Emma Giacalone - IMELDA MAY

Diamonds beneath our feet

"Bowie sang about our real and imagined world in his song Station to Station : “Here are we - one magical moment-lost in my circle-such is the stuff from where dreams are woven” the idea for Diamonds sits somewhere here, between our real and imagined world."

Diamonds is hand made, as fragile and haunting as it is intangible. Overlaid textures, folding light and diaphanous fabrics. Wrapped around an intense & intimate solo performance, slowly revealing a minimal & theatrical set. A limited colour palette, crafted into a mysterious and sensuous environment. Utilising light and dark as the stylistic choice that informs the films look, feel and editing style.

To elicit this we worked from a structure that unfolds out from intimate close ups, slowly revealing a wider world of immersive light. Letting the audience feel the film, as it's not prescriptive or narrative beyond a strong sense of its own progression.

Capturing as much of the light detail in camera, lending a feeling of rawness and steering it away from a CGI look. Combining and layering elements of texture as : double exposure, glints, reflections, distortion through glass, lights leaks ghosting, shadow alongside the crystalline, prismatic rainbow lights, anamorphic lenses for flares… We diminish the digital gloss by grading the film with a matt finish, underscored with a light touch of film grain. It feels raw, optical and beautiful. Tactile - like you could reach and touch it.

Imelda is surrounded by diaphanous strips of white ruched fabric. Gaps between the strips and its transparent nature allow us a sense of inside outside simultaneously. Sense of layering and enchantment. Distributed around the set are a series of mirrorball throwing pinpricks of moving light onto every visible surface. Within the circle, strings of mirror shards, crystals, prisms hung at varying heights. We stay focused on the artist’s performance, avoiding overpowering or undermining it with abstraction - choosing balance through luminance, beauty and intimacy, remembering our priority to the performance with a duty to provoke a strong emotive connection in the viewer.