Monster's Walk in Ten Chapters
by Irineu Destourelles
Monsters Walk in Ten Chapters is an experimental short film featuring a fairytale written by the artist in response to Huntly-born writer George MacDonald’s book ‘The Princess and the Goblin’, a children’s fantasy novel originally published in 1872. Throughout the film a dark monster enters, explores and abruptly leaves a town that he seems simultaneously unfamiliar and familiar with. As the Monster's trajectory through different urban and green spaces and states of mind unfolds, an off-screen narrator tells a disjointed tale of broken love between beings from a different reality that ultimately reveals the Monster's plight.
Drawing on Irineu's engagement with issues of creolity, blackness and diaspora, the film dwells on loss as an intrinsic state of being whilst referencing structural film and representation of otherness in popular culture.
The film was created as part of the artist’s wider project Does it Fall from the Skies Above?
Some clips from the film (silent)
I was brought on board this project to assist Deveron Projects in the planning, budgeting and production of a film work; to work with the artist in developing his ideas for screen; to manage the production and post production; and to film and edit the work.
This was an exciting and challenging project about creating a flexible space for the artist to explore his ideas with film and keeping the process as open as possible, while still having a handle on the practical implications of ideas and ensuring the feasibility of the outcome. Throughout this process it is also always important to gauge the extent to which the artist wants involve themselves in the visual storytelling, composition and editing. Irineu had quite distinctive shots in mind, and after developing our ideas through conversations, experimentations, and walks around the town taking pictures, I was able to get into Irineu’s frame of reference enough that I could capture his performance without him needing to check every frame or composition. The result was essentially a series of wide shots for the monster to move around in, and a very slow-placed, calm film, where the frame is so full of big and small details that you can explore quite a lot in the minute or two that the shot is on-screen.
Excerpt from Monster’s Walk in Ten Chapters (clip is silent)
I brought Mark Readhead onto the project to record and mix the sound for the project. We made an improvised studio in one Deveron Projects’ apartments, creating a den with lots of cushions and bed sheets to dampen the sound to record the voiceover with Maureen Ross. Mark also recorded the diegetic sound on location and created a gentle sound mix bringing them together.
For the colour, we experimented a lot with quite heavy colour corrections, monochrome, and also using monochrome only in the scenes in the town with colour outside the town. We found it drew too much attention to itself and ultimately decided on a straight-forward, matter-of-fact grade but still with strong colours and contrast, bringing only a few details up from the shadows, to emphasise the darkness of the Zephyr Liddell’s fabulous costume and make Lilo a bit harder to make out.
The film was screened at the Huntly library in January 2023, and at Alchemy Festival in Hawick in April 2023.
Created, Directed and Performed by Irineu Destourelles
Produced by Deveron Projects
Featuring Narration by Maureen Ross
Costume Designer Zephyr Liddell
Costume Maker Emily Smit-Dicks
Director of Photography and Colourist Daniel Hughes
Sound Recordist and Mixer Mark Readhead
Story Editor Lavendhri Arumugam
Assistants Anita Krasowska & Zuzana Fryntová
Filmed on location in Huntly, Scotland
With thanks to The Crown Bar, The Larder, Divine Beauty, Adoring Care, R Barron & Sons, Tesco, Huntly Motors, Dean’s Bakery and Claudia Zeiske.
A Culture Collective project, funded by Scottish Government emergency COVID-19 funds through Creative Scotland
