SWOON NYC | 5 CROSBY STREET | NEW YORK, NY 10013
IF YOU WAIT KODAK FACTORY FILM TREATMENT May 19th, 2015
(212) 203 9679 | studio@swoonnyc.com
INTRODUCTION Emails, instant messaging, 140 characters statements, Uber, self checkouts, dating apps… welcome to instant-gratification 21st century lifestyle. The process of photography and cinematography have also radically changed in the last few years. What was once an art of balance and patience is now in everyone’s pocket. But neither unlimited pictures storage, nor electronic assisted focus and exposure make a good photograph or film. Something else is needed. In this short film, we see this dichotomy in play in real time. Our two opposing forces are Robi and Vinny. We see Robi -the blond girl- as a slow, methodical, ethereal force that shapes the process that creates film. She wanders through Kodak’s factory smoothly weaving through walls, objects and the very people who craft the film stock from start to finish inside the old building. A shadow crosses her path, but she almost doesn’t see it. It’s Vinny -the dark haired boy- who stands in contrast to Robi. He moves fast, without calculation in wild motions. His expressive dancing in this film will represent the modernizing forces that have changed Kodak over the years. While modernity indeed moves at a breakneck speed, this is not all a bad thing. In this film, we will explore how the old Kodak, Robi, interacts with the modern Kodak, represented by Vinny.
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THE STORY Beginning on opposite ends of the factory, Vinny and Robi challenger each in their own respective elements. Vinny dances with abandon in his signature style where one never knows what’s coming next. He moves with passion and apparent carelessness over the floor, in the air, and on the machines. At this point Vinny is a destructive force. Opposite Vinny, literally, is Robi. She contemplates each maneuver and moves as if she’s afraid to take the next step. She reaches out in a desperate attempt to express her emotions at all costs. She leans on walls, tortured by her creativity. As the two dancers move across the factory approaching one another, we punctuate the dancers with shots of the beautiful machinery, some of it so old it’s been used since the early last century, but others at the cutting edge of technology. They move through the space, interacting with the machines. Robi touches the modern machines; Vinny touches the older machines. The two finally see each other, and we see a spark. They are intrigued by one another, captivated. Soon, our characters are dancing together in an eruption of emotion and movements. They subvert each other and try to feel the other out. Progressively they learn to complement each other, working together to create a beautiful dance routine unlike what we have seen before from either of them. We are able to see how the old and the new can combine to create unexpected, film worthy, beauty.
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LIGHTING The lighting in this film changes as the story progresses. What was once dark and mysterious begins to take shape and to come into detail as the two dancers approach one another. Robi will always have a softer, more flattering light while Vinny’s face will be shaped by contrasting shadows, representing the vast uncertainty of modernity. As the two approach each other, leading to the film’s culmination, the light begins to move with them, using strobes to give the light the same sense of movement that the dancers embody. The flashes will also be reminiscent of Kodak’s long history of photography, a history we are seeing played out right before in the form of these two brilliant dancers.
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CINEMATOGRAPHY Because of all the inherent movement in this film, the camera itself will also have to be moving. The camera will need to move as much as possible. We will not have any shots tied down to a tripod because like a factory, dancing involves constant movement. We’ll use two different “pencils”: 1. Kubrick’s one-point perspective combined with steadicam shots will be used to provide a smooth and stable camera. Since the factory is vast and provides such deep angles, deeply focused shots will be used to capture the full breadth of the facility. 2. As the dance choreography grows in intensity, the organic quality of handheld will be more present in the closeup shots, allowing for the bumps and shakes sometimes associated with that style, much like film is associated with slight aberrations and grains. This style will also blend seamlessly with Kodak’s archive materials we’ll also use in the final cut as transitions.
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SWOON NYC | 5 CROSBY STREET | NEW YORK, NY 10013 (212) 203 9679 | studio@swoonnyc.com