Two cupcakes, mugs of tea and hot chocolate, ready, action!
I have recently been involved with a project that has been ongoing for several months now. My friend and housemate Alizée Musson has started filming a documentary about myself and lolita. I began as part of a university project, which she has taken further into a full-fledged mini-doc to be sent to festivals!
There are few documentaries about lolitas, and I refuse to count in the odd opint-the-finger "documentaries" which amount to little more than modern freak shows (I'm staring at you, afternoon TV reports). The director, Alizée, was genuinely interested and excited about documenting lolita, so it was great fun to help create this. We discussed the best way in which to convey the information, I gave her links to various blogs or forums that would help her, and I really appreciated that she completely involved me in the project, not just as a subject.
Just a few years ago, when I was still a little budding rufflebutt, I
watched with amazement the girls talking about the fashion in
Frilly in the City or
Loligirls,
without an inkling that I might one day be in their shoes... It was a
daunting, scary, exiting, fun, and challenging experience, and one that I
enjoyed more than I can tell.
It was most pleasant to be faced
with a director who was genuinely curious and came to me without
preconceived ideas about lolita. She asked me for links to information
beforehand, and her questions during the intervew were invariably on
key. As I said, I had not seen the questions beforehand - though I
expected some of them-, so I was suprised and really delighted when
Alizée asked me about ILD - it just served to show how much she had
invested herself in the preliminary reasearch. (As you now know, I spent
ILD lounging in fairy lolita eating at an asian buffet and playing
video games...)
A formal interview was the first sequence she chose to film. It was a great honor to be able to give voice to what I feel for our fashion and subculture. I know I was nervous, and sometimes I'm not sure I was quite making sense, but Alizée assures me it went fine. Being interviewed is actually really difficult! You may think
you know what you do and why, but expressing it is rather hard! And I
kept thinking after the event of something I wanted to add... Alizée was
great and let me amend a few sentences though, but I hadn't seen the
questions beforehand . As
a result I was always "umming", which was certainly a nightmare for
editing! She also had to cope with how long it takes to get ready, especially when you tell her "take your time"...
The funnest part was the stop-motion, which I think was a great
alternative to the usual lolita transformation video! It was a long and
difficult process but the result is so cute! Other sequences were a
make-up/ casual interview, a mannequin coord exercise, a photoshoot, and
the opportunity to pick a lolita pastime of my choice and indulge in it
for filming! I couldn't believe it. I was pretty much told that doing
what I enjoyed would be of interest and help to someone else. Actually,
that goes for the whole documentary. No wonder I was a bit giddy with
excitement throughout!
In the full documentary, expect animated cupcakes, photoshoots, and decoden galore! We are also involving an illustrator friend for the graphics in the movie, and animated sequences.
We considered organinsing a tea-party or meetup in London during the MCM
Expo, but due to complications with locations, we gave up on it. I
would still love to host a meetup someday, but now I know how much
organinstaion goes behind it all!
I am looking forward to the full movie - I'm tremendously excited! So
to give you a taste of what is to come here is the teaser!
I give you: Tea Time with a Lolita!
(Sorry I couldn't embed the video >< Please click on the image to follow the link!)
Please remember that neither the director nor I claim this to be an extensive definition of lolita - in fact the cue for the assignement, to be honest, was to present someone passionate about something. So...it's actually a documentary about me as a lolita; this is my opinion, and only engages me. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with my statements, please keep in mind that this represents someone's efforts to create a piece of work for their learning and career, and we both did our best.
That said, I would be glad to hear about what you thought!
Yours,
Miss Milly
