'find love' is the story of two people who aren't looking for love but find it anyway. It's a twenty-four hour romance ride that truthfully captures that inexplicable first feeling of falling for someone.
They meet on a delayed flight to Wilmington NC. She's going there for an interview. He's going home. She's momentarily escaping an unhappy marriage. He's in shock as his girlfriend has just told him that they are pregnant. The two strangers are instantly captivated by each other and readily exported from their own realities into a fragmented realm of new emotions.
The film becomes an unsettling look at how easily and unpredictably one can be tempted by love. It is also a film that pays homage to the craft of the actor as it is predominantly improvised. Set against the unique sound of Icelandic band, Múm, the film creates a beautiful, funny and graceful portrayal of an inexplicable chemistry.
(USA) COLOUR: DIGITAL FORMAT: RUNNING TIME 77MINS: 2005
WORLD PREMIERE SLAMDANCE JANUARY 2006
Directors Statement:
find love was an experiment from the start. We all met, took each other’s hands and jumped into the unknown. Closed minds could not have made this film. There was an incredible faith that everyone had in this project and I think that without such a belief we would have made very different film.
find love was shot in Wilmington, by a crew of twelve people over a period of ten days. The story of the film happens over twenty-four hours. There was little scripted dialogue but there were written scenes and these were scheduled so that everything was shot in exact chronological order. I worked with all of the actors individually. Christian and Alexie, the two leads, never rehearsed together at all and only met each other two days before the shoot. They both had had much correspondence and preparation with me for the three months leading up to the shoot. During the shoot, I would meet with them each morning separately and discuss the day’s scenes. For each scene I would let the actors complete a whole master take, (these could go on for several minutes) and then I would go in and discuss with the actor what areas I wanted to develop on the next take. I would often play tricks on the actors or make suggestions to one but not the other to keep the performances fresh and exciting. All actions inside the scene came from the character’s motivation and objectives. It was a fantastic way to work.
For the larger scenes, such as the family dinner scene, the actors hung out all day together at the house. They were not allowed to rehearse but I did meet individually with them. When it got dark they sat down to dinner like a regular family and the meal was filmed in its entirety with no interruptions. For the interview scene with Craig Sheffer, Alexie had not met him previously. He was briefed beforehand to really show up her character’s lack of preparation. I gave Craig a list of typical questions that she would have been asked in a real life interview. The actual recording of the interview lasted fifteen minutes and from that the scene in the film was created. For the diner and motel searches, the crew would wait outside while I went into the motel or diner two minutes before we wanted to shoot. I would explain that I was making a documentary about my friend looking for a boy/girl that they had lost. Amazingly everyone agreed to be filmed and help either Alexie or Christian find their “missing friend.”
Alan Newcomb shot for the first five days with one JVC GR PD1 camera. The camera has an HD mode but the mini-DV mode was used. By only using one camera at first, a very distinct style was created. Alan had to instinctually decide on which actor to cover. It was interesting because the more traditional method of covering reactions and lines could not be adhered to. Once this style was established a second camera was brought in. No additional lighting was used and everything was source. The camera was hand held at all times. I believed that if we introduced any moment that was not handheld it would break the audiences acceptance of the handheld and then they would start thinking about the fact they wanted to see more familiar tripod shots. I specifically chose not to make this film on 16mm or 35mm. I had never shot mini-DV before. Fortunately as my father is a cinematographer all of my previous films are shot on film and usually with anamorphic lenses. I knew that just even the time to set up the lighting for film would interfere with the actors’ performances. There is no doubt of the value that film brings to a shoot but it adds a pressure that mini-DV does not have. For me it felt like a complete luxury to be so free, EVERYTHING was about the performance. Aesthetics came only from composition, natural light, production and wardrobe design. The DV gave a freedom that makes the film feel undeniably real. It is still very beautiful and we discovered a unique style that is striking. Used properly, I believe that mini-DV can be a very powerful format for telling stories, yet I think it is still imperative that one ensures that their story is appropriate to their chosen medium.
Chad Keith and I worked for six months on the production design. It is safe to say that all 9357 heart shaped objects on Ebay were looked at. The heart motif throughout the film was a bold choice as there is no doubt it can be considered a clichéd symbol. However the hearts appear subtly throughout the film. You will be able to find a heart somewhere in ninety-five percent of the shots. The reason that the heart was so important to me was because in this materialistic world it is an absolutely overused symbol that overwhelms every surface imaginable. Yet it is the symbol of love and love is something so personal that it is a bizarre to think that everywhere we go we are confronted with this shape. From dry cleaning hangers, “ We heart our customers,” to pizza shops, “We heart pizza,” the heart is the most common image that bombards our subconscious. When making a film about finding love, I thought that this was a really important idea to include.
Susan Oliver and I have worked together on many of my films and again we made some brave wardrobe choices. We went with a lot of reds, pinks and purples. Three colours that pretty much every DV filmmaker will tell you to avoid. I have to confess this only inspired me more to use it. Red is a colour closely associated with love and it has a strong presence throughout the film. We were also very fortunate to work with Peggy Farrell who gave us access to her huge collection of costumes.
Olivier Bugge Coutté and I graduated together from The National Film and Television School. He is an incredibly gifted editor and I was extremely lucky to work with him. We edited over a period of two months in Copenhagen, the place where Dogma was invented. Find love is not a dogma film, we did not adhere to its rules. Yet, this Danish filmmaking process did inspire me. I liked the idea of deciding what is really important for you to focus on and then finding a way to shoot that would facilitate that focus at all times. For this film my focus was performance and it worked. The solid performances gave us the freedom in the editing room to go wherever we wanted. There were no constraints and it was a great experience. We edited on avid.
Micahael Tremante and I worked on the score in his studio in NY. I had used Múm from the very beginning of the edit. Their unique electronic sound was always the sound I wanted for the film. It was important to me that we used music that did not make the images feel like a pop promo. I knew that there would be many moments in the film that were without words because it was very much about capturing how these two people move around each other. Looks, glances, smiles – those were the things I wanted to show. The sound of Múm is both understated yet powerful and it only complements the image and does not overwhelm it. Michael took this sound and their songs and completed the score seamlessly.
We shot in Wilmington because it is partly where I have grown up. There is a thriving film industry there and they have just introduced the best tax incentives in the US. The film community is extremely experienced yet also very open to the idea of independent filmmaking. TV shows such as Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill and Surface provide a basic infrastructure and then also Screen Gem Studios attracts many big budget features. Everyone there, even those not related to the film industry, seems to have a basic understanding of the filmmaking process. We had one diner waitress ask us if we were using a dolly… During the ten days we shot at over one hundred locations. I truly believe we could have only made this film in Wilmington, NC.
ERICA DUNTON 2005
More information on this film at www.findlovemovie.com.
