Heading out of his native Moscow to New York with a handful of trusted collaborators, Director Artemy Ortus was determined to make the most of his whistle-stop production time in the USA by creating an exalted celebration of the female spirit which also encompassed themes of stereotypes, strength, kindness and rejection. DN asked Ortus to explain how he gathered resources and inspiration from NYC for this fierce salute to female power and potential.
Initially, we conceived this concept as a metaphorical statement, the idea of double standards in different social classes and not the acceptance by most people of the thought that a woman’s view of love, peace, compassion and difficulties that may arise in life. We are not talking about tragedy, but about the strength of the spirit. We take an image that could vividly convey to the viewer the idea of humanity, through the image of a woman who has this driving force.
We flew to New York on 05/22/2018 and we didn’t know how we would manage to organize this shoot or what women we’d be able to find that would correctly reflect our idea and plan. We tried to find a company that could help us with permissions for filming. There were 6 people from Moscow. Being in New York for a week, I realized that it was worth writing a director’s explication to start searching for actors. We managed to find very good colleagues from the New York Film Academy who volunteered to help us with the organization.
We are not talking about tragedy, but about the strength of the spirit.
As a result, in 4 days we managed to organize casting, locations, found the necessary equipment, and a lot of people who responded to our concept and idea. According to the results, the media personality of the Dream Doll – hip-hop and RnB artist – also appeared in our video. For us, this speaks of one thing – the topic we had chosen is relevant, it finds a response in the hearts, and we need to talk about it. For 2 days we shot all the heroes. Some of them were not included in the final assembly because I did not achieve a certain result on my part, and I did not want to tear down the installation and atmosphere that was created in the final structure of the video. For these heroes that were not included in the final assembly, I created separate short videos and gave them in gratitude.
I want to say that this project was created on the enthusiasm and desire to do something useful. We did not expect that everything would go that way. I expected the worst but people believed in the initiative. Believed in the voice that sounds in this video, in the idea of openness. I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped me bring the voice of all these people. I hope for someone this will be a useful discovery or inspiration for the implementation of their ideas and thoughts. I believe in humanity and equality of souls in this material world because I want to talk more about this.
