52docs / 10 - Hello down there!

Sometimes stripping a documentary down to its bare bones - camera, conversation, one location - can open up the world.

My first experience working on a doc was assisting Marc Isaacs with his directorial debut Lift. It was basically the two of us, in a tower block in East London, talking to the residents. Me in the lobby getting to know everyone so I could feed him information, and him in the elevator asking them about their lives.

We tried following people into their homes but each time we did the film lost something, so the finished piece stays inside the small metal box going up and down as people cycle in and out, bringing glimpses of their lives with them. It has held up remarkably well.

A similar short doc is Ten Meter Tower which takes place entirely on a high diving board. Restricting the frame of the film seems to activate the audience’s imagination - you find yourself building your own interpretations and back stories based on the limited information available.

I’m expecting something similar with our next film The Balcony Movie whose premise reminds me of that great Kafka quote. Let’s see whether something as seemingly simple as filming passersby from the director’s balcony can beckon the world to roll in ecstasy at our feet!

Watch via True Story or DAFilms.

Trailer