Periodical: A Celebration of Menstruation and Menopause Starring Gloria Steinem and Naomi Watts
Telling the unexpected story of the menstrual cycle, Periodical - a documentary by director Lina Lyte Plioplyte - stars the likes of Gloria Steinem, Naomi Watts, Anna Konkle and Megan Rapinoe alongside a diverse range of women to advocate for and challenge taboos around periods.
The film, which premiered at SXSW in Austin, celebrates menstruation and menopause by breaking down the stigma historically tied to the female body through innovative mixed media storytelling.
In this interview, Therapy Studios colourist Celene Curlee and sound designer Dillon Cahill chat to LBB about their creative work on this groundbreaking project.
LBB> Periodical must have been a great project to work on. What did you most love about the brief or process?
Dillon> The director Lina wasn’t afraid to try sounds that were unexpected or might make people uncomfortable, which I really appreciated. We kind of threw everything at the wall and most of it stuck, which was a lot of fun creatively. Some of the topics in the film may be considered taboo and it's cool to be part of breaking all of those notions down with sound.
LBB> Colour and sound were integral to the piece. Tell us about how you were involved.
Celene> As we were starting to discuss the look of Periodical, we talked about having the overall grade be soft in contrast, lean more towards purple and pink hues, and really accentuate saturation on certain elements within the footage. Lina the director wanted everything to sort of live in a hyper-stylised world which I immediately was drawn to. I loved that it was a more unconventional route to take for colouring a documentary.
Since we wanted to add in purple, red, and pink hues, I got creative with how to incorporate them in different scenes by either saturating specific objects, adding in a subtle amount of pink to the vignettes, and putting a touch of pink in the midtones for certain shots to give them warmth.
Dillon> Sound was also a driving force. Off the bat, from the beginning sequence, it sets the tone of the film really intentionally and uniquely with the Wet Leg track, “Chaise Lounge”.
There’s sound design throughout helping drive the entire piece of course, but we had a great time crafting individual specific themes for the titles and all of the animating visuals. The animation segments with the talking uterus were a lot of fun to design.
From recreating the foley and ambiences for B-reel shots to designing all the archival sound design and titles, the sound design and mix is integral in helping push the story forward in a playful and interesting way.
LBB> What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you find a solution?
Celene> The biggest challenge of this project was trying to keep a cohesive look across all of the footage. We had so many different types of interview and B-roll footage, so in order to keep everything cohesive we found a way to incorporate the look in different subtle ways depending on the image.
Dillon> There was a lot of sound design and dialogue editing that went into the film, which especially for a documentary can be very challenging and rewarding to make all the different pieces come together seamlessly and cohesively. It was also rewarding to work on subject matter so eye-opening for people and I actually learned a lot along the way.
LBB> What are you most proud of with this particular project?
Celene> I am most proud of the grade that I achieved on a lot of the interview footage in this project. All of the footage was really well shot and designed so as a colourist it was really fun to work with. This was also the first feature film that I colour graded and I am so proud to be a part of a project with such an important and empowering message behind it that I resonate with so deeply.
Dillon> I’m very happy with the end result. The team we worked with were super cool and opened the door for me to get creative and playful, and explore tons of possibilities before working through it all together. There’s a few animated eggs that they even let me voice myself!
