Madalien the Small: A Short Film Nara Denning Denning Page 1   View the film in avi format View the film in Flash format Artist's statement: I began as a visual artist and got used to using many symbols in my work. I regard film in the same way as painting, and can expect to spend a great deal of time on a single shot, seeing each shot as a fully realized moving painting. I believe in working from personal experience and in following what you love. I love the Mission District of San Francisco and the characters who live there. My painter friend Scot Velardo, a photographer friend Adam Krammer, and I would wander around the district, photographing old architecture. These are the backgrounds I have composited into my scenes; I think of them as the bass line, or soul, of a film. I use a lot of blue screen technique, and treat scenes in the manner of a collage. Using blue screen, scenes can be done very cheaply. At one time I lived in a ten-by-twelve-foot room on South Van Ness Avenue and 16th Street, in San Francisco. The room had an old divider that formed a seven-by-five-foot frame on the wall, where I put up some blue cloth from a discount fabric store. This became the blue screen where I had my actors perform their bits. I could put them in any environment I chose. All other sets were either created guerilla style or were procured from friends. 'Madalien the Small' is a memoir of clumsy awakening, a piece of poetry I created while falling through space, a dream of loneliness and wonder and love for a dark city that sparkled brighter because of its mystery.