Nice topic. I love long takes. Get to enjoy the production design, the landscape, and the nuances of great acting performances.
Movies with long takes? Let’s start a list!
Hi Zane,
I live in SoCal too – L.A. to be specific — and I am experimentally-minded film-wise. :) Are you anywhere near? Will take a look at your work, but I also wanted to let you know about this post, in case you want to get together with us:
Echo Park Film Center Get Together
Oh and this isn’t Southern California oriented, but it is collaborative, digital, and new — please feel free to participate if it sounds interesting to you:
I watched Mayflies. I commend you, Zane, for creating a world that raises many peculiar questions. It’s a very provocative piece. Though the means are quite spare, the brutal nature of this world comes through with some force. I was impressed by the use of light, the constant glare was unsettling. Good luck with your search for funds to complete a feature. I’d be willing to return to this world in order to see if my suspicions about it are in any way correct.
tag along with the indie spirit -
youtube.com/user/mypixelstory
Thanks for the replies! And thanks for watching Mayflies K.J. I’m hoping that I can produce a feature soon that will expand on the themes and ideas introduced in the short.
Odilonvert, I lived in LA all of last year, and just recently moved to south OC. I actually premiered Mayflies at the Echo Park Film Center back in October. Small world. I love that place. I’d love to bring Mayflies or another piece to show. Mayflies is a bit long, so I might try and put together something a tad shorter. I’ll reply to that thread too. Thanks for responding!
Laurabot, yes indeed we should start a list. :)
Very cool, Zane! There is another Garage person in the OC, her name is Courtney Giannone — she’s amazing:
Maybe we should do something in the OC one of these days too…?
Zane — this is just terrific! And fascinating to read about how you made this film. Like K.J. Farrington, I also feel like this story raised a lot of questions. It is wonderful how it evolves, and I was moved by the performances. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Really surprising performances here and I really think the less is more approach to not only the story but the style is dead on perfect for this – well done. I love how you are mixing genre with the long takes and pacing of as you say Bergman and Tarkovsky. The two aesthetics I think can work very well together if handled right. I’m trying to do the same thing within the horror genre. Amazing how many genre filmmakers out there ignore the power of quiet, long takes, atmosphere and pacing. Time to bring the soul back to genre.
Zane
Hey everyone,
My name is Zane Cooper. I live in southern California. I make different films, films that seem to tread the line between narrative and experimental. I’d like to connect with other filmmakers who share similar interests and values in filmmaking. This may not be the 100% proper place to post this, but I’ve always loved this site for its unwavering commitment to alternative and international cinema. I’m looking to start a network of film artists to help create a new and comprehensive understanding of the ever-expanding cloud of digital media – basically, artists that use and embrace new technology, but with a very critical eye, inspired deeply by filmmakers focused on the meaning of a single image (Antonioni, Ozu, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Tarr, Kubrick even). This is an aesthetic I’d like to see return to cinema that I feel has been recently lost, especially with the deluge of media we experience everyday. The concept of the image itself, what it means, has been lost somewhere in the folds. I want to bring it back. I feel it’s important to critically evaluate what we see. This is the link to a film I recently made. The site also has links to some of my previous work as well. The film is called Mayflies. It’s a pseudo sci-fi story done entirely in long slow takes.
http://www.honeybearstudios.com/Mayflies.htm
I’m working on the long take aesthetic. It’s rather new to me. But over the last few years, feeling constantly inundated at all times with various forms of media, it relaxes me to concentrate so intently on a single shot. I feel that my films will continue to shoot in this manner. My next project, an expansive narrative internet art project called The Digging Man, will also follow a similar aesthetic; the entire story is based around the mysterious existence of a single image.
If there are any filmmakers out there that feel as I do, please feel free to contact me. I would love to work together to revive a lost aesthetic, and hopefully generate some conscious thought on the meaning of images in general. Thank you for your time.
Cheers,
Zane Cooper
Director/Writer/Editor
Honey Bear Studios
zane@honeybearstudios.com
www.honeybearstudios.com