A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory R: Esther B. Robinson Land: USA 2007 Drehformat: MiniDV Format: Digibeta Länge: 75 Minuten Sprache: Englisch mehr Informationen

Nadia besucht ihre Enkelin am Arbeitsplatz – der Warhol Foundation – und erzählt, dass ihr unter mysteriösen Umständen verschwundener Sohn Andys Lover gewesen sei und bei ihm gelebt habe. Von dem Moment an werden zwei Familiengeschichten zur Projektionsfläche: die einer bürgerlichen amerikanischen Familie und die wohl legendärste der Kunst: Warhols Factory. [aus dem Forumprogramm]

How would you describe the aesthetics of your film?
Our film uses a richly saturated color palette and is focused on evoking the emotional qualities of the landscape and the intimate emotionality of the face. I chose my Director of Photography, Adam Cohen, because of his very painterly sensibility, which he has brought to our film. It was very deliberately shot (we spent over 3 months testing our camera to find a unique palette and feel). Our goal was to determine an aesthetic language for the digital medium that played to DV's unique strengths and that would complement our story.

Why did you choose to shoot on a digital format (was it solely for financial reasons, or did aesthetics play a role)?
Obviously the financial reasons were compelling, but the small camera and the ability to work in low light situations also had their allure. The ability to shoot closely, and to have a camera that did not evoke "broadcast" meant I could achieve a different kind of interview than one normally would see in a documentary about Warhol's Factory. I wanted a kind of intimacy that allowed the viewer to really watch the face of the subject and a small camera recedes once an interview begins.
Also, my film includes a great deal of archival B&W 16mm tri-x reversal, shot by my subject (and uncle) Danny Williams in the mid-sixties. It felt important that the present and the past have very distinct aesthetic worlds. As I mentioned above, once we decided that mini-dv would be our format, the aesthetics became of paramount concern and dictated both our choice of camera, and the "look" of the film itself.

Which format exactly did you choose (MiniDV, DVCAM, HDV, HD...), and why?
We chose Mini-dv because we liked the fact that with the Sony VX-2000 we could manually bring down the sharpness and shoot in low light situations.

What was special about shooting digital (e.g. compared to 35mm, was it your first time with dv or are you used to it ..)?
This is my first film so I have no comparison! but I'm sure My DP would have an answer..

What was your shoot-edit ratio?
We shot about 250 hours for a 78 min documentary film.

One good word about DV / HDV (or two):
One bad word about DV / HDV (or two):
Like any medium it has its strengths and weaknesses, and these are either exploited or not by the person shooting and their intended outcome... For me, and the look we were going for, its ability to perform and deliver beauty in low light situations was remarkable... I was happiest with the image when the camera was starved of light -- and was much less so, in bright situations where the image began to lose its painterly quality and look more like traditional video.