The Factory of Worlds

STORYTELLING, A SHARED COSMOGONY

“Without sharing, there is no story.”

The Black Room and the Plateau, shared with two other people, are a world, a universe. And we must try, beyond each person’s cosmogony, to understand, beyond bringing us together: what we can share. With authors, I like to share, I like to listen, I like to walk with them. – Marcel Beaulieu

WRITING IS A DIALOGUE WITH ONESELF, TO BE OPENED WITH OTHERS.

“ There is a form of madness, a necessary schizophrenia in creation.”

Without madness, we do things that everyone expects, that everyone wants. is madness is a schizophrenia. Writing is a dialogue, one that I constantly have with myself, which allows me to maintain balance. Why can’t I find the idea? Why can’t I find the character’s trajectory? Why? Because the problem is within me, it’s not outside. It’s always inside me: the problem is in my head, and THE FACTORY OF WORLDS operates precisely there. – Marcel Beaulieu

OVERCOMING FEAR TO MOTIVATE THE STORY

“With THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, we get naked: we jump into the water and swim with others.”

I was terrified. I’m always afraid. I think it’s part of my nature. And so I have to get naked. Ah! We don’t always like our bodies, we don’t always like who we are. And I admit that this fear motivated me, because it’s like when you jump into the water: I had to swim, and I swam with others! – Marcel Beaulieu

THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STORY IS A TRANSMISSION

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS generates a cerebral electricity that allows us to connect with others and with the story.”

I draw from the experimental devices of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS: impressions, a form of cerebral electricity that works on me, that speaks to me, and that allows me to connect with others, to see how I can transmit the energy I have been able to draw from them. Because all creation is a question of transmission. I was terrified. I’m always afraid. I think it’s part of my nature. And so I have to get naked. Ah! We don’t always like our bodies, we don’t always like who we are. And I admit that this fear motivated me, because it’s like when you jump into the water: I had to swim, and I swam with others! – Marcel Beaulieu

THE UNKNOWN, THE UNEXPECTED, OR ERRORS AS DRIVING FORCES OF STORYTELLING

“ The author’s job: to seek out magic.”

At THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, the unknown, the unexpected, or errors fuel the narrative composition because they challenge us. Unlike technology, humans always have a small imperfection that makes them more interesting than a machine. Singularity is more interesting than exceptional beauty, and the narrative is imbued with it. – Massimiliano Nardulli

THE HIDDEN ROOTS OF NARRATIVE

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS breaks down the walls that every author builds to protect themselves when telling a story.”

The three experimental devices of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS have enormous potential: they bring out what is hidden within us, they break down the walls that every author, in one way or another, builds to protect themselves when telling a story. – Massimiliano Nardulli

BEING AVAILABLE FOR STORY GENERATION

“It was a truly joyful and playful moment of exploration.”

The various experimental devices in THE FACTORY OF WORLDS create a truly joyful moment, a moment of play, first and foremost because I am completely available for that moment. We are all in this very joyful and playful state of mind: we are ready to explore what will be generated. – Violette Garcia

THE GERMINATION OF THE STORY, STEP BY STEP

“ The little seed planted in the Cave germinates in the Black Room, then, on the Plateau, we find the embodiment and therefore the possibility of a film.”

The little seed planted in the Cave germinates in the Black Room. It becomes a character and, above all, emotion, without knowing exactly where to settle, but by being very present and alive. And on the Plateau, we find the embodiment and therefore the possibility of a fi lm, because it’s the place where the components of the story can unfold. – Violette Garcia

WORKING ON A STORY AS A SERIES OF PHYSICAL EXPERIENCES

“It’s very rare to have the opportunity to work on a story with the body.”

It’s very rare to have the opportunity to work on a story, within the framework of these experimental programs, particularly with the body. We rarely have the opportunity to have a dedicated space, and especially dedicated time. In my work as a screenwriter, I’m not given the opportunity to have a Black Room if I want to, nor to practice object theater, even though both would help me embody an idea in a tableau vivant from the very beginning. THE FACTORY OF WORLDS helps us fi rst tell the story internally and to collectively develop all the milestones of the story that will become the essential hooks for the fi lm or series we will then develop. – Violette Garcia

STORYTELLING AS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG

“It’s almost as if the story is already there: all that’s needed is to be discovered.”

Throughout THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, we communicate beyond words, rather than trying to explain. is allows us to play different roles in the story and experience it together. It’s almost as if the story is already there: all that’s needed is to be discovered! We explore it, externalize it through these images, sounds, and specific spaces. – Isla Badenoch

EXPERIMENTING WITH STORYTELLING INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY

“I now want to imagine my stories in a three-dimensional way, by stepping outside the computer, using physicality, and moving through space.”

The sequence of devices in THE FACTORY OF WORLDS demonstrates what space can bring to the composition of a story. I now want to imagine my stories in a three-dimensional way, by stepping outside the computer, using physicality, and moving through space to either experience the story as a character or perceive aspects I might not have otherwise considered. Our brains want to solve, find answers, only if we are allowed to play, discover, and change our way of thinking. – Isla Badenoch

THE UNEXPECTED IN STORYTELLING

“In these liminal spaces of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, designed like dreamscapes: anything can happen.”

When you sit down and write, you control everything and feel like the god of your own script! Whereas in these liminal spaces of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, designed like dreamscapes: anything can happen. It’s a very mental exercise to question how we want to embody our characters, but with the body, we can lose ourselves, we can fi nd other ways of doing things. By combining the body, thought, and space in this context, discomforts are created that provoke disturbances and revelations. – Gabrielle Brady

REGRESSION AND TRANSGRESSION IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE STORY

“It’s really important that the space created to act out the story be a safe space for taking risks.”

There’s something transgressive about playing with the story. It’s really important that the space created for acting be a safe space; that’s what keeps it a game and allows for risks to be taken. – Wendy Ross

It’s a luxury to give adults the opportunity to play, but to play like children, that is, to allow the expression of collective spontaneity. – Yves Sarfati

GIVING TEXTURE TO THE NARRATIVE

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS: A protocol for exploring and investigating narratives.”

THE FACTORY OF WORLDS creates an exploration protocol that borders on investigation, a true inquiry. We track the story we are building, gradually off ering insights from which we can build. We move beyond the written word to enter into the spatialization of the idea, through visualization, sensation, and the surprise it provokes, to give texture to the narrative. With the Cave, we begin the composition of the narrative by ruling out possibilities, then with the Black Room, we refocus and work on feelings and interiority. And from there, the characters we saw appearing at the very beginning emerge, and we begin to enter into these characters, step by step. – Théo Gorin

GIVING TEXTURE TO THE STORY

“What is remarkable, throughout the experimental designs of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, is the ability to listen to the world.”

What is remarkable, throughout the experimental designs of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, is the ability to listen to the world, to have this capacity to truly see what one produces and to understand how this inner vision is expressed externally, and how this expression informs the way in which one begins to think about the story. – Michael Hanchett Hanson

NARRATING THE STORY TO COMPOSE IT

“By not just being a camera, the author, as a screenwriter, wanders through their own world.”

In THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, it’s about an inner journey of the story, where we digest it within ourselves, then a work of publicization, where we share the story as it is being composed, with four possibilities for storytelling: positioning ourselves as an external narrator, a character in a situation, a character who narrates and describes, or a narrator who wanders—by not just being a camera, but truly the author who, as a screenwriter, wanders through their own world. – Théo Gorin

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE NARRATIVE IS COMPOSED

“ Throughout the experiences, a kind of narrative music is collectively created, where everyone expresses themselves within the overall process, with a more or less instrumental and percussive rhythm.”

In THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, through the experiences, a kind of narrative music is collectively created, where everyone expresses themselves within the overall process, with a more or less instrumental and percussive rhythm: there is probably no right answer, but what matters is understanding how music, and therefore narrative, works. Understanding what happens when we do very short things, longer ones, and observing how people interact. – Michael Hanchett Hanson

THE URGENCY OF TRANSMITTING THE STORY

“ The urgency of sharing becomes the driving force behind the composition of the story.”

The question of the urgency of sharing is essential because it becomes the driving force behind the composition of the story within THE FACTORY OF WORLDS. Beyond fear, if we ask someone to come on stage, they will inevitably speak, and something will be expressed, and the story will be composed. By creating emergency situations, we step out of our comfort zone to allow for letting go, by distancing ourselves from self-judgment and being fully immersed in what we are producing. Associated with the long term, urgency allows us to activate time for ourselves and deploy it to be able to produce the materials for the story. – Théo Gorin

THE SEEDS OF THE STORY

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS, where ideas or what we call narrative motifs, that is, story elements, can emerge.”

The three experimental devices of THE FACTORY OF WORLDS are like crutches, a kind of aid, designed to foster a state in which ideas or what we call narrative motifs, that is, story elements, can emerge. A complete story won’t emerge immediately. We pull, we unfold, and it doesn’t matter if there’s no story: there are seeds of the story. – Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

BEING BETWEEN THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE NARRATIVE IN COMPOSITION

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS transports us into an almost hypnagogic state, that unique moment between waking and falling asleep.”

THE FACTORY OF WORLDS plunges each of us into a unique state that comes as close as possible to the hypnagogic situation, that moment when we are between waking and falling asleep. We are between the two, between that moment when we are not completely awake, thinking, assessing, judging, and rationalizing everything that is happening, and that moment when we are not completely outside it either… and it is precisely there that ideas spring forth. – Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

COLLECTIVE APPROPRIATION OF THE STORY FACTORY

“A real, fruitful uncertainty sets in, until the first building blocks of the story emerge.”

THE FACTORY OF WORLDS requires collective familiarization: not everyone moves at the same speed, not everyone reacts in the same way to the same stimuli, obviously… A real, fruitful uncertainty then sets in, until the first building blocks of the story emerge. We then see the components of the story emerge in completely unexpected ways. e process is co-creative: something happens, we all participate in the creation, and it works in turn. – Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

HUMOR AS AN ACCELERATOR OF STORYTELLING

“THE FACTORY OF WORLDS made me realize how important humor is, and by offering these safe spaces, we can go further.”

I saw a lot of humor emerge, and humor seemed to be really important in maintaining safe experiences. Whenever someone felt like they weren’t succeeding, there was laughter, not tears. ere was a lot of laughter. And it made me realize how important humor is, and by offering these safe spaces, we can go further. – Wendy Ross

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME, A RETURN TO THE ORIGINS OF THE STORY

“And there, the journey in the company of everyone else is a co-creation, a co-journey!”

I’m struck by the fact that THE FACTORY OF WORLDS appeared to me as a journey through time, a return to the origins. The passage from the Cave—which is actually a greenhouse—to the Black Room, which is a black yurt, is done in exactly the opposite direction of the path that actually took place in the evolution of North Eurasian and North American shamanism. ere are two types of shamanism, the one with the light tent and the one with the dark tent, with the same idea of taking a journey but using different techniques. On the one hand, in the light tent, there’s a shaman—a specialist and professional in writing and sharing the journey. He’s standing, and everyone is sitting and watching him. And no one participates other than by watching, by listening, like a show. The journey is thus perceived as an imaginary journey. However, for him, the journey really exists, and to convey his journey, he is obliged to speak, to explain, to say what he sees, to mime, and therefore to move in space as well. The relationship between the shaman and the audience is here a hierarchical one.

On the other hand, the black tent corresponds to an older period, because we know that there was an evolution of shamanism: we moved from the dark tent to the light tent. In the dark tent, in the darkness, the shaman can be anyone. And the one playing the role of the shaman lies in the center of the tent, the others are around. It is therefore a heterarchical relationship, that is, a type of relationship that favors horizontality and not a vertical relationship. And here, the journey in the company of all the others is a co-creation, a co-journey. – Jean-Loïc Le Quellec