This very interesting talk taught me that Bigas Luna was so concerned with the increasing immersion of individuals into a visual culture for which they had received no visual education that he developed a ‘visual alphabet’ of 32 symbols, garnered chronologically from Muybridge to Keaton (He thought that sufficient), with which to teach children visual literacy. I’m only sorry the panelists didn’t say what those symbols were. I’m dying to find out.
I was also interested to learn that his scripts were often a series of paintings — not just a storyboard. And that he often spent most of the pre-shooting prep time doing a series of experiments to arrive at a film’s tone; interests that coincide with mine and that I think are some of the most complex elements in cinema to articulate.
That one can be in Birmingham and be attending these seminars in Madrid is something I’m still finding thrilling.
José Arroyo