Points of Assembly
A documentary show about how the city shapes
a person and how a person shapes the city.
I’m looking for the places and founders
who want to be part of it.
A place and its maker shape each other.
Every place in the city starts as one person’s interest, taste or stubborn idea. Then the city works on its maker in return: on their work, their free time, their habits. Almost nobody tells that second half.
I look at both sides.
How the city changed the founder, and what the founder changed in the city: a café, a studio, a gastrobar. We talk at your place, and I film it on an ordinary day.
Person, place, mechanism.
Every episode runs in this order.
01
Person
Why this person did it at all.
02
Place
What appeared in the city.
03
Place
What appeared in the city.
No episode ends with a happy ending.
Problem
A standard interview turns the founder into an exhibit and leaves out everything that went wrong.
Idea
I took three of Kurt Vonnegut’s story shapes and stacked them: the climb, the hole, the horizon. The last act stays open on purpose.
Solution
Each script has three acts and four turning points, for example the first week the hero stood in the room instead of behind the bar.
Result
Scripts and interview questions are written for the first three heroes. Filming starts in [month].
A logo built from a circle and a line.
Problem
Moscow city media look either like a glossy magazine or like a city hall website.
Idea
A city assembled from people, so a logotype assembled from two shapes. The dot also works alone: avatar, map pin, rubric mark.
Solution
One stroke weight for every letter (the draft varied by 22%), four lockups, colour limited to black, white and a signal blue for actions.
Result
One system for video titles, print, social posts and the map.
The first 18 seconds are the hero’s.
Problem
Interview shows open with the host, the logo and a jingle.
Idea
Ours opens with a line from the hero, before any title or music.
Solution
Lower thirds on a grid of 1/36 of the frame height, chapter cards for person, place and mechanism, and a four-minute block near the end where the music cuts out.
Result
Title presets for horizontal and vertical video, ready before the first shoot.
The first three heroes.
Yura Yakovlev
Co-founder of Piri Piri on Petrovka.
Olesya Volkhonskaya
Perfumer, founder of VLH.
Kristina Artemkina
Co-founder of Meteorite bistro and KIP gastrobar.
Where the story goes after the episode.
Episode
20–30 minutes, on YouTube and VK Video
Vertical clips
30–60 seconds, cut from the sharpest moment of the story
Telegram
The path step by step: programs, grants, deadlines
Map of Assembly
Your place as a dot, with the year it opened
Almanac
A printed page in «Moscow. Aesthetics»
Zine
A printed collection with interviews and photos
What it takes from you.
One day
At your place, plus an honest conversation.
In return
The episode, [3–5] short verticals you can post yourself, your place on the Map of Assembly and a page in the printed almanac.
How it works.
1. I come by for coffee. Forty minutes, no camera.
2. You get the questions in advance.
3. Filming takes one day: one camera, a clip-on mic, your place on an ordinary day.
4. You check the facts before release.
5. The episode comes out and your place gets its dot on the map.
Why work with me.
