Film Treatment (Mini-Film)


“The Pilgrimage to Kryachkivka”

Two traditional music “singing schools”—one led by Ulyana Horbachevska, the other by Mariana Sadovska—are shown, in two separate locales, cutting back and forth from one to the other.

The setting in both cases is distinctly urban, featuring all the accoutrements of contemporary city life.

Many quick movements and echoing, multi-sourced sounds—the busy concomitants of a music instruction session—abound in both scenes.

Both “schools” are working on the same song—“Oi, U Poli Drevo” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lODHbXHMtuI]—a 300 year-old traditional song that stems from the village of Kryachkivka in Ukraine.

What is seen and heard here, it should be noted, is more “process” than “product”:

Rather than putting forward a well-polished, finished product of the song, that is to say, the two groups instead are each shown intently engaged in an educative process: a dynamic, loose, open-ended undertaking in which this ancient song is effectively being absorbed and assimilated into the present day, passed-down to those who will now take on the task of representing and embodying the song in today's world.

After approximately one minute of this dynamic, albeit somewhat untidy procedure—characeristics further highlighted by the fairly quick cutting rate that alternates between the two scenes—the sequence then comes to an abrupt close, marking a pronounced change of both scene and pace.

Abrupt cut to a road deep in the rural Ukrainian heartland—the hallowed steppeland of central Ukraine. This is the road to Kryachkivka.

From a significant distance, an automobile is shown traveling along the road, tracing the horizon line of an utterly flat landscape. This is the only movement discernible within this scene.

The pace is now characterized by a decidedly unhurried, stately, even contemplative rhythm.

Certain audio and visual motifs now come into play, a “library” of audio-visual motifs that can be collectively designated as “the pilgrimage to Kryachkivka thematic”.

Included in this “library” is a montage of various images of steppeland nature—e.g., broad fields of wild grasses and wild flowers—taken from the actual road to Kryachkivka, seen via a diverse number of different shot types: long and medium shots, close-ups, etc.

Also included in this “library” is a shot depicting a map of Ukraine, first seen in its entirety, upon which is then emphasized by way of camera movement (both moving in closer, and panning laterally) the location of the village of Kryachkivka relative to western Ukrainian city Lviv, as well as to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

This “thematic library” of images will be interspersed with shots of the moving automobile (which itself can be considered as another core component of this “library”, although it is at the same time also a point in the ongoing narrative), as well as with the brief interview snippets that are specified below.

The audio for this whole sequence will remain the same: strains of “Oi, U Poli Drevo”—derived from the recorded version by “Drevo Kyiv” that is hypertexted above—which are heard only very faintly, as if from a great distance, filtered furthermore (at relevant moments) through the (also very) distant sounds of a moving automobile.

Above the horizon line—which occupies roughly the bottom third of the screen—are displayed, hovering agitatingly over the moving vehicle, the following consecutive fields of vibrating text:


“In the year 1958”

“On a day perhaps not unlike today”

“A Kyiv Conservatory ethnomusicologist named Volodymyr Matviyenko”

“Ventured forth on the first 'pilgrimage to Kryachkivka' ”.

“It was at this moment”

“That the 'traditional music revival movement' in Ukraine was born.”


Cut to a brief interview segment of Volodymyr Matviyenko's widow, who speaks of her late husband's initial discovery of the village of Kryachkivka in 1958, and of what this meant for him. An example of possible text here (this is no more than hypothetical placeholder text): “Discovering Kryachkivka was the start of everything for Volodymyr”.

Cut to a brief interview segment of Yevhen Yefremov, who speaks of his early experiences as a student of Matviyenko at Kyiv Conservatory, and of what he feels the discovery of Kryachkivka meant for both Matviyenko, and for the Ukrainian traditional music revival movement as a whole. Another example of possible text (again, this is only hypothetical): “Kryachkivka became something like a Mecca for Professor Matviyenko, and for his students as well”.

(A selection of visual motifs belonging to “the pilgrimage to Kryachkivka thematic”—e.g,, the steppeland nature images—are reverted to in between each interview segment, as is the audio of the “Oi, U Poli Drevo” recording. During the interview segments themselves, this audio can also be heard, but only at an exceedingly low, barely perceptible level.)

A second automobile is now seen, traveling along what appears to be the same horizon line, but on a different stretch of road, and moving in a different direction.

Another series of consecutive text fields then appear above the horizon line:


“And in a quest for a deeper sense of identity”

“And for a set of values that seem to be disappearing in the contemporary world”

“Ukrainian music makers have been venturing forth on this same 'pilgrimage' ever since.”


Cut to scenes inside both vehicles, within which members of the two “singing schools” are shown once more, singing the same song as before—albeit now in a much more informal manner—as they travel along the road in their respective vehicles.

Both vehicles are seen—cutting back and forth again from one to the other—arriving in Kryachkivka at the same time, but in different locations. Both groups exit their respective vehicles, and separately begin walking, on different paths, towards the Rozdabara house; both groups continue to sing “Oi, U Poli Drevo” all the while, still in a very loose and informal manner.

It is at this point that a second “thematic pattern” or “library of audio-visual motifs” comes into play: This “library” can be designated as “the Drevo (or 'the Tree') thematic”.

Comprised in this “library”, then, is a montage of various images of trees—both “real” trees, captured cinematographically (some in Kryachkivka itself), as well as “fabricated” trees (i.e., drawn or painted)—all of which again, are displayed by way of the full spectrum of shot types.

Up to that moment in which the two groups come together, the audio for this second “thematic library” will be the same as the first: strains of “Drevo Kyiv's” recording of “Oi, U Poli Drevo”, except now heard at an even fainter volume, EQ'd so that all of the “highs” and “lows” are removed (i.e., the “telephone effect”), and (at relevant moments) also without the noise of a moving automobile.

And again in a manner similar to the first, this second “library” will be interspersed with the scenes of the ongoing narrative—beginning just prior to the arrival in Kryachkivka—that are specified immediately above and below.

The two “singing schools” now meet up, coming together as one large choral group upon reaching the Rozdabara house, and a “grand reunion” takes place with Nadiya Rozdabara, Nina Reva, and other denizens of Kryachkivka, first outside and then moving inside the house.

The audio for this final sequence is now solely the sounds being generated by this choral group, which thus replace the recording of “Oi, U Poli Drevo” by “Drevo Kyiv'”.

Within the house are shown scenes of the whole group, gathered together in the living room, continuing to sing “Oi, U Poli Drevo”, but now with Rozdabara and Reva clearly leading this swelling collective of joyous choral singers.

And as this last scene in this short film's storyline approaches its concluding moments—as the song itself nears its finale—the various shots of tree images, stemming from the “Drevo thematic library”, continue to be interspersed with shots of the choral group, yet now these begin to alternate by way of a progressively accelerating cutting rate.

What was at first a fairly stately rhythm, again, moving with moderate speed back and forth, now begins to shift towards a rhythm that is rather rapid, such that split-second shots of the choral group swiftly alternate with split-second shots of the various tree images.

This acceleration continues apace until a point is arrived at—which happens to be that very point the final moments of the song are enacted—in which the camera begins to slowly move in on Nadiya Rozdabara, who is standing at the center of the choral group. As it does so, what is seen on the screen gradually modulates from a medium shot of Rozdabara, then to a medium close-up of her face, and then to a full close-up of her face.

At the same time that this inward camera movement is occuring, the cutting rhythm that alternates these shots with shots of the various tree images now begins to de-accelerate, shifting gradually back to a much slower and statelier rhythm, such that at the juncture in which the close-up of Rozdabara's face starts to come into view, these shots are held for at least two or three seconds, and now alternate with shots, of an equal length, of a particular ancient tree (and camera movement is shown moving in on this, too), which grandly fills the screen with all the florescent complexities of its prolonged, age-old development.

After the last such pair of images, shots which hold for at least three seconds, first on Rozdabara's profound and ancient face, then on that of the ancient tree—all without camera movement, except for the final shot of the tree, in which the camera suddenly sweeps up, a quick vertical pan from a medium close-up of the trunk and lower branches of the tree, to take in the tree's upper branches, as they reach aspirationally towards a clear blue sky—a new image appears.

This image thus replaces the alternation between the different tree images, derived from the “Drevo thematic”, and the shots taken from inside the Rozdabara house; the choral group that is singing inside this house is therefore no longer seen, even though the resounding echos of their concluding verses can still be heard.

What can be now seen on the screen, then, is nothing but this new image, which is also of a tree, as it happens, although this new image is different from those that have been seen before, in that it is devised by means of animated graphic design, and is moreover shown being constructed in “real time”.

Hence, what appears as this final sequence commences is no more than the barest outline of this tree image, as it is being delineated bit by bit, in piecemeal fashion, by way of a series of vibrating lines; then, portions of the image start to be filled in more extensively:

First, the sturdy roots of the tree are shown taking hold deep into a gracefully receptive ground; then an impressively thick trunk begins to take shape.

Next, upon the trunk of the tree is engraved, in “real time”, fading in one character at a time, the following piece of vibrating text, in comparatively large, upper-case characters:


“DREVO”


Finally, the following three-line phrase appears—fading in one line at a time—centered in the upper third of the screen, in very large, standard-cased, slightly-vibrating text:


“Kryachkivka Forever!”

“The Traditional Music Revival Movement in Ukraine”

“(A Documentary Film)”


The choral singing now reaches its end point and ceases altogether; no audio of any kind can be heard; the screen slowly fades to black—with the “tree image” completely fading along with it—and persists in this darkened state for a final few seconds, as the slightly-vibrating text specified above switches over from black to white in the process.





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