If I've been particularly unproductive over the last few months here at Are the Hills Going To March Off? and elsewhere on the blogosphere, it's because I've been working tirelessly on my latest short film (well, if you can call 27 minutes short), entitled Wind Through the Cradle, in order to prepare it for a few festivals. I am now finished with the film, which I co-directed with a good friend of mine, Michael Basta. It was shot in Antrim, NH this past April, and stars Clifford Blake and Natasha Mogilevskaya. Mike and I both handled almost everything from pre-production to post, with the exception of a wonderful crew that assisted during the shoot. It's tough to talk a lot about one's own work, understandably, and at the risk of involving myself in too much shameless self-promotion, I'll keep the expository detail to a minimum. As far as the film itself goes, I'll let my own blurb on IMDB do the talking:
"A retired writer (Clifford Blake) who once had a passionate intellectual following has since retreated to the woods to live in complete isolation. Wind Through the Cradle involves the arrival of his distant relative, a young journalist (Natasha Mogilevskaya) for an unspecified source who comes to immerse herself in his lifestyle and probe his inner being in an attempt to bring his enigma to public light. A tension builds as the journalist stays for longer than intended, which builds to a deeply ambiguous climax. Told with languorous narrative rhythms, minimal dialogue, and a graceful observational camera, Wind Through the Cradle is a mysterious examination of the limits of familial bonds in the foreboding silence of the forest."
Blah, blah, blah. That's the gist. My purpose in posting this is 1) to explain why my posts have, for the most part, been few and far between, and 2) to hopefully prompt some of my readers to see it for themselves. I'd of course love to hear any feedback you might have, so if you're compelled, please leave a comment (or two!) on this post, or shoot me an email at the address kept in my blogger profile. I really look forward to anything you might have to say!
Wind Through the Cradle can be found here.
11 comments:
Congratulations, Carson. I look forward to watching this.
Does (or did) Natasha come into the library much? Bruce and I are trying to figure out if we recognize her or if she just resembles one of our reference librarians.
A pretty nice effort for a first film and on what I assume was a tight budget. I'm not sure if there was a "message" I missed... it almost felt like it was part of something bigger.
I don't think that she would have come in. She lives in Boston now and I don't believe she ever lived in New England prior. Funny thought.
Just to clarify, this isn't actually my first film. I've made several smaller, shorter works, but this is the first time I've made something with actors outside of my circle of friends. Actually, I manage to make all my films with no budget really, except for the costs of food (and in this case, we made a dolly). I've been lucky enough to have a lot of resources at my disposal, so I never need to pay much of anything. Also, I tend towards quiet, introspective material, which assures I won't need to be blowing anything up.
I certainly don't like to get "message-y" with my work, but there were definitely broader themes I was using here. I just prefer to keep them bubbling away under the surface, prioritizing and respecting the physical reality of the story before getting too manipulative or symbolic.
Yes, Bruce mentioned to me you'd done previous work. Are your other films posted online as well?
Congratulations! That's a great achievement !! :)
I look forward to watching it - probably this WE - and tell you my impressions!
Please tell us if it's going to be in any festival (btw, I hadn't thought at all that your posts were scarce or anything...:)
Thanks, Ceci.
Loren, you can look here and here for more of my work, both collaborative and personal. A lot of it is pretty old, and I'm not quite fond of it anymore, but there's still a couple of films floating around in there that I'm proud of.
Let me know if this ends up on you tube. Vimeo isn't cooperating with my older mac. Thank you.
Upload this on YouTube whenever you get the chance, Carson. I'd love to watch this.
Thanks, Adam. The problem with YouTube is that they only allow up to ten minutes of video, meaning we would have to segment this film into three parts, which is detrimental to the experience I think. I don't know if we will end up uploading it there, and everything about Vimeo is preferable - higher quality, minimal design, no advertisements, and they offer the original source file for download. But, now that you and Iammine are asking for a YouTube cut, I'll have to think about it.
Carson,
I hear, understand and agree with your reluctance for youtube. I'll make some time in the near future to get to another computer, even if it's an hour at the public library. I'm okay if you avoid youtube.
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