I grabbed this shot while we were setting up the lighting for a medium shot of Rebecca, one of the actors. My dad wanted a slash of light across her eyes, which we were able to do through the very low budget wonders of strips of tinfoil taped (you have to be creative when you don't have any grip gear...). We added a few more lights and the effect was fairly successful. I also love the bokeh of the bridge lights in the background.
I've often told people that I was raised on Turner Classic Movies and, in many ways, it was this channel that sparked my interest in film. I spent Friday nights throughout elementary and middle school eating pizza and watching whatever might be playing on TCM with my family- eagerly awaiting host Robert Osbourne to introduce each film with "Hello, I'm Robert Osbourne."
A steady diet of films such as Rebecca and The Third Man enabled black and white cinema to become familiar, when- in a world where color TV and movies are the norm- it easily could have seemed foreign or antiquated.
I had a list of all of Alfred Hitchcock's films taped to my bedroom door, where I kept track with checkmarks which films I had seen. I loved the stories of Hitchcock's films; the mysteries and tangled plots.
In a tenth grade film studies class, we learned about film noir: its history, visual style, and plot/character tropes. I had grown up watching these types of films, but now had a name for the genre and a knowledge of the language of these films- from femme fatale to venetian blinds. The stories of hardboiled detectives and imperfect protagonists reminded me of what I enjoyed from some of Hitchcock's films and blended it with the intense shadows and contrast of black and white cinematography. I was enamored with noir and longed to be able to shoot my own neo-noir one day.
Everyone in my family is a storyteller in their own right and, additionally, I have proven to not be the only filmmaker. For the past few years, there have been a few video contests in the Twin Cities to which my dad has submitted short films that he wrote, directed, edited, and acted in. As a fan of Monty Python and Firesign Theatre, the videos are (more often than not) of the comedic nature and have given him a chance to show off his ability to do a variety of accents as well as learn the ins and outs of Adobe Premier.
Dad and Jay in the boat. Dad stepping out from the acting role to check an audio recording.
At the beginning of September, I spent a week in Minnesota. I had recently made the transition between jobs and relished the opportunity to return home for a few days to catch up with my family (and sleep). I usually set my sights on Labor Day weekend for a trip back to Minnesota in order to stop by the last few days of the State Fair, but this year, my early September visit had an additional purpose. My dad had plans to enter a video contest hosted by the Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership, an organizations that aims to revitalize the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis.
The past couple years, the Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership has hosted the Mississippi Minute film festival, which challenges people from the Twin Cities area to make films that celebrate the Mississippi River and the Twin Cities' unique blend of urban and natural life and landscapes from its position on the river. The videos are short (under a minute) and tackle this fairly open-ended prompt through a variety of genres and levels of filmmaking experience.
This year, my dad wanted his video to be a take on a film noir movie trailer. Working off this format, he wrote a few short scenes in the classic noir style and each relating to the Mississippi River- a funny blend of drama and river appreciation.
Since my trip home fell just before the contest submission date, I was able to shoot the film. On a cloudy Labor Day, we spent the afternoon driving around the Minneapolis riverfront reviewing the locations and planning the shots. The forecast for that evening (when we would be shooting) was a high chance of rain and thunderstorms, which made my dad anxious. Fortunately, when we landed at our first location on the riverfront with a rowboat, some trench coats, a camera, and a few small borrowed LED light panels, a few raindrops fell and quickly stopped- not to be seen again until late that night (long after we'd wrapped).
I shot the video on my a7r and, being the 2nd time I had shot an extended amount of video on this camera, was fairly happy with how the footage turned out. I used the black and white picture profile native to the camera to simplify the coloring process for my dad, since he had a short timeline for editing all the video and sound. The LED lights were all very small, but had a surprisingly strong output. Once it got dark, we were able to put these little lights to work and, with some cuts of diffusion and the occasional bounce board, they worked perfectly for the shoot.
The shoot went smoothly and (for the most part) according to plan. I mentioned that I was happy with the footage, but I also enjoyed the shoot because it was a bit of a throwback for me. In my senior year of high school- two years after my formal introduction to film noir- I was able to make my own noir piece. One of our assignments in my media arts class was to write and shoot a public service announcement for an issue of our choosing. I decided to focus on water conservation and set my PSA in a noir-style future where water is a rare commodity. My dad and his friend Jay acted in the video as two men trading a jar of water for money in a shady exchange under a bridge. It was one of the first shoots I had done where I was conscious of my desire to pursue filmmaking, specifically as a cinematographer, and was the first time I was really proud of something I had shot.
For my dad's project earlier this month, both my dad and Jay were acting and once again I was shooting them (now a graduate from film school, where I studied cinematography) in a modern day take on film noir. It was a fun shoot with which to come full circle.
Ian next to one of the LED lights we had with the Minneapolis skyline behind him.
This one got a bit blurry... but it gives a sense of what our final set up looked like. Dad and Rebecca on the Dinkytown bridge overlooking the skyline and the river. The timing worked out where the sun had gone down and the lights were all coming on, which added a lot to the atmosphere of the shot. The night portion of the shoot does have an almost over-lit quality to it, which normally would be avoided. However, I think it fits with the style of cinematography from the noir time period. Lights were big and bulky and film stocks didn't have the low-light capabilities of the a7 series camera (256,000 ISO!!), so often there is a bit of a source-y, very lit look.