TIMES OF CENSORSHIP

PLOT SYNOPSIS

In times of a pandemic and fake news, a significant writer has yet to deliver the promised work to the publishing house, and it seems he cares little about fulfilling the agreement.
This leads to an uncomfortable meeting between him and the company’s representative, who seeks a way out without legal warnings.
However, it appears the peculiar writer had come prepared for this already.

…………………………………………..

PHOTO GALLERY

Backstage Photos:

Short Film Stills:

TECHNICAL SHEET

Written and Directed by Israel Mirenda

Main Cast: Carlos Ramiro Pereyra and Pablo Pipolo.

Produced by Israel Mirenda.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

First, the confession: this short arises from a quest that had little to do with disputes about “times of censorship”.
It’s only fair to admit that the original motive behind this production was to conceive a sophisticated visual proposal related to a simple scene of two people conversing.
This is how “Times of Censorship” originates: as an exercise in visual storytelling.

At this point, I had just embarked on my second short film.
While I had resolved many scenes of this nature before, the idea was to propose different paths for a basic situation.

So, I set out to construct a detailed visual narrative.
The plan was to start with a look from behind the bench where the protagonists are seated, moving through the axis from side to side, delving into close-ups and then returning to wide shots.
Not only this but the sea, the birds, and some extras would play a part in the story, attending to specific moments with somewhat unusual “detail shots”.
It looked more like a comic book than a storyboard.

But as it had to be, there were too many setbacks on the day of shooting. 🤦‍♂️
Right from the start, a barometric truck parked a few meters away from us.

– Will you be here for long?
– The whole day.

We couldn’t even talk because of the noise.
Of course, the filming had to be canceled (and we had to snack on the pastries I had brought).

Later, the actors couldn’t agree on a date when they could both be present.
Finally, after several weeks, I decided to shoot most of the film on two separate occasions, without both characters being present at the same time.
Almost everything was shot separately.

To make it worse, this happened on days with very different weather.
One day was very cold and rainy (where we had to stop the shoot every twenty minutes), and the other was entirely clear, with harsh shadows due to the strong sun.

So, I ultimately had to give up more than half of the shots I had meticulously prepared.
However, in the post-production stage, I chose to construct the story using the elements I had already managed.

Naturally, it was a headache for the actors too, who were victims of this significant mismatch.

Regardless, the “exercise” provided its own lessons.

Regarding the script: I always knew it didn’t have a popular tone.

In fact, it’s not so much a story presenting an urgently needed conflict to be resolved. It’s more about an exposed perspective.
A denunciation of the increasing manipulation of the legitimate value of words and the lack of freedom of expression.
A very serious subject if given the necessary attention and approached with honest reflection.