This week, Jordan takes us behind the scenes of his short feature film, A Walk Down to Water. He and director Levi Holwell discuss the gear they chose for the production, as well as the importance of camera movement in storytelling.
Want to see the entire film? You can watch it here.
Beautiful cinematography, those oniric ocean shots are beautiful. Kudos to Jordan.
However...
The director describes the story like this: "The protagonist struggles to navigate his way through a world where indifference is abundant and empathy is scarce..."
but he shows exactly the opposite.
First, a girl gives him a thank you card... her mom is very nice to him when apparently he barely knows her... his wife has a nice phone conversation even when he woked her up the middle of the night.
I don't see the struggle.
And I don't see why the old man's death is relevant to the story.
This is a gentle, thoughtful, slow (European Style - reminded me of the Wild Pear Tree, which I saw last week) beautifully felt movie. Well done. I loved the contstant tension of feeling that the foreign guy on the front desk may be treated with suspicion over the guest's death. His humanity, gentle steadyness and sensitivity presented a character to admire and the reciprocal connection of his son on the other side of the world sensing that something disturbing was happening added poignancy to the distance. I loved the way that the red head guest was shot talking about her excess belongings while her head was tipped against the door frame. Gorgeous. The seascapes with the voiceover were so good, the father's gently probing questions over the phone and the mother's generous sensitive replies. Such a pleasure. You guys did good, real good.
"I loved the contstant tension of feeling that the foreign guy on the front desk may be treated with suspicion over the guest's death."
At no time did I feel the tension you described about the protagonist worrying about being treated with suspicion over the renter's death. This is an interesting example of how audiences' unique life experiences shape perceptions and affect what they see projected on a screen, which represents both a challenge and opportunity for screenwriters/directors telling a story. A challenge because those perceptions risk telling a different story than what the author envisioned - an opportunity because such perceptions can be skillfully used to surprise audiences with plot that works against those perceptions. There's actually a book written on this - it's called "The Science of Screenwriting - The Neuroscience Behind Storytelling Strategies"
Yes, I empathised a great deal with him. I felt that he was both caring and vulnerable. People take different things away from stories...and that's fine. I am aware of the book but haven't read it.
I like the overall tone but there's several things that are missing for me. One, there's no tie-in between the woman with kids and the dead guest. Just watching the EMTs roll the body past them for some kind of reaction would have integrated them in the story. Even for a short movie I feel like it fails to circle around the main story line.
The second is that if you arrived at a motel with a car's worth of stuff, how would you lose the space to take it with you? Without any kind of lead-in, that seems awfully construed to bring the protagonist's family into it.
Third is the whole family thing, why is he working in a US motel calling home to his family in Europe? You managed to give a weak lead that he's got a son, but yet failed to say a few more words so it made sense.
Unless it's just too deep for me and the guy who dies alone in a motel means absolutely nothing at all. Which I suppose could be the intent, but then it's hidden too deep for my liking. I just don't get the message.
Your discussion was 6 seconds too short to bet out the length of the film. Not sure how I feel about it. The tone and message where good. But the acting, staging and dialogue was not great.
I love it. It takes courage to make a 'simple' film - nowhere to hide. It also requires a bit of courage from the audience to admit that, yeah, that's my life there on the screen as well.
P.S.: I have a feeling I have seen one of the up and coming actresses somewhere on this website before!!! Are you guys really THAT inseparable??? True love! P.P.S. I also enjoyed your little pluck for character in a lens, and how to add it back in - if you have to with some glycerin. I have started liking my crappiest lenses the most.
Wonderful, well done. Takes me back to my college days and the art houses of Santa Monica; and now a rediscovery of independent film making, which I will support. Jordan and Levi, excellent commentaries. More...please.
I like the cinematography not just because of Dpreview's friends LoL The light, the pictures in the moving ... I watched it on 4K TV/Monitor and it excels! Thumbs up !! Unfortunately I can't seem to follow through the movie it (story aka script) is just plain and pale to me. I guess indeed it is a short film but I thought an extra short scene with the dead man before his death could only add more value to the story, especially if we let him have some interactions with lady's young kids, this could broader the "contrast" and so on. The lady's last "thank you" was a bit redundant and I believe it is better she just did the final "look" at the guy.
Some people are quick to dismiss Canadian film and television, but every once in awhile the Canuck’s do strike gold.
For example, my favorite comedy troupe of all time are the Kids In The Hall from Toronto who had a TV show that aired widely in the US on HBO and Comedy Central during the early 90’s. Highly recommended if you haven’t ever seen or heard of them.
Kudos to all those involved! Having made several short films myself I appreciate the effort it takes to make a film like this. And congrats on the recognition the piece has garnered. Stylistically I appreciate the choices. The production value, acting and directing are also to be acknowledged. Some of the editing choices threw me a little. But the big challenge for me was the story itself. The movie is described as "our protagonist struggles to navigate his way through a world where indifference is abundant and empathy is scarce." I must have missed something there because I get almost the exact opposite. For instance, the woman's "Thank you" gesture is not at all born out of indifference. And the protagonist himself clearly shows he's not indifferent or lacking empathy - again, almost the opposite. With regard both to the female motel guest and the woman on the phone, some flash to the details of the relationship would have also been helpful. Wishing you guys all the best!
Contrary to the headline, the story isn't better because of the cinematography. It might be told better because of the cinematography, but that's quite a different matter. Sorry.
I watched the short film . The opening with the line of light no matter how hard it was to shoot made no sense. If it was supposed to be an opening door then I’d have shown that . The music was odd with it also . All the hotel work was pretty decent. It gave me a feeling of uneasiness most of the time . Scene changes seemed odd or off at times by not leading me into the next though or action . Then when you go to Sweden I at one point started to get into the movie to where I didn’t read the words . But then the scene changes didn’t flow with the intended mood . They were too fast and when changing scenes and there was a odd fake swaying or shaking of the scenes. First it doesn’t allow for a smooth (somber) (the mood) scene change . Then changing before establishing the feeling of the scene . The “walk” should have lead me to the sea . It looked like wiggling photos .
That line from the movie sums up experience. I really wish I could find something positive to say but it just didn't work on any level for me. The pacing of everything was off - the actors moved with unnatural speed, the cuts lingered for beats too long, the reactions to dialogue were mis-timed and puzzling, and the scenes began too early or late.
The cinematography tried too hard to replace the connection and conflict missing in the script. Too many brooding cinematic cues in place of what the action and dialogue should have achieved. Reminded me of Gardenstate.
The lighting wasn't real and I don't mean the ethereal parts. When the hero looks out across the property from inside the office the reflected light on his face is too dark even though he's looking out a window in daytime.
The audio level transitions are jarring, like when the hero and mother peek into her apartment to discuss the toys left behind.
The production has talented people but they are all trying really hard to make themselves known and instead of watching a story you're watching a cameraman, an actor etc.
No one cares about camera moves, they want to see a story. It's like worrying about resolution or dynamic range too much, you miss the point which is telling a story.
Not so much a film as a poem. The lead actor's near total lack of expression is actually quite powerful -- numbing, appropriate. Thanks for stepping outside the box on this one, Jordan. A rare look for some of us behind the curtain...
Watched the movie, didn’t watch the behind the scenes. Enjoyed it, good short. Would perhaps say it was a bit over graded or a bit heavy on the contrast, a bit more like stills than movies, and I suspect it was shot on the east coast and not in any Slavic speaking country, judging by dunes and foliage
One thing I noticed is that in big budget movies, there is always some slight camera shake, even in scenes where there is otherwise no camera movement. I almost never see scenes where the camera is completely static.
I wonder what the reasons are for cinematographers to go this way.
It certainly does feel more "cinematic" to me, but that might just be because I have been getting used to every film maker doing it this way.
I'd be really interested in hearing some rationales for this!
It is often used to indicate you are - as the viewer - in the place of someone from the cast - rather than just a camera looking at a scene.
Usually if you - as the viewer - take the place of a suspicious character this is indicated by greater shake.
50% of shake is simulated in post to match those shots that have 'natural' shake, as sometimes there more control on a tripod - yet the directors want all the shots to have some shake.
Often 'shake' is over-done these days, it's best application is when you don't notice it.
Handheld can make a shot more immersive, especially when it's supposed to duplicate a character's point of view. I think it's more commonly used now to add a bit of tension to a shot.
Levi and and I made the choice to reserve handheld shots for when the children are the focus of a shot. It reinforces that the adults are rigidly guarding what's going on, where the kids are uninhibited.
I see you guys have the same issues with Vimeo as I do.
I edit and grade my footage, all looks great, then I upload to Vimeo and the gamma is knocked down - to the extent it looks like I graded badly - too dark!! It's been a known issue with Vimeo for years. Even the black level 'master pedestal' seems to drop. The only work-around I've found is to lower the contrast and raise the brightness at the encoding stage - but only when it's delivery is for Vimeo.
did you collaborate on some macaroni pictures in kindergarten ?
the film looks to be good.. saw the trailer so far .....and its easy to forget the stuff you have to consider on every shot ... i look foward to watching it
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