In my last post about SXSW shorts I mentioned that the story and performance mattered more then technique. Here is a link to the trailer for The Chair. This narrative short combines both an interesting, well told story, and fantastic technique. On its own it was fully impressive, then during the Q&A at the end of the screening we learned it was shot on 35mm film. This is pretty rare for any indie project let alone a short. I hope the full version of this film will be available to share soon, meanwhile, here is the trailer:

The Chair is the story of a mysterious outbreak of poisonous mold in a small town and one boy’s attempt to understand his mother’s death, his grandmother’s obsession with their discarded recliner, and the roots of this short-lived, strange, and inexplicable plague.
Director(s): Grainger David
Producer(s): Spencer Kiernan, Caroline Oliveira
Screenwriter(s): Grainger David
Cinematographer: Jimmy Lee Phelan
Editor(s): Jarrah Gurrie
Production Designer: Kate Rance
Sound Designer: Scott Hirsch
Music: Sasha Gordon
Additional Credits: SOUND: Levi Abrino, 1ST AC: Cole Koehler, GAFFER: Tristan Allen, GRIP: Igor Ibradzic, SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: Andinh Ha
Principal Cast: Khari Lucas, Ja’kye Williams, Jadin Williams, Amya Williams, Rev. Martha Florence Brown, King Hoey

SXSW was a month ago, since then I have intended to write about some of the films I saw there. It was a great education for me to see amazing short subject narrative, documentary and animation work at the festival. I would like to tell you some of what I learned here. Most of these films aren’t available to watch on sites like Vimeo or YouTube so it’s hard to come home from the festival and review what you’ve seen. I understand that filmmakers have to keep their work offline so it can debut at the various festivals. I suspect more will be released online as the festival season progresses. As I run into some of the great stuff from SXSW online I’ll be sure to post links here.

Here is the big, no surprise, take away from seeing dozens of shorts at SXSW. Gear heads, listen up. This is coming from a RED camera owner who cares a lot about technical quality: When the acting, direction and story are good you can get away with pretty average quality. Even the dreaded Canon 5d’s anti-aliasing and rolling shutter didn’t matter on a 40 foot screen if the performance was good enough. On the other hand, great image quality doesn’t fix an average story.

In a reel SXSW called Global Shorts I saw this gem. The Perfect Fit. Directed by Tali Yankelevich. You can’t see the full 9 minute version but there is a trailer online. I believe this is a great example of a director finding a simple, real story and telling it very well. It’s probably the kind of story most people would never look into.

Tourists photograph Air France's A340 as it lands at St. Maarten

We spent the winter holidays in Guadalupe visiting family. To get there we had a choice of flying through St. Maarten or San Juan. Since I had seen TV show called the worlds 10 most extreme airports featuring St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana Airport, the decision was easy. I’ve always had a thing for aircraft and lately I’ve been photographing them landing at the various airports we visit. Getting to see the approach at St. Maarten was a special opportunity.

Juliana airport features a long level approach over the ocean to a landing strip that’s just a few feet off the sandy beach. When the heavy airliners come in you feel as if you could touch them, then you feel a blast from the jet engines as they roar onto the landing strip.

Each day owners of Sunset Bar post arrival times of the international flights. The big 747s from Corsair and Airfrance are the highlights, tourists plan their days based on seeing these planes arrive.

When aircraft takeoff the blast from their jet engines produces a wind so strong that the beach turns into a sand storm. Some people position themselves right in the middle of these blinding blasts.

The arrival of Corsair's 747 is the daily highlight on St. Maarten's Sunset beach.

The beach is briefly transformed into a desert sand-storm each time a jet departs.