The Weight of History.
This experimental short was filmed in Florence, Italy.
While traveling on honeymoon with my wife I was humbled by the abundance of historical artwork, architecture, and the religious presence within this city.
There is a dark beauty there that is leveling to witness. What I hope to represent, is the humility experienced in the presence of such environments and our place within history. Our smallness in time, contrasting to the beauty of what we can create, that stands witness so many years after. Thanks to my wife for being sweet enough to let me film her throughout this incredible visit. I will never forget it.
CREDITS:
DP, Edit, Color, Sound Design: BEN JACKS
Voice Over: FRANKLIN O. SMITH
Script: History by ROBERT LOWELL
Score: Dona Nobles Pacem 2 by MAX RICHTER
Woman: FRANCESCA CERULLO
HISTORY by Robert Lowell: History has to live with what was here, clutching and close to fumbling all we had-- it is so dull and gruesome how we die, unlike writing, life never finishes. Abel was finished; death is not remote, a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic, his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire, his baby crying all night like a new machine. As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory, the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter's moon ascends-- a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes, my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull's no-nose-- O there's a terrifying innocence in my face drenched with the silver salvage of the morn frost.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS: Filmed handheld on the Sony A7rii in SLog2 with a mix of vintage Asahi m42 and Canon glass, with the exception of one iPhone 6 shot. Edit and color in Adobe Premiere, custom grade, no use of LOG-Rec709 LUTs.