A raw and intimate documentary filmed in Estonia, Yasmyn: Clarity for a Day or Two traces the early adult years of emerging singer YASMYN. Vita Pictura led feature documentary production and post, from capturing the everyday to premiering at top festivals. The result is a music documentary shaped by closeness, constraint, and quiet resilience.
The Brief & Stakes
This was no commission. Vita Pictura developed and self-financed Clarity for a Day or Two from the ground up. The vision: a candid, observational documentary that mirrors a personal video diary-tracking Yasmyn’s rising music career and shifting inner world during a time of global uncertainty.
Filmed across two turbulent years in Estonia, the team had to weave intimacy and distance, artifice and honesty. With no backing studio, maintaining authenticity while meeting a professional standard required deliberate, minimalistic choices.
Festivals were the finish line. The project needed to resonate beyond borders-visually, emotionally, and narratively.
Our Approach
We approached the documentary with an observational discipline and the lightest possible footprint. Small field crews allowed for trust to grow naturally across time and space, often filming inside Yasmyn’s home or rehearsal spaces, where real emotion led the frame.
Key elements of our approach:
- Verité fieldwork during COVID: Safe, flexible filming in limited environments-but always present.
- Creative co-authorship: Directors Anastasia Zazhitskaya and Georgius Misjura shaped scenes collaboratively, respecting both subject and spontaneity.
- Own the full pipeline: From script development through in-house post, Vita Pictura maintained full creative and technical control.
Marketing was lean but purposeful. We cut trailers, bloopers, and derivative micro-content early, ensuring consistency across the festival campaign and social channels.
Behind the Edit & Mix
Every choice in post served the film’s emotional truth and structural rhythm:
- Slow, observational edits gave room to silence, letting vulnerability surface organically. No cut was rushed; sequences breathe.
- Sound mix leaned into the ambient, allowing everyday moments-jacket zips, tea mugs, vocal warmups-to place us inside Yasmyn’s world.
- Color grading stayed close to life but slightly softened shadows, reinforcing the sense of private hours unfolding.
- Recurrence of space and ritual-returning to the same studios or streets-gave the edit architectural memory, making the timeline malleable but grounded.
- In-house post pipeline meant tighter feedback loops and on-time final delivery for the 2023/2024 festival season.
- Motion design for credits and ID assets kept visual consistency from title cards to promotional trailers.
Results & Impact
Clarity for a Day or Two drew warm reception on both sides of the Atlantic:
- World Premiere: Chelsea Film Festival in New York, October 2023-selected as the official closing film.
- European Premiere: Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), November 2023.
- The feature continued on the festival circuit through 2024. Audience responses and media coverage: not provided.
Credits
- Directors/Writers: Anastasia Zazhitskaya, Georgius Misjura
- Production & Post: Vita Pictura
- Subject: Yasmyn (YASMYN)
Pro Tips for Feature Documentary Production
Thinking of making your own festival-ready documentary? Keep these in mind:
- Earn trust, don’t demand it. Small crews returning over time will unlock more than any script.
- Edit with structure in mind. Even observational films need visual anchors: key spaces, activities, and rhythms.
- Stay agile in post. Controlling your pipeline keeps a self-funded, indie doc nimble when festival deadlines approach.
- Cut promos early. Teasers and reels should evolve alongside the film-be ready before your premiere.
- Let the style follow the subject. Don’t overproduce; let your lens echo your character’s inner state.
Get in Touch!
Want your story told with emotional clarity and visual precision? Contact Vita Pictura to start.
