Flexibility
The manuscript was written as an "audio film;" a narrative consisting of voices, sound and music. I wrote the text in such a way that it would work as a cohesive narrative even if there were no images at all; a kind of audiobook for the cinema. Liberating the images from the audio made the filming less expensive yet more responsive to actual circumstance. We planned the shooting to give us the greatest possible flexibility. We worked simply with a small team; this way we could plan carefully but still be free to develop the expression.
Rhythm
In order to get a clearer sense of the film, I edited a 75-minute-long black film that followed the script. I used the test recordings we had made with actors for the audio, and I also used some of the tests I had recorded with my own voice while developing the manuscript. The technical quality was poor and the acting unrefined, but the recordings worked as provisory raw material. That black audio film ended up being the map we used throughout the entire production. The temporary recordings were gradually replaced with real scenes, and the black film was "filled" with images as we created them. I rewrote and recorded and rewrote again.
Doing this gave me the chance to bring the film into the editing room and reflect before each new period of shooting. The script was not intended as a manual to be followed to the letter: the project was to be guided by the rhythm of its own making; by the rhythm of the black audio film. The aesthetic transformed throughout the entire process.
Structure
Things that manifest in clearly delineated stages in a more linear film production process – financing, script development, research, filming, editing and post-production – were now taking place in a single, spiral-shaped movement. Some of the film was edited directly after shooting, then new ideas emerged before the next shoot, more research was done, dialogue was rewritten, new scenes were shot, and the manuscript developed continuously. The final scenes were shot and edited when the rest of the film was already mixed – so even the post-production was done in multiple layers.
Detachment, displacement, gap
A big part of the sound was created in the post-production instead of – as usual - recorded on set. By working with composed sound and archive material instead of synchronized sound, we aimed for a non-realist sound universe. When the sound and the image were detached and independent from each other there was an opening to a possible gap, a shift in the cinematic flow. This was also a way to work with the city as an inner landscape detached from history and geography. We worked with the color of blue and an idea that the entire story takes place in one night ending at dawn.
Influence
While preparing the night shots we studied the landscapes of other filmmakers. We drew inspiration from Chantal Akerman's images of New York in News from home, the panoramas in Sofia Norlin's film Ömheten, the rhythm of stills in Chris Marker's La Jetée, and the color and composition of Happy Together by Wong Kar Wai.
Our working idea was that all of the images would be shot from the protagonist's point of view through the window of his car. The landscape should be empty and wide and mirror the loneliness of the character.
We chose a number of locations based on the long tavelling in Les Mains Negatives by Marguerite Duras: Rue de Faubourg de Temple from Belleville towards Place de la République, the area under the bridges in Barbès, Quai de Valmy, Rue de Rivoli and the hotel district near Place Vendôme.
Music
In the final scene of Lucky One, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem is performed in a church by a children's choir. I wanted the soundtrack to correspond to that scene. The composer Michel Wenzer suggested that we use the sixth movement of the concerto, Libera Me, which evolves around imprisonment and liberation for the soundtrack. The concerto reaches its crescendo, delivered in a vibrating tenor solo: "Free me Lord, from death eternal on that day of dread." Michel wrote a number of pieces using the Libera Me harmonic progression in arrangements for viola, cello, piano and clarinet. The music was recorded on two separate occasions with musicians from Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
