Quicktime Storyboard, 2nd Draft

Brilliant work by Sapna Gandhi

New Scenes with Sapna Gandhi in the title role