Clara Ziegler, KASTING
July 2022
Clara Ziegler, graduate of a DSAA Fashion – Image, Media, Editorial at the Duperré school since June 2022, works on styling, the creation of the image through clothing and staging. For her graduation diploma, she presents KASTING; the transcription of a performance in a theater in the 10th arrondissement of Paris which features auditions.
Temple Magazine
How did you write these stereotypical characters in Kasting?
Clara Ziegler
For 2 years I have been working on the stereotypical figure of people that we can meet in the street, that I observe in the train, at school, on vacation... These are archetypes of characters and people who are part of my everyday life and environment, both in my family and in my city (Reims). These characters I had already explored before but without staging them. We can discover in Kasting: the truckers, the bimbo, the stay-at-home mother, the football supporters… I wanted them to be recognizable, to be identified and recognized through details of their clothing and their gestures.
Temple Magazine
About the style chosen, is it your trompe l'oeil collection?
Clara Ziegler
I collect a lot of things including trompe l’oeil style clothes because I have always loved it. It was perfectly in line with the idea of giving an important place to clothing in my video, whether it is a partner in the game and the actor, it becomes an actor in its own right. Trompe l'oeil is the perfect tool to create this pretense and ambiguity of character change.
Temple Magazine
It puts in a questioning, and gives a rather captivating aspect.
Clara Ziegler
Yes it is effective, at first glance we do not understand exactly what we see.
The choice of my archetypes was also guided by the trompe l'oeil clothes that I could find.
Temple Magazine
By your choices of direction, hand-held camera, static shot... what did you want to create as a sensation?
Clara Ziegler
I had in reference the recording of the show "Public" by Mathilde Monnier. From the beginning I wanted this fixed shot where the camera is almost forgotten, this posed camera is also quite typical of castings which are continuously recording. This fixed and frontal shot takes up the point of view of the spectator, as if they were behind me. The mobile camera makes it possible to have this more spontaneous side, closer to the performers, the proximity gives a voyeur posture. I wanted to capture those awkward moments of solitude that you can find during a casting.
Temple Magazine
For your casting, the selected performers are acquaintances, friends…?
Clara Ziegler
The supporters are the only two real actors. Otherwise there is a bit of everything, a few people were already in my first "Kontakthof" video, others are friends or acquaintances and two are strangers whom I trusted. I selected them for their relevance to the character, others because they dance well...
Temple Magazine
This relationship to dancing in your work is also reminiscent of recordings by Pina Bausch, what difference would you make between playing and dancing?
Clara Ziegler
In Kasting there is no really difference, the dance at the end is as much part of the performance of the performers as of a spontaneous moment. Kasting has the same fuzzy boundary as Pina Bausch's dance-theatre, one of the fundamental references in my work. I "choreographed" everything in the film but it is difficult for me to use that word, I would rather say that I am doing the work of a movement director. I wanted to reduce the distance between the room and the stage so that we could capture the emotions of the performers, by accepting to keep the moments of discomfort, the long silences, the funniest moments. I wanted to show what was behind the scenes hence my presence in the corner of the video.
Temple Magazine
There are moments of improvisation, especially this final dance?
Clara Ziegler
It is improvised in the durations but the placements and their movements were already decided.Yet, I wanted them to feel free from this imposed movement, to be able to interpret it. Dancing has a very important place in my work, I do not conceive styling without movement or without including a way of being and moving.
Temple Magazine
Ideally, what would the installation, the presentation system of your video look like?
Clara Ziegler
For my diploma at Duperré, I wanted the video to be projected to participate in the cinematographic side and the staging of a performance space, TV being able to refer more to the domestic space of the living room. For the presentation of my video at space 3537, it will be on a TV this time for reasons of legibility quite limited by the projection. The clothes rack is initially part of my scenography, I will surely remove it and pin the trompe l'oeil clothes to the wall which are clothes-images, everything happens on the surface like posters. I want to hang them like metal fanboy t-shirts.
Temple Magazine
Is the music score at the end your favorite song?
Clara Ziegler
I have been trying to place this music in my work for years. I listen to it every day, no one around me can stand it anymore. Basically, I didn't want any music in my film, but it was a way to energize the end and accompany the dancing of the girls.
Clara Ziegler, graduate of a DSAA Fashion - Image, Media, Editorial at the Duperré school since June 2022, works on styling, the creation of the image through clothing and staging. For her graduation diploma, she presents KASTING; the transcription of a performance in a theater in the 10th arrondissement of Paris which features auditions.
Temple Magazine
How did you write these stereotypical characters in Kasting?
Clara Ziegler
For 2 years I have been working on the stereotypical figure of people that we can meet in the street, that I observe in the train, at school, on vacation... These are archetypes of characters and people who are part of my everyday life and environment, both in my family and in my city (Reims). These characters I had already explored before but without staging them. We can discover in Kasting: the truckers, the bimbo, the stay-at-home mother, the football supporters… I wanted them to be recognizable, to be identified and recognized through details of their clothing and their gestures.
Temple Magazine
About the style chosen, is it your trompe l'oeil collection?
Clara Ziegler
I collect a lot of things including trompe l’oeil style clothes because I have always loved it. It was perfectly in line with the idea of giving an important place to clothing in my video, whether it is a partner in the game and the actor, it becomes an actor in its own right. Trompe l'oeil is the perfect tool to create this pretense and ambiguity of character change.
Temple Magazine
It puts in a questioning, and gives a rather captivating aspect.
Clara Ziegler
Yes it is effective, at first glance we do not understand exactly what we see.
The choice of my archetypes was also guided by the trompe l'oeil clothes that I could find.
Temple Magazine
By your choices of direction, hand-held camera, static shot... what did you want to create as a sensation?
Clara Ziegler
I had in reference the recording of the show "Public" by Mathilde Monnier. From the beginning I wanted this fixed shot where the camera is almost forgotten, this posed camera is also quite typical of castings which are continuously recording. This fixed and frontal shot takes up the point of view of the spectator, as if they were behind me. The mobile camera makes it possible to have this more spontaneous side, closer to the performers, the proximity gives a voyeur posture. I wanted to capture those awkward moments of solitude that you can find during a casting.
Temple Magazine
For your casting, the selected performers are acquaintances, friends…?
Clara Ziegler
The supporters are the only two real actors. Otherwise there is a bit of everything, a few people were already in my first "Kontakthof" video, others are friends or acquaintances and two are strangers whom I trusted. I selected them for their relevance to the character, others because they dance well...
Temple Magazine
This relationship to dancing in your work is also reminiscent of recordings by Pina Bausch, what difference would you make between playing and dancing?
Clara Ziegler
In Kasting there is no really difference, the dance at the end is as much part of the performance of the performers as of a spontaneous moment. Kasting has the same fuzzy boundary as Pina Bausch's dance-theatre, one of the fundamental references in my work. I "choreographed" everything in the film but it is difficult for me to use that word, I would rather say that I am doing the work of a movement director. I wanted to reduce the distance between the room and the stage so that we could capture the emotions of the performers, by accepting to keep the moments of discomfort, the long silences, the funniest moments. I wanted to show what was behind the scenes hence my presence in the corner of the video.
Temple Magazine
There are moments of improvisation, especially this final dance?
Clara Ziegler
It is improvised in the durations but the placements and their movements were already decided.Yet, I wanted them to feel free from this imposed movement, to be able to interpret it. Dancing has a very important place in my work, I do not conceive styling without movement or without including a way of being and moving.
Temple Magazine
Ideally, what would the installation, the presentation system of your video look like?
Clara Ziegler
For my diploma at Duperré, I wanted the video to be projected to participate in the cinematographic side and the staging of a performance space, TV being able to refer more to the domestic space of the living room. For the presentation of my video at space 3537, it will be on a TV this time for reasons of legibility quite limited by the projection. The clothes rack is initially part of my scenography, I will surely remove it and pin the trompe l'oeil clothes to the wall which are clothes-images, everything happens on the surface like posters. I want to hang them like metal fanboy t-shirts.
Temple Magazine
Is the music score at the end your favorite song?
Clara Ziegler
I have been trying to place this music in my work for years. I listen to it every day, no one around me can stand it anymore. Basically, I didn't want any music in my film, but it was a way to energize the end and accompany the dancing of the girls.
Art direction, styling
Clara Ziegler
Camera
Céleste Moneger
Stylist assistant
Mélodie Plaga-Lemanski, Lorraine Kurylo, Mirabelle Perot
Make up
Mirabelle Perot
Technical Manager
Esther Balibar
Photography
Emma Boudon
Production
Louis Hallard
Performers
Clara Eon Baudry, Océane Philippe, Aurélie Phiev, Théodore Lagrange, Mathis Josselin, Gabriel Levie, Mia Gosset, Cloé Barbier, Malou Alaguerateguy, Evelina Jakobsson Potenciano
Music
From Disco To Disco - Whirpool Production
Special thanks to Maeva Lamriki and the Center Paris Anim’ Jean Verdie
