I Feel Uncomfortable on the Balcony

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

This story hit the page after multiple contemplations smoking on a balcony. After having tormented myself writing and scrapping dozens of short film screenplays beforehand, this script finally felt simple enough to make a directorial debut. I collaborated with close friend and CSC award winning cinematographer, Matt Bendo, who offered an invaluable wealth of knowledge on how to make this project as pure as possible.

We had set out to envision something as primal as the story was - a stark contrast between love and death. Black and white eliminated the distraction of any other emotion from this film and 4:3 framed our protagonist in a classic portrait. This was all an homage to the early French New Wave films like the narrative take on Tirez Sur Le Pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player), and the downward spiral portrait of Nana played by Anna Karina in Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live) and many others.

Matt and myself planned the shoot to have as little cuts as possible, so every frame was created to be held for much longer than the average cut. We had also played with breaking the fourth wall to enter the mind of the protagonist. On set while filming that scene, Matt had a lens baby lens kit which is very durable and modular. We had changed something on the camera and he noticed the effect that it made on the display. We both liked the image that followed and decided to improvise with this moment. Having that freedom to experiment on set with a firm foundation in our references gave us a fine result.