First past the post
We were reflecting on where post-production might go next, and took a look at last year’s winners for guidance and, yes, for entertaining distraction in these dark days of abandoned shoots and empty edit suites.
One trend is, well, two trends. It is the fact that we are going in two directions at the same time: pushing into ever more immaculate showcases of the impossible-made-real, while also often taking a curated less-is-more approach in order to deliver a sense of ‘the real’.
Parisian production company Soixante Quinze’s winning work for French betting company PMU demonstrates both ends of this in one enjoyable romp.
The more compelling, emotionally-engaging footage is a fantasy around the spirit of taking risks (ie. betting), with grand historical reference. Our eyes are kept busy and are heart rate rises with the excitement. But then we move into the other mode… we are given the everyday, a more ordinary film that brings it closer to our lives, persuasive but slightly dull normality… less colourful and intense. The footage is perhaps meant to look almost un-crafted, certainly win us over as being more credible. After the tour de force drama of the first part, the latter part is just grounding us, making PMU a potential part of our life. That’s the craft.
It impressed the Cresta judges, picking up an outstanding cinematography award. A name check for director Matthijs Van Heijningen is deserved, along with of course the ad agency behind the idea, Buzzman, and post-production by Mikros MPC Advertising.
As we look at the recent past, and examine the output of the present (much of it Covid-related), we can anticipate more work that mixes and merges the high and low of film culture.
The high end is, oddly, mass-market and not elitist - for decades we have come to expect the incredible from post-production, whether in super-budget superhero movies or big-brand commercials. But it’s an expensive option to make and the viewer knows they are being sold to, whether as entertainment or to promote a brand. The audience knows they are ‘buying’ the moment with their time and possibly their money.
Conversely, the low-end of film is the stuff that is sitting in our pocket right now, on a few billion smartphones around the planet or in the digital data cloud to which we send our filmed memories. Increasingly, spots are made using this found footage. Others are made at least in that style, perhaps using a camera phone or five for some kind of authenticity (although the quality is increasingly so good the source may need to be roughed up in its framing, etc., to look the part).
The pandemic has led to the stopping of the high-end productions and, by necessity, the shooting of low-production value work or sourcing it from the cameraphone-toting crowd. That may continue for some time. It may also have a longer term influence on our expectations and reading of the moving image.
For one thing, the standard of the found footage, or cameraphone shoot, will keep rising. The tools in the hands of everyone, and the skills that many of us acquire, continue to rise rapidly. Our expectations of this ‘cinema verité’ of our time are very different to the very recent past.
One thing we will also be wanting though, as soon as we get out from under lockdown, is some mind-blowing production fantasies, as extravagant as you can make them, something to celebrate that we can still dream big.
High production values may be mothballed but this will be temporary. Many are already dreaming where film fantasy can go… and then some.
